Week 39, 2026: Cheekbones

The grind: Meal-prepping when it’s still dark and cold because that’s the only time of day where the flat feels like it’s mine. Whatever money I saved from meal-prepping, I have now lost to paying the customs fee for a birthday book from a European publisher that only has US branches in North America. There’s a neighbourhood spot I’d been frequenting as a kind of third place where I don’t think the vibes are quite what I’m looking for so I’m on the look-out again. I was taste-testing their iced tonic espresso on a video call with my father and pulled out the lemon slice for show. He was not impressed. If you want to Frank up a coffee, he said, you use Nescafe, that’s it. I shook the lemon slice on camera and he shook his head disapprovingly. I downed it all in one go and shook my head too. The grand: I’ve forgotten how nice beans are in a stew. I went to Liberty Village again to build a Netlify blog with someone who knows a lot about the computer. I really miss learning CSS and…