If this comic diary sticks around for more than a year, you’ll eventually notice that I become full of self-pity every time summer comes to an end. I find it hard to accept that we’re in for half a year of cold and wet weather. I hate being cold. I’m also not particularly fond of the accompanying darkness. Fortunately, we’ve learned from past winters and are currently planning to spend some time somewhere with better weather this time around.
The fact that I’m even willing to regularly visit a hairdresser who doesn’t let me pay by card speaks volumes about the quality of Ramona’s work and her company. I genuinely like getting my hair cut by her and even actively look forward to it. My friendly-passive-aggressive habit of pointing out that this is literally the only thing in my life I still carry cash for hasn’t borne any fruit yet, unfortunately.
Something about the current season of Ted Lasso feels off. I guess they’re trying to make the characters feel more nuanced, but I quite liked where everyone had ended up by the end of the last season. It almost feels like there wasn’t much reason to pull them out of retirement for yet another one, huh?
At one point I held a thing against the wall for like five seconds. Anna did everything else herself. We're living the beginning of the end of the patriarchy over here!
Justine and Pablo offered "Hitschies" at Justine's party. I'd never tried them before, and they were delicious. Delicious enough for me to get weak and buy myself a whole pack. I really shouldn't have sweets at home because I know I can't control myself around them. I'm pretty good at controlling myself when it comes to not buying stuff I don't want to consume, though. So this was kind of a rare lowlight in my culinary adventures.
Sorry, Pablo, I didn't really think you were weak. ONLY THAT YOU DON'T HAVE YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT. HOW DARE YOU NOT RUN WITH ME?
Anyway! Anna felt better that night, and instead of celebrating her birthday with all her friends at the party that had been planned for that day but was rescheduled because of her illness, we went to a nice restaurant and had a cozy little evening.
Hanna and Luis are in the process of moving from Glasgow to Venezuela and stopped briefly in Germany to take care of a few things and visit some friends. I was one of them!
Anna was sick that week, and I was so happy to find this stupid collector's plate to take over to her apartment after visiting the flea market with a couple of friends. She very much enjoyed receiving it. Then she looked up how much it was worth and discovered that some people were offering it on eBay for €250! I paid €6! Haggled down from €7. I know what I'm doing.
I'm not sure if it's just a phase or if something happened, but she's very hard to read at the moment. One second, she's happily being brushed in her basket; the next, she swats at my hand because it's become too much for her. I don't know what's going on, especially because she still likes to be petted as much as ever. But she hasn't been properly brushed in about two weeks now, and I just hope she decides to let me do it again soon.
Cecilia has mentioned several times that she likes showing up in these comics as the person on the other side of a FaceTime call. Unfortunately, we decided against video this time because we both needed to get our steps in and went for a walk while talking on the phone instead. Which was great. Catching up and shooting the shit for three hours is always nice, but it’s a bit easier for me when I can walk around and keep my hands busy by drawing strangers while doing so.
The huge orange wall clock now hangs in my office and I love it. It's quiet, it shows the time, it's orange. It's everything I ever wished a huge orange wall clock would be.
What a movie! What a soundtrack! What a story!
I of course knew what The Odyssey was about, but I’d never read it and had only absorbed the story through cultural osmosis. While watching, I couldn’t shake the feeling of how incredible it is that some human wrote this story a couple of THOUSAND years ago and we’re still out here telling the same tale, albeit in a medium nobody back then could ever have imagined.
Unbelievable!
This was one of my favorite evenings from the last couple of weeks. I was somewhere in the city center, buying a new bag, and I knew Anna was out on the Alster, paddling around on her SUP. So I stalked her on Find My, got off the subway early, and ran to catch up with her. She picked me up and paddled me all the way back to my apartment.
It took me a couple of tries, but I got there in the end. It might feel like a small thing to those of you in the upper echelons of society who’ve always had a printer, but for me it’s kind of a big deal. I can just click a couple of buttons and suddenly something new exists in the world? Amazing.
Travel day!
Gigabyte has a question.
We should react with “Ew,” then completely ignore whatever tried to rage-bait us more often.
Millimeter didn’t actually react like that. That was just my attempt to make the cartoon a bit less boring.
I ordered a printer! Exciting times over here!
I’m always a bit nervous about drawing and painting in public because I don’t always feel very confident in what I’m doing, and having someone look over my shoulder isn’t very conducive to my process. For the first time, someone actually stopped what they were doing, came over, asked me a couple of questions, and shared their art journey with me and it was... nice. I liked it. If you see me painting in public, say hi. But please don’t stalk me just to say hi, that’s weird.
I tried to become someone who makes music. I failed and sold my e-piano. You win some, you lose some.
Anna's mother had always dreamed of doing a Wattwanderung, a walk through the Wadden Sea at low tide to one of the nearby islands. So we packed our things, rented a car and a house, and made our way to Germany's north coast, where I'm originally from.
In Germany, we have the saying "Man muss die Feste feiern, wie sie fallen", which loosely translates to "You have to celebrate the good times as they come". We tried. We failed. Oh well.
Busses are the worst kind of public transportation. Change my mind!
My reading can sometimes be a little too intense for Anna.
Life is more rewarding when you’re invested in things.
We successfully built everything. Let’s just not mention how, a couple of days later, a real handyman had to come and bolt it all to the wall properly.
This is somehow not as shocking to anyone else as it is to me, but how was this cocktail only invented in 2008? We had smartphones then! How did nobody, in all those years before that, think to smash up a bit of basil and throw some random alcohol into it?! It’s absurd!
This was the first vacation I never wanted to end. But I was also glad to be back with the cats.
I expected to like Edinburgh more than I did. The people were great, but the city just didn’t have the right vibe for me.
I played Diablo IV until I had to go to bed, and let’s just say I didn’t have a great night’s sleep because of that.
It was a cute little day.
We appropriated Sant Jordi, please don't cancel us.
This was a couple of days ago; it's still in my hallway.
It was a slow and cozy day.
It was the Long Night of Museums. You buy one ticket and can visit every museum of the city.
Bless you!
I for one am very happy for her.
Give me a run, an exhibition and good company and I'm having a good day.
Sophisticated Saturday
Weather, am I right!?
Not even the very expensive tickets could lessen my amazement about Sagrada Família.
I'll never enjoy flying. It's against nature and shouldn't be possible.
Preparing the way.
What a nice guy!
I kind of messed up the background. Please don't unfollow me because I'm not good enough at art.
Who needs meteorology when my head forecasts the weather?
Coding became a lot easier once I didn’t have to do it myself anymore.
Poopin' and cleaning up my little town.
