The Briefest of Hello's

Hello dear Blog World,

I miss you greatly. I am quite frightened these days of checking my Bloglovin' feed as I haven't read anything in over a month. Funny how quickly that can fill up when you follow bloggers who blog daily.

I am not one of those bloggers.

But maybe I have it in me. Even though I'm already a few days behind, I will attempt to deliver 30 posts this month in the spirit of NaNoWriMo and the fact that I will struggle through the month attempting to write a novel as well. Who knows....I could surprise myself and all my readers (hey Mom!.....Mom?.....Mom?.....you still reading?....) and fully commit to this goal.

Don't believe me? Well here's some challenges I did manage to accomplish this month that I think you'll be quite surprised by.

1. I ate an entire vegetarian Sunday roast. Try not to choke on your tea as you read this.....it was f-ing delicious. My new American friend, who I meet through some DC friends, is over here studying for her MA as well. She just happens to be a vegetarian and when I invited her to join me for a Sunday roast at a pub, she challenged me to find one that had a vegetarian Sunday roast.

Not as easy as you'd think.

Most pubs have a vegetarian option, but it's not in the same kind of category as a traditional roast, with gravy, roasted things and Yorkshire pudding. So I set out to find authentic British fare but all vegetarian friendly.

Turns out there are just two dedicated vegetarian British pubs in London that do Sunday roasts. Norman's Coach and Horses and The Smithfield Tavern. We chose Coach and Horses in Soho.

Quick shot of the menu. I originally wanted the stuffed aubergine (called eggplant in America) but they were fresh out. So I went with the stuffed tomato instead. 

Really, really, ridiculously good vegetarian Sunday roast. Covered in gravy as it should be. Vegetarian gravy. And it was AMAZING.

My crappy iPhone pic of me and Molly being super excited about food. Also, I kind of look like a gap-toothed drunk homeless person here. Thanks iPhone.

Nope, not trying to be artsy...just trying to get my teeth out of the photo. Classy.

2. Stay awake at the opera. I get a lot of discount offers or even free tickets from my programme director or from the school I go to and when I got sent a £20 ticket offer for the opera I jumped at it. I've only been to the opera once before as it's not quite my thing and I may have slept through most of it. But in honor of my friend Megan, who is an opera singer and getting her PhD for it now, I decided to give it another go. I had even texted Megan before hand and she knew exactly what I was going to see and what her favorite bits were. The show was Fidelio at the English National Opera. I absolutely adored the music and almost cried at the bit where a string orchestra is lowered down in separate cages from the ceiling to play. It was gorgeous to hear.....though a lot of the choices done on stage were a bit confusing. Another fellow classmate came and brought her mom, who said later that she thought the music was beautiful as well and we really should have just shut our eyes to fully enjoy it. I really loved going to the ENO and I think I may try and find a way to get a cheap ticket to Madame Butterfly as I've never seen it before.

Instagrammed photo just makes it look quite Christmas-y.

My seat was a fantastic view of the stage and the audience.

Gotta say, I really love watching the Orchestra play. So amazingly talented.

3. Went to a party where I only knew one person and let my flatmate give me a makeover....as a skeleton/zombie combo. It was really funny later on when I was kind of hitting on a guy (and by "hitting on" I mean...ya know...speaking to a guy...cause that's my game people. That is my game.), who would give me a weird look every now and then...I wonder why:

My flatmate, Eliisa, did a magnificent job. I kind of look better than normal!

Me and my lovely flatmate...the only ones to be costumed at a costume party.

At home and just a wee bit drunk. And was texting my parents and sister...who were also just a wee bit drunk at home. We are an odd family.

There. Look at me go. Just putting up challenges for myself and knocking 'em down like a pro. 

Now the only true challenge before me is to write a blog post without any mention of food.

Ha! Not gonna happen.

Gratuitous food porn shot. Chocolate salted caramel wrap with chocolate whip cream. Thank you Rabot Estate, this is what heaven must be like.

Cheers,
Lindsay xx