February 2022

February (as always) kicked off with hourly comics day, which I somehow only remembered at lunchtime, so this year's were a bit rushed. I did a seperate blog about that day here.

February second was 2-2-22. (I only later realised that 22-2-22 was maybe more exciting, OH WELL)

Having spent the entirety of January stubbornly refusing to leave my bedroom and actually sit at my desk like a functioning adult, I finally caved when a client sent me a sufficiently complex bit of work that I was going to need my second screen. But I was NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT.

Mum came to visit for the day and we went to the Constable exhibition at the RA. I've been going to see art with my mum for my whole life, and for that I feel very greatful. I remember us going around an art gallery when I was probably aged around 12 or 13 (I think it was Tate Liverpool though I also feel like I must be misremembering because I don't recall ever being in Liverpool with her otherwise?!)... We were walking around the galleries and we saw a piece of art, I can't remember who it was by, but it was a painting of a human, but all their bodily proportions were wrong, and it looked like they were in pain. My mum was a nurse and I think art that evokes pain or blood has always been something she doesn't like to see. In fact she said to me at the time, 'thats my least favourite kind of art'. I remember walking around the rest of the gallery wondering what my least favourite kind of art was (as I had actually quite liked the piece she so took against). I came to the conclusion that my least favourite kind of art was anything which bored me. I feel like I should have evolved a more nuanced take since then, but my stance has remained pretty much the same since then — the worst sin that art can commit is to leave me unmoved.

Anyway tl;dr, Constable is boring 🙃

Of course that's not entirely fair, and actually because I was so bored by the actual paintings, I spent much longer reading the captions. Learning more about his process and ideas definitely left me with a bit more respect for him than when I had entered, but I still maintain that his actual art is utterly uninteresting. (To me). I had a bash at a Constable of my own, but fittingly I got bored halfway through :)

My throat is still fucked! I am loathe to call this long COVID, as a) I had a persistent cough even before I got COVID and b) my only other symptom is kinda low energy, but again, I think that's more of a vibe than a physical symptom, as I can definitely force myself to do things when I have to, and do generally cope physically. The low energy is more mental I guess?

Anyway WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY THROAT?! The doctor prescribed me a nose spray and an asthma pump but neither have made a jot of difference so far, blegh,

 

Anyway, time to go away for the longest time I've been away since January 2020!!! Pre-2020, I had got travel and packing down to a fine art. I was hopping around the country (and indeed, beyond) so often that I actually felt quite smug about my ability to glide around with minimal stress and minimal baggage. NO LONGER! How many tops do I need for 7 days? LESS THAN YOU THINK EMMA, you don't even sweat that much, chill out.

 

As with my last couple of trips away, my visual diary policy is all digital while travelling! (Saves me carrying a precious book and loads of pens). Anyway, I got the train up to Manchester and stayed the night with my friend Tom in Withington, South Manchester. He took me out for some of the best vegan Chinese food I've ever had.

The next day I headed over to my friends Kim and Sylvia's house. Kim is now technically my boss (I work one day a week for GFSC!) so ostensibly this was to be a 'work day'. We did indeed do some work, but then we went over to fellow GFSC employee Jazz's house, to meet PEGGY! Peggy is a semi-feral border collie that Jazz adopted around a month ago. She is an extremely good girl trapped inside an extremely scared/erratic/intense girl's body. Of course she reminded me a lot of Charlie, particularly when he first came out of the shelter. Peggy was still too scared to met me pet her, but I presented her with gifts of a licky-mat, a fancy nylon bone and some of Chase's sprats, and she very much appreciated them. (The fun of digital visual diary making is that I can cheat a bit and use a reference photo as a base. Really enjoyed making this cute digital painting!)

The next day I got the train to Hebden Bridge. I have barely been back to Hebden Bridge since I moved away in late 2019. I had planned to return a lot more often, but the pandemic put paid to that, and the longer I stayed away, the less I wanted to go back. On the one hand, my memories of that valley are of being part of an incredible artistic community, being fitter than I ever have been, and spending lots of time with my sweet Charlie, roaming over the moors. On the other hand, my memories of that valley are incessant rain, a failing relationship, a deep-seated loathing of 'the countryside', and general misery. The latter have definitely been outweighing the former, to the point where coming back now actually feels pretty grim, and I have little to no fondness for the place at all.

