268: the Father Ted conundrum

I’ve had a couple of conversations this week at work about focusing so much on the small stuff that the far away stuff is getting away from us. The small stuff (well, a monumental horse, if you can consider that small) is what’s keeping me awake at night these days, and then while I’m worrying about the horse in the wee small hours I remember all the other stuff I have to do that isn’t getting done because of the horse and then rooooouuuunnnnnd we go again. The poor horses in the fields on my walking route are probably wondering why I am cursing them and glaring as I walk past. They haven’t done anything apart from look like horses, obviously, but I’m not being selective with my equine animosity right now.

Part of this is trying to be several people all at once. Thank heavens for the return of my Community Partnerships Producer who is looking rested after a few weeks in Italy with her family, or at least she did until she walked into my personal maelstrom. She works two days a week with us, so in a few weeks we’ll be looking for the other half of her role but right now I am that other half and summer is always an intense period for community work. We’re building our centre with a desire to be a place where the community feels at home, and unlike at Young V&A we don’t have a 150 year history in the borough so we need to set out our stall now, letting people know we’re coming and that we want this to be a place for them. This means popping up at the summer festivals and chatting to people. This is an excellent part of my job, but then I have to find other people to do it with me and for some reason not everyone wants to work weekends. The horse project is also a community thing, but it’s proving a little tricky to recruit participants.

I had a really invigorating meeting with one of the festival organisers from the council on Thursday – one of those amazing conversations where ideas bounce off each other and things come together. It spun on into the next meeting, with a small crossover where I introduced the illustrator to the producer and things blossomed. Thursday, in fact, was all about meetings. The Radical Rest session I listened to while I was working on things that couldn’t wait (Sorry Kate, I know I missed the point!) was, ironically, about burnout in the cultural sector and there have been moments in the last couple of weeks where I’ve been ticking off a lot of the symptoms.

Schools remain within my remit: this week a school approached me about a CPD, which they initially wanted in September but then moved to July. Because all our sessions are tailored to the needs of each school, I have to meet with the school to work out what they want, reach out to the fabulous freelance illustrators who actually deliver the sessions, and do the admin around it. Schools session bookings have been honed over the years – from working closely with the bookings teams at London Museum through many years, taking bookings myself rather than remaining at arm’s length so I understand what needs to happen. There’s still admin around this, of course: sending invoice requests and confirmations, making sure the illustrator is in place and has all the materials they need.

Developing and piloting new sessions is on the radar: a science x history x illustration session which we need to deliver to six schools in the next term. Working with the lead facilitator to identify dates, locating a second facilitator and getting their dates, reaching out to schools who you’d think would like free sessions on local history but who actually take emails, a phone call to make sure they’ve got the email, resending the email as they probably just deleted it the first time, and then checking back up later to organise a conversation where I tell the teachers all the things they’d know if they’d just read the damn email in the first place. Developing the resources that support the session; making sure the materials are ready, doing the schools bookings admin, reporting to the funders, attending the sessions, evaluating the sessions. We’ll be recruiting someone for this soon as well, and they’ll be working on family programmes for when we open.

With my Welcome and Participation Lead head on, I’ve been working on access. Organising the first meeting of the Access Panel – booking rooms; booking BSL interpreters and audio describers; reading, watching and listening to expressions of interest; meeting with the consultant. I’ve never been so interested in toilet door fittings and it’s now perfectly normal behaviour to ask friends to take photos of these if they go anywhere new. Sorry Amanda….you need to know it’s not just me though…

I’m thinking about tech and furniture for the learning spaces, about interactivity for the site as a whole, about outside furniture and play and illustration opportunities, about how people are welcomed, about creative programmes for when we open, about how we make links with teachers and other cultural organisations along the New River to support CPD for our key boroughs when we open, about how I can embed illustration in learning throughout the school system, about how we market our schools offer more locally, about how we how and when we bring on our volunteers, about how we diversify our front of house, who the young people will be for our final project in the autumn term. My head can’t contain all the things so despite my highly organised to-do list I feel like I am juggling five oranges and then someone throws me a chainsaw.

Also in my head I know this is a pinch point and things will even out again….but I’M A BIT STRESSED RIGHT NOW. I’m not very good at admitting when I’m at my wits end when I’m at work as I try to be quite positive – all the while knowing that toxic positivity is a bad thing, but also knowing that the experiences in my last job where any negativity got you burned have left me somewhat scarred. It’s a conundrum indeed.

