Monday August 12
C: Today was a hot one! Mid 80s, full sun, delightfully warm. I wanted to cool off in Hampstead ponds but tickets were sold out
:(. Zoe and I did a grocery run and passed a very stoic black cat observing us from a fence (see photo album to bask in his regal gaze). I spent most of the day in my bedroom with the fan on high speed working on my dissertation. This will be a theme for this week. My mom is also in Vegas for the week for a work conference so she showed me all the views from her Bellagio kicks on our call!
Z: I spent the day applying to jobs and working on my dissertation. My advisor turned some edits around over the weekend, so I am in full editing mode to put the finishing touches on my work. In the evening, Callum came over to sit in the back garden, since it was a rather hot day. We chatted for a while, discussing life updates, including how Callum was listening to an audiobook called “How to Not Die Alone.” He excitedly told us about the book and how much he was learning about his relationship style and eagerly told us to also take the quiz that is described at the beginning of the book. The quiz aims to categorize you into one of three dating styles: the romanticizer, the maximizer, and the hesitator. Callum shared that he is a romanticizer, which Catja immediately thought she would be as well. Obviously, we took the quiz. Catja was surprised (C: I was flabbergasted) when she was a maximizer (C: this basically just means I’m anxious and don’t trust that anything is stable and am still processing my parents’ divorce—) and none of us were surprised when I got hesitator. I proceeded to listen to the beginning of the book and immediately got annoyed, so I stopped after like six chapters. I’ve also just realized while talking to Catja right now that the title implies that we will die alone if we don’t have romantic partners…um rude. I will not be dying alone thank you very much. I have Catja.
C: #platoniclifepartners xo
Tuesday August 13
Z: After spending yesterday carefully kneading Knead the Bread into two lovely loaves, I popped them in the oven this morning, hoping that I would finally get a good loaf. I sat and watched the bread rise to ensure the ideal baking time (see photo of me watching the oven). To my surprise, they both came out looking PERFECT. Both loaves rose, were moist, and had the perfect sour taste. I have finally mastered Knead the Bread sourdough.
C: After spending the day writing, we got ready to head to the Heath! We met Callum at the station and walked to the pond. Zoe went to find a nice tree to read under while we swam, and Callum and I swam from buoy to buoy chatting about running, poetry, and life. Anna joined us later after work, and we hung out in the water talking about future prospects and fun activities on the docket, including £1 comedy shows and pub quizzes. After swimming our fill, we dried off and walked to find Zoe. We meant to read together, but we started talking about different types of London archetypes, including finance bros, Birkenstock beanie queenies, Hackney hipsters (aka Callum), Love Island clones, posh peeps/pricks, and more. We also watched a green parakeet high speed chase a squirrel, to which Callum exclaimed, “Beef! Beef! Forest beef!!”
As the sun set, we decided to head home.
Wednesday August 14
C: Zoe gave me a new set of gorgeous nail art today as a dissertation break! We called Mikka while doing so, who showed off her own set of sparkly navy nails by doing her weird, unsettling finger pose (see album, it’s so so weird). Later, we met Anna, Jake, Callum, and Luke at the pub for our first quiz night in ages! We hoped that bringing British friends would help us actually answer the niche British culture questions. We accidentally got there an hour and a half early, so Callum and Luke taught us how to play darts. I was unbelievably, and I mean unbelievably, bad, but I was ecstatic when I finally hit the 1 section! Apparently I throw darts like a “Viking throwing an axe” according to Luke, and Callum asked who hurt me to make me throw that aggressively. I didn’t intend on throwing that hard, but I think I was overcompensating for throwing too lightly and too low on my first attempt.
Z: After we all had thrown our fair share of darts, we sat down to start the quiz. There were about six other teams, many of which seemed like they were regulars, so lots of good competition and a little bit of heckling occurred. Anna and Jake aced the music round, as per usual, and Callum and Luke brought the British expertise we were lacking. Catja and I contributed about one answer each…yikes. We chatted with the people next to us about the US and university. Finally when the scores came in, we landed ourselves in second place, just behind the people next to us. There was also a raffle where we all got numbers and whoever’s number got pulled had to go up and answer one last quiz question. Of course the universe is relentlessly trying to get me to face my intense fear of public crowd participation by calling my number. I instantly made eye contact with Callum, hoping that he would answer the question. Thankfully, he did. Thank you Callum! After a fun filled night, we all parted ways and headed home.
