What A Difference A Month Makes

💭 I’ve not updated this journal in a few weeks because my elderly (16!) dog is ill, and it’s really getting to me.
I spent two weeks at E and J’s looking after Blue. Cleaning the floor. Cleaning Blue. Applying nappy rash cream to dog bum. Cleaning myself. Washing the dog bed. A weirdly exhausting Perpetuum Mobile.
Then I took a flight to London for the Taylor Swift gig (which was…difficult for me for reasons), followed by the Self-Publishing Show (where I was volunteering) before heading back to Switzerland because Blue wasn’t recovering.
Vets diagnosed him with colitis. We’re not sure if anything else is going on.
Currently, it feels as though he’s slowly declining because he has no appetite, no matter what we give him.
I also got stuck in Luton for 24 hours and had the pleasure of experiencing the Premier Inn in the town centre. It seemed to be auditioning as setting for a sequel to The Shining.
On the upside, Switzerland won a football match? Perhaps 2024 is my country’s year, since it’s definitely not my year.

📺 I’m watching The Great with E. On S3, and I’m worried about my favourite couple. M always has Friends on in the background, and it’s incredibly soothing.

📚 As I was cleaning a dog bum, I read the first book in Lucinda Riley’s Seven Sisters, and found it strangely addictive. Currently, I’m reading Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock, a climate change novel with a very slow start.

🎵 Taylor Swift concert (N3) @ Wembley. I maintain that Billie Eilish’s new album has no skips.

💜 Garage Fiction call with J, B, and LL.

🔗 Unfortunately behind a paywall, but basically AI is a bit of a problem: Bloomberg: AI Wreaks Havoc on Global Power Systems

🍴 Everything we eat gets given to the dog first, just in case that’s the food that’ll finally get him to eat more than two bites. I’ve had two truffle burgers from Truffle Burger at the Southbank in London this week.

🏃 Various walks with Blue at a km/day pace, so nothing worth mentioning. I participated in Endure 24, Reading, and ran 24km in 24 hours at the beginning of June though.

✒️ I attended the Self Publishing Show (organised by James Blatch) in London this week, and it was a pleasure to meet all of these amazing writers.