Lookback: March 2024

Oh March, you wicked mistresss.

You were awesome and busy, full of joy and laughter, there were new friends and old friends, best friends and family, reading and writing but you were also exhausting and rainy and expensive and overwhelming and emotional and tiring and so yes...

MARCH WAS HECTIC

Let’s break March down into three categories; food, trips, and writing. Let’s start with…

FOOD

There’s nothing like food to bring a moment, a day, or an evening to life. Food is such a pleasure to me in so many ways.

From left to right - I’d never had scampi before and so in Whitby, the home of scampi, we decided to give it a try. I can honestly say that it didn’t live up to the hype. It seemed as though they’d been cooked from frozen and they were a bit…wet. I wouldn’t have them again. I’ve never had fish and chips as good as in Nottingham, no where in the UK does curry or mushy peas like in Nottingham. It’s sad but I’ll keep hunting.

We also took a trip to Mr Boney which was getting some love on social media. It’ a bone-in slow cooked beef finished on a charcoal BBQ in a sandwich with toppings and extras if you like. Pulling the bone out is the novelty of it, for me it was way too much meat and the sandwich itself, the bread, didn’t qiute fit, i think I would have preferred brioche. One bite and I was done.

In York with S we nipped into an Italian deli called Little Italy on the way to the train station on the Sunday. What a treat! We ordered two freshly made taleggio and prosciutto with greens on focaccia. It was a massive wedge of a sandwich and absolutely delicious, I devoured it on the train and didn’t need dinner. Simple, quality ingredients is really all you need.

Sometimes I like to do mad unecessary things, like make arancini from leftoever risotto at 9pm on a Monday, I mean, it was more than worth it but heck, what was going through my head?

I’ve been obsessing over porridge recently. Breakfast is the first opportunity of the day to eat something delicious, if you can make it healthy then double whammy. I’ve been making porridge and stuffing it with fruit, nuts, flaxseeds, other seeds - whatever nutritious item I can find that makes sense in porridge gets chucked in, with a dollop of honey.

And finally, the last photo. One night we got a sushi takeaway and instead of just shoving it in our gobs I took the time to plate it all up, with soy sauce in wee dipping bowls and some wee glasses for the sake. It made it a really nice extra special moment without having the visual distraction of bags and plastic everywhere. If you want to elevate your takeaway then put it on a plate!

TRIPS

I reslise now, looking back, there was a lot of moving around in March - no wonder i’ve been tired. There was York with S, Alnwick with our writing group, Manchester for work, the Yorkshire Moors and Whitby with family, Aberdour and Stirling with X. Dang that’s a lot of milage. Honestly, its a wonder I convince myself that “im not doing enough”. Anyway.

There’s 9 photos above and from left to right its Whitby, a picture of a cross in the Yorkshire Moors, The Moors on fire (I think it had been a hot day and some bush or gorse had caught alight), a photo of Alnwick train station sign, the view from the Wallace Monument in Stirling, a photo from the walk around York, a photo of the river in Stirling from the Wallace Monument, the Wallace Monument itself, and finally, a photo from the van of Aberdour beach.

I really made the most of my weekends in March, the weather being no deterrent. I saw family and friends and sometimes, along with pens and paper, that’s all I need.

and finally there was…

WRITING

I’ve been spending more and more of my time writing. I make sure to protect that time and commit to it when it arrives. I’ve got a writing goal, and that’s to write a novel, and I’m not stopping until I achieve it. There’s been writing groups, writing courses, writing on trains, days dedicated to writing, writing on holidays. It might seem a bit obsessive but i think we have so many demands on our time such that we’re pulled in so many directions that it can be a challenge to achieve anything at all if you’re not careful. I suffer from too-many-goals-and-plans syndrome, and sometimes, more often than not, i don’t acieve them so focusing on one and really committing to it, is my current strategy.

And now it’s April. April 6th to be precise and I’m scared about how quickly time is passing for me, as though it’s speeding up each day, is that just me? I feel like it was only yesterday I was eating Christmas dinner. Weird. Anyway.

Thanks reading, see you soon,

Dominique