– On Saturday I daytripped to Dungeness with Finn. It was great to briefly be somewhere unfamiliar. A desert by the sea by a power station.. It has a touch of the weird desert bits of California plus the end of the world feeling of Iceland. But it’s in Kent.

– Excellent fish and chips

– Thinking a lot about this ↙ Eggs sign I keep noticing in the Co-Op. I submitted it to @shitsignz on Instagram which is full of incredible and awful improvisations like this.

– Another makeshift thing i’ve become fascinated by is this basketball hoop on Clermont Road which I pass on the way to Victoria Park.

– On Thursday morning I chatted with two Brazillian guys in the park who were playing berimbau. It’s a long, bendy, one-string instrument which looks a bit like a fishing rod. It sounds amazing. They come to the park most days to practice.

– Hearing it from a distance briefly transported me somewhere else and made me miss travel and that feeling of orientating yourself somewhere completely different. Then some guy walked inbetween me and the sound talking loudly about house prices or something and I was brought back down to earth.

– It struck me that that was what had made the last few months so testing – the lack of anything unfamiliar. Except really awful things.

– Friday evening had one of the most unreal sunsets i’ve seen. A pink rainbow. It was also the hottest day of the year I think (36°).

– I watched Old Joy on Sunday night. This review on Letterboxd sums up:

“Kelly (Reichardt) gave a shoutout to all the fellas out there that have tried their best to reanimate an obviously long dead friendship. very beautiful to look at, very painful to watch.”

– I revisit this film every year or two. The silences feel a little louder and heavier each time. The Yo La Tengo soundtrack fills those spaces beautifully:

– I started First Cow after this but was too hot and tired and fell asleep. But the bits I remember were good.

– The living room feels like it’s coming together. Although this plant might be dying already. The mirror, which I bought mostly just to cover two massive screws in the wall, is now one of my favorite things here.

– I’ve also fallen in love with some old Habitat lamps I bought on eBay

– I got sent some coffee beans from a work friend, all the way from Austin, which came with a nice little note.

– Above everything else, I am mostly wondering how the fuck it’s August already.

***

Photo: Sunset, Friday July 31st.