What I Did Last Weekend
Welcome to this week’s roundup of three things I’ve been enjoying, and some chat about what’s on my mind this week.
📕 Oar Than Friends - Lulu Moore. He’s the scion of a political family, a couple of years out of Eton and now rowing for Oxford. She’s an American med student newly landed in the UK and happy to be back in the cox seat of a rowing boat - in Cambridge. Shenanigans ensue, of course 😉. I loved this! If you like this fish-out-of-water in academia type setting, I’d encourage you to check out My Oxford Year and Anna And The French Kiss (ad, affiliate links)
He was the total package. Brains and brawn all wrapped up in a six-feet-three mouth-wateringly handsome Englishman.
🩳 Abercrombie & Fitch Curve Love Mom Shorts. Feeling pretty proud of myself right now, for having bought new shorts for the summer before the first warm snap. These came highly recommended from the liftcord, but the best bit: huge pockets.
⭐ Tummy Ache Survivor baseball cap. Not something I own, but I just saw another customer in the coffee shop I’m writing in wearing this hat, and immediately went on a google-hunt to find it. Wonderful. If I hadn’t already shopped from Nikki’s Supply Store and Poppekins in the Super Seconds Festival today, I’d be adding to my Etsy basket immediately.
By the way, gang… Bookshop.org are doing an offer this weekend where you can buy any book and be entered into a draw to win a £250 gift card. If you go to my page there before shopping I’ll also get a few pence as a kickback, as well as supporting indie bookshops. Win/win/win!
Going full on ‘lifestyle blog’ here (that or ‘first day back from school holidays’) today, friends - I hope you’ll come on the ride with me! To tell you about last weekend, though, first I have to go back in time four years. It was that cruelly sunny spring of 2020, the spring I spent sunbathing in front of an open window because I wasn’t allowed to sit anywhere outside, the spring I spent terrified of somehow getting anyone sick, the spring I went weeks without seeing anyone in person. I’m sure you remember it.
Rachel Syme, a staff writer at the New Yorker, put out a tweet asking if anyone fancied joining a new penpal project. Having had penpals as a kid (thanks to Brownie magazine), I signed up immediately. In a world with no physical contact with other people at all, gradually I started getting letters from all over the world - cards and notes that my new friends had written by hand, sealed, and sent to me. Some of those friendships fizzled as the world opened back up - which is fine - but I’m lucky enough to count some of the people I met during that era among my closest friends (wording chosen intentionally - one of them is coming with me to the Eras Tour later this summer!). The initiative became known as Penpalooza - find out more - and I’ll always be glad to Syme for making that pandemic period that little bit less isolating.
Some of them I’ve now met in person a few times; others live halfway around the world. One penpal is super-cool TV writer Maia, who happened to be visiting the UK this Spring… and so we hatched a plan for a day out in Bath. It’s where I went to uni for undergrad, and only 10 miles or so from my current homeBristol, so I’m lucky enough to get to hang out there on a regular basis.
After weeks (months) of drizzly grey skies, it was an unexpectedly beautiful day - so I hopped off the bus a few stops early and walked the last mile or so into town, along the riverside path. There were people stand-up-paddleboarding on the river, cycling along the path, and groups of friends out for walks in the sun.
I met Maia off her train and took her straight up to my favourite cake shop, Daisy & Bean Bakes (no photo evidence, the the apple crumble cake was simply too delicious for me to pause and take a photo), via a quick stop into Mr B’s Emporium of books and the obligatory visit up to the Circus and Royal Crescent.
Then we headed down to the Roman Baths Museum where my plans nearly came a cropper - since I last visited, they’ve now made booking a time slot mandatory - but some Lucky Girl Syndrome came into play and there was capacity right that minute due to no-shows (phew). It’s a fantastically well done museum, with the audio tour updated to more fully acknowledge Britain’s weird relationship with Empire. The museum, as it is today, was built during the Victorian period, when ‘we’ (or at least those in positions of power and influence) were fully invested in the idea that people could enjoy living under imperial rule - and so they designed the museum to further perpetuate that ideology.
Shady, huh?
It was then time for lunch, followed by a visit to both Waterstones and Topping’s books, before we hopped on the bus to Bristol and recharged over cider, pizza, and aioli-covered tater tots at The Stable.
All in all, it was an absolutely lovely way to spend a Saturday.
Speak soon,
Lily
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A truly perfect day! <3 Thanks for showing me around Bath and thanks to Rachel Syme for connecting us 4 years ago!