May 2025

May has been another broadly good month, albeit with one or two light background work-related stresses. 

But who can be too stressed when THE SUN IS OUT?!!?

The Samaritans Branch I volunteer at recently got a new building. The old one was near Carnaby Street where I had LOADS of different delicious dining options before my shift, but the new branch is near Marylebone and Marylebone kinda sucks. I had these great Bao but I got them from all the way over in Seven Dials, which is... not convenient. If anyone has any good eats recommends near Marylebone, let me know...

Talking of good eats — an always joyous tram excursion to Croydon Ikea for plant balls on a Saturday

 In about one week several different people were like 'wow Emma your hair looks good', which is weird because I hadn't done anything to it, but I realised it's somehow just crossed into the 'long' threshold, so I need to consciously change how I draw silly cartoon Emma. (Also I had the realisation that it's now long enough to tie up, so I am having fun with fancy braids again!) I have still not found a hairdresser I like since my good one retired, so I guess I'm growing it out again.

Had a cute fun time over at Ellis's starting to lino cut this drawing of a tube carriage I made (but didn't even get close to finishing it, so still lots more work to do) 

It's fancy aubergine season...

One of Jessie's regular walking spots is a lovely wild space near the railway depot. It's usually pretty quiet (good for Jessie), and at this time of year, there's lots of lovely (occasionally scary) nature stuff to see

My class of undergrad students' attendance has been pretty poor this year, it's very frustrating, even if I know it's mostly out of my hands. I wasn't a very competant student when I was an undergrad, but I did at least show up...

Went to see Baths play at Corsica Studios and it was GREAT (and hit me right in the feels as I briefly travelled around a lil bit of Europe with him and Daedelus way back in 2018 which was an incredible adventure, so his music is the soundtrack to a lot of that time for me)

Me and my pal Vicky (who also lives in my little corner of Croydon) are trying to do more local stuff together — we very much enjoyed going on this weird guided D+D themed walk of a local nature park at the end of the tram line that neither of us had ever visited before 

Attending Quaker Meeting for Business (which I should really go to more often but I am always busy and/or unmotivated for another meeting, even if these are actually quite interesting)

 I'd been in a bit of a video game drought recently. For most of the last 5 years since covid times when I got a Switch I've spent the majority of my evenings playing at least one or two hours of some game... I've worked through Animal Crossing, Breath of the Wild, The Witcher 3, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Super Mario Odyssey, Tears of the Kingdom, Stardew Valley, Skyrim (though I never finished it, despite sinking hundreds of hours into it), No Man's Sky (ditto), plus myriad other smaller games (Spiritfarer, A short hike and Lil Gator Game being particular highlights). But after finishing (or growing tired of) No Man's Sky, I was a bit stumped as to what to play next. I purchased and started one of the Assassin's Creed games, but didn't gel with it. Part of the issue was that the Switch port kind of sucks (the controls are really bad), but also I just didn't feel any connection with the main character — he's just like, some stupid guy, and there's this whole thing about him being in the future but also the past that just felt really convoluted, and... eh. It just kinda sucked. Maybe I'll revisit it sometime and give it another chance, as they must be such a popular franchise for a reason.

Anyway, as well as playing games myself, I also sometimes watch my partner play games. Amongst many other things, I've watched them play a couple of different games from the Yakuza series — for anyone not familiar with these games, it's basically a Japanese language soap opera where all the main characters are Yakuza (kinda like the Japanese Mafia). Ostensibly they're fighting games, but actually every game also contains LOADS of stupid addictive mini-games (including some iconic karaoke), countless side quests, an astonishingly detailed rendering of a small district in Tokyo that you can freely explore, and extensive lovingly animated cut-scenes of whatever big drama the boys are going through. The basic premise of the games (men fight each other) did not interest me — but actually watching the games be played, I was totally sold. (If this piques your interest, the prequel Yakuza 0 is a masterpiece)

The main thing that put me off playing them myself was that they're not available on Switch, so I'd have to play on the big TV in the living room (I like to be cosy in bed!) But they recently released a particularly ridiculous spin-off game in which my favourite Yakuza character becomes... a pirate? It is an utterly ludicrous premise and very over-the-top in its realisation, but also kind of has everything I could possibly ask for in a game. It is so good... that I made some sexy fanart. I'm in my sexy fanart era now, okay. (I have actually always loved fan art but the main thing which puts me off making it is a crushing sense of inadequacy, but maybe I have finally got good enough and/or found my muse, haha)

The ultimate dream as a lecturer (well, my ultimate dream) is for my students to like me. So when some of LAST YEAR'S STUDENTS came to see me especially to tell me how much they appreciated my teaching and general support, and bought me some vegan chocolates and biscuits... Well, I HAD A MOMENT 🥹

I do love my (teaching) job, but infrastructually, it does sometimes leave some to be desired...

