I did what people always think they should do but rarely actually do: I tacked on two extra vacation days after my actual vacation to ease back into regular life and celebrate a birthday without meetings. It was great. Highly recommended.

If you keep reading and find yourself thinking, “Wait, where’s Monday??” “What kind of scam is Marcel running here???” “I subscribed for a full week of comics!!!”, then I can warmly recommend meditation and a couple of mindfulness exercises. Please relax. The reason is simple: I ended my travel journal with the last day of travel, which happened to be that allegedly missing Monday:

United Kingdom #2: London

My first time in my new favourite city.

UARRRMarcel Wichmann

That being said, let’s dive in!

Tuesday

I mentioned the quality of beds in the UK to a few friends, and many agreed that modern sleep technology doesn’t seem to have made it across the Channel. See if you can guess when I was in the UK based on my Health Sleep Score data:

I don’t want to toot my own horn too much, but I’m kind of proud of this newsletter. It’s fun, personal, and visually interesting. You never quite know what you’re going to get, but it’s always a glimpse into my life.

And I mean what I said above: I’d love subscribing to this. You don’t have to. I’m just saying I’m making something I genuinely want to exist in the world, and that feels great.

Wednesday

I turned 37 on that day! That number doesn’t remotely reflect the age I feel I should be, but who am I to argue with Chronos? It’s my age now, and as I’ve said before, I’m not going through any kind of quarter-life crisis. Everything is great. That day was too.

That last panel is one of my favorites, not just from this day, but from the whole year of painting a visual journal. There’s something about the colors, the contrast, and the scene that completely speaks to me. Oh, and I’m rather fond of that little vacuum cleaning drawing as well. I’m really happy with this page.

Here’s what I painted while sitting by the Alster, the giant lake that runs through Hamburg:

This little painting doesn’t do it justice. Hamburg is a truly beautiful city—the best Germany has to offer. It’s such a privilege to have two vast rivers running through the heart of it. No matter where you are, you always end up by the water.

Thursday

Running intervals offers an interesting contrast. I never want to do them, even less than a classic run. But once I get going, they’re so much more fun. There’s something deeply life-affirming about sprinting through a forest. It feels almost primal.

Friday

You probably neither noticed nor cared, but this newsletter has moved platforms. I started on Substack, and now it lives on Ghost. There are a few reasons for the switch.

1. Substack is a social network, and I don’t need another one of those.
2. Substack also forced me to charge at least $5/month, and I don’t think that’s a fair price for this newsletter. It’s $1.50/month now. I did all this to ask for less money! This must be how Robin Hood felt.
3. I’m picky about web design, and Ghost gave me the freedom to build a site I actually like.

Making the move was fun, and I’m happy with how it turned out. It feels great to have my own little corner of the internet for this newsletter instead of relying on some venture-funded platform.

Saturday

Please don’t cancel me for mentioning vibe coding. Folks over on the Art Journaling subreddit probably won’t see this comic, because they can’t handle the fact that I’m an artist who doesn’t hate every single use of AI. I’ve actually got a whole newsletter in the works about this, which I’ll share at some point.

If you want to recreate that delicious Marry Me tortellini, here’s the recipe I use. They're genuinely delicious.

Sunday

My journal entry from two years ago (just a classic text-based journal) ended with me promising myself I wouldn’t spend my birthday alone the following year. And I didn’t.

Last year, I invited my friends over on the evening of my birthday, and it was wonderful. Now many of them have babies, so this year I invited them over on Sunday afternoon for coffee and cake instead. It was great.

I went to bed blissful and full of gratitude.

By the way: see how I didn’t paint my living room full of friends? I couldn’t be arsed to draw all of them, so I focused on me cleaning up after they’d left. And somehow that little scene captures my very positive feelings about the day better than anything else. I was just so happy in that moment. I had to put every single dish into the dishwasher because I’m surrounded by enough people who want to celebrate my birthday with me that I needed all of them. What a privilege.

That's it for those of you leaving us here. Thank you for subscribing and reading, I really appreciate it. If you want to share your favorite one-pot recipes with me, I'm all ears. I despise having to use a lot of tools when cooking, so anything that requires as little stuff as possible would be right up my alley.

