anyresemblance

The long wet

The weather continues to be grey and rainy and it sounds like La Nina is giving us this for the whole summer.  Honestly, I had to put a sweater on over the weekend but did draw the line at turning the heating on.

I had the youngest for a few days which was delightful.  I made lasagne on Friday night.  She had a bath, we had our pyjamas on and we watched Paddington 2 which was all as delightful and cheering as you can imagine.

I did another bit of desultory Christmas decorating and wrapped a few gifts but mostly I watched rubbish television and ate tea and toast.  I listened to a new (to me) podcast You are Good with Sarah Marshall of You're wrong about fame.  After listening to the episode on Thor Ragnarok, I rewatched and remembered how funny TaikiaWaititi is 

A night out

I had a big night out on Saturday for a friend's birthday which ended in espresso martinis and a long day yesterday where I was not hungover but just felt weary all day.  I had a ticket to the British Film Festival and was 80% leaning towards staying on the sofa but I am glad I forced myself to go.

It was Kenneth Branagh's Belfast and I got there just in time for the 60 second spiel he recorded before the film.  It starts with a glorious technicolour panaromic shot of current day Belfast including the Harlan and Wolf sign before going back to the black and white for 1969.  I am almost the same age as his protagonist so the cultural references were pretty universal from the biological Omo to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which I also saw at the cinema with my parents.  It's not dissimilar in tone to Roma though less gritty than that despite the backdrop of sectarian violence and the occupation (a small jarring note was me wondering if there young black men as squaddies in 1969?).  The stand out is Ciaran Hinds who I've had crush on since he was a regular in rep at the Glasgow Citizens but the cast is pretty faultless including his daughter Aoife Hinds in a wonderful part as the teacher.  I was thankful I levered myself off the sofa as it won't be on general release until February.

There are an astonishing amount of reviews, in mostly US publications, deriding the Northern Irish accent, which I found extraordinary.  I saw someone say the pandering of cod Irish accents in American productions has made many people unable to understand the vast range of real regional accents that exist.

My delight

This time two years ago I was in Miami for my friend's wedding.  It was the last big trip I did before Covid.  I took this photo of a photo of the rat pack at the Fontainbleu Hotel which was a Sinatra hangout and has a glorious bar.

What a week.  I did not sleep well last night, read till midnight and had weird dreams of Burmese pythons and the former president of the United States.  It's been oppressively humid today but the threatened storms appear to have passed us by.  The weekend is due to be wet but who knows.

The cleaners came today.  I have a monthly cleaning service where 2 or 3 young people sweep in and blitz the place in a couple of hours.  They even roll up the rugs and wash the floor boards underneath and it makes Friday nights a delight.  Everything was sparkling until the dog came back from his walk filthy after a swim in the dam.  The dog walker handed him over to me but it was straight in the pristine shower for him to sluice off the stinky water.  I can't complain as he is worn out and happy with himself and now clean and fluffy.  The shower took a bit of rinsing but at least I knew what the baseline was. I am lucky to have a walk in shower with plenty of room to a) trap the mutt and b) wash him without getting drenched myself.

I've got a busy weekend with a birthday party and Christmas shopping to do.

Jolly

Another good sleep, a series of good meetings, sun is out, dog is happy.

Teeny tiny

Today I saw this baby car when I walked round to the parcel locker.  So cute.

I had a successful hair cut and a good catch up with my hairdresser who talked me out of a wild change and into chopping 3 inches off my hair.  I am so happy with it and feel reborn.

When I got home I lit the barbecue and partially microwaved a potato and then hared off on a brisk walk with Charlie.  When I got back, I put the potato in a hot oven to finish and made a salad of cucumber, tomato, red onion and some dill that was hanging out the fridge.  I just made a dressing of lemon juice and olive oil.  I grilled the cutlets and had a lovely dinner while watching the first episode of the latest episode of Bake Off which has just hit our screens.  

I starting reading a Carl Hiassen my ex husband had lent me.  I don't think I have read him before but it is terrifically funny in a wonderful hard boiled way and I am loving it.

All in all, a rescued day.