It WAS, however, nice to see a few old friends and share a lunch together. Plus do some lino printing!

In the evening, I met up with my friend James. He has recently moved to the area from Brighton and is looking to buy a house in HB. (He's currently renting in Halifax). Despite all my cynicism, he is a big fan of life in the valley so far, and his enthusiasm was kind of catching. I did start to remember why I moved there in the first place. (...cheap rent, lol?)

I stayed at James's place in Halifax, which was EXTRAORDINARILY NICE and made me question all my life choices. Halifax is pretty great actually. It's got so much incredible industrial history (and still to this day is a very industrial town), and all of its architecture is so shaped by this. There's kind of nowhere else quite like it, and I enjoyed spending an afternoon walking around. (Depressingly I had hoped to have another week of 'taking it easy' work wise, but all my freelance clients decided February was suddenly the time to get moving on everything, so I was pretty overwhelmed with work, and did have to spend a few hours each day working, despite this supposedly being a holiday. Maybe I am bad at holidays now?! But after a sparse January it was pretty hard to turn anything down)

One thing I wanted to do while up North was go for a proper hike (even if I knew I'd find my loss of fitness quite depressing). On Friday afternoon me and James went for momos at the Tibetan kitchen in Hebden Bridge, then hiked back to Halifax from Sowerby Bridge, up and over the hills. It was a really nice time, despite some extremely muddy and/or perilous bits (it is still very much winter). 

The next day I headed into Leeds to see my friends Daisy and Ferg, and their new baby Rowan (also to get an amazing manicure!) I had been planning on staying overnight with some other friends, but they got COVID, lolsob. So after a delicious lunch at Döner Summer, I got the train back to London. (On which I did this extremely wobbly drawing)

On the last day of my extremely un-restful holiday, our housemate Tabitha texted to let us know she wanted to move out in a month. Tabitha has been my pandemic rock, and I'm quite sad about it, especially as it was quite unexpected. But she's been going through some private life stuff of her own recently, and needs some time at home, out of London to figure her stuff out. Which is fair enough, but UUUUUUUGHHHHH I hate finding new housemates. 

I posted the ad on spareroom at around 11 on Sunday morning and within 36 hours I had SIXTY EIGHT responses. Mostly from people who were absolutely not the right fit, but mostly just a testiment to how ridiculous the London rental market is. (Especially for a place with comparatively reasonable rent like ours)

 We immediately launched into viewings, meeting 8 people on the Monday alone. I HATE THIS!

Anyway we met a bunch more people too, but Camille was by far the best. YAY CAMILLE! (She moves in on the 11th and I am really hoping we have made a good choice and she is indeed as chill and sweet and friendly as she seems)

Big storm! 

I still think about Charlie every day. I am at the stage now where I can have fond memories of him and think back happily to our time together (as everyone said would happen!)... For about one minute, at which point my brain abruptly cut-scenes to me lying on the bathroom floor, howling next to his dead body.

When does it get easier?

I was supposed to be going curling (!!!) with some friends, but the curling got cancelled because of the storm, so I unexpectedly had a day free. Decided not to mope around the house by myself, and instead took myself out for a fancy lunch by myself! (One of my favourite things to do)

The next day, me and Jay did section 12 (my second section) of the Capital ring, from Highgate to Stoke Newington. Weather wasn't great and there was some EXTREME MUD at one point (actually worse than what I encountered in Yorkshire), but we had a nice time nonetheless.

In extremely stressful news, Chase had to have a general anaesthetic to get her teeth cleaned. I was a bundle of nerves about it, but of course she was fine, albeit somewhat disgrunted and discombobulated by the whole experience.

My throat is often worse at night, so I slowly drink a hot tea and that helps. Here are some of my favourites!

Other remedies. (They do nothing but they taste good)

Took a picture of this scene on the tube to draw later. Relatedly, I wonder if I should stop numbering these diaries soon? I started numbering the days from the first lockdown in March 2020. With Boris' announcement of all restrictions being lifted and a world 'back to normal', I feel like maybe I should stop, but the world doesn't feel back to normal to me. Somehow I can't felp but feel it never will be though.

