Month: Nov 2023

193: the week in five pictures

A week spent whirling from place to place, so this week you get some nice pictures and not many words.

Lena’s wallpaper going up

Monday was spent mostly at Angel Central, where we’d been lent an empty shop for the week and had lots to do. Here’s our Artistic Director Olivia putting up vinyl wallpaper designed especially for National Illustration Day by Lena Yokoyama. This was a proper team activity, with various members of the team footing ladders, plastering ourselves against walls while trying to hold up rolls of vinyl, and trying to match up the overlap. Next year we’ll get the printers to install it.

Eton’s tasteful Christmas lights

My annual stint as an external adviser at Eton College Collections– a meeting followed by a nice dinner. Celeriac soup, something chickeny, poached pears with hazelnut meringue and a sour cherry sauce. I sat between the charming Vice-Provost and the curator of antiquities and was highly entertained. I stayed at London sister’s overnight and was shouted at by owls, who nest in the tree outside her flat.

Wonderful Olivia Armstrong wearing the coat of many pockets

Finally the new schools session inspired by Quentin Blake’s book Angelica Sprocket’s Pockets was launched, starring Olivia Armstrong as the storyteller who forgot her coat and had to borrow Angelica’s. Featuring stories of the New River and local history, it went down a storm with the schools.

In the evening my Beloved was watching a Liam Neeson film when I fell asleep on the sofa and he was still watching it when I woke up three hours later. According to him it was a completely different film, but it looked remarkably similar to me.

Angel Central with Lena Yokoyama’s amazing window displays

More of Lena’s work, this time boards for window displays for the BIG DAY on Friday. You can just see the Mayor of Islington through the door. We invited lots of people through the door to help us celebrate. We asked schools to share what they made, and on social media we asked people to share the illustrations that were important to them. At one point we were trending 6th on X/Twitter and had almost 800 uses of the #nationalillustrationday hashtag on Instagram. We made the Radio 4 Today show, who had a live illustrator and interviewed Lauren Child. Illustrations made in the shop were scanned and added to our online gallery.

My contribution to our Angel Central gallery

Here’s my contribution to the online gallery – a self-portrait! Saturday saw more than 300 people come through the doors, including a visit from Amanda and an old college housemate. Hopefully Sunday will be just as busy.

And now it’s time to crash…

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Walk the Lines – Mark Mason

Crazy Salad/Scribble Scribble – Nora Ephron (Audible)

The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction – Robert Goddard

The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov

192: because you interacted with content

Algorithms. eh? What’s that all about? I’m hoping someone out there knows the answer to this as I have to say they are leaving me somewhat perturbed.

Take Facebook ads, for example. You know, the things which – some days – are every other post on your feed and leave you wondering why you’re being targeted for all sorts of strange things that have no relevance to any of your interests or are so wildly off course that you’re tempted to actually click on them. Every so often I’ll be bombarded with promotions for self-published rubbish by ‘A N Other – Author’, or for sites posting celebrity rubbish or obvious clickbait. I go through the motions: hide ad, tell us why you hid this ad (usually I choose the ‘not relevant to me’ option as there isn’t an ‘it’s utter balls’ selection), hide all ads from this advertiser. Inevitably this makes no difference, and the same ad will reappear. So I click on the ‘why am I seeing this ad?’ option and it says ‘because you’re over 40’ or ‘because you interacted with content about history’. Well yes, I did interact with content about history – I like history – but the content you are attempting to show me is about Kardashians, or about people I don’t know who went to the doctor and found out something, or about this one trick that will help me keep my house permanently tidy/lose half my bodyweight/some other frankly unlikely outcome. Then it will give me the option to undo the ‘hide all content from this advertiser’ that I chose last time, in case I’ve suddenly seen the light: my god YES I AM over 40 and and I DO like history, why would I not want to see all this other stuff??? DROWN ME IN THOSE KARDASHIAN SHENANIGANS! I AM READY! *

Recently, however, I have am wondering whether the algorithm is trying to tell me something. As you may recall, I turned 50** earlier this year and I may have mentioned – once or twice – the joys of menopause and getting older. So, naturally, I have seen a fair number of ads for ‘the one menopause treatment you can’t live without’ and so on. This is fine and shows that sometimes the ads are at least vaguely relevant (I still hide them though, it’s the principle of the thing) but now I am starting to get a bit concerned. I have gone straight from ads for menopause solutions and to ads for funeral plans and the local burial ground, without passing through Saga holidays and the other fun things us quinquagenarians are supposed to be looking forward to now the kids are old enough to cook their own fish fingers and stuff. Should I be worried?

