#journal
Bells
The church bells in this place, my god. They toll for 10 solid minutes every week night and for God knows how long on a Sunday morning. For a short time today there was a relentless tolling of the bells and a old timey horn honking at once. Chaos. This sort of thing is charming and atmopheric out in the countyside where the sounds have space to drift from afar. They are apocalyptic in the city where people live next to, under, on, and indeed inside the belfry. We're all heathens here anyway.
Boating
Berlin, Germany
When the sun came out in Berlin, people started climbing into the canals in their inflatable boats. When I rode my bike over Elsenbrücke, I even saw them floating along the Spree in their dinghies, with a bag of beers and a fishing hat. One evening, I saw a lone paddle boarder in the middle of that wide river. It is the done thing, I learned. The Excursion 5 Schlauchboot is available for less than €200 and can be fitted with a little electric motor, or a floating beer cooler that you tow along behind you. By June, I was...
Naughty
We got a nasty letter from some lawyers. We had some lawyers send a nasty letter. Why are people so up in our business here?
Overwhelming good
This morning I was sitting at my desk with my eyes half closed. I started to yawn and I stretched my arms out and back. Something in my chest, around my sternum, made a dull pop. I didn't realise I had anything to pop in there. The last couple of weeks have been full of great new things, and I've totally worn me out. We moved into our new, more permanent home in Berlin. We've had lots of help with the entire process, and we've thrown money at the appropriate parts to try and make things easier. I am still...
Rixdorf
We've been living here together for a couple of weeks. It's a quiet Sunday in our place in the city, the first of its kind. We found our long-term apartment and we'll be there soon. We're engaged; everybody knows. We made sure of that. We're going to get married. Did you hear, we're going to get married. Roots are going down. We have our grocery shops, our first couple of bars and cafes that might one day be considered our places. Most of them are going down in Rixdorf, a village in Berlin, they say. On Sunday the church bell...
Leaving London
I'm leaving London after living here for half a dozen years. I've been too busy with the leaving to feel sentimental about it but I’m making myself reflect. I used to find myself arguing London's case all the time. Now I'm ready to leave it and barely look over my shoulder. I tried very hard to get here. I built a life around keeping hold of my perch here, so I have passion for the place. When I first moved here I wasn't alone, but I left the quiet county I grew up in for the opposite end of the...
Berlin like you mean it
We are moving to Berlin. I've been making that statement of intent to anybody who will listen for the past few months. I think (hope) we're past the stage where I need to make that statement over and over to make it happen now. It has an inertia of its own. I have a job out there. Sarah has a job out there. I think it's happening. By the end of January 2023, we should be living in Berlin. I've wanted to live somewhere other than here for a few years now. I am putting my money, my body, my...
Wet bulb
We've had successive record high temperatures everywhere, but most importantly to me, in London. There was a bit of respite for a week or so but yesterday the humidity starting rising and today the temperature will follow. I don't think I'll find 28° intolerably hot after getting used to almost 40° a couple of weeks ago, but the humidity doesn't make it easy. Hyde Park is parched. The leaves have fallen off the trees weeks early, which I'm told is some sort of survival technique. The high winds that saw off the last heat wave were so violent they cracked...
A swim in a pond in the rain
Berlin, Germany
Sarah asked me the other day, "do you actually find you enjoy writing?" Writing is always something I feel I ought to be doing. I feel bad if I haven't written creatively for a long time. I don't think I'm a great writer, nor do I really hope to become one if I applied myself and commited serious time to it. Nevertheless, I read a lot, and reading gives you a taste for writing that often wants satisfying with doing a bit yourself. My friend Tom writes a lot and I respect him for his discipline. He's taken the task...
German is hard
Berlin, Germany
I was always a bit cocky about languages. I got good marks in them at school and by the end of sixth form I felt I had a pretty good grasp of French. That felt like a lot in the context of semi-rural England where very, very few people learned and spoke a second language fluently.* French faded because I was an idiot and didn't keep it up after I went to university. Spanish was never that strong but what little I had atrophied too. The thing about those languages though, and about the bit of Italian I've looked at,...
New job, new season
I left BuzzFeed two weeks ago and started at Kaluza the following Monday. The full implications of that are yet to be seen but for now they include: exciting new problems, lots of new people, nice new office, new cycle to the office through lots of parks, being a bit tired. I’m a really simple creature. When people at the office asked me on Friday how my first week went I kept just talking about how nice the bike ride through Regents Park and Hyde Park was and how I was looking forward to spring. I think that’s partly because...
The feeling of away
I’ve been away from home for just over a week now. I’ve been in France. When I’m not in the UK I feel a lot less claustrophobic; I feel like I have such a wider range of choices to choose for my life. An advantage of this trip has been spending time with people who actually live in not-the-UK. I believe to some extent that people are the same everywhere but it’s been nice to see the variations in the patterns of a life. To stereotype, in France I’m talking about long lunches, cheese, and drinking like a grown up...
The mountains and the beetroots
When I cycled to work this morning the air felt like the mountains. Maybe once it gets cold and dry enough the smog drops out of the air or something (unlikely). Either way, the sky was blue, the sun was low and golden and blinding. The roads were full of cyclists breathing steam and I didn’t trust any patches of glittering moisture I saw not to be ice. I got to work early; I just didn’t want to squander those hours of sunlight when the night comes on so early. By 6pm it can feel like it’s always been dark...
Eating and swimming
Running’s been difficult lately, but swimming in the ponds is getting better each week. It’s cold enough now that it burns your skin all over when you get in. It’s cold enough that when you feel the cold on your legs as you step down the ladder you think, “not everybody would do this”. Very self-satisfied of me. When the burning fades off, this sudden feeling of wellbeing washes over. Other than that the weekend was quiet There was lots of good food: more red riso arancini, celeriac soup, pancakes with bananas and Biscoff, sourdough from the bakery, embarrassingly good...
Time to cook
I like to cook a lot. Sometimes I cook all afternoon, one meal after another. I end up with a fridge full of boxed up meals that I can pile through in the week or give to loved ones. Dinner guests are relatively rare these days, in the wake of the pandemic year. Some people have been scattered away from the pestilent city centre. Some people are understandably still reluctant to dive into a full social calendar. Others, like me at the moment, are busy all the time because they’re making up for lost time. Today I’ve been on something...
The hills of south-east London
I went and saw Jamie in the park. It was freezing cold today but I had panicked and put on a heavy coat. The hills in Dulwich were unrelenting from the beginning and I was dripping in sweat before I reached Clapham. We spoke about things breaking down, about how much we can endure and how many times we can restart things and change our conditions. We were up late last night, we're in a strange detente for now. Christmas is looming and forcing everything.
Green chain walk
In this second lockdown it's all suddenly become about long walks and big cooks. Emma's been walking for a dozen miles at a time through a river of wild spaces in South London called the Green Chain Walk. I've been churning through the cookbooks that I've been picking at until now, mostly neglecting. Successes lately have been gyoza, massaman curry, drunken noodles, Tuscan bean soup with homebaked bread. Fridays are for film night. We take turns and choose a film that is non-negotiable, which helps us to avoid commitment problems and the Mexican stand-off of choosing what we are Both...
Autumn leaves
I was locked down for two weeks, so when I got out I wanted to make the most of the autumn leaves. Most of the time though, I'm back inside. I saw On The Rocks with Rashina Jones and Bill Murray after I listened to the Big Picture episode about Sofia Coppola.