A Polar bear in Birmingham

I’ve been here, there and everywhere. Even though I feel like I’ve been inactive lately, I’ve been having that urge to write some poetry and get really creative. I had a few moments when I have been really up and then really down and on a few occasions I had been so tired that I forgot to eat my dinner. I was looking into intermediate fasting, but my head got so conflicted. My head was telling me to fast. My body was telling me to eat. My heart was telling me to have a hot chocolate and bath, then go to bed. I ended up doing all of them in the end.

My friends Beth and Patan came round yesterday and it was nice to see them. I gave them their Christmas card and also addressed it to their cats, Lucky and Yulliah and also Smudge the hamster. Not realizing the short lifespan of hamsters, I was informed that Smudge had died a year ago, but they loved the fact that I thought of him. (It explained why I hadn’t heard about him in a while.)

My mum’s cat is famous. The picture of him I sent to a magazine got published in Women’s Weekly. It had been so long ago since I last sent it I had forgotten all about it. A friend of mine pointed it out to be when he brought the magazine and said Ginger was famous. I think he’s certainly made headlines this year. He was missing for the first half of the year and then found and brought home, the week before we went on holiday. He doesn’t venture that far know and he’s not as fussy as he used to be.

One of the highlights of the month is going to Bongo Bingo in Leicester to celebrate my brother’s birthday. It’s actually on the 21st, but he celebrated it early so everyone he wanted could be able to make it. There was lots of dancing, drinking and stripping. I loved how unique some of the prizes were. The guys seemed a bit disappointed that dildos weren’t given as prizes this time. Though I think a Henry the Hoover would have come in handy. The cut of Freddie Mercury would have been hilarious if one of us won it. Nobody on our table won anything, but we all had a lot of good fun. Great choice of music as well because it was Queen themed.

The trains were so packed on the way home. I decided to get off at New Street Station to get some fresh air and be away from the crowds. Only it was the Birmingham German Christmas Market so I ended up getting stuck in the crowds anyway. Though I had a nice cranberry cookie so it wasn’t a wasted trip. And I bumped into a cool polar bear outside the Ivy restaurant. Never been to the place, but it looked very fancy and metropolitan. I love how the polar bear has a hat and knitted jumper with a polar bear on it. It’s just so iconic.

I found out that my favourite coffee shop by the canal is closing for good. Pavement Cafe is a lovely place and it was the only real vegetarian place in Banbury. Such a big loss to the town. We do have a lot of coffee shops in town, but this one had a special place in my heart. The one in Parsons Street where we have the Banbury Writers meet up is a special one too for me. That one is still open at least and I hope it stays open for a long time.