Going around Facebook at the moment is a little something called the "Great Giraffe Challenge", and it's pretty simple. Somebody posts a riddle for their friends to solve, and said friends are meant to inbox the person whatever they think the answer is as their guess. Get it right, and you get to keep your profile picture. However, get it WRONG and you're saddled with a giraffe as your profile picture for the next 3 days. Not only is this ritual humiliation enough apparently for friends who get it wrong, but your friends then have to go on and repost the riddle as their status, which not only lets their friends have a go, but if they have a giraffe as their profile picture it's pretty much a given they lost, making it funny to point and laugh at all the idiots who couldn't answer the riddle. I took the challenge this evening. How did I do I hear you ask?
A couple of weeks ago I took my boyfriend (yes, him again. He seems to be popping up a lot on here lately!) to Cadbury's World for his birthday after months of vowing to go together and never getting round to it. I've actually been before, but as he's an international student I maintained that he could not come and live in Birmingham without paying a visit to Bournville and the magical world of chocolatey goodness that is Cadburys World.
While it may sound like a childish day out, (we are big kids at heart really) he actually had a better time than I thought he would. Aside from all the free chocolate and stuff, we basically felt like we were sitting in school getting a History 101 lesson on the humble beginnings of Cadburys chocolate. Who knew Cadburys didn't even start off selling chocolate in the first place, I must admit I felt my world implode a little when I heard that. After all, growing up as a child I always assumed Cadburys was basically another word for chocolate, because you know, I'm special and all that.
Sammy appeared particularly taken though with the life size drum playing gorilla we saw as we passed through one corridor, you all know that advert right? If not, here is the YouTube link, go watch it and your lives will be complete. In fact, he was so taken with it I could feel myself starting to resent the gorilla, and it took all my energy to tear him away from it so we could get to my favourite part... the gift shop, where I was able to expand my family of rubber ducks by adding Deborah to the fold, while he picked up a HUUUUGGEEE bar of Dairy Milk for my flatmate in a blatant attempt to buy her love.
Last night my boyfriend treated me to a romantic evening and took me out to an amazing restaurant called Pushkar, in search of the elusive Indian curry that everybody says you can't live in Birmingham without trying, and I'm not gonna lie, it was probably hands down the best Indian food I have ever eaten, and I've lived long enough to sample my fair share of Indian cuisine. Most of the time when you reach the end it starts to get a bit sickly, but last night I found myself wanting to keep going and going even when my waistline was starting to protest.
And of course, seeing as Pushkar was a cocktail bar too, there was no way I
was going to pass up the chance to act all sophisticated and grown up by trying one. There was so much choice though, it took me a good 5 to 10 minutes to decide what to get. In the end I settled on a Red Emerald, which turned out to be an absolute delight, so much so I found myself going for a second, causing my boyfriend to raise his eyebrows.
Food and such aside though, the atmosphere and restaurant in general was an absolute delight. Seeing as I'm quite fond of the finer things in life, though as a poor student I can seldom afford them, I appreciated the elegance and upmarketness of the place, while the staff were so attentive we were never left wanting (apart from wanting food which did take a while to arrive). In fact, the only flaw I could find was that navigating my way to the bathroom was a bit treacherous, especially in the heels I had on, as the comfy and rather spacious arm chairs were so closely spaced together that making the trip there and back again was a bit of an ordeal. Aside from that the evening was everything I was hoping it would be and more, and let's face it, it gave me a chance to dress up and to dust off my heels for the first time in forever :) .
It can't just be me who's finding Naughty Boy's "La La La" disturbingly addictive at the moment. Truth be told I think I'm driving my boyfriend mad at the moment as I just want to keep playing it over and over again on a loop. I wasn't too keen on it when I first heard it, but over the summer it was played pretty much ever day at work, and it's one of those songs that once it gets into your head it's just stuck there until you're going crazy trying to get it out, yet you can't help but find it a bit of a guilty pleasure. If it weren't for the annoying woman singing in the chorus I'd happily blast it out of my speakers 24/7, but as it is I still cringe every time I hear her voice. Maybe they just ran out of ideas for lyrics when they got to her part and were like "oh let's just let her sound like a siren or something (police or fire, not a mermaid silly people).
