The last couple of weeks I have been focussed on the induction to my full-time job, and getting into a new routine, which involves waking up at 6am and trying to squeeze what I see as bare minimum activities into my evenings and mostly failing to be in bed by 10pm.
In case you’re interested, my after work routine involves having some form of exercise, making and eating dinner, a short meditation, preparing for the next day, watching something with chocolate and milk, and reading. The exercise includes running 5km, swimming for 50 minutes, a dance class to Soca music, yoga, weights, and a home workout. Plus, a weekly sauna and cold plunge, which I did for the first time in 1 degree weather last night, which was… let’s say, invigorating, to say the least!
In addition to this, I still have some tuition work, but not for too much longer! I also managed to submit a new project grant application for ACE funding with my access workers. I should find out early next year, in which case I will be working on Saturday again, but either way I would be doing some form of creative work on Saturdays, so I really hope I finally get the funding, so I can bring this project to fruition finally!
I had a major stress this week because my Universal Credit payment wasn’t going to come through after an unnecessary appointment was booked to verify self-employment all because it was triggered when I was reporting my new job, but also trying to be honest by saying I was still doing self-employed work as well. I can’t wait to end the claim, but for some reason I still have an appointment in December even though it’s post pay-day in my new job. I’ll see if I can just end the claim on the call, because thankfully I won’t be needing it anymore… and I really hope I don’t have to go back to living on £200 a month after rent. I wrote a poem about it and then after my persistence in getting someone to speak to me on Friday, I had some funds come through.
Aside from work stuff and documenting various think-pieces as I go through my breakup, I also had a flat-warming with friends and had my appointment at the Spanish consulate to submit my documents for Spanish Nationality. I asked if my dad could accompany me as I’m autistic and they agreed, which made a massive difference to my anxiety. It was a success, so aside from some panic about him changing his name so it matches with his Spanish passport, and a few handwritten amendments, it was all good. That evening, maxed out into my overdrafts, I stubbornly (and some might say foolishly), spent my last £10 on a tarta de Santiago from Maria’s Tortilla in Dulwich.
Today went so quickly, and I can’t believe how cold, rainy and dark it is. However, I am looking forward to spending the rest of the weekend doing artmaking and returning to my poetry pamphlets. I’ve tried to find some time over the next month or so to do an hour of each of the 10 different categories of creative projects I want to do for myself, and I’m hoping that the exploration will give me some direction for the new year.
Watching: Madre Solo hay Dos, Leaving Neverland, Severance, Girlfriends, Platonic
Reading: Neverland: The Pleasures and Perils of Fandom by Vanessa Kisuule, This is Yesterday by Rose Ruane, Black Issues in the Therapeutic Process by Isha McKenzie-Mavinga
Podcasts: What Now? with Trevor Noah, Miss Me, Teal Swam
Music: Florence + The Machine, System of a Down, Routine Caffeine, The Last Dinner Party, Chappell Roan, Blondshell, Princess Nokia
If you’d like to buy some books, please do!
Poet on page and stage. Creator of She Grrrowls. Facilitator. Writer. 