August Reflections, Highlights and Favourites

Helloooo all my lovely readers!! 

It’s me, and it’s me writing this post too. I’m not sharing another showcase piece. Teehee I’m back – I hope you haven’t missed me too much! 

Seeing as I missed the end of the month by sharing all the showcase pieces and details for the summer competition (thank you all for following the showcase by the way and sharing your lovely comments), I’m sharing my August reflection post now and my next post will be my eco-friendly challenge for September. 

August has been a pretty crazy month in general. It was finally safe for me to come back to the UK, which meant saying goodbye and packing things up in South Africa. I had to go through 11 days of hotel quarantine which was not ideal but not too stressful thankfully (you can read about my quarantine experience here), and I did a holiday with my best friend from uni around some places in the UK. Would anyone be keen to read about our adventures? Hint… there was a Harry Potter theme!! So, with an eventful month just past, and what I think will be an eventful month going forward, here are my august reflections, highlights and favourites! 

Favourite book – Creative Schools by Sir Ken Robinson 

Not my typical sort of book, but seeing as I’m studying Education at university, I found some books on educational concepts or thinkers that I could connect to and one of them was Sir Ken Robinson. Now for those who don’t know him, Robinson is famed for having the most watched TED Talk in History, proudly stating that children are educated out of their creativity through schools. As someone who is really passionate about creativity, I related to this TED Talk like I never have before and since then I’ve done a lot of reading on Robinson’s work, including reading some of his books. This isn’t the sort of book for everyone because it’s not a fictitious story, but rather an account of how schools can stop stifling creativity and actually start to help grow it in children in a variety of ways, so if you’re someone who might be interested in educational issues or creativity, this is a really fascinating book to read. 

Favourite movie – Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans 

Okay so for those who have been reading the blog a lot this last month, I’ve come back to England and spent 11 days in hotel quarantine. That meant a lot of time to watch movies and series. I did try to get a lot of reading done but I was surprisingly busy working on live chats and editing a book so when I was enjoying my down time, I wanted to just take a little word detox. 

Never thought I’d say that but oh well … 

I discovered the Trollhunters series on Netflix and at first I wasn’t tempted by it because I thought it would just be a silly fantasy story, but I tried the first series and I fell in love with it. It was creative, clever and surprisingly deep and complex with the varying crazy characters, magic and plot lines. Soooo as you can imagine I binged it (and the other two series attached to it), and finally came across the movie that is meant to end the story. It was amazing!! Filled with action, some great character development, all sorts of fantasy elements (and I’m a sucker for clever and creative fantasy worlds), and just a bit of romance because I always think a story is a bit better with romance. Seriously can’t recommend this enough if you’re looking for something fun to watch for a while, just be sure to watch all the seasons of the three different series before watching the movie so you understand what’s going on. 

Favourite series – Modern Family 

You might have wondered after reading that last part why I didn’t choose Trollhunters as my favourite series? Well firstly, the movie was just too brilliant not to watch (figures considering it was made by both Netflix and the same studio that brought us Shrek, the ultimate funky fantasy animation), but also because I binged Modern Family during my quarantine and I couldn’t leave that out of my monthly favourites. 

I started watching Modern Family with my boyfriend before I left South Africa, and while I wasn’t too invested in it for the first few episodes, I became really attached to all the characters and how their lives were developing. Maybe it made me nostalgic of all the crazy stories and dramas from my own family over the years?? Or the characters are just so funny and ridiculous, yet somehow relatable too that they nuzzled their way into my heart. Anyway, this was a fantastic series and definitely made the time in quarantine bearable. Has anyone else watched it?? Any other Modern Family lovers I can fangirl with out there?? Let’s chat in the comments section!

Favourite moment – Getting back to England and out of quarantine 

This one was pretty non-negotiable in my mind. I’ve been trying to get back to England since January 2021. Let’s take a moment to look at the calendar … It’s not September!! It has taken me a really long time to finally get back and make it through quarantine, so now that I’m free and back in the country where I’m sort of living and completing my degree, it’s amazing! 

Sadly I will be away from my family, my boyfriend and my pets for quite a while *sheds a tear*, but I know it’s not forever, and thanks to digital technology it’s not so bad. I did get to go on a really fun holiday around England with my best friend from uni, but that wouldn’t have happened if I couldn’t get back to England and make it through quarantine soooo …. 

Favourite recipe – strawberry cheesecake macarons 

Before I left for England, I had a small itch to make macarons again. Don’t ask me why, especially because they aren’t my favourite things to eat, I just really had an urge to make them. Plus, because of all the cheesecakes I’ve been making, strawberry cheesecake seemed like the perfect flavour! I also whipped up a batch of gingerbread macarons, but those weren’t as delicious as the strawberry cheesecake ones. What are your favourite macaron flavours?? 

August eco-friendly challenge

This month, my August eco-friendly challenge was all about reducing my carbon footprint as much as possible. It included driving less (which I did as much as possible for my last two weeks in South Africa, and no driving myself in England at all apart from on public transport), walking as much as possible, taking public transport where absolutely necessary, and unplugging/turning lights off as much as possible. Of all my challenges, I think this is one of the ones that has gone the best. Since being in England, I’ve essentially walked just about everywhere that wasn’t miles away. My friend and I often walked more than 10km a day. I’ve only used public transport when I need to get further than I want to stress my poor legs, and when I can, I keep lights off and unplug all my little sockets. I also heard that apparently even something small like clearing your email inbox can reduce your carbon footprint, so I’ve been making slow progress to clear the monster of emails in my inbox (not unread, just there) if I don’t still need the information.

And so, that brings me to the end of my August. How did you all enjoy your month of August this year?? Any favourites, like books, films, or series? Also, what did you think of my eco-challenge? Have any of you tried implementing these changes in your lifestyle, and what was it like? Let’s chat in the comments section! 

Also, don’t forget to vote for the winners of the Summer Competition here!! 

Lots of Love

Blondey on a Mission xxx