Except now my mind is..well...a little blank...I have been trying to write short stories lately. Maybe the occasional poem. The problem is I actually have a lot of writing projects on the go at the moment (I blog for two organisations as a volunteer and I am currently engaged in writing up summaries of two oral history projects that I interviewed people for. Plus I have my two 'fun' extracurricular blogs to update!). I also normally spend so much time rushing around, that when I stop and sit still to do some creative writing, I find myself sleepy or blank. So I have been trying to slow it down and notice my surroundings more. I walk slower in the Tube (against the rush of commuters clamoring to get past and in front of me) and try to concentrate on one thing at a time both at work and at home. It is difficult in this day and age of constant interruptions and distractions. Emails, text messages, phone calls, events to go to, people to see, chores to be done, places to be. I have plenty of ideas for stories, I just can't seem to find the time and when I do, I can't concentrate. But the urge to write is strong and ignoring it only makes me miserable and frustrated.This afternoon I finally got the chance to do some short story writing and managed to put a few paragraphs down on paper. It is just a start, but who knows where it will take me!
Anyway, I said the last two weeks have been busy, but it was not all chores! So I decided to take stock...(I got this excellent idea of compiling my random life into digestible chunks by reading the excellent crafty blog Meet Me at Mikes):
Making: A huge knitted blanket. For winter. Although at the moment it is just three large woolen rectangles (one cream, one navy blue and one banana yellow). I better get a move on since it is now October and our flat has suddenly just got colder. Ned Stark would definitely have something to say about this...
Cooking: I made chocolate Fridge Cake using a recipe from Waitrose. I added fudge, just because obviously dark chocolate, golden syrup and honeycomb is not sugary enough. I fed it to my husband, best friend Natalie and my parents. That's me, spreading around the love and risk of diabetes.
Drinking: Lots of coffee! Starbucks has started serving their Pumpkin Spiced Latte again. My Scully mug is what I drink coffee out of when I am home. I combine Scifi coffee drinking with reading about Scandinavia...perfect combination!
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Reading: Jerusalem by Guy Delisle for my bookclub. It is a graphic travelogue of one man's experience of the Middle East. After our bookclub meeting on Monday, we decided on the next book which is Gut by Giulia Enders, so I will start reading that shortly. Horrifyingly I found my old University diary, so I have been reading a bit of that too.
Eating: This month has been a pretty amazing one for food so far. I had dinner with my father in a very nice restaurant called Joe Allen's and while spending a few days in Cambridge, my husband and I ate in a restaurant called Cocum. it served Keralan cuisine which was delicious. I have also treated myself twice to sandwiches from my favourite lunch place near work. The cafe is called Lincolns and is run by a small South American family. They have a huge sandwich toaster. They basically toast everything they make and are evidence to the fact that all sandwiches taste better toasted. In fact, everything probably tastes better toasted.
Wanting: One of these amazing lamps
Looking: Last week at two women on the Tube who happened to be wearing the same jacket and accidentally ended up sitting next to each other. Amusingly both of them were horrified that they matched and moved seats! Also earlier this month I watched 10 young men dressed as Saint George wander down the road off to watch the Rugby World Cup at Twickenham. It pays to keep your eyes pealed in London. You never know what you might see.
Playing: At being an oral historian! I have started interviewing everyone everywhere! I interviewed a security guard the other day, a sales assistant in Sainsbury's and two weeks ago I struck up a conversation with a train guard at Clapham Junction. He noticed my new jacket which I bought at the Africa Utopia festival at the Southbank. It was made by an Anglo-African company in Camden. It very nicely clashes withe everything else I own and almost any pattern on any seat on UK public transport. The Clapham train guard was from Africa and he recognised the fabric pattern, we got talking and he ended up telling me about the 50 trains of commuters that he deals with each day. He also told me the worst job he ever had was being a train guard at Wandsworth Common because it was such a quiet station and so colossally boring. He then yelled at the man standing next to me to get behind the yellow line on the platform.
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| Clashing on the Victoria Line |
Wishing: I could visit this museum in Lyon!
Enjoying: Petting local cats. A particularly soft and fluffy youngster lives near my parents and she trots up for some adoration whenever she sees me.
Waiting: For Arne Dahl to return for a 2nd series on the BBC.
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| Swedish Crime Fighters looking prepared |
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| Down this street is a whole host of food stalls... |
Wondering: Why a guy, trying to get spare change from passer-bys, continues to create tiny boats out of sand and plastic flowers on the pavement near Waterloo Station, during rush hour, when no one ever gives him any money.
And how this Weather Reporter managed to pronounce this Welsh place name:
You gotta love the Welsh and their names.....
