Two weeks have passed and Durham has experienced snow, a day of love and friendship, pancakes and all the highs and lows that studying during a global pandemic can bring. Which is mainly trying not to fall over in the library.

Racecar backwards is also racecar. 
Here is a list of other palindromes that I wasn’t aware of: 

• Deified 
• Civic
• Radar
• Refer 
• Kayak 

There is an infinite number of connections that could link snow to our societal being. That every snowflake is different and thus an embodiment of how we are all different etc. I also went sledging for the first time and felt like an utter child again which is equally magical and a reminder that university ought to be this extension of childhood to a certain extent. We are both grown up and suspended in a cycle of work, fun and a warped version of tantrums in the form of drunken tears. Valentine’s Day coinciding with the bitter cold was quite apt too. 

Song of the week: Saint Raymond’s album Young Blood. I first found this album circa 2016 after seeing a Youtube advert for River Island to the song ‘Come Back To You’. After rediscovering one of his songs this weekend, I have now had this album on repeat and will do for the short-term future. 

A song for crying to: Lights Out, Words Gone by Bombay Bicycle Club

I have never tried, nor baked blondies before but they were quite the treat and will definitely be made again. Jane’s Patisserie Jammie Dodger blondie recipe will be my go-to from this point onwards. 

I came home from a walk to red roses sat on my desk from one of my flatmates. So Valentine’s Day 2021 really was full of love and self-love at that too. The last term was a lot of push and pull between feeling confident and descent into a comparison about y, x and z. One of my new year’s resolutions was simply to get a grip of this. There is no denying that I do feel there is newfound confidence, although the inability to string a sentence of words together in front of certain people is borderline embarrassing at my grand age. Now, this is where the power of social media and the ability to mull over a response to convey a sense of wittiness is indispensable. 

The oranges served in the dining hall. That is all. 

I’ve started reading before going to bed again which is a habit I am more than glad to have picked back up again. Currently, I am reading The Body Keeps the Score, a book that suggests routes away from trauma. 

Since the snow has melted and the temperatures are rising slightly, my runs around Durham have resumed. Those thirty minutes elevate what might be considered a rather monotonous day and a little snippet of a city I prefer to call home. 

There was this one moment when we were dancing in our room to our signature dance moves and it was one of those moments you could bottle up and watch again. This was also compounded by the fact we were in girls v boys group costumes of cavemen and the Spice Girls. 

Sometimes the door to the roof isn’t meant to open. 

Falling over in the library is sometimes acceptable unless you’re holding a ceramic mug, books and a laptop and the person who you really do not want to see is in the eye line of the fall. The self-romanticising walk up observatory hill that followed, however, did make up for the crippling embarrassment. I am sure there is a metaphor to be found in there somewhere. 

Receiving fake Valentine’s day cards from your friends is all fun and games until you show the person who it’s ‘written’ by the card when you’re intoxicated. 

I hope you are all well, feeling the love of some capacity (because the most important person to love is yourself) and are in anticipation of a new week ahead.

Lots of love, eleanor xx