August has been a month with plenty of free time and not enough money — a frustrating combo, but hopefully I have mostly managed to make the best of it.
I went to see my old friend Reggie at the start of the month, in the confusingly named Soho Theatre (confusingly named because it's actually in Walthamstow). A fun show, though due to crossed wires and both of us being too laissez-faire, we totally failed to actually successfully find each other and hang out after the show. Luckily my work-friend Alex came with me, so I still had a good time!
I did have some £££ treats this month, specifically going to see some great exhibitions. Pictograms at Japan House which is an absolute masterpiece (and FREE!), and both exhibitions at the Design Museum — 'More than Human' and 'Splash!' A century of swimming and style. Both v v good.
When we got this dog we thought her name was Jessie, but it turned out her old owner called her Kelly, and the rescue changed it for some reason. She doesn't respond especially well to either, so I mostly call her KJ, these days (and also loads of other things).
EVERY SUMMER freelance work totally drops off a cliff, and EVERY SUMMER I freak out about it and come to believe it'll never recover. (But... it always does?! Fingers crossed this year continues that trend...)
Towards the end of last month I told you about my time spent teaching in Bournemouth. This was just PART ONE of a sweet summer school gig I got, working with a gang of 12 Chinese illustration students in their teens (as part of a bigger summer school with groups across loads of other creative disciplines). Part two ran over the next two weeks in Norwich — I had a halls room for the duration of a 9 day period, but only had to teach for four days dotted throughout that. A pretty sweet deal, as it meant free accommodation and lots of time to roam the area. I also like Norwich a lot more than Bournemouth, so this essentially felt like a bit of a holiday I was somehow getting paid for! Dreamy!
Anyway, I got there and met up with my old pal honor, who drove me out of town to the legedary ROYS of Wroxham, and also took me to their weekly Mah Jong meet up. This was VERY EXCITING for me as I have never played Mah Jong before IRL. (If anyone wants to be Mah Jong buddies in London please hmu)
The next day I was teaching at the lovely arts university. It's a really nice place and the staff were great!
Then a day off, in which I got the train up to Cromer, ticked another pier off my list (yessss!|) and then walked along the coast to Sheringham — also very lovely, and an excellent heritage steam railway there. A beautiful day for it and I had a thoroughly nice time.
Then another teaching day — enjoying the incredibly close proximity of my halls room to the building our studio was in — just along the river, like 3 minutes walk. (The top pic is the view of my halls from the studio, and the bottom pic is the view of the studio from my halls). Norwich is a really beautiful city, and the arts university buildings are just charmingly dotted around it. V nice.
I had been planning on coming home over the weekend, but I was having such a nice time in and around Norwich, I stayed! On the Saturday I went to see two more piers in Lowestoft (good to get them ticked off, but Lowestoft is really shit), and then got the bus out to the University of East Anglia Campus (to see the 'ziggurats', brutalist student accommodation) and the Sainsbury Centre (big weird philanthropic arts institute with sculpture garden). These were much better.
On the Sunday I stayed in Norwich. I went to Norwich Quaker Meeting for their morning service, which was lovely, then during the rest of the day I visited both the city's Cathedrals, another super cool old church full of antiques, and two lovely gardens — the Plantation Garden and the Cathedral's Herb Garden. All very lovely and very holiday-feeling in the hot sunshine.
Monday was another teaching day, but this ain't about that. My best pal from primary school days, Naomi, lives up in Oban with a menagerie of dogs, cats, chickens etc. She is an incredibly skilled dog trainer and photographer (though her day job is algae scientist!) and her dogs have quite probably the best lives any dog could ever ask for. Throughout our whole childhood and teenage years she was always obsessed with having pets, but was only ever able to have hamsters as her and her mum and sister lived in rented accommodation. So when we finally all finished univeristy, she was the first of our tight little friendship group to get a dog, way back in around 2010.
That dog was Eska — a reactive rescue border collie, and all round grumpy darling. I was very fond of her, though admittedly haven't been up to Oban to visit since around 2015, but I do follow all their escapades online.
Anyway, it was finally time to say goodbye to Eska, and I did shed a few tears. I am v weak to dog death emotion at the best of times, but Eska had lived such an extraordinarily long and happy life with Naomi, I was so sad that was finally coming to an end. Naomi sent me a beautiful sad picture of Eska's grave, looking out across the stunning, remote Scottish landscape where Naomi lives, and the grave was filled with all sorts of flowers.
