Margaret Thatcher and Coding

In between reading about Margaret Thatcher’s privatization and the history of the Stasi (I’m doing a History of International Relations MSc…), I’m attempting to read Capital by John Lanchester. I say ‘attempting’ because it’s usually a matter of managing 2 pages in bed before I fall asleep with the book on my face. (It is a good book though!) In one of my recent 2 page sessions, the character Patrick – who has come to live in London involuntarily from abroad – described his dislike for ‘the big smoke’ as basically being manifested in the fact that Londoners always appear busy; always in a rush and doing too many things at once. 

It really struck a chord with me the next day, when I found myself running to the tube, texting, and looking through my diary. All while walking in the rain. Carrying an umbrella.

But on a serious note... I’m currently combining my full-time Masters with a job, and a full-time coding course. Too much?! Are we as people now only satisfied if we’re constantly ‘busy’ and ‘stressed’ and rushing around? When I stopped to have a think about this, I figured that yes, I am a bit rushed at times and yes, it does mean that I have eaten my dinner on the tube. (As far as I know, I luckily escaped the bizarre and creepy Women Who Eat on Tubes Facebook group!) But at the same time I’m quite happy to juggle various things. I definitely would rather learn too much than too little, and realistically, I’m just going to get older and crankier… If now isn’t a good time to learn to code and meet some fantastically motivated people to steal some motivation from, then when the hell is? 

At the end of the day, as long as I can still find the time to have a catch up with my buddies over a glass of wine, read 2 pages of Capital in bed, or simply sit in a Soho bar to people watch, then I think I’m doing just fine! 

Or another way of putting it:

Stone Hipsters

Apologies. I have been a busy bee, buzzing between the hive, the flower and the honey... (Or home, work and the occasional post-work-drinks..) Therefore my writing has shamefully been neglected. Nonetheless, I still find the occasional moment to marvel at the wonders of the world via the genius of the dangerous depths of the internet. In all of those nooks and crannies there are some real treasures. For instance this:

Basically, photographer Léo Caillard and art director Alexis Persani had a moment of creative hilarity. A genius idea that was pretty simple to translate: Leo photographed the classic sculptures at the Louvre in Paris and then his friends posed in a similar way. Alexis then took over to do the retouching and place the clothes on the sculptures. Ta-dah, the Street Stone series were created!

"The creative duo once again prove that nothing is truly set in stone!"

Information here and here. 

Twenty Something

I’m 21 (so I can legally drink everywhere. Yes, everywhere in the whole entire world. But I still can’t hire a mini-van), I have a degree and I have moved out. I’ve done various internships which have all been eye opening, interesting and beneficial in completely different ways. I think I’m ready to admit to myself that yes, Lisa, I am now in the real world. Work, salary, bills and post-work drinks are all a reality.

Wham slam bam thank you ma’am. I guess you could say that I’ve been given free reign on life.

But I still see myself in a somewhat sense of quasi-adulthood / quasi-childhood, a kind of halfway house... Rather than photos in gilded frames I have fairy lights on my wall (dorm room chic), some of my clothes are currently on the floor and this weekend I’m going ‘home’ to visit the fam where I still have my bedroom. I like that. Hell I neeeeed that! If the ceiling were to fall on my head, I could potentially scramble home, tail between my legs and hide under the duvet. Although not literally advisable, it’s nice to know that the option is theoretically still there.

Currently, blogs, TV programmes and the general media are full of the term ‘twenty somethings’ to describe my age and generation; sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. Although I am a wee bit sick of it, it is quite nice. It seems socially acceptable to be in this self-labelled limbo.

The ‘twenty something’ blanket gives me a bit of time to sloooowly ease myself into being an adult. It psychologically gives me a bit of time to fully grow into my adult persona. Ideal. If someone were to say to me today: “you are now 100% an adult” I think I’d be pretty scared. In my books, ‘adults’ don’t make mistakes on tax forms, let the bins overflow or forget to pay bills. Obviously one should avoid these things at any stage, but perhaps a ‘twenty something’ is expected to still make a few mistakes. I like to call it learning by doing.

So despite the fact that I am ready to face the big, bad world and throw myself into the deep end of the rat-race, I think I’ll happily hold onto that ‘twenty something’ label for a bit. A little psychological teddy bear for the road.