Pro-Fabulous Anti-Austerity

Some photos from yesterday’s TUC A Future That Works march in London. 100,000 people! My legs are super tired today. Poor legs.

Last photo taken by the lovely Dawn H Foster.

hanna ♥

Slutwalk London

End of the Road

Last weekend, I made it down to End of the Road festival, camera in hand. Here are the results. The bands below are Peggy Sue, Alt-J, Jeffrey Lewis, Patti Smith and Snakedragon. Patti Smith was great! She ended her set saying “Have a fucking beautiful weekend, have a fucking beautiful life! Be strong, work hard, be free! Be free!” Ok, Patti, ok.

Mic check

My friend texted me the other day to say that she missed reading my blog. And I miss blogging! So, I’m back. It’s going to take me a while to figure things out, and work out what I want to blog about on a regular basis, but I’m sure things will percolate to the surface the more that I write. I can’t really explain my absence, except to say that life has been really off-balance this year, in ways both marvellous and not so marvellous. There have been trips, and people, that have made life feel very full, but also other life events and the daily grind that have pulled things in the other direction. Hey, sounds like everyone’s life, right?

Anyway, I am not afraid to put my hands up and admit that there has been an element of burn-out, especially after the Rio conference when it all got very ‘what is the POINT‘?? And I think I’m still working through that and what I think it all means and how I think, or want, change to happen. I read this burn-out article on Rookie while I was out in Rio, and I thought it was right on point. Especially this bit:

Sometimes it seems like girls are never allowed to feel good about themselves physically. So the idea of “taking care of yourself” often turns into this rigid routine of doing yoga for three hours a day, drinking only decaf tea, and eating raw leafy greens harvested by witches that chant passages from The Feminine Mystique at the plants to increase their womyn moon powers, which can become a stressful regimen all its own.

Having said that, I have taken up yoga recently, and dudes, it’s great. I am such an amateur, but I have big aspirations of being some amazingly honed, toned, and centred bendy 40 year old in ten years when I’ve got all the moves down. AND, speaking of Rookie, here is an article with my twin heroes Tavi Gevinson and Ira Glass.

AND, speaking of Rio, it wasn’t all existential crises. I managed to take some good photos inside and outside the conference, before my camera got stolen.

I just love that one of Nick Clegg. I definitely got all up in his grill.

And since then, I’ve been finding joy and motivation in a few choice things. This song.

Making this tshirt.

And yes, doing hippy dippy things like yoga and reading up on what goes into our bodies. I’ve been really inspired by the Tastetastic cycle tour we ran over at The Otesha Project UK and meeting all kinds of people who are clued up on food, where it comes from and how it’s produced. I learnt so much from tour members, as well as the people over at Bread Matters where we stayed for part of it. I’m currently reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. His manifesto is simple – Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

And I will be implementing that manifesto just as soon as I finish that tub of ice cream that’s in my freezer. Ah, people, we are but works in progress.

hanna ♥

 

Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand…

I´m alive! Even though I haven´t checked in for a while. Although, I have to say I am SURPRISED that I am alive, considering that I am in Rio, Brazil, and in the past 3 days have had ALL my worldly goods stolen from me (wallet, phone, computer, camera, ipod, glasses, diary, yada yada yada), been physically threatened by a taxi driver, and cut my knee and twisted my ankle with the result that I am hobbling around various conference centres with a crazed and zombified look in my eyes.

But no matter! I just popped in to tell you that the reason that I am in Rio is that I am tracking the UN Rio+20 Earth Summit negotiations along with the Adopt a Negotiator team. Please pop on over and see what we´re up to! I wrote a very cathartic first post which linked the stealing of my bag to climate change, so you can sneak a peek at that as well.

And apart from all the rubbishness, things are very nice. I am currently sitting in a hippy dream of a hostel in a lovely part of Rio called Santa Teresa. One of the hotel staff is playing a samba instrument called a cavaquinho (not unlike a ukelele…) while I tap away, and there are solar showers and beautiful, inventive things like this:

Well look at that. I think I just cheered myself up.

hanna ♥

Super Sunday

1. Love this video by artist Shishi Yamazaki. I’m going to Japan this week for family stuff. It’s not necessarily a happy visit, but I will definitely try and find the time to follow this lady’s example and do some shimmying through the streets of Tokyo.

2. I went out on a brilliant photography expedition yesterday with my friend DC around Abney Park Cemetary. I’ve been meaning to get to grips with my DSLR for ages and get off just shooting on auto, and I think I made some big steps yesterday with DC’s expert help! Looking forward to experimenting more.

3. I dip dyed my hair! How very Caroline Flack of me. I know it’s like, soooo 2011, but hell I wanted to try it and I like it!

4. Discovered these gals recently and love them. They’re playing May 1st in London. I wanna go!

5. General Friday Kahlo inspiration this week. What a cool mama. I want her on my jacket too.

“And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens — The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.”

6. John Steinbeck wrote a letter to his son in 1958 with advice on falling in love. It’s very good.

7. My friend Anna went to Brazil at the beginning of the year and came back with these wish bracelets for her girlfriends. We had to tie them in three knots around our wrists, making three wishes at the same time. By the time the bracelet falls off our wishes are supposed to have come true. Mine is perilously close to falling off now, and with any luck….

hanna ♥

Super Sunday

1. We’ve had a crazy couple of weeks at Otesha moving office to Toynbee Hall and getting settled in. Say hello to our new meeting room table and chairs. This is what happens when you put me in charge of furniture. Mwahaha.

