In which there are new things in my life

1. Booked a holiday to Japan!

After a very long time planning and hoping for it, Andy and I finally actually book our holiday to Japan. We have the flights planned, the route mapped out in my rather dated 1967 Atlas. We have a little self-catered chalet reserved through Airbnb and we have a ryokan (read traditional inn) with its own private onsen (read hot spring for bathing) booked. And there's still more places to confirm, but for the first time it feels like this is really happening.


So all of that is good, apart from this bit of completely unnecessary sexual politics in my Japan tour guide. Really Eyewitness Guides? You went to publication including a little sentence blaming women for sexual harassment, rather than men? Even in the back pages of a tour book, we have to blame sex workers for violence towards women, not the perpetrators. Ugh.

2. Wanting to take up cycling.

All credit, props and respect to Dainty Squid for the photo.

Ok, so DaintySquid got a bike recently and I won't deny I am largely inspired by the passion she's shown for it, the prettiness of the bike and all the cool places she's visiting. Despite the fact that I won't be in the same country as her if and when I get one, I still love the thought of all that exploring. And she's not the only blogger who seems to have got the cycling bug, so I can't help it. Problem is, I live in a top story flat and don't really have room for a bike. Though maybe I'm making excuses and could just keep it near the building?

3. Got an exclusive Lego set that I am so excited by. I've got a whole post planned with more about it, but for now - check out the amazing Lego dinosaur skeleton.

4. Oh yeah I, had a birthday. That's when I got the Lego. I also got a couple of new board games from my family. Sneaks and Snitches is one I asked for and is a small, but very smart game of out-thinking each other. Each turn is remarkably simple in one way - you place down two cards, one which has the location of a place you want to steal from, and one the location of place you want no one to steal from. The trick is, everyone is doing the same and you have to think about where they might try and stop you going. There's a lot of thought in it. I also got this puzzle/jigsaw game from my sister that I'd never heard of before, where basically match coloured pieces to each other in an effort to get rid of yours firt whilst at the same time creating a cubist painting.

6. I went to the V&A to see the Disobedient Objects exhibition. It was a deeply emotionally moving examination of the objects actually used in protests. I spent a good hour after I came out, just sitting and thinking about it. I wrote a page of notes that I may type up and delve into further at some point. When I had finished the exhibition, I then went round looked at some other things relating to architecture, and then on the way out saw this big collage board, with the photo that said 'how many people of colour have to be killed by cops before you hate the state?'. It suddenly threw me back and I thoughts about Mark Duggan, Darian Hunt, and of course Michael Brown (and there are so many other names I could list). I felt that tiny question, written on this art work at the entrance to the V&A challenged me as much if not more than anything else I'd seen inside the museum, and is a phrase I'm holding in my mind still. I don't have more to add to that, other than to share the photo and the question on. 

So that's what I've been up to this last week or so. How are things with you?