Things making me happy this week

A gorgeous swim with Jill on Saturday morning.
A ramble through new footpaths on Sunday last week, via the fields to Epping Upland and back round to Epping – saw my first hares for a while which made me happy.
An early morning Tuesday ramble where I shared a field with a huge herd of deer
A chaotic afternoon for GT2’s 2nd birthday last Sunday.
Two thirds of the sea creatures done: still to go are three crabs, three turtles, one starfish and one jellyfish. These are going to live at the British Library which I am pretty flipping excited about, I can tell you. I feel more neon colours coming on, especially for the jellyfish.
Visiting the site for the first time in a couple of months – it’s all coming together!

Right, I’m off for a Sunday walk! Here’s to another bank holiday…

Kirsty

What I’ve been reading:

Demons of Good and Evil – Kim Harrison

Interesting Times – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

The Glass Room – Ann Cleeves

267: stop the week I want to get off

Last week’s paean to four-day weeks (or three, at least) has been overtaken by the experience of this week’s four-day week which didn’t go nearly as well. Not for any specific reason, but…

…on Tuesday I took Lulu to the vets for her annual inspection – this minimises the actual experience of my Beloved and I acting in a pincer movement to wrestle her into the cat carrier, me forcibly lifting her out again as she clings to the sides like the facehugging xenomorph from Alien so she can be weighed and checked over, and watching her slinking back in in an attempt to make herself invisible afterwards. I popped to the library to pick up my holds (another recommendation from a colleague and a couple of Ann Cleeves), came home, set up my table, logged in…..and realised I was supposed to be in the office as we were interviewing in the afternoon. Cue throwing tidy clothes and my face on, racing for the bus and heading for the office. The Central Line was misbehaving with delays on both journeys. On the way home I had to get rescued from South Woodford by my Beloved as there were no trains and luckily he wasn’t far away.

The rest of the week continued to fluster me: never quite working out what day it was, not being able to finish one thing before starting the next. Part of it is the continued joy of menopausal brain fog, part of it is just trying to do too much at once on too many different things (but they all need doing!). Whatever it is, this week wasn’t working for me. I did get to meet some interesting interview candidates – I like interviewing – and had coffee with Amanda on Thursday.

Friday was great, on the other hand. As my communities colleague was off on her holidays I got to sit in on the first session of our new co-creation project. This is the third project of four before we open the Centre next year, and this one is in partnership with Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants and the artist MURUGIAH. These are a series of projects exploring heritage and what it means to people. MURUGIAH grew up in South Wales (like me!) with Sri Lankan parents (not like me!), and our participants yesterday came from the Ukraine, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco and Turkey. Their co-ordinator is Polish/British so we had a broad set of heritages to draw on. MURUGIAH’s work builds worlds of colour and shape, and always reminds me of the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.

We thought about the things that make us ‘us’ – memories, language, family, food, music, the journeys we have made, the things that have happened to us. One of the things that I love about these projects is sitting with the group, working alongside them as they’re drawing their stories. Done, from Turkey, drew her childhood garden and told me about climbing the mulberry tree to pick the fruits from the top as she sat in the branches. She drew baskets of cherries, birds coming the eat the mulberries – she liked the sour ones rather than the sweet – and the bees who’d come to the flowers. There was a green house with a red roof, and she missed the garden when they moved to the city. The Ukrainian pair drew big blowsy poppies and sunflowers, flower headdresses framing blue sky and golden wheatfields, rivers – there are always rivers, they said – and a soldier standing to attention. Herve, from Cameroon, drew flags and a monument; our Congolese participant shared her memories of beach parties where they’d dance and catch tilapia to eat cooked in banana leaf parcels, and the colourful clothes they wear. Our Moroccan lady drew things from her country and their London equivalents – taxis, trains and buses, food, flags and more. It started quietly and as they started to draw the stories came out, and our two hours flew by – I’m not usually in on Fridays but I’d quite like to drop in on these sessions. Regular readers will remember previous experiences working with refugees and asylum seekers have made a massive impact on me (and also that this is why I am doing the Cardiff Half Marathon in October for the Choose Love charity, and any pennies you can spare towards my target are much appreciated! I have £170 to go….).

I also got to catch up briefly with Jhinuk Sarkar, another of our community illustrators who is delivering a co-creation project at Bethany House – this is a supported housing project for women from Islington experiencing homelessness/houselessness for a wide variety of reasons. They’re making bunting and flags and I can’t wait to see them – enough to stretch from Bethany House to the Centre is the ambition!

