anyresemblance

Sunday Stocktake

1. Watching: Call My Agent.  Ganching told me to watch it and I have already done season 1 and now into season 2.  So flipping good.
2. Eating: Rick Martinez twice baked sweet potatoes.  Also in the so good category.
3. Baking: Nigella's version of burnt Basque cheesecake.  It's fine but not life changing.
4. Hoping: my siblings all get vaccinated soon.  I am fearful for them all.  My brother's friend died last week and it is just all too much.
5. Organising: my lock up garage.  I moved some shelving there and installed the cushion collection as the new place has a basement parking space but I am not sure if the storage will accommodate my home stylist amount of cushions and throws
6. Enjoying: ironing my sheets and the lowered blood pressure that comes with a linen cupboard full of organised pillowcases
7. Listening to FKA Twiggs talk about coercive control on the Louis Theroux pod cast.  There is a lot to unpack there.  My personal nemesis reemerged recently and I am processing a lot.
8. Listening: to my neighbour's rather too loud party but keeping it cool as she never complains about the dog barking and this is a very unusual thing for her.
9. Liking: the deluge of rain we have had which has turned my grass from yellow to green.
10. Buying: or rather not buying, the grapefruit I was seeking in our local, rubbish big chain supermarket.  I had ruby grapefruit at a local scandi inspired cafe and am taken with eating grapefruit after ignoring it for decades.

 

Busy

I’m too busy watching Call My Agent to have time to blog. 

Peaks and troughs

Normally January is quiet at work as so many clients are still on leave but this year the tsunami has hit with lots of reorgs and new processes and yesterday was slamming.

We've gone from hot, hot days to a deluge of rain and I, for one, am enjoying the sound of the rain and the garden recovering from wilting.

I have am interspersing my intense drama watching with episodes of Blown Away with crazy glass blowers and like all these shows, within two episodes, you find yourself carelessly throwing around terms like annealing and flame work.

My friend's father in the US died of Covid yesterday.  While I moan about being stuck on my island I am grateful for how safe we are.

I had my hair cut yesterday morning - I'd booked it when I thought I was taking leave this week but I kept the appointment and worked from the hairdressers which was actually quiet and productive.  The guy who does my hair always has excellent tv recommendations, so now I am looking out for Pose which he recommended after I raved about It's a Sin.

Headache

I fell over last night in the laundry slipping on some water spilled from the dog's bowl and cracked my elbow so hard on the wall that I broke through the plasterboard.  I felt such a fool lying there.  I had a bad night's sleep and could not bring myself to go to the office today so am working at home.

Mercury rising

Not much happened today as it is too darn hot. It’s still 30 at 9pm and not due to go down much overnight.

I walked Charlie on the ridge early this morning but did hardly anything else than pack a small bookcase and be ruthless in taking some books to Vinnies.

I also finished It’s a Sin. I cried through most of the episodes and plan to watch it all again. I have many thoughts about those years but probably need to process it a bit more. I also watched the first four episodes of I May Destroy You which has also left me wrung out. Michaela Coel is a genius.

Sunday Stocktake

1. Finishing: The Unknowing, Hugh Grant was great but it felt like Nicole Kidman muttered her way through the whole thing.  Good Girls, took me an age to finish this latest season but I still like it.  Also, Lupin, woah, cliffhanger and can't wait for the next bit to drop
2. Baking: a cherry, coconut and almond cake from this wonderful book I read about on Joy the Baker.  So simple and humble but delicious.
3. Cooking: grilled salmon. Now that the kid is gone, I am eating a lot more salmon and my favourite is just to grill it on some parchment on the weber.  Last night I ate it with steamed spinach and sautéed potatoes with garlic.
4. Making: lists of stuff I need to do to move, furniture to place and things to get rid of.
5. Sipping: a Prosecco from the King Valley which is cloudy and delicious and perfect for the hot balmy evenings.
   Reading:
6. Listening: the latest Spenser reimagined by Ace Atkins and read by Joe Mantegna.  It's greatly inspired by the Jeffrey Epstein story and can be tough going with the story line of sexual predators.
7. Buying: book boxes to start the grand book packing.  The new apartment has an odd ante-room? lobby? that is perfect for all my bookcases.
8. Watching: old Sex and the City since I realise all the seasons are on Binge.
9. Hoping: to set some goals for the year.  I've got a list I am working on.
10. Wearing: dresses or shorts every day with bare legs to try and cool down.  I'm trying not to buy new stuff and wear what I already have but I do need a new pair of birkenstocks.

I scream, you scream

Today is unbelievably hot so I feel eating ice cream at 1pm was not only helpful but necessary.  I had delicious raspberry sorbet. My kid sent me memes of Biden eating ice cream proving that he also likes the scoop life.

Charlie and I walked quite early and then I went and looked at the desired apartment again which I still really like so am on for the move.  I've moved so much in the last 4 years, the man in the shop that sells boxes and packing tapes knows my name.

The upside of the blistering heat is that the washing dries by the time the next load is ready so I have washed my sheets, two sets of towels as well as my sundry work clothes.  I have to run the air con a bit before I do the ironing as that room is stifling.

Bad habits / good habits

I went to the first class of my beginner's yoga last night.  I started a bit irritated at how slow it was taking to get started but by the end, I was grateful that she had taken the time to work out what everyone's experience level was and what we needed.  I think I will stick with it.

I was thinking about how I track good habits a bit better.  I could do it analogue but is anyone using a good app for this?

Among my habits I wish to cultivate, are: avoid the internet after 7pm; take my lunch four days a week; write something every day; learn a poem every month.

How lovely was the inauguration? Everything still feels hard but lighter and possible.

Sisterly

It would have been my sister's birthday today so I am just going to let this sit here while I think about how I lost her too soon.  She's the one in the middle.  I am not yet born.

Old friends

Much as I dislike Facebook, it occasionally throws up something good and today was a reconnection with my friend I shared an apartment with in grad school.  We actually travelled to the mid west together, from our Scottish homes, two clueless children who flew to NYC and then took a bus to Ohio with no idea about anything. 

He had a serious girlfriend he had left behind and actually left before finishing his studies as he did not want to be apart from her.  We lost touch but then I saw his girlfriend, then wife, in the ante-natal clinic in Oxford when I was pregnant with my first.  He was connected to me by another old grad school friend and we were reminiscing about all the bands we saw that year: Prince, ABC, The Clash, Devo, Peter Gabriel (wot?).

This old girl is going to live with my daughter to keep her company and escape the annoying herding of Charlie. She’ll be happy to escape her Orange step brother as well.