It's funny how sometimes at the end of August I am excited for cosy autumn and sometimes at the end of August I am DEVASTATED summer is nearly over. This year is definitely the latter...
I have tried to make the most of my summer-ish August though. Freelance work has continued to be very quiet, and obviously teaching doesn't recommence until September, so life has been much less frenetic than I have become accustomed to work-wise, and that has probably been good for me. (That said, it has NOT been good for me financially, roll on September UAL big bucks please)
Annoyingly I do find that when work is light, I become far less productive. If I have 8 hours work to do in a day, I'll crack on at 8.30am-ish, and be done by 5.30pm-ish. If I have 4 hours work to do in a day, I'll crack on at 8.30am-ish, and... somehow still not be done until 5.30pm-ish. Where does the time go?!
I also lose all sense of focus and tend to work on tasks in a very bitty way.
Went out on a school night for my pal Ellis's book launch. Several of my fav people have books coming out now or soon, (Link, link, link, link) and I am inordinately proud to know all of them.
In theory I'm buying a house but it doesn't feel that way right now because aparently both solictior and estate agent fucked off on holiday for the entirety of August and basically nothing has moved and I am getting stressed and annoyed. However at this point I was less stressed and annoyed, and mostly just excited to explore our new neighbourhood (Norwood) a bit more!
Went to the Anselm Kiefer exhibition at the White Cube, it was fine, but very busy.
If Spareroom will keep providing me with far-too-young housemates, I WILL keep making them watch the Matrix if they have never seen it.
A nice night walk with lots of public transport views.
Maybe the reason I'm so sad summer's over is because it's been RUBBISH
My fren
Twitter's dead huh (frankly astonished that I do not miss it, after nearly 15 years of dependency)
Did another capital ring, didn't especially like this one
Loved seeing Jimetta Rose and the voices of creation at Jazz Cafe (which is rapidly becoming my favourite venue for both line up, comfort, and ease of access)
Sometimes it be like that (also I briefly got confused and thought it was APRIL wtf)
My friends Jonathan and Dan were visiting all the way from AUSTRALIA! We met to stroll around Hampstead Heath, which I'd somehow never been to before. Was a gloriously sunny nice time, with bonus stately home and cake.
I went down to Brighton for a long weekend to cat and dog sit for my friends Jade and Emil. I've cat-sat Pog before, but hadn't met Sylvia. She's a sweet good girl who loves her friends and has a big penchant for treatos.
On Friday Sylvia went to doggy day care, and my mum came to see me from Chichester. We had a nice stroll round Brighton and some extremely good vegan fish and chips for lunch.
On Saturday my friend August came to see me, and we took Sylvia for a lovely sunny walk over the race-course, which has gorgeous views down across Brighton.
And on Sunday I went home, but before I went, my old friends Kris and Jonny (who I don't think I've seen since around 2018) came to see me, and it was so lovely to have a catch up. Hopefully it won't be 5 years until next time!
In the knowledge that we're (hopefully) going to be moving sometime in the next few months, and having had a bit more time than usual on my hands, I have been furiously freecycling and tip tripping and depoping and ebaying everything I dont think I need. I love a clear out. This duvet belonged to my ex Martin's parents, and they gave it to us when we moved in together in 2008. 2008!!! They'd already had it at least 10 years, so suffice to say, this duvet is OLD. I love it, but since my current partner we've been using their duvet instead and it now smells like cupboard and feels kinda gross and oily, so it's time for an emotional goodbye to my cosy friend. (For some context it was a REALLY NICE feather duvet that clearly cost a lot once and I always felt very lucky to have it)
Very soon after getting back from Brighton, it was time to prep for PARIS! Me and my partner haven't been on many holidays together (and never abroad), and I generally prefer travelling alone, but we decided Paris would be fun as it's so easy to get to, and they speak a little French. I always get stressed pre travel though.
We arrived in Paris on Wednesday afternoon after a very smooth, fast journey. Our accommodation was lovely, and it was so nice to walk round a new city. We had a delicious dinner at a fancy all vegan place and I got very excited about all the art nouveau street furniture.
My partner's 'must see' was Versailles, which I had absolutely zero interest in, and it turned out to be even more tourist hell than anticipated. It was also extremely boring, and my partner was disappointed by how little of the (genuinely fascinating) history that has happened there was actually reflected in the displays. I was very happy to leave and go back to Paris and have another great dinner.
We did LOADS on the Friday — walked past the Pompidou Centre (but it was sadly closed that early in the day), walked down to the Seine, saw Notre Dame above the scaffolding, went to the elaborate holocaust memorial, had a tasty pizza, went to the botanic gardens AND the zoo, saw Bastille (at my partner's request), and had some fancy vegan patisserie. Yeaaah!
On our last full day we went to Pere Lachaise cemetary (extremely cool, recommend). My partner wanted to see the Louvre glass pyramid, but (unsurprisingly) we both hated that bit of Paris and though we'd planned on going to the museum of decorative arts nearby, they were tired and we couldn't face staying there long. So they went back to our accommodation, and I went back to the Pompidou and had a GREAT time going round the art gallery there.
It's always fun to do ipad visual diaries for a few days, but I do always have to remind myself that I should take advantage of the iPad to try out things I can't do using analouge materials. So this was an experimental one that I kind of enjoyed.
On our travel home day, my partner woke up clearly sick — I went out and got French lemsip and a test, and sure enough it was COVID. Fucking Versailles, I am adamant that's where they got it.
Anyway, we had no choice but to get home on the Eurostar, and endeavoured to do it in as distanced and lightly breathing a manner as possible.
I, however, remained happily symptom free and test negative, FOR NOW...
But, my destiny was inevitable. Kinda astonishing how fast it comes on, huh — from nothing to everything all at once. Luckily it's really not that bad this time round — I am snotty and tired and feel like I'm constantly on the brink of a sneeze, but thus far the throat stuff has been less bad this time (that's what's really got me the worst with previous COVID editions). Sad to have had to cancel a few plans in the next week...
But as regular readers will know, DELIGHTED to have an excuse to work from bed :)
Onwards to September, and probably a few days of especially boring diaries to start it off...
1 comment:
That's an awesome list of friend's books! Two of them are on my "want to read" list, and one I'd not heard about and will probably buy.
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