Other things making me happy this week

An Easter Monday swim with Jill and Rachel followed by simnel cake and hot chocolate
More Northern Exposure – we’re up to Season 3 now and I can’t find my Season 4 box set anywhere
Crocheted jellyfish. Curiously satisfying to make with their curly tentacles! I like the neon green one – the photo doesn’t do it justice!
Running into TT2 with GT2 at the station on Wednesday – how is he two already? It’s his party today and Thing 2 has created a gorgeous birthday cake.
Seeing the trampoline populated by bouncing kids – next door’s small people like to come and run round our garden and see what my Beloved is up to, as well as say hi to the cats
A ten mile ramble through fields on Saturday in a wide loop around Toot Hill, Stanford Rivers and Tawney Common. Not too warm, with a lot of geese around for some reason, a muntjac, a bouncy deer (without benefit of trampoline) and a lot of consulting of my OS map.
Being talked into signing up for another half marathon next month – it took Tan all of five minutes to convince me,

That’s all, folks! Have a good week.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Makioka Sisters – Tanizaki

The Trouble with the Cursed/Demons of Good and Evil – Kim Harrison

A Letter to the Luminous Deep – Sylvie Cathrall

Talismans, Teacups and Trysts – K Starling

The Last Continent – Terry Pratchett

266: Ferrero Rocher? Don’t mind if I do.

A three day week is an excellent thing, affording some solid naps and some good reading time – although my reading over the week has degenerated from some quite good crime novels to some absolutely rubbishy magical romances, which I have thoroughly enjoyed in a frothy sort of way. I use Kindle Unlimited and also subscribe to BookBub which sends me a daily email with lots of 99p offers, where many of these things pop up. Fairies, dragons, dashing heroes who start off extremely bad-tempered and then become reluctantly heroic. Feisty heroines. Bridgerton with mythical beasties. Jane Austen with jinxes. Alliterative titles. That sort of thing.

This is whole-box-of-Ferrero-Rocher-to-yourself sort of reading, if you know what I mean. Indulgent. Nothing that requires any brain power at all. On the other hand, I’ve also been reading a Japanese classic recommended by a colleague, set in Osaka just before the Second World War which focuses on manners, Japanese societal expectations of women, and doesn’t have cats or books in. It’s not frothy at all, and probably bears more resemblance to Austen in the way characters and society are drawn than any of the Regency-set froth I’ve been reading. One of my VI form teachers, Mr Bradley, introduced us to Austen by declaring that he’d have married her.

One of my cousins asked a few weeks ago whether he was the only person in the family who read more than one book at once, and the answer was a fairly unanimous no, we’re all at it. I always have an upstairs book, a portable book and a downstairs book on the go and quite often one I’m dipping in and out of – short stories or poetry, for example. Sometimes I’ll put a book down and circle back to it, especially if its one that takes thinking about. But one book at a time is never enough.

Other things making me happy this week

A family outing to Audley End. Pretty spring flowers, a walled garden, a large screw embedded in the tyre – the car jinx strikes again. Last time the suspension went.
Making my annual Simnel cake. I could make them more often, but I don’t.
Finishing the first five of the sea creature commission. I like this turtle best so far.
Being kidnapped by Miriam and Jill on Saturday afternoon – they were a bottle of prosecco down, I stuck to tea.
An excellent walk to Ongar this morning. I saw a large stag, a sparrowhawk and some baby bunnies – went to Sainsburys and got the bus home with tomorrow’s roast!
Binging a series called North of North which we laughed like drains at – and which led to Northern Exposure nostalgia so now I’m watching that and remembering how excellent it was (especially Chris in the Morning). I’d really like to go to Alaska. I may have to reread all the Kate Shugak novels (which all seem to have arrived on Kindle Unlimited if you haven’t read them).

Today we’re being descended on by the TTs and the GTs for an egg hunt in the back garden, which will be lots of chaotic, sugar-fuelled fun.

Another four day week to come!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Dark Wives – Ann Cleeves

Underscore – Andrew Cartmel

The Makioka Sisters – Tanizaki

Spells, Strings and Forgotten Things – Breanne Randall

The Geographer’s Map to Romance – India Holton

Talismans, Teacups and Trysts – K. Starling

Sourcery/The Lost Continent – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

265: I’ve started…Finished? Not so much.

This week I was going to write about the V&A floral embroidery course with Lora Avedian that Heather and I signed up for on Tuesday, where we’d learn all about couching with ribbon and things. Due to technical issues at their end they ended up turning off the live session and sending out the recording instead which I haven’t watched yet.

Then I was going to write about the quilted overcoat I started making – the Ara jacket by Daisy Chain Patterns. I taped the pattern together and cut out the fabric but then encountered some technical issues at my end* so didn’t finish that either. It’s being made from a duvet cover (of course) and I can’t decide which side I like best for the outside. It’s also got four – FOUR! – pockets.

Other things I haven’t finished this include a brilliant plan for getting illustration into schools; most of the coffees I’ve made in the office; the cucumber I definitely meant to add to my sandwiches so as not to waste it. There were excellent – though not technical – reasons for not finishing all these things, mostly to do with the community programme and a lot of meetings, but it means my to-do list has not shrunk in any way.