So I did this drawing, felt sad, thought about how dogs deserve only the best.
The next day was my last day off in Norwich, and I got the train out to Great Yarmouth, which was indeed great! Two more piers, got to see rock being made (it's amazing), and had a really nice long walk in the sunshine. Also saw LOADS of great signage.
And then after one last day of teaching, it was time to say Bye to Norwich! I had a very lovely time and kinda hope I get to go back and do this again next year, as I feel like I could quite happily spend another week exploring the city and surrounds.
9 days is a long time to be away from home though! Had a lot of tasks to catch up on.
Travelling home from Samaritans late at night, a small section of the Jubilee line was blocked, THWARTING me. I enjoyed rapidly brainstorming the surprisingly large number of alternative solutions for getting me home. (Because I am a big nerd)
Still catching up on chores...
Been a while since a proper self portrait, so hi. Selfie with ipad.
Helped an MA student with some urban walking based research, in which she asked me to tell her about everything I saw on a walk that interested me. I am not sure she was ready for how many things interest me.
Oh man, somebody tell me to chill out over this fictional dude, swoon. I have thoroughly enjoyed the Yakuza spin-off pirate game, its only failing is IT'S TOO SHORT. Gimme more Majima! It's fine, I am going to go back and play Yakuza 0 next, so I am sure there is plenty more fan art to come. (I thought I'd nearly finished the game at this point, but actually had missed a massive side quest, but I really have nearly finished the game now...)
I used to do a lot more 'my tummy hurts' visual diaries when I first started out with this whole thing. I guess it's good that my tummy is less bad than it once was, but it is still BAD sometimes!
My partner was like 'just use the tap-root tool' but it turned out I didn't know which one was the tap root tool or how to use it. I am disappointed at my general under-motivation when it comes to the garden — I had truly hoped to be better but there is almost always something else I'd rather be doing. (Luckily my partner is mostly motivated enough for both of us?! I do try to do my bit though.)
The Central London Samaritans building has moved, and we used to have a deal with a nearby Pret that we got their leftovers at the end of each day. They couldn't find a Pret near our new building able to make the same deal (boooo) but now we instead go get leftover Gails when they close. It's not as good because it's mostly pastries (I don't like sweet pastries and they're not vegan) but we do also sometimes get leftover loaves of bread. (This is good! Lunches all weekend!)
This particular day we got SO MUCH BREAD that I realised about 20 feet down the street that I was incapable of carrying it the 3 minute walk back to the branch without constant breaks for my weak little arms. All those fancy gails breads are HEAVY!
In other garden news, I am still SLOWLY painting the garden fence. Slowly because I hate it. It does look great though. Only two more panels to go!!
We live in the same neighbourhood as a major London football ground, and on match days there are TOO MANY MEN being annoying.
My partner, adamant that dinner would be RUINED without saffron, sent me round our local neighbourhood on the hunt for some. I treated the whole thing like a video game side quest (as I often like to do in life) and had quite a nice time with it (after visiting 6 different shops, finally found one selling it in a particularly enchanted looking vial, further increasing my feeling of being a wizard looking for an exotic potion incredient).
I first went to my GP with throat problems in 2021 after getting COVID, and am ONLY NOW getting lung function tests, sob (a combination them not running them until like, late 2022 because of they didn't think it was possible to sufficiently sterilise the machinery during COVID so there was a massive backlog, some notes getting lost at some point, a consultant going on long term sick leave, and them SAYING I didn't answer a telephone consultation call when actually my phone just never rang, and not offering me another one for 6 months). Sigh. Actually a lot of sighing, and huffing down a tube, in this gamified breathing experience which I was... not very good at.
That's my stinky girl.
Had a particularly lovely day tabling at a zine fair in Newhaven, hosted by some old friends, and alongside my regular tabling buddy Jade. It was surprisingly busy! I might have broken even! (j/k, I spent more than my earnings on other zines, the classic story)
Did autumn always start in August?
I am constantly on a quest for the perfect trousers. Will I ever find them? Probably not. But these new barrel legged, slightly stretchy uniqlo ones are gonna have a go at trying for a bit. (I am v glad about the current 'barrel leg' trend because I think it is great and have done for years).
Now, onwards... to a hopefully not too rainy September...
