I mean, it started out alright I guess.
June (should) mean sun, and sun means improved moods all round. June is welcome here.
Got a new phone! Well, a new old phone. My iPhone 5c’s battery broke, the Apple store gave me a replacement, but when I got it home, and part of the screen didn’t work. So I got another one. Pretty sweet deal tbh. Although I felt weird about saying bye to the middle phone so fast.
Then it was Alex’s birthday fest (day 1). Lots of people, treats, games, and we got to see a hedgehog!
Alex’s birthday fest (day 2, actual birthday) involved long sunny walk, river swimming, and Planet India.
Lump and his owner Stina have moved to London. I’m really going to miss both of them, especially not getting to see this little friend on my lunch break every day! (Still am not very good at drawing him though)
Just drifting along, at this point. Everything felt nice. Nice music, nice ambient temperature, nice mood. Nice.
We’re not moving up north till January but I just can’t stop looking at Rightmove dammit. Dreaming of cosy warm houses with reasonable rent.
Despite hating football, I LOVE organising office sweepstakes, so I was put in charge of the office Euros sweepstake. But there were 26 people and only 24 teams! For a while I thought we might just add in a couple of countries that are definitely not part of the Euros, but for some reason that idea wasn’t popular ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I did a few anyway.
Went to see the Brighton graduate degree show. 6 years since my own show! This year was a particularly good one, I saw a lot of inspiring stuff (actually mostly in product design/fine art/fashion textiles as opposed to the graphic design and illustration shows). Enjoyed making this reminder of lots of the things I saw.
This was on the day of the Orlando shootings. Clearly, I was not adequately prepared for the constant onslaught of bad news that life apparently is now.
There is a possibility (although hopefully not!) that at some point me and Alex might have to share a room for a while. THIS WILL BE AWFUL and I hope it never happens. Too. Much. Stuff.
That day with the boats on the Thames. Quainter times. Bloody Farage.
(I've been getting really excited about painting this month by the way, in case you can't tell)
And then Jo Cox. This world right now. This has been so hard to deal with. What an incredible woman she was.
A couple of really good friends of ours, Jess and Ryan, are moving to Edinburgh, which frankly feels like a very sound choice right now, and I wish I was going with them. We had a lovely walk through Stanmer park before they go.
And then we had burgers, and then we said goodbye. I’m going to really miss Jess. She’s been a wonderful friend to me over the last 4 years or so.
We went to see Saul Williams. I do not have the illustrative skill to do this incredible man justice. On our way to the show, we got ridiculously thunderstormed on. Then an hour stood at the front of a hot room, utterly drenched, right next to this incredible human. I cannot even express how much I needed him at this moment. (Although to be honest I would have liked to go see him live again any number of times in the last week or so. He has the words we need right now. Go see him if you get the chance)
Justin got back just in time for referendum day! Justin has calming, reasonable, reassuring words. I needed that.
But the result. Dark, dark days. Honestly, June 24th will stand out as one of the strangest, darkest days of my life so far. I’ve never known such universal despair coupled with quiet panic. The news that day felt like the beginning of some kind of apocalypse. And to think that a substantial portion of the country's population were celebrating?! It makes me feel sick.
Life would be simpler if I was a cat. Met this friend while out on a long walk. She was hanging out near a bench so I went and sat on the bench and she came and sat with me, and we stayed there for about 20 minutes.
(Also maybe I’ve been going wrong trying to draw dogs all these years… My first ever proper attempt at a cat and it’s better than any dog I’ve ever achieved.)
THESE MEN. THESE FUCKING MEN. (Stage 2 of grief — anger)
?!
Nigel Farage. How has this man become what he has become to us. No don't answer that. I can't bear it.
Just getting used to this now I guess?
I mean, everything's still horrible. There is no meaningful opposition party in this country right now. Is anyone even in charge any more? Is it just spoilt men bickering while everything else crumbles? Is the country going to collapse, economically? Racism and bigotry is widespread, it is horrific to behold, what is there we can do to stop it? (We must try) This morning, it looked likely that one of three utterly awful people was going to be made unelected prime minister by September, free to wreak whatever ideological havoc they see fit, irrevocably harming/destroying huge chunks of everything we hold dear, damaging the most vulnerable in society in the process. Now, it's one of only two utterly awful people (most likely, anyway), but hey, at least we can take some joy in the downfall of Boris now, right? (Alex reckons 'Pyrrhic victory' might be renamed 'Johnsonian victory' in his honour...)
But hey... Turn the news off for a while. Stina gave me her incredible shiny lamp, my exciting new trainers arrived in the post, and I got to enjoy Alex and Justin's reactions to my ridiculous new lamp (bemused horror about covers it).
Small things. Material things. But I am holding onto them, dammit, along with the love and support of my amazing housemates and wider circle of friends.
And on we go. What's even going on any more?
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