Things I did finish: several books, a lot of Thing 2’s excellent hot cross buns, and this Bananasaurus which is definitely better viewed side on. Fortunately its for a soon-to-be-two-year-old….

*I needed a nap.

Things making me happy this week

A team outing to Wilton’s Music Hall for a tour by our architects, who did the restoration there and also at Hackney Empire.
An early morning swim with Jill and a lot of coots, talking about Tove Jansson with people who love my Moomin tattoo.
Finding the latest Vera Stanhope novel right next to the return bin at the library, just as I needed a new book to read (no, really, I did)
Feeling like a celebrity on a visit to Young V&A
Getting started on a whole rockpool’s worth of sea creatures for the British Library
Meeting an adorable corgi puppy called Leon at the lake. No idea what his owner was called.

This week we’re having a family day out on Monday, because apparently weekends are too peopley (Easter holidays are going to come as a shock to my Beloved, I can see) and I will be attempting to finish things. Possibly.

Have a good week!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Cold Earth/Wild Fire/The Long Call/Silent Voices/The Dark Wives – Ann Cleeves

Moving Pictures/Sourcery – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

262: personality goes a long way*

*13.1 miles, in fact.

This week – before I have the chance to change my mind after Saturday’s 25k Queen of the Suburbs Ultra – I have signed up for the Cardiff Half Marathon in October and am considering Ealing but that’s got a three hour cutoff time so I’d need to speed up a bit. Cardiff is four which is very doable. I’d rather run both but my knees have other ideas.

I am basically a lazy person. I like sitting down and reading and crocheting and naps and drinking coffee. So why, you might ask, am I signing up for very long ~~walks~~ lurches? Well, it’s because I am basically lazy, in fact. I know that if I’m going to do any exercise I need a reason, and ‘keeping fit’ just isn’t enough of a reason to get me out further than 5k. So I’m basically lazy but also quite stubborn and competitive, it turns out. It’s a difficult blend of personality traits at times like this, you know, but I have made my peace with it and signing up to stuff is like surrendering to my inner nag. I was all “FINE, but I WON’T ENJOY IT*”.

General entry to Cardiff was sold out in a matter of seconds, so I went down the charity place option and have decided to raise money for Choose Love, who work with displaced communities to provide on-the-ground emergency aid and support where it’s needed.

Regular readers will know that over the past few years I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and spend time with refugees and asylum seekers in East London and Essex, engaging with them through play in schools and family centres; trying to bring a bit of normality and joy into lives that they never planned and which they are living with dignity and more grace than I suspect I could muster in the same situation.

The Migration Museum’s 2016 exhibition Call Me By My Name, about the Jungle in Calais, has also stayed with me: it’s not often an exhibition moves me to tears. Stories about the people TT1 works with at Epping Forest Foodbank, the casual neglect, racism and dehumanisation families seeking safety in the UK encounter make me wonder about the lack of humanity some people display. Every time we’ve turned on the news for the past many years we’ve heard about Gaza, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan and so on.

When I first started teaching in London we had groups of children from Angola in our classes – untangling the relationships between the adults and the children was sobering. Many weren’t related at all. Village adults – often women – had been entrusted with the lives of groups of children and sent to London in the hope that the parents would escape and join them at some point. I don’t know if they ever did. Choose Love seemed like a natural choice for me to exercise on behalf of: we all need love, after all.

I haven’t set my fundraising page up yet as the website defeated me, but rest assured I’ll be asking for support – look, think of it as paying someone else to exercise so you don’t have to, and you can stay warm and safe in the knowledge that someone, somewhere, will be getting the help they so desperately need.

*Oh OK then, FINE, yes I will.

Things making me happy this week

Tan reminding me on Friday that the 25k was on Saturday not Sunday – in the nick of time, clearly!
Last Sunday’s lovely sunshiney training walk – I got befuddled and didn’t end up where I thought I would. No sense of direction, that’s my problem. Luckily the 25k was way marked with bright pink ribbon.
Popping in to the library on Thursday afternoon and seeing the Knit and Natter group still going after 15 years – my late MIL was one of the founder members, so it’s good to see it going strong.
My finished crochet cardigan it’s basically two giant granny hexagons stitched together and I LOVE it. Try this pattern for a similar one – mine is in a DK yarn so has more rounds. I was using the Attic 24 Hydrangea blanket colours, and I made the sleeves more dramatic.
Thing 3’s parents’ evening. His handwriting continues to be atrocious but other than that he is, apparently, a joy to have around.
Finishing Saturday’s event 16 minutes faster than I’d planned for – my chip time was 4 hrs 9, my Strava time was just under 3 hrs 59. I’ll take that as a win. And I made it indoors before the huge thunderstorm landed. I did not appreciate the really big hill at 19k or the smaller one at 23k.

