31 Days Grace: July.
Oh,
July. You were a funny one. Beautifully hot one week, unpleasantly
muggy the next, and then some days you were just grey. I still
enjoyed you, though. You were a month of unique situations and new
adventures.
I
mentioned her departure in the last monthly wrap up; little sis was
away for half of July. She returned home with two new tattoos and a
shit ton of stories to tell us.
My new favourite things this month were...
FIKA
coffee shop. This cutie has
been nestled comfortably in the slowly improving (and
hipster-ifying?) Kings Road, St Leonards, for over 4 months now.
Their coffee is super strong and the food is gorgeous. Plus the
actual cafe building/room is so damn instagrammable, it hurts my eyes
a little. In a good way...
Kinky
Boots. A new favourite musical,
for sure. Mama and I went to see it as a treat from Dad, after he
promised me a while ago – when I was trapped in hospital and
feeling mighty miserable when I wasn't high on morphine – that I'd
be able to have a nice theatre trip when I was well again. Cheers,
papa. This musical made me shriek with excitement, yell with joy and
gasp in awe. I also wept at one point, as my favourite leading man in
the West End David Hunter sang the most heartbreaking solo about
doing what he believes in and being himself.
The
Thai Bookshop in Hastings Old
Town. I had the loveliest dinner date at this place; the décor was
very much 'crammed-in-greasy-menus-ancient-stuff-everywhere chic' and
the food was next level gorgeous. My dinner companion bought me a £2
collection of essays that I'd grabbed off a shelf, what a babe. Oh, I
also loved the BYOB situation in there. The off-licence a few doors
down provided us with a bottle of red.
Make Out With Him, the podcast hosted by love amateurs Lex & Rosianna. I may or may not be mentally composing an email to them asking for love/friendship advice almost every day.
Freddie the 5 year-old, and his obsession with my jewellery. Warmed my icy heart right up to melting point.
Freddie the 5 year-old, and his obsession with my jewellery. Warmed my icy heart right up to melting point.
A favourite person this month was...
Emma
Midghall. This
one is the best in amongst the absolute worst at my former workplace,
and when she's not there she's helping out at the local art gallery –
or making sexy pottery! I have had some excellent gal pal dates with
this chick this month; pizza in the pub doused liberally with garlic oil, breakfast in the old town and
little curious ramblings in spots along the seafront.
And the exciting news this month was...
- After
being lucky enough to get selected for their incredible #iTalkSex
campaign and meeting the team in their sweet ass digs, I got a job
managing social media accounts for the babes at Scarlet Ladies! I
start next month, and am already brimming with ideas.
- My
tummy surgeon told me he and his team are investigating tings to work
out if there's any underlying cause or condition that's responsible
for my many, many recent issues in there. I feel good right now,
though – let's hope it lasts and that the blood tests/stool sample
results are a-okay!
I
drank 44 cups of coffee.
My
favourite cuppa took place in the sexiest 7 week-old cafe ever to grace Robertson Street, Hastings: Cake Room. This place is so photogenic - and walking in at opening time to hear them playing ancient pop punk brought the biggest grin to my silly face. I loved the coffee, so naturally asked where it was from, and quel surprise! it's my favourite blend from Brighton, Pelicano!
I really feel like I'll be doing a lot of freelance work there in the coming months...hope they don't mind...!
I
bought 5 books.
Have I mentioned before that I love Oxfam Books? I have? Oh. I
might apply to become an ambassador of some kind for them – no
need to pay me, just give me access to every new
bag/pile/crate of second-hand books that come in. Oxfam Books
Eastbourne are up there with my favourite branches; right across the
road from my cafe bae Beanzz, excellent YA selection and always have
something worth scooping up every time I go in. Plus, they price in
round numbers – £1, £1.50, £2 – no pissy 99ps! Anyway, I got 3
nearly-new reads from them this month.
I
also treated myself to 'Little Black Book' by Otegha Uwagba (very handy for we freelance folk, only a fiver - or £3.95 online!) and 'Cherry Pie' by Hollie Poetry (Hollie McNish)
when I visited the beaut Waterstones TCR. I am such a sucker for
this lady's writing, and some of these poems inspired by her
grandparents gave me fuzzy feels.
In
case you missed my brief mention of Winchester's Oxfam Books
last month, well, all the books I bought from them can be found in
this Insta post below, along with the few I grabbed in one of Winchester's
two Waterstones stores!
As
per, I received some excellent books, too. Some of my favourites were
'[The best of] Dear Coquette' from Icon Books – which I'd first seen on Emma Gannon's Insta, always trust her book recs – and 'Indigo Donut',
Patrice Lawrence's magical second novel. Ta, Hachette!
I attended 3 bookish events!
I was thrilled to attend Chris Russell's launch party for 'Songs About Us' (the sequel to the excellent 'Songs About a Girl') with Stacey after we spent a day adventuring together. I also went with Emma and Stevie (my preferred lunch date double act!) to a party at Goldsboro Books. Then, of course, there was this little literary shindig they call YALC.......that was so hardcore, it doesn't feel like just 1 event. It was a weekend of, like, a dozen events. Signings, panels, workshops, oh my.
I was thrilled to attend Chris Russell's launch party for 'Songs About Us' (the sequel to the excellent 'Songs About a Girl') with Stacey after we spent a day adventuring together. I also went with Emma and Stevie (my preferred lunch date double act!) to a party at Goldsboro Books. Then, of course, there was this little literary shindig they call YALC.......that was so hardcore, it doesn't feel like just 1 event. It was a weekend of, like, a dozen events. Signings, panels, workshops, oh my.
July,
you were fabulous. Now kindly move along won't you, as August is right
around the corner – and so is my 24th
birthday!
How have I lived so close to Hastings for my whole life and never discovered any of these adorable looking cafes! Thank you for introducing me to more coffee and cake!!
ReplyDeleteThe Hastings coffee scene is definitely improving! Worth trying the cakes, too. ;)
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