my new friend

Living alone can do funny things to you. Today, I bought myself a new friend, this beautiful plant to the left. I will call her Gertrude. I realize the tragic nature that I have resorted to calling a plant my 'friend', but I felt my flat needed a bit more life in it - our sea monkeys are cool, but they live in the bathroom, so I don't see them as much as Gertrude.

I have spent today working and painting - a good balance of both. I've been getting a little stressed at the lack of work I've done so far this holiday, but then I realized that my deadlines are actually quite a long way off, and so I don't need to stress quite so much. Funnily enough, having realized that seems to have kick-started me into working mode.

I'm off in a minute to tutor a Somali girl in St. Paul's, which should be good. I don't feel I'm the most capable of teachers - it's actually pretty hard remembering what it was like learning to read, and understanding all the different grammatical rules. Trying to help this girl with her reading has made me realize just how much I take for granted just being able to read without having to put any active thought into the process of it.