October was a funny old month.

It’s quite apt that it ends with Hallowe’en, that horribly over-egged pudding of a celebration that not many people actually understand (more of which later) because in several respects it was a dark thirty one days.

However, much of what has happened could well be deemed to have resonated with what I was told during the fortune tellings I had over the summer, and for that reason alone, I must stay positive about events overall.

A major contributing factor to that optimism is the hugely stressful though ultimately wonderful flat move I am currently experiencing… however many blisters the confusing IKEA instructions cause, I am very proud of my most recent creations (two wardrobes, two bedside cabinets and a chest of drawers) and am certain that the whole process was set in motion back in Blackpool.

In case you are unfamiliar with my back story, the short version is that I visited seven fortune tellers over the summer and am currently documenting how much of what they told me, comes true. Several of them talked about moving, one in particular advised me to ‘not hang about; make a decision and stick to it, you’ll be happier’… the very next day we saw this flat and the rest, as they say, is history.

The new place is number 8, one of my lucky numbers apparently, the postcode includes a 7 (another lucky number) but moving has been rather difficult due to my sentimental nature and subsequent difficulty in sorting through the flotsam and jetsam accumulated over the years. But then, all of this is about letting go of the past and looking to the future (“2009 will go out better than it came in…”) so I suppose I just have to deal with that.

October though as I said was not a very happy time overall. This was largely due to changes in the workplace, changes that were foreseen during my visits and were promised to be positive ones, though getting hit twice within three weeks by the same twelve year old does not offer job satisfaction.

Stress levels rose with the workload, and emotions were high as I dealt with a birth, death and marriage on the same day early in the month. The death was particularly saddening, and not entirely as described.

This account is quietly dedicated to his memory.

However, I also received a christening invitation and there were a couple of great wedding celebrations this month, the first of which involved my discussing with a fellow guest their encounter with one of the fortune tellers I myself had met, whilst for the latter I had been asked to request a tune for the DJ to play in the evening. By a strange twist of fate, it was This Charming Man – on the same weekend that my hero collapsed whilst singing that exact song.

Also though this month, I was fortunate enough to meet a couple of my other inspirations, artists to whom I gave this website address so that they might read and hopefully see the links with their own, much more celebrated, ouvre. Michael Landy and David Shrigley haven’t left a comment yet, maybe they will discuss an issue on the new forum – why don’t you too? – but given how much they have influenced my practice, I’ll let them off just for now. I also contacted Sophie Calle, who this month I discovered was to open an exhibition in London, and has been a major player  in both my research and my life over the years. I hope she found my heartfelt ponderings interesting. In fact, if you’re reading Sophie,

je t’ai vue… tu as mes sentiments distinguees… merci bien…

Some other little coincidences caught my gaze this month, which were not directly related to my studies but added weight to the theories I am investigating. We had the curious case of Stephen Gately, whom I discovered a couple of years ago shared the same butcher as I when purchasing the most expensive steak ever. And, we had the fantastic story of the boy who was believed to have flown away whilst stowing in a hot air balloon but actually didn’t… in the same week as Pixar film ‘Up’ (about a stowaway boy who flies away aided by balloons) was released.

And, he was called Falcon.

And finally I discovered that the motif on my favourite shopping bag – has anyone else gone as over the top as me recently to save the environment? – was actually designed by my old Uni tutor and guiding light.

A couple of horoscopes told the truth this month – one said that the time was perfect to launch a makeover project (the week before moving in here) whilst another… and, to echo the words of another fortune teller, someone whose drinking I have worried about, fell ill this month, nothing serious you understand, but enough to concern me somewhat, whilst the two-faced texter reared their ugly head once again – this despite my thinking I had come up with a cunning plan to deflect their attention. Still, it’s sorted now, I hope.

So, the 31st of the month brought with it ghosts and ghouls and freaks and fools, and my favourite story of the month was found in my new local paper. It basically involved a local faith school holding a Superhero themed disco on Saturday night, under the strict proviso that HALLOWE’EN COSTUMES ARE NOT ALLOWED. For me it was refreshing to see such an approach, given that only a day earlier I had witnessed a queue of fifty students outside a fancy dress shop waiting to buy their outfits for the weekend. I am generally disappointed to see such a celebration, not even of death, just of poor horror films or generic clichés, accompanied by a lack of understanding of what exactly All Hallows’ Eve even refers to.

Especially when, during said decant, I attempted to part with a collection of superhero comic book images, and found those illustrating this blog.

 

Remember, remember, to read about November.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 11:28 am and is filed under I A Y T E W B OK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.