Today I am off to the Stitch Festival at the Business Design Centre in Islington with Heather, my crafty partner in crime, where I will NOT spend any money. No.

That’s it for the week! Same time next Sunday then…

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading

The Heron’s Cry/The Rising Tide/Telling Tales – Ann Cleeves

Going Postal/Making Money/Raising Steam – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

The Trouble With The Cursed – Kim Harrison

261: in an unusual move…

A few months back my friend Jill, who knows I love a good crime novel, handed over a book called The Raging Storm and told me I’d really enjoy it. I was aware of the author, Ann Cleeves, as I spend a lot of time perusing the crime section in libraries and charity shops, but for some reason I hadn’t read any. This one, one of the ‘Two Rivers’ series which focus on Detective Matthew Venn, sat on the TBR pile for a while until I was in the mood for something new.

The story is set in a small Cornish fishing village, close to where the detective was brought up in a very strict religious sect. A local celebrity is found horribly murdered in a storm, and then another body follows on the same beach. Venn, with the assistance of his colleagues, are tasked with finding the culprit. For the first few days this was my upstairs book (as opposed to my downstairs book or my portable book), and then I was hooked and it got carried around with me – I didn’t work out the murderer until the reveal. By about half way through I’d ordered several more from the library, was rummaging in the charity shops and checking out the Kindle deals.

The first book in this series was filmed as The Long Call, a four parter available on ITVx, and I watched it in one sitting yesterday afternoon. We’ve also been binging one of her other series, Shetland (BBC iPlayer) in the evenings. I am heavily invested in this now, not least because the main character – Detective Jimmy Perez – is played by Douglas Henshall.

I have had a bit of a soft spot for Mr Henshall since Primeval, where he negotiated anomalies and prehistoric creatures in very practical fashion. If I was in danger of finding myself threatened by dinosaurs I could think of no one I’d rather wrestle them with, quite honestly.

However, as we’ve progressed through the series I have become increasingly interested in how cuddly he looks in his trademark crewneck jumpers and I am having worrying Mrs. Doyle-esque thoughts – as in the Father Ted episode Night of the Nearly Dead. I’ve always thought of myself as more of a Father Dougal so this is a concerning progression. In this episode Mrs Doyle (the brilliant Pauline McLynn) wins a poetry competition where the prize is a visit from daytime TV host Eoin McLove (Patrick McDonnell). McLove, a Daniel O’Donnell caricature, is beloved of old ladies across Ireland and known for his love of jumpers and cake.

Rest assured I will not be writing odes to Mr Henshall’s knitwear or, indeed, baking a cake. However, this is not the normal progress of my occasional celebrity crushes – I have never been tempted to send John Cusack lists of my top five break-up songs, for example, or to crochet guitar cosies for Mr Springsteen. Also, I have never had a favourite jumper in a TV series before (it’s the dark green one, if you’re interested). Not even referring to it as CSI: Balamory is helping.

I think I may need to go and watch videos of Robert Plant circa 1976 until I feel better. Or plan a trip to Lerwick.

Other things making me happy this week

A midweek visit to The Goldsmiths Centre to see their Interwoven: Jewellery Meets Textiles exhibition. They always have lovely shows on and there’s an excellent cafe attached.
Excellent progress on the Hexie Cardigan while watching Shetland. (I can’t see Detective Perez in this one.). This is such a relaxing project.
Starting on the cream granny squares for my portable project
A five-mile walk with Thing 2 this morning, at least until she started complaining about the wind, the stitch, the uphills, the drawstrings on her jumper…
The one cat (Teddy) that just walks into the cat carrier and sits down, without requiring a pincer movement and a pre-planned strategy (Lulu) or a short wrestling match (Bailey)
Remembering the genius of Terry Pratchett

Today I have a 15km walk planned, in preparation for the big day next Sunday. Hopefully the weather will behave!

Have a good week, everyone! All crime novel recommendations accepted, as long as they’re not written in the first person.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading

Raven Black/The Crow Trap – Ann Cleeves

The Trouble With The Cursed – Kim Harrison

The Truth/Going Postal – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

260: where are we now?

Well, maths-wise (if not date-wise) this post marks five years since I started rambling at you all about whatever I was up to – the header image is from March 2020.

My first post was written as we were heading into the original lockdown and I introduced the people and felines who live in the house. It was never intended to be a lockdown diary – I originally registered the domain name as a way to document the reinvention process at Young V&A that I was working on. And then I just carried on as I was enjoying myself. I’m now on a different reinvention project, which is physically on a much smaller scale, but feels like we’d doing something important as there isn’t anywhere in the UK at the moment dedicated to illustration in all its variety.

