The Last Two Weeks (Part 1)

I have no idea where the last fortnight or so has gone. Okay, that’s an over-exaggeration – I know exactly where it went, but such quick passing of time still freaks me out, as it draws ever closer to the end of term. Here’s a summary of relatively interesting and vaguely relevant things that have happened recently:

My dad came to stay!

Almost two weeks ago, my dad had to go to a National Trust conference event in Swindon, and as our home in East Yorkshire is pretty far and my student flat in Bristol is rather near, it seemed sensible that he should stay with me for a couple of days (especially as you can’t really travel from the north to the south west and back in a day). It felt bizarrely grown-up having one of my parents to stay, as my home life and uni life rarely cross-over. I definitely enjoyed it though – we watched about three hours of 30 Rock and Dad cooked me a steak, plus we finally fulfilled a long-held joint ambition to visit Thali Cafe.

Something of a Bristol institution, there are four cafes dotted around the city, all serving authentic Indian food. We went to the Clifton branch, and were definitely not disappointed. Rather than having a massive serving of curry and a huge plate of rice, for around £8 you get a small bowl of delicious, subtly spiced curry (I had lamb, my dad had fish) surrounded by other dishes of basmati rice, tarka dahl, vegetable subji, Keralan salad and homemade chutney. It was just as filling as the giant portions you normally tend to get at Indian restaurants, but far more exciting to eat, as there was such an interesting range of textures and flavours. They do a killer mango lassi (almost as good as the Mumtaz in Bradford), plus the staff were all really friendly and the decor was very cool (even if there was a mannequin that scared the bejesus out of me). It’s definitely worth a visit!


I went to a comedy night!


In first year, I joined improv comedy society, mainly because my now-best friend Emily wanted to. Two years later, she's the president of ImprovSoc and has performed with them in Edinburgh, so it was a good call for her (I stopped going after first year. I didn't get on with it so much, and workshops always seemed to clash with me going to comedy gigs, especially last year). Anyway, to support Emily, I do still go to a few improv shows and ImprovSoc are pretty good (look at their YouTube channel!). 


They've also recently taken over the running of a comedy night at The Hill pub in the Cotham area of Bristol, punningly called Hill-arity (the pub does really good pizzas too). I went to review it for Inter:Mission, in my capacity as comedy editor, and really enjoyed it. Thankfully, Emily wasn't performing, so there wasn't a massive conflict of interests, but I did know some of the people who were in the show, and found it quite difficult to balance not hurting their feelings and giving an honest critique of the gig. I didn't lie, but I think I did tend to err on the side of being nicer (partly because I was afraid some kind of comment storm like this would happen). Anyway, the review of Hillarity is here. 

I wrote an essay!

It was 3000 words on Moll Flanders and the dominance of women in the eighteenth century novel (I like writing about women). I did pretty well on it. That is all.

I saw a film!

As a post-essay treat, I went to Bristol city centre with some of my lovely course friends. We hung around the German Christmas market (which made me miss my friend Louise, who’s on her year abroad in Regensburg) and I ate freshly made donuts, whilst three of my friends awkwardly ate huge bratwursts near some vegan protesters. Slightly chilly, but full of delicious food, we then went to see My Week With Marilyn – a really sweet movie about the filming of The Prince and The Showgirl. It was quite a light film (which was just what we needed after the gruelling mental exertion of an essay hand-in) but the central performances were all amazing, especially Michelle William’s Marilyn. I wrote a much more articulate review for Inter:Mission (you can read it here). Then we had mulled Somerset cider and talked about murder mysteries. It was a lovely day.

I ate more Indian food!

We tried out the Indian takeaway near our flat – Bristol Raj. It was nice, and the prices were pretty reasonable, but it just couldn’t compare to Thali Cafe. I had quite a big portion of chicken shashlik, which had a good ratio of chicken to vegetables, but wasn’t quite as spicy or flavourful as I would have liked. The garlic rice was tasty though, and the naans were soft and doughy. Plus, the guys at the restaurant also gave us a couple of free poppadoms. However, unless it was just for convenience, I’m not sure if I’d go again, as I know there are better Indian food outlets near us (and not just Thali Cafe).

This concludes week one. I’ll post my accounts of last week’s fun shortly– it includes me eating even more food and seeing another film. Oh the excitement!

