Eight months ago, I found myself in the need to move out and head back to Glasgow. One of the temporary options I had, apart from couchsurfing , was to stay at a friend of a friend’s place, in the heart of Maryhill. I didn’t know Liva that much before we started living together. We knew each other, though we were still in the “trying to find a nice topic to talk about to make the conversation flow and avoid awkward silences” process when I moved in.
Well, at least I had a place to crash at and leave my bric à brac behind.
We both shared the biggest room, which was originally the living room. Anyone knowing Liva well would say her room could be turned into a modern art museum. From the fashion magazine collages to the life drawing sketches pinned on the walls, the glitter and painting pots, the red fake blood stained desk and the vintage extravagant accessories, a whiff of liva’s life’s sample smacked your face whenever you came in.
I was looking for an employment and she was a student when I moved in. She would always get grumpy as I would always be asleep late at night when she had to finish assignments and early in the morning when she had to wake up and attend classes. This is how our routine and life together slowly started.
We would always procrastinate together. As two geminis, we had the ability to start a never ending discussion about the most insignificant detail of a silly advert video. We would always talk about projects, ideas we should do together but ended up eating tesco value cookies and talking again.
Tesco became our kingdom. We lived right next to a 24/7 one, which made reduction and crappy food times the best times of the day.
By living with her, I realized you never really know someone until you come and share a room with them for six months. I also realized how I needed to open up more and let go of my unnecessary anxiety and hold back. Her sharpness helped me tremendously whenever I felt stuck in the vicious circle of my obsessive thoughts. She managed to kick in and put me back on tracks again.
She made me realize how lucky and loved I was. She made me reconnect with reality, with my life and with someone I genuinely loved for a long time.
This photograph series document our lives together in the Maryhill living room/ room we shared. It is about the toaster we constantly used to stuff ourselves with cheddar and rocket sandwiches, the panel of rusty razors no one really used in the bathroom and mostly it is about the wonderful human being I spent half of a year with. (She likes to describe herself as a bitch on the outside but a sweetheart in the inside)
Photos and words by Lea Brinon
