December 2024

Well, December has been a somehwat medicore end to a somewhat medicore year, I am sorry to say — but not sure what else I expected. At least I have had a nice rest.

Starting the month with my silly little tasks

Potential side project for 2025: some kind of adventure with Central London Samaritans archives... (With help from my National Archives pal Kath)

It was nice to catch up with my old friend Reggie in Brighton, who SOMEHOW has not lost his voice since 1999?! (Until now) As a touring musician, how is that even possible?! Anyway, I gave him Lemsip, which apparently they do not have in America (or even anything quite like it).

On the way back from Brighton, I LOST MY APPLE PENCIL

Despairing at my lack of drawing tool (other than my finger), I decided to make the most of a challenging situation, and challenged my parter to a DRAW OFF (of Mario characters, obvs). I vote, we both win.

I went to my friend Jade's birthday Ceilidh (again in Brighton?! Lot of Brighton trips for one week). It was fun! Still in absence of apple pencil, an abstract approach (it's not very good, but it's good to have a creative challenge every once in a while)

Then me and my partner went to the Wellcome Collection's exhibition about unseen and underappreciated forms of labour and the effect these have on the body. I liked these African stamps raising awareness of malaria, and a beautiful artistic embroidered piece depicting mosquitos.

My partner (and Jessie) got locked out on a particularly cold, rainy, damp day, and had to wait three hours for me to get home. (Jessie actually had quite a nice time)

I didn't think we'd get a tree as we don't have loads of space, but we did, we made it work, and I am really glad :) (Still no apple pencil)

My partner enjoyed the finger drawing challenge so much we had another go with their all time favourite franchise...

Had a very lovely party for our students, with gingerbread houses, lebanese food, and other cute things. Had a nice time, but by this point extremely tired and ready for christmas break.

Caved and ordered a new apple pencil (well, second hand, from CEX). The day it arrived, found the old one in my coat pocket. TERRIBLE!!! (So now I have two, I guess)

Went to see that Holly Herndon / Mat Dryhurst exhibit at the Serpentine, I thought it was pretty neat

I edited the full drawing out of this one so you can't all see where I live, BUT, the exciting news is, my friend Vicky moved in RIGHT THERE (in the block of flats just next to my row). Me and Vicky did Art Foundation together in North Wales, so we go way back. It's so nice to have a friend so close! (Vicky didn't actually know where I lived when she put in the offer on her place, so she may not have chosen this but she's stuck with me now!)

I DARED to have the thought that it had been quite a while since my toilet clogged, when sure enough my toilet clogged (or at least, started draining very slightly slowly). Went out back to lift the manhole and poke the pipe with my special long pole, only to discover the problem was much worse and NOT just my sewer. The entire shared sewer for our block was only about a foot from overflowing with raw sewage, and I freaked the fuck out and called a very expensive emergency plumber.

The emergency plumber told me the problem was too big for him to fix and I needed to call Thames Water, and ideally tell everyone in our block to stop using water ASAP.

So, I went door my door, introducing myself to any neighbours I didn't know, and telling everyone how imminent our collective peril was. (If everyone kept using their facilities unabated, raw sewage would flow firstly across all of our gardens, and then potentially rise up and pour out of the ground floor flats' toilets, sinks, baths etc.) 

BAD!! BAD BAD BAD!!!!

Anyway luckily Thames Water came out first thing the next day and blasted through the FATBERG at the end of the street and peril was averted, all thanks to Emma. (Had I not spotted the slightly slow draining of the toilet, we may not have realised until things got much messier).

I can now look back and say that ACTUALLY it was really nice to meet all of my neighbours, but I'd rather it had not been in such poopy circumstances (door numbers also censored lest they somehow give you the ability to figure out where I live)

If I have a REALLY difficult, focussed task to do, I am most likely to succeed if I do it as soon as I wake up, in bed. That's just the science.

However, heated blanket on the sofa is a good second option

At uni, got to go on a 'staff development day', which is essentially a fancy name for a festive choose your own adventure day, with free breakfast, free lunch, and various activites to choose from. I did a wreath making workshop and life drawing! I was delighted to discover that somehow in the 5 or so years since I last did life drawing I have magically miraculously improved (who'd have thought doing these silly drawings every day was actually helping something...)

Really though, I simply cannot get over how good this blanket is. I barely even need to put the heating on, I just snuggle under this! Total winter gamechanger, I wish I had had one of these for all those icy rental house years.

Hopped on the train to visit my parents, who took me out for a christmassy Indian dinner at our fav place. 

AND THEN I GOT SICK AGAIN

I am truly miserable at this point — this calendar graphic depicts all of the days I have had a cold of some kind since October. I got my flu and COVID vaccines on Oct 3rd, and immediately became incredibly ill for a week (unclear if it was a virus or effect of the vaccines). I then continued to be badly fatigued throughout all of October, until I got ill again on the 23rd/24th and that cold blasted everything bad out of my system by early Nov. But sure enough I got ANOTHER cold in late Nov, and now ANOTHER (and let me tell you, this was the worst yet) late Dec. 

