the last two months

The last two months. Too much work, and this: 

A walk to work after spending the night in Chelsea. Imagine walking to work in Chelsea every morning. A rare lunchbreak in Hyde Park. An okay book and a cat camera. What I see when I wake up in the morning, only it's pitch black these days, and all the leaves have gone. My colleague gave me flowers because I was sick and she is nice. A lovely weekend in Durham, I have learned to love the cathedral. Walking back to work on a beautiful autumn day. Waking up near the Forest of Dean. Breakfast with Kevin and Peter. A gift: House of Lords Shortbread (they're very nice). My improvised advent wreath, too minimal and all I could think of was the flower shop near my U-Bahn stop in Vienna that sells tons of advent wreaths from mid-November onwards. An afternoon in a café with real tea. Getting ready for an event at work. And a selfie in the kitchen at work before I hopped on the plane back to Vienna for Christmas.

I'm home now. The cat follows me around. My brothers follow me around (not really). I've eaten half a glass of apricot jam already, seen an excellent play, and watched Inside Llewyn Davis, which I liked. I've slept. It takes 20 minutes to get anywhere, half an hour at most. Every sound is familiar. I arrived late and took a taxi home, which I've never done before, and I... let him take the long way round and kept my shortcuts to myself. It's good to be home.

temporary accommodation

This is my little room in Muswell Hill. When I moved to London I knew that I'd be staying in temporary accommodation for the first few months. It has been very strange to move from one furnished room to the next, knowing that I won't be staying long, when I lived in the same room for the first 24 years of my life (a room that I miss terribly). It has made settling in much harder - especially because flathunting is a gruesome, stressful experience. In a couple of days, however, I'll be moving into my first real flat. 'Real' because it's unfurnished, because I'll be living with a friend, because I didn't grow up there, because we have a tiny garden. Saying goodbye to Muswell Hill won't be easy - I've fallen hard for the neighbourhood, its houses and trees, the proximity to Alexandra Palace, seeing familiar friendly faces at the bus stop every day, the ridiculous Planet Organic with its comedy food, the ice cream parlour, the curving hilly streets, and, above all, the quietness. But I look forward to exploring a new neighbourhood, settling in, making myself at home, hunting for charity shop furniture. Walthamstow, here we come. Send me postcards, prints, embroideries and chairs! 

in London

One last breakfast in Vienna (two weeks ago already!), a Sunday coffee in London, and the week in between. I'm staying in the nicest neighbourhood until the end of June, filled with flowers and trees, but I haven't seen much of it. My best friend was in town, Peter came to visit, and I've been working a lot. Trying to ease myself into my new life, one step at a time...

remembering

I decided to tackle Proust, at last. At least the first volume. A slow book for a slow month, it just felt right - then I discovered that the Guardian's reading group had had the same idea. Du côté de chez Swann has been the subject of many Skype conversations, it's been confusing and heartbreaking and infuriating. I expected to be bored (and I was a bit at first), but instead it's been strangely addictive. Did it feel right to read an almost surgical analysis of a middle-aged man's obsessive love affair? Not really. I felt too young, too impatient, too naive. But that's exactly what I liked.

Every time I finish a book, an essay, a project I feel a bit empty. February has been intense, not only because of Proust. Luckily I'll be going away for a bit soon. Hamburg next week.

Recently

The light has been good, I've been on some good walks. My friend Meriel was in town, so we drank Glühwein and admired Vienna in all its Christmassy splendour. We went to the cinema to watch The Hobbit (excellent hedgehog) and Skyfall (feminism still non-existant in that universe).
I've been listening to this excellent Christmas mix and Radio 4 whilst baking Vanillekipferl and wrapping presents. We went on our annual panicky last minute shopping tour with my dad which was much less panicky than usual. I read How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran which upset and enraged me, and have turned to Anthony Trollope to console me. I've also decided to watch every film Whit Stiltman has ever made (there aren't that many), they're a bit strange. The cat is asleep in my lap, it's time to buy food for tonight.

bright as yellow

 

Yellow, my favourite colour, is everywhere. It's one of my favourite things about Vienna. I must say that walking around Vienna for a week with friends from out of town really made me see everything in a new light.
I've finally finished Anna Karenina, and I'm looking forward to the next month. Christmas, new books, friends, Britain, yes.

My brother and I bought almost identical coats, by accident, of course. Finding each other in a crowd is now much easier.

reunited with my scanner (part 5)

  My immediate neighbourhood in Vienna. These are from when I went home back in March. It was very warm which was strange because the trees were still bare. I've been walking to work lately because my bike is broken and I can't figure out what's wrong with it. This has turned out to be a blessing in disguise: I've been discovering new parts of town, strange bits and pieces that I don't really see when I'm on my bike, which in turn has led me to rediscover everything that I love best about this city. I'm still used to walking everywhere anyway, and it's a good habit. If there's one positive thing about the near-constant bad weather in Durham it is that I am now happy to be outside in any weather as long as it's not raining sideways.

reunited with my scanner (part 4)

My neighbourhood in Durham. I walked up and down a steep hill every day and looked into my neighbours' kitchens every single time. I never could get used to seeing into people's flats.

October

It's been a beautiful, quiet October, with absent friends constantly on my mind. As usual, a pop song has put into words how it feels to be back.

VIE

 

Back in Vienna via Norwich, St. Albans, Oxford, Paris, Zurich and Bregenz. Luckily I've got this little fellow to keep me company.

indoors

INTERVIEWER

Do you think it just to describe you as a reactionary?

WAUGH

An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along; he must offer some little opposition. Even the great Victorian artists were all anti-Victorian, despite the pressures to conform.

I'm reading an awful lot about Evelyn Waugh for my dissertation and I think it's safe to say that I've never disagreed with a writer as much. However, I'm very lucky to do my reading - and gesture wildly and in silence - in my favourite spot in the library.