January, one line a day
Left Hand 3 by Shane Drinkwater
1 - Road my bike all the way around Lake Annecy. I’m so proud of myself! 38 km in 2 hours 11 minutes.
2 - Super cloudy, couldn’t see the lake. Sad. Went to the Chateau Museum in Annecy, it was just meh.
3 - Hiked Roc de Chère, found the sun and it was glorious. Raclette for dinner!
4 - Prepared the house for departure/renters. Can’t do anything about the butter stain Míša created in the living room. Bad dog.
5 - Drove to Gif-sur-Yvette to collect S & H. Got a tour of campus and had Pizza for dinner.
6 - S & I drove from Paris to London and listened to Bob Dylan and Joan Baez most of the way. Gross fast food, until we got home and ordered Pho from deliveroo.
7 - Catch up day - unpacking, laundry, groceries, dealing with the admin of life. Training - set a goal to do a 5 seconds free-standing handstand.
8 - Went to the Chiswick Public Library to work and was underwhelmed. Lots of homeless people (I think we’re supposed to call them rough sleepers now? Which sounds worse to me?) and teenagers who are sneaking vapes and snogs and crisps. There’s only one bathroom, which has a long line, requires a key and is freezing cold and malodurous. this is not going to work.
9 - Impromptu dinner part with A and her girls! Made the creamy adobo salad with bbq tofu. plus really good bread and butter.
10 - S & I went to see the matinee performance of Mousetrap! super fun. dinner - braised coconut spinach with chickpeas.
11 - S’s birthday! She had an existential crisis. Dinner at Din Tai Fung, which is now 100% over-rated in my opinion. Good cocktails though. Then saw Dr Strangelove in the West End staring Steve Coogan - which was better than expected.
12 - Brunch with V&Y at Chiswick Fire Station to discuss NYU. Finally signed up for Goodreads so i can track my reading this year.
13 - Went to a Subatack Writers Group in Hammersmith - and yeah, nice group of people, supportive network, etc…
14 - Went to see the new Lightroom Exhibit: Vogue | Inventing the Runway. Beautiful!
15 -Blood tests came back - hormones out of whack. Shocker.
16 - Apparently I’m to be eating LOADS more protein than I’ve been getting. I mean seriously, when did eating become such laborious thought experiment. I have to learn how to count grams of protein and aim for 30g per meal - and don’t forget the fruits and veg! And fiber! And water! So fucking boring and exhausting. To determine how much protein you should be eating, you basically have to figure out how many grams of protein you can consume without killing yourself and subtract ten. That’s your number. It’s virtually impossible. If all I did was count fruits, vegs, ounces of water and grams of protein I’d be busy all day. How dull.
17 - Family dinner at DGrande - two pitchers of margaritas and a giant bowl of queso. No idea how much protein. Then the Bob Dylan movie, A Great Unknown, which was fine I guess. I liked the music and the era.
18 - Inspired by Madge Gill and Myinerest - I wrote words /scribbled furiously / channeled gibberish onto a page and it was cathartic.
19 - Drove S to Gatwick and spent the rest of the day reading on the couch and feeling sorry for myself for being so boring and lazy.
20 - Splurged. or rather Invested in my happiness. I joined The London Library (TLL). It is my favourite place in London.
21 - Women’s Prize meet-up at The Ivy Club for Writers/Patrons. It was the most fun I’ve had in a very long while! Interesting, smart and kind women.
22 - great food day. bfast: protein smoothie. lunch: took my lunch to TLL (haloumi sandwhich with spinache and tomatoes + apples and peanut butter) dinner: planthood terriyaki tofu rice bowl with broccoli and purple pickled cabbage.
23 - Managed a 2.5 second handstand with good form. getting stronger. Later had accupuncture with Maureen and she “cleared my kidneys” which is related to hormone levels, energy, edrive, etc… i think? i doon’t know exactly, but felt better afterwards.
24 - J’s bday lunch! Great friends, not a great restaurant. The food was just average and the place was so loud we couldn’t hear each other.
25 - Quiet and sad today. not sure why. just feeling blah.
26 - Did everything I was supposed to do today. Still feeling blah.
27 - I spend the whole day in the library. B took Mìša to work and she pooped in the middle of the common room.
28 - Decided to let go of the memoir I’ve been working on for three years. It’s time to move on.
29 - Got an official induction tour of the TLL today. The librarian thought i was famous and i couldn’t talk her out of it. Then went w/B to see Johnny Flower play with Lady Blackbird at The Palladium. Johnny left tickets for us, so I said, we should probably stay behind after the show to thank you. We agreed to make it quick, because we were both exhausted and it was already past our bedtime. Instead, when Johnny saw us she said MUCHAS! WHERE WE GOIN?! We ended up closing down the tequila bar across the street from the venue.
30 - Tried to make healthy choices: ate well, exercised and took a nap. But I still feel sad and demoralized. If I’m not working on a book or a project, what am i doing? Besides filling my days and writing about them in my journal?
31 - Spent the entire day journaling. Then went to M&H’s house for a dinner party and we played games and i laughed so hard mascara ran down my cheeks.
