Taking Stock
9 Jul 2024 09:19 pmAlright, so it's now half-way through the year, time to take stock on where we are with this year's challenges and resolutions.
I've attended 9 gigs so far this year. (More if you counted all the different gigs that made up Tectonics, but it's technically a festival so I just count it as one event.) I reckon I can easily manage another three this year. Heck, Under Canvas starts this weekend, I could probably manage three gigs over the course of the two months that it runs!
Got back into swimming. This month hasn't been a great month for swimming, as it is Swim Club Gala season, which meant there was one on three out of four sundays last month. My preferred swimming slot is Sunday mid-morning, between shifts and the pool timetable it's quite hard to find a slot that works for me, and does so on a regular basis - I know myself I need a lot of repetition to form a habit. I wanted to get back into it because I love it, and I get a lot of benefit from it both mentally and physically but I'd forgotten just how much I feel the benefit of it. One of the things that prompted me to actually go see a physio about my shoulder was that I realised I was - mostly subconsciously - avoiding going back to swimming because of it. Consciously, I was worried about injuring it further, and I told the physio that one of my aims for it was to be able to get back to swimming. It wasn't until I got back in the water and felt the returned strenth of my shoulders, the way I could feel the muscles work and support me, that I felt the relief as the fear left me and realised that I'd been afraid that it wouldn't. When my shoulders ache after swimming it's the evenly spread, gentle ache of muscles well-used, not the grumbling discomfort of overuse or strain, of one particular part of the body out of sync. I've missed it.
I would also describe myself as being in love with cooking again. I've been doing the pick x amount of new recipes and cook them thing again this year, and I've just been getting such joy out of it. Trying new things in the kitchen and having so much fun with it. I feel as though I'm cooking more outside of that too, as though my more adventurous cooking is short cicuiting the bit of my brain that guilt trips me for taking the easy option when I need to. Yes, it would be better to make my own sauce for a pasta bake, but I keep an emergency jar of sauce in the cupboard for reason. Better to make that and chuck in a bunch of veg that needs used up, and have a tasty and filling dinner to eat at work for the next few days than eating junk and/or ready meals. As with so many things, perfect is the enemy of done.
Writing. Well, I'm doing better than last year. I think it helps that this year I've just accepted that fic writing might not be a thing for a while. I miss it, but forcing it didn't help, so I'm just letting it lie fallow for a bit and focusing on non fiction writing. It's funny how not spending afternoons or evenings - or even whole ass weekends - fighting to get like 200 words of fic out, means that I can instead knock out a thousand words on vinyl or films or food or live music or art.
Speaking of films I'm really enjoying my A to Z film challenge. I haven't watched a lot of films this year, but my enjoyment of the ones I have watched has been pretty high. Even the one I didn't like, I had opinions about. I'm actually watching things on DVD again. The new sound system helps.
Relatedly, this first half of the year has heavily featured replacing things that desperately needed replaced. From big projects like the new stereo and it's unit - seriously that's been in the planning stages since early 2020 - to small ones like replacing my bread board and ironing board, finally getting round to getting a proper shoe rack. It's been really good for my mental health getting things cleared out and replaced, getting rid of things that don't work - at all or just for me - and rearranging things so that they do work. (As a teenager I bought a little star globe lamp, and I'd never found a place where it really worked, but I loved it and it looks cute even when it's off so it's been sitting on various shelves for the last two decades. The other week I moved it to sit on top of one of my speakers, where it's within easy reach of where I sit at my desk. I thought it would look pretty and add to the ambiance alongside my window fairy lights when I'm working at my desk on summer's evenings. It does but this evening I discovered that it throws delightful light patterns on my feature wall when it actually get's dark. They're completely inviside on white walls, but against the plum wall and the black speakers it projects a galaxy of tiny stars. A delight!)
In a lot of ways the last few months have felt very one foot in front of the other, but there have been so many small moments of triumph and joy.
I've attended 9 gigs so far this year. (More if you counted all the different gigs that made up Tectonics, but it's technically a festival so I just count it as one event.) I reckon I can easily manage another three this year. Heck, Under Canvas starts this weekend, I could probably manage three gigs over the course of the two months that it runs!
Got back into swimming. This month hasn't been a great month for swimming, as it is Swim Club Gala season, which meant there was one on three out of four sundays last month. My preferred swimming slot is Sunday mid-morning, between shifts and the pool timetable it's quite hard to find a slot that works for me, and does so on a regular basis - I know myself I need a lot of repetition to form a habit. I wanted to get back into it because I love it, and I get a lot of benefit from it both mentally and physically but I'd forgotten just how much I feel the benefit of it. One of the things that prompted me to actually go see a physio about my shoulder was that I realised I was - mostly subconsciously - avoiding going back to swimming because of it. Consciously, I was worried about injuring it further, and I told the physio that one of my aims for it was to be able to get back to swimming. It wasn't until I got back in the water and felt the returned strenth of my shoulders, the way I could feel the muscles work and support me, that I felt the relief as the fear left me and realised that I'd been afraid that it wouldn't. When my shoulders ache after swimming it's the evenly spread, gentle ache of muscles well-used, not the grumbling discomfort of overuse or strain, of one particular part of the body out of sync. I've missed it.
I would also describe myself as being in love with cooking again. I've been doing the pick x amount of new recipes and cook them thing again this year, and I've just been getting such joy out of it. Trying new things in the kitchen and having so much fun with it. I feel as though I'm cooking more outside of that too, as though my more adventurous cooking is short cicuiting the bit of my brain that guilt trips me for taking the easy option when I need to. Yes, it would be better to make my own sauce for a pasta bake, but I keep an emergency jar of sauce in the cupboard for reason. Better to make that and chuck in a bunch of veg that needs used up, and have a tasty and filling dinner to eat at work for the next few days than eating junk and/or ready meals. As with so many things, perfect is the enemy of done.
Writing. Well, I'm doing better than last year. I think it helps that this year I've just accepted that fic writing might not be a thing for a while. I miss it, but forcing it didn't help, so I'm just letting it lie fallow for a bit and focusing on non fiction writing. It's funny how not spending afternoons or evenings - or even whole ass weekends - fighting to get like 200 words of fic out, means that I can instead knock out a thousand words on vinyl or films or food or live music or art.
14616 / 75000 (19.49%)
Speaking of films I'm really enjoying my A to Z film challenge. I haven't watched a lot of films this year, but my enjoyment of the ones I have watched has been pretty high. Even the one I didn't like, I had opinions about. I'm actually watching things on DVD again. The new sound system helps.