Ok I know the blog is lacking pretty pictures at the moment people, but I promise as soon as I come back from the CU meeting tonight I will clean and brighten up the place with the finest gifs around to make you smile :) . Laters little biscuits.
I have to be honest, my boyfriend complains a lot that I don't talk much about him online, so instead of including him in my little celebratory "Look at me I'm back at uni" post, I thought I'd give him one of his very own. Which I think he'll be sure to thank me for when I show him, until he reads it and realises I'm probably going to remain my sarcastic witty self while writing this. All joking aside, it's nice to finally be back in the same city as each other. After a long and arduous summer apart where we really didn't get to see each other at all thanks to conflicting schedules, we've become practically inseperable ever since I came back, much to the annoyance of his flatmates I must say. I can't tell what annoys them more, when they see us together constantly or when they can never seem to find him. I can't say I feel too guilty about stealing him away, after all we've had a lot of catching up to do over the past week. It's becoming a bit of a joke that eventually we'll get so sick of each other I'll end up practically shoving him on the plane back to Ghana instead come the end of the academic year. Which of course, I won't, just to be clear when he reads this ;) . So there you have it, and who knows. After reading this he may be willing to forgive my bothering him all afternoon while he's been trying to work. It turns out, when Masters students have a lot of work to do that's, you know, due in the next day they couldn't care less how bored you are. You could be dressed up as a pineapple doing the can can and singing at the top of your voice and they won't look up from what they're doing, even for 2 seconds. And alas, as you may have gathered my antics have had me banished to the corner on his room to languish on the swivel chair until it's time to go out. So how better to spend all this free time then to write stuff on here :) .
Oh yeah, that's right. I'm officially back at university and getting stuck back into some of that psychology stuff I like to call a degree, but I'm sure others will call an easy ride. They may say that, but then again they're probably not students, and therefore don't understand the agonising pain at getting up at 7 or 8am for lectures, or the tough decisions we students face as to whether or not to attend seminars, or what ready meal to microwave tonight. Let me be the first to tell you, it's a hard life. But putting that and my fast dwindling food supplies aside, it's great to be back in the big, bad city. For some reason there's nothing so liberating as having your own place to call home, even if it is only a rented flat in student accommodation that you'll be turfed out of by summer next year. I love the freedom of being able to go where I like and when I like (when I'm not being hauled into lectures that is), and to be do whatever I want when I feel like it. As much as I miss home and my family a bit, I feel more of an adult here than I ever do at home, and that's with me having a job there and all. Maybe I'll be ready to go home come Christmas, but until then I'm perfectly happy to carry on strutting round campus like I own the place, or sitting on my bed wrapped up in my duvet playing Assassins Creed on my laptop while sipping my 7th cup of Lady Grey of the day.
Food and such aside though, the atmosphere and restaurant in general was an absolute delight. Seeing as I'm quite fond of the finer things in life, though as a poor student I can seldom afford them, I appreciated the elegance and upmarketness of the place, while the staff were so attentive we were never left wanting (apart from wanting food which did take a while to arrive). In fact, the only flaw I could find was that navigating my way to the bathroom was a bit treacherous, especially in the heels I had on, as the comfy and rather spacious arm chairs were so closely spaced together that making the trip there and back again was a bit of an ordeal. Aside from that the evening was everything I was hoping it would be and more, and let's face it, it gave me a chance to dress up and to dust off my heels for the first time in forever :) . 
Oh yeah, that's right. I'm officially back at university and getting stuck back into some of that psychology stuff I like to call a degree, but I'm sure others will call an easy ride. They may say that, but then again they're probably not students, and therefore don't understand the agonising pain at getting up at 7 or 8am for lectures, or the tough decisions we students face as to whether or not to attend seminars, or what ready meal to microwave tonight. Let me be the first to tell you, it's a hard life. 