2. Sending solidarity over to my friend Vi in San Francisco, who was out and about standing up against anti-abortionists this weekend. Standard.

3. Made an awesome discovery this week with my friend Cress – the Aubin Cinema in Shoreditch. We watched Shame, which was great, but bleak. However, our moods could not be tempered, because we were in the massive-ist, comfiest seats imaginable.

“We all know the classic scene from cartoons: The cat reaches a precipice, but it goes on walking, ignoring the fact that there is no ground under its feet; it starts to fall only when it looks down and notices the abyss. What the protesters are doing is reminding those in power to look down.”

4. Read this article – The Violent Silence of a New Beginning – by Zizek on the Occupy movement. It’s brilliant.

5. Spent a substantial part of today making these cakes. The recipe is called Cake for Breakfast? YUP. (Also made this for dinner – proper yum).

6. I had a really nice time volunteering at The Ministry of Stories yesterday, mentoring a group of East London kids in creative writing. One of the kids on my table (age 8) wrote a story about a dog-monster called HOUNDOOM who was the devil’s pet. Houndoom ate fried dinosaur’s eggs for breakfast and travelled through a cloud of lightning bolts, which allowed him to pass through time (he also sucked out people’s souls by digging through their brains – eek). It was quietly hilarious. Also – want to know my 8 year old’s top tip for creative writing? “Let your mind go wild.”

7. Look at my smug new jumper face. £15 from UO Renewal. It’s GOLD. Yay.

hanna ♥

In the year 2012, 2012

2012 got off to a lovely start, with a couple of days up in Derbyshire for mountain walks, good food, good friends, good chats, and Bridget Jones (I somehow managed to watch it twice over Christmas. Didn’t mind. Also watched Pride and Prejudice… Firth quota for 2012 has already been met).

I’ve made all the usual resolutions – cook more, bike more, generally be all-round fantastic person. My one big resolution for this year though is to work hard and follow through all my professional goals for this year. I had an amazing time last year bringing together the East London Green Jobs Alliance – this year it’s all about delivery and making our vision reality. It’s tough in the current economic climate, but I am going to try my very best, and we’ll see what happens. I’m nervous, but excited for what this year will bring!

Here’s to an awesome 2012,

hanna ♥

Super Sunday

1. Super Sunday is back! I have really missed being able to sit and look back over the nice things that I’ve done or come across during the week, it’s like the fun version of a diary. So to begin, we have some pictures I took from my little hols to Paris. I’m quite proud of the one with the guys in tshirts, I really like it.

2. The launch event for the East London Green Jobs Alliance was a real success! Read more about it here. The picture is from some of us at Otesha mucking around and taking a photo for our annual report. Aren’t we cute?

3. What Girls Need – yes yes yes to everything on this list.

4. Mindy Kaling from the American Office is in this month’s Bust magazine and comes across so well, I might have a new girl crush. She’s also written a brilliant piece in The New Yorker on romantic comedies. Perfection.

5. I’m really feeling the girl love at the moment, and just feel so much appreciation and admiration for all the girls in my life. I’m coming over all Spice Girls. I also really want this tote bag! Meant to be available soon from girlgangzine.com.

6. Marilyn Monroe as silent film actress Clara Bow.

7. If you’re a child of the 80s I hope you’ve seen Teen Witch and I hope this truly EXCELLENT clip transports you back to what should rightly be one of the most brilliant moments of your life! I was literally weeping with laughter this afternoon.

hanna  ♥

Uber Wednesday!

HELLO! We are not quite back to normal scheduling as I have the Alliance launch event tomorrow (woo!) and then I’m off to Paris for a few days on hols before returning to regular life again. But, I am stealing a few moments now to collate aaalllll the fun stuff I’ve come across or done and wanted to share over the past few weeks but haven’t had the time to! Here’s to uber wednesday.

1. If you are a teenage girl, have ever been a teenage girl, or know any teenage girls, you have to check out Rookie Mag. It’s an online magazine that I know I would have loved, loved, loved. Full of beautiful photoshoots like this one (don’t you just want to be in a girl gang?), musings, music, and advice, it’s just lovely. Read about Miranda July’s first feminist action here.

2. I’ve just finished Julia Child’s My Life in France and it might actually be one of my favourite books now! She was obviously an extremely funny lady, as you can see from these photos, and it made me want to run away and become a culinary chef.

3. I was very lucky to be a finalist in the Sheila McKechnie 2011 Campaigner awards this month, for my work with the East London Green Jobs Alliance! Check out the other finalists and winners, they are all amazing.

4. You have to listen to this, it’s only 6 minutes long and very funny. Starlee Kine’s mission to eliminate small talk from the world.

5.  I’ll be moving back to London in just over a month! I am so, so sad to leave Brighton and the loveliness that is the little nest I built for myself over the past year. But work and friends and new beginnings beckon, and these beautiful photos of our capital from What Katie Does are making me quite excited actually!

6. How to get out of a creative rut – Nextness.

7. GO SEE JANE EYRE. NOW. It’s so good.

8. I’ve been listening to the Diamond Mine album by King Creosote & Jon Hopkins on repeat.

9. I wrote another blog for 10:10 – Where are the green jobs?

10. I used my trusty KitchenAid to make these chocolate souffles when my sister came to visit. SO YUMMY. I made this vegetable paella for the main course. Now morbidly obese.

I’ll be back soon!

hanna  ♥