July 2022

July has felt long, mostly because I did lots of stuff, I spent too much, and it's been too hot.

As mentioned at the end of last month, my old friend Reggie was in town. Mostly doing some UK recordings of the Late Late Show, but also doing a show of his own, at the extremely lovely Hackney Empire (go if you ever get the chance, it's an absolutely gorgeous venue, some of the ornate details of which I captured here). I took my housemate Camille along for fun, and it was a real nice time. Reggie continues to be at the top of his game, and despite an early flight the next day, we hung out after to eat some free green room apples and steal fizzy pops from the fridge. 

As also alluded to at the end of last month, I have a lifechanging new... Gadget? Companion? Suffice to say, I am not made of money, and came into posession of this beautiful minty green electric Brompton through means entirely not my own (👀)

I haven't regularly cycled since around 2013 – 2015ish, when I had a lovely Bobbin Bramble bike in Brighton. The reasons I stopped were... several. The first of which was really stupid — I managed to cycle for like 3 years without getting a puncture, and then I got THE MOTHER OF ALL PUNCTURES which resisted all attempts at repair, and I was so broke at the time, and it was the middle of winter, so I just... never got it fixed. And then we moved to Hebden Bridge, which is IMO, cycling hell, and then we got Charlie, who is fairly bike incompatible (he needed so much exercise that it basically made more sense to take him everywhere with me, and that meant walking).

But my life has changed again — I live in flat south London, have a sleepy dog who barely wants to leave the house, and I'm kind of sick of how long it takes me to get everywhere in this city (public transport is great but sometimes it still conspires against you)

I'd been talking for a while about how I was trying to pluck up the courage to get back on the roads by bike, and had been planning to start off with Santander bikes or a hiring scheme (London pals who are considering similar, my housemate Camille uses Swapfiets and they are very good!) But realistically I would probably have just procrastinated forever, so suddenly coming into ownership of my very own bike basically forced me into getting my arse into gear, and for that I will be eternally greatful. 

I ordered a helmet but that took a few days to arrive, so to start off I just cycled round and round Battersea Park and desperately tried to remember how on earth I was brave enough to cycle even Brighton's roads, let alone London's...

In other good things, I FINALLY started attending Quaker meeting again. I hadn't been to meeting since pre-pandemic. But, albeit just as a lurker, still felt very involved with the Wandsworth meeting, thanks to their active google group pinging me emails with news every few days.

Obviously for the first big chunk of the pandemic, the meeting house was closed. Then Charlie died, and for a long time (the longest of my life), I felt very far from God, and very far from being able to spend time in silence with my own mind. I felt pretty sure that the moment I sat down in the peace of the meeting room and let myself truly be quiet in my own thoughts, I would burst into tears. Which is technically FINE, but not really dignified. Then months passed, with my own ongoing sadness and anxiety, and fluctuating limits on the meeting like fixed numbers, distancing etc, and... it just never felt like the right time. 

But now it is the right time, and I'm glad to be back. (And also I did not cry).

There's no escaping the fact that Bromptons look silly, but also at least like 50% of other London cyclists seem to have them, so at least we all look silly together?!

Just a brief tribute to the best kitchen gadget of all — the rice cooker. If you know, you know.

(If forced to choose, I would literally pick this above kettle, toaster, everything)

Pleased to report she is ABSOLUTELY FINE

Went to see the critically acclaimed 'Sun and Sea' opera, here's a not particularly good drawing on the libretto. The opera is staged on a fake beach, with casual scenes unfolding before your eyes while the occasional person sings a short section. The focus of the opera is on climate change, and given how incredibly hot it was on the day I went there, it felt pretty fitting. (I have been having a lot of climate anxiety this month, as I suspect many of us have)

Anyway, I really enjoyed it, and if it's ever being performed near you, I highly recommend going.