The family has pretty much reinvented itself too: the cats are the same ones (just older and grumpier) but we’ve added another three grandsons and one blended granddaughter to the mix. The things were 13, 11 and 9 when I started – two in primary school and one in secondary, and now they’re 18, 16 and 14 and one is prepping to leave college for university, one is leaving school for college and one is picking his GCSE options and calling everyone ‘Bruv’.

I’ve probably crocheted my way through several marathons’ worth of yarn, and I still haven’t finished the Seurat cross stitch I was working on (really must pick that up again). I’ve tried out many new crafts, for which I don’t have nearly enough time, and made a whole lot of clothes and quilts. I’ve written 258,827 words (just under 1000 a week on average), which is quite a lot really. 2023 was the year I wrote the fewest words, but I did spend the first six months of that year training for a couple of ultras and so I walked a lot of miles instead. I think that’s an excellent excuse – it was certainly a memorable 50th year, I spent much time with family in the process and we raised money for an excellent cause. I’d quite like to do it again… I’ve read an enormous number of books, some of them several times – I’m looking at you, Pratchett, Aaronovitch and co – occasionally I think I should do what my sister does and just make one big list and if I could work out how to do pages on this thing as well as posts I might.

Most of the last 260 posts have been cheerful moments, but at times I’ve been frustrated and angry at things like sexual harassment, inane political decisions, school dinners, and the marginalisation of arts and craft. I’ve been honest and open about mental health and parenting and navigating these things with the added joy of peri- and menopause. It’s nice to have a little corner of the internet of my own, mostly, and I enjoy recording my week and being able to frame what I’m thinking. Other people reading it is a bonus….so thank you to everyone who comes along for the ride. And to my Dad, who binges once a month. (Hello Dad). Not so much to my Beloved who says if there’s anything he needs to know I can just tell him about it.

I’ve also liked reflecting on all the things that make me happy each week so without further ado it’s…

Things making me happy this week

Taking part in a ‘Today at Apple’ session where we got to use the Apple Pencil Pro to do drawing and things. I went along with my very talented colleague Silvie, who knows which end of an iPad is which. I’d like to live in the Apple Store, they’re always so calm. I’m also quite tempted by an iPad but that’s because I have a butterfly brain.
The weather! Thing 2 and I had a sundown walk on Monday and she was disturbed by the fact that everyone was smiling and saying hello – that’s the effect of the sunshine!
Not going to work in the dark in the morning.
Finishing the jumper I’ve been making, modelled beautifully by Thing 2, and starting a hexie cardi with the frogged Hydrangea blanket
Getting a book in the post – hurray for magazine competitions!
Not BlueSky, who suspended me for activity breaking their community guidelines – which confused me as I’d only had the account for three days, had followed one person and posted once.

Today I am off for a long solo walk, probably through the Forest as despite the sunshine off-road is still a swamp. This is annoying as there are many footpaths I have yet to explore.

Same time next week!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading

The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal – Jodi Taylor

The Raging Storm – Anne Cleeves

Snuff/The Truth – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

The Trouble with the Cursed – Kim Harrison

257: time flies when you’re being mum

The last couple of months have been bringing home to me how fast the Things are growing up, not just physically (as I crane my neck to look up at them) but in what they are up to. I think I have been deep in denial that Thing 1 is actually planning to leave home in just a couple of short months, to head off to university to do Early Childhood Studies. Thing 2 is revising hard for her GCSEs and had an interview for a professional cookery course at a local college this week. Thing 3 is making his GCSE choices and wanting to join gyms and things.

It does make me feel a bit wistful looking up at them all, especially when the digital photo frames show ‘on this day’ pictures of when they were small: using their dad as a climbing frame, charging off into their first deep snow in the local park, picking me bunches of bright dandelions on the way to the shops, ‘gumping in muddy buddles’ in their ladybird wellies, being hopelessly overexcited at a toy train, being the Littlest Gruff on daddy’s lap at storytime. I still have their first shoes and their first tiny Welsh rugby shirts stashed in my wardrobe, of course, and locks of hair from their first haircuts*. There are certain photos which make my heart melt every time they pop up.

Now I look at Thing 3’s shoes (size 12!) and Thing 1’s varying hair colours. Thing 2 still picks flowers but is now more likely to press them and turn them into art than clutch them all around the town. It used to take ages to get anywhere as she was so engrossed in looking at all the small things. Thing 3 used to make us stop at every lamp post where he’d say ‘that sign means lightning! If there is lightning you must not go in the garden because you will DIE’. It took a while to get to nursery. Thing 1 used to talk to the meerkats that lived in Daddy’s shoes, which was a bit disconcerting but there you are. Who were we to say that there weren’t meerkats in his trainers? Imagination is one of the best things about being a small person, building the world the way you want it – I think if they get to exercise it when they’re small it’s good practice for improving the world when they’re older. I think we’re going to need the imagineers in the next couple of years.