Loving: The fact that last weekend I could stand outside on my balcony and watch a children's science-themed birthday party on the street below. They were learning how to make rockets and their noise was delightful. I recorded a small sample. Recording noises is now my new hobby.
(https://soundcloud.com/clara-jean-jelly-bean/little-scientists)
(https://soundcloud.com/clara-jean-jelly-bean/little-scientists)
Pondering: Am I losing my hair? It does feel thinner. And strands of it does come out on my hairbrush...would I look okay if I was bald? I do have a bowler hat with cat ears on it, so I might be okay...
Considering: Going to the London Feminism Conference this month....
Buying: My new Zatchel. It is bright orange and came from a charity shop.
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| So bright you can see it from outer space |
Hoping: For more time to write. And perhaps the ability to someday do without 8 hours sleep, so I have more time to write when the world is quiet.
Marvelling: At the music students at the Barbican intensively practicing their various different instruments in their practice rooms and mushrooms growing out of paving stones near my parents' flat.
Cringing: About having spinach in my front teeth from a batch of homemade pesto. It was in between my two front teeth all day long and no one said anything.
Needing: To start actually mediating for peace of mind and exercising for a better fitness level.
Questioning: Why on earth can the US not impose some stricter gun control laws! After the most recent shooting Oregon, even the shooter's father was arguing for more gun control! An interesting article on school shootings in the US was published recently in the New Yorker.
Meeting: My new work colleague and taking an instant liking to her and wanting to be her friend, Also meeting a whole chapter of the new Women's Equality Party in a pub in South London.
Smelling: Not much, I have a rotten cold.
Wearing: Alternating my new badges: (all made by this lovely lady - http://www.andsmilestudio.com/about/)
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| Autumn Girl badge |
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| Magical Coffee badge |
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| Mulder and Scully badges |
Following: Very British Problems (https://twitter.com/SoVeryBritish) - favourite problem this week (now that supermarkets have started charging 5p per plastic bag in the UK):
Realising you've got about fifty grand's worth of plastic bags under your kitchen sink.
Noticing: How beautiful London is in the evening (around dusk) from the top of a double decker bus on Waterloo Bridge.
Knowing: My neighbor is sick. Because I can hear her hacking cough every evening in the flat below. Surprisingly her boyfriend does not stop smoking because I can smell that too....
Thinking: Lots of things. Far too many thoughts. I have a very busy brain that is far too overactive. But here are just a few thoughts that were quite prominent in my mind recently...
- How much I dislike Theresa May and her anti-immigration speech during the Conservative Party Conference (especially liked this article about it).
- How Cambridge University (as lovely as it looked in the Autumn sunshine) is really just one giant educational club that excludes everyone who does not belong to it...and that then echoes afterwards in to the workplace...and it has been doing this for hundreds and hundreds of years
- How ridiculous and prevalent social media has become in our world and everyday life when 'de-friending' someone on Facebook could have been considered workplace bullying. Luckily a tribunal in Australia ruled that such an action was not workplace bullying in itself...
Admiring: King's College Chapel and its wonderful choir of choir boys during Evensong.
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| A Ceiling to remember... |
Surfing: The Net, when I should be doing better things. How else would I find Cats in Kimonos? (the cats look mightily unimpressed)
Getting: Totally behind on housework. The crappy slime green 70s carpet in my rented flat is covered in lint and needs to be vacuumed.
Bookmarking: Feminist Disney and this woman's excellent art blog on tumblr
Coveting: My husband's good circulation. He is always warm. I just get colder and colder in the winter...especially my feet...
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| Making the most of the warmth of the other person who occupies your bed |
Opening: A bag of sweet potato chips and then almost eating the entire bag in one sitting. Ugh.
Giggling: There is always time for a good giggle. Things that have made me giggle recently are:
- My husband being loved up by a sausage dog in the park while doing some press-ups. Apparently the tiny dog came up and started enthusiastically nuzzling his ear.
- A news item that came out this week about a Swedish Beard Club being mistaken for Isis terrorists...
- Brian Blessed delivering a baby. In the 1960s. In Richmond Park. Probably the most frightening birth story ever. But give the man an 'A' for effort and enthusiasm.
- My boss sending me this photo of her kitten sleeping in the most awkward sleep position:
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| The 'draping myself over a cliff' sleep position |
Snacking: On Avocado Hummus. Absolutely amazing. God bless the Chickpea and it's friend the shapely Avocado...
Helping: To write summaries for over 40 hours of recordings for an Oral History Archive for a London university. An Epic amount to do! WHEN will I FIND the TIME?! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!
Planning: On taking the train more, rather than the Underground. On the train I can look out of the window and feel exactly like this:
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| I am on an adventure! |
Listening: To Youth by Daughter. Lovely little tune.
wow
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