THE FAST

We had been talking for ages about doing a fasting or detox. I'm not sure how we started talking about it, but my mum and dad used to do it when I was a kid. We have all these pictures in the photo albums of them pulling horrified faces whilst drinking unspeakable vegetable juices in order to detox themselves. But this was in the early 80's in Sweden which was in the firm grip of the Green Wave, so I'm sure no one bat an eyelid. When we told our friends what we were doing we had mixed responses, from morbid fascination to blank glazing over of the eyes.

We went for 7 days only drinking juices and the dreaded potato water and herbal teas. It should be called Slowing, not Fasting. We spent the first two days alternating between euphoric happiness and wanting to bite each others heads off, but then it became quite easy and by the end of it we were really happy that we did it and we actually felt very healthy in a way I don't think I've felt since I was a kid. But I wouldn't recommend doing it more than once a year. It's too hard on your friends.

LOWER EAST SIDE

We spent one month in New York during May this year, and this is from a visit to a vintage shop at Lower East Side. We got slightly distracted by the shop keeper as we were browsing the garments.

Lets just say, he never stopped.

WILLIAMSBURG

I normally draw everything by hand and sometimes (but rarely) do the odd tweak after on the computer, but this time I did some scribbles using a drawing tablet. As you can see it is not my finest work, but the situation still comes across.

I was in the post office in Williamsburg in New York waiting to post a massive parcel. This guy behind me had the loudest and most interesting and self obsessed conversation on the phone. The rest of us were struggling to hear our own thoughts over his voice.

I now know that he was born in the Green Point Hospital up the road (which according to him is no longer there) so therefor feels that this is his neighbourhood and disagrees strongly with bitches behind counter doing whatever they want. He is renting out an art space to someone and is about to open a gallery combined with a skate shop. But that is all very hush-hush so he can really tell his friend that here over the phone. He also enjoys selling things on eBay and his has had a bit of a busy time lately as his grandmother has been very ill in hospital, but she is OK now, which we are all very relieved to hear.

But as he told his friend on the phone, he didn't want to talk too much as he didn't want all the freaks around him to hear what he was saying. Fair point. You never know who will write about you on the internet.

Its good to be self aware

BREAKFAST AT UNIT K

This is another memorable moment from Unit K. I was actually going to tell my friend Gaëlle that I had finally plucked up the courage to sign up for a dating site called the Pink Sofa. (Which turned out to be a very good idea as I ended up meeting my partner Jacqui..) But true to form, as I told her that I had done something drastic, Gaëlle came back with a quick (and probably equally drastic) suggestion.

This is also the comic that is being talked about in the previous comic here on my blog.

FOR GAËLLE

This is a comic i made of a conversation between me and my friend and former housemate Gaelle. She very sadly passed away recently, and this is one of those little funny and odd little conversations that I will always remember her by.

JAM LABELS

The other day me and Jacqui went for a walk in a rainy Hackney with our friend Tim. He told us about a plum tree near his house that was full of fruit hanging over the fence from a school yard. We couldn't leave it alone when we saw it so we picked up a ladder from Tim's house and got to work. We picked 6 kilos all together just from the small part of the tree that you can reach from the street. If only I could get in to that yard I could start a small jam factory!

We thought it would be such a great idea to make a website that tells you were to find 'free fruit trees' that grow in public spaces. And then I found Fruit City which is doing exactly that! They have an excellent map that you can add your discoveries to and use it to plan your scrumping outings with more precision!

Our plums turned our Sunday into a jam and chutney making frenzy and I made some labels for the jars. The jam and chutney turned out pretty tasty and this is the result.

I love free fruit

Pick your own! There is nothing better!

We Take it, We Make it

Why go to Tesco when there is a fruit tree right next to it?

Handpicked in Hackney, the only way forward

They started out as plain little jars, and look at them now..!

A sweet collection

MY OLD DESK

I spent most of my time in school drawing doodles and little people on pretty much everything that happened to be in front of me. My math books were full of drawings and not much math. And they kept creeping up over my desk as well. I tend to try and restrain myself these days from drawing on furniture, but I found this slightly blurred photo of my desk from my previous house, which I obviously could not keep my self from doodling on. I just like how it becomes part of the surface and the randomness of the drawings. They might not be great illustrations but they are little comments on that moment in time. I particularly like the woman with the skirt that has an airplane printed on it. There are little parachuters jumping from the airplane-skirt.

You can't really read the writing but one of the little creatures says; 'It all went a bit wrong. Time for bed Children' which sums up the whole drawing really.

Desk Squiggles

WINDOW

There is Autumn in the air. Just a faint smell of clear and crisp days to come.

The Window