Uncategorized – Page 8 – slightly weird

25th February 201928th February 2019

Plus ça change…Tinnitus, Spring, Pottery

Tuesday, 26 February, 2019

Mired in the blahs a bit. The wedding was a nice little oasis of colour and new stuff to do but, for the most part, February has been spent right here at home or around the neighbourhood. And it’s not as if there’s nothing going on here. It’s all in my head!

My head being a bit full of tinnitus.

If you think tinnitus is just an annoying, somewhere-in-there, ringing in your ear, you’d be only partly right. Mine is ‘recurring.’ I can go weeks, months, even years without it – or at least there’s ‘acceptable’ level noise in my ears all the time but then every now and again it gets serious. It spikes and I can’t cope. This isn’t ‘carry on regardless’ any more. It leaves me incapable of doing even the ordinary things. I’m hypersensitive to everyday noises and instinctively avoid them. Running taps, the shower, the sound of footsteps, the wind blowing leaves, traffic driving by, someone unwrapping or rustling paper… This is called hyperacusis.

My personal kind of spike is this – Sometimes there are baby crickets making some noise occasionally, sometimes there are bigger crickets being a bit more insistent, and sometimes there’s a whole meadow full of really huge crickets in full voice for hours on end, if you’re lucky with intermittent breaks. Has anyone ever made a really loud noise too close to your ear? Yelled? Blown a whistle? If so, did you pull away immediately to avoid the noise? Imagine if you couldn’t.

One more thing about tinnitus – it isn’t actually in your ear, although it can certainly drown out other noises or upset your balance (quite a bit in my case) but it’s coming from your brain. Your brain is filling in gaps of sound or frequency with something recognisable. Sort of like phantom limb syndrome….

So back to Hackney and getting out when balance is on my side. It’s unseasonably warm. It’s T-shirt weather for some. My phone weather tells me it’s 19C. And it’s still February.

**Over the course of the day, so any variations in the sky. February.**

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24th December 201826th December 2018

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Christmas Eve – Monday, 24 December, 2018

Even a found Christmas can be dull and gloomy and it was like that when I headed out to Brick Lane on the Saturday before Christmas – Christmas Eve Eve! I visited the hairdresser and trusted my head to her. I came away wondering just what she’d changed – there was very little hair on the floor and more time spent on diffusing and perfecting my curls than cutting – but the back did look better, I’d had a good time, and I wasn’t upset. That’s a major achievement.

I stopped at Ambala for some samosas and grabbed a chicken tikka roll for some lunch. But the view from Whitechapel was dismal.

My friend, Judy, sent me a message when I got on the bus and we switched to talking for real (yes!). The whole of Cambridge Heath Road and Mare Street was the same dismal grey as Whitechapel Road had been. And then we passed Mare Street Market and the lights caught my eye. I had to get out to look more closely.

Inside was a real Christmas grotto. I wandered around and enjoyed the atmosphere, everyone laughing and everything glistening.

Continue reading “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!”

15th December 201820th December 2018

More gearing up for Christmas

Saturday, 15 December, 2018

In this neighbourhood, there are houses being sold all the time. The real estate market is booming, even now with things looking so precarious.

When we first moved to Hackney no one wanted to live here. Over the years this has reversed to Hackney being one of the most desirable areas to live. In between there has been much buying up of cheap properties, large gorgeous renovations and the cheap, hasty ones, and the scenery is changing quite rapidly.

The cost of a one bedroom flat has gone from around £100,000 and less in 2000 to £500,000 and more in 2018. All of the buying, reno, selling cycle translates to scaffolding. What a business to be in! If I had invested money in it back when I first arrived, by now I could have been buying and renovating a home of my own.

Earlier this week, I was a bit dismayed when a truck pulled up out front with a large amount of wood planks and metal rods. More scaffolding was on the way. That would make about five houses in this little block that were being done over. My fear was that it would be this one, since there’s been a For Sale sign outside for some time. Scaffolding spoils my view and takes away my privacy, with men outside the window without warning. But phew, it was for three houses over. Sorry, guys!

I suppose the farmers’ markets have been around long before the real estate boom but I’m sure they will have changed. They probably started as honest fruit and veg stalls, bread, cake, a few wholesome crafts – I think I even remember going to the Stoke Newington one when it was like that, and not so many years ago. Now many are artisan markets with stuff no one really needs, but it’s fun to look.

**I kinda fell in love with the pottery at this candle stall**

Turnips - apparently once a Hackney staple - at this honest stall. He was packing up with way too much unsold — **Turnips – apparently once a Hackney staple – at this honest stall. He was packing up with way too much unsold**

**The back of the market has a fragrant Christmas tree lot**

Some places are quite Christmassy along Stoke Newington High Street. This year I’ve noticed that the shopping has begun very early. I’ve never seen such queues at some of the shops. Until the last couple of years you could go into a shop or supermarket on Christmas eve or even the day before and find completely empty shelves. One year we found ourselves without Christmas dinner and from then on, we shopped a little earlier too. Last year it seemed to have improved and I was surprised to see there was still a little selection.

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3rd December 20183rd December 2018

Festivities and Hackney Festive Light Switch On!

Sunday, 2nd December, 2018

If November was dark and rainy, December is starting off very mild and even sunny sometimes. And it’s getting pretty Christmassy!

On upper Well Street, the florists are bringing out their Christmas best

At St Paul's church, the yellowed leaves are a nice mix with the trees on the tree lot. — At St Paul’s church, the yellowed leaves are a nice mix with the trees on the tree lot.

And this Turkish kebab place is accidentally festive! — And this Turkish kebab place on Kingsland Road is accidentally festive!

Check these daylight hours, though! By 3pm twilight creeps in and between 4 and 4:30 it’s just like night time. Yesterday I was thinking that, if I were working, it would be properly dark by the time I headed home. I’m not sure if other years have been so dark but they must have been. There’s just more cloud this year…?

However, December has lots of promise. I started jotting things down on one of my quickly drawn up calendars – I like to do this on paper and revise it almost daily. And this week there will be two workshops (one a serious mental health one, and one a fun Christmassy one) two family visits and there’s company coming over for dinner, if Susanne doesn’t succumb to her threatening cold. And Hackney is having a Festive Lights event, marking the first night of Chanukah and turning on the lights of the Christmas tree. I love lights and candles so I’m in!

Hackney's invitation! — Hackney’s invitation!

Continue reading “Festivities and Hackney Festive Light Switch On!”

16th October 2018

Venice – doors and windows

Tuesday to Thursday, 9 to 11 October, 2018

Venice’s houses can be beautiful or ugly, clean or dirty, elegant or rough, crumbling or pristine…there are many versions. Each street level building is protected at least at its windows and often also at its doors. The variety of the doors and windows and their coverings is incredible. So I did photograph quite a few.