September in review

Lived

Highlights

A good month, quieter than August even though it was my Mum’s birthday at the start of the month, and my Dads at the end. Singapore envy not withstanding (my friends were there again), I confirmed a six month extension to my contract, attended one of the best gigs ever, got a new tattoo, had a wonderful day out at a gin festival, and attended my interview for Glasgow 2018 volunteering, so fingers crossed I make the cut (9k+ people applied for around 3k positions), ohhh and I randomly caught up with some old school friends who I haven’t seen for more than 20 years.

Food wise, Babs continues to impress, had my last Buntzel (the vendor is moving to Manchester), and Book Club had brunch at Ocho which was underwhelming…

Health-wise the physio on my knee is going well, and Conditioning classes at the gym are keeping me ticking over to Bootcamp starting on the 4th October.

And I’ve seen a little more of my beautiful niece who is continuing to delight! She is learning lots of new words (not quite got Uncle G down yet…) and it’s so much fun to see her personality emerging.

Stepcount: 258,586.

Read

The Other Mrs Walker
Book club choice and I thoroughly enjoyed this. A little slow paced at times, but the author – Mary Paulson-Ellis – has a nice turn of phrase. At times wry, at times dark, the story of a middle-aged woman who finds her own life oddly twisted up in the death of an unrelated old woman.

Watched

Blade Runner. Ahead of the upcoming new Blade Runner movie (for which I have high hopes) I thought it worth revisiting the original which is still stunningly realised, dark, moving, and sets the bar pretty high for the new movie.

Also good

  • The Good Place – an odd, quirky little show on Netflix. 20 min episodes about a woman who has made it to The Good Place after she dies, despite not really deserving to be there.
  • The Expanse – season 2 of this sci-fi world. I think it’s now caught up to where I stopped reading the books so season 3 will be interesting

Listened

Ahead of their gig later this year, I’ve been listening to a lot of Post Modern Jukebox. They do covers of contemporary songs in older styles (swing, big band, etc). There is something delightful and full of joy brought to the songs that are re-worked, and I can’t wait for the gig!

Other than that, Nadine Shahs new album continues to see her evolve but retaining that wonderful voice, Queens of the Stone Age released another album which ticks all the QOTSA boxes, as did the Foo Fighters who released an album not short of obvious influences.

Also worth a listen is Lorde on Song Exploder podcast, breaking down the making of her song Sober.