Summer Fair

‘The worst-tempered people I’ve ever met were the people who knew they were wrong.’

Wilson Mizner

I went to the Summer Fair yesterday and was extremely disappointed about the whole thing. I thought it would be some really interesting design show but I didn’t see anything new or innovative just a repeat of what has already been out there. And this fair claims to be about the latest trends, well sorry… but it was all waaaaay to contemporary and just plain boring. I can’t believe people would actually be willing to pay an entrance fee for this [25 pounds I think]. I’ve seen far more interesting stuff on the internet design-wise by independent artists and/or designers and for free.

Perhaps I’ve got it all wrong, perhaps I have different standards and I dare to admit that these might be slightly high but I do recognise when hot air is being sold. I got this ‘Disneyland’ feeling *being sarcastic* while I was there so I guess my expectations were too high. Also an incident with a trader from Isleworth who seemed to have some personality issue on the edge of paranoia/aggression, made me want to leave. The other people at the stand had to make up for his behaviour by apologising about five times… I’m sure his attitude and his so not-worth-mentioning-products won’t bring him much business.

There were a few really nice stands though, there was one that showed amazing furniture and accessories handmade from natural reclaimed and recycled materials. And another that had funny metallic wind spinners, unfortunately the links to their websites don’t work so I can’t show them here. Still I was in and out in about 45 minutes and spent the rest of the day enjoying the unexpected sun and the wonderful company of my friend KB. and her partner. It was quite windy though, 28mph according to the BBC weather forecast, but it was nice to have a stroll around the area.

Back to work today… I’m gonna be sketching for a few hours for the online glove shop and will work on my own project which happens to be an online shop as well.

Best design to be found outside the building rather than inside

Moon Phases

At times, two individuals in a relationship can be total strangers hiding from each other, fighting each other, cursing each other, even hating each other. At times I find myself surprised about all the different emotions and feelings two individuals can have for each other, either positive or downright negative. The challenge is to keep things in balance and take time to rediscover the other person and your own being, after a negative phase.
I did… although I’m not there yet: it will need some more evaluation and thinking. Miscommunication is often the key to our misery and I’m not sure if that is caused by a cultural clash or other weird energies or externals. I reckon it is often a bit of both. Most of the time we deal quite well with this but sometimes we are extremely bad and end up saying or doing things that we both regret later.
I have to admit that moving to London was the easy bit. Organising a life here seems to be much harder. I realised a lot of things over the xMas season because of the way things are celebrated over here. It’s so different from what I’m used to. It’s the perfect family event. So then I realised I don’t have that perfect family thing, it’s only a childhood memory these days.
The 23rd was my dad’s birthday, I still think of him on his birthday and yes I miss him. It’s just a lingering thought in the back of my head. I won’t bore you with my family history but a lot happened over the years and because of the bond I had with my dad I have been banned ever since he died. So I moved to London because I had nothing to lose. I ain’t running away, I’m trying to sort things out, for myself.
So I sent some xMas cards to this shattered family who couldn’t be bothered to ask for my new address and I reckon I still had a tiny sparkle of hope when I sent those off. A tiny sparkle that was hidden in my subconscious, hope…, to hear from them. Hope that everything would be okay so I could have that perfect xMas feeling too.
Did I fall flat on my face! Worse… The other half didn’t understand. How could he anyway, this is so deeply rooted over a period of at least half a lifetime, how could I expect him to understand? He never had a clue what was going on in my head: why I felt so extremely sad and angry inside. Realisation can hit you hard at times and I expected him to be around whenever it would hit me.
So of course things clashed…
In hindsight, things could’ve been dealt with in a better way but I guess because of what happened it made me think about the situation and I made a tiny bit of progress in letting go of the perfect family issue. All I can do is be myself, be honest and try my best if that won’t be appreciated than it’s time to move on and focus on more important things in my life…