Relatedly, this first half of the year has heavily featured replacing things that desperately needed replaced. From big projects like the new stereo and it's unit - seriously that's been in the planning stages since early 2020 - to small ones like replacing my bread board and ironing board, finally getting round to getting a proper shoe rack. It's been really good for my mental health getting things cleared out and replaced, getting rid of things that don't work - at all or just for me - and rearranging things so that they do work. (As a teenager I bought a little star globe lamp, and I'd never found a place where it really worked, but I loved it and it looks cute even when it's off so it's been sitting on various shelves for the last two decades. The other week I moved it to sit on top of one of my speakers, where it's within easy reach of where I sit at my desk. I thought it would look pretty and add to the ambiance alongside my window fairy lights when I'm working at my desk on summer's evenings. It does but this evening I discovered that it throws delightful light patterns on my feature wall when it actually get's dark. They're completely inviside on white walls, but against the plum wall and the black speakers it projects a galaxy of tiny stars. A delight!)
In a lot of ways the last few months have felt very one foot in front of the other, but there have been so many small moments of triumph and joy.
Not The Reward I Wanted
1 Jul 2024 10:44 pmI've been having a determined clear out lately, both because my flat was a bit of a tip and also because my parents are visiting next week. I over did it a little. I didn't injure myself, or exhaust myself, moving a lot of furniture and shredding a lot of paper, I did however trigger my dust allergy. I worried yesterday that I was coming down with another summer cold, but I noticed that my symptoms notably improved when I left the house, so I followed my hunch and picked up clarityn instead of lemsip on the way to work and yeah, that does appear to be what it was. (Normally I have the windows open while I do this kind of cleaning for that very reason, but it's been unseasonably chilly this weekend - 12C is not typical late June, early July weather - so the windows have been largely shut.) I probably need to run all the fans in the house for an hour or so and then vacuum the fans, that should get a chunk on the dust back out of the air again, hopefully. It hasn't been nice enough to get either my big desk fan - which counter-intuitively tends to sit on the floor - or my wee USB fan - that sits on my actual computer desk - out of the cupboard this year. *sighs dramatically*
It's hard to complain about the lack of summer weather when so many places are having horrible climate change fuelled heatwaves, but the difference the little sunshine we got the other week made to my mental health was truly astounding. Also my cucumbers had finally burst into life, just when I thought they were not going to amount to anything, and they definitely need a bit more sunshine if I'm every getting any fruit from them.
It's hard to complain about the lack of summer weather when so many places are having horrible climate change fuelled heatwaves, but the difference the little sunshine we got the other week made to my mental health was truly astounding. Also my cucumbers had finally burst into life, just when I thought they were not going to amount to anything, and they definitely need a bit more sunshine if I'm every getting any fruit from them.
I had a big chunk here about old work shift patterns and new shift patterns and I just…I read it back and I didn’t care so why would you folks? What I mean to make the post about was the sewing class I took on Friday and that both I and possibly you folks will actually care about so…let’s finish that post!
You know what I do miss doing on weekends? I miss my sewing classes. The fabric shop have someone else doing classes now, and I’ve done one of those, and it’s fine. (It was curtain-making, mostly what I learned is that I’m not in fact going to make my own curtains, too much of a faff, which is better to know before I buy curtain fabric in fairness.) If that’s my only option and I want to learn the thing then I’ll do it, but it’s just not as fun. However, last month I got their newsletter and spotted that the original woman - one of the two people who run the shop, yeah the fact that they can afford to hire someone else in to teach the class is a sign they’re doing well, so I’m happy for them, I just prefer M as a teacher - was doing a class on the last day of my annual leave so I signed up for that one. It was a delight. Ironically it was in fact the same class that I was signed up to do, that was cancelled when we went into lockdown, so three and a half years later than intended, I have finally learned how to put a zip in.
We made a little zipped bag in class, it’s extremely cute - with a little bias cut pattern, the bottom half is cord and the top half cute patterned fabric. Hilariously the was a variety was fabric rectangles cut out for us to pick from and we all picked the mustard coloured cord and matched it with very different combinations of patterns and zips. (Mine is just little coloured squares, but it worked well with the zips and tags on offer.) I’m almost as pleased with how my little boxed corners came out - I’ve done boxed corners before but not since I last did one of these courses pre-pandemic.
The other achievement of this weekend has been to go swimming. Back when I used to work freelance, and temp, I took up swimming as a good way to stop my body seizing up in the face of office-work. (I knew sitting at a desk 8 hours a day wasn’t good for me, but I put a lot of my aches and pains to playing roller derby, only discover when I gave that up that I actually hurt more.) I used to swim twice a week before work when I had a 9 to 5 - and I loved it - and even when I started working shifts I usually managed a swim most weeks. Except then the pandemic happened and I stopped, and I just haven’t gone back. Last year I was a lot better about going to the gym, which also forced me to actually go to physio for my shoulder - I had a rotator cuff injury that didn’t heal right - which did wonders, but fundamentally while I like the gym just fine, I’m not motivated enough to go regularly enough to justify my membership fees. So I figured, why not try getting back into swimming. It’s all over exercise, it’s only as energetic as I make it and I already have all the stuff, I just need to start going again.
I went for my first swim in 4 years this morning - a Sunday morning swim seems like a nice gentle habit to build, I could reward myself with a nice pastry after - and oh but I’ve missed it. I’m a great believer in not setting myself up to fail with these things so I’d set myself the challenge of ‘swim for ten minutes’ as a baseline. I was a bit concerned with how busy the competition pool might be on a Sunday, but apparently the answer was not at all, the only other occupant of the slow lane finished after I’d done only like two laps, and for the rest of the time I had a lane to myself. It took me twenty minutes to knock out as many laps as I’d have done in ten before but that was mostly recovery time, actually swimming is pretty good, I just had to rest up to catch my breath between lengths, and that reduced as I went along and found the rhythm of my breathing. It felt great, though hilariously more like a workout than 90% of the gym workouts I did last year. Sitting here now I definitely know I did some exercise today, I’ve got a low grade in my whole upper body, but in a good way, I got all the good hormones. I feel good, I’m reminded that this is why I used to swim, because it made me feel unequivocally better, especially on days when my mental health was in the toilet. I’ve missed this, I need to keep it up.
