An exhibition, Polish lessons, some
catching up with friends, and a nearly purchased flat.
What
to do?
We talk about what we are going to do when
we are finally moved in and most of the house is ‘done’. It will never be
‘done’ as there will always be details, but you can put a lot of minor stuff
off. I am keen to study. I want to find
some online courses where I can delve into history, literature, anything that
grabs me.
Stefan, I now learn, has always wanted to
sculpt. I think he means carve, as he loves wood with a passion. He was
especially interested in the Hepworth carvings we saw at the Tate, and they
were terrific. We shall see.
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| Crummy pic, as not allowed!
Teaching
I closed the studio and didn’t miss it. I
still had a couple of teaching commitments and they were feeling like left
overs to the work. Not actually working but still teaching a bit feels like a
disconnect and I want now to have a clean break. I had a gig at West Dean, and a future gig at
Morley, and have shifted both onto Peter Binnington, who is every bit as
capable as myself. He wants the work, I don’t.
Compare
and contrast: interaction between strangers in other European countries and in
the U.K.
Laura, my friend, has been spending a lot
of time on a course in a small town in
Germany. She compares interacting with strangers over there and in her
small town in the UK. It is noticeable to her how much more easily people laugh
and smile in the UK than over there.
Growing up in London, which is a big city
and in theory should not be compared with a small town, I experienced extreme
loneliness, but as an adult I feel it is the easiest thing to smile and get a
positive reaction from a complete stranger; the British are a lovely and very
friendly people. My earlier loneliness had a lot to do with age and lack of
confidence.
My experience in Poland is mixed. I see a
lot of dour faces there, and an unwillingness to engage. As a foreigner I
cannot read them; even making eye contact can be hard, but familiar interaction
in the local shops, for example, is delightful, as you would expect. I have seen Stefan on many occasions fall
into easy conversation with total strangers as if with old friends. So if you
are on familiar ground and are sure of yourself, it is easy. I was not sure of
myself as a teenager in London, and am certainly on unfamiliar ground in
Poland.
It does seem to me, though I could be
wrong, the Polish are less willing to talk to each other, which may be due to
their history. Those years of communism determined their behavior for generations. I cannot speak for the Germans!
To
buy or not to buy
Listening to an article on radio 4 one
morning about oversharing on the internet, I wondered about that. I am not
going to talk about my insides or my emotional state, which is what they were
referring to, but I could mention money.
I have been extremely lucky in my life and
though I have not made loads of money through my work, I have however been fortunate
in other ways and have managed, within the last 10-12 years, to find the funds
to buy property. In 2004, my second husband and I bought our first London flat,
while we were living in San Francisco. I drove that as I could see I would soon
need somewhere to live in London. He was 27 years older than I, and in fact he
died the next year, at 87. I lived in that flat, then much later, when my
mother and father needed care together with Stefan we moved into my parent’s
house and rented it out. Later, I was
able with son Laurie, to buy two further flats. Now all three are successfully rented out.
So, where does the ‘oversharing’ bit come
in?
I self-conscious about this. Though I have
done nothing wrong, the fact is I am part of the have society. I would guess the great majority of my generation in
the UK own property, and many have property they rent out, too. How can I not
be aware that many of us are coming from a colossally privileged place? Look at
how difficult, impossible it is for young people now to buy.
However, that said, this week we nearly
bought another flat. Laurie wanted to invest some savings and wanted a return
on them. I wanted to help, so I said, lets try. I investigated and very quickly
found out what has happened in the year since I bought the last flat. The
prices for the kind of flat I would want have rocketed! It seems that ex local
authority flats are now the most desirable, though they carried a stigma for
years as they used to have council tenants, of course. But by now, most of them
are privately owned and rented out, so the demand has shot up and driven up the
prices. With oil crashing, people need
still to invest, so they are after property. It seems, with government making
noises about tax increases and various regulations, things are hotting up and
there may be a bubble of some sort forming, and we know what happens to
bubbles. Upshot, I am out of there. Lets
leave things as they are, Laurie can invest somewhere else and we carry on.
Next
week, maybe some more pictures of something fun.
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