ON WEDNESDAY of last week, while in a book shop, discovered a new little photo book by a photographer named Steven Ahlgren called The Office (Hoxton Mini Press), which essentially began when the author was a disenchanted banker working in an office in Minneapolis. Inspired by a 1940 painting by Edward Hooper titled, Office at Night, which he would view frequently at the Walker Art Center, Ahlgren decided to leave office life behind to become a photographer. The photos, taken over a ten-year period between 1982-1992, chronicle a view of corporate life that can either be seen as tragic and sad, or heartfelt and thoughtful, depending on your own experiences with this world ...
BY NOW YOU'VE heard of Quiet Quitting, as it's been mentioned by every major news outlet for the past month or so. Like everything these days, it's a term that's attributed to a Gen Z TikTokker and it means no longer going above and beyond at work, but doing only what you've been hired to do and nothing more. In other words, common sense. It's the way I've handled all of my jobs, long ago when I had actual jobs and hadn't started TIG yet.
WE HAVE BEEN eating salads and chick peas and tofu and taking many vitamins (especially B12) and tomorrow, it will be a month since we've had any alcohol. It's a reset of sorts, and it's been good to get things back on track after so many hot summery day indulgences. Last Wednesday we went up to Scotland to visit P's 94-year-old grandmother and on the way home, stopped for dinner in a small town in Cumbria that we'd been to once before, but only briefly ...
OUR FACES are golden on noses and cheekbones, our shoulders bronzed from the past week of hot summery weather. Just as we promised, we spent every single day outdoors, working on camp chairs in new exotic locations throughout the week and ending with dinners on the back terrace on the weekend. Once, we even had a barbecue along the river, our first and possibly only of the summer?
TWO WEEKS AGO, when we were in Edinburgh meeting up with P's brother, I got terrible blisters on my feet wearing the new espadrilles I'd ordered a few days earlier. I was really surprised (and a little confused) because I've had many pairs of espadrilles before and none of them ever gave me any trouble. I thought that maybe I should have broken them in more before the trip, but then I read recently about how many people have been having similar foot trouble getting back into regular shoes again after three years of wearing slippers, trainers, and other comfortable footwear during lockdown ...
ABOUT A MONTH ago, I wrote about my many misadventures at the hair salon. That article resonated with many of you, so I thought that I'd share with you the funny habit I have of documenting the exact way my hair looks following these salon appointments.
YESTERDAY a huge delivery box arrived, filled with protein powder, organic raw cacao nibs, almond butter and other whole/health food items. It was good to be back on a regular workout routine after last weekend's excursion to Edinburgh (inadvertently) during the heatwave. It's nearly the end of July already and doesn't the summer seem to be flying by?
THESE LINKS COME to you late, as the short trip we made to Edinburgh to visit family ended up spiralling into chaos due to the heat wave over these past three days. We left for the city on Sunday morning and were only supposed to stay one night, but the temperature rose on Monday and created mayhem⏤schools were closed, shops were shut, people stayed home from work, and trains, tubes, and subways were cancelled.
HEARD ON A podcast that Napoleon hired someone to read books to him while doing mundane tasks like brushing his teeth. P listens to podcasts while shaving and cooking, and I've begun listening to an economics podcast while putting on makeup. I still read only books and my Kindle though⏤no audio books for me.
OUR COUNTRYSIDE village has these charming events and one of them, which happens every year, is a Midsummer's Evening and this year, it was held last Thursday, one day after the Summer Solstice. There were food trucks and folk dancers and face-painting. All the shops were opened late and there was live music (a cover band act).
Nearly two months ago, on April 26,2022, it was announced that Elon Musk was buying Twitter. Upon hearing the news, we immediately deleted the Belgrave Crescent Twitter account. Of course, the last time we’d tweeted anything there was in 2017 so it wasn’t being used anyway, but we thought it was a good time to finally make it official.
IT WAS ONE OF THOSE sipping cava in the sun kind of weekends, hazy and warm and filled with the quiet languidness and melancholy that comes with the knowledge that these days must be savoured before they fade away. I love summertime so much that I am already sad about the thought of it ending before it even begins.
REMEMBER, HE WORKS FOR YOU, he's not doing you a favour―he's offering a service. It's the night before my first hair appointment since lockdown began in March, and P is coaching me to speak up for myself at the salon tomorrow so that I get what I want. There is a reason why he feels the need to do this, as I have a long history of disastrous hair appointments ...
AFTER TRYING TWO sets of meals from a recipe box company over the past two weeks, this weekend we tried a new company that makes healthy meal kits and so far, the two meals we made were delicious! And, even more amazingly, P made the first and I made the second⏤and guess what? It actually turned out. Crazy right? In other news, finally had a chance to watch the 2014 film, The Theory of Everything ...