Clearly something is wrong with me — I am either run down/burned out, lacking some kind of vitamins, or both. I need to start masking on public transport all the time again and eat a damn orange or something. I am also a bit frightened that I just have some profound issues with my upper respiratory system, as I haven't been truly 'right' since around 2021 (and I am in the process of an NHS referal for this, but these things are slowwwww).

My partner went away to spend Christmas up north with their mother, so me and Jessie were alone for a week. To be honest, in normal circumstances, this is kind of ideal — I am no fan of family christmases, and my dream christmas is just being cosy at home by myself and having everything just so (actually my dream christmas is that but being somewhere exciting abroad but you can't have it all). But it is a lot less fun when you're sicccccck. 

Had written myself a huge long list of satisfying jobs to do over the christmas break, one of which was actually getting re-set up with all my loyalty cards after my bag got stolen in July 2023 (I have missed so many points!!!)

Some companies make this process easier than others (lost about a decade of boots points I'd been saving for a treat, blah)

Despite being sick (so I couldn't taste it), made a bangin' christmas lunch. Got some cute gifts too, and enjoyed being cosy and watching festive TV with Jessie.

What shall I do with my boxing day? How about prepare my final PG Cert (teaching qualification) presentation which I have to deliver in January! Turns out I am not as good at making presentations as I smugly thought to myself...

What shall I do with my day after boxing day? Take advantage of my clogged nose to use some extremely powerful bleach to clean all the mould off the inside of our grotty front door!

(Look I know this all sounds a bit depressing but I am genuinely having a nice time, okay)

Even though Jessie isn't very demanding, because of her reactivity, we have to walk in the same park on the same route every day, to keep her (and everyone else) safe and calm. It does get a little monotonous when you're doing all the walks solo. I worry it gets boring for Jessie, but it honestly seems like the park is a new and exciting cacophany of smells for her every day, so at least she's having fun.

There's another little patch of wild land near our house where we can also safely take Jessie, but we have to give the little old lady in red a wild berth — she comes out at the same time every morning to feed bread to an ever growing crowd of crows (every single one of whom Jessie would like to fight/eat)

I got Meera Sodha's new cookbook 'Dinner' for christmas, and I made the parsnip and potato gnocchi, and it was INCREDIBLE (and so much easier than I'd thought)

My partner requested a reprisal of the 'drawing from memory' game, so I decided to celebrate US! (One of the nicest things to celebrate in an otherwise tricky year).

2024 hasn't been the easiest, to be honest.

It's felt mired by physical health issues — endless colds, sprained ankle in summer, nearly re-breaking my toe. 

There's been a lot of dog woe — firstly returning Barley to the shelter after he became aggressive towards me in January, and then after adopting Jessie, grappling with her reactivity for the rest of the year. 

It's been financially stressful — although I am now over a year into owning a house (which should be good), I have never felt more broke. After the unexpected rewire in March (£9000 for one of the most stressful experiences of my life), I have felt like I am constantly playing catch up all year long, and am poised to have to drop another several thousand pounds on some tree destruction early in the new year, which, like the rewire, is wildly expensive with basically no increased enjoyment of living here. 

During summer, I had a couple of months of intense employment uncertainty which only served to increase this anxiety, and frankly left me a bit of a mental health mess, crawling out of a hole of bad eating and lack of self care.

All in all, not my finest year. 

I am hoping for a slightly easier 2025, and I am hoping for a lovely year for all of you, too. Thanks for being with me through it all.

November 2024

I think I ended last month's blog saying 'hope I'm less sick in November!' — guess that was kinda tempting fate! My body sucks!! (Maybe I need more vitamin C?) — still, it's not been the worst month.

First off though, here's a drawing of an oil tin I saw left in the street that I loved the design and colours of

My partner is probably sick of my grossness by this point (and I wouldn't blame them). The good news is that once this cold worked its way out of my system a couple of days later, all of the fatigue I experienced throughout October also left, which had been worrying me — I guess it was just a long, slow virus which needed another virus to boot it out?! Is that how things work?!

Jessie likes to roll in things but for the first time ever she rolled in something truly disgusting and we had to just avoid her for a couple of days

For once this year I'm actually not HATING it being winter. I genuinely credit a lot of that to my heated sofa throw. Darkness sucks though. 

Ran a workshop with my students to think about what their dream studio space would look like, and designed mine while I was at it (one day?!)

The day after the US elections I was part of a job interview panel on the top floor of the LCC tower during a terrible grey cloudy day, and in between every candidate me and my colleagues were just utterly despairing of it all (good candidates though!), sorry not sorry for this horrible drawing

Did another exercise with my students which involved giving them a large number of celebrations chocolates. That's pedagogy!

Occasionally V comes over to my house or I go over to V's house and we just hang out together and work on whatever we're working on, and as a freelancer it turns out that is a really nice thing to do with another freelancer sometimes. V showed me a really cool book of these patterns with originate in African folk art, wherin the creator would draw a grid of dots in the dirt and then use a finger to draw a continuous line between them in a wide variety of different ways, and the skill was in not hesitating or making any errors. I traced this and it was still hard! They're all really gorgeous.

