It almost looked like I wouldn't be able to pencil a page of TSG the other day, but I managed to squeeze it in later in the evening, so you'll notice I readded it to my daily to-list after taking it out.
I used to use a whiteboard for this sort of thing back in Houston, but with much work being done at the Cairo studio over the past three months—work that involved tearing into walls—I had to do without a wall-mounted whiteboard and opted to try a block-pad instead, starting each day with a fresh sheet of paper. It is evidently impossible for me to function without some form of daily checklist.
I typically throw away a day's sheet as soon as the day is over, but I've been keeping them for the last few days now, realizing that it's something you can't do with the whiteboard and can only do with this, and so, perhaps there can be some kind of use for them; glued onto canvas to use as the backdrop for an artwork, folded and sewn into some kind of artist book, etc.
My artist brain doesn't always get along with my anti-hoarder brain.
Inbox 33, RSS at 1836(!).
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Kitchen is now in the hands of a dear friend, who designs and manufactures this sort of thing. Passed a preliminary design his way and the rest is up to him. Despite the kitchen's small size, I do not anticipate speediness; probably 2-3 months if I were to guess. Time moves very differently in Egypt.
Few days of existence without handymen around. Have all but forgotten what my routine used to look like and feel like I need to retrain myself all over again. The idea was that Cairo would allow for the space and time to do all things creative, but it hasn't quite turned out that way, not yet.
(Photo above taken in downtown Cairo.)
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A most suffocating heatwave swept through the country last week, but it broke over the last couple days and a most pleasant breeze—cool and minty—is making its way through the studio this morning.
Plumbing and electric work are finally done, as is all the wall and floor fixups they necessitated (although, a couple more wall touchups would be ideal but I'm just way too drained to deal with them). Next up: the actual fucking kitchen.
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Debris cleanup was a full 3-day process after electrician tore into walls. I'm starting to believe that the vast majority of Cairo dust is really the result of construction debris. There's so much across the city and it never ends.
Will no longer look down on drywall. Perhaps there are some benefits to using it after all.
#journal #studio #cairo
First day in Cairo without human contact since arriving (around 50ish days now). Also first day without contending with house fixups. Just me, my music, and drawing table.
Penciled in half a page of TSG so far today and figured out that I have around 30ish [uninterrupted] days' worth of work to bring TSG to a close once and for all. The “uninterrupted” bit is the tricky part, for days like today are evidently extremely hard to come by, at least until all work on the house is complete.
#journal #work #tsg
Two long trenches cut through my place now, the result of a plumbing job. Already got the tiles to cover them up, but don't want to do that before I'm through with the electric work which will involve tearing into the walls. No drywall around these parts, it's all brick and concrete, so it's bound to result in a big mess. Four days' worth of a big mess to be precise.
Electrician was scheduled for this morning, but he never showed up and wouldn't even answer his phone. Dude just threw away a big payday for some reason. By the time he called back, I'd already given the job to someone else, who comes through end of the week.
That's many more days than I would've liked to be living with these trenches in the house. Cairo's the kind of place that tests your limits in more ways than one.
#journal #studio #cairo
Not sure why big bulky A3-sized printer/scanner/fax workstations are far more easy to come by than straight up A3 flatbed scanners. I've looked everywhere since arriving and couldn't find a single one, so I had no choice but to get me the HP OfficeJet Pro 9730 Wide Format. Big bastard of a thing. Twisted by ankle hauling it down the stairs to the studio last night, almost fell over but caught myself, stood my ground, and landed with all that weight on said twisted ankle instead.
I am now incapable of standing. Getting old sucks.
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If you're even mildly OCD—and I probably fall a little higher up on the spectrum—Cairo is not an easy place to be.
But damn does the place have its charm. It's buried under multiple layers of tired dust and obscene filth, but it's undeniably there.
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And I finally have internet.
No fiber optics in my neighborhood, so I had to apply for a phone line. Once that was finally installed, I applied for a wired DSL connection, once I got that up and running, it became apparent that having a connection isn't so different from not having one at all. It's that bad.
But an electrician who was here to work on something else entirely pointed out to me that all the phone wires in the building were aluminum!
So until I get those replaced with copper, I went ahead and got myself a 5G wireless DSL. It's capped at 140 GB a month, but it's smooth as butter and I'm no longer isolated. Installing it is also a breeze. You just go to the store, pay for it, bring it home with you and plug it in. Wish I'd done this from the get-go.
I haven't read a word, touched a pencil, or even looked at email since getting here. All I've been doing is getting the place in just enough of a working order to be able to sleep, shit, shower and work. Still no kitchen installed, still unclear when that'll happen, as there's a whole bunch of plumbing and wiring that needs getting redone first.
I imagine I should be able to get back to the drawing board in a couple days regardless.🤞
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