bella_luugosi | Reading

It's been a full and emotional couple of months, friends. The main thing to report is that I was supposed to be in Israel as of a week ago, but Israel bombed Iran and Iran retaliated and the go/no-go date for my summer programme was right in the middle of the 11 days when Israel was in full lockdown due to lots of missile attacks, so they really had to cancel it. I have a whoooooole lot of emotions and thoughts about this, and I also have an unexpected summer month with almost no commitments.

( rab student life in interesting times )

I will fully admit that I'm glad I didn't end up getting on a flight two days later. Intellectually it goes without saying that I would far rather Israel was in fact safe enough for me to be there, and that it had been consistently obvious it would be over the past couple of months. But personally, I am absolutely delighted to be at home. And have a chance to see my family and do fun summer things like go to concerts and have picnic dates and sort out practical things that I've let slip with the intensity of everything since Mum got sick. I even managed to overlap in London with

redbird and her partners this week, which was an unexpected and wonderful bonus. Among many chill, non-urgent summer plans I am hoping to be a bit more present here.

Current Mood: relieved

shirebound

Happy Birthday,

peripety! I hope it's sweet.

wildeabandon

Until this morning I hadn't been to church since getting back from Belgium. I hadn't wanted to go back to St John's for a couple of reasons - firstly the likelihood of taking on responsibilities that I'd rather not have at this stage, and secondly the growing awareness that singing in a choir is an important part of worship for me - but I'd been dithering about where to go instead. My four criteria were catholic, liberal, within 15 minutes bike ride, and has a regular choir, and indecision about which to compromise on combined with a rather erratic sleep cycle meant that each week I'd let inertia take over. This Thursday I had an appointment that was half way to Hornsey Parish Church, which is about 20 minutes away, but meets the other requirements, so I cycled the rest of the way there to make sure I knew the route, which meant this morning required less activation energy.

Regarding the choir the website says "We welcome new members who have a facility with sight reading and a passion for the choral liturgy", but when I spoke to the director of music and said that my sight-singing was shaky but I was happy to note-bash at home if she sent me the dots in advance, and she said that was fine, so I'll be joining them as of next Sunday. They've got a concert on Saturday which I'm going to listen to rather than sing in - if anyone local fancies joining me it'd be good to have company.

shirebound

Happy Birthday,

marta_bee!

squirmelia

I had a bit of time to kill before my evening plans so headed back to Blackfriars beach and there seemed to be a lot of pottery sherds, maybe as the tide was going out, and I wanted to stay longer, but I’d already stayed too long.

A man asked me what I was looking for and I told him just bits of pottery and showed him the piece in my hand and he showed me the pipes he'd collected and said he's like a child, has to pick things up, but then doesn't know what to do with them. I told him I'm making a mosaic. I later found his collection of pipes abandoned on the foreshore, so I suppose he decided to leave them.

Wildlife on the foreshore included a fluffy big chick of some kind, maybe a baby seagull, and a ladybird, as well as a unicorn.

Of course, the day after that, ladybirds took over London and halted cricket matches and the skies were dotted red with a loveliness of ladybirds.

wildeabandon

- Yesterday I made avocado salsa, and the avocados were in that almost unattainable spot of perfect ripeness which lasts for approximately five minutes. I am pleased with past me for noticing that they were getting close to that state a few days previously and putting them in the fridge so they didn't go past it.

- I sent the next page of my Syriac translation to the professor and got back some comments, and I feel like I'm starting to move beyond just decoding the grammar and vocabulary, to noticing wordplay and making accurate guesses about things that are implied but not stated. Levelling up ftw.

- I have a ticket to see Tristan and Isolde in a few weeks. This might not quite make up for having to miss the same opera company's Ring Cycle earlier in the year due to a Wrong Country Error, but it will go some way.

squirmelia

A low tide after work meant I headed down to Custom House. I sank more in the mud than I have before and left a big footprint and tottered about cautiously after that.

There were quite a lot of tourists about, as it's close to the Tower of London. I watched one man skip over the muddy patches with more ease than I did, while talking loudly on his phone.

I found little bits of Bellarmine jugs and some combware and Westerwald stoneware, and some colourful sherds.

I didn't pick up a vape that said “Lost Mary” on it, nor a large chunk of a cup or a saucer or something, but I almost did.

Low tide arrived and I was getting hungry so walked to Blackfriars, passing Queenhithe where there was a man on the foreshore and I watched as his foot plunged into the mud far deeper than mine had and he swore loudly and pulled his foot out, his shoe entirely covered in gloopy mud. The tide had come in far enough then that I wondered how he was going to get back to land, maybe over a fence or through the water.

squirmelia

Although I'd been to Greenwich before, I hadn't been there at low tide, so thought I'd try it.