*I will never be ready. I cancelled my Grazia subscription when it became obsessed with Kardashians and Middletons.

**This whole 50 thing is a bit of a swizz, it seems – this year the government have moved the flu jab goalpost so I still have to pay. This seems unfair. Chiz chiz, as Molesworth would say.

Other things making me happy this week

  • Falling in love with London all over again. In an attempt to thwart the Central Line and achieve coffee with with Amanda I got an early train. Walking from Chancery Lane to Farringdon through the little Hatton Garden lanes, complete with sparkly Christmas lights and interesting old buildings before the sun was properly up (and before all the people arrived), reminded me how magical the city is. And we managed coffee.
  • Glow in the Angel yesterday – popping up at Islington Green with a star lantern activity designed by Jhinuk Sarkar and meeting lots of our future audience, followed by a drink with Amanda and Karen. There was a polar bear, a celebrity cat and lots of happy people.
  • Esme Young’s autobiography on Audible
  • The sweet elderly lady in Pret with her daughter and granddaughter yesterday – shed been watching me crochet little granny squares and when I turned one into a bauble she got very excited.
  • Celebrating neighbour Sue’s birthday with tea, cake, chatter and the Barbie movie
  • More crochet Christmas decorations – note to self, don’t leave the baubles out overnight as the cat steals them
  • Finishing the ‘Coat of Many Pockets’ for the new storytelling session inspired by Quentin Blake’s Angelica Sprocket’s Pockets – I can’t wait to see the sessions this week!

And now it’s time to get ready for a swim – later there will be a nap, as my Beloved’s (clearly haunted) toothbrush decided to turn itself on at 4.30am and would not turn off. I have been awake since.

Same time next week!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Walk the Lines â€“ Mark Mason

The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov

Reaper Man – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman (Audible)

Behind the Seams – Esme Young (Audible)

191: probably where you left it

So far today Thing 2 has asked me what the UK female equivalent size for a Chinese website’s men’s XXL, what it means when the website informs her that her order has been closed, and what;’s going to be for dinner in five hours time*. People keep asking me questions, in fact. Who didn’t put that dirty plate in the dishwasher? Where did this cup come from? Who left that here? Who does this toy/nail polish/empty wrapper belong to? What’s for pudding? How long till dinner? Is my grey hoodie washed yet? Where are my trousers? Have you got the stuff for my food tech lesson? Where is my bus?

I do not know the answers to many of these questions. Many are, in fact, rhetorical: my Beloved knows who left the plates there as that child has just left the room. We all know that dishwashers have been rendered invisible to teenagers, even when they have to walk past them to put the plate on the side (never the sink). It’s easy to see who the nail polish belongs to: it’s the child who has just sat next to you for two hours doing her nails.

Some of the questions are answerable only with other questions: did you put it in the laundry basket? Did you tell me about the food tech lesson? Have you checked the bus app? Where did you leave them?

Even now, mere seconds after my Beloved has walked through the front door, there comes a cry of ‘who’s left pasta on?’

Mostly I ignore them, as they do not require an answer, and shrieking ‘I DON’T CARE’, however tempting it might be, is not conducive to a peaceful existence. But it is true. I do not care. If the plate is bugging you that much, put it in the dishwasher or take it up with the offspring (there are three to choose from) who left it there. If you require something washed, it’s your responsibility to make sure it’s in the laundry basket, as I have enough washing to do without searching the house for more. Your trousers are almost certainly where you took them off, ditto your shoes, tie and blazer.

Here endeth the lesson. Now stop asking me stupid questions.

*cottage pie with cheesy mash, as it happens.

You may surmise from the above that my normally sunny outlook on life has been sorely tested this week by having to deal with:

  • Printers which suddenly take against a document and will not print it. Perhaps it was the document, as I tried two computers and three printers before finally succeeding)
  • Caffe Nero’s so-called ‘luxury’ hot chocolate (bring back the Milano, please)
  • editing Zoom recordings (I can’t. I hope someone else can.)
  • the Central Line, which has contrived to thwart my social life (OK, a coffee date with my bestie, but it counts, right?)
  • Having to prove my human status repeatedly to various websites.
  • The ironing, though I admit that that’s probably my own fault for leaving it to pile up for several weeks.
  • Waking up at 4am every day thinking about all the things on my to-do list (lack of sleep may be adversely affecting my sunny disposition).

