1000 days project

"We are what we repeatedly do"

Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers (1926)

The 1000 day project is my attempt to steer myself consciously towards the things that are most important to me.

Every day for 1000 days I will work towards my goals in a structured way. I will be posting daily updates on this website.

The 1000 day project runs from 26th December 2015 to the 21st September 2018, which is my 30th birthday.

In the past I have successfully completed two 100 day projects (100 portraits in 2010 and 100 blogs in 2011). In 2012 I spent 1000 hours drawing and painting.

Day 0166


Writing this from the sleeper train to Paris. Been homeless all day having checked-out of the apartment this morning and not having a train until 11. Here's what I did.

Went inside the Duomo. Big police presence outside, they endeavoured to search my bag at the door. Problematic because it has all my worldly possessions in (well, enough to live from indefinitely). Very embarrassing having my underwear, toiletries, parmesan spread out all over a table with a queue of people behind me. Finally he gave up the search and let me in.

From Duomo I went to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, where I spent a couple of hours looking at the art. Enjoyed the Breughel, Leonardo's codex.

Piadina, gelato, coffee. Then on to the Pinacoteca Brera, which happily has late opening on Thursdays. Drew the Francesco Francia. Had the entire gallery to myself. Now off to Paris.

Day 0165


Stayed in and caught up on some work this morning. Forced myself to go out and found myself at the duomo just before closing. Really enjoyed walking around the terraces on the roof, watching the approaching rain. Phoned my dad whilst up there, I felt like I needed to connect with someone.

Walked home across town and enjoyed sheltering from the rain and watching the commuters rush home. Nice to have no timetable and to just stand. Thought that thought and immediately thought that the only reason I thought it was because it's the kind of thing you're supposed to think. Then I caught myself congratulating myself on analysing my motives and saw that meta-thought is just as contrived, and so on. Continuously catch myself doing or thinking things that I then immediately mentally mark as worthy of mentioning on the blog or texting someone or bragging about.

More art documentaries at home. Really appreciating the passivity of TV.

Day 0164


I was supposed to catch up on some work today, but instead found myself wandering around the monumental cemetery here in Milan. It wasn't something I'd imagine myself wanting to do but I'm glad I went. It's absolutely vast, endless mausoleums, sculptures, tombs, ivy, trees, ants. Calm, empty, safe. Like an art gallery. Tremendously vain, monuments to man's worldly self-regard. Lots of sculptures of devoted wives crying over husbands, angels lamenting, huge tombs jostling for space. So many, some no longer tended and with trees growing through them. Some so big they have stairs inside and huge glass frontages. Bigger than my apartment in London. Desperate and futile need to buy and build immortality and to be remembered.

Enjoyed watching some art documentaries at home tonight, a fantastically passive way to learn and to travel.

Day 0163


Emotional day, leaving my old life behind for a second time. Shutting the door on my old apartment for the last time and saying goodbye to an important person from my life in Italy. Felt strongly how grateful I am to have lived there with so much love and friendship. Strange that the apartment will sit there without our routines going on in it. Strange that Florence is filled with all the same faces in the same places at the same times; the man at the florists, the guys at the cafe, the lady begging with a sign. It's all there right now, ticking over regardless of where I am or what I'm doing. A life ready to be dipped back in to.

Met up with friends from my Italian school from last year. Lovely to be around familiar faces with shared experiences. Lovely to share my sketchbook with someone who cares.

Train to Milan, back-to-back coffees needed on arrival to keep me awake to work on the drawing.

Day 0162


Memories mixing with reality. Staying in my old apartment with my ex-girlfriend, everything so normal yet different. Her time here coming to an end, helping clean out the place. Chapters that don't close, cycles and circles.

Smell of jasmine wafting through the windows. Sound of bells.

Day 0161


Homely feeling, taking things slow. Spent way too much money, have been too indulgent, particularly in leaving plans to the last minute.

Day 0160


Florence feels like home. No pressure to go out and do anything, have enjoyed relaxing. Sound of bells and swallows screaming overhead.

Day 0159


Writing this as my train pulls into Firenze. Felt absolutely euphoric in Milan, having ticked off delicious pizza and gelato in the brief stopover between landing and zipping off on the train. Feels like coming home.

Day 0158


Got up uncharacteristically early and hit the Acropolis before the tourist hordes. Powered on to the ancient agora, then Keramikos, Hadrian's library and then collapsed for the rest of the day in the national archaeological museum. Ten hours straight of imbibing Greek culture, and I loved it.

Highlights include the tortoise wandering around near the theatre of Dionysos, the stoa museum at the ancient agora, the oleander everywhere, falafel, freddo cappuccino, the heat, the quiet of the museum, the cycladic sculptures, the Santorini wall paintings, the Marathon boy bronze, and above all the Antikythera mechanism.

Utterly exhausted, museum fatigue, but thoroughly happy to have had such a rich day. It makes a huge difference seeing the artefacts in the country they are from. It is not common property (the feeling you get when you see the same stuff in collections all around the world), it came from a very specific place and from an immensely advanced civilization.

Birds flying through the temple. Gives different perspective. Statues and stones shouldn't be imagined in air-conditioned boxes in isolation, but outside in the Mediterranean heat, interacting with the world.

Day 0157


Strange how quickly this apartment feels like my own! I think it's the contrast with the sterility of the studio-hotels on the islands, which though nice were very impersonal.

Woke up early, which I'm grateful for. Think it might be the lovely early sunlight that does the trick. Spent ages washing shirts in the shower. Extremely unglamorous but it works. They dried out on the terrace in under an hour.

Plotted out a more fun route back to England for the wedding I'm involved with. Booked on to the overnight sleeper train from Milan to Paris, have a couple of nights in Paris then eurostar back to London. Should be interesting, though I have very low expectations of the 4-berth sleeper I've got!

Went out and about. Stumbled on the changing of the guard somewhere, which was both comical and unsettling. Dehumanising to see people performing mindless actions in lockstep. A strange spectacle. Relaxed in a lovely park full of gorgeous Mediterranean flora; jasmine-covered walkways, palms, flowering trees, acanthus; everything looking lush and verdant in the May sun.

Saw the temple of Olympian Zeus with its colossal corinthian columns.

Went to the Acropolis museum and was very impressed. As most of Athens that I've seen so far has resembled a grubby town from the 90's I was blown away to be in a properly modern museum. Glass, concrete, air-conditioning, wifi, good labeling and lighting. Expensive facilities but a cheap entrance price.

The collection is outstanding. I loved the polychrome kore. Amazing to see the pigment still on the sculptures. Everything well presented. Spent so long there I didn't have time today for the actual Acropolis, so i just sat and admired from a distance.
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