Scattered Strawberry Summer

You might have been looking for this for ages



 Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings

 When I'm not on reddit, I usually check feedly to see if my favourite bloggers have updated their sites.One of them, Bleubird, I've been following  for years and years. I've seen her younger children being born and growing up.Her blog is beautiful, she has a fantastic  family, her taste is similar to mine. This blog gives me somewhat unrealistic expectations about life.

 James and Aubrey from Geoff Boothby on Vimeo.

The best part is the video. It's beautiful, magical and filled with love. So much love, it pours out of my screen and I feel genuinely moved by it even though I don't know these people. 


Bleubird on Instagram
Bleubird on Pinterest

I've booked tickets to Lithuania- woop woop! I haven't been there for almost two years, we're planning to visit our grandparents and that's pretty much it. I think all my friends and former classmates in the capital now and we're not planning to go there, there won't be time. It will be interesting to see my hometown, where I spent my first 19 years and there I met my SO.

I haven't got any summer holidays booked. I'm not sure if I will. We're going to Spain in May for a wedding, short trip but it will be expensive. I wouldn't be fussed by not going away somewhere warm, if summers here wouldn't suck so bad... What's the point living by a seaside if the weather is hardly ever good enough for a nice swim in the sea?..

But also I think I will really need a good holiday this year. It's been very stressful at work, my new role is not easy but it's not only that, there are changes in the company and there's been resistance to these changes. On more positive note, my old manager has come back to the company in a different role, she is my all time favourite manager and I can't wait to see her.

I went to library and got a bunch of various books for this project. This week's read is Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

" <...> it traces the intellectual and religio-philosophical awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, a fictional alter ego of Joyce and an allusion to Daedalus, the consummate craftsman of Greek mythology. Stephen questions and rebels against the Catholic and Irish conventions under which he has grown, and culminates with his self-exile from Ireland in Europe."

• When fake meat tastes too meaty
• People keep asking you where you get your protein from
• Parmesan in "vegetarian" dishes
• Nobody understands difference between vegetarian and vegan
• Jokes about “rabbit food.”
• People will constantly tell you how they could “Never stop eating bacon.”
• You need a laser-sharp vision for identifying meat in buffet salads and sandwiches
• “So, why are you a vegetarian?”
• You will leave weddings being totally hungry.
• " You know Hitler was a vegetarian."
• Always feeling like a difficult customer at a restaurant
• Not being able to eat anything unfamiliar without feeling paranoid
• "If you don't eat meat you're going to get sick and die."
• When people try to convert you back to eating meat
• People think you're dying to eat meat but actually even a thought of it can make feel nauseated
• Gelatin.
• "You're just trying to be a hipster"
• Meat ingredients hiding in seemingly meatless food
• You can't complain about any health problems without people blaming it to your diet
• "Plants have feelings too".
• "But fish isn't meat, right?"
• "But chicken isn't meat, right?"

This week I'm reading The Great Gatsby. I've been meaning to read this way before the film came out but never got to it. I still haven't seen the film and I want to, but I'd like to read the book first. Unlike some other lucky people, we didn't get to read it at school. I always thought our literature lessons didn't cover enough of world literature.

The flowers I got from my SO has lasted for almost two weeks and they smell so nice. This is probably the first time he got my red roses [gasp!] in our almost 8 year long relationship. He usually gets something different, like sunflowers. I love that about him.

Happy Monday everyone!

I don't mind having a day off on Monday, though part of my mind is still thinking about work. I only checked my work email once, that's a major achievement for me...

I wish I spent my Monday in PJs but that was not going to happen a) I did that on Sunday b) it's a lot less interesting without my SO c) I actually have stuff to do

My mood massively improved in the afternoon for no obvious reason. But now I realise it was just because sun came out. I'm a bit of heliophile, winters are absolute miserable and it doesn't help I live in UK. Well, at least my town is one of the sunniest in UK.

I haven't booked any holidays yet, I really want another beach holiday, because lets face it, even if I leave 5 min walk from a seafront, I won't be able enjoy this that much, because summer here suuuuuuuucks. Feel free to suggest some good destinations by Mediterranean Sea that is not too expensive...

I would also like to visit my grandparents back in Lithuania, there is a possibility of me going with my SO sometime in April, but we haven't booked anything yet.

When I was Brighton a few weeks ago, I had to kill sometime while waiting for my friend who missed the train, I stumbled a market on my way to North Laine. I found my this week's read- an early edition of The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. In case that wasn't obvious form my previous blog posts, I'm quite a fan. I haven't finished yet (I know!), but my weekend technically doesn't finish till Tuesday, so I still have time.

I haven't selected my next book yet, I went to library and struggled to find any of the books I had in mind, so end up with nothing. I might have to switch to ebooks.

I was inspired by r/britishproblems to create my own list of immigrant problems

• People think I'm a weirdo for drinking tea without milk
• "All right?"
• I find it hart to understand why Britain goes into panic mode then it starts snowing
• I never know when people ask me where I from, do they ask where I am from originally or where I live here in Britain, I always get the wrong answer 
• People like to guess where I'm from and they all get it wrong
• People find it weird I do not eat jacket potatoes or fish & ships on a regular basis
• Going back to home country and feeling like a stranger
• When back at home accidentally saying thanks to the bus driver
• Not knowing if I said "Thanks" enough times
• British eat too early
• Sandwiches are considered a lunch food here
• Not knowing whether it's dinner,tea or supper
• People change their attitude towards you as soon as their hear your accent
• People can't tell your gender by your name.I can't tell you how many times I received letters starting with "Mr [last name]".
• Nobody can pronounce my name right, not unless I repeat it 100 times. 
• Sometimes when people overhear you speaking different language, they assume your English is very poor and they start talking to you  loudly and slowly. 

I'm staying at a hotel again,. I'm away for a conference. Only took me 5 hours to get here. It' might quite nice change to get away from the office as there's been very negative atmosphere.

I've been away a lot lately, but I won't have many travels after this trip.It's nice to go away but I don't like being away from my SO and eating out whilst away when you're vegetarian always sucks. Is it me or most vegetarian options are with tomato and mozarella. Sometimes I just want to shout "you know there are plenty of other vegetarian ingredients!!.  And how many options are marked vegetarian but are made with Parmesan.

Also, I just found out that: The next few years could spell more for restaurateurs than disappointed diners, as the terms "vegetarian" and "vegan" will soon have legal status. UK Food Standards Agency labelling guidelines were adopted in principle by the European Union in 2010, and following a five year period for compliance civil suits may be brought against anyone misusing the terms from 2015. Just as a maker of parmesan can bring action against anyone outside the region using the p-word, so could offended diners against clueless chefs. Restaurants, manufacturers and publishers will really have to know their cheeses.". 

This is pretty amazing. I know it sucks for the restaurants, but you know what, tough. I've had my share of arguments with chefs about Parmesan.  

This weeks book is Nothing to Complain About?: Outlandish Letters for Implausible Problems by Michael A. Lee.

It's a collection of witty, outrageous letters, some are just weird requests to a range of people and organisations, including a  letter of complaint to his dentist after a young neighbour's milk tooth is ignored by the tooth fairy and he received some funny responses too.

I read it front to back on my train journey home from London and chuckled quite a few times despite my my best efforts not to.