COVID-19: Diary of a Little Londoner

Saturday 25 April 2020

Saturday 18 April 2020

Techno (and coffee) is seriously getting me through lockdown. What's getting you through?

TUNE! I want to be in a field, with loads of people dancing in the sun to this...drinking gin and getting merry...

Easter Weekend (Fri 10 -Mon 13)

London taking social distancing seriously...

Stickers have appeared on bus stops and lamp posts. Is someone campaigning for equality? I'm not sure how this correlates...

Londoners showing their support...

Thursday 9 April 2020

Wednesday 8 April 2020

Don't forget to move your boogie body today!

Tuesday 7 April 2020

Corrie Bromfield reached out to me recently to interview me for her super cool blog.

Naturally I was flattered - it always baffles me when people reach out to me because of my ASMR because I'm my own worst critic, however, I love it when they do - this is my passion and I love helping people and promoting the ASMR community.

Her blog is nostalgic as fuck - especially for us 90s babies!

Her new post is all about ASMR! Click on the image below to read it...

Monday 6 April 2020

12pm

Nourishing my body with avocado on rye and mixed seed sourdough, a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic glaze, topped with hot sauce.

''Sourdough is more digestible than standard loaves and more nutritious too...The acids slow down the rate at which glucose is released into the blood-stream and lower the bread's glycaemic index (GI), so it doesn't cause undesirable spikes in insulin'' https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/22/sourdough-bread-good-for-you

I hope you're keeping balanced and healthy too!

Eating well is very important for our mental health. Do you remember where our 'second brain' is?...

The gut!

So the food we eat influences our mood. This book blew my mind - I highly recommend it:

It talks about the microbiome (microbes that live in your gut).

''The microbiome consists of trillions of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microbes that live mainly in your large intestine or colon.

The reason you should care about your microbiome is because lots of research has, over the last few years, shown that having the right mix of “good” bacteria in your gut is vitally important for your long term health. It’s a bit like rainforests being vital for the overall health of the planet. Or on a more personal level, which would you prefer: a lovely wild garden brimming with colours and life, or owning a backyard full of snarling dogs and broken furniture?'' https://cleverguts.com/clever-guts-diet/

10am

Current mood...

Saturday 4 April 2020

10pm

My weekly ASMR livestream.

I hope it meets it's objectives to relax and entertain those who may be suffering from ill mental health, or to relax those who just need a break.

1pm

Come for walk in the city with me...what will we find today?

''It's the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine''...

I used to commute through London Bridge and this tunnel is always frustrating to walk through because there's usually people everywhere!

A couple jogging next to The Tower of London.

There's always hope...

The City of London is normally quiet on the weekend, with a few tourists walking around the historic cobbled streets. But today the futuristic buildings stand alone.

The Gherkin sparkling in the sun.

Relevant...

This is nice...

The road to the Museum of London, usually jammed packed with traffic...

St Paul's being sneaky in the background...

St Paul's spying on you...

According to visitbritain.org, 1,657,446 people visited the cathedral in 2018. Today, just a few local joggers and a police car are keeping it company.

Blackfriars bridge and the ugly building I hate. Why is it shaped like that?

Friday 3 April 2020

5pm

Here comes the sun.

Apparently, it’s going to be 20 degrees this Sunday. So I bought one of these beasts…

It's called a SnugBoy.

When you sit on it it feels like you're being engulfed in a big old hug. Or being sucked into a huge vagina.

Working out how to inflate it was interesting, but it's pretty easy once you know how. This dude really helped me out…

If you have any outdoor space you may want to jazz it up a little too!

My orange one was £30.

9am

Ouch my head.

Celebrated my flatmate's birthday yesterday with a bottle of Prosecco, sparklers and a trip to the roof!

Before the Prosecco, I also joined my colleagues for a surprise Zoom party for a work friend at 5pm. My colleague told him that he was in trouble with our CEO and needed to urgently join the Zoom meeting.

The birthday boy was shitting himself!

But in actual fact, we were all on the other end of the Zoom call ready to virtually party with him.

We also sent him an alcoholic Deliveroo ordered to his door

which he appreciated.

Can I just say, happy birthday is the most depressing song. It's so slow and dreary. I prefer Stevie Wonder's version.

I had a nice sex on the beach during that Zoom call, then I was off to another birthday party (in my flat lol).

We chilled on the roof, did a little photoshoot, drank and when nightfall came, whipped out these magical little bad-boys...

I hope my flatmate had a wonderful birthday, as wonderful as it can be in lock-down.

So now, I sit here working from home.

I just ate my fourth jacket potato in a row (not literally one after the other, I mean for lunch for four days straight). You can't go wrong with a nice, comforting jacket potato...

Thursday 2 April 2020

I found some interesting things on my walk today...

The entrepreneurial spirit. A mobile fishmonger...

London's litter has changed...

Even this cat looks fed up...

Wednesday 1 April 2020

On my daily release from the flat, I strolled past this wonderful sign...