Failure With A Capital F

I shouldn't make vague statements of intent (see previous post). They usually fail. Though admittedly, this time I have a good reason: life just got in the way. I had to go home unexpectedly for some quite sad reasons in the middle of October, then spent the next couple of weeks trying to catch up. Plus I had my first essay deadline of the year, friends staying, parties to host and a section of a website to run.

Yes, at the end of last academic year I found out I'd got the Comedy Editor position on a new Bristol-centric cultural magazine site called Inter:Mission, which has been set up by some of my coursemates. (Genuinely, it is a really good website, and it's especially useful if you live in Bristol). I've been sorting out mailing lists, finding writers, organising press tickets and editing other people's work, as well as writing some articles of my own. Ironically though, I've only actually been to one comedy gig so far this year (Dave Gorman), so a lot of my reviews are for the film section, which my flatmate Pete edits. I've posted a lot of links in the 'Portfolio' section at the top of the site, but here are all of my articles for Inter:Mission so far (most recent first). I'm pretty pleased with them, but I definitely want to write more on here too:

Fresh Meat, Episode 8 (Review) 

Dave Gorman's PowerPoint Presentation (Review)
Arthur Christmas (Review)
Contagion (Review)
The Ides of March (Review
Interview: Elf Lyons
The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (Review) 
Edinburgh Fringe Interview: Improv Soc & Revunions 
Crazy Stupid Love (Review) 
Fresh Meat, Episode 1 (Review)
Introduction to Bristol's Comedy Societies 

Right, now I have to start an essay on the dominance of women in 18th and 19th century novels. And tidy my room before my dad comes to stay this weekend. We're finally going to go to the Thali Cafe in Clifton - I'm pretty excited.

Re-Commitment to Blogging

One of my major flaws is not always persevering with things – not important things mind, but things that no-one is actually relying on me to do, where no-one will really care if I don’t do it. Blog writing is definitely one of those things. But this year, I am very determined to buck that trend, as this is my final year as an undergraduate English student at Bristol University (aahhhh!)

I survived first year; enjoyed second year, and am determined to make the most of third year, and I think blogging about it (and other things) would be a great way to ensure I do. Partly I’ll have a record of the year (with pictures, that’s important, as I never take enough pictures, and I’m also strongly considering joining PhotoSoc with one of my flatmates) and also to make me do things – you can’t blog about doing nothing.

So there we go – my blog commitment is announced. I kind of doubt anyone will actually read this, but never mind – I know it’s there.

Mission Burrito

Earlier this week, I was lucky enough to go to the recently opened Mission Burrito on Park Street to review it for Itchy Bristol. I've been wanting to go there since I read on Bristol Culture about the free burritos they gave out on the first day, which I was sad to miss, still being at home in Yorkshire at the time.

My official review for Itchy is here. As you'll read, I certainly wasn't disappointed. The food was delicious, if a little bit unevenly temperatured, but I think that's only to be expected when there was such a varied mix of hot and cold food. For instance, my burrito was filled with pork, rice and black beans (all hot) and sour cream, guacamole, salsa and cheese (all cold). As tasty and filling as that combination was, it did mean you were never sure if the next mouthful would be warm or cool. But really, as far as criticisms go, it was hardly a major problem (although my lovely dining companion Emily did suggest that they might consider popping the finished burritos in an oven (a la Subway) for a little bit, to get a more even temperature and so the cheese would melt a little bit). 

Otherwise, I really did love Mission Burrito. It's a little on the expensive side for someone on a student budget, so a trip to MB would be definitely be a treat, but the food is such good quality and the staff were so friendly that I think it's worth it.

Richard II & Pod

I'm really enjoying being a contributor for Itchy. I get to do lovely things, then tell people about what I thought of them. So my two contributions this week are a review of the frankly fantastic Richard II at The Tobacco Factory, and the reassuringly expensive Pod in Clifton Village.

In other good news, I found out yesterday that they've managed to save the Bristol & Bath listings magazine Venue from closure, which is excellent news that I'm really pleased about.

Back to Blogging

I never kept a diary as a child, mainly because I would always read it back the next day and squirm at my own writing. I think I felt somewhat the same about blogging, to begin with (that, and I just kept forgetting to update), hence the six month hiatus. However, I've been doing quite a lot of 'proper' writing recently, mainly writing for Bristol University's student newspaper The Epigram. Also, this week I became an official contributor to cool city guide website Itchy Bristol (my first review, of one of local pubs, The Victoria, is here). So with all this in mind and a bit more confidence in my own writing, I am going to get back into the swing of blogging properly. Watch this space...