Trying Not to Want the Wrong Thing

"The only winning move is not to play" might be especially true of social media. It’s a bottomless pit you don’t want to get sucked into.

But there’s hope.

A couple of years ago, I managed to stay off social media entirely for two years, and it seems to have given me a little more distance from it. Do I still long for recognition from total strangers for what I’m doing? Of course. I’d even say it’s somewhat necessary in my line of work, because being visible online means not being forgotten when people need someone to hire. What I no longer long for, though, is viral success. Quite the opposite. I want to be visible to those willing to look in my direction, but the part of me that tried to produce content just to increase my chances of succeeding on social media died off somewhere along the way.

A few years ago, I drew “funny” cartoons and posted them on Instagram and Reddit with a fair amount of success. My follower count never grew faster than it did during that period. It was a theoretical success.

London surprised me.

I expected something more like Berlin: a grimy, sprawling moloch where so much absolute debauchery is happening that the only way to enjoy yourself is to try not to notice most of it.

It turned out to be the exact opposite, and I could not have been more delighted. Everywhere we went was clean and beautiful, and everything and everyone smelled good. Incredible.

Not even Hamburg smells this good, and my nose was already profoundly grateful when I moved back here from Berlin. And we were in London during the worst heatwave since records began. I counted exactly one person who smelled of sweat.

This is the second—and final—part of my United Kingdom travel journal. If you’d like to see more travel journal content from me and you’re devastated that this adventure is over, consider subscribing to catapult me into a future of no real work, just travel and art.

In case you missed them, here are the first five days in which we arrived in Scotland and made our way through Glasgow, Loch Lomond and Edinburgh:

United Kingdom #1: Glasgow & Edinburgh

This is the first part of my recent trip to the United Kingdom, specifically, what we did in Scotland. Let’s dive right in! Day 1 I feel like it’s important to have an arch-enemy when traveling. Mine are Italians. I don’t actually have anything against them, and

UARRRMarcel Wichmann

Day 6

• I felt so sick after eating that garlic-bagel. It's not like I don't like garlic, I love it. But it was just so intense and this was supposed to be our breakfast, that my body really didn't react kindly to this onslaught of vampire repellant. We had five of these bagels with us and ended up throwing away the remaining three.
• Germany's refund rules for delayed trains are nowhere near as customer-friendly as the UK's. We got a full refund for the return journey because it took 70 minutes longer than expected. €100 saved!
• Stepping out into the city for the first time, I could tell right away this was going to be fun. The vibe was just right. We could already feel the first signs of the incoming heat wave, and everything felt buzzy and alive. Even the people seemed different from those in Glasgow and Edinburgh. More like... my kind of people. Big city folks! No offence to the Scots, who are, once again, the nicest people I’ve ever met.

Day 7

• I know that people consider “the Tube,” as we people who like to spend time in London call it, an unpleasant place, but I didn’t mind it. Compared to Berlin’s subway in summer, it was a civilized paradise of people knowing how to behave.
• When we stepped out of the subway and saw Big Ben in real life for the first time ever, it greeted me with its famous ringtone. If that’s what you call it for enormous clock towers. And it was very sparkly! So clean and detailed and worth looking at. I didn’t expect that at all and thought I’d find it uninteresting and boring.
• That was my exact reaction to Buckingham Palace, though. The Crown made me, against my will, into a small fan of the royals, and I somehow expected the palace to have a bit more oomph. Some sort of grandeur, some kind of magical aura that makes you think, “Wow, I’m really here.” Nothing of that sort happened. It’s just a huge empty place with a mid fountain, a fence, and a boring building that lacks character. I’d rate it ★★★☆☆ on Google Maps.
• Speaking of ratings, we bought takeout noodles from a tiny place where one guy was single-handedly preparing all the food for everyone crowding into his little shop, and it was amazing. That 4.9-star rating on Google Maps is no exaggeration.

