When I was a young girl in HK Vita used to do kalamansi ‘juice’ in boxes. They stopped sometime in the 90s and nothing has ever filled the sugary fruit drink void in my soul.

Coming back to this to say that in recent days I’ve been hit by a strong nostalgia for 80s Chinese packaging in odd colours with wonky hand lettering, like the sort of stuff you found wrapping something bought from Yue Hwa and it is an aesthetic that has vanished. :(

Actually brain-on-stimulants-body-with-fatigue is a pretty good shortcut for thinking of odd and unexpected stuff cos you spend ages being not quite asleep. If I hadn’t been such a drugs square in my youth I might have hit upon this earlier and have my own creative empire by now.

Whoa I’m not saying I have unprocessed issues with the years 2019-23 but the pandemic discourse just prompted me to blurt out a 9-tweet thread (now safely locked away in drafts)

I’m doing the wrong degree. Should have spent this year achieving scientific proof that the queue for the self-checkouts will move more quickly if you prioritise the tills waiting for a staff member above bellowing NEXT PLEASE at the line of shoppers

The recent sketches made with the watercolour I ground myself from pigment. If you are ever wondering whether it would be a fun thing to do to make your own watercolour set from dry pigment let me save you some time and money: it would not be

V rough sketch of Lina, the tortoiseshell and white cat

Perhaps we get the cats we deserve and that’s why I have this bundle of chaos who will not stay the fuck still. If your blotches are not accurately recorded that’s your own dumb fault, Lina

Right so I found this book on kindle on the very last night I was in Rome (boo) but then because of it we got to see the 11thC frescoes in San Clemente on our last day (yay) so on the slim chance this is not advice given too late: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0199...

4 aspects of Bam!, who is a burly black and white cat, represented here in 4 watercolour sketches showing him curled up napping in black, turquoise, magenta and yellow respectively. The yellow one is not that bad a likeness of the shape he was making at the time but I admit that you would not know it was a cat unless I told you.

We actually have two cats but archaeologists will never know because only one of them likes to nap somewhere I can see them

The back of a leaf of Begonia Black Knight, which in the sun on my kitchen counter looks a remarkably vivid red: not the colour of cherries but of cherry flavour

Got this (doomed) plant in the post today and this is what the back of his leaves look like in the afternoon sun

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR CONSTITUTING THE MEANING OF THINGS

Over here I am actually getting a bit concerned at how often men have offered me a seat on the tube recently cos while I have reasons enough for taking it without too much guilt I didn’t realise i looked so much like someone that should have a seat offered to them

A pen & neocolour ii drawing of the head of a black and white cat. It is Bam!, who should not be further encouraged in the idea that he is kinda a big deal round here

You gotta take the muse they give you

How’s the weather in Canossa this time of year? Any chance of blizzards still?

Have chosen this year’s marathon investment following guidance from Bam! and Lina who are Celia Hammond alumnae

3 instax pictures (2 on gimmicky coloured surrounds) of tulips at the Keukenhof laid out on a white hotel duvet cover. Not pictured: 16 other instax pictures of tulips. Don’t know what I’ll do with them but I brought this camera here and I was darn well gonna use it

A Delft blue Miffy figure at the centre of a collection of other, older, Delft figurines (cows, dogs, canaries, lions) at the Kunstmuseum, The Hague

In the distance, Molen de Roos, Delft (an actual mill for milling wheat, not a water pump like most ‘mills’ round here). In the foreground, Dutch cyclists cycling Dutchly

A red bulb field near Keukenhof, two cyclists who may not be Dutch cyclists cycling Dutchly but bulb tourists like me, a sliver of the beloved Corolla’s passenger side wing mirror

Did I mention I’ve been in the Netherlands for the last while?

Very poor picture of the steps leading to the ICC taken through the right rear window of a Toyota Corolla

Apropos of nothing we were stuck at traffic lights just by the International Criminal Court just now. This is the building to look out for in the news in the years and months to come:

Ah nice! This is our anywhere-but-Amsterdam Dutch holiday, off to the Keukenhof for our dose of tulips today

A pink-orange sunset in a huge sky over a sandy beach. In the middle distance the silhouette of a couple sat looking out to see. In the far distance a fishing boat

Anyhow never mind that, I’m always whinging about that, here’s what it looked like in Scheveningen* last night.

*apparently so difficult to pronounce right that the Dutch used it as their shibboleth to spot Germans in WW2

Since I got diagnosed with the chronic thing 7ish years ago the biggest bee in my bonnet is that the NHS (love it! Saved my life!) shows no sign of recognising that communication is a vital part of its job.

‘I did some research and wondered whether it might be a Lucky Winder?’

‘Ah, I’m afraid you can tell by the method by which the plastic was cast that this was made some time later than the classic Lucky Winder, but it is still a marvellous thing. Going to keep it in the family?’

The split-flap clock in the living room is on the right time again! And I didn’t have to do a thing. Now to get out of the habit of subtracting an hour every time I look at it.

It’s really striking to me that political commentary always takes the view that Ofcom play a cultural role but the inside-economic-regulation view seemed to be that 93.7% of their work was to do with Openreach

I think the world would be a better place if His Dark Materials had been the one that the millennials went fully gaga over and you’d have 35 yos trailing stuffed pine martens around with them on fishing line instead of wearing gryffindor scarves

Lisa Nandy, deep in thought: but how will I ever give off the vibe of kneejerk xenophobia like the cool kids in cabinet? how can I pull my own stunt that reinforces the notion that we are an unwelcoming country? ideally it will predictably backfire on UK interests too. wait…eureka

A bit strange to me how the UK media’s women columnists of around my age all decided upon You Are Not Who You Claim To Be And How Dare You as their motivating principle.

Well deserved! Congratulations and thanks for all you do

It is the hour of my hometown (sorta) and it will be rank cowardice if anywhere other than Blackpool is chosen

These days on three days a week my commute takes me past three different bottlenecks of public land surrounded by private where fake charity youngsters after my money congregate. It is going to turn me against charm and extroversion for good if I don’t keep a very tight rein on myself.

Thornberry imagines a Labour Party that values human dignity.