Then it was my graduation ceremony! Wear the big stupid coat! Try and make the hat stay on your head! I'm not that fussed on this kind of thing really, but I went because it was important to my mother. I extremely DID NOT want to go to my undergrad ceremony back in 2010 because I only got a 2:2 and didn't feel particularly pleased or proud of it, but I got a fuckin MERIT this time, so why not, eh?

Why not GO AND GIVE EVERYONE COVID. 

I had been feeling cold symptoms since the day before my grad ceremony, but tested negative on both the day before and the day of, so I still went. I feel pretty shitty about it, but equally at that point the stats were something like 1 in 12 people in London had it, so in a room with hundreds of people, I wouldn't have been the only one. Still though, ugh. Somehow both my mum and my partner managed to escape getting it though, which was a relief.

So followed a week and a bit of isolation until I felt better. Luckily... Wimbledon?! I hate pretty much all televised sport, but for some reason Wimbledon always seems to be on when I'm having a shit time and need distraction, and I find it weirdly compelling, so for that I was thankful. (I felt pretty rough this day and maybe the next, but it was definitely way less bad than the first time I had it at Christmas) (Also the fact that it was like 30+ degrees didn't help, hence keeping the blinds closed in my room to block out the sun)

TITS OUT! But there's no nips so it's not porn right? Also I've got COVID and I'm disgusting and it's TOO HOT

EVEN HOTTER! And this isn't even the worst it will be this month! (This isn't a very good drawing of me melting but I suspect I will have lots of chances to try improve on it during coming months/years)

Meanwhile, absolutely fuck all of these guys

I'm trying to buy fewer new clothes but I love Lucy & Yak and I think their production methods are at least a little more ethical than some other suppliers? Anyway they made these fun trousers with a hilariously graphic design about periods and I was like 'is this too much?!?!!' But I just found them really funny, so couldn't resist buying them to wear round the house when I am actually on my period.

Anxiety time! (A pipe behind my shower sprung a slow leak and water started flooding through the floor into the living room, also it's still TOO HOT)

Now in possession of a bike helmet, I decided to tackle my first LONG cycle — got the train over to Whitechapel for Q-Mart, a queer makers fair, and then cycled all the way back to Battersea! 7.5 miles!

I think this was honestly the best way of doing it. I'd been anxiously pootling round the streets near my house for a few days, but kind of just had to be brave and do a big long cycle along roads I didn't know in order to break the back of my fear. It was just a little too hot and there were a couple of moments where I stopped at traffic lights and was like 'is this heatstroke, lol' but I persisted and had a big icy drink when I got home and was FINE.

Headed over to Deptford (not by bike this time because I genuinely would have got heatstroke) for my friend Lucy's engagement party. It was nice to sit in a garden and drink icy drinks and hang out with some old uni friends.

Then came those two REALLY hot days.

I feel like I've been complaining about the heat a lot this month. I actually should say that I kind of love the heat — much more than a lot of people I know. It kind of has to cross 30 before I start getting really uncomfortable. My natural state is as a person who is perpetually cold, so for the most part, right through the 20s, I am delighted.

But the whole thing is scary. No matter how much I, on some level — like it — it's not right, it's not safe, it shouldn't be like this. And 36 degrees is definitely too much.

Something I'd been looking forwards to post-boobs was starting to swim again. I loved swimming as a kid, but when I hit my mid teens, I got really self-conscious about my boobs, body hair, and also my phobia of vomiting really kicked up a notch, and I couldn't bear the thought of swimming in that water full of other people's bodily secretions. 

But now, boobs gone, I could care less about body hair, and my phobia is a lot more under control, I was excited to try it again. I'd been planning to wait a while longer (I figured better to be safe than sorry wounds wise, even though they are obviously totally healed and have been for ages) and I'd take myself to a really fancy pool somewhere nice a bit later in the summer.

But suddenly I decided to scrap that plan and just immediately get into my slightly disgusting local pool, and it was GREAT, extremely nice time, absolutely here for swimming, mostly managing to ignore the soup of plasters and hair and goodness knows what else.

