Home life

I think I can count on one hand how many sunny mornings we’ve had this winter, but when they do come it makes breakfast a little bit special. I keep thinking that I should go and sit in the garden all wrapped up, with a thermos of tea at hand and catch some rays, but because of the time of year and the angle of the sun I’d have to sit in the plant border, so that obviously never happens.

I’ve kept the white mini bunting up in the windows from our xmas decorations, to keep the windows a bit more cheerful. Lots of people have left their fairy lights up post-Christmas, and I’m sure it’s for the same reason. You try and get your joy from wherever you can.

Speaking of Christmas, ours, as I’m sure most of yours, was very different this year. We spent the day at home, just us three, which meant that for the first time ever we had to cook Christmas dinner ourselves. I tried to convince the guys that maybe we could go for the easy option and cook something less tricky, but they weren't having it. I’m the everyday cook in the house, but really don’t enjoy cooking on a bigger scale, so I was relieved when Mr Famapa dived straight in and pulled it off brilliantly. It was actually a really lovely day, so relaxed and quiet, and a very fitting way to spend Christmas 2020.

There are now two guitar players in the house. Oomoo has been playing for a couple of years and Mr Famapa decided to have a go this winter and has gotten quite good - without any lessons. I’m still not back on the piano properly; I’ll have a go every now and then, but not regularly enough. I’m finding it hard to stay focused and use my time properly, and the days seem to just vanish. I can’t believe we’re almost half way through January already, but at the same time I’m glad that we are.

In all my years in London I’ve never seen these kind of fireworks on New Year’s Eve; here the big day for that is on and around the 5th of November. In Sweden, on NYE, lots of small fireworks go off at midnight, and when my Swedish friend M (who I go winter swimming with and who for obvious reasons couldn’t go back to Sweden for the holidays) asked if the same thing happens here I said no. So imagine my surprise when at the stroke of midnight our sky lit up with them. It made me a bit teary thinking of how in times of hardship we always try and make the best of a bad situation. That hope is innate.

My dear friend M sent us some jigsaw puzzles for xmas. I’m not sure I posted a picture of a 1000 piece miniature jigsaw I did of Van Gogh’s Starry Night in the summer. It was intense to say the least. I did really enjoy it though, so I was really happy to start on another Van Gogh jigsaw, and this time not a miniature one.

A very familiar sight around here. Oomoo got his own Kindle from his uncle for xmas, and I’m so grateful for e-readers now. I initially loved mine as it was so handy to be able to buy a book and read it straight away, but it was one particular book that killed it for me - Crime and Punishment. An absolutely brilliant book, but a nightmare on a Kindle. Halfway through the book the characters’ names changes, and trying to go back and forth on a Kindle, with no way of knowing of whether something was on a left or a righthand page to find something was impossible. So I gave up on it, and started browsing and buying books in physical stores again and never looked back. But an e-reader for a 10- now 11 year old bookworm in lockdown is PERFECT. I kid you not, but Oomoo read 80+ books in 2020. I managed my yearly average of 15.

When we moved into this house I made a mistake of hanging our dining room lamp over the table too high, and as the cable holding it got cut to length there was no going back. It’s bugged me for years, and in the autumn, after some random internet browsing, I found a company in Denmark that sold the cable separately. They in turn had to order it from Italy, and it took about two/three months for it to arrive (I’m so glad I ordered it when I did or it might have arrived in 2025 - because Brexit) and last month Mr Famapa switched the cables out. It’s so much better now! OMG, as I’m writing this I’m boring myself. Apologies. This has been a very longwinded way of explaining this picture, which are the reflections of the dining room fairy lights (which are permanent… I’ve just realised that I’ve always had fairy lights all year round since 1994) on said lampshade. Anywaaaay, in future I shall remember that all pictures don’t need explanations.

Greetings

Hey there! Is it too late to wish you a Happy New Year? Although, let’s face it, it does feel more realistic to say Crappy New Year, don’t you think? I find it a bit funny how people are relieved to have 2020 behind them, when surely this year will be as bad, if not worse (especially here in the UK as we still have a joke of a government in power for at least another four years and Brexit finally has happened - and let’s not forget last week in Washington! - but yes, vaccines is obviously the game changer, although it’s shameful how all rich countries are ordering them all up)?! Ugh. But it’s always darkest before dawn etc etc. Worse things have happened, and we will get through this too. Just got to hold steady…

These pictures are from a local walk before Christmas, when I had more energy and could face leaving the house, and before our third lockdown which we are in now. I would give my right arm (ok, maybe my left? I’m right handed so I use it more, sooooooo) for more sunny cold days, but for the past few weeks it’s been bitterly cold and overcast, which is a pretty rubbish combination, as all it does is make you want to stay inside. I don’t know what tree this is, but it looked frickin’ awesome against the blue sky.

All lampposts should be smiling. Or even cry-smiling like this guy. I ran past him on my run this morning again and he made smile. Or maybe it’s a she?

