Weeknotes 4
- During lockdown our bath sprung a leak. The way the bath had been installed made it hard to get to and repair. And because our stopcock was seized we had to first turn off the water for the whole building and replace our stopcock. And because the stopcock for the whole building was seized we first had to turn off the water for the whole street to get that replaced. Understandably this took some time. While the leak was finally fixed (with the help of my wonderful and invested downstairs neighbour) it’s left our bathroom in a pretty bad shape. Our building insurance came through and they’ve paid for us to relocate for a couple of weeks so we’ve moved a mile away to Dartmouth Park while we have everything redecorated.
- This would have been an opportunity to go a bit further afield for a change of scene but it’s helpful to be around when the builders have questions and N- started back at nursery on Thursday so we decided to stay close to home.
- With N- back at nursery I had a bit of free time. I caught up with Tom for a coffee. I really miss seeing friends and it was a spirit-lifting couple of hours.
- On Friday I caught up with my colleagues for coffee and lunch on the South Bank. Like a lot of small companies we’re facing some real challenges this year, and it’s made a lot worse by not having any face-to-face time together. It was really good to catch up and despite having some tough decisions to make we had an enjoyable day.
- I’m really enjoying Bandcamp. I love how I can discover music by following specific record labels. Buying records on the strength of the label that released them was something I did a lot of when I was younger. But since switching to streaming services for most of my listening it’s not something I’ve thought much about. I’ve been listening to a lot more music as a result. On Friday Bandcamp were passing on 100% of the royalties to artists so I picked up new releases from Nubya Garcia (Camden-based jazz saxophonist), Kelly Lee Owens (synthy, lyrical) and Foreach (lo-fi, minimal house).
- I was very sad to hear that David Graeber passed away. His writing was funny, inspiring and challenging. I took for granted that I’d be able to enjoy it for many more years to come. Paul Mason’s obituary made me sad I’d never seen David speak. James reminded me of Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you. It made me laugh (and thump the table a bit) again.