Iris. 24. London. Artist, thinker & time waster. This blog contains everything and nothing. More nothing than something because more often than not I am afraid of sharing or doing.
We’re moving house soon so I’m getting rid of a few books and they are looking for a new home!
If you would like one (or two, or all) please let me know in the comments or email me rrreow[@]gmail.com You’ll have to be comfortable with giving me your address, I promise I won’t stalk you.. much.
I do have to charge for the postage costs (Paypal) as sending all of these would add up! I have scales & a chart so it’ll be accurate to the penny =p
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The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (P)
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (H)
The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman (P)
Invisible by Paul Auster (H)
Shaman’s Crossing by Robin Hobb (P)
Forest Mage by Robin Hobb (P)
Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb (P)
The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb (P)
Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb (P)
I bought A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson about 4 or 5 years ago. It has spent a long time sitting on my bookshelf unread because to tell you the truth I was a bit scared of it. I expected it to be full of confusing dates, names & numbers like a dry and boring history book.
Having read a couple of chapters I can let you know it does include a lot of dates, names & numbers. However it is also utterly compelling, interesting and most importantly readable.
The reason I picked it up now of all times, is because Andrew and I were reading some Wikipedia articles about how old the earth is and about when dinosaurs walked the earth (these are the things you do as a married couple, you see). It is so easy to get caught up in your own life and small circle of experiences that it hit me with the force of a meteor (har har): this is the same earth that dinosaurs walked on.
Now you might think “DUHHH”, but I find it seriously mind boggling to wrap my head around the fact that this ball of earth has seen creatures as fantastical as that, all in the same place where we now build our houses and schools and Burger Kings. Moreover, that creatures like that came into existence and evolved in the first place, that then they got wiped out and that then mammals evolved and we became us.. us who compared to the age of the universe have only been alive for a fraction of time.
It made me realise how temporary we are/could be. Not in terms of our individual lives (you are born and hope you live around 80 years and then you die), but the longevity of humans (or mammals and the rest of the animal kingdom in general). Looking at the history of the earth and seeing that all life was annihilated almost in its entirety several times and then started up again in a completely different configuration… It isn’t hard to assume that this will happen again (although on average it only seems to happen every several hundred million years or so.. so for now we’re safe to continue browsing the internet, going to the cinema and eating Ben & Jerry’s).
All of those thoughts came from reading a couple of Wikipedia articles and it made me want to know more, and the why and how of things. Hence I finally picked up the book and started reading. My only criticism so far is that it glances over how people found out about certain things. It will tell you so and so had a theory and it was proven blablabla, but to me, a layperson and certainly not a scientist, it doesn’t really explain those parts enough. What was it that really proved something in such a way that it was adopted as the mainstream scientific explanation of something? I am quite ready to believe scientific explanations ‘because scientist x’s research said so and y number of scientists agreed with the theory’ but I’d like to know how they came to that conclusion without having to learn the discipline.
I am crap at updating so it is safe to assume I will not share any further thoughts on this book or this subject in the future (although I will think about it lots and write numerous draft in my head with a much better style of prose than you’ll ever read from me). See you in 2011.
Ah yes, and in case you are not interested in reading my random philosophical musings, here, have some videos of my cat:
(If you are reading this post through RSS you will probably have to go to my actual site to see these)
I update so infrequently that whenever I do, I first have to upgrade WordPress to the latest version. Happens every time! Here a little update with some major things that happened in my life in 2009.
Moving house
Up until February 2009 Andrew and I were living together in one room in a flatshare with two other people (and were also running our business from said room). We’d been there since the beginning of our relationship 4 years previously and needless to say it was cramped and you couldn’t turn your arse cozy. Having got married the previous autumn we’d really hoped to be able to buy by that time, but it didn’t work out. So we decided to at least find our own place to rent. It meant moving slightly further out from the centre of London but the space we got in return for it was definitely worth it. Not having to share the kitchen and bathroom with other people anymore is pure bliss!
Tikka
As a direct consequence of moving into our own place meant I could finally get a cat! I had wanted a cat since I was about 4 years old, but my mum didn’t want cats so I had to make do with first a guinea pig, then several dwarf hamsters and also some mice (none of which I particularly liked as they were poor substitute for a cat). I had been doing research on cats for a while and decided I really wanted a Bengal as the personality of the breed really appealed to me as well as the look. At the beginning of April we picked up our little cat and brought her home! We called her Tikka both because she’s a Bengal and because we live near Brick Lane (curry capital!).
She is everything we expected and then some! I cannot imagine life without her now. She is absolutely INSANE which fits our personalities quite well =p Right now she is asleep on top of a pile of boxes underneath a halogen lamp as it’s nice and warm there.