Went to give blood and was a bit worried about whether I'd have enough iron in me, as my periods have been a lot heavier since I stopped taking the pill, but I am pleased to report I am still powerful and full of iron

Some weekend days you get to go out and do cute fun stuff, other times you have to stay in and work while the sun's out :(

After spending a grumpy Saturday working, on Sunday I went out with visiting friend honor to have tasty lunch and a gossip, and see some fun art in Croydon

Ongoing lift adventures in the LCC tower block, where one out of three lifts has been out of order for some months, and one of the other two is... temperamental. Ended up on a lift voyage with three different people, all of whom I know, none of whom knew each other, pondering on whether we were in fact, about to get stuck in there 

Some days I just make a nice pattern (inspired by a scene in the 'King Worm' episode of Adventure time)

 A perpetual busy-day question

 Spen has made tempura lots of times with varying results — this time was PERFECT

I have been trying my best not to think about any of this but dear lord, we're so fucked, Labour suck so much, how did we get here?! How do we get out?! I hate it all!!!

Went to a 1 year old's birthday party. He had an adorable crown.

Despite attending Quaker meeting on and off since 2007, I've never formally become a 'member'. Mostly because I feel that, in some ways, membership is a bit of an outdated tradition, but also because I've been quite flighty in some ways — since starting to attend I've been a regular at three different meetings (Brighton, Hebden Bridge and Wandsworth), but also had prolonged periods of absence from all three (for various reasons). But it's nice to feel part of something, and despite moving to Croydon, Wandsworth is still close enough that I've been able to keep going there, so... this is home for the foreseeable (spiritually at least, and in terms of the community of people). It's a nice thing. 

The other thing about the Yakuza games (sorry I will shut up about the Yakuza games soon) is that they take any opportunity to put their characters into hilariously sexy/compromising positions in side quests with just barely coherant plot points. Oh, this homeless cat only likes sexy women? But no one else can possibly rehome him apart from our hero? Well, you know what that means... 

My lil cinnamon swirl girl

 It's DELICIOUS GAZPACHO SEASON!!

I normally do my Samaritans shift on Fridays, but I had to move it to Thursday this week, and it totally threw off my weekly rhythm

The reason I had to move my Samaritans shift was because it was DEGREE SHOW OPENING!!! I absolutely love degree show season, it's so fun to see students final works, and for the first time I've been teaching at LCC long enough to actually see some of my students come through to final year. They done so good 🥹

I had planned on doing a London Loop today, and enthusiastically set off bright and early, but en-route rapidly discovered that with the Jubilee line and the top end of Thameslink both down for engineering works, I couldn't get to my required far flung suburb without a lot of bus-related suffering, so I decided to GIVE UP and instead have a different day out. I hopped off at Kings Cross, and visited:

The Wellcome Collection (for their exhibitions about zines and disability, and sign language)

The Wallace Collection (for the Greyson Perry Show)

North and South Serpentine galleries 

And Japan House for their Japanese carpentry show

I also walked between all of them to (kinda) get my hiking fix. I am very tired now, but it was another gloriously sunny day, and it was good to finally see a load of exhibitions I'd been wanting to get to!

Here's hoping the lovely weather and lovely outings continue...

April 2025

April has been real nice. I am feeling very spring-like both in mood and energy levels — which feels kinda weird and bad given how entirely shit everything in the news is right now. It does feel a bit like I'm burying my head in the sand a little... I never really feel like I'm doing enough or thinking enough about what could be done, especially given my position of relative privilege... Still working on that one, I guess. I started volunteering at Samaritans in 2020 because the Tories got voted in again and it seemed like a lot more people were going to need us. While part of me feels like being there for people who've hit rock bottom is too late, (i.e. it doesn't really do anything to address systemic failures) it's... something, I guess. 

Hope you're all finding your own ways through (even if that just means burying your head in your video game/tv show/fanfic of choice, which I have ALSO been doing...)

I didn't realise at the time I drew this, but April 1st was Jessie's 'gotcha day', meaning we've had her an entire year! 

