May 2015

May has felt busy, in the way that the months leading into summer tend to. It probably wasn't that actually that hectic, but I guess it's just warm enough that we're all starting to venture outdoors again... So, with that in mind, BUMPER EDITION visual diary! At least it feels that way.

Starting with wedding!

I did this fairly terrible drawing of the beautiful Louise and Caroline... (which in my defense was done very late at night while utterly exhausted...) based on this picture I took, which (if I do say so myself) captures the moment wonderfully. SUCH a lovely day.

May continued nicely...

I had a great evening on May 5th… Went to Pizza 500 (who make amazingly delicious but also cheap, authentic Italian pizza) with Alex, Hannah and Tristan, then came home and watched BBC 4’s fantastic ‘slow tv’ 2-hour broadcast of a canal journey (link expires this Friday) while listening to one of my favourite radio shows over the top, and working on a fun freelance project. DREAMY.

Got pizza two days in a row as well, which is always a treat. AND a big slab of Wes’s birthday cheesecake.

Last month I left a very minor cliffhanger. Brief summary: applied for nice job in new place. Got interview. Conclusion: didn’t get nice job in new place. It’s cool. I do already have a very lovely job, and change is TERRIFYING, so everything is fine.

And then the Tories won. Many more dark days to come.

Perhaps in a slight political misery induced haze, I decided to stop climbing. Or at least stop climbing as a regular thing. I know. I’m a big quitter. WINNERS DON’T QUIT AND QUITTERS DON’T WIN etc. But you know what, screw that. I’m not into putting myself through things I don’t enjoy on the vague promise of some potential future personal betterment. It just wasn’t my sport. I still haven’t found my sport. (More on that next though)
Climbing still has its joys and I will return on occasion and battle my way up the easy routes, but it just isn't a thing that I want to force myself to try and get better at when I just wasn't getting better or having fun in the process.

I only quit climbing on the condition that I immediately start trying some new sport thing. So with great trepidation, I showed up at a hip hop dance class and flailed my way through a terrifying hour, including at one point being surrounded by a circle of lithe, toned women, and being shouted at to ‘FREESTYLE’. It was genuinely one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. AND I WANT MORE

My life basically revolves around tasks. If I’ve completed them all I find myself at a bit of a loss. (You can never really complete ALL the tasks though)

How come all the cats I meet in the street are so super lovely and friendly but all the cats I meet in my garden are just grumpy evasive poop-machines?

Bought myself some beautiful trainers for absolutely no justifiable reason.

My hair is finally long enough for UP-DOS! How exciting. It’s a pity I have no idea what I’m doing.

And here I am again. With my terrible coordination, a whole new range of body-confidence issues, only fully revealed by attempting to dance with lots of other people in front of a large mirror… AND YET.
It’s really remarkable that it’s taken me this long to combine my intense hatred of exercise with my intense love of music, to come up with something that just about tips the scales into ‘tolerable’ with moments of outright fun. Who knows. 3 months down the line I’ll probably decide this is ‘not my sport’ either and start playing badminton or something, but for now. This is the dream.

I’m not normally into fizzy pop but this stuff is GOOD.

I love hanging out with new dog friends.

Then, the annual event. EUROVISION!

I decided to try and draw all the acts again this year. As previously mentioned: I’m terrible at drawing people. But this is good practice. And I love Eurovision so much. (Even in the slightly less good years like this one was, IMO)

Tried another self portrait. I guess it’s probably quite vain to keep on doing this, but I feel like I need to at least be able to get my own face right! It still isn’t, but there are some interesting things going on that work okay. (Hair and cheek shading)

I’ve been meaning to do this for AGES. I hope I can be a good blog updater. If you like benches, you should check out my blog, UNPRECEDENTED BENCH ENTHUSIASM (all the good bench URLs were taken, okay, and not even by people writing about benches!)

In exciting house news, we were suddenly informed we were going to get a new toilet. (Probably prompted by the discovery that the soil pipe was a) leaking, and b) asbestos…)
We were told by the plumber that our old toilet could be over 100 years old! When I first moved in I thought it was GRIM. Everything under the water-line was utterly stained and the whole thing was covered in cracks and inherently impossible to every get truly clean. But the ceramic bowl was a beautiful unusual shape, and it had a certain sturdiness and reliableness to it (enhanced now I know it may have been 100+ years old) that meant I grew to quite like it.

For a few moments I was thrilled by the new toilet. It’s so CLEAN! It practically GLOWS! Shining! Gleaming! But it turns out it IS possible to have sentimental feelings for a toilet, and I (and several other people who live/have lived in this house have confirmed), the old toilet was kind of iconic, and we all miss it a bit. Which is RIDICULOUS.

Another one of the mixed blessings of this house (like the disgusting toilet that everyone secretly felt emotionally attached to), is that the house hasn't been properly emptied in probably 15+ years, maybe longer, and many past tenants have left behind possessions, either with the intent of collecting them further down the line, or as an easy means of getting rid of things. As a result, the kitchen is filled with a fairly ridiculous amount of stuff and I finally got round to disposing of all the pan-lids-without-pans, ancient poorly-washed tupperware, rusty cake trays, and other miscellaneous unwanted bits. What could go to charity shops went to charity shops, and the rest was recycled or binned, and suddenly the cupboards are no longer filled with junk and it's SO GOOD.

Rarekind is a record shop at the bottom of Trafalgar Street. I’d always walked past it and thought “I think that is a record shop for people who really like hip hop”. Then on Sunday I was like “Hold on, *I* really like hip hop”… so I went in and it’s so amazing and as well as hip hop there’s loads of jazz and electronica and I spent so much money and this is going to get expensive really quickly. I love you Rarekind.

Onwards to June. Already exciting because housemate and friend Justin has returned from his travels, this Friday is Alex's birthday, and after that we're going on a BOAT! Adventures await!