You know what I do miss doing on weekends? I miss my sewing classes. The fabric shop have someone else doing classes now, and I’ve done one of those, and it’s fine. (It was curtain-making, mostly what I learned is that I’m not in fact going to make my own curtains, too much of a faff, which is better to know before I buy curtain fabric in fairness.) If that’s my only option and I want to learn the thing then I’ll do it, but it’s just not as fun. However, last month I got their newsletter and spotted that the original woman - one of the two people who run the shop, yeah the fact that they can afford to hire someone else in to teach the class is a sign they’re doing well, so I’m happy for them, I just prefer M as a teacher - was doing a class on the last day of my annual leave so I signed up for that one. It was a delight. Ironically it was in fact the same class that I was signed up to do, that was cancelled when we went into lockdown, so three and a half years later than intended, I have finally learned how to put a zip in.
We made a little zipped bag in class, it’s extremely cute - with a little bias cut pattern, the bottom half is cord and the top half cute patterned fabric. Hilariously the was a variety was fabric rectangles cut out for us to pick from and we all picked the mustard coloured cord and matched it with very different combinations of patterns and zips. (Mine is just little coloured squares, but it worked well with the zips and tags on offer.) I’m almost as pleased with how my little boxed corners came out - I’ve done boxed corners before but not since I last did one of these courses pre-pandemic.
The other achievement of this weekend has been to go swimming. Back when I used to work freelance, and temp, I took up swimming as a good way to stop my body seizing up in the face of office-work. (I knew sitting at a desk 8 hours a day wasn’t good for me, but I put a lot of my aches and pains to playing roller derby, only discover when I gave that up that I actually hurt more.) I used to swim twice a week before work when I had a 9 to 5 - and I loved it - and even when I started working shifts I usually managed a swim most weeks. Except then the pandemic happened and I stopped, and I just haven’t gone back. Last year I was a lot better about going to the gym, which also forced me to actually go to physio for my shoulder - I had a rotator cuff injury that didn’t heal right - which did wonders, but fundamentally while I like the gym just fine, I’m not motivated enough to go regularly enough to justify my membership fees. So I figured, why not try getting back into swimming. It’s all over exercise, it’s only as energetic as I make it and I already have all the stuff, I just need to start going again.
I went for my first swim in 4 years this morning - a Sunday morning swim seems like a nice gentle habit to build, I could reward myself with a nice pastry after - and oh but I’ve missed it. I’m a great believer in not setting myself up to fail with these things so I’d set myself the challenge of ‘swim for ten minutes’ as a baseline. I was a bit concerned with how busy the competition pool might be on a Sunday, but apparently the answer was not at all, the only other occupant of the slow lane finished after I’d done only like two laps, and for the rest of the time I had a lane to myself. It took me twenty minutes to knock out as many laps as I’d have done in ten before but that was mostly recovery time, actually swimming is pretty good, I just had to rest up to catch my breath between lengths, and that reduced as I went along and found the rhythm of my breathing. It felt great, though hilariously more like a workout than 90% of the gym workouts I did last year. Sitting here now I definitely know I did some exercise today, I’ve got a low grade in my whole upper body, but in a good way, I got all the good hormones. I feel good, I’m reminded that this is why I used to swim, because it made me feel unequivocally better, especially on days when my mental health was in the toilet. I’ve missed this, I need to keep it up.
Friday Five on a Saturday
24 Jun 2023 09:11 amI’ve fallen back out of posting regularly and I’m trying to get back into it, so here, have this week’s ![[community profile]](/makepkg/implementing-https-www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thefridayfive.
1. What is your favorite fruit?
I feel like, statistically, it’s banana. I pretty much always have bananas in the house, and as long as they’re yellow I’ll pick them over most other things in a fruit bowl I didn’t fill myself. However, I think more generally my favourite fruit varies by season, because if you get something perfectly fresh and perfectly in season it will obviously taste better. I’m fairly agnostic about apricots, but I bought some once off a market stall in southern Germany while travelling and they were utterly glorious. (Occasionally Lidl will have them perfectly in season and that’s the closest I’ve had to that perfection here.) Also when I was in Barcelona, I stayed round the corner from La Bouqueria and one morning bought a tray of fresh pineapple of such perfect sweet ripeness that it ruined all other fresh pineapple for me forever. Closer to home though, when the Strawberries from Fife are in full season - as they are right now - they take some beating, though raspberries picked straight off the plant in my gran’s garden or one of my colleagues allotments come pretty close. So really the answer is whatever I can get locally and fresh is likely to win.
2. What is the most overrated fruit?
I think melons. If you live somewhere, where they grow locally I’m sure they’re cracking, but here they’ve always been picked too early and shipped too far. Occasionally you’ll get a small, perfectly formed one, and eat it at perfectly ripeness and it’ll be great. However I’ve never known a fruit with a higher fail rate, so often served slightly too hard, or just a sad watery mess. This is true of many highly prized tropical fruits here, where you’re largely paying for the novelty not the actual flavour. On a similar note I quite like avocado, love me some guacamole, enjoy it on toast with a poached egg as a treat, but I do not get the current cultural obsession with it.
3. What is the most underrated fruit?
Apples and pears I think. They are super versatile fruits that come in a huge variety of forms. They grow really well in the UK and I think we neglect them somewhat here because we take them for granted so much. Fruit breeders seem to be obsessed with making apples in particular ever sweeter - MacIntosh Reds used to be a glorious sweet apple, but now they’re all mealy and disappointing - but personally I love a nice crisp Granny Smith. I grew up with cooking apples in the garden, and here in Inverness trees of cookers seem to be everywhere - until it came down in a storm, there was even one in the garden at work - so in a good year any given workplace will be rife with people trying to pass on excess apples. (We’ve just had a rhubarb glut, later in the summer there’ll be courgettes and in autumn it’s apples.)
4. Which fruit is the most beautiful?
Probably nectarines or peaches, they’re a good size and shape to fit in the hand, they look like they’ll taste good and they do. Honestly most fruits that I enjoy the taste of, look just gorgeous when they’re perfectly ripe, but I think that less about aesthetics than it is remembered positive association, recognising that I’m in for a treat!
5. When you're making a fruit salad, how many fruits do you put in it, and which ones?
I think you need at least three to consider it a salad. I tend to only make it if I’ve got several kinds of fresh fruit at peak ripeness needing used up - maybe strawberries, peaches, banana and an apple for peak mixed texture? But honestly if I’ve got enough different fruits needing used up to make a salad, unless I’ve got guests, I’m much more likely to make a smoothie!
thefridayfive. 1. What is your favorite fruit?