Obviously I know in my head that kids are supposed to grow up (I plan on trying it some time myself) and leave home and be their own people and all that sort of caper, but it seems to have come round terribly quickly and without much consultation. I’m not sure I like it but apparently it’s not up to me….

*Thing 2 is reading over my shoulder as she revises and just said ‘urrgghhh, you kept our hair?’ She’ll learn.

Things making me happy this week

Last week’s post being flagged as not meeting some tech corporation’s community standards – AHAHAHA. Like Captain Vimes says, if you’re annoying the right people you’re doing things properly.
The V&A Academy’s online ‘In Practice’ series – last Monday I did Ekta Kaul’s Stitching Nature session and had an enjoyable evening doing embroidery..
Meeting lots of lovely ex-colleagues from Young V&A as I was in Bethnal Green for a meeting.
Turning a Vicki Brown Designs yarn advent sock yarn set into piles of squishy granny squares. Eleven colours down, 23 to go. She designs gorgeous sock patterns too. Sock yarns are too nice to go inside shoes though.
Making some progress on last year’s temperature tracker which I hadn’t touched since August as I put it down in favour of Christmas crochet. Only four months to go…
The prospect of a lot of baguettes, canalside walks and a week off.

What I’ve been reading:

Million Dollar Demon – Kim Harrison

The Fifth Element/Night Watch – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

Death of a Lesser God– Vaseem Khan

256: pass me a cushion please

Quite a lot of this week has been spent staring into the Zoomiverse (or the Teamsiverse) on an interesting variety of webinars covering everything from young people’s engagement in museums to drawing inspiration from Zandra Rhodes’ digital collections. I found out about baby art sessions from people in Scotland, working with refugees and asylum seekers from people in Wales and bringing the community in from someone in Margate. And all from the relative comfort of my various desks. I had a chat with someone in Brighton about access and another about more general things with someone in Woking, introduced by a lovely friend that I first met online via Twitter. I am not sure any more that meeting someone on Twitter is a good idea but it’s true that technology can bring people together – and bring the world closer.

‘Online’ is a weird and saddening place to be at the moment. My feeds, usually an echo chamber of cats, capybaras, yarn and textile makers and people I like in real life, are filled with flabbergasted ‘look what they’ve done now’ news from over the pond. I think the general vibe is similar to when you watch those stupid people trampolining on Lego or staple-gunning sensitive bits of their anatomy for the shock value, except that this is a man and his cronies who are doing serious damage to the people around them. The first female head of a branch of the military – fired and evicted from her home with three hours notice for allegedly following EDI policies too zealously. Blaming EDI hires for a plane crash while the river was still being searched for fatalities. Pardoning violent, racist rioters. Rolling back the rights of trans people. Ending birthright citizenship, blocking refugees, going after Alaskan oil, acting to reverse climate change action. Moving to change the constitution so he can run for a third term. My lovely American friends (none of whom voted for him) are in despair, and that’s not too strong a word.

I read one piece this week where white women who’d voted for him were shocked that the anti-EDI orders were applying to them too. What did they expect was going to happen? They’d be immune because they’d supported him? To him they are nobodies. He’s been handed the power now, so he no longer has to even pretend to care – not that he ever bothered with that. His son posted (rapidly-deleted) threats that anyone standing in the way of the administration would be rolled over by the MAGA machine. The world feels like the first twenty minutes of a post-apocalyptic blockbuster, except that it’s real. And if this is the stuff he’s doing above-board, what’s he doing that can’t be seen?

He’s not our president but the impact of his actions is felt across the world, and the power he’s handing to his megalomaniac cronies who now feel entitled to bring their brand of power-hungry aggression to Europe is concerning. When the French president feels it necessary to tell a tech billionaire based in the US to back off from European politics, something is going wrong. Not that he listened – he’s now backing the right wing ‘Make Europe Great Again’ rallies. I’m assuming that this crony and, indeed, the Cheeto’s weird wife, are immune from being deported as immigrants but – again – there’s no guarantee so they should perhaps be a little wary about putting all their eggs in one orange basketcase.

In typical fashion, this appalling state of affairs seems to give people over here – including some who remain on my friend lists for historical reasons only, but who I often mute for 30 days when the racism gets too much – a licence to be publicly racist, posting content about refugees. Reform are gaining seats in by-elections. The pathetic Tate has allegedly set up his political party. They say that people who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, but no one said anything about selective historical ignorance. The people mentioned above are actual historians of one kind or another, who can talk for hours on the subject of various wars, but who don’t seem to relate the right-wing rants they repost to the history they know about.

