w/e 2021-11-14
Another week in which I feel like I’ve got little done, so here’s a list of most of the things I have actually done:
- 💻 Did half a day of paid web work
- 🧑🏼💻 Made some tweaks to the Pepys site
- 💡 Had an electrician round to replace the fuse board, put new lights in the loft, etc.
- 🧹 Cleaned the kitchen floor and swiffed the lounge floor
- 🧽 Cleaned a bathroom
- 🛍 Did the food shopping and went to B&Q for various things
- 🍟 Had a couple of friends over for fish and chips
- 💊 Walked to the next village to pick up a prescription (8.6km)
- 🚶🏽♂️Went for a Sunday morning walk (also 8.6km)
- 🍏 Picked the last of the apples (lots of small golden delicious)
- 🐁 Disposed of several dead mice
- 📦 Started re-filling the newly-boarded and newly-illuminated loft with boxes
- 🚮 Took a car full of old building materials to the recycling centre
- 🎹 Practised piano four times
- 🇩🇪 Similar amount of half-hearted German practise
- 🎞 Worked out how to scan in a negative and spent ages trying to get the result looking OK.
- 👩🏻💼 Virtually attended a memorial for Rachel and was reminded what a positive and fun force they were in so many lives
- 🏋️♂️ Did three 30 minute Apple Fitness+ strength workouts
- ⌨️ Answered a few Django questions on Reddit
- 🤓 Read a load of internet
- 🖨 Printed out a single page
- 🍕 Cooked three dinners: a big veggie chilli; pasta, pesto and peas; and a home-made pizza.
It’s not nothing, but there’s still not much productive; either work or progress on personal projects.
One thing we didn’t do this week was go to Cardiff for a gig, having bought tickets months ago. Although I’ve started seeing a couple of friends post photos from gigs on Instagram, I’m still not ready to stand in a smallish venue surrounded by sweaty strangers. Unfortunately.
§ We also watched the last couple of episodes of The Last Dance – not to be confused with that well-known and outstanding short film Last Dance – which was good. I couldn’t have told you anything about, oh what’s his name… Michael Jordan. Yes I had to Google because I’d forgotten already. I couldn’t have told you what basketball team he played for, when he played, or picked him out of a team photo.
So, personally, I maybe didn’t need quite so many episodes, but it was still surprisingly interesting. The relentless focus on winning and being the best was so impressive, while also acknowledging the down sides. Way too many flashbacks for my liking though – it was a bit hard to get a sense of how it all fit together sometimes, because it jumped back and forth so much: “Hang on, I thought he’d joined the team already, but now they’re playing against him?”
On the plus side, it’s reassuring to know that you can be the best in the world at something, immensely rich, hugely famous and popular… and even then you still have to cope with office politics and disagreeable upper management.
And we watched Rocks (2019, directed by Sarah Gavron) the other night which was very good. Really nice to see teenage girls portrayed realistically and sensitively. Also good to hear London kids talking like many of them actually do, rather than with clear middle-class accents fresh from stage school.
§ See you next time.