Twenty fifteen

“Well it started badly.. it tailed off a little in the middle, and the less said about the end the better. But apart from that, it was excellent.”

It was an interesting and yet challenging year. But then, aren’t they all?

I managed to live in three different apartments, with four different friends, and one dog.

My landlord tried to screw my then flatmate and I out of the deposit on the basis that we left the flat in a state of disrepair, uncleanliness and unauthorised modifications. All lies which we contested at a tribunal, where we had no photographic evidence in our defence, but instead a strong, carefully worded response that I wrote. And so, despite not having any prior experience of legal matters, and having done research which solely consisted of extensively watching the courthouse scenes in ‘My Cousin Vinny’, buying a leather briefcase, and learning to shuffle papers without dropping them, we won the full deposit back. My head rolled back with laughter so hard that I was in danger of swallowing my tongue. Justice is sweet.

Declaration of dependence

I’ve been awake for a while. Too early on a Sunday morning. The condensation has gathered at the bottom of my bedroom window, proof of the minus two degrees temperature outside. I kneel on my the mattress and flip up a slat between the venetian blinds. The cars, the pavements, the railings… covered in moisture that has frozen over, giving them a hazy, white finish. This must be what it’s like to have an instragram filter over real life.

What’s going on

In 1970, Marvin Gaye co-wrote the song ‘What’s Going On’, partly in response to police brutality to anti-war protestors. “You see, war is not the answer. For only love can conquer hate.” he sang.