January 2026

January has been a weird month of very nice and not very nice all happening at once. As always, doing my best to keep on drawing it all, whatever happens.

My last blog showed the first couple of days of the year, in which I pondered on last year's goals, and set goals for this year.

 

My first proper drawing of the year was of a messy but interesting kind of day in which it snowed, and — presumably distracted by said snow — I let my guard down and allowed Jessie to get into a fight with another dog (luckily no one was hurt apart from me?!). In wrestling her off said dog, I twisted my little finger so badly I was convinced I'd broken it, and so, went to A&E (to find out I had not broken it). Walked home from A&E in a surprisingly good mood considering I'd just wasted 2 hours in A&E, and had a moment of being awestruck by SUPERMOON (which was so super I stopped two men who were walking by in the opposite direction to say 'Look at that moon wtf', and we all stood in the middle of the street enjoying it for a few minutes)

It was bad!!! (It's now the end of January and it still hurts a bit!!)

Anyway I enjoyed my Christmas break, and as always, found it somewhat hard to get started again at the start of the year. Got very excited when I actually motivated myself to do some freelance work.

 

So the Southbank Centre's winter light installations were... not very good. But uhhhhh I maybe went to see them on a somehow-date with a friend I've had a lil crush on for a long time, and we maybe had a bit of a kiss, and if that isn't a nice new year treat for Emma idk what is :)

(Despite entering into my current relationship claiming to be polyamorous, a combination of COVID, dog-loss-grief, work, and hormonal imbalance have mostly meant I've felt little inclination towards any extracurricular romance for a long time. It's nice to find one of the few crushes I have had is apparently reciprocated... 🤩) 

 
Still not quite fully back into work mode (i.e. term starting again) — had a nice little outing to Ashford to visit the lovely Rebecca Wigmore (who I had been wanting to go and bother for ages). It was very foggy and rainy, but we had a lot of fun.

Also found the time to go to the British Library's 'Secret Maps' exhibition, which was very good (though considering it was the closing week, it was astonishingly over-crowded, and quite difficult to actually get up close and spend ages poring over the maps, which was what I really wanted to do). I'd also hoped they'd maybe take a slightly more creative/wider interpretation of what constitutes a map, which they kind of did, but I think it could have gone further. Anyway that sounds negative but it really was great!

Then the next day me and my friend Heidi went to see a couple of exhibitions at Whitechapel Gallery, which I had somehow never visited before. (The exhibitions were okay, the vegan fish and chips I had for lunch at nearby Unity Diner were better).

Self-care Sunday ahead of 'Oh-man-it's-time-to-go-back-to-work Monday'

And sure enough, slammed immediately in the chest with TASKS. Before christmas I was offered some teaching work on MA illustration and visual media, which is very exciting, because me?! An illustrator?! Really?! (She says, having literally made an illustration every day for the last 12 years and regularly taking on professional illustration commissions pretty much throughout that period) Anyway I was super psyched to get started, BUT did not realise the teaching on that course was starting, uh, next week. I thought I had longer. And I needed to write content. Yikes

 

And then, with perfect timing (I did not plan this when I did the previous day's illustration), the slight rug-pull of not being offered any more teaching work on BA User Experience Design. That course has mostly been my home for the last 2 or 3 years, so it's sad that my time there seems to be coming to an end, but such is the nature of associate lecturing — you are somewhat subject to the ebbs and flows of students and staff. And to be honest, given how overwhelmed I am feeling, I have come to the conclusion it's probably for the best, even though I will really miss the undergrads! (And I may yet be back there one day, but not this academic year).

There's that good (terrible) girl

I really love Wilmot's Warehouse. This was my second time playing it and I somehow couldn't believe that it would work as well as it did the last time, and yet somehow, once again, we nailed it. Here are some warehouse items, absolutely none of which in any way have any kind of rude meaning...

Went to the sauna with George. Still did not manage to fully plunge myself, but ALSO did not overheat and feel dizzy like last time I went with Vicky, so that's some kind of victory on my journey to becoming a pro-sauna-er.

I'm just so over periods at this point. (I have been trying a period disc for the last couple of periods, anyone else had a go?! I wanted it to be great but though it's way more comfortable to wear and insert than the cup, it also just leaks all the time. Am I doing it wrong or is my body just incompatible?!)

Enjoyed the Danielle Braithwaite Shirley exhibition at the Serpentine gallery — it was super playful and I liked the way it tried to force strangers to interact with one another (I did indeed interact with strangers)

I helped my students make some zines, but I did make one or two mistakes with the template I gave them, ack, amateur hour. To apologise for essentially forcing them to do some extra folding work due to my errors, I baked muffins (which were received to critical acclaim)

 

STRESS DAY! My partner's mum called them, asking them to go up there and help her out (she lives in Yorkshire). Turns out when they got there that she was so ill she had to go straight to hospital, and my partner is... still there?! Hopefully to return soon?! I don't mind being on my own but it was a bit of a shock to the system to have it happen so suddenly (For one thing there were way too many carrots in the fridge for someone who does not like carrots at all to eat) (One of my proudest moments since their departure was eating all the carrots).

Taught my first session with the MA Illustration students — all about visual diarying as a practice! I did this not-very-good one in session while they were working on theirs (and coloured it later digitally)

Despite having an absolute ton of work to do, for the first three or four days after my partner went away, I entirely could not focus on anything, as I was so worried about them and their mum, and what might happen next. (She is... hopefully okay?! Or as okay as she can be?!)

But I do really, really love teaching on the illustration MA. It's so much fun and so different to my main job on MA Design for Data Vis, as well as my previous work on BA UX and BA Graphic Media Design. with courses like that there's a lot more... right and wrong, somehow? Whereas with illustration it's kinda like... as long as you're making a ton of work, and talking and thinking about it... you're probably doing good?! There's probably something interesting there?! There's probably something to pull out and say 'Yes!! That! More of that!"

The individual tutorials are particularly fun for this kind of thing.

Still though. So. Much. To. Do. 

Back to working weekends for a while I think, lads...

Trying to up my Chinese learning this year with an AUDIO BOOK. Here's me walking through the country park on a grey January afternoon saying over and over again that yes, I do in fact want fried rice and a cup of tea (我想要炒饭和茶) (Wǒ xiǎng yào chǎofàn hé chá)

Did you know that parakeets, in their natural habitat, eat rocks off cliff faces which help them digest their food by grinding inside their stomachs... and in urban areas, they substitute for this by eating mortar off the sides of buildings. (I'd heard about this behavior, but saw it for the first time on a house on the other side of the street to me!) Pretty cool but I hope they're not also eating MY mortar...
 

Another good old fashioned hand drawn visual diary, drawn in session with my MA students while they worked on their stuff.

You know when there's a pot that could be stirred... and you desperately want to stir it... but mostly manage to restrain the urge... 🙃

I'm fine on my own until something involving technology breaks. (My shame) (I fixed it in the end)

 
It's been ages since I got to play Dead of Winter, so it was super fun to introduce it to a whole group of new people. Many thanks to George for inviting me to her 'Queering the Apocalypse' group! (They were very good, and we won, which basically never normally happens on a first play?!)

Anyway, it's mostly been a nice January but I do miss my partner and am excited to have them home again (hopefully Monday?!) Still, I am pleased about the amount of fun/social stuff I managed to squeeze in this month, hoping it can continue into February and beyond...