March Memories And April Adventures

Well Hallelujah and all that shite. Not only am I finally posting something here again, but I've given this place a complete overvamp/rehaul. Furthermore, I'm mixing up prepositions that belong in already established words. Oh dear, it's been a while. My ability to sense make bordering on Yoda-like is.

With the blog completely untouched for two months, I've clearly got some March memories and April adventures to elaborate on. I will do this in the shortest and least informative way possible. Now.

Some time ago in a Subway (the sandwich dispensing conglomerate, not the underground railroad labyrinth), a friend and I mused the idea of vegetarianism; possibly because we were bored, possibly because the Chicken Tikka filling I was gorging on smelled and tasted far too much like Angostura. This put my in the student-dilemma of not wanting to waste food but also not wanting to eat it out of sheer non-enjoyment. We pondered whether we'd really have it in us to actually shun meat as a source of sustenance. Further pondering led to the idea of giving up meat, or turning veggie (whichever way you want to look at it), for an entire month. The alliterative prospect of No-Meat March floated about a little bit. Do bear in mind this was around late January or so.

Let's fast-forward to the beginning of March. I sent the following text message, verbatim, to my dining associate:

I dunno if you remember a while ago talking about potentially doing a "no-meat March"... but yeah I just failed. On the upside, this bacon cheeseburger is so worth it

Following this, May was suggested as a potential month to go without meat, because having all those "M"s in a stint at vegetarianism is just the kind of irony we need when we won't be greeting every meal with a satisfied "mmm". However, I'm wholly reluctant to use the month of May as a framework for this culinary challange since I plan on ordering a lot of greasy and questionable takeaway food whilst watching the Eurovision Song Contest, because that's just what I do with my life. Sorry cows, pigs and so many horses, but at least there's next March.

After essentially doing nothing of interest in the month of March - or at least nothing of interest to put here - the heavy load of assignments passed in sheer agony and the Easter break arrived in sheer monotony, thus leading us gracefully into April. And with April came just the latest of ventures this year where I took to the road and ended up miles from home. After a total of sixteen hours or so travelling on a mixture of coach and ferry, I arrived in Amsterdam for quite possibly the most fleeting and pointless time I've ever spent in a foreign country. And that includes the one afternoon I spent in northern Switzerland.

I had originally planned to present here a four-part account of my four-day trip, but upon my return back to the UK, real-life took over and I was thrust back into working towards my degree and seeing family members I don't see very often. By the time I got around to being able to update this thing with praise for one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen, May happened. I'd like to present my account of Amsterdam here at some point, but unfortunately feel that with the experience already a month in the past, my recollection of the time is but a slushy haze. Further, my four-day trip to Amsterdam largely consisted of a full day travelling there and a full day travelling back. Having just two days in the city, one of which already designated for sporting activities and the main focus of the trip, didn't leave much time for sightseeing. As I said, whatever I can remember at a later point will be presented here if I can actually be bothered.

My infant nephew became my godchild less than a week after my Netherlands experience and I celebrated by more-or-less finishing off a catering tray full of pork pie slices after the after-Christening-do. Well, considering my dad had paid for the catering and about a third of the buffet was left over and I'm a student who hates to see food go to waste, I would've been a fool not to. Plus pork pies are awesome. We pondered this just a few days ago.

Who's "we"? Well, it's several people, but it includes the friend who proposed a meatless month. After reading this, I've probably reminded him about potentially going veggie for May and further reminded him that he'd have to give up on pork pies. Also, since it's May already, he's probably failed the forgotten challenge after chowing down on horse nuggets whilst reading this.

But then again, what do I know? I'm not him. Maybe he's not reading this whilst chowing down on a salad. I don't know. All I know is me, and as far as I'm concerned, I'm determined to keep adding to this thing every week; especially now that it's had a bit of a facelift.