Between teaching, freelance work, and completing my PG Cert, I am VERY BUSY at the moment, but sometimes it's important to find a couple of hours to go to Ikea and get plant balls for lunch. (I love living so near Ikea)

Me and Lucy went to visit some open studios near her house — mostly to see a fellow Brighton uni alumnus, Kaye Blegvad, but we were also lucky to bump into Alex Simpson and Claude D'Avoine as a bonus! We also saw a load of incredibly cool artists studios, including this one.

The open studios were near New Cross Gate and I was very enamoured with some of the typography I saw in signage there (especially Uncle Wrinkle Chinese Takeaway), so the next day I made this fun photomontage and typography. I have been playing a bit with using photography in my visual diaries sometimes — I can't escape the feeling it's a bit like cheating (obviously I could never do that when I was doing them by hand) but it also feels like something fresh to experiment with, and I do take a LOT of photos, so it's nice to have an outlet for some of them.

Crystal Palace Station is weird and beautiful, and even more so at night

Still having A BIT OF A TIME as I rediscover my glorious (!) natural menstrual cycle which I had switched off/muted for the last 20 years thanks to the pill. I stopped taking the pill to see if it improved my mood (after a particularly bad mental health summer). I DO feel better, but not like, dramatically transformatively so, but I am also sort of loathe to go back on it again in case it has made a difference. I've definitely been doing periods on easy mode for the last couple of decades though. On the bright side, I am hopefully WELL over halfway through all the periods I will ever have...

One of my freelance clients invited me to a christmas party at their offices on Regent Street 'to see the lights', but hilariously the one set of lights outside their window were not working. This is a bad drawing of some lights not on (which is actually very hard to draw?!)

A couple of months ago I agreed to spend this weekend dog-sitting for a friend in Brighton, but they decided not to go away, and I found myself a little disappointed about not getting to go for a mini break... so I took myself on a different one! And a great opportunity to visit more piers!!

First, I headed to Clevedon, (and many thanks to old friend Peach who drove me there from Bristol as there's no train station in Clevedon). Clevedon pier is BEAUTIFUL (and it was a totally gorgeous day). I really enjoyed myself.

Then I stayed in an Airbnb in Weston-super-mare, and the next day I visited the UK's shortest pier (Burnham-on-sea), and the two piers in Weston-super-mare, one of which is derelict. I walked a huge distance and had another glorious day by the sea (even if it was very grey)

The journey home was a bit annoying due to engineering works and an overtime strike at GWR, which sent me somewhat round the houses and on more trains than I would have wanted. Got back okay in the end though.

 

My friend Vicky took me to the sauna! I was too much of a baby to plunge pool so I overheated and felt like I might faint. Sauna amateur! I think I prefer the type of spa that has lots of pools instead, though I do feel like I'd go back again if asked...

(I like my teaching job)

 

ANOTHER FUCKING COLD!!! CURSED!!!

Feeling very crumbly and fragmented. Time to take a day off I guess. (I mean I never REALLY take a day off, there's too much to do, but sometimes at least I can do it from bed)

And then, in the midst of my horrible cold, I dropped my phone directly, precisely, on the toe I broke three years ago, and felt pretty convinced I'd broken right through it again. Felt thoroughly miserable at the prospect of being severely limited in walking AGAIN (having sprained my ankle in summer). CURSED!!

Dog always needs walking though. And actually I could still do it, if I took it slow and wore very forgiving shoes. The weather was AWFUL.

This LOOKS bad, but actually at this point I started to think maybe the toe wasn't actually broken again, just severely bruised. Phew.

Felt better enough to go visit some of my partner's friends all the way in exotic Leyton

I've been having therapy for the last 3 months or so and it's been super helpful in working through a whole bunch of messy brain stuff, but I simply cannot afford it any more. I plan to return in a few months, having finally found a therapist I don't hate. (This is a drawing of the waiting room at Crystal Palace station, where I sit and wait before going to therapy because there's no waiting room at the therapy place so I have to arrive bang on time. It's really creepy)

There she is! Not the dog I wanted, but the dog I got. We're still doing our best. She's a good girl (very) deep down.

Had an extremely nice night out with pals Ellis and V at a fairly-nearby boardgames cafe where we played FIVE games! Always delighted to find cool places and see nice people like, 20 minutes from my house.

And then the next night I had two of my three fav boys over for dinner!!! Davey all the way from Montana and Dav all the way from York! And both with absolutely stinking colds, so I am probably doomed to get sick again now, but it's worth it.

And today I walked another (part) section of the London Loop, from West Drayton to Uxbridge. I really enjoyed it (toe feeling almost totally better now!) though is was a bit of a mission getting there and back, to the far north west. 

On balance it's been a nice month of being quite focussed on my work, seeing lots of nice pals, hiking around lovely wintery places, and occasionally not even being sick!! I wonder what December has in store...