05/01/15: Life lately #4

So here I am again & with a lot of time between me & the last of these posts so hopefully with lots to share. I thought I would save assorted cooking & baking for another post seeing as there're a lot of new recipes that I've tried since the new year (five days in, I'd say that that was a good effort) especially given the foodie gifts that I received over Christmas time including a particularly special pestle & mortar(!) More on that later. For now, here's where I've been hanging out, what I've been thrifting & who I've been reading of late.

Hanging out

Apart from an extended stint back at the homestead of late, opposite this good looker is where you would have found me last night until, err, later than we'd both planned on really. Andrew & I didn't break with tradition in our waking up too late to make it to Chatsworth Road Market but wound our way to Clapton yesterday afternoon bundled up in hats & coats to grab some good coffee & inevitably the inimitable veggie roast at The Clapton Hart come three thirty. Yesterday was ultimately all about that porcini mushroom & chestnut roast with a pint of cider in the other hand & a copy of the Observer reviews section by way of a placemat. The university library reopened today so I like to think that this was our big send off before we're both back to the books. At least for the next few weeks it'll be over bowls of soup until I start my 20th Century American Poetry course (cmon!) & have to head home to help my Mum move house once & for all. I've always been a bit of a hermit by nature so it's not all bad. Plus, y'know, soup. 

Thrifting

London is undoubtedly a haven for vintage lovers, I'd be the first to admit, but sometimes it's good to flex your thrifting muscles outside of town. Going home for Christmas provided me with the perfect excuse to do just that & I made a date with my Grandy to pay a belated visit to one of our favourite vintage emporiums in St. Albans, Fleetville. After a pot of tea & half a toasted teacake each, it was a couple of hours of rummaging through carpet bags,mismatched earrings & terrible, terrible 80s vinyl (I live in hope of a Pixies album lurking amongst it all but not yet!) I emerged with this beautiful bottle green button-up dress with dainty lace collar, a reliable ex-M&S number that fits like a glove. I

also lucked out on a lovely flannel skirt in a colourful checked pattern (left below) that sits perfectly on my waist & has already been worn with a thick turtleneck & cable knit jumper. The other similar pattern shown is that of a brighter hued dress that my Grandy has had hanging in her wardrobe for a number of years - a worn in, loosely sleeved shirt dress that I adore worn with a belt & ankle boots seeing as it sits in the middle of my calves. Thank you, G!

Reading

Unfortunately, as I might've mentioned here & have definitely moaned on about on Twitter, I've got an essay to be writing (not avoiding, Olivia) so the books that I've been reading have corresponded with that i.e dense literary criticism & not especially festive 'The Plague' by Albert Camus. I did, however, remember the battered copy of Jeanette Winterson's memoir 'Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?' that I left at home & absent-mindedly picked up by way of bathtime reading. What a wonder it was & particularly poignant for providing a sense of perspective on neurotic family members(!) I found that she wrote with such clarity on the agony of growing up & finding your voice as an artist, her fragile negotiation of the two evidently testament to the strength of her spirit. I have read shamefully little else of what she's written ('Written On The Body' was a set text of mine but fell in the middle of portfolio assembling madness) but would love to having been introduced over Christmas. Otherwise, it's been a case of a handful of Lydia Davis' short stories having received the collected edition that is a real joy to own & the entries in my new Frankie diary - my third consecutive one & they just keep getting more lovely. I've also been reading about what's to look forward to this coming literary year & have fittingly bookmarked Kim Gordon's much-anticipated memoir coming out in February & a reissue of Lydia Davis' only novel in March along with the forth volume of Karl Ove Knausgaard's 'My Struggle' series (yepp, still pushing it on anyone who'll listen & even a few that won't)

Watching & listening
Staying with the theme of quarter-life angst, it's to the boxset of Lena Dunham's 'Girls' that I've turned in recent days. I've also read her collection of essays of late, 'Not That Kind Of Girl', & it made me reassured that, even amongst the critics, there is a young, creative woman being heard & valued. All hail.
Elsewhere I've been very, very belatedly listening to a lot of Sonic Youth loudly (sorry-not-sorry fellow house mates) & wishing that I had Kim Gordon's kick-ass scream &, err, legs.
All hail.

What've you been doing lately?
Kicking your heels?
Let me know!
Speak soon - O.