My sister is one of the best humans I know. She is kind, generous and caring, and has dealt with some challenging situations over the years, including a community service year for her degree, living in a run-down, cockroach-infested block of flats. (Later, I took over a toaster from her kitchen… complete with a small arthropod hitchhiker in the toast-crumb tray thing. Not delightful.)
Over the past two years, she has really come into her own and found her groove. This has required her to uproot herself and move to London. I am so in awe of how she has thrown herself into her work, achieving her goals, being promoted before having been at her job for a year, making friends and embedding herself in a busy family life and excellent friend group.
My sister has a very definite sense of the rhythm of her drum, and for years, I have wanted to be cool enough to dance to her soundtrack. It’s impossible to grow up with a close sibling and not have a raft of inside jokes and your own language. And, while we fought pretty consistently and terribly when we lived in the same house, now that we are grown-ups, I am so grateful for her influence, determination and sense of fun.
There’re only so many people you can call to ask “Do I feel like going for a run now?”, and be willing to do what they say, whether that is “yes, you’ll enjoy it” or “no, las it” (SAfrican slang for ‘leave’).
“Can I skip bookclub tonight?”
“Yes, you deserve a quiet night in, and you will feel fresh for that party you have on Friday, then.”
It’s good to sometimes have a brain to externalise the internal debate, right?
“Sometimes I wake up late and don’t even brush my teeth
Just wanna stuff my face with leftover mac and cheese
You know I get depressed, are you impressed with my honesty?
So I wear what I wanna ’cause I’m cool with what’s underneath”
Since moving to London nearly two years ago, she has made herself an awesome supportive group of friends, who threw her a doorstep surprise birthday party, complete with a cake and bubbly, to adequately celebrate her birthday on Wednesday. I wanna learn her secrets. We are just over six months into our UK life, and I definitely need to find some local friends to do exciting things with, when life opens up again.
And you know what, the artist talks about going to see Eminem because her sister has been in love with him since she was 10. Well, not because my sister has been in love with them, but because it was the soundtrack to traveling we did together, when the world returns to concerts in public spaces, dammit, I’m buying us those tickets to watch McFly at the Manchester Arena. And you can bet that we’ll be singing along to ‘That Weirdo with five colours in her hair”. Loudly.
And that’s perfect to me.
Day 16.
Writing song:
Everyday Adventures 