She remains: a) A real dickhead sometimes / b) Not the dog I wanted / c) Not always an easy companion, BUT, at this point she's here to stay, and while some of her worst tendancies drive me mad (lunging at strangers, furiously defending the home from couriers, fostering major beef with every dog bigger than her), she's also got some very admirable qualities that have endeared her to me (her loyalty, independence, chill house energy, stable digestive system and general dignity with food, respect for our personal space etc). She's also a real good cuddler and that counts for a lot.

In 'Emma's weird freelance gigs' news, a few months ago I designed the (very simple) title screen for this movie, which meant I got to go to the 'cast and crew' screening, to witness my name very briefly appear very deep in the credits. Yes I took a picture of it in the cinema even though that's naughty.

Had a cute day of meal dates with my pals — a lunch catchup with Heidi who I hadn't seen in ages, and then delighted to welcome Davey back to the UK with dinner (and continue trying to persuede him to move here). Because it was Easter Break I haven't had as much university work to do as usual, which has opened up much more time in my calendar for fun cute stuff...

Like the next day, me and former housemate Camille had an extremely nerdy outing to TFL's Acton Depot on one of their open days — basically a big warehouse full of old trains, buses, signage, models, furniture, signalling equipment, and anything else London Transport related (as well as, on the open days, a huge squadron of over-enthusiastic volunteers ready to talk about it all). It was extremely fun and I did not realise what a kindred train nerd spirit I have in Camille until this outing

Continuing my LOVELY WEEKEND, pals Kath and Fuad hosted a very sunny barbeqcue at their place to celebrate Davey being in the UK. I met lots of lovely people and remembered... most of their names?!

After [checks] 15 years of regularly or semi-regularly attending Quaker meeting, I finally decided that I should probably actually become a member rather than just an 'attender'. (Being a member essentially means committing yourself slightly more formally to the life of the community rather than just being a bit of a flaky drifter like I've always thought of myself there)

Part of that process is a chat with two Friends (what we call other Quakers) who you haven't met previously to figure out ('discern') if the time is right. To do this, I went to a different meeting for a change, then met them there afterwards. Wimbledon meeting is much smaller than my usual meeting in Wandsworth, but very charming and (as always at Quaker meeting) I felt very welcomed. They meet in a lovely suburban house not far from the station that felt very homely.

The Dean of Design is a person at the university who is like... 3 levels of line manager up from me. i.e. very busy and important. Anyway, he does this cute thing where he (or more likely his PA) randomly selects 3 or 4 members of staff and he takes them for coffee. It was fun and interesting to meet him, and also sitting in the cafe with him made me feel very big and important, when other colleagues were walking past and being like 'why is EMMA hanging out with HIM?!'

Also I've got to get another mortgage or something, I hate this shit (while obviously being very glad I own my house)

Still on Easter Break but clearly a sucker for punishment, I took on some extra teaching work, running a workshop with high school students. I did it last year too, and sometimes it makes me think that I could be a high school teacher, then I remember no, absolutely not.

My friend (and former colleague) Kim was visiting London, so we and her friend Laura got Chinese food and went to the pub. At the pub there was a box full of free stuff by the door and I got very invested in the idea of bringing these two ceramic dogs home, only to find someone else had nabbed them while I had my drink. I hope they have gone on to happy homes.

I have not been reading as much as I'd like to over the last couple of years — mostly because I have a huge pile of quite heavy non-fiction to get through, and simply cannot find the motivation to proceed with it at much pace. Because of said non-fiction reading pile, I usually don't feel I can justify finding the time for any fiction (especially given a lot of my fiction reading list is also quite heavy going too). 

As a treat, I read Ursula K Le Guin's Earthsea books a few months ago and had such a great time I realised I needed to get back into (fun) fiction again, reading pile be damned. 

When I was going on holiday to Seville, I decided to treat myself to a new fiction book, but I wasn't sure what to choose. I went to my fav book shop in Battersea and asked the lady behind the counter if she had any recommendations. I said as I'd just finished Earthsea I guess I could go for some more fantasy, and it was as though she was just WAITING to be asked, because she practically squealed, and let me over to the display of 'The Fourth Wing' — "It's REALLY sexy and REALLY violent, if you're into that?!?"

Well sure, why not. Anyway I started reading it on holiday, got about 50 pages in, and felt that it was such utter dross I wasn't even sure if it was worth continuing with. 

For some reason I persisted, suspended all disbelief, devoured the rest ravenously, and immediately bought the second book. It is quite clear that these books are likely to (if indeed they haven't already) become the next 'Twilight', and apparently I am here for this. 

