It's full of stuff.

I haven't been very productive of late. I managed to keep up sketching daily for about three months and now I've slipped back into my old habit of being a lazy fucker. A lot of things have happened since my last journal entry. Somebody I knew (I don't want to give any more details, because it feels disrespectful and gossipy) fell ill and died last week. This was the first time in my life that something like this happened in my immediate environment and it is horrible. Just thinking about the people that have to go on without her and what unspeakable grief they must be feeling makes me choke up. The funeral is tomorrow, and I won't be able to go (part of me really doesn't want to go cause that part of me is a huge coward) and it makes me feel very bad.

It does make me realize what an amazing and easy life I have led so far.

Anyway. Despite this my weekend was really amazing. I went to see Eddie Izzard last Friday. I had never seen any of his shows (or any live comedian shows at all) so I didn't really know what to expect. Seen him on the BBC a lot, of course, and I admire him a great deal. I gather he doesn't really prepare any material and I could tell he was really nervous during the first 10 minutes or so and worried about uncomfortable silences, but as soon as he relaxed he was absolutely brilliant and had me laughing hysterically more than once. On Saturday Brian and I travelled all the way to Groningen (nearly 3 hours by train) for an exhibition of Nordic art of the 19th and 20th century. I have never seen so many beautiful paintings together in my life! There we three huge paintings by different artists that were displayed next to each other that, to my embarrassment, literally made me tear up. I have often been reduced to tears by films or music (in the privacy of my home, I should add), but a painting has never managed to touch me like that. I would post a link to show you which ones, but you need to see the real thing to understand. We considered buying the exhibition catalogue, but the tiny prints in the book just did not convey the same overwhelming beauty of the real paintings. Ghh.

On Sunday the sun shone bright and we met up with our friends for a picnic in our favourite park. I OD'ed on happy chemicals induced by the sunshine and blossoming trees and birdsong and my beautiful friends and then we all went back to our place for pizza and the Hobbit. Brian teased me about fancying Thorin. Or perhaps he's just jealous he doesn't have facial hair like that. Lol.

And now life continues as usual. I'm counting the days till my next holiday (5 weeks, 3 days!) and daydream about a new job, a new house and, very secretly, babies.