Alice
At the awkward late 20s stage, only minorly disillusioned by living and working in London.
I am just so happy that the weather is getting warmer, the evenings are lighter, and we had bright sunshine again today.The good weather also means that all the all the plants are pleasantly happy and are flowering far earlier than usual. Instagram is blooming with photos of blossom, and if you follow me on insta you will be very aware that last weekend I helped out with a flower show, and got a little snap happy.If you do want to see these flowers in all their glory, you must be quick as they are blossoming right now and always go-over much faster than you think. My current favourites are camellia, rhododendron, cherry and magnolia which you can see below (left to right, or top to bottom):
And here are four independent English gardens not all that far from London, to see all these wonderful flowers this weekend 💐🌸🌺😍:
I hope you have a lovely, lovely Easter Weekend, a flower show post to follow next week.Alice xxx
Emily
2 and a half years out of University, and the glamour of London working life is fading rapidly.
For Lent, I decided to give up coffee.
And so, at 10am on Feburary 28th 2017, I went to Press the most hipster coffee shop I could hunt in the distinctly straight laced Chancery Lane. I purchased a medium almond milk capuccino (I think I threw in the request for it to be ‘extra hot’ because I heard an american do it once and thought it sounded authoritative). It cost me the princely sum of 3 pounds. All being well (as I write this on Friday) I will have not let a drop of coffee pass my lips for 40 whole days.What was the motivation? I have never given up anything in my life, EVER. Except for Snapchat – but that doesn’t really count because deleting an app is easy. Why coffee? It’s expensive, unnecessary and although I do like it, I’m not a mega fan – so it would be easier to give up than something truly scrumptious, like chocolate.It hasn’t been exceptionally difficult, the first few days were slightly rough, and although it might have been mental, I did feel more tired than usual. Tea, although delicious is just not the same, and I did miss my mid-morning caffeine kick. The worst part was visiting Kaffine on Great Tichfield Street and having to order an Earl Grey – it was so lame. I’m no coffee snob but the coffee there is just the best. The struggle was real, especially when meeting people for ‘coffee’ - as an alternative I consumed a lot more tea and hot chocolate than I would normally do. But overall it was a good thing, I am convinced I saved money, and towards the end I didn’t even miss it.Not quite simultaneously I decided to take up playing tennis. I can play tennis, but am very very poor at it. My friend (shout out to Jemima) had told me about ‘Will To Win’ a tennis organization that hold lessons all over London. She told me not to join the beginners, as they could barely hold their rackets up – so I opted for the six week intermediate course at the (newly refurbished) Hyde Park center. I chose 7-8pm on a Monday night, because realistically now that Broadchurch is finished – what else would I be doing? At this point in time, I am only one session down, but I can honestly say it has been a winning decision. The class contains roughly 16 people, there are two teachers and everyone is about the same level. It is a fantastic opportunity to do some exercise, outside and enjoy long summer evenings. Furthermore you meet new people – I estimated the age range being about from 22-50 and hopefully it will mean that in future when asked to partake in a tennis match, I will actually be able to hit the ball in the right direction.On the balance of it I would recommend taking up over giving up, it makes you less of a martyr and people will actually care when you start banging on about it – because you are actually doing something, rather than smugly abstaining.
Susannah
About to graduate from University, excited for intrepid adventures into the real world.
The youngest Miss Bray's dissertation is due to be handed in very soon, and she hasn't left the library for around 48 hours except to buy large quantities of Irn Bru and fish and chips to keep her going. She will be back with us next week once the dissertation panic has subsided. She did however take a few minutes out to send over Uncyclopedia's thoughts on St Andrews University which you can read below. Susannah is currently studying International Relations...
"The University has four Faculties, each of which is divided into subject-specific schools:
The Faculty of Arts has 48,000,000 students, most of whom are Wanna-Be CIA Agents (International Relations) or Sloane Rangers (History of Art). 93% of them will end up working in middle management or data entry.
The Faculty of Science has 213 students, studying such diverse and uninteresting things as molecular biology, biochemistry and that one with all the numbers.
The Faculty Divinity has 12 students. No-one has ever met any of them, except God who has met them all and disliked all but one (who was later expelled and later burnt at the stake for not being Christian enough). It is said they wield magical powers such as their ability to shoot Doritos out of their hands. Divinity students tend to be overweight and non-violent.
The Faculty of Medicine has no students at all, because Hugh Macdougall refuses to smile."
