I had good intentions to write about my November before the month had even finished, but festive shenanigans and a trip to Las Vegas got in the way, so here we are. November was a month of adjusting to a new pace, celebrating Thanksgiving and dedicating time to hanging out with some top-notch women I’m lucky to have in my life. It was also a time when wildfires devastated parts of California. Luckily we were out of harm’s way but smoke from one fire settled over the Bay Area for over a week, resulting in horrible air conditions and lots of indoor activities for about 10 days.
Blogging about: The five things I learnt from launching a podcast. Work is already underway on the second season of Non/Native, but I wanted to pause and reflect on what the first season taught me, and share some tidbits of advice I gathered during the process.
Watching: Game of Thrones, on repeat. For Thanksgiving this year, we went to our British friends R & C for Thronesgiving – two days of pajamas, cooking, eating and GoT. We watched 12 episodes, including the very first one, the battle at the Wall, the Red Wedding (I hid in another room for the final scene) and lots of dragon-based ones.
Making: For Thronesgiving I made Anna Jones’ epic Goodwill Rainbow Pie. I’ve wanted to try making it for ages but it’s such an immense undertaking that I kept putting it off. The end result was delicious, with no soggy bottom! I was so proud I ended up taking the leftover pie home and holding it aloft on Skype so I could show my parents…
Buying: Flights! This time to Portugal.
Reading: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, which was my pick for the book club I’m part of, and Circe by Madeline Miller.
Listening to: The Jurassic Park score, live at the San Francisco Symphony. The Symphony often put on film screenings accompanied by the score and this performance was so good! Also, this month, M and I went to see Romantic Songs of the Patriarchy, a performance piece by the artist Ragnar Kjartansson, featuring 20 different women singing and playing acoustic guitar in a loop for hours on end. The link I just included is to an Art News article that gives more detail about the event, but essentially each musician performed well-known songs from the last 40 or so years that feature pejorative, aggressive or coercive lyrics aimed at women.
Wearing: Lots of jumpers – either it’s really cold right now, or my body has finally acclimatized to San Francisco temperatures.
Eating: A cornucopia of delicious pot-luck treats at Lady Brunch. I’m not sure two events can make something a regular occurrence, but we had another Lady Brunch this month, hosted by the lovely P. I think it will probably be a quarterly event but I would happily meet monthly with these badass women, especially when they bring homemade macarons and thoughtful conversations to the table.
Enjoying: Winning a pub quiz, celebrating 13 years, an apocalyptic board game evening, Absolutely Fabulous drag queens, and rain chasing the smoke away.
Looking forward to: Christmas with my family, New Year’s Eve with friends, and stuffing myself silly with British festive food in between. Bring it on!