Playing the Violin
In September I took up playing the violin. When I was little I’d had lessons for maybe 6 months or a year but quit quickly (after hardly practicing) because I felt very disappointed at how hard it was and how horrible it sounded! Nevertheless, it had always been my favourite instrument and continued to be so. Now as an adult I thought it more likely that I’d have the patience and dedication to try again. I’m taking lessons at a local college that specialises in evening education for adults. My class is very big (about 20 people – although in practice not everyone shows up every week) but the teacher is great and I feel like I’m making good progress. I enjoy the lessons and practicing at home and can’t wait to get better!
California
Going to California has always been a dream for both of us. We initially wanted to do this for our honeymoon in 2008, but had next to no money left after getting married! So instead we went this year and I’m definitely glad we waited. It was the holiday of a lifetime and I enjoyed it immensely. We both really want to go back or perhaps try to live there part of the year.
1st Anniversary
31 October 2009 was our first wedding anniversary. I’m just so glad to be spending my life with Andrew! Our relationship grows stronger every year and I definitely think the past year has been exceptional in terms of how much closer we’ve become. In 9 days we celebrate our 5 years together!
Overall
This past year has been really good. I’m almost surprised as I am not used to my life being that enjoyable, always expecting disaster around the corner. I think I updated a while back writing about feeling more content and life being more in balance. I’m hoping this will continue and obviously will work on making it happen! One of the most valuable ‘lessons’ I learned this year is that you create your own destiny and that it’s up to you alone how you approach and interpret what happens.
Yes yes, I know. I am incredibly crap at updating this thing. Sincerest apologies.
In some ways lots has been going on, and in other ways life has been pretty boring. I guess that’s how it always is.
I’m reading the Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer at the moment. Wow.. I am so into it. I know I’m supposed to be all apologetic for not reading high-brow literature, but seriously, anyone who writes something so appealing and engaging gets my respect.
Life with our little cat is so lovely. She’s becoming less like a kitten and more like a cat every day. Although she still does silly things. When we were on holiday she stayed with Andrew’s sister and requisitioned a feather duster. It’s about as long as she is, and she will attack it and bite it. The funniest thing she does though is when she picks it up with her teeth (like a dog with a stick, horizontally) and walks around with it.
She’s also obsessed with elastic hair bands. She’s also a master at losing them. I’m going through hair bands really quickly at the moment haha. She can just sniff them out. I’ll see her sticking her head inside my handbag, and after a few seconds she comes out with a hair band in her teeth.
Seriously, I can talk about my cat for hours. I took some videos the other week but haven’t downloaded them yet. If they’re any good I will post them.
Hmm what else.. we went on holiday to California at the end of September. It was absolutely amazing. Complete and utter holiday of a lifetime. We took 900odd pictures so it’ll probably be about a year or five before I actually sort through and post any of them. I can’t really think of specific highlights because the whole experience as a whole was just so impressive. We flew in to LA, spent a few days there, drove north along the coast to Malibu, then Big Sur and up to San Fransisco. Then from SF we spent a few days in the wine country, went to Yosemite, down through Death Valley on our way to Las Vegas and then back to LA. We camped for a third of the time which was nice (but cold! Except in Death Valley) and authentic.
OK here’s a picture. It’s absolutely impossible to choose one picture that sums up the whole journey so I leave you with a token tourist shot.
Aargh je suis très bad at remembering to update! So I present you with a cop out: pictures.
This is a jumper I am knitting at the moment. It’s going very slowly because the yarn is so thin! (knitted on 2.75mm needles) It’s fun though and quite relaxing because it doesn’t require much thought as it’s pretty straightforward. I’m also crocheting a little cardigan which is infinitely more complicated and really have to pay attention to every stitch. It’s nice to have two very different projects on the go at the same time.
This was me all dressed up last Saturday for a friend’s wedding, wearing my crocheted shawl.
In other exciting news, I am going to start taking violin lessons in September! I am insanely excited. I attempted to play the violin when I was little which was a big disappointment, but I feel I am now ready to take this on with more enthusiasm and maturity (lol).
Earlier when I was walking to the post-box in my flip flops (not only my flip flops, mind) it struck me that I am actually quite happy. This is quite a huge thing coming from me, ever the depressed pessimist.
Life’s thrown some punches at me and I’ve been good at surviving, but lately I’ve felt a bit of a shift. For a few years now I’ve not merely been surviving, but living and lately I’ve been enjoying life with more consistency than ever before.