Not all my week was bad-tempered, obviously. Things making me happy this week include:

  • The return of Christmas sandwiches to the supermarket meal deal
  • Binging The Goldbergs on E4
  • A very chilly swim at 6 degrees this morning
  • A very productive jewellery making day

And now I am going for a nap.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Attack and Decay – Andrew Cartmel (Audible)

Mort/Reaper Man – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

The Saki Megapack

Underground Overground – Andrew Martin

Walk the Lines – Mark Mason

The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov

190: remind me whose side we’re on again?

I must first start with an apology – it turns out I lied to you last week and I was not, in fact, refreshed and raring to go but rather coming down with a horrible cold which quite ruined the early half of the week. It was one of those colds where you can’t think straight, everything feels sort of achy and even your hair hurts. Not the best frame of mind for writing budget submissions, I think you’ll agree. My mind was so fuzzy that when I did a covid test in the office on Tuesday morning and the ‘C’ line came up, I freaked out, grabbed a mask and would have shot out of the door in the direction of home if my less-germy colleague hadn’t reminded me that the ‘C’ was for control and not Covid, and that I needed two lines for a positive test.

Still, by Wednesday I was almost human again which was just as well, as we launched our schools events for National Illustration Day with a CPD led by two of our illustrator-educators (Lily and Toya). They demonstrated the activities available in the free schools resources and some of the participants shared their work around celebrations: all the different things we celebrate that bring us together, human moments of contact and joy, as well as celebrating illustration itself. Now we’re planning the day itself – 24 November, for anyone who’d like to get involved. We have had some discussions this week about whether it’s appropriate to be celebrating anything, given what’s going on in the world, but our focus for schools was always on celebrating the fact that we are all different but celebrations bring us together…

…which, if I do say so myself, is a brilliant segue into Guy Fawkes Night and all its attendant celebrations: bonfires and fireworks and sparklers and lights in the darkness and things. Apparently we’re supposed to be celebrating the fact that Parliament and the King weren’t blown up. Personally, given the political omnishambles (I love this word) of the past fifteen years or so, I have developed more and more sympathy for Mr F and his co-conspirators. These days they may of course have contented themselves with a Change.org petition or a nice middle-class march from Hyde Park to Westminster with accompanying banners and memorable chants, but these probably won’t be being marked four centuries later with mass gatherings in muddy fields.

I love the whole family ritual of Bonfire Night, right down to that muddy field. Last night I volunteered to help at the local school and Scout group’s display, and ended up checking tickets on the gates. Seeing all the families arrive with the kids in snowsuits and earmuffs and wellies and bobble hats, all excited about the evening ahead, was lovely. People were coming through and telling us that this was where they’d been to school and it was the first time they’d been back in years, some of the teachers were there with their families, teenage couples were there on dates, multigenerational groups were out in force lugging grannies and grandads along for the fun. We were in competition with another, bigger display at the airfield, run by the local Round Table, so it was gratifying to see so many people.

The display was excellent and went on for ages with a satisfying mix of things that went bang and wheeeeee and fffzzzzz and pew and pop, making gorgeous showers of lights and sparks and causing ooohs and aahs from the crowd. Thing 2 (responsible for the videos above) was with her best friend, and they had a great time getting their shoes muddy. I walked home with them afterwards, with the pops and bangs of the airfield display and smaller garden versions echoing round the village. I shall look forward to next year!

Other things making me happy this week:

  • Asda only giving me 4 substitutions and 7 things they couldn’t provide – still double figures but at least they found some potatoes this time
  • A mooch round the charity shops of Bishops Stortford with my Beloved and Thing 2
  • A really interesting meeting at New River Head on Friday afternoon with two brick experts who work in historic building restoration and conservation
  • Not having to claim back all my tube journeys because of delays on the Central Line
  • Organising the office Secret Santa
This week’s Christmas decoration test

And that is it for me for another week – I have a day planned of crafting for Christmas markets (I’ll be at Epping Christmas Market on 2 December and Maple Walk School on 3 December), and still have a to-do list as I keep finding things I need to make!

Same time next week,

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Flip Back/Low Action/Attack and Decay – Andrew Cartmel (Audible)

Underground Overground – Andrew Martin

The Saki Megapack