Anyway, I was about to start the second book and was talking with my partner about what a guilty pleasure it was to read trashy sexy character fiction rather than like, classy Booker Prize winners or whatever, and it was then that they asked whether I'd ever explored An Archive Of Our Own. (Vast online repository of free fan-fic about every topic under the sun)

Everyone who I've told this anecdote to has been like 'Emma how have you never heard of AO3 before' but here I am, 37 years old, discovering for the first time a vast, free collection of (sometimes) surprisingly well written sexy stories about literally any character, celebrity or other entity I could desire. 

I think my non-fiction reading stack is going to continue to remain unread for... some time. (If you can name all three characters above I'll give you a prize lol)

This was the final year of Somerset-House based games festival Now Play This, and I (like many others) am sad about this, even if their reasons for ending it make total sense. It was nice to see my pals V Buckenham and Sarah Cole there, though I was disappointed not to see more folks, likely because it was a much smaller festival than previous years. (Usually in previous years I could pretty much guarantee seeing multiple friends there whatever time I went)

If it seems like all I did during the first half of this month is have cute little excursions with my friends, YOU'D BE RIGHT :) (I did somehow also do some work, I swear?!) Willow was visiting from the US and invited me, George and Arthur for a lil tourist time visiting the observatory in Greenwich. I was delighted to do so as I had never properly been to Greenwich before! I learned a lot about TIME (and also enjoyed sitting on the grass in the sun drinking iced beverages)

Convinced myself about a month ago I'd got good at making gnocchi, but it turns out, I have not

 
There are two different types of trains I can get to work, one of them takes 12 minutes (and is standing room only), the other takes 25 minutes and you're guaranteed a seat. When I'm not in any kind of rush, I enjoy taking the slow train (and reading my stupid romantasy)

I mean #blessed to live 3 minutes 10 seconds walk from the train platform tbh (and yet I am still always rushing)

 
If you've got two hours with nothing better to do and like watching livestreams, then I am pleased to present to you: Emma's first (and probably last?!) ever live stream. 

I actually had a great time with this concept (the audience are the client and they demand STICKERS, how many of their ridiculous requests can we make in the time allotted)

Went over to V's for boardgames. My hot take: the app version of Wavelength is better than the boardgame (not a take I particularly want to have as I love a physical game, but... it just is!)

I hate that fucking AI action figure meme — firstly: AI is bad, but secondly: they all look like utter shit? Anyway I drew my own and it's way better.

Went to visit Mum and Dad, and mum took me to her favourite garden, West Dean. I saw so many cool plants! (Also chickens and a floor mosaic made of horse teeth!?)

Also #blessed to have my friend Vicky living on the same street as me — it is extremely cute to just be able to ask each other for help/motivation on small tedious jobs and just like, go over and do it then be able to get home a minute after the job is done. (I helped Vicky disassemble some furniture she wanted to return, she is going to help me paint my fence)

People said this street/area had a rough reputation when I moved here, but I have found it to be nothing but lovely?! One of the neighbours who I often see out walking his dogs in the park gave me a tree! (It had got too big for the pot on his balcony) — the only downside is that he can see where I've planted it from his flat so if I let it die he'll know (and he did seem very attached to it). Pressure...

Me and my partner are still watching all of Adventure Time (there's a lot of it, so we will be for some time...)

(Oh also I got the Fellowship from the Association of Higher Education which means I am a real teacher now or something?)

As mentioned previously, I stopped taking the contraceptive pill a few months ago (having taken it without stopping since I was around 15) — I stopped because I suspected it was making me depressed, and based on the huge uplift in my general mood and energy levels since I stopped, I guess I was right!  

However, I started taking it when I was 15 because my periods were 'pass out from the pain' levels of bad. While they're definitely not as bad as they were when I was younger, it's definitely been a bit of a shock to the system going from regular, light, pain-free periods to... well, the opposite of all those things. 

My partner gave her the new nickname of 'Jelly Gravy' which has apparently stuck

ANOTHER FUCKING COLD

(It's actually fine, ever since I discovered decongestants colds are literally half as bad as they were before, which further cements the ridiculousness that I had never heard of or taken them until last month).  

(Painting aforementioned fence — tedious but satisfying)

Davey was heading back to the US after nearly a month in the UK, so we had another tasty dinner at our fav, Mallow

 Met an extremely bold moorhen in the park that was fully ready to mug me for snacks

 Went on a cute burger date with my partner :)

Here's a very elaborate drawing about my mysterious 'luxury' pedicure from today. What is luxury? Can luxury be obtained for £3? Is luxury 'hot stones in a rice cooker'? Is luxury mud, mad, matte, or none of the above? I am still not sure, but I have cute toes now.

Onwards!