Essentially Steph

Other annoying development relating to 3 people moving out soon is that we had 2 new house mates locked in, but one backed out to move to Germany (??) after seeming so on it and wanting to reserve ASAP… and now above house mate is going to move to that room which is fine, but we need to secure another house mate for her room and the agency are being funny about it and I’m stuck with the admin because I sorted everything initially and I cbaaaa

👿 Hair dresser said all the free slots are gone and I’m grumpy about it, but also my hair is like wildly different lengths at the front and back from how I’ve grown it out and maybe it’s better I have a professional sort it out than a learner experimenting with my head?

😈 Just got off a call with my office buddy and we had a general chat and she told me she’d been accidentally copied in on the whole email chain for my moving to Spain malarkey hahaha so I got the low down on what’s been going on in the background (delighted to hear that amounts to anything at all because I wasn’t sure) and apparently guy in Spain is very excited and using lots of exclamation marks, which is good to hear! Kinda thought he’d receive my CV and be like meh, forget it.

Hoping this means I don’t need to chase again, but since I’m not supposed to know about that email, I might follow up again when I’m back from holiday as I’d like to be directly told what’s going on! They are asking questions about whether I can work in Spain and if they just asked me, I could provide them with my residency permit which explains that I can! They are also deciding what to pay me which is nerve wracking and make me want to vom. I have been really enjoying my salary and I’m scared for it to come down again. Sure, cost of living is slightly less here but honestly not by much…

Above all I just want to know timeframes!! Do I start bringing my stuff back in loads each time I visit already, or will I be needing my winter stuff for another few months?? Also I really need to brush up on Spanish, like I do use it with Andy’s friends but I need to go get back in the swing if I end up with a Spanish manager and colleagues?!

"I’ve been personally trained in razor cutting by Rob himself. So if Rob’s fully booked (happens a lot 👀), I’m a great alternative for that lived-in, textured vibe." (That's Rob, the owner of the Salon, who has trained him himself?!?)

and

This is what I did with the left over material I had! I saw this pattern ages ago and wanted to make it after I'd made that bumbag at xmas for my housemate, but had a bunch of stuff I wanted to make first at that point. I do still need to add a buckle slider to the strap but I just sewed it in place last night so I could wear it out! I've ordered the slider online and I'll finish off the bag properly when I'm back next week.

I still have frog bag mark II, and potentially to remake my velvet top before the end of August. I have a project I started on my mini sewing machine before I moved back to the UK which needs finishing, and I bought a pattern from some trousers not long ago so I might have a crack at that, but then I can be more free!

I'm interested in going off piste and making stuff without any patterns, so maybe I'l take a class or something to learn more about that?!

I did try and hype him up a bit saying I’m not precious about my hair etc and being like are you up for a challenge!! He rallied for like 30 secs but I could see he really didn’t wanna so I just agreed to book with his colleague but it won’t be for another 2 weeks and I’m just bummed, I was so hyped to get it today. His colleague is also even more expensive and it’s like… the most you will cut off any section of my head is 2cm… and I already feel fucked around, is it even worth it??

I did then bump into some people I knew from Cambodia which would not have happened if I hadn’t left at that particular time, so that was cool! But then I got badgered out of a tenner by a homeless guy and I know you’re supposed to feel good when you do nice things for people but it was just the inch-mile of it, then the feeling bad for feeling annoyed, like that guy is having a bad time, and just UGH.

Also explains the bloating I guess.

Watch me realise in real time that I did not for one second think about the placement of the pockets or the seams when attatching the skirt to the bodice... I have one front pouch and one butt pouch now.

This morning I checked out, then got breakfast on the way to Kelvingrove gallery. Had a little wander around there, then walked through the uni and up to the botanical gardens and got myself a lil raspberry matcha as a treat on the way.

Really enjoyed the botanical gardens! Then I got the subway to shields road to have a quick roller skate session at the rink there! Forgot it’s summer holidays and was just full of kids, thought it might be a nice quiet mid-week session lmao. I shit you not, I did not count to 10 even once without someone falling over, often right in front of me hahaha but it was still fun to glide around and I think I sweat out all the alcohol from yesterday.

Then I walked back to central to get my train and saw it was cancelled, but I was quite early anyways so I got on an earlier service, and no one asked for my rail card either direction which is great because I recently realised it expired on the 1st not on the 27th like I thought!!

Had a little read of the first chapter of Chiara’s book 👀 so exciting!

Well everything went wrong from there, I snapped 3 needles in quick succession, zig-zag stopped working entirely, I did find a solution on YouTube (essentially gear jammed but manoeuvrable by hand) so I ended up sticking to the normal presser foot after I fixed it to save myself sticking my hand inside the machine to manually change it each time, but then I ran into (maybe) tension issues, but nothing I have troubleshot has worked so I think it’s a thread issue? Was using a poor quality one from a sewing kit so I’m gunna buy a good quality thread tomorrow and pray that works!!

The material is a million times better to work with so I’m just frustrated that I’m now stuck because of issues with the machine, when everything else was actually going well! Have to remind myself that I wouldn’t have got it all done today anyways. It’s ok. But I am hoping to finish it before the end of the week (and I’ll be away tue + weds!!)

Fucking DONE. This was such a ball ache fabric to work with I’m actually pissed or rather than satisfied to have completed the project!!

Lots of bodge-job bits, lots of cba that will DO. Ruffles aren’t as ruffly as desired, waistband isn’t straight, I don’t care!!