September Reflections, Highlights and Favourites

Helloooo all my lovely readers!

Can you believe that September is already over? It’s terrifying to think we’re already in the last 25% of the year given how uneventful some of the months have been. I mean, in a few days I’ll be starting my second year of university, autumn has officially announced itself here in Durham with a blast of rather chilly weather, and menus in cafes have adjusted from fruity summer flavours to warm comforting spices.

Now because it’s the end of the month, you all know what that means?! It’s time for another reflection post on how the last month has been, although it really feels like I just wrote one of these the other day!

Favourite book – A season in the snow by Isla Gordon

It’s been a really long time since I ploughed through a book in a day. Partially because when life gets busy reading is unfortunately one of those pass-times that slips through the cracks, and partially because if I commit to reading a book, I literally cannot do anything else until I finish it which is dangerous for all the other tasks I usually have to complete. Thankfully I haven’t started uni yet so I could get away with it, but even if I was at uni this book would have been worth it. Set in London (and Switzerland), this book follows the journey of the bubbly activist and cartoonist Alice and the most adorable and charismatic Bernese Mountain dog Bear following a personal tragedy. Not only do the scenes pull you in and make you feel cosy, but it was a book that didn’t focus on a huge relationship drama and instead on personal growth, which I found really heart-warming. It was the perfect book to get me ready for the chilly weather so would definitely recommend, although now I’m obsessed with getting a Bernese Mountain dog …

Favourite movie – The Italian Job           
Sadly I did not watch any new movies this month (sob), but the Italian Job really stuck out which is why I chose to nominate it. When I was moving into my flat, I was all alone in a big apartment building and there was no internet so I couldn’t really stream anything to fill the silence. On my big and beautiful hard drive full of movies though I stumbled across the Italian Job, an old favourite I watched with my dad at home, and decided it would be a great movie to have on in the background while I was unpacking. Not only is it a super interesting film that somehow makes thieving seem like the coolest thing ever, but they also do speed chases in mini coopers (my car!! Which has sadly been sold but still) so it was the perfect way to fill the flat with a bit of noise apart from my clattering and occasional swearing when I dropped something heavy on my foot.

Favourite series – Lucifer

I never expected to get as invested in a series like Lucifer as I did, but my boyfriend actually showed me the first episode and after a short bit, I was hooked. Over the summer, the second part of season 5 came out, as well as the finale season 6 so you can imagine what I was binge-watching this past month? Now while I wasn’t a huge fan of season 5 part one, I will say that part two was much better, and I could not get enough of season 6 I think I may have watched the whole season in maybe two days (bearing in mind I was working during the day…). I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you do like the more dramatic shows with adult humour, give Lucifer a shot. Also can I please have a DMC with anyone who has finished watching to the end of season 6???

Favourite moment – moving into my flat

I don’t think there are enough adjectives in the dictionary to describe how excited I was to move into my flat. There’s just something so cool and freeing about living on your own and I was so glad to finally get that started. Most of my friends are living in houses with other people, so me being by myself is quite unusual (although when my boyfriend gets here he’ll move in with me so I’ll technically be living with someone then). Even though there have been a few frustrations, like having to hoover my ceiling to get rid of all the spiders and cobwebs, and slicing my thumb open sorting something in my kitchen, moving into my flat, getting everything unpacked and all up on display and just living by myself has been the most fun! If you want to read more and get a little flat tour then click here to read my flat tour post!

Favourite recipe – rusks

So a lot of you may have just read that word and thought ‘what on earth is this?’ Well a rusk is a South African accompaniment for your morning tea and coffee, a sort of healthy version of a biscotti if you will. Essentially it’s a really crunchy biscuit type thing, filled with oats, raisins and other seeds so more often than not, a rusk or two with your morning hot beverage is a decent breakfast for a lot of people! I haven’t made many rusks in my life, but nothing quite gives you the comfort of home like a specific recipe, and I thought now was the perfect time to test them out. Although it was a bit different not having access to buttermilk, they still turned out pretty great and now I’ve got rusks to share more of my South African heritage with my incredibly British friends 😊

September eco-friendly challenge

So my eco-challenge this month ran a bit differently than normal, as I decided to do it as my next sustainability challenge with the lovely Moksha over on Happy Panda. Now I know I normally share the feedback of my eco-friendly challenge in my monthly wrap-up, but because I’ll be doing that as my collab with Moksha, I thought I’d leave you all in suspense and you can find out how it went when we share our collab, so stay tuned for that! Mwahahahaha!!

And there you have it! This month has been another super busy one. I’ve been leading campus tours around my university almost every day for the last two weeks, with my friends being back I’ve also tried to do quite a bit of meetups before the academic year starts and we all start drowning in reading and deadlines and all in all I’ve just been trying to make my most of my time back in Durham. It has been such fun, and the next month I’m sure will be even cooler – after all, it’s back to uni, I’ll be launching the Disney Society and there’s a certain someone celebrating their 21^st birthday soon *cough cough* that would be me *cough cough* so lots to look forward too!

Please share any and all of your favourites, reflections and highlights of September in the comments section, and as always I’m also just happy to have a chat with people so don’t be shy and leave a comment! I’ll see you all soon – there are lots of exciting things to look out for on Tall Blonde Tales next month so stay tuned!

Lots of Love

Blondey on a Mission xxx