Day 8

• We spent the morning with Anna’s friend Jonny, who was her flatmate 10 years ago when she lived in London for a couple of months. Jonny is a musician who lives and works in London, and he gave us a quick tour of Notting Hill. What a lovely place — including the person who threatened us!
• In the evening, we met another of Anna’s former flatmates and had a great time hanging out at a food market, just talking and drinking some weird beer with 9% alcohol.
• I love that first panel, if I can be honest and a little self-indulgent. It captures the situation perfectly. Anna and Jonny were catching up, and I was just happy to be there, eating my (mediocre) cinnamon roll, drinking my (decaf) coffee, and taking in the sights and sounds of a beautiful place. I had a lovely old time.

Day 9

• What I like about travelling with Anna is that we’re both relaxed travellers. There’s something taxing about being somewhere new, without your usual routines, and having to make decision after decision every single day. It doesn’t help if you resist whatever comes your way. Some things won’t go to plan, and I’d much rather roll with them than complain and feel as if the whole day is ruined. Anna is exactly the same.
  
  I’m saying that because our trip to Hampstead Heath was meant to be one of the highlights of the whole journey. Anna had read a book about the Ladies’ Pond and loved it. For weeks, we talked about how exciting it would be when she could finally swim there herself.
  
  Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones with that idea. The heatwave had just begun, which didn’t help, and even though we arrived fairly early, we weren’t early enough. There was already a long, very slow-moving queue. Anna was a bit disappointed, but decided not to wait in line. Instead, we promised ourselves we’d come back to London another time and get to the pond right when it opens.
  
  We still had a lovely time in Hampstead Heath.
• We then went to an art supply store because, apparently, I'm an artist now, to pick up a couple of Pith sketchbooks for me. I love them, and the only way to get them in Germany is to find a supplier that imports them from the UK. Which isn't easy; there are, like, two of them. That little interaction with the woman working in the store made me happy because she was just as excited about the Pith sketchbooks as I am.
• We then went to Richmond to see the famous street corner from Ted Lasso. I wanted to see it because, before arriving in London, I thought it was one of those especially pretty places the city would only have a couple of. Nonsense. Yes, the corner was very pretty, but London is full of picturesque places like this. Be that as it may, we had a lovely time in Richmond, even though we couldn’t stay long, because...
• Anna planned a surprise for me, and I loved it. We went to a tiny old chapel in the middle of the city, where a Sofar Sounds concert was about to start. I love the concept: you don’t know where you’re going or who’s going to perform. You only get the exact location a couple of hours before the concert begins, and it could be an old chapel, a pub, or even someone’s living room. Then a few artists each play for about 20 minutes. It was great. I had a lovely evening.

Day 10

• The heatwave was in full force that day, so we allowed ourselves a slow morning and a relaxed agenda. Visiting Tower Bridge when it was 31 degrees Celsius outside might not have been our best idea, though. But just like with Big Ben, I was surprised by how pretty it is. The videos and pictures I’d seen really don’t do it justice. There are so many details, and I’d never realised those… cables, or whatever they are, are royal blue! Very nice.
• In the evening, we met up with Julia. We’ve been friends forever; we actually met on Twitter, of all places, back when social media was truly social. She moved to London a couple of years ago and now lives in Brighton. It was great catching up!

Day 11

• After quickly stepping outside to stock up on baked goods for our journey, we made it to Heathrow, flew back to Hamburg, and got to our apartments without any problems.
• Even though I was happy to be back with the cats, who had been perfectly cared for by my emergency cat sitter, I quickly found myself missing Anna and our time in the UK. I could easily have stayed a couple more days!

That’s it, folks! I’ll share a couple of photos from London with paying members, just so you know I’m not exaggerating when I say everything was absolutely lovely. Thanks so much for reading. Next time, we’ll be back to plain old everyday life.

If you have any questions or there’s something in particular you’d like me to talk about, please let me know. I always love hearing from you!

Picture book time

I’ve seen so many street photography videos set in London, calling it one of the best places to capture urban images. I get it now. The city is incredibly dynamic. There’s something new around every corner. I loved wandering through London’s streets, chasing the light.

Anyway, here are a few of my pictures from London:

This is the first part of my recent trip to the United Kingdom, specifically, what we did in Scotland. Let’s dive right in!

