Novis Newsletter - February Edition

Hey everyone, hope you've had a good February, thought is the shortest month of the year, I've managed to squeeze a lot in 28 days, stick to the end for rave reviews of books and cabbage!

Forget funemployment, we’re reframing rejection as redirection and embracing my current Party Girl Era

If we’ve spoken about postgrad plans at all in the past few months you’ve probably heard me coin the term FUNemployment to describe my current situation. If you think it was a bit insufferable, don’t worry, I agree, but I was trying to keep it together and ward off a quarter-life crisis. Whilst I’m still sending out applications and sliding into LinkedIn DMs as my full-time job, I have also embraced what will probably be the last extended period of doing nothing until my retirement and decided to make the most of my party era (I also read Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados this month and have come to the conclusion that partying in my 20s is actually research for future writing endeavours), after all these are my prime messy years.

Note to self: actually take some pictures on nights out so you don’t have to pester the people with cameras the following week

Wholesome and Healthy Moments — Because Balance is Everything

This month also had lots of wholesome moments. We had the occasional sunny days, and all my free time means I’ve actually been able to make the most of these. This meant lots of walks around Hampstead Heath, a stroll around Primrose Hill on the 14th with a cupcake for breakfast (if you’re not treating yourself on Valentine’s Day you’re doing single life all wrong), as well as booking out every Tuesday night on my calendar from now until the end of time for Pub Quiz at the Garden Gate (the barwoman recognised me last week and that’s a win for me). For those not keeping up with me on Strava (shameless plug, I need all the Kudos I can get), I’ve been training for a 10K since November which happened on the 23rd of February. I was aiming to finish in under an hour and got a new PB with an official time of 58:22! It was a very painful hour but I’m feeling really proud and happy to see my hard work paying off, I’m also excited to have some chill running months before starting marathon training in June. In a last-minute change of plans, I ended up leaving London (will I ever make it a whole month at home?) and heading to Brussels to help my mom with her move, which has me feeling extra nostalgic going through old boxes (If anyone is wondering what I was listening to at age 7, I found my old iPod and it’s a whole lot of Green Day, Nickelback and Katy Perry).

Julia’s February Recs - To Read, To Watch and To Eat

• To Read - The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick

  • I’ve decided that 2025 is the year of reading hot girl books (a good litmus test for hot girl books is if you can picture a hot girl reading it on the tube), and this definitely ticks the box (Happy Hour is a VERY honourable mention here though). Chronic memoir consumption and doing things “for the plot” pretty much sums up where my head is at atm (in the words of Nora Ephron, “everything is copy”), so I need to keep up the memoir reading for the excuse to work (sort of how I’m back at the gym because being a hot mess only works as long as you’re actually hot). As she walks around Manhattan, Vivian Gornick reflects on previous relationships, friendships and life in the city. If this doesn’t convince you to read it maybe the fact that it had me snort-laughing in public will. Her first book, also a memoir, Fierce Attachments, has been named by the NYT as the best memoir of the last 50 years, and has also made its way onto my TBR.

• To Watch - The Swimmers on Netflix

  • This was a recommendation from my mom and it didn’t disappoint. I’m not usually a big TV person (there’s no way of saying that without sounding pretentious) but this story about two Syrian sisters’ journey to Germany, and then to the Rio 2016 Olympic games had me shedding a tear or two.

• To Eat - Farmer J’s Miso Aubergine

  • My Farmer J obsession and never-changing order has been going on for a long time (London friends I beg of you to try their tahini chicken), and in an attempt to be more financially responsible this year (and also I was sick of rationing the two bites of aubergine they give you) I wondered if I could recreate my favourite side from them. You can’t imagine my joy finding out the recipe is actually on their website, so anyone, anywhere in the world can join me in the pure pleasure of eating cold cabbage and miso aubergine straight out of a Tupperware container in the middle of the night (or you know, as a healthy meal-prepped side).