I just want to mention that although I’ve suffered from depression, I would have never described myself as an unhappy person. The difference I am talking about now though, is something between having happy moments or spells, and a more consistent contentment.
The reasons for this are ample, I think, there isn’t one single thing (I am averse to the whole ‘one single thing’ mindset as a whole, it puts too much pressure and expectation on something that can never deliver). Overall though, I think it can be summed up as ‘life is finally going right for me’.
Sure there are still things I want and would like to achieve, and I don’t want to become complacent, but I feel less like something is missing. That’s quite huge, because my life has been governed by loss a lot (both in the bigger sense from losing my mother, but also in smaller ways, in which I recreate or re-experience loss in almost every situation).
It may sound trite but having a husband who loves me, living in our own place (rented, but not shared with flatmates), having a cat, having a nice bottle of wine every now and again, fiddling with crochet/knitting/art/cooking… it all just fills me with more calm than I’ve ever felt in my life.
It makes me feel like, yes I can have nice things (or rather, a nice life), and no they’re not going to be taken away from me at a moment’s notice for no good reason.
I’ve recently taken up crocheting (a suggestion by my friend Daniela) and after doing it wrong a lot of times and then finally getting my aunt to show me how to do it right, I thought I’d attempt an actual pattern.
It’s from a book called Stitch ‘n’ Bitch: The Happy Hooker. I find crochet extremely fun! I’ve knitted before, but I seem to always get bored before I finish anything. With crochet there are so many more stitches and possibilities to make stuff look interesting without getting too complicated.
I also find it very relaxing. I sit upstairs and listen to classical music while creating. It’s a nice change because I usually spend too much time at my computer!
I think my next project will be a shawl. Have to swallow the fact that (nice) yarn is incredibly expensive though. The results are well worth it though.
Someone kick me and make me update already! I’ve been toying with the idea of updating my blog for about a month but I keep putting it off. So voila, an impromptu update with no topic or meaningful content whatsoever!
I just bought a Nintendo DS Lite off ebay, so I’m pretty excited about that! I got it because I’m going to Holland in a few weeks BY BUS. So for the lovely 10 hour journey I thought I’d get something to occupy myself with. Thing is, going by bus, AND buying a Nintendo DS, is still cheaper than flying… flying is quite expensive at the moment.
Since you didn’t ask, I’m going to Holland (my lovely country of birth and corruption – my corruption, not the country’s) to sign papers for my house which was sold. I’m also visiting my best friend from uni (who is American, studied in England, and then him and his Italian girlfriend moved to Holland.. go figure) who has recently had a child!! And I’m catching up with two of my best friends from high school who I last saw at my wedding where we really didn’t have enough time to properly talk.
A while back I started another painting. Similar to the one before, in the same watercolour Moleskine, with the same techniques, just a different face. I painted the face & hair, I still have to colour in her top and the background (have needed to do that for about 2 weeks now..) which I will get around to sometime, and then I will show you, because I know you’re practically dying to see it.
I’m watching season 1 of Gossip Girl at the moment and it makes me wish I was a teenager again because I have unresolved issues and there are lots of people I would totally kick in the teeth. But not literally. Also, I don’t really wish I was a teenager again because adolescence = hell with too many hormones.
Oh and last night I had this awesome dream and Nathan Fillion was in it.
I’m going to do a serious post (cue ominous music) soon in relation to this book I am reading. But I need to get in the mood to write about srs bsns, so not yet my pretties, not yet.
Also I don’t know why my site is so incredibly slow. Maybe it’s the theme? I just hope for your sake you are reading this through a feed reader.
I can’t contain myself!!! We are picking up our kitten TOMORROW!! Andrew refers to her as the ‘office cat’ and I think he expects her to be typing up reports and answering the phone hehe.
Having a hard time concentrating on anything today because I’m just SO EXCITED!
In other news, something funny happened the other day. I was talking to an insurance company on the phone and the guy was getting a gazillion details from me. I had to liaise with Andrew about some of them so I put the person I was talking to on hold. THEN HE STARTED TALKING ABOUT ME!! When I put someone on hold I can still hear what they are saying, they just can’t hear me (effectively the phone just mutes itself from my side). So this person was talking smack behind my back. They were saying stuff like “oh I’m obviously talking to the wrong person, this is just a PA”…! I’m not a PA but isn’t it hilariously funny that the call centre person feels superior to a PA?!
So I guess the lesson is, when someone puts you on hold, don’t mouth off about them as chances are they might hear you! (unless that is your intention of course)
Iris. 24. London. Artist, thinker & time waster. This blog contains everything and nothing. More nothing than something because more often than not I am afraid of sharing or doing.
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