Like everyone else I don’t have any sensible solutions and it’s probably not practical to watch the next four years from behind a cushion, as if it was an episode of the Triffids or something. What I can do is carry on being a safe space, and treating the people around me in the way I’d like to be treated. Do the small things and watch the ripples of kindness expand. And hope that the world comes to its senses sooner rather than later.

Things making me happy this week

A muddy walk with Sue, Jill, Heather and the Bella-dog on Sunday afternoon, through the floodplain and ending up at the pub for coffee and a chat
Chilly swimming on Sunday morning with Jill – it wasn’t frozen but even the swans were a bit wary about hopping in

Making use of the yoga mat as a blocking aid for the Spiderweb scarf, which has seen a lot of wear this week
Starting a crochet jumper inspired by one I wore in uni, and turning mini-skeins into little granny squares
Getting caught in the rain on my Saturday long walk….and finding a bus going in my direction just waiting for me. It would have been rude not to get on it…
Thing 3 turning 14 and Thing 2 making the cake

This morning we’re dog-walking rather than swimming, which will at least be warmer! Next week I’ll be coming to you from la belle France where (if we’re lucky) the waters will have receded far enough for some long walks.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Hardcore 24/Look Alive 25/Twisted 26 – Janet Evanovich

Jingo/The Fifth Elephant – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

Fear of Flying – Erica Jong

Million Dollar Demon – Kim Harrison

252: what have I done for you lately?

One of the least fun things about any job these days is the performance management process, or at least the annual review bit of it. Don’t get me wrong – I have a lovely line manager, I work with a great team on a fantastic project and I’ve loved every job I’ve had in the sector, even in the tough times – and I tend to assume that if I’m doing anything disastrously wrong someone would have mentioned it. Still, every year I have several sleepless nights before the meeting and feel a terrible sense of impending doom.

For years in a previous role these reviews were a meaningless process, as I was on a spot salary so didn’t get any annual pay rises anyway. The year I did brilliantly, writing a unit for the London Curriculum and being learning advocate on a blockbuster exhibition, they actually took away the unconsolidated rise from the previous two years and gave me a 3.5% pay cut as no one was getting a rise that year. The letter telling me this was waiting for me when I got home from the glowing review meeting. It was also understood that only the people at the main site could get the coveted ‘purple’ grade – which I wasn’t. (For some reason it took this organisation a couple of years to get the Investors in People badge – can’t think why). Another year, they increased my targets by 28% and cut my budget by 32%, so we were set up to fail by a director who refused to listen to what was actually possible (think Boris Johnson in a badly fitting skirt). That director – not the team, the line manager or the job – was why I left that role.

So why, every year, do I spend several nights pre-meeting wide awake and tossing and turning with stress-related insomnia? It’s a complete mystery but I suspect its quite similar to that feeling of guilt you get when you see a policeman even though you know for a fact that you haven’t committed any crimes. Perhaps there’s something they know that you don’t, and they’re waiting to spring it on you. Perhaps there was a target no one mentioned to you and you haven’t met it as you didn’t know it was there. Paranoid? Moi?

My current job is in a small arts organisation (with big ideas) which is headed by actual humans so the review was very straightforward and positive and helpful and I still have a job. Which is nice.

I’m not sure what can really be done to improve this, really: we’re all held accountable to various standards and there has to be some way of measuring this. I think I should just be grateful that the kids haven’t cottoned onto SMART targets yet – they might start asking me to stop burning dinner or putting mushrooms in it, leave fewer random scraps of fabric and thread about the place and rationalise my books and shoes.

Other things making me happy this week

The Families in Museums Network meeting at Young V&A this week. Slightly linked to the above – where the amazing Ops team made the Front of House recruitment process radically inclusive and considerably less stressful for the applicants. However, it did make me feel that I’ve been knocking about this sector for a very long time…
Finishing my portable crochet project in time for the cold snap. It’s made of alpaca and it’s snuggly and soft. I’ve also made some progress on the blanket.
Choosing fabrics from the stash and a pattern for a quilt project (though not the one I’d been planning. Go figure, eh?) with puffins on. Here’s the ones I started with,, though not all have made the final cut. Some of them are sparkly.

Central heating – it was -7 this morning. Lulu appreciates it, I think.
Thermal socks, and cats who double as hot water bottles.

Today we’re off for an icy swim (water temp was 1.5 degrees on Saturday – considerably warmer than the air though!) and wondering why we do this to ourselves. Wonder if I can take a cat with me to keep my clothes warm?

See you next week, when I’ve defrosted…

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading

Ten Big Ones/Eleven on Top/Twelve Sharp/Lean Mean Thirteen/Fearless Fourteen – Janet Evanovich

My Animals and Other Animals – Bill Bailey

Guards! Guards! – Terry Pratchett (Audible)