(For my whole life, municipal style pools have been a recurring theme in my dreams — some based on places I've been, others completely made up. Since I started swimming again they've all been horror dreams about stuff in the water — last night I dreamt that I finally went to the olympic pool in stratford, but for some reason the bottom of the pool was carpeted, and crawling with maggots... So clearly my subconscious is still deeply unhappy about the idea of going swimming...)

The 19th was the hottest day EVER, and my partner was deeply upset that it was also their birthday.

Cycling has definitely helped me start falling in love with London again. I've wanted to live here my whole life, and I'm still, on some level, starstruck by the place. On a bike it's so much quicker to get right to the heart of things, plus I can better understand how all the different parts of the city connect together. It's a real good time (though it would be a lot nicer with NO CARS as depicted here)

Cycled all the way to Islington for dinner with my friend George before she heads off to Berlin for a few months!

I'm having a good time with my work at GFSC at the moment — currently doing some interview based research for a project I'll hopefully be able to talk about soon. However I guess it is possible to do too many zooms in a day...

Me and my partner have been rewatching the Wire over the last few weeks, and we're having a really great time with it. I last watched it around 8 or 9 years ago, and it might be my favourite TV ever? Highly recommend if you've never watched it, anyway.

Very much enjoyed the Quaker Garden Party, with lots of cute lil sandwiches and cakes. One of the organisers set up a 'garden party fact bingo' game, where around 25 people in attendance at the party had told her a fun fact about themselves, and your challenge at the party was to mingle and find out which fact belonged to who. The Quakers are generally interesting people, and extremely easy to mingle with, and I had a much better time than I even expected to.

Our housemate Camille has a juicer and occasionally makes us extremely delicious fresh juices.

One of the reasons I spent too much money this month was because I went to the podiatrist. I have cute lil feet (if I do say so myself) but over the last few years they've been getting more and more rough and calloused and I wanna know WHY. Turns out I've been wearing shoes a size too small for many years?!?!?! So firstly I spend £75 for this nice woman to tell me this, and meticulously shave all the horrible skin off my feet with a scalpel and sandpaper, and then I have to replace ALL MY SHOES?! (Most of which were uncomfortable anyway, guess that's why)

(Anyway I've only bought like two pairs of shoes so far, gonna try and go for a less-shoes lifestyle I think...)

Yay Brighton! It was my former colleague James's leaving do — James hired me at Kings back in early 2011 when I was but a tiny, freshly graduated baby designer, and patiently mentored me until I was actually competant. We worked together for TEN YEARS! Kinda wild. Anyway now he's left Kings too and it feels like the end of an era. One bad thing about being a freelancer is that there aren't any 'work dos' to go to. I hope Kings might still occasionally invite me to a do or two!

More about this at some indeterminate point in the future?!

Just FYI

I've long been fascinated by the way old ceramics form these weirdly patterned hairline cracks. Our other housemate Beatrice went to France in around February and never came back, but for reasons entirely her own, continues to pay rent on her room. I guess it's good having one less person in the house, even if it does feel like a bit of a waste of a very nice room. Anyway, maybe the cracks in her sink have always been there, but I never noticed them before. (We occasionally use her bathroom if the other ones in the house are busy).

I looked up what this is called, and it's known as 'crazing' and can happen under high or fluctuating temperatures. Her room is the hottest in the house (being in the attic), and, even though we kept her blinds closed and windows open, the temperatures in her room during the heatwave were frankly unbearable — probably well over 40. I do wonder if these cracks in the sink are as a result of the extreme heat that sometimes occurs in there. Previous summers she's found it pretty unberable up there — I guess it's good she's not been here this month.

Anyway, I like how these cracks look like the map of some old European city. 

Let's hope for no more heatwaves in August (though it does seem entirely possible, still), and I hope you all got through these ones okay.