I feel like, statistically, it’s banana. I pretty much always have bananas in the house, and as long as they’re yellow I’ll pick them over most other things in a fruit bowl I didn’t fill myself. However, I think more generally my favourite fruit varies by season, because if you get something perfectly fresh and perfectly in season it will obviously taste better. I’m fairly agnostic about apricots, but I bought some once off a market stall in southern Germany while travelling and they were utterly glorious. (Occasionally Lidl will have them perfectly in season and that’s the closest I’ve had to that perfection here.) Also when I was in Barcelona, I stayed round the corner from La Bouqueria and one morning bought a tray of fresh pineapple of such perfect sweet ripeness that it ruined all other fresh pineapple for me forever. Closer to home though, when the Strawberries from Fife are in full season - as they are right now - they take some beating, though raspberries picked straight off the plant in my gran’s garden or one of my colleagues allotments come pretty close. So really the answer is whatever I can get locally and fresh is likely to win.
2. What is the most overrated fruit?
I think melons. If you live somewhere, where they grow locally I’m sure they’re cracking, but here they’ve always been picked too early and shipped too far. Occasionally you’ll get a small, perfectly formed one, and eat it at perfectly ripeness and it’ll be great. However I’ve never known a fruit with a higher fail rate, so often served slightly too hard, or just a sad watery mess. This is true of many highly prized tropical fruits here, where you’re largely paying for the novelty not the actual flavour. On a similar note I quite like avocado, love me some guacamole, enjoy it on toast with a poached egg as a treat, but I do not get the current cultural obsession with it.
3. What is the most underrated fruit?
Apples and pears I think. They are super versatile fruits that come in a huge variety of forms. They grow really well in the UK and I think we neglect them somewhat here because we take them for granted so much. Fruit breeders seem to be obsessed with making apples in particular ever sweeter - MacIntosh Reds used to be a glorious sweet apple, but now they’re all mealy and disappointing - but personally I love a nice crisp Granny Smith. I grew up with cooking apples in the garden, and here in Inverness trees of cookers seem to be everywhere - until it came down in a storm, there was even one in the garden at work - so in a good year any given workplace will be rife with people trying to pass on excess apples. (We’ve just had a rhubarb glut, later in the summer there’ll be courgettes and in autumn it’s apples.)
4. Which fruit is the most beautiful?
Probably nectarines or peaches, they’re a good size and shape to fit in the hand, they look like they’ll taste good and they do. Honestly most fruits that I enjoy the taste of, look just gorgeous when they’re perfectly ripe, but I think that less about aesthetics than it is remembered positive association, recognising that I’m in for a treat!
5. When you're making a fruit salad, how many fruits do you put in it, and which ones?
I think you need at least three to consider it a salad. I tend to only make it if I’ve got several kinds of fresh fruit at peak ripeness needing used up - maybe strawberries, peaches, banana and an apple for peak mixed texture? But honestly if I’ve got enough different fruits needing used up to make a salad, unless I’ve got guests, I’m much more likely to make a smoothie!
Huh, I really just made a post about cellos and just, fell off the planet didn’t I?
I’m in Skye at the moment, doing an immersion course so there’s a 50/50 chance of you getting either loads of posts this week cos I’m super chatty or 1 post that takes me all week to write cos my brain has melted.
I’ve been really quite productive lately, but the vast majority of that productivity has been not on the computer, as I’ve been feeling uninspired on that front and trying to just lean into the stuff that I actually felt motivated to do. Mostly the majority of the last month has been about slowly emerging from the fudge of seasonal depression catching up with all the things I’ve been neglecting because of it. So I’ve mostly been cleaning house both literally - a couple of trips to dump or donate stuff have happened, windows and window boxes have been washed and replanted - and figuratively - finishing long standing projects and sorting out craft supplies and magazines so that I can get to the stuff I want to do next. (Sometimes you don’t realise how deep you were in the hole until you start getting out of it.) Also I’ve just finished up on a placement at work that had taken over a lot of my spare creative head space - in a good way, but it’s nice to have it back - so now I need to have a good hard think about my next steps career wise. Which is in fact why I’m here on Skye immersing.
It’s funny, I’d forgotten how much I relied on escaping to Skye for weekend courses as a release valve when I still lived in the Central Belt and was dealing with an excess of job stress. It’s not as though I never come to Skye anymore, works sends me over for jobs semi-regularly but it’s usually up the North end so it was definitely weird to drive over the bridge and take the Armadale road and keep going. It was until I was parking up and looked up at the familiar outside of the Tur and the Ionad Fàilte and felt myself relax that I realised how much I’ve missed the place. I had a bit of a logistical nightmare getting here, but I’m glad I put the effort in to sort it out because it’s so good to be here.
Media I have Consumed Lately
I’ve read some books! Honest, I’ve just not been posting about it. I’ve finally finished The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes, which continued slowly until the Spring actually kicked off at which point I read the last 200 or so pages in the space of a week. It’s an interesting read. It’s not the books fault that I still feel like Robert MacFarlane could have written better, but that’s not fair to anyone involved. (He wrote an approving blurb!) I’m glad to have read it though it took me so long I’m mostly glad it’s done.
I successfully procrastinated reading that book by reading another one, in the shape of a new year present to myself, one of those BFI retrospective books, this one about Takeshi Kitano. In the course of reading the book, I ended up taking out a free trial of MUBI so that I could watch some of the films the book talks about - as I realised that I’ve mostly only seen films he’s acted in rather than directed. And actually the opportunity to watch Dolls with context made it all worthwhile because that film was definitely my kind of weird and I really appreciated getting to read the film nerd analysis immediately afterwards.
Media I am Currently Consuming
I’ve just started in on Unwell Women by Elinor Cleghorn which is a history of women and medicine, it’s pretty interesting so far. My brain is definitely on non-fiction mode at the moment, it’ll quite happily take a chapter or two of dense academic speak or any given obscure subject for an hour or so, but offer it fiction and it’ll get distracted in ten minutes. Relatedly, I’ve made absolutely no progress on The Lost History of Pepperharrow since I got back from holiday. I haven’t so much as cracked it open in the intervening time. I’ve brought it to Skye with me in the hope of making some progress on it, but its not as I’ve been reading much other fiction recently either. (It’s all been comfort reading fic all the time recently.)
Media I Hope to Consume Next
I guess I should continue to lean into the non-fiction thing. Actually I have a book on Spanish and Lusophone cinema that I bounced off early in the pandemic, I’ve still got a bit of time left on my MUBI trial I should see if I can actually see some of the films it talks about and see if I can finish that book! Otherwise, I’d quite like to tackle The Anarchy by William Dalrymple as there’s been a few things recently where the East India company has come up and it’s reminded me that I have this book and I’ve been wanting to read it, which does seem like a good motivator to actually read the book. I’m also wanting to read Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow which has the advantage of being a smaller book… Oh and I spotted Stations of the Sun in the library here at Sabhal Mor which made we want to bump that up the to-read list too.