I love our local woods so much and we are so lucky to live so close to it. And I should know that on days that I feel low, this is where I need to walk myself and clear my lungs and head.

These volunteers were cleaning out the tiny little pond, where opportunistic dogs sometimes go for a quick dip and humans don’t. “My” swimming pond shut last Tuesday, and I totally understand why, but goddamn do I miss it. It had just gotten to the best stage where everyone comes out of the water exhaling deeply because of the cold (it was + 4.5c when they closed) and with huge smiles on their faces.

Not a huge fan of parakeets. They’re noisy and make a mess. I call them the hooligans of the bird world. Every year that goes by with them not nesting near our garden is a good year, and when they do occasionally stop for a break nearby, I will them to keep on flying.

Surely this has to be the world’s best haircut?!! Or maybe half of the world’s best haircut. Such a fun idea.

I’m currently reading ‘The Hidden life of Tree’ by Peter Wohlleben which is making me look at the trees around me with very different eyes. They’re so sophisticated, clever and considerate to each other. It’s the perfect read for me right now, as I have to be very on top of how I’m keeping sane in these insane times. Hope you guys are looking after yourselves, and that you are able to keep your head up through this darkest of winters. It’s sometimes hard to remember, but spring always comes. Always.

It's a wrap

Saw these at the V&A too, and thought they deserved their own little post. The hall they’re standing in is being redecorated, and I’m sure there’d be hell to pay if any grey paint went on any of the sculptures. Either that or they’re in full PPE.

Last dose of culture for the year

Weekend before last, me and my pal D went to the V&A for a dose of culture. Seeing as London is going into tier 3 this week (all indoor social venues will shut again) it was a good call, as in the in-between periods of various levels of lockdown and social distancing rules I’ve been making sure that I’ve kept myself topped up on the places that bring me the most joy. We started with lunch in the courtyard (stunning, isn’t it?) and felt like we were somewhere in Italy. A very cold Italy.

As we were sitting there I saw a guy take a picture of himself with a self-timer, which made me remember my favourite button on the camera. I placed it on a table and ran back for this shot, and we came to the conclusion that from now on I shall always take a self-timer pic of myself whenever I bring the camera somewhere, as I barely exist in pictures.

The V&A is my favourite museum in London; I’ve gone there so many times in the past 28 years, and I still haven’t seen everything. I do feel I’m getting close though, and it’ll be so weird when that happens, but I’ll keep on going, and besides, my interests will keep changing so different parts of the museum will appeal. D took me to the Cast Courts, which I’ve somehow missed in the past, and this is a cast of Trajan’s Column in Rome. It was way too high to show in one piece, but the room was still built high enough so it could be shown in two halves.

Making casts of famous world artefacts was a way to show non-travelling Victorians art and sculptures from around the globe, which is kind of ironically apt for these times we live in too. Like I said, sitting in the courtyard made us feel a million miles away from London, so seeing these golden doors and other casts must have been a wonderful window into what else was out there in the late 1880’s.

Hiya Dave! You alright? I doubt I’ll ever go to Florence so looking at this cast model of Michelangelo’s David is probably the nearest I’ll get to it. I never knew the proportions were so all over the place.

This cast of the baby Jesus (although I would argue that his face is very un-baby like here - look closely and you’ll see what I mean) being kissed on the foot by one of the three wise men made us giggle. The beard makes it look like he’s about to take a huge bite out of little fella’s foot. Actually, maybe he already got the right hand? Nom nom.

I can’t remember where these heads were salvaged from, but they were modelled on the carvers themselves, their friends and family. So cool to think their faces are still here, hundreds and hundreds of years later.

This carving was apparently put up as discouragement for stealing back in the day. There are so many brilliant parts to this carving. Brilliant and funny.

There’s a whole section dedicated to iron work, and this gate caught my eye.

As did this miniature carving, not much bigger than a walnut shell. So cool!

The photography section is really great, and I love this collection of old photographs where you can see the shadows of the people taking the pictures.

Mark Cohen’s colour photography from the 1970’s is a total new find for me. This wall of pictures made me sigh and wish that I was more loose with my picture taking again, like I was pre-blogging. My pictures now sometimes feel so boring and functional. I need to fix that. I just watched a short clip of Cohen taking pictures and it horrified me though. So intrusive! You’d get punched in the face if you did that now, but seeing him not looking through the view finder reminded me of my Lomo days in the late ‘90s, and how fun that was. Maybe it’s time I set myself some challenges from this book which I’ve had for years but not used.

Anyway, anyway, anyway. The last room we looked at was the Tapestries Room which is amazing. The walls are covered by huge Dutch tapestries from 1500, and they’re mind blowing. My head hurts just thinking of all the work that went into them. Pressing the button on a camera is easy yo! Blog post title aside I still have a backlog of my cultural highlights of the year (including another V&A visit in September), so at least here on the blog there will be more culture coming for sure. And hopefully some wonky pictures too :)