IWD

Last night I had a happy glow about me. I had put on my nightie, cleaned my teeth and was just about to climb into bed when I heard an almighty ruckus downstairs. My neighbour's boyfriend was yelling at her at the top of his voice and I couldn't hear her responding. She is the tenant, she didn't ask him to move in with her, but when he was thrown out of his own flat he had nowhere else to go and she kindly put him up, even though there is hardly space for one person. Like mine it is a studio with only one living-and-sleeping space, so if one person wants to stay up late and the other needs to sleep there is no sleep to be had. As far as I am aware he has made no attempt to find another flat of his own and yet won't lift a finger to help out because it is “her flat”. I'm not impressed.

But I know them both well enough to think nothing of running down to her flat wearing only my nightie. The door was open but with the chain on. There was enough of a gap for me to feel the end of the chain on the inside of the door but I was unable to get enough of a grasp on it to let myself in, so I hammered on the door until he opened it for me. He stood aside to let me in and I went to sit beside my neighbour on her sofa and put my arm around her. Her eyes were red from crying. After a while she took herself off to the bathroom while he tried to explain to me that it was her behaviour that had triggered his outburst; that he was having a very hard time but that nobody ever ran to comfort him.

I did not respond, I just gave him a withering look and went to the bathroom. She said she was OK and I told her that my front door was open with the keys inside, I had a place she could sleep and bedding to keep her warm. If she wanted to come up, either now or later, that invitation still stood, she could come up, let herself in and lock my door behind her once she was safely inside.

What else could I do?

I returned to my flat but the happy glow which I had hoped would lull me to sleep had vanished, so I read for a while. But mostly I was listening.

Nothing more happened, though she did send me an SMS to thank me for having her back, and two minutes later the clock struck midnight and it became International Women's Day.

I popped in to see Nomura this afternoon and asked him to take these for me with my own camera. He was five hours in to an epic chest piece but happy enough to take a break. He is not used to using a semi-real camera. His customer was happy enough to take a few moments out to stand in front of the mirror to inspect the work-in-progress on his upper-torso, and I have to say, it is a magnificent piece, albeit not one I would choose for myself.