I’m in Skye at the moment, doing an immersion course so there’s a 50/50 chance of you getting either loads of posts this week cos I’m super chatty or 1 post that takes me all week to write cos my brain has melted.
I’ve been really quite productive lately, but the vast majority of that productivity has been not on the computer, as I’ve been feeling uninspired on that front and trying to just lean into the stuff that I actually felt motivated to do. Mostly the majority of the last month has been about slowly emerging from the fudge of seasonal depression catching up with all the things I’ve been neglecting because of it. So I’ve mostly been cleaning house both literally - a couple of trips to dump or donate stuff have happened, windows and window boxes have been washed and replanted - and figuratively - finishing long standing projects and sorting out craft supplies and magazines so that I can get to the stuff I want to do next. (Sometimes you don’t realise how deep you were in the hole until you start getting out of it.) Also I’ve just finished up on a placement at work that had taken over a lot of my spare creative head space - in a good way, but it’s nice to have it back - so now I need to have a good hard think about my next steps career wise. Which is in fact why I’m here on Skye immersing.
It’s funny, I’d forgotten how much I relied on escaping to Skye for weekend courses as a release valve when I still lived in the Central Belt and was dealing with an excess of job stress. It’s not as though I never come to Skye anymore, works sends me over for jobs semi-regularly but it’s usually up the North end so it was definitely weird to drive over the bridge and take the Armadale road and keep going. It was until I was parking up and looked up at the familiar outside of the Tur and the Ionad Fàilte and felt myself relax that I realised how much I’ve missed the place. I had a bit of a logistical nightmare getting here, but I’m glad I put the effort in to sort it out because it’s so good to be here.
Media I have Consumed Lately
I’ve read some books! Honest, I’ve just not been posting about it. I’ve finally finished The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes, which continued slowly until the Spring actually kicked off at which point I read the last 200 or so pages in the space of a week. It’s an interesting read. It’s not the books fault that I still feel like Robert MacFarlane could have written better, but that’s not fair to anyone involved. (He wrote an approving blurb!) I’m glad to have read it though it took me so long I’m mostly glad it’s done.
I successfully procrastinated reading that book by reading another one, in the shape of a new year present to myself, one of those BFI retrospective books, this one about Takeshi Kitano. In the course of reading the book, I ended up taking out a free trial of MUBI so that I could watch some of the films the book talks about - as I realised that I’ve mostly only seen films he’s acted in rather than directed. And actually the opportunity to watch Dolls with context made it all worthwhile because that film was definitely my kind of weird and I really appreciated getting to read the film nerd analysis immediately afterwards.
Media I am Currently Consuming
I’ve just started in on Unwell Women by Elinor Cleghorn which is a history of women and medicine, it’s pretty interesting so far. My brain is definitely on non-fiction mode at the moment, it’ll quite happily take a chapter or two of dense academic speak or any given obscure subject for an hour or so, but offer it fiction and it’ll get distracted in ten minutes. Relatedly, I’ve made absolutely no progress on The Lost History of Pepperharrow since I got back from holiday. I haven’t so much as cracked it open in the intervening time. I’ve brought it to Skye with me in the hope of making some progress on it, but its not as I’ve been reading much other fiction recently either. (It’s all been comfort reading fic all the time recently.)
Media I Hope to Consume Next
I guess I should continue to lean into the non-fiction thing. Actually I have a book on Spanish and Lusophone cinema that I bounced off early in the pandemic, I’ve still got a bit of time left on my MUBI trial I should see if I can actually see some of the films it talks about and see if I can finish that book! Otherwise, I’d quite like to tackle The Anarchy by William Dalrymple as there’s been a few things recently where the East India company has come up and it’s reminded me that I have this book and I’ve been wanting to read it, which does seem like a good motivator to actually read the book. I’m also wanting to read Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow which has the advantage of being a smaller book… Oh and I spotted Stations of the Sun in the library here at Sabhal Mor which made we want to bump that up the to-read list too.
Thems The Rules: If you'd like your own questions, let me know in the comments! I'll ask the first five commenters five questions each. Answer them in your own journal, offer to give the first five commenters their own sets of questions, and let the cycle continue!
Questions from![[personal profile]](/makepkg/implementing-https-www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
netgirl_y2k:
1. Because adults do not get asked this enough, what's your favourite dinosaur?
Pterodactyl. I've loved those winged pointy bastards since I was a kid. Not even that scene in the third Jurassic Park film could break me of it. Actually if we're going to get really specific about it the particular kind of pterosaur that they recently identified from fossils on Skye that has the delightful gaelic name of Dearc sgiathanach (a speckled or striped winged creature).
2. Where do you stand on Scottish Independence, are you in favour of it and do you think it will ever happen?
I'm in favour! But okay I have a fairly nuanced view on it, in that I think that there are plenty of good reasons for the countries of these islands to be in some form of political union - there was brief moment after the 2014 referendum when it looked like we might get proper federalism and realistically that's probably the best option - much as we're better being part of the EU. However, the ruling establishment of the UK has fundamentally never accepted that the Empire is gone and isn't coming back. And I sincerely believe that they never will accept that until and unless the UK breaks up entirely. Once we've all come apart and figured out who we are as individual countries then maybe we can come back together as actual partners again then, but I think that'll be a long time coming because the establishment seems intent on doubling down and alienating all it's obvious allies. It saddens me but I think that the only way out of the hole Westminster seems determined to drag us down into, is for Scotland to actually leave. It might be enough shock to the system to get them to pull themselves together, or it might prompt the other nations to walk away too.
3. It's so cold! Favourite and least favourite things about this weather?
Well, I'm a knitter, so the excuse to wear lots of cosy knitwear is pretty high up there, I love layers, and I love being cosy and having an excuse to drink fancy hot beverages - both alcholic and not - and crunch through the snow in my favourite boots. My least favourite thing is ice, especially when its done that annoying freeze/thaw/freeze thing that makes everything deceptively lethal. (Actually, I think it might really be people who don't drive with due caution in icy/snowy weather. Just charging at things like it'll some how be less dangerous because they're in a hurry.)
4. If you could only listen to one podcast from now on which one are you keeping?
Ooooh that's difficult. Probably a toss up between From Our Own Correspondant and 99% Invisible, which I think 99% Invisible would probably win just because I could cheat and listen live to FOOC on Radio 4 (I wouldn't though, the reason I subscribe to it as a podcast is because I'm utterly useless at tuning in at the correct time.) Everything else I listen to is to specific, focusing on one subject - sound, linguistics, food, history, whatever - they're the only ones wide ranging enough to keep me satisfied in the long term.
