My good friend Ben got married this month. Incredible romance with Fi who was at school with us (a few years younger). They’ve forged a connection that brought an old school motley squad together back to the South of England for a wonderful celebration. A favourite to see was Jo Violaris who is now a fully fledged artist (did the orders of service with aplomb), a mum now, coupled up with a lovely Ukrainian chap. Amazing to see Maddie too who is now pregnant plus Tim, Grant and Henderson. The Brookes squad were out in full force too, what a special friendship group. Really committed to each other and to a large extent responsible for maturing Ben into Dave (nickname) - a legitimately suave, mature and confident gentleman. Really sweet the bond he has with his brother Luke, that definitely takes work but seems fulfilling: they rely on each other.
Other fun people I hung out with in July include Sandy for a tough half marathon run in Beckenham Park, we were also joined by Blakey and Ali Yousef for a 60 mile cycle into Epping Forest (cannot believe that’s my first time in there). Met up with Gabriel and Red to smash some gymnastic rings, Danny Porter and George Apperly for some Tennis, and was super surprised when the Spanish origin coach (Guillermo) at my handstand class could speak better English than me!! He’s using a mix of duolingo and zoom classes, and has been diligent for three years so he can take his wife on safari this summer. For purely social stuff it was cool to hang with Basak, Schaffer, Briars, Carmel and her crew in London fields for a social. Ended up going to some comedy with Liddia in the hopes that we would actually go up and perform, takes cohones I do not quite have just yet - will doooooo. There was a lovely gonville reunion with Ignotus and Fahad coming out of the woodwork too.
In some slightly more professional settings work has been productive. Tutoring too has gone well. I was commissioned to write a few pieces for some artistic collectives which I am super behind on. Really need to do a write up for Audoo, FxHash, Bright Moments and publish one for Proof Of People. I am also due to apply for a bunch of grants to create music + complete my book of poetry. Really wondrous breakthrough however is that the poems, songs, prose, and animation are all part of the same creative universe. My own little wakanda. With that in mind I’m finding lots of complementarity between the pieces however am desperately in need of making the time to go deep on that as an insight. I have not ended up writing an article for Kadena which I feel a little guilty about: little interest in completing that though.
Ciru and Dad had a birthday! Got some presents for Aunty Njeri to take back. We had a bunch of repairs at the house. Tata Njeri has been preaching the virtues of corporal punishment to instill discipline in young ones - not quite sold but it is funny to listen to. We attended a few events for her business, such a natural sales individual, super tough to get commitments over the line. A really gentle approach that isn’t necessarily focused on lots of product detail or specifications but rather building amazing rapport, trust, and offering significant transparency as well as communication. Such a shame that diabetes robs her of the energy to bring this version of herself to her work as consistently as you see in the movies - the perils of sugar!!
The Chaos collective I've been part of to create and sell music has been undergoing some major governance issues regarding the allocation of value to participants in the camp. It turns out some of the core crew were being paid, but didn’t disclose that explicitly. They ended up with higher percentages of thel pie as a result of well meaning colleagues rewarding this perceived effort with more remuneration than they might have had this been widely shared. Innately I am convinced the intentions and purpose underpinning this group, and the operational team that make it happen, are virtuous. Whilst it can be a painful process, parsing disagreements (or even hearing them out when emotions are running high), there are important conversations happening here that set significant precedents going forward.