The community spirit is alive in London!

I took some seeds for my balcony and planted them straight away. I will keep you updated on the progress of these little seeds of happiness.

Monday 30 March 2020

Good morning world. Hang in there.

The community spirit continues with an unscheduled knock on our door, and two little plants sitting on our doorstep.

Our friendly neighbour, who we met for the first time on our doorstep just now, was standing a safe distance away from us and asked us how we were doing. How sweet! Thanks a bunch lovely neighbours.

''Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours With a little understanding, you can find the perfect blend

Neighbours, should be there for one another

That's when good neighbours become good friends''

Sunday 29 March 2020

9pm: Dubstep

Rekindling my love for dubstep...sipping on a nice little cocktail...

Dubstep was HUGE when I was in my late teens/ early 20s.

I loved going to dubstep nights in Croydon, the birth place of the genre! It can get a little heavy however...

TUNEEEEEEEE

1pm: Come for a walk with me...

Went for my daily, socially distanced walk today, along the abandoned streets of central London...

South Bank is usually so packed with tourists you have to walk in a zig-zag to get past them all! But today I had the pick of the pavement walking past the static London Eye...

Westminster Bridge looks a bit bare too...

We used to have crisp packets littering the pavements...

Stopped past a little city farm and saw this charming fella...

London is not so bad in isolation after all.

10am: Waking up like this...

Good morning! Current mood...

Friday 27 March 2020

Have I ever told you I get PMDD?

It's been a really hard journey of self-discovery with multiple trips to the doctors.

I knew something was up a few years back, because I noticed I would randomly become really depressed and this would happen suddenly.

I would switch from happy, bubbly, energetic, curious to angry, hateful, depressed and in a lot of emotional pain.

I would get insatiable cravings for specific foods like miso soup.

Sometimes I couldn't focus or concentrate, other times I couldn't look people I love, like friends, in the eye.

Sometimes I would cry uncontrollably without any notice.

One day, I was so fed up of feeling like this I remember sitting at the train station on my way home from work, researching why I was so 'crazy'.

I then stumbled upon something that would change my perspective forever.

Have you ever had a 'penny drop' moment? This was mine.

Everything suddenly made sense.

I found a website describing what I had been going through. I can't remember how I found it, or what I searched for.

This website resonated with me, so I did some investigative work.

Luckily, I keep a track of all my periods, so I back-tracked and tried to remember my mood a week before each period.

This was easy because I can vividly remember my behaviour and actions toward other people that took me by surprise in months gone by.

Especially that time when I was on holiday with the girls. I suddenly switched and felt incredibly hateful and depressed when sitting by the pool one day. It was really scary because I didn't know what was happening. But also, you don't just suddenly feel it and realise OH SOMETHING HAS CHANGED. You just think that's your normal state of being. It's hard to explain.

All these events accumulated to this eureka moment.

I was certain I had PMDD.

I made my first trip to the doctor. I was disappointed. I had finally discovered that there was an explanation, a name, to something that I thought was intangible, giving me hope that there could be a way of managing this.

But the doctor said take anti-depressants two weeks before your period and then two weeks off. And gave me no other advice on how to manage this condition.

WTF!?

I certainly did not want to mess around with my serotonin levels when they were perfectly fine for MOST of the month.

I wasn't happy.

So I researched PMDD in my local area and found a specialist hormone clinic that deals with this condition.

I went to a different doctor this time and told her about the clinic and she said to refer me, she needed to rule out other conditions such as standard depression first.

I understood this and welcomed her advice - she put me on a group CBT course and assigned me a therapist

When I spoke to the therapist, I finally felt understood. When she first called me, she had my evaulation forms that I had previously filled in and sent back to her. These forms ask you to rate your mood in the past two weeks.

She didn't understand why she was calling me because my forms indicated that I had good mental health during this time.

I then proceeded to tell her that I think I have PMDD. She knew what this condition was right away and asked me to fill-in the form thinking back to the last time I had PMDD and how I was feeling during that time.

She compared the two and instantly saw the contrast in my emotions.

We are still in discussions about how to best manage this. The trouble is, my PMDD is different every month. Sometimes I don't experience it at all! Sometimes it creeps up on me and I suddenly find myself in a black hole, or riddled with anxiety that I can't control, or sat at work or in my room crying uncontrollably, or being so sensitive to rejection that I can't handle reading messages in WhatsApp groups from people I love,

This is an ongoing battle.

But I am glad I have found someone who understands how tough this is.

The reason for this blog post is because I had serious PMDD this evening. And it rolled into Saturday morning. But then I started my period (after lots of emotion pain AND physical period pains) and my mood lifted.

I don't know what it's going to be like next month.

Friday 27 March 2020

Saw a foxy fox today.

Thursday 26 March 2020

Tuesday 24 March 2020

It's easy to forget the things that bring us joy when facing difficult times - this is where gratitude plays an important part in keeping our spirits up.