Day 1

I feel like it’s important to have an arch-enemy when traveling.

Mine are Italians.

I don’t actually have anything against them, and I’m sure they’re all very nice people, but they’re nice people who are, more often than not, very loud. And especially in an airport, where one might have a couple of hours to hang out and relax, it’s really not helpful when they’re shouting as if they’re not just a meter apart.

Not shown here: the whole debacle with the cat sitter I’d booked for this trip, who simply didn’t show up.

I had to scramble to arrange an alternative after arriving at Hanna’s. Fortunately, everything worked out and my preferred sitter’s plans changed, so she was available at short notice — but it still meant spending the evening anxiously checking my phone and the cameras in my apartment, hoping the original sitter would turn up.

She eventually did, sometime in the middle of the night. And she didn’t even make up a decent excuse. I fired her the next morning.

I couldn’t even blame the Italians for this one, but I’m sure they had something to do with it.

Day 2

Anna and I spent our first full day in Glasgow wandering around, trying to get a feel for the place. It was my first time in the UK, and just being there was already completely fascinating. So many things I’d only ever known from internet culture suddenly felt real. I watched The Yogscast for years and heard stuff like “cheeky Nando’s” so often that I knew exactly how to use the phrase without ever having seen a Nando’s in person.

Moments like that happened dozens of times on that first day, and I loved it. I never actually ate at Nando’s, though, because I don’t eat meat and I’m not about to support a chain profiting from large-scale murder. Hot take alert!

And just as much as I enjoyed those little moments of cultural recognition, I also had a great time eating haggis. Hanna took us to a place that, according to her, makes the best veggie haggis, and up until then it actually was the best one I’d ever had.

Also the only one.

My excitement for the Waterstones bookshop was genuine. Little did I know how many even more amazing bookshops would become part of our journey through the UK.

What a paradise for anyone who loves spending hours among shelves of books. I’m always checking in with Anna to see if she wants to leave, but she’s just as happy to browse books as I am.

Day 3

I’d never hiked a day in my life. I’d walked through nature, sure, but I’d never actually set out with the intention of going on a proper hike. That morning, Anna and I didn’t exactly go on a hike either. But she loves hiking, and I feel like it could be something I’d enjoy as well. It’s just walking through nature. Walking and nature are both things I like. How could that possibly not be enjoyable?

Anyway, this walk through nature along Loch Lomond had everything one could want: sunshine, drizzle, a rainstorm, more sunshine, a robin, and baby sheep!

The torrential rain also gave me the chance to properly test my new raincoat. I haven’t owned one in at least 15 years. This one did a great job and kept me dry. Except for my legs, obviously. I may need to invest in waterproof trousers if I want to become a real hiker.

Watching The Crown last year gave me an appreciation for the monarchy for the first time in my life. Seeing the Queen on pound notes was genuinely a moment for me.

Day 4

We also spend a day in Edinburgh. It’s about an hour by train from Glasgow, and my friend Raphael lives there part-time when he isn’t on his tiny island in the middle of nowhere. It was lovely seeing Raphael and his partner, but the highlight of the day for me was Topping & Company: a bookshop spread across several storeys, with shelves reaching all the way to the ceiling. Ladders were fixed to the shelves and could be rolled along to reach the upper rows. Everywhere I looked, there were copies signed by the authors themselves. I loved it.

Anna and I also did a quick tour of all the places the transphobe JK Rowling supposedly drew inspiration from while writing Harry Potter. It’s strange how much a children’s book can transform a city. Harry Potter is everywhere. Entire streets are packed with tourists just because one person wrote a made-up story featuring places that may or may not have been inspired by them. Absurd.

What really got me, though, was Bobby. We ended up at that graveyard because it’s another one of those JKR sites: some very old graves there feature names that seem to have inspired a few important ones in the Harry Potter books. Right at the entrance there’s a huge, beautiful grave for Bobby, with a plaque that, once I read it, made me burst into tears.

Apparently there may not be much truth to Bobby’s story, but I only found that out later, and it didn’t stop me from bawling in a graveyard over a dog that lived hundreds of years ago.

