Week 5 Notes

Thought I’d give the week notes posts a go. Let’s see how long I keep it up for. This one is gonna reach back a little more than a week as a sort of catchup… and yes I’m starting on Week 5, my blog, my rules!

Life

• Catherine O”Hara RIP. As I’ll note later our current comfort watch (once Jack is in bed) is usually something nice (Friends, Modern Family etc) and we started watching Schitts Creek (again) a couple of weeks ago. What a talent she was.
• Both my nieces birthdays were a couple of weekends ago. Somehow Lucy is 10 and Daisy is 5! We had a wee afternoon out with them today, visiting Gravity and bouncing around on trampolines and stuff for an hour. I may not walk for a week, but such great fun!

Read

• I See You by Clare Mackintosh – Finished this, loved it. She’s writes such excellent twisty tales. I did half guess the final twist but most of the time she had me second guessing everything!
• The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout – started this and about halfway through. Second novel of hers I’ve read and, like Olive Kitteridge, it’s full of wonderfully complete characters and lives.

Considered

• History of the walkman – a real nostalgia trip as my childhood was largely spent with cassettes and headphones.
• Teaching when to trust – The current set of media and fake news is troubling for me, but terrifying when I think of the world my son is growing up in, critical thinking will likely be THE life skill we need to teach him.
• Ageing out of fucks – As a man I’ve had the privilege to act like I’m out of fucks for quite a while now. This article explains why it’s very different for women. Top tip, don’t mess with them, they are quite literally out of fucks and will kill you with a look.

Watched

• Schitt’s Creek – we watched episode 10 the night before Catherine O”Hara died, as I posted to Threads “Literally just a few seasons into a rewatch of Schitt’s Creek. Just last night we were chatting about how much fun she must’ve had playing Moira. What a shame. 71 is no age. RIP Catherine O’Hara”.
• Now you see me, Now you don’t – the latest of these. I think I watched the first one, and it was ok. But this was awful so I gave up, just a weird contrived “experience” that, yeah was a bit dull.
• One Punch Man – can’t recall why I started watching this (an Instagram reel?) but first two seasons on Netflix were fun, and smarter than they appear. Season 3 on a service I don’t have though. Oh well.

Listened

• No Such Thing As A Fish – Always funny, interesting and at around an hour, perfect for my two hour drives to the office each month.
• Wednesday – trying to pick up new music and this band has been on rotation this week. Their album, Bleeds, came out late last year. Think Americana rock with a hint of shoe gazing country…

Health

• Went to the gym for the first time in a year. Determined to get into the habit first and foremost and worry less about the progress. 3 times a week is the goal.
• Stretched. Flexibility is also a focus for me as I get older and spend most of my time sitting. Thanks to the Bend app for an easy way to keep me on track. Mostly just 5-10 mins at a time but I can feel the difference.
• Started tracking my sleep by wearing my Apple Watch all night. Feels ‘good enough’ to confirm what I suspect when I wake. Jack sleeps through some nights but is still up occasionally looking to be tucked in (he can tuck himself in, it’s just the reassurance he’s looking for).

Tech

• Added Comply memory foam tips to my AirPods Pro 3 – game changer! Much better fit and they aren’t as ‘slippy’ in my ear and, so far, they’ve not fallen out at all.
• Bye bye gmail. A long term thought is to get out of gmail. I have my own domain, with email, so my only excuse is laziness. Likely to drive this via Passwords app which I’m also, v.slowly, going through and either deleting, or updating, the password. If that includes my gmail acxount, I’m switching that out too.
• I’ve also been on back and forth about this blog, where it lives, how I use it. I’m sticking with WordPress, as much I like Bearblog, it’s just too simple in functionality, and while my needs are few, I don’t want any other friction. I will be tweaking things here for a while though, more on that later.
• My digital curation continues and I’m slowly getting through sorting out (deleting) photos, blog posts, moving and curating journal entries, and as mentioned above, I’m now including gmail in that too.