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...
