Wow. Almost a year and a half since I last did somewhat of a life update on here. Has a lot happened since then? Yes and no.

I moved. That took a lot of time and effort. I learned a lot, like laying flooring and tiling and how not to paint walls. I started so many flat projects that I lost count somewhere in between and yet, somehow, with time, there is progress. As I am writing this, my kitchen has finally been fully delivered. Is it finished? No. Still needs tiles. But go find beautiful, affordable and deliverable tiles that match in this economy! The ones I eyed are no longer being made because the company went out of business. Happens. Unfortunately.

I didn’t read much during that year. There were a few standouts though. Pelican Girls by Julia Malye opened my eyes to a part of French-American history I knew happened but also I also knew nothing about, Hanif Kureishi’s memoir Shattered simultaneously had me on the verge of crying and full of wonder toward how much strength and will power we can and must have when a personal disaster strikes. Alone with you in the Ether by Olivie Blake, lovingly pushed onto me by Ash, left me feeling everything at once.

In short: Life happened. A little of it and a lot of it. It was, as Dickens would say the best and the worst of times. Looking out of the window into the world, seeing the so-called leader of the free world destroy exactly that, seeing laws put in place to further action against climate change being revoked and watching the AI bubble grow ever bigger, only waiting to burst into a thousand pieces is not the best of backdrops. We’ll make do. But we shouldn’t have to just make do.