 Just a satisfying day of boring tasks that I enjoyed drawing

 

Everyone* (*surely?!) has their favoured lunchtime Boots Meal Deal combo. I genuinely feel like a Boots Meal Deal for lunch is a treat. (A Boots Meal Deal for dinner is depressing though)

I'm actually not sure if they still make the Pea and Mint fritter sandwiches any more as I haven't seen one for ages, but I am still including it here because it was a classic and I love it.

However, there is a different meal deal situation which calls for an altogether different approach — night shifts.

For my once monthly Samaritans night shift, I know I will need the additional twilight 'fourth meal' (does it have a name? Night supper?) — and for some reason I am absolutely obsessed with cheese and onion at that time of night. The boots vegan cheese and onion sandwich is kind of grotesque but I absolutely love it. (Grotesque mainly in the sense that it has basically no texture, it is however, all flavour).

Anyway, I stumbled into March blearily eyed at 6.30am walking home across London from my night shift because of the tube strike. Here's hoping the rest of the month is slightly less tired and rainy.

Hourly comics day 2022

 Bit late getting to this one, as hourly comics day is on February 1st, but made it eventually!

You can see the last 8 years hourly comics here:

2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

I actually forgot it was hourly comics day until halfway through any already quite busy day this year, so they're definitely a step down from last year's in terms of quality, but I continue to enjoy the experience!

January 2022

Well, it's 2022, and if progress so far is anything to go by, this is going to be a year of 'Emma procrastinates wildly and struggles to get any work done'. Hoping this is just a January vibes thing though..

January 1st feels like MONTHS ago... I was still in COVID isolation, and absolutely living it up. Reading for hours every day, playing as much Ring Fit as I could manage (not much), cuddling the dog, and cooking nice meals.

Every Sunday me and my partner watch a movie. We did all the James Bond movies, then all the Star Wars, the Matrix movies, the extended Lord of the Rings edits, and now we're working our way through Studio Ghibli's output. Every single one nearly brings me to tears simply because of how BEAUTIFUL they are, and Kiki's delivery service was no exception (not to mention some other slightly on-the-nose stuff in there about finding/following your passion, burning out etc, eeesh)

Talking of burning out, I absolutely COULD NOT face going back to my downstairs desk when I had to start work again (and actually, couldn't, as in an effort to protect our one housemate who hadn't so far got COVID, we were still confining to our room as much as possible). So instead I resumed work from my bedroom armchair in the sun, and found it much easier to get going again.

Dunno why we bothered though, our housemate got COVID after all, in fact she had it for days before even telling us about it (don't get me started on that one). Anyway, nice to be able to freely move around the house again!

Since I quit working at Kings back in July I've been doing one day a week with Geeks For Social Change, as general design/copywriting dogsbody (and loving it!)... However as the only person on the team who can't code (won't code?!) I felt at a disadvantage in some ways. Kim is slowly teaching me tiny bits and pieces like 'what is Github' 'how do you turn on github' and... not much further than that, but still a steep learning curve for me!

Was VERY excited to try Wagamama's Veganuary special, tempura 'not fish', spicy sweet potato chip things, mushy edamame, katsu, tartare sauce and chilli. Unfortunately by this point my taste had still not returned, so all I can really say is 'it was spicy' and 'it felt good in my mouth'

 Once Beatrice had done her quarantine and Tabitha was back from her parents, we had a second go at house-christmas, with another big roast and finally swapping our presents, and it was cute!

Various people got me scented candles for Christmas. I only decided quite recently that I like scented candles, so this was very exciting. However I regret to inform everyone that it seems like scented candles excerbate my still-ongoing COVID cough, so I don't get to indulge this habit for now. Boo. (I am going to see a doctor soon because I am still struggling when out in the cold/forced to talk a lot, which is a shame because I love going out in the cold and talking a lot)

Weirdly though, exercise (as long as it's not in the cold) isn't too much of an issue, so back to the gym it is. 

This drawing didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped, oh well. But anyway, having really not left the house very much for nearly 3 weeks, it was nice to go into central London, buy a big bag of sushi rice from Japan Centre, load it into my granny-wheely-trolley and come home again.

Perhaps the most boring visual diary ever, but, my landlord finally re-grouted my bathroom and retiled the floor! YAY!

