(10 points to anyone who mentally added ‘down by the schoolyard’ to that title)
I saw in the news this month that the woman who inspired the cover of Duran Duran’s Rio album has been identified. You can tell from the photograph and the distinct shape of her smile that it’s the same woman whose photograph was used. The photograph of Marcie Hunt (used in Vogue France in 1981) was used by Patrick Nagle as the basis for the iconic artwork for the album cover.
Euros football is on, and again the news comes that domestic violence increases by a third during major football tournaments. Even if England win, domestic violence is still increasing. You have to wonder how the minds of these people work. If their team wins, they celebrate by beating their partner; if their teams loses they commiserate by beating their partner; even if their team gets a draw, they will still beat their partner. I think the lesson here is to avoid having a partner who is an avid England football (soccer) supporter.
I have not done much blogging in June because I’ve been following the Writers HQ program to write a mini novel in a month. The challenge was to write 1000 words a day for the whole of June. I made a good start in the first half of June, racking up some 14,000 words scrawled over almost 100 pages in my notebook (I have almost fully utilised a notebook!) But since the middle of June I haven’t done much writing at all. By which I mean none.
I blame the old fashioned pen-and-paper method. My right arm is sore and my shoulder is knotted. I blame the strange twisted hunch I use to write on my commute so people can’t see what I’m writing.
To paraphrase George Michael I have been writing without prejudice. I was not writing to complete a list of ‘scenes we need to see’ (although I have one). I have let scenes and conversations come out of the pen as they will and let them run to see where they take me and take the characters. It doesn’t matter if I don’t use what I’ve written, at least I’ve written something, at least I’m understanding more, at least I know my characters better and why they think a certain way about things.
I have fallen in love with the Fiat 500. It’s a cute little car with a charming retro shape. it’s also incredibly popular in my neighbourhood. On any walk I take I seem to pass at least two or three of them if not more. I don’t need a car. I don’t want a car. But if I had to buy a car I would buy a Fiat 500 because they’re cute. There are probably worse reasons to buy a car.
Another round of anxiety came back this month. It’s weird that you can feel it coming like a buzzing in your ears or prickling behind your neck. I feel it like a tightness in my chest or a pain in my throat or maybe the pain in my throat was due to hay fever, which I still seem to be suffering despite it being June: not spring anymore. I need to do something to counterbalance this noise, burn it away somehow. Exercise is the obvious one, and maybe the lack of exercise is what has brought this on.
Summer also brings anxiety because OH MY GOD I ONLY HAVE THREE MONTHS OF SUMMER TO DO ALL THESE THINGS!
(Summer always crashes in with expectations of eating better, being more social, working less hard, having a better time, taking up running again, losing weight, dancing in the moonlight, sitting out in the garden of an evening watching the stars. All these expectations when really, I behave exactly like I do in all the other months of the year except it’s hotter.)
(And the maximum stars you can see in London at night is approximately 10.)
This year the winter lasted until the middle of June. We seem to have finally hit the summer weather suddenly and unexpectedly. I couldn’t find any summer clothes in my wardrobe. I had to go and pull some out of storage. We have had a short spell of pleasantly mild temperatures of 25 degrees. Some places in Europe are already getting close to 40°. One of my colleagues had a call with people in Tajikistan and they said it had reached 50° there. The climate seems to be alternating between floods and heat waves at the moment.
But now we are in July and the first month of summer is behind us. Two more months ahead. EVERYBODY PANIC!
Or don’t panic. It’s up to you.
Tales from Tobhamhor 