Thursday August 15
C: I’ve been listening to the Pride and Prejudice for comfort during this stressful time, and good lord Mr. Collins is more unhinged in the book than in the movie (2005 featuring Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen of course). I finally finished it but still needed an Austen fix to get me through the next few chaotic weeks. I discovered a spicy P&P sequel written with Austen’s trademark language style plus some seedy side plots. I’m not sure if it will be complete garbage or a fun story yet, but I’m liking it so far. I’m also learning a new old timey word every sentence which is saying a lot for an English major.
Anyways, I needed extra cheering up today because a journalism traineeship I applied for finally got back to me saying that they were impressed by my application and were going to invite me to an interview, but “unforeseen circumstances” meant they could no longer proceed with the hiring process. Fuck me I guess. Anyways, I spent the rest of my day applying to jobs, sending Zoe fun job listings, and writing my dissertation.
Z: I spent today editing the discussion section of my dissertation, which took a very long time because there were quite a few issues :). I frequently got distracted and apparently sent Catja many TikToks.
Friday August 16
C: I treated myself to a £5 exhibit at the Portrait Gallery about the six wives of Henry VIII. I arrived early, so I walked around the Portrait Award exhibition for a bit. Some of my favorite paintings and some of the most evocative works were not the prize winners, which surprised me. Finally, I made my way back to the Six Lives exhibit and got excited to learn about the six women who endlessly intrigue me. My favorite part of the exhibit was at the start. Massive black and white portraits of the six queens were arranged in a small alcove. I’d never seen them before even though I’ve obsessively researched the women before and seen what I thought was every portrait of them. Turns out, Madame Tussauds has wax figures of the six women, and Hiroshi Sugimoto photographed portraits of them in casual poses as if they were real. This resulted in stunningly beautiful and very realistic looking modern portraits of the women, more realistic than if the wax figures themselves were there (there’s something uncanny valley about wax figures that the photographs negate). 10/10 recommend checking them out in the album. I’m mesmerized by Anne Boleyn playing the lute. After, I picked up some postcards for my wall (including Jane Austen and Shakespeare for writing inspo), I walked to St. Martin-in-the-Fields cafe in the church crypt to do some work (and to make my fantasy Premier League team off of absolute vibes and minimal logic)
Z: I had another interview today near Notting Hill, so I got all dressed up in my fun work clothes and hopped on the bus. After the interview, I texted Catja to see where she was and if she wanted company since I was already out of the house. My plan was to hop on a Santander bike and ride through Hyde Park, but I was on the phone with my mom when I arrived at the bike rack and thought better than to attempt to talk to her and ride a bike at the same time. So instead I walked to the tube station and rode into Charing Cross. Trafalgar Square was absolutely packed, but I fought my way through to St. Martins, where I found Catja in the center of the food hall. Catja captured a photo of me looking like I’m doing intense work, but I was in fact designing my fantasy Premier League team kit lol.
Saturday August 17
Z: Earlier in the week I made plans with my cousin, Helena, who lives in Oxford, to come visit London for the day. She arrived in the late morning, I introduced her to Catja, and we had a little catch up in the living room. Since it was such a nice day, I had gathered some food for a picnic and we headed out to Queen’s Park. We sat for a few hours, learning about Helena’s plans for her first year of uni and sharing our many tales from Conn. It was so fun to reminisce and get to know Helena a little bit better, as I haven’t really spent time with her since we were 17 and 12 (clearly we have grown up a little since then). We headed back home, sat in the living room for a bit longer, and then Helena made her way back to Oxford.
C: Helena was a gem! It was lovely to finally meet her. When we got home, Zoe and I ordered a “dirty Chinese” takeout since we were running out of food. It hit so hard. So yum. She comes from a P.F. Chang’s family and I come from a Panda Express family, so we are on the hunt for an equivalently inauthentic Chinese takeout place. This place was close. Later, I hopped on Discord with my siblings to FINALLY play Minecraft again. With Alaia’s doctor schedule, Mikka’s visitation schedule, and Viggo’s class schedule, we get to play together once every few months at this point. Alaia’s millennial energy and Mikka’s intense gen z rizz become really apparent when we play. The slang is unbelievable. We took Alaia cave mining and found a new location for our base. Alaia also discovered the woes of creepers exploding right by our beds.
