May has had some wonderful high points, although work continues to squat toad-like on my life (although I still mostly love my job). I’m better than I was at the start of this year but, despite two bank holidays, I still feel battered and behind with everything. Things are slowly improving, not least because summer has come to the valley. Everything looks green and lush and the days are stretched out long past my waking hours. It feels good to be here.
I spent a week hiding out in Blackpool, and we also got to celebrate Rosy’s birthday, which included a visit from her daughter. Our new household is settling in, with some long neglected jobs finally getting done. I made a flying visit to Brighton for ‘Rosy Carrick’s Poetry Gangbang’, which was on for two nights in the Brighton Fringe. I performed on the second night. I was nervous about reading prose among such an impressive poetry line-up and was delighted that I held my own. I stayed out late on the Friday, and made very few arrangements to see people – so apologies for anyone I did not catch up with. I loved the short visit to Brighton, but it also confirmed that I am happy to have moved to the valley.
I continue struggling with physical activity. The month’s step total was 413,499, an average of 13,338 steps, with the peak being 19,350, wandering around Blackpool and Hebden Bridge. My weight is still drifting, which I think is due to stress. One good thing I’ve noticed – while I still have occasional headaches, the ones I do have are changed. I have fewer long duration ones with weird auras – an improvement that’s come about from paying more attention to hydration.
I’m continuing to try new things with my writing, trying to work out how I can work in longer forms. I experimented with writing a novella – I set it aside, but it was a useful experiment. I made a Wednesday Writers session, determined not to let work keep getting in the way, and loved it. My favourite story on the substack this month was The Cooking Pot, which might become part of a longer thing in time.
I continue to enjoy my job, although I’m still not feeling settled with my current client – and I’ve been with them six months. There is a lot of inertia around my role, and it’s hard to produce changes that would make things more comfortable. Much of my work energy is going into the client side, meaning I have less capacity for the ‘side-of-desk’ work, and those commitments are harder to keep up with. It’s all basic stuff, but hard to fix in the moment. I suspect I’m doing better than I think I am, but how I feel about my work is one of the most important things to keep an eye on.
I made it to the cinema a few times over May. Thunderbolts* was a decent MCU film, and 28 Days Later was intense but felt less innovative than when I first saw it. I watched Sinners twice in the cinema. I’m excited by that film in a way I’ve not been about a film since Star Wars as a kid. Beyond how well crafted it was, it opens up whole areas of history and music I’ve not thought about in depth. The soundtrack is superb. I find myself thinking back to that ending, the last few lines of the film, and how beautiful they were.
I’ve also watched a little TV. Rosy and I had Yellowjackets as a regular show, which meant a third watching of season 1, but it maintained my interest. Returning to From season 3 was hard work, and I might just read the synopsis for this one. The Last of Us was mostly annoying, with the adaptation feeling in conflict with the original. Doctor Who has undergone a spectacular renaissance, feeling like essential TV once more. I’ve not liked all of the episodes this season, but they all attempted to do something interesting. We’re standing on the edge of the series being cancelled once more, and it’s a great way to go out.
My reading this month was mostly trying to get my kindle back under control, abandoning a number of half-read books. I did stomp my way through a Brian Eno biography (music books are relaxing) and a history of the Labour party’s 2024 victory. I also blogged about Exterminate! Regenerate!, John Higgs’ recent book on Doctor Who and about Ultra-Processed People. I’ve also found myself hooked by Saga, the Brian K. Vaughan comic series – it took a while to grow on me. The Facebook memoir Careless People was shocking and needs a post of its own.
I continued playing the daily runs on The Last of Us 2. It’s compulsive and sort of boring, but a nice way to reset myself after work. Following some recommendations in the work slack, I picked up Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, hoping for something a little like Planescape: Torment. It’s pretty good – a fascinating storyline and setting. It has all the grind of a role-playing game, but building up stats to take on a boss feels more fun than the grind loops of most open-world games.
Walking through the town centre this month, I passed an anti-trans protestor with some particularly unpleasant slogans on a sandwich board. I decided that saying ‘shame on you’ in passing wasn’t enough, and walked back to suggest that maybe confronting trans people with such things was not a nice thing to do, given the recent attacks on them. Then I saw they had a camera – so the whole thing was basically someone trying to make Youtube content.
Another local story is the geese. I’ve written before about the two geese who nested on a rocky island below the canal bridge, and how people had taken them food and bedding. Some of their eggs were stolen and the rest didn’t hatch. There was another sad story of a Canada gosling abandoned by its parents. And the two sad stories resolved with the gosling being adopted.
Two more paedophile teachers from my school were arrested. It brought out the usual claims that the school had no idea that such things were happening at the time. This is a lie. Everyone knew which teachers were paedophiles, yet they were tolerated by the establishment. When the bounds were overstepped, certain teachers were allowed to retire without sanction. There’s a danger to pretending that our current moral views were held in the recent past.
I’ve been reading Samantha Harvey’s ‘space pastoral’, Orbital: “She finds she often struggles for things to tell people back home, because the small things are too mundane and the rest is too astounding and there seems to be nothing in between” (p17-8)
- The trailer for The Long Walk looks amazing – it’s out in September
- I watched and blogged another time loop movie, Until Dawn.
- While I was in Brighton, I ate my favourite meal at La Choza three times – vegan sweet potato burrito with naga salsa. It was great each time.
- I spent a day throwing up from food poisoning in Blackpool. I’ve not been that sick since I stopped drinking and did not enjoy it at all.
