The past few weeks haven’t really given me time for blogging. I’ve been helping with house-clearances, writing a proposal for some freelance work I really wanted but didn’t get, and undergoing major dental work. I now have the next 10 weeks house-sitting in a small town at least an hour’s travel from anyone I know.
i’ve also been glued to the news far more than I’d like lately. The depressing news that police in the US are still able to shoot as many innocent black people as they like, with little consequence, and that plenty of people who think of themselves as Good People will do as many mental gymnastics as it takes to excuse them with stuff like “well that guy had three speeding tickets, so it was essentially fine really” makes you lose faith in humanity.
Domestically as well, UK politics has turned into a ridiculous soap opera where the writers insert as many bizarre plot turns as possible. You feel you can’t look away because you’ll suddenly miss something important, and that you suddenly find out you’re not a citizen any more or that the whole health service has been sold off or something else drastic. It’s exhausting to keep up with, and keeps throwing up ridiculous scenarios like Boris Johnson being Foreign Secretary (!!!) and the way that the central committee of the Labour Party is desperate to exclude the party members from being able to vote in anything. Buzzfeed of all places (!!) has two good summaries here: 1 and 2.
I was hoping for a quiet summer where not much happens. I suppose I have that in that the local train company has also gone into meltdown, so I can’t actually go anywhere or have friends who don’t have a car (ie all of those in London) visit right now.
Here’s some links to interesting things to distract yourself with:
- Soothing pixel art of waterfalls and forests
- Wint, MP. Text from joke twitter account Dril with pictures of British politicians. Makes as much sense as anything they say themselves at the moment
- 24 recipes for vegetarian and vegan comfort food
- The Lost Victorian Mansions of LA
- An interesting article on how decluttering has a different meaning for the adult children of refugees
- For French speakers- Monoprix’s new own brand food packaging with terrible dad jokes on – giving Carambar a run for their money (try reading them out loud if you don’t get them)
- 1930s guide to churning out a pulp novel
- Paul Strand’s photographs of people in the Hebrides in the 1950s
- Things Lucy Maud Montgomery Lied to Me About (RIP The Toast)
- The Motorist’s Green Book and Black America’s Perpetual Search for a Home (RIP The Toast round 2)