As one does…

Day 5

All the efforts of the previous few days caught up with us on day five. After a vegetarian English breakfast — again featuring veggie haggis, which, in my admittedly uninformed opinion, was even better than the one at the fancy restaurant Hanna had taken us to — we schlepped ourselves through the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, which is absolutely worth a visit.

Back at Hanna’s place, we crash-landed into bed and slept for more than an hour. I felt so much better afterwards and was ready for what turned out to be the best meal of our trip at Sylvan. Everything was delicious, and we had a great time.

That’s it for the first part of our trip to the UK. In the next part, you’ll see us take the train to London and discover a city that turns out to be one of my favorite places ever. Exciting!

Picture book time

Settle down, kids. Let me pull out the photo album and share a few snapshots from the first days of our trip.

Hello friends,

Today is my birthday! I’m turning 37. Since I already went through my quarter-life crisis when I turned 35, this year’s incremental upgrade doesn’t make me feel like I’ve suddenly become old. On the contrary, I feel like I’ve figured out how to live a good life, how to focus on what matters, and how to enjoy the time I have with the people I love. What more could I wish for?

Anyway, enough about me and my ongoing battle with entropy. Let’s focus on… more of me!

This post is a little different. I won’t be sharing all of that week’s comics because some of them are from my recent trip to the UK, and those will get their own post. Instead, you’re in for plenty of thoughts on courage, packing, and, of course, cats.

Enjoy!

Monday

Keeping up a long-distance friendship requires sacrifices. Mine is spending the last 30 minutes of Cecilia’s and my regular FaceTime session in agony because I drank way too much water while we were talking.

Tuesday

It took me quite a long time to realise that I tend to get hangry. Once I noticed it, the fallout was reduced significantly, and I’d consider it a solved problem now. But it’s funny how we sometimes don’t reflect enough on the connection between our bodies and our moods, and end up spending years running around grumpy simply because we haven’t eaten and never made that link.

(I really can’t complain about too many meetings, though. We have a very strict “Let’s not fill everyone’s days with something that could just as well be a non-synchronous Slack thread” policy. So when a meeting runs longer than planned, it’s usually for good reason.)

Wednesday

Hamburg is considering a bid to host the Olympic Games, and the citizens have been voting on it. It’s been a recurring topic in my group of friends over the past couple of months, and we’re more or less evenly split on the issue.

I understand and respect the “no” votes, but I’ve decided I’d rather see us try our best and possibly fail than not try at all. It’s the more optimistic perspective, and I want to see my city as one that’s brave enough to take that chance.

The Lambert & Friends concert was great! Anna was shocked that I broke the rules and smuggled in outside food, but she was still very happy to have something to snack on.

I’m currently on a train to London after having spent the last couple of days in Scotland. This is my very first time in the United Kingdom, and I’m having a great time. So many “I know this from the internet!” moments.

Something about British humour (“humor” for those not in the UK right now) has always tickled my fancy, so a lot of the content I consume comes from here. I’ve heard “Nando’s” references for longer than I can remember, and I finally saw one in real life! I don’t eat meat, so that experience didn’t really go anywhere, but it’s the wonder and excitement that count.

Anyway, as I said, I’m having a blast. The Scots were incredibly friendly, and I finally visited my friend Hanna, who lives and works in Glasgow, and Raphael, who lives in Edinburgh part-time. I also learned how to pronounce (“prononce” for those not in the UK right now) Edinburgh. Edinbrah!

You’re receiving this while I settle into my first night in London, so please enjoy these journal comics from the previous week while I try to find something to eat. I already miss haggis. Turns out it exists in a vegetarian form and is delicious!

Monday

Once again, I’m trying to become a bicycle person. Anna’s new apartment is less far away from mine than her old one, but I still have to take a bus, and buses are a nightmarish way to travel. Everything is shaky, crowded, noisy, stinky, and overall just not a good time.

So back to the bike it is, and I’ve already had a couple of good moments with it. I’m not a huge fan of the logistics, though. I want to wear a helmet because I’m not suicidal, so I somehow have to carry a bag to store it after the ride. But having a backpack on my back all the time just isn’t my kind of fun.