After, Zoe and I sat in the living room and watched Too Hot To Handle for background noise, but it doesn’t compare to our complete investment in Love is Blind UK. If Freddie didn’t marry Cat, I WILL slide into his dms and offer myself as a #funwife and move to Bolton so he can continue his funeral director career. We sewed cushion covers with fabric from the scrap store before I have to return my beloved sewing machine to its generous rightful owner. I will miss it. But the pillowcases are so gorgeous, and I can’t wait to see them in our new flat!!
Sunday August 18
C: I sat outside. I wrote my dissertation. I said hi to the cat.
Z: As we have a couple of chaotic weeks ahead of us of traveling and moving, one of the top things on my to-do list was to take inventory of the kitchen and get through any food we don’t want to lug to our new flat or that won’t last much longer. Catja and I sorted through our cabinets, the fridge, and the freezer with a mission to eat all the random food this week before we leave. This included potatoes, rice, 7 pieces of spaghetti, an onion, parmesan cheese, and ham. We also found some random moldy foods hidden in the depths of our cabinet…whoops. We now have all the food we must consume sitting out on the counter so that we cannot forget about it :).
C: After clearing out our kitchen and snacking on leftover Chinese food, we sat down to create the most spectacular birthday card for our beloved Hebe. She hasn’t been gone that long and yet we miss her SO much. But we’re heading to Somerset on Wednesday to begin bday celebrations so we’ll reunite soon enough! Anyways, after painstaking research, collaging reference images, and consulting past photos, I painted one hell of a bday card, and Zoe perfectly wrote in a medieval font. We can’t wait for the big reveal. Someone hire us for custom card making, we’re kind of killing the game.
Monday August 19
Z: After eating breakfast, I headed out of the house to do a quick Lidl shop for food that could make our purge of the cabinets more edible. I also made a pit stop at the hardware store for a toolbox saw. I now have a toolbox which has come in very handy, but my hopes for a woodworking crafternoon required a saw. Unsurprisingly I was the only woman and the only person under 45 in the store, but I found the saws very quickly, so I didn’t have to spend too long there. I then came back home, applied to a job, and sent a couple emails, before getting distracted by my craft project. I am building a frame for one of our paintings, which requires cutting pieces of wood in nice angles. I learned very quickly that woodworking involves a lot more math than I like to do on a daily basis, so after an hour of measuring and cutting incorrectly, I took a break for lunch. I then continued to apply to jobs and eventually resumed my woodworking endeavors. While typing this, I can confirm that a frame does exist. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Does it look kinda nice from far away because I painted it a lovely shade of blue? Yes! Did it cause me far more hassle than it is probably worth? Also yes.
C: I worked on my dissertation in the back garden until it got too chilly. Then, I came inside for a lunch consisting of an entire bowl of goldfish. Zoe came to the living room as I was reading a Reddit post about how Blake Lively got married on a plantation, then Zoe and I got into a lengthy discussion about the ethics of getting married on a plantation vs a church vs a castle and if weddings at historical sites actually benefit organizations preserving history. We also discussed in detail the It Ends With Us cast drama, specifically unpacking PR campaigns and book-to-movie adaptation contracts involving authors. With this easy breezy convo done, I went back to my diss writing.
After finishing all but my conclusion, realizing I only have 500 words left to conclude this beast of an essay, making scrumptious potato soup, and calling my long distance study abroad bestie Tanvi, we turned on the FIRST SPURS GAME OF THE SEASON COYSCOYSCOYSCOYSCOYS. We worked on this blog while watching the game, which ended in a meh 1-1 draw. Alas, tis a spursy start to the season, and we hope Bentancur recovers quickly from his concussion. Son is looking and playing as fine as ever, and I can’t wait to see what happens.
Pray for us to find employment please. I implore you. Toodles.
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