Weeks 33 to 44

Weeks 33 to 44

Look, I can explain. What happened was, I'll tell you what it is. What it is, right, and I'll tell you. The thing is, right. Basically the same thing that happens every year which is it starts getting darker, I get SAD (or what some people are now calling 'winter fatigue') and find it very hard to Get Shit Done. Luckily, I now live with Adam so I'm somewhat more accountable to someone, e.g. if I wasn't doing my split of the chores I'm sure he would notice, and there's a nice routine to having meals with someone which means it's hard to skip meals. We've also been going to the gym a few times a week and lifting, which I'm really enjoying- wait, I'll get into all of that. Firstly, a recap.

What's happened in the last 3 months?

  • My cool new hearing aids are still cool and life-changing. Fireworks sound so much better!
  • I went to Victorious Festival in Portsmouth with my mum and saw Craig David, The Fratellis, Wild Front, The Streets, Blossoms - it was my first post-Covid festival and very very tiring, I seem to have lost all my previously built up endurance.
  • I moved in with Adam, which took a whole week to do and about a month to recover from. So much box hell. So much stuff to get rid of. So much tiredness. But we're very happy about it!
Hour two of eight building two (2) Ikea shelves
Chaos
Book chaos
Kitchen and living room chaos
Box hell chaos
Out of date seasonings chaos
Ahh. Better
So aesthetic, right?
We actually had most of these jars already
Very nice, very nice
Look at our cool pot stand!

Moving on.

  • I've been working on the estate more, especially since getting- can I show this publicly? My cool access all areas work pass! Drinks on me in the members only (with plus one) bar.
  • I went to see The Last Five Years with my friend Rehana, after a visit to the CHRISTMAS shop in Liberty. I was not ready for how magical it was, and you're not ready for what I have to show you in December.
LOOK AT THIS
  • TLFY itself was so beautifully set, and imo the perfect way to see it. I can't sing its praises enough!
That STAGE, the LIGHTING, the PIANO...
  • I went to a lot of Labour Party Conference/The World Transformed talks: this was definitely the most striking and affecting one to me. Looking forward to getting involved in much more local stuff now that I'm allowed to with work!
  • We had what we didn't realise at the time would be our final Volk's Electric Railway ride of the season. Late night, Black Rock to the Aquarium, watching the sunset and leading straight into the VERA 25+1 party, it was a wonderful final ride until next year.
  • My wonderful friend Miriam came to visit for the day with her lovely friend Ella! We went to the beach, got some food at the Shelter Hall, went up the i360 and generally caught up - I haven't seen Migs since pre-pandemic and it was so nice to finally see them again.
  • I met all of Lloyd's previous employees, and some who I currently work with that I hadn't met before! We had a big party and lunch at one of their houses, and it was such a wonderful experience to actually hang out with them outside of work and get to know them better.
  • I went to an actual full length gig at Concorde 2, my first big gig back, and I loved every second of it. Orla Gartland was incredible, especially having had most of her kit stolen the day before. Her and her band really pulled together and it was punk as fuck.
  • We made mince pies: it's Christmas now.
  • We also started watching the Blair and Brown documentary - obsessed with how many candids there are of them, and how they're looking at each other in this one. I love Brown.
  • Adam and I went to the opera! Big up Glyndebourne's £10 youth tickets: we dressed up and had a box to watch Fidelio. I've previously not seen myself as a big opera person, but it's something I'd love to see more of going forward now.
Ofc I asked a stranger to take a photo of us, which Adam definitely loved me doing
  • My darling friend Owen came to stay for the weekend, and we had a wonderful time with Xav doing crosswords, getting very drunk at the Twisted Lemon, and making a shocking number of friends while doing so. There are some nice pics of us from that weekend but please enjoy this drunken 2am one instead.
  • I've been going to the gym and lifting, which has been great and something I think I'll write a separate blog post about. Something interesting the PT I see said yesterday is that there's quite an old misconception that women who lift weights will bulk up and get incredibly muscular. That's not really the case for compound lifts though (which is what I do), where you're building a mixture of endurance, power and flexibility. I'm feeling a lot stronger, and I'm really enjoying building up my strength, especially my upper body, and surprising my PT (she was very impressed that I'm quite strong already and apparently have very flexible glutes and hips? I even said 'this stretch is easy' when she was struggling with it which was 😎😎😎). I think my favourite part though is going at 6.30am, when it's mostly just other women there, and getting it over and done with before starting my day; it feels really good to have exercised, showered and eaten breakfast before 8am.
  • I fulfilled a longtime dream of mine, a very small one: there's a very sweet café in North Laine with a cute window seat, and I wanted to get a nice coffee, sit in that window seat and read and people watch. We finally had a quiet Saturday where Adam suggested we go and do it, and it was as lovely as I'd hoped.
  • We also planned out our Seagull News launch event: if you're interested in coming, the event and details are here.
  • I spent about an hour at a Halloween party with my friends Abbie and Gemma; I was an upside down pumpkin. Guess who put more effort into their costume?
  • We burnt some sparklers (of which we had to buy four packets because the shop had a £2 card limit) and saw some fireworks in Preston Park with Kat and Josef. I've never heard them with my hearing aids in before, and it was quite overstimulating but in a cool way - they sounded so much more textured and rich than I realised, and I really enjoyed them.
  • And now, we're all caught up! Next week will have a visit to Lewes to watch the Spencer film, my vaccination booster, and a trip to Dorset with Adam to see mum, Humphrey and Dolly, and the cats.