I’m sure I’ll figure this out. For now, it’s good enough to enjoy the process of riding the bike and getting to places 1. quicker and 2. without having to interact with buses.

Small meta aside: I’m experimenting with a kind of narrator thing for the first time in this one, and I think I like it. It’s breaking the fourth wall (“forth wall,” for those not in the UK), and that’s a neat gimmick. I’m looking forward to figuring out how to utilize this further.

Tuesday

And with “proper” I mean “a €10 set from IKEA,” but I have to start somewhere. I don’t cook much, and every time I thought about buying proper salt and pepper hardware, my perfectionism kicked in and I ended up looking at some incredibly expensive (and beautiful) set that I eventually didn’t buy because why would I spend that kind of money on something I don’t really need?

Now that I have these, though, I genuinely enjoy having them. Especially because Anna’s kitchen not being installed yet gives me the opportunity to cook for her more often. It’s fun!

Disclaimer: I did, indeed, not salt the cat. My cats remain completely unsalted. This is a fictitious depiction of something that did not happen.

Wednesday

Flo and I showed up to this texture painting class and turned out to be the only participants. I expected the teacher to somehow show us tricks and tips, but we were mostly left alone, with her only showing up from time to time to judge my painting as “cool” and Flo’s as “beautiful.” Ouch!

But we had a great time, and in the end it wasn’t about the success. It was about the friends we made along the way.

Thursday

This is a good example of what I said about the narrator earlier. I like this. The day didn’t offer much, and drawing myself playing video games for the 12th time just wasn’t good enough. Referencing earlier comics gave this a spin I quite like.

Friday

There wasn’t much time when I drew this, so I skipped the sketch. It shows! In a good way, if you ask me. Something about it being less perfect is really to my liking.

The litter boxes were perfectly clean and the food… perfectly edible, though.

Saturday

Having to buy new running shoes is one of the most frustrating things I have to do. Everybody, including Strava itself, keeps telling me that you shouldn’t wear these things for more than 800 kilometers, which is less than a year of running for me. That basically turns into a subscription of about €200 per year just for new shoes, even though the “old” ones don’t feel any different to me than when I first bought them.

But I understand the theory, and there are probably good reasons for it. Buying new shoes is less expensive than injuring myself because the old ones stopped doing what they’re supposed to do.

I’m very happy with these New Balance 860 v15, by the way. They feel a bit more sturdy and “hard” than the Hoka Clifton 9 I wore previously (“previosly,” for those not in the UK right now), and I expected that to make running harder, but the opposite seems to be the case. I don’t understand why, but they don’t pay me to.

Sunday

This was one of those perfect days. In the morning, I went on a run with Pablo and Kim, who joined us for the first time and therefore completed his longest run ever. In the afternoon, we met up with Pablo and Kim again at a friend’s kid’s first birthday party. They’re growing up so fast!

I like Milo’s gesture in this drawing. In reality, he didn’t really care about the present (he’s 1, that’s to be expected), but I like how excited and anticipatory he looks.

This is it for the free part of this newsletter. Those not subscribed need to alight (a word I recently learned while taking trains in the UK) from the newsletter train here. Those who are subscribed can read on for my thoughts on accepting help and why letting others help you is basically an act of kindness in itself.

Accepting Help

Staying at Hanna’s place in Glasgow reminded me once again that I’m very bad at accepting favours (“favors” for those of you not currently in the UK). She and her partner let us stay at their place for six nights.

Despite my constant fear of running out of ideas, I’ve somehow made it through yet another week of daily drawings. I’m not sure what I’ll do when life settles into a few days of pure routine. Most of my days already feel pretty similar: I wake up, lift weights or go for a run, work, eat, paint, read, spend time with the people in my life, and go to bed.

And yet, somehow, I’ve found something to draw every single day of 2026.

Maybe next week will finally stump me. Who knows.

Until then, let’s take a look at the latest one!

Monday

Millimeter’s transgression didn’t cost me my hand, fortunately. That would’ve really thrown a wrench into my daily drawing routine.

Even though it may look like I helped a lot with Anna’s move, I didn’t really do much. She organized everything herself, hired a company to move her things from the old place to the new one, and handled the whole ordeal like a champ.