I got to Greenwich and found a massive cruise ship, with people just getting off it and getting into tour groups.

The foreshore was also full of tourists but the tide was out enough to walk along and the next beaches were quieter and I felt calmer.

I picked up an earring, but not the sunglasses nor the high heeled shoe.

I saw a dead eel, which made me feel sad.

I walked past a pub and heard people laughing loudly.

I heard thunder but wasn't sure if it was actually an aeroplane from City Airport, but then the skies opened and the rain poured down and I got drenched as I headed back up to the town centre.

I found a sticker that said “Logan Maliepaard” on it and it seems a 5 year old with that name won an elephant art competition in South Africa a few years ago. Did this child visit London? Or another person with the same name.

I found another concrete cylinder to go with my other one.. another core sample from a bridge or once part of a signpost?

I found a bunch of crayons on the beach and sometimes I picked them up and then put them down again when I found more. There was a lot of light grey board (?) with a black covering that snapped in my hand. I picked some up to start with, but there was so much that I put it all down again.

I picked up a purple hand! I wonder whose hand it was.

I picked up a snapped part of keyring or something, which said “The Book of Mormon” on one side and “I believe” on the other side.

I picked up a piece of pipe that has “lwich” on it. Dulwich, perhaps?

There was a nice wavy piece of wood and a sherd that said “decor protect” on it. There was a flint that looked like an egg yolk when I picked it up but doesn't now it's dry.

There were some small red stones and sherds of different colours and patterns.

shirebound

This is the link for the Zoom recording of Ellen's Celebration of Life on the 29th. (Her brother had never done this before, so it's far from a professional recording.) My couple of minutes start at 43:00, if anyone's interested. :)

https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/eMECuAFB2oU9Ax3_SQ-ieRKU6nUrLFU0qkskwpL9JbOd6F5YgAmcLeRyD1O6F3z7.330xtAc884TFqewW

Passcode: q!Nmy09#

emperor

It's time to vote for the next Chancellor (previously); I've looked at the candidates and their statements, but still don't have an obvious-to-me choice of who to vote for.

When I asked on mastodon, I got two responses (one for Sandi Toksvig, one for her or Gina Miller); FB has shown me one friend saying that Chris Smith is "a nice bloke, but also the only candidate worth of the role"; and I've been sent this from someone who evidently doesn't share my general political view (though I'm inclined to agree that being the author of tuition fees probably rules John Browne out).

I can see why people might think Wyn Evans is a good option, but his proposals seem to me more the sort of thing you'd expect the vice-chancellor to do, rather than the chancellor who is not really involved in the running of the university directly.

I'm currently inclined to put Sandi Toksvig first; I'm sure she'd be great at the schmoozing-major-donors thing, but also at engaging with staff & students and advocating for the University.

I'm planning to vote in person on Saturday...

[this post is public, I am screening comments by anyone not already on my DW access list, will unscreen if I think they're making a useful contribution]

squirmelia

That morning a man was running up the hill, past me who was hurriedly walking down the hill.

“Lovely here”, he said.
“Yeah!” I agreed and then I realised he’d said “lovely hair”, and I'd just agreed my hair was lovely.

“Keep on shining!” he said.

That evening though, I headed down Trig Stairs. Low tide was over an hour ago so there was a smaller piece of foreshore.

I saw a butterfly fluttering by, and picked up tiny purple sherds.

I headed across to the foreshore by Blackfriars after that.
“Have you found anything good?” a man with a group of people following him asked me.
“No,” I said, shaking my head, but really everything is good.

Looking at my finds, I picked up some flint, some little bits of glass, various sherds, including a marbled handle from something.

I moved what I'd found a previous time and turned over one rock and then it had a face!

wildeabandon

I have not, as yet, managed to find any work for over the summer, and am now slightly doubtful whether I'm going to be able to at all - it's quite rare for a contract to be shorter than a couple of months, so unless I get something starting in the next couple of weeks I'm probably not going to have enough availability.

I have somewhat mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, if I don't have any income at all this year, then my savings will be pretty much entirely exhausted by the end of the year. On the other hand, I am quite enjoying being a gentleman of leisure...

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Cats and cats and singing and cats

Reading

Not in Israel

It's a birthday!

Church! Choir!

It's a birthday!

Mudlarking - 30 - Unicorn and ladybirds

Little things

Mudlarking - 29 - mud

Mudlarking 28 - an earring and a hand

For friends of lbilover

Next Chancellor of the University of Cambridge

Mudlarking - 27 - shining

Mixed blessings...

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June 2021

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