5. What's the most memorable 'bad' book you've read, one that you just couldn't stop thinking about?
Hmmm... I think either, Prozac Nation or Catch 22 because while I never finished either of them, even the thought of them some twenty years later makes me go 'urgh'. I've probably bounced off some worse books in the intervening years - I read a chapter of Twilight to see what the fuss was about but I never really got either the intense hate or love for that book, I just thought it was badly written nonsense - but nothing that has quite stuck with me in quite the same way. I definitely subscribe to the mantra of 'life is too short to read bad books' and giving myself the gift of noping out of a book I wasn't enjoying has been a good life choice.
Questions from
netgirl_y2k: 1. Because adults do not get asked this enough, what's your favourite dinosaur?
Pterodactyl. I've loved those winged pointy bastards since I was a kid. Not even that scene in the third Jurassic Park film could break me of it. Actually if we're going to get really specific about it the particular kind of pterosaur that they recently identified from fossils on Skye that has the delightful gaelic name of Dearc sgiathanach (a speckled or striped winged creature).
2. Where do you stand on Scottish Independence, are you in favour of it and do you think it will ever happen?
I'm in favour! But okay I have a fairly nuanced view on it, in that I think that there are plenty of good reasons for the countries of these islands to be in some form of political union - there was brief moment after the 2014 referendum when it looked like we might get proper federalism and realistically that's probably the best option - much as we're better being part of the EU. However, the ruling establishment of the UK has fundamentally never accepted that the Empire is gone and isn't coming back. And I sincerely believe that they never will accept that until and unless the UK breaks up entirely. Once we've all come apart and figured out who we are as individual countries then maybe we can come back together as actual partners again then, but I think that'll be a long time coming because the establishment seems intent on doubling down and alienating all it's obvious allies. It saddens me but I think that the only way out of the hole Westminster seems determined to drag us down into, is for Scotland to actually leave. It might be enough shock to the system to get them to pull themselves together, or it might prompt the other nations to walk away too.
3. It's so cold! Favourite and least favourite things about this weather?
Well, I'm a knitter, so the excuse to wear lots of cosy knitwear is pretty high up there, I love layers, and I love being cosy and having an excuse to drink fancy hot beverages - both alcholic and not - and crunch through the snow in my favourite boots. My least favourite thing is ice, especially when its done that annoying freeze/thaw/freeze thing that makes everything deceptively lethal. (Actually, I think it might really be people who don't drive with due caution in icy/snowy weather. Just charging at things like it'll some how be less dangerous because they're in a hurry.)
4. If you could only listen to one podcast from now on which one are you keeping?
Ooooh that's difficult. Probably a toss up between From Our Own Correspondant and 99% Invisible, which I think 99% Invisible would probably win just because I could cheat and listen live to FOOC on Radio 4 (I wouldn't though, the reason I subscribe to it as a podcast is because I'm utterly useless at tuning in at the correct time.) Everything else I listen to is to specific, focusing on one subject - sound, linguistics, food, history, whatever - they're the only ones wide ranging enough to keep me satisfied in the long term.
5. What's the most memorable 'bad' book you've read, one that you just couldn't stop thinking about?
Hmmm... I think either, Prozac Nation or Catch 22 because while I never finished either of them, even the thought of them some twenty years later makes me go 'urgh'. I've probably bounced off some worse books in the intervening years - I read a chapter of Twilight to see what the fuss was about but I never really got either the intense hate or love for that book, I just thought it was badly written nonsense - but nothing that has quite stuck with me in quite the same way. I definitely subscribe to the mantra of 'life is too short to read bad books' and giving myself the gift of noping out of a book I wasn't enjoying has been a good life choice.
Slightly Less Full of Holes…
1 Oct 2022 11:59 pmSeriously, just having a week off with no real plans was just what I needed. Not that I did ‘nothing’, but very little was happening that I needed to do on any particular day or at any particular time. (I would have liked to have spent a couple of days doing nothing in my pyjamas, but I didn’t seemed to be able to settle to that, I did manage to get a lot of sleep though, ten hours a night most nights.) I made myself a to-do list of house stuff to do and just worked through it - or other stuff that got added to the list retrospectively - as and when the mood took me. I did a couple of bulk cooks, went to see an art exhibition, met a friend for coffee and went for a drink with some work pals, spent an afternoon reading in a coffee shop, went for walks on nice days and stayed home when it rained. I dug out my winter clothes and put away the summer ones, cleaned the dust off my bookshelves - and pictures, clocks, bedside cabinets, lamps etc - and put up my autumn decorations. I didn’t make as much progress on my knitting as I hoped because I seem to have pulled something in my shoulder - heat bags have featured heavily this week, I think the masses of tension that has built up in my shoulders over the last few weeks is exacerbating things - and I’m trying to let that heal, but I did write a food blog post, and finally figure out using loops in Logic - it’s really obvious now I know what I’m doing but getting to that stage was…difficult. Dozens of little tasks - changing batteries in clocks, resupplying vitamins, taking tubs back to Lush, posting a cheque - that have been lurking around undone taunting me when I remember about them at times I can do nothing about them. There are at least a dozen other things I intended to do but didn’t get round to - I did feel stuck in a loop of laundry/dishes/bins for a while there - but for the first time in ages I feel like I’m actually something resembling on top of things again. Or if not quite on top of things, at least no longer just clinging on desperately as things slowly spin out of control. I half-expected this to be the kind of week off when I promptly come down with a cold as soon as I relaxed but I appear *touches wood* to have avoided that. Perhaps because I’ve taken this time off? (Perhaps because I’m still masking in supermarkets and on public transport, perhaps the cold currently doing the rounds is the one I had in July and I’m immune?) Whatever the cause, avoiding crashing and burning physically or mentally seems a good thing to aim at.
(I used to post to-do lists here all the time, it was quite satisfying, I’m not quite sure when or why I stopped but now I make them on an actual little notepad in my kitchen. I really like the physical crossing off, but I do kind of miss the accountability aspect.)
(I used to post to-do lists here all the time, it was quite satisfying, I’m not quite sure when or why I stopped but now I make them on an actual little notepad in my kitchen. I really like the physical crossing off, but I do kind of miss the accountability aspect.)
At the edge of the future
25 Mar 2020 07:26 pmYou know that XKCD comic from years ago about the delicious cycle of nachos? I'm like that just now with home-made soup and bread - that bread needs used up, I should make soup. Huh, today I have leftover soup I should make bread so I don't waste that soup...