Tuesday

I like this page, somehow. Not much happened, yet all these little fragments of my day make it feel special. I’m not saying it wasn’t, but most of it was routine. Still, putting it into small drawings and gathering several of them on one page makes it come alive in context.

I remember thinking the part of me carrying groceries was dull and insignificant to anyone else. But looking at it now, it captures something real: that it was sunny, that I spent a little time outside, and that I enjoyed it. All of that, without many words.

Wednesday

I’m not sure how long I can keep milking this topic, but acquiring my favorite skyr is an ongoing struggle in my life, and it always feels worthy of an entry in my gratitude journal when I find it in good quantity.

This is week three of this newsletter, and I for one am enjoying it a lot. It feels neat to have a summary of all these otherwise unconnected pieces gathered somewhere. I also like that it mostly arrives in your inbox. It feels more personal than just throwing it into the algorithmic winds and hoping to find somebody who cares.

Thursday

I’m not allowed to run quickly right now. Zone 2 training. So even though it’s especially hard to wake up and leave the house on days when interval training is on the menu, I always have fun once I’m actually doing it. There’s something about running fast that makes me feel powerful and in control of my body. Plus, after every sprint, I get a couple of minutes to recover. That’s nice. Like a relaxing walk in the morning!

Friday

I’m so incredibly grateful to have a bunch of friends in the city I live in. That wasn’t the case just three years ago, and I still feel blessed that my rough-and-tumble decision to leave Berlin and, after a short detour, return to Hamburg has paid off this much.

Sitting in the sun, surrounded by nature and people I love, snacking on vegetables and hummus while debating whether we’re for or against the Olympics coming to our city, was the perfect start to May.

Saturday

Speaking of moving back to Hamburg: this was a perfect day in this amazing city. We started out with one plan, but after a phone call it turned into something else entirely, and suddenly we were sitting at the harbour, drinking beer at 11:30 a.m. and enjoying the sun. Great food, a quick and successful shopping trip, and a cosy evening. What more could you want? Loved it.

Sunday

We got an early preview of summer this week. Pablo and I did our usual run around the Alster on Sunday, and it felt tougher than normal. It seems my body needs a little time to adjust to the warmer temperatures. But I’m not complaining. I love hot weather. Summer is the best, and I can’t wait for it to arrive for real. As I write this, though, it’s back to being cold, rainy, and windy.

If you’re a free subscriber to this newsletter, this is where I’ll bid you farewell. Consider subscribing if you’d like to read my ramblings about online fame and how to share very personal things with internet randos without feeling too vulnerable. If you’re a subscriber: Thank you so much! Let’s dive in!

Drawing the Line Between Sharing and Privacy

A thought that’s been bouncing around in the back of my mind ever since I started my daily comic journal is how to handle my need for privacy. Do I mention my girlfriend? Is it okay to show my friends’ children? Do I want people to know that I spent part of a certain day in a park?

I still haven’t found answers to those questions.

Good news, everybody! I’ve discovered how to draw noses! This week marks the beginning of my characters having one more line on their faces.

I’m still experimenting with “my” style. I don’t know if I want my characters to have necks, noses, or eyes that are more expressive than dots. Past me would have felt frustrated by this. I would have wanted to come up with the perfect style and then stick with it until I’m in my grave. Current me doesn’t care anymore. I’m just doing what’s fun. And right now, I’m enjoying drawing noses.

Monday

Good: We fixed the leaking radiator pipe. Bad: The whole radiator somehow sagged and stopped working. It might not have worked before we fixed the leak, but it definitely didn’t afterward.

Tuesday

Why am I still accepting deliveries for my neighbors?! It’s always the same. I feel bad for the delivery person, and then, very quickly after that, for myself. My neighbors don’t care if a package sits in my hallway for more than a week. It’s as if they expect me to bring it to them, even though I know they’ve been notified about where it is.

That being said, if these are the problems I have to deal with, I can consider myself lucky.