I do actually quite like my landlord, he keeps our rent relatively low, is a friendly and interesting guy, and during lockdown #1, him and his kids used to come and walk Charlie for me almost every day. He does have a tendency to patch fix house issues that maybe need a proper job doing though, and the bathroom was no exception. I'd asked for it to be repainted in mould proof paint, but instead he just slapped a bit of standard emulsion over the worst of the mould and was like 'ta-da!'... So I went out and bought a can of proper anti mould paint and did it myself. (And believe me, I HATE DIY, so this was a real trial). And then I cooked a big dinner! (Yes, both procrastination from doing some actual work)

 In truth though, work has been quite quiet this month. As a freelancer I am trying not to be stressed about it, and instead lean into taking the breaks I'd been saying I so desperately needed. In between short morning and afternoon of work, a lunchtime stroll with an old uni friend I hadn't seen in over a decade, who it turns out lives just over the river from me. Was weird (but nice) to catch up after so long, strolling through Battersea Park in the winter sunshine.

Bought myself a cute jumper to stave off the winter chills.

Cleaned out the washing machine which has honestly got to be one of the worst household jobs that exists, and which I had been putting off for literally MONTHS.

Usually I answer phones for Samaritans but it's fun to get out and about, so I jumped at the chance to go stand in Waterloo station wearing a big flourescent green bib and smiling (behind a mask) at people while handing out leaflets about what we do. (Kinda sucks though because most people think we're trying to get money out of them, which makes sense — I'd assume that too — but actually we were just there to promote our services). I wore about 10 layers because of the cold in the station and the bibs were XXXL so I felt like a particularly giant green blob

Then I had like one day where I had to do everything all at once and it was... BAD?! What if work is bad, you guys. Or what if I'm just still very tired.

But then it was fine again, and me and my friend went out for ramen and to see some art, as it should be.

One of my 2022 things is that I want to do is walk the Capital Ring, a series of well documented/planned (by TFL I think?) walks that loop around the inner edges of London. Started the first section with my old friend Alex, from Hendon Central to Highgate, and it was GREAT, very excited to do the next one!

Tried and failed to convey some really complex ideas graphically but made a thing I quite liked anyway.

Then at the weekend I finally went to MARGATE!! Trendy Margate that everyone loves, apparently. I guess I can see why, it is real trendy and being by the sea is just the best. Don't think I wanna move there myself though, but it was good to visit. Finally got to see my friend Kier at his new(ish) record store Ghost Papa, and meet his partner, baby and cat! Ate some really really good chips! Saw some more art! Got really cold! Living the January day trip dream.

Me and my partner are making a silly zine about all the James Bond movies we watched. I illustrated them all as we went, apart from the very first one: Dr. No. So obviously we had to rewatch it so I could do this.

Hello, it's me, I still have not gone back to my desk and am struggling to do more than about 4 hours work a day, aaagh etc

Another new thing is that I'm finding it really hard to do things in the evenings. COVID fatigue or just out of practice because of the pandemic? Anyway you might notice I am always trying to schedule social things during the day and outdoors and that's because it just seems easier to function at the mo? We had a couple of friends over for dinner and a boardgame and I just felt totally wiped at the end of it.

In another day of wild procrastination, I went to a matinee of Phillip Pullman's 'La Belle Sauvage' theatre adaptation and it was INCREDIBLE, cannot recommend highly enough. Then after a very mediocre pizza, I went to the book launch of Theatrum Mundi's 'Sonic Urbanism: Listening to Non-Human Life', a compilation of thinking about sound experiences in the city. There was a cat in the venue who would not leave. Excellent.

Still reaaallly struggling with my throat though. It just feels like there's constantly something stuck in it and I'm just having to clear my throat or cough all the time. It's really annoying and kind of scary at times. Like, will this ever end? Cough syrup does not help, thanks for nothing pharmacist.

Me and Heidi went to see the 'Joy' exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, and then discovered that attempting to get a meal in Soho on a Saturday night is an absolutely hopeless endeavour, so we came home and had Chinese takeaway instead.

After letting my Borrow My Doggy membership lapse, I rejoined literally just so that I could message the incredibly beautiful Zaffa (a miniature Chase) and her owner Jude. We went out for a stroll together and it was fun! Hoping for a bit of a friendship of mutual support with dog care, as we have two dogs with very similar (minimal) exercise needs, a love of napping, and a similar love of company.

Got a tattoo today! It's like this, but perfect.

Onwards into February, which will hopefully involve me actually getting some work done...