Wedding update: I don’t want to jinx it, but I think I’ve finally found my outfit. My friend Mary, whose relentless efforts to help me with that matter really need to be commended, suggested that since I didn’t like any dress I’d seen thus far, maybe I could just go with separates, as in a skirt + a top (very likely a jumper or a cardigan, given that the wedding is in October). Her suggestion apparently broke a mental barrier I had on the topic because I found a skirt and the loveliest backless merino wool jumper almost instantly. We’re not very far in the process of finding accessories, and I’m still very much hesitating between a hat and a fascinator, but the whole “something old, something new, something borrowed, something new” is completely sorted now, and we now have a solid list of party favours too.
In the meantime, our friend Sam who lives in Madrid was visiting us, and we decided that instead of spending the afternoon at a bar drinking beer, we’d rather do something we’d never done together. So we went to the zoo in Maubeuge, which is not the closest zoo to our house, but it is the most tolerable (the other one is a big commercial machine whose entry fees are over €40 and I have seen no evidence whatsoever that any of that money goes to conservation funds) as it has scaled down considerably in order for the animals to benefit from larger enclosures and better living conditions. It is basically your regular park, with a pair of elephants and a rather large group of kangaroos in it. Plus, there is what they call the “contact zone” where you can sit in the old fortifications with llamas. The llamas are rarely impressed with visitors unless they have it in their heads that you have food in your pockets.
This parrot likes to pretend to have its head stuck so that I’ll bite you when you try to help him.
Last Saturday we went out with friends of ours who have just got married (we tend to tie the knot late in our social group, apparently) and it was a fun evening out with good food, a couple of cocktails, and a spot of dancing at a new salsa bar downtown. Jon and I obviously couldn’t resist it. Unfortunately, after making it home at around 3 am, we were woken up by the noise of our idiot neighbour using a jackhammer at 7:30. Too bad, really. On the other hand, we had a nice afternoon watching the Tour de France (go Wout!) and eating snacks in our pyjamas, so all together, it was a very nice weekend.
In not-so-great news, I’m experiencing a serious case of nostalgia for Wales, where we haven’t been to go since the beginning of the pandemic and the implementation of the fucking Brexit. Interestingly, the Welsh have a word for that: hiraeth, which means “a mixture of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness or an earnest desire for the Wales of the past”. The Welsh do know that once you’ve been in Wales, you’ll yearn for it for the rest of your life. Plus, I’ve been lacking stamina and motivation ever since I had Covid. My hypersensitivity to light is slowly but steadily subsiding, but I still feel like my brain isn’t working as well as it used to, and that’s not helping with my work, for which I have lost all passion lately. Time to take vitamins and get some rest, I guess.
As this lack of energy has been accompanied by a mild state of depression, Jon and I decided to watch feel-good stuff to cheer ourselves up, so we rewatched The Good Place (yes, I did cry for the entire length of the finale yesterday) and The Princess Diaries I and II. Seeing that we’ve now finished all the TV shows we usually watch, we have to find something new, and I feel that it’s going to take a while. The last time that happened, we started watching Last Man Standing and it took us way too long to decide if it was a parody or a bona fide compound of misogyny, racism, pro-NRA, and anti-choice bullshit under the guise of entertainment. It was the latter (I thought I’d spare you the hassle of finding out for yourselves). Do you folks have any good sitcoms to recommend? I feel like I’ve seen them all twice.
I’m also done with reading Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential and I’m struggling to find something new to read. Again, I’ve been having a hard time focusing on anything since Covid, so whenever I start a book that’s not great right from the beginning, I don’t give it a chance and move on to the next one, which has resulted in me skipping six books on my reading list. “Life is too short to read bad stuff,” as my old literature professor used to say. Now might be the right time for my annual reread of The Magus by John Fowles.
As far as this blog is concerned, I’m happy to report that it has had seven times as many visitors last month as it did in June 2021, which is really cool. As far as I can tell, it’s due to my posts about the P&O Club Lounge and Sgwd Gwladys ranking high on Google. So to celebrate this milestone, I’ve created a dedicated Instagram account where I’ll post my travel pictures that don’t make it to this blog, and overhauled the design of Ms Unexpected. I’ve also written quite a bit since my last entry in this diary.
What about you? How is it going? Any cool plans for the summer?
See you next week!