(This may be being exagerrated by the fact that I'm freezing a couple of portions of each pot of soup I make for 'emergency back-up'. A habit I've kept from my temping days, is making a pot of soup the minute I get a sniffle or a tickle in my throat, best case scenario lovely soup helps me repell the cold, worst case scenario I can live on soup for a few days while I'm down with the cold. All my immediate colleagues who were self-isolating are back in action - ordinary winter colds thankfully - or working from home - asthmatics - but as we have literally no idea what might help then soup it is.)
What I've Finished Reading/Listening To
Nope. Nada. Zip.
What I'm Currently Reading/Listening To
My continuing slow progress on Record of a Spaceborn Few (which I'm enjoying! Just...slowly.) and inability to get on with anything else fictional led me to think that maybe I just needed to read some non-fiction for a bit. I'm treated myself to a couple of pop-history books while I was out last week and having been getting along crackingly with Mudlarking by Lara Maiklem. The chapters are a good length (about 45mins to an hour's reading time) and nicely self contained so I can easily pick it up and put it down as necessary. In an attempt to give myself some much needed structure, I've been going to bed a bit earlier with a book and having breakfast in bed with a book in the mornings. A chapter or two a session means that I feel like I'm making decent progress without getting overwhelmed in either direction.
I also started reading His Bloody Project by Graeme MacRae Burnet which is pretty interesting - and which caused me to think I should make to the switch to non-fiction - but given that it's about some real life historical murders I decided was a bit gory for bedtime reading.
Podcast wise I've mostly been catching up with ongoing podcasts, but I have got into You're Dead to Me which I'd avoided before because I'm not big on comedy podcasts but actually they get the balance of funny and interesting right so I've been really enjoying it.
This time last month when I wrote one of these posts, I was contemplating a day trip to Aberdeen and the podcast listing potential therein, as an activity for my week off. Now that the week in question has arrived I'm plotting scenic routes by which to walk to the supermarket. Things are looking very different now.
What I'm Reading/Listening to Next
I'm working my way through this list of food podcasts to see if anything captures my interest. I'm also trying out Answer me This but I think it might be a bit too 'comedy' for this moment.
You'd think that escapist fiction would be absolutely up my street right now, but it's really not. I'm barely reading fanfic right now. Weirdly the only fiction I'm currently consuming is Person of Interest which I'm attempting to catch up on so that I can take part in![[tumblr.com profile]](/makepkg/implementing-https-www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
exchange-of-interest. It appears to be just the ticket for my viewing needs right now - and the music choices are on point UNKLE have such cinematic sensibilities to their music and I've never heard them used in anything else. It probably helps that because my laptop isn't as young as it was I tend to shut everything else down when I have a DVD on so if I put my phone out of reach (say on the other side of the room charging) I'm not tempted by other sources and distractions. I just watch. And knit.
Speaking of knitting, I started the front of my current jumper - a sleeveless pullover - on Saturday and I've almost knitted half of it already. I joked to my parents on Skype at the weekend that I might have it done by the time we next Skype but at this rate I really might...
(I can't do anything. It's taken me days to shake the urge to do something, anything to help but I can't. I'm on call, if they need me; they'll call. The best thing I can do to support my colleagues right now is to rest up, to eat healthy so my immune system is on form, so I can head back to work all refreshed to relieve my colleagues.)
(This may be being exagerrated by the fact that I'm freezing a couple of portions of each pot of soup I make for 'emergency back-up'. A habit I've kept from my temping days, is making a pot of soup the minute I get a sniffle or a tickle in my throat, best case scenario lovely soup helps me repell the cold, worst case scenario I can live on soup for a few days while I'm down with the cold. All my immediate colleagues who were self-isolating are back in action - ordinary winter colds thankfully - or working from home - asthmatics - but as we have literally no idea what might help then soup it is.)
What I've Finished Reading/Listening To
Nope. Nada. Zip.
What I'm Currently Reading/Listening To
My continuing slow progress on Record of a Spaceborn Few (which I'm enjoying! Just...slowly.) and inability to get on with anything else fictional led me to think that maybe I just needed to read some non-fiction for a bit. I'm treated myself to a couple of pop-history books while I was out last week and having been getting along crackingly with Mudlarking by Lara Maiklem. The chapters are a good length (about 45mins to an hour's reading time) and nicely self contained so I can easily pick it up and put it down as necessary. In an attempt to give myself some much needed structure, I've been going to bed a bit earlier with a book and having breakfast in bed with a book in the mornings. A chapter or two a session means that I feel like I'm making decent progress without getting overwhelmed in either direction.
I also started reading His Bloody Project by Graeme MacRae Burnet which is pretty interesting - and which caused me to think I should make to the switch to non-fiction - but given that it's about some real life historical murders I decided was a bit gory for bedtime reading.
Podcast wise I've mostly been catching up with ongoing podcasts, but I have got into You're Dead to Me which I'd avoided before because I'm not big on comedy podcasts but actually they get the balance of funny and interesting right so I've been really enjoying it.
This time last month when I wrote one of these posts, I was contemplating a day trip to Aberdeen and the podcast listing potential therein, as an activity for my week off. Now that the week in question has arrived I'm plotting scenic routes by which to walk to the supermarket. Things are looking very different now.
What I'm Reading/Listening to Next
I'm working my way through this list of food podcasts to see if anything captures my interest. I'm also trying out Answer me This but I think it might be a bit too 'comedy' for this moment.
You'd think that escapist fiction would be absolutely up my street right now, but it's really not. I'm barely reading fanfic right now. Weirdly the only fiction I'm currently consuming is Person of Interest which I'm attempting to catch up on so that I can take part in
Speaking of knitting, I started the front of my current jumper - a sleeveless pullover - on Saturday and I've almost knitted half of it already. I joked to my parents on Skype at the weekend that I might have it done by the time we next Skype but at this rate I really might...
(I can't do anything. It's taken me days to shake the urge to do something, anything to help but I can't. I'm on call, if they need me; they'll call. The best thing I can do to support my colleagues right now is to rest up, to eat healthy so my immune system is on form, so I can head back to work all refreshed to relieve my colleagues.)
Whinging on a Wednesday
4 Mar 2020 11:12 pmWhat's worse than toothache? When you go to your emergency dentist appointment, and they poke about, take some xrays and then assure you that whatever's causing you pain...it's not your teeth. ( cut for worried grumbling about health stuff )
I was going to make a writing round up post but actually I only completed one writing thing, a mini table formonthlysupergo so I'm just going to share my finished fic and leave it there.