Wednesday

They were in Barcelona once and suddenly decided to appropriate a Catalan holiday. Sant Jordi is a holiday where men gift women flowers, and women gift men books. I bet there’s some kind of religious background to all of this, but I didn’t bother learning any of it. I also subscribe to the belief that women should read as well, so I’m gifting both.

Your rules can’t contain me.

Thursday

Anna mentioned this holiday once a couple of months ago. I quickly noted it in my calendar. We didn’t talk about it again after that, and we were both pleasantly surprised this morning when we managed to surprise each other with books (and a rose).

I would have gotten a rose too, but Anna knows that receiving flowers when you live with cats is tricky business.

Friday

I posted this in the r/ArtJournaling subreddit and mentioned in a reply that I use ChatGPT to convert American recipes to European measurements. They didn’t like that. Every mention of AI, no matter the use case, seems to result in an onslaught of downvotes, as if the topic could be handled in such binary terms.

Anyway, the food was great. Kale, beans, garlic, what’s not to love?!

Saturday

Two days before Anna moves to her new flat. Everything is packed up and ready to go.

I like this drawing a lot. It’s a bit more detailed than what I usually do, and it gives it so much more character. I like that there are things to discover. I’m also very happy with the colors. Everything works quite well together.

(There was a discussion on Reddit about the ethics of still reading Harry Potter. I’m all for trans people doing their thing and don’t want to give JKR any money, but I’ve decided that rereading and enjoying these stories fits with my personal ethics.)

Sunday

My cats are literally angels. They’ve never been aggressive. They also don’t consider hands or feet to be toys, which is something I made a point of teaching them. So our relationship doesn’t involve many scratches or bites.

They only bite to communicate something. Whether it’s “love bites” or “please stop doing this, you ignored my previous signals” bites.

In this case, it was the latter. I was petting Millimeter while talking on the phone. I didn’t notice the early warning signs. She turned around and grabbed my arm with her paws and mouth to stop me. Unfortunately, she misjudged her jaw strength and her teeth broke my skin. Only a tiny bit, but still bad news. There aren’t many animal bites in daily life that are more dangerous than those of cats.

I actually know someone who nearly lost her arm because of something like this. She had to get skin transplanted from her back to her arm. Crazy.

You’ll see next week if I survived this.

This is the end of the free part of this newsletter. After the paywall, you’ll read about my current feelings toward my art, if you want to. It’s not required reading. There will be no test next week.

It seems like I’m actually doing this. The Year of Art is in full swing, and I’ve been making daily journal comics for more than 100 days now. I’m loving it.

Something about sharing parts of my daily life online has always fascinated me, but I never figured out a way to do it without, as the kids say, getting the ick. I don’t want to vlog. I don’t want to show photos of my private life. Sharing small comics from my day-to-day fits my need for privacy while still making me visible to others. The routine of sitting down once a day and figuring out what can be transformed into a small piece of art has become a beloved habit.

People like Zoe Si and Kate Beaton were huge inspirations. I’m eternally grateful that they share parts of their lives and got me to the point where I’m doing the same.

So, why this newsletter? I figured it would be nice to have a place to give a bit more context and some behind-the-scenes insights to those who’d rather receive these comics in their inbox than scour social media. A quiet, neat little place. I’ll still post elsewhere, but the extra bits will be exclusive to members.

So, let’s get this started!

Monday

I really need to figure out my living situation. I love this apartment, but I hate the building. The walls are absurdly thin. I can hear the guy on the first floor sneezing. I’m on the third. This sneeze came from the woman directly above me and ended a completely undeserved nap.

Tuesday

This was the very first skin cancer screening I didn’t have to pay for myself. German health insurance covers it once you’re over 35. Sure, my life is nearly over, but at least I’m saving a couple of bucks every two years.

Wednesday

We had a team event in Prague. Unfortunately, it’s kind of hard to get there from Hamburg. I spent nearly eight hours on trains, only to arrive in the evening completely tuckered out and ready for bed.

Thursday

I don’t drink caffeine, but I was tired enough to make an exception. I had an Americano and a cappuccino and expected that to be enough to carry me through a whole day of social interaction. It worked. I also learned that I’m not bad at bowling. Who would have thought.

Friday