 

Disgruntled

I don't know why I am out of sorts.  Could it be a work thing which is going to cause a lot of noise and endless repeating of a narrative that no one wants to hear? Could it be the suspicion that cat has sprayed somewhere in the house - I can't decide if I can smell something or am imagining I can smell something?  Could it be the general dislike of this cold weather so far into Spring? 

It might be the sad state of my fridge which I have partially ameliorated by rushing out to the supermarket and buying salad and potatoes and some lamb cutlets.  Fridge still needs a good clear out, though.

I should be cheered that I am going to get my hair done at long last.  

Strange Omens

The weather is bonkers for this time of year.  Cold, rainy but most of all windy.  I've had my heating on intermittently for the weekend and am wearing socks.

Yesterday, I levered myself off the sofa and went to see the James Bond movie.  It was fun but the cinema was packed which freaked me out a bit.  I did sit in a row to the side and there were two seats between me and my neighbours but I kept my mask on.

When I got home, I dumped my bag, grabbed my key fob and took Charlie for a brisk walk round the block.  I have a secure fob for a lift which opens directly to my apartment but there is another door from a sort of lobby area to the apartment proper.  It was locked.  I have never locked that door and was stuck.  My phone was on the other side.

I went downstairs to my neighbour to use her phone to call a locksmith.  Fortunately, he came within 30 minutes and it seems I must have accidentally pushed the snub on my way out and I was back in but $135 poorer.  I have now put that key on the other side in case I ever do it again.

I have finished Season 2 of Love Life but did not love it as much as Season 1.  I think I just don't find the lead actors that compelling and I lived the variety of the stories more in Season 1.   I am also considering getting on the Succession bandwagon. 

A miscalculation

Another day of bucketing rain but the delight of having no one to please and no where to go other than a sports massage where the torture on my calves continues.

I couldn't get the timings right for the cinema and was disappointed that Belfast has not yet opened and was not ready for nearly 3 hours of the Eternals so I went to Costco instead.  That was insane as it was packed.  I could not get the laundry pods I like and came away with 48 toilet rolls and a packet of bacon.

Now I am home where I plan to make pizza and have an early night.

It turns out Belfast does not officially open here until Thursday but is programmed as part of the British Film Festival so I have booked a ticket for next weekend.

House Proud

The weather continues grey and dreary and I have put the heating back on after a month of mild weather.

Charlie went out with the dog walker this morning and taking advantage of a few hours without him under my feet, I took a 30 minute slot I had between calls and:

• set the robovac going
• emptied the bins
• cleaned the loos
• cleaned the cat litter
• put on a load of laundry
• sprayed and wiped all the kitchen counters

I stick the timer on my phone and have a list that I tick things off on and it is very efficient.

Fridays seem to have gone from being pretty chill to a day which is piled up with meetings on all the topics we didn't get to earlier in the week but I hope to be done by 5.  I am going out to a friend's house tonight and have another friend staying overnight hence the need to have some semblance of tidiness.

 

Hell on wheels

I have joined the cult of Peloton.  It is eye wateringly expensive but I rationalised it as the price of several physio sessions, podiatry and sports massage but more importantly it affords me the opportunity to get up off the sofa without creaking.  

And you know what, I absolutely love it.  For someone who has loathed gyms and the palaver of getting there and getting home it is delightful to hop on the bike for 20 minutes and know I have hit my exercise goal for the day.  What it has highlighted to me is that 10,000 steps might keep my legs moving but does very little to push my heart to exercise or really force my muscles into action.

For those of you living under a rock, peloton is a fancy exercise bike with a big screen that displays live and recorded exercise classes with attractive young people as instructors.  Think live and asynchronous spin classes with a built in community of people.  I, of course, am in the peloton border collie owners section.

It has all the hall marks of cheerful affirmation of any exercise instruction but I actually really like that and I find the music energising and there are literally hundreds of classes to choose from with an easy interface.  I feel very cheerful when I have finished a session so that is all upside.  My teeny gripe is that for something so $$$ they could have made a saddle a bit better designed for women but I am shopping for cheap cycle shorts for the extra padding.  My other thing is getting so sweaty is a pain in the arse when you have long hair and I am back in my perennial cycle of should I chop it to neck length to make the whole hair washing and drying thing less painful.