Four Meals (2017 words) by Glinda
Chapters: 4/4
Fandom: Good Omens (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens)
Additional Tags: Dining at the Ritz (Good Omens), Food, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Eating, Hand Feeding, soft
Summary: In the aftermath of the almost apocalypse Aziraphale and Crowley share four meals as they figure out what they are to each other now.
However in other creative news, I finally got round to sanding down and painting the picture frame my dad found lurking in the garage, and after giving the glass a good clean, my Questionable Content art print is now framed and hanging happily on my wall. I continue to do sewing classes - I can now do boxed corners and line a bag - and was finally inspired to actually get out my gran's old sewing machine out and set it up, only to find that the pedal has shorted out - a common problem in sewing machines of its age - and therefore acts like it's haunted/possessed as soon as you switch it on. The advantage of it being a Singer is that you can still get parts (the website is very web 1.0 but it is also very good! If it ain't broke...) so I'm negotiating with the engineer at work to get him to fix it for me.
What I've Finished Reading/Listening To
I ended up binge-listening to The Boring Talks while knitting as the episodes are mostly at that sweet spot of 20-30 minutes that is ideal for my listening purposes. The concept of the podcast is that they are essentially guest lectures on subjects that sound like they will be objectively boring but given by people who are really really into the subject so make them really compelling. They are in fact by and large, really interesting. A lot of the people giving the talks - especially early on - are broadcasters, academics, artists and otherwise experts, people who are used to communinicating ideas, and they are mostly talking about their geeky side interests rather than their dayjobs. Some of them are essentially lectures, some of them are meandering recolections and a couple of them feel more like perfomance art than anything else. (The one about the Argros Catalogue is particularly odd yet particularly compelling.) Their sound designer is amazing and whoever composed their music did a great job too - charmingly whimsical a la Yann Tierson but not too whimsical. I've only noped out on two episodes - out of 40-something episodes to date - as being actually boring. That seems a pretty good ratio.
(I'd never heard of the presenter James Ward, prior to listening to the podcast, but apparently this is his niche area. Honestly I find him the least compelling part of the podcast as I feel he's trying too hard to be funny. I guess it's trying to sell itself as a comedy podcast, but while I do often laugh aloud at things that I hear on it, that's not the point? I'm just as likely to be moved or delighted or fascinated or annoyed. There's much more to the podcast than just being 'funny'.)
What I'm Currently Reading/Listening To
Mostly indulgent Good Omens AUs, the softer the better, because between busyness and pain I haven't been up to anything more strenuous
What I'm Reading/Listening to Next
I cannot even. What I'd like to do is read some Asterix the Gaul in Gaelic. Whether I have the brain for it at the moment is another matter.
I was going to make a writing round up post but actually I only completed one writing thing, a mini table for
monthlysupergo so I'm just going to share my finished fic and leave it there.Four Meals (2017 words) by Glinda
Chapters: 4/4
Fandom: Good Omens (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens)
Additional Tags: Dining at the Ritz (Good Omens), Food, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Eating, Hand Feeding, soft
Summary: In the aftermath of the almost apocalypse Aziraphale and Crowley share four meals as they figure out what they are to each other now.
However in other creative news, I finally got round to sanding down and painting the picture frame my dad found lurking in the garage, and after giving the glass a good clean, my Questionable Content art print is now framed and hanging happily on my wall. I continue to do sewing classes - I can now do boxed corners and line a bag - and was finally inspired to actually get out my gran's old sewing machine out and set it up, only to find that the pedal has shorted out - a common problem in sewing machines of its age - and therefore acts like it's haunted/possessed as soon as you switch it on. The advantage of it being a Singer is that you can still get parts (the website is very web 1.0 but it is also very good! If it ain't broke...) so I'm negotiating with the engineer at work to get him to fix it for me.
What I've Finished Reading/Listening To
I ended up binge-listening to The Boring Talks while knitting as the episodes are mostly at that sweet spot of 20-30 minutes that is ideal for my listening purposes. The concept of the podcast is that they are essentially guest lectures on subjects that sound like they will be objectively boring but given by people who are really really into the subject so make them really compelling. They are in fact by and large, really interesting. A lot of the people giving the talks - especially early on - are broadcasters, academics, artists and otherwise experts, people who are used to communinicating ideas, and they are mostly talking about their geeky side interests rather than their dayjobs. Some of them are essentially lectures, some of them are meandering recolections and a couple of them feel more like perfomance art than anything else. (The one about the Argros Catalogue is particularly odd yet particularly compelling.) Their sound designer is amazing and whoever composed their music did a great job too - charmingly whimsical a la Yann Tierson but not too whimsical. I've only noped out on two episodes - out of 40-something episodes to date - as being actually boring. That seems a pretty good ratio.
(I'd never heard of the presenter James Ward, prior to listening to the podcast, but apparently this is his niche area. Honestly I find him the least compelling part of the podcast as I feel he's trying too hard to be funny. I guess it's trying to sell itself as a comedy podcast, but while I do often laugh aloud at things that I hear on it, that's not the point? I'm just as likely to be moved or delighted or fascinated or annoyed. There's much more to the podcast than just being 'funny'.)
What I'm Currently Reading/Listening To
Mostly indulgent Good Omens AUs, the softer the better, because between busyness and pain I haven't been up to anything more strenuous
What I'm Reading/Listening to Next
I cannot even. What I'd like to do is read some Asterix the Gaul in Gaelic. Whether I have the brain for it at the moment is another matter.
Tags:
A Yuletide Tip of the Hat
26 Dec 2017 10:24 amTo all of you, whichever winter festival you do or do not celebrate (and those of you in the Southern hemisphere, celebrating 'winter festivals' in 30 degree heat) but most of all I tip my hat to everyone else for whom the best can honestly be said of yesterday was that 'we survived'.
There was Dr Who on the tele last night - I haven't watched the Xmas special live in years, I think it works better if you do - after days of drizzling insiduous rain the sun has come out this morning, and slowly the build up of stress is unwinding out of my body. (I slept for 12 hours last night, I really, really needed that.)
It feels like there's light in the darkness again and I hope you all find that when you need it most too.
There was Dr Who on the tele last night - I haven't watched the Xmas special live in years, I think it works better if you do - after days of drizzling insiduous rain the sun has come out this morning, and slowly the build up of stress is unwinding out of my body. (I slept for 12 hours last night, I really, really needed that.)
It feels like there's light in the darkness again and I hope you all find that when you need it most too.
