This month I have been mostly...

Doing:

I did some more typography life drawing sessions, and some other activities through Typetasting - a virtual typography safari around Dalston in London, and on Halloween an evening about spooky fonts.

I watched a couple of online live concerts. The first was Emmy the Great, whose music I didn't know very well, but I loved the concert and will buy some of her albums. The other was Hue and Cry's As and Bs, which was a real nostalgia fest!

I watched a free talk about Mary Quant cosmetics, organised by the V&A where I'd recently seen the Mary Quant exhibition. It was really interesting!

I've been doing lots of drawings for #botober, which is this year's AI-generated art challenge by Janelle Shane, and I've been doing some Bardot Brush tutorials for Procreate on the iPad to improve my skills.

I went to Kirkcaldy Galleries for the first time since lockdown, to see an exhibition about Millies (the women who worked in the flax mills). There were dozens of handmade embroidered dolls on display to represent the workers.

I bought a gin tasting experience from Stirling Gin, and had a lovely evening drinking various gin cocktails and watching a tour of the distillery.

For exercise I've been using my new skipping rope each day, and going on lots of walks. I went leaf collecting in the town park to find lots of colourful leaves. 

I got a whole outfit in one of the local charity shops for £5.50 - a smart red and white striped shirt with little blue bows embroidered on it, and trousers which are navy with a small pattern of red and white.

Reading:

Gasa-Gasa Girl, and Snakeskin Shamisen, by Naomi Hirahara. I'd read the first book months ago, and finally got round to reading these other two that I had. I may have to get the others on kindle, as cheap secondhand copies seem to be hard to come by.

Watching:

On Netflix I watched the lovely film Enola Holmes, started watching Young Wallander, and watched the Challenger documentary series which was fascinating and moving. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga was a laugh, and it was great to see the scenes in Edinburgh.

On TV I watched the new episodes of Inspector Montalbano which were wonderful as always. I also watched a childhood favourite, the film Summer Holiday. I was able to sing along to all the songs I remembered so well, and I had forgotten how wonderful Una Stubbs looked in her Mary Quant-esque look! I watched the series Des on catch-up, the start of which was probably not the best viewing on the same day that I'd had Dynarod out clearing my drains!

I watched the film Romantics Anonymous on DVD, and it was absolutely lovely. I think I prefer the stage musical, but that's probably just because I saw it first.

Eating: 

I got pumpkin spice seasoning from M&S, and it is great in porridge! I baked more banana bread, because I had some bananas that were getting past it, and used yoghurt in it which made it lovely and moist. I heard of Korean toast for the first time (pretty much a vegetable omelette on toast) and I've made it a few times.

For 20 years I've lived in the same street as an Indian restaurant that is as good as any in Glasgow or London (according to my friend Katrina who's an expert on such matters!). I've been there for meals many a time, but this month was the first time I succumbed to getting a takeaway! The meal for one fed me for two days. I better not make a habit of this!