CAPACITY FOR WONDER. | alex albon

xviii. personality under construction

April was as boring a month as any, she couldn't name any big event that happened or important birthdays that occurred -- Lilia was born in late December, Kamri, and Charles in October. She celebrated Christmas, and enjoyed New Years but other than the 6-month gap between Charlotte's September birthday and Pierre's in February, nothing of importance seemed to ever transpire.

So she wasn't sure why she tried to make this April count so much, but she did know Lilia's annoyance would've peaked if she didn't keep track of it in some way.

Dear Lilia,
Here is my all intensive guide to this past month, and the national day I celebrated every 24 hours in every country I celebrated them in.

April 1st had to be April Fools Day, which I swore only counted in the states. So I joined a group of travellers from Italy to the US who helped me pull off 7 pranks in total, despite the language barrier. My location handed itself nicely to April 2nd, National Peanut Butter and Jelly day which I spent in LA with the same Italians. They were slightly angry that I'd asked them to stay in for lunch to eat sandwiches, but they allowed it when I let them pick the restuarant for the evening.

In a celebration of meet cutes, one of my favourite things, I treated myself to a meal at The Grill on the Alley in Beverly Hills. Why meet cutes? Which national day? Allow me to tell you, Lilia, it's The Holiday relations for National Film Score Day. The very same restuarant where Arthur told Iris to be the leading lady, what is not to love?

April 4th was the hardest, a day that didn't seem to have much to offer -- yet I assure you I prospered. Jeep 4x4 day took me to Arizona. Strange, I know, but I wasn't up for hugging a newsperson and Hannah assured me we could find a 4x4 to rent and drive through the desert. I have to hand it to her that she conveyed this idea all too well through a haze of broken English.

Deep dish pizza day had to take me to Chicago now, it would've been illegal to have celebrated in any other state, though my travelling group maintained that their home country could've produced better pizza whether it was deep dish or not.

It was a sad departure, really. I'd liked Hannah and her friends, but as it would've been wrong to celebrate the previous day in anywhere other than Chicago, I had to celebrate National Tartan Day in Scotland. I know, stereotypical, but you've got to give it to me, right? I thought that April 4th didn't have much to offer, the 6th was way worse. At least I managed to kill two birds with one stone, though my bank account paid the price of Coffee Cake from the airport for April 7th. It was that or a charger, a phone lead wouldn't have gone towards my national day, so.

Arguably, April 8th could've been spent on a National Day but I had other plans. Isla decided she'd be in Edinburgh too for the week so we relived a night out. It wasn't extreme as the short amount of time we'd actually spent together during Freshers Week but we were in Scotland; Isla had always said we should visit there because 'everything is better in Scotland, I swear.'

It was also good that I was within easy travelling distance of England for Winston Churchill Day. That's when I saw you guys last and it was the one time you forgot a charger, the one time I actually wanted to use one. It's also when you saw me writing this, hi Lilia, you're offering me a powerbank now but even that doesn't have any power to it. You're telling me of Red Bull working hard on the Sims, not the game apparently, and Kamri is telling you to shut up again, and yes, I'm paying attention to you, I promise.

I count this day too for April 10th, National Sibling Day which I spent flying to France. NCE Airport as usual, but my feet don't take me back to Monaco yet. Instead, I go to Bordeaux where Charlotte meets me for a wine tasting whilst we eat biscuits and cheese. I'm wary of it, but I'm counting this for National Cheese Fondue day too -- it's close enough, right?