July 2021

July went quickly! This month was over just as soon as it started, and for the most part, everything went great!

View fullsize

Outdoor Swimming

After a recent incredible campaign by volunteers, the North Baths in Wick were cleaned and renovated. The North Baths are an open-air swimming pool dating back to 1904, and while the north of Scotland isnt exactly known for it’s warm temperatures, the pool has been historically popular, now entering a renaissance. Several friends had already reported going, and so, on the hottest day of July, I threw caution (and t-shirt!) to the wind and decided to join. It was incredible! The water was still and clear, people were diving in, and it was weirdly one of the most freeing moments of the past year. I’ve never been a good swimmer, but through subsequent visits I now feel happier, stronger, Ive lost a bit of weight, and perhaps most importantly of all, I feel a lot more positive about my self. As the month went on the temperature dropped, one day the waves were crashing in, and more friends have joined. Outdoor swimming is something I never thought I would do, but I’ve surprised myself, and i’m glad I gave it a shot. A trophy stamp for 2021!

Dont Get Got

Dont Get Got is something I’ve been following with great interest after the glowing Shut Up & Sit Down video review. It’s a party game of social deviance and mischievious objectives where you have to complete objectives and trick other players, the review above is worth watching! I recently backed the reissue (with expansions!) on Kickstarter and with social distancing opening up again, gave it a shot with a gathering of friends. Objectives ranged from subtle to the absurd, but the best thing about it was how competitive it all got, and how other players became SO ANGRY when they realised they’d been tricked or “got”. Without the faux-edginess of something like Cards Against Humanity this landed really well and was just fun more than anything else. I definitely want to play this more, as social meets hopefully continue!

View fullsize

Loki

After the excellent and mysterious Wandavision, and the disappointing and messy The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Loki or even further Marvel Cinematic Universe TV efforts on Disney+. Loki is a character that’s been heavily reccuring in the Marvel franchise of films and a favourite throughout, so it was mildly disappointing that he did “die” during Avengers: Infinity War. Thanks to time-travel, multiverses, and comicbook nonsense he thankfully got his own show and do-over, and his series was pleasantly fun. Lots of fun! With fantastic leads, and some excellent space/time whimsy, this really felt like Marvel’s Doctor Who a lot and even bested certain seasons of what it seemed to be imitating. As with Wandavision it was great watching a show weekly and having each week theroising and anticipating the next part, and honestly, maybe the binge model of TV is a cultural mistake? The MCU has an inherent problem of always setting up the next thing and not resolving anything, and while that was still definitely the case here, the season finale REALLY pleased my fanboy Marvel brain. For those keeping score, I’m probably sitting here: Wandavision>Loki>FalcoSoldier.

Covid Vaccine

After testing positive from Covid_19 last month, this month I got my first dose of the vaccine! Effects weren’t that bad at all, and I’m glad I finally got one…but still weirded-out and angry at the universe that I got infected just days before my initial appointment. Regarding the virus itself, I’m still getting recurring headaches and feel oddly light and temperature sensitive at times, but as the weeks pass I feel stronger and healthier than ever before. Swimming and walks have helped with that, as has summer and seeing people, and I’m looking forward to continuing with lots of all of it.

August is looking to be a bit of a catch up month for everything, lets see how that goes!

January Status Update

After the excitement, fun, and just mega relaxing of Xmas and New Year, January has been for the most part a long uneventful month. Lockdown is infinite, work is forever, weekends are my time. After setting some resolutions and goals for the year ahead, January has been a month of forming new habits and behaviours.

With long nights and more time inside, boardgames were great distractions. This month Ailish and I started playing Ticket to Ride: Europe, after getting it for Xmas a few weeks previously. The Ticket To Ride series is something I’ve been aware of for a few years now, but this was my first time playing any of them in a series now spanning the last 16 years. Players take turns bulding trainlines and transport networks across a map, scoring for objectives and route length with coloured carriage meeples and card drafting. I’m mostly indifferent to trains but I missed travelling so much last year, so it was fun plotting journeys across a map and visiting different capitals. We both liked the game a lot (and scored highly!) so this one is definitely a keeper, and game nights in general are something we’re wanting to do more regularly. It will definitely be getting played more!

View fullsize

Last year I watched 141 films in, around, and after the initial lockdown and had a great time doing it. Seven starred Michael Caine, six with Daniel Craig, and five directed by Christopher Nolan. Of my twenty five most watched actors that year only one -Morgan Freeman- wasn’t white(!), and of the sixteen directors, only one again stands out- Taika Waititi. Going in to this year I wanted to watch things more culturally and gender diverse instead of just distinctly and predominantly white male. This is a longer goal, but this month I watched the excellent anthology series Small Axe by director Steve McQueen. The five stories individually show different aspects of the culture, segregation, and racism of London’s West Indian community between 1960-1980 and combine to paint a bigger unique picture. All the films have a distinctive voice and there is a very real sense of history and documentary within each film. It feels and looks real, because, well, these are stories that really happened, and Steven McQueen is great at capturing that. It’s very well done, and I’m on board to follow whatever he does next.

View fullsize

One of my other big resolutions for the year was to do more creative writing! This month I started on a short story, wrote a synopsis for something bigger that’s been rattling around for a while, and entered a short 50 word contest. A great start, but as the month went on things changed pretty abruptly and it’s not something I’m going to be able to prioritise for now…because I’m studying again! After some really nasty existentialism and doubt last year I felt I wanted to actually do something, and I’m now enrolled doing postgraduate History and Archaeology of the Highlands and Islands through part-time distance-learning. I woke up and just jumped in! This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a few years now and while I continue to doubt if I’m clever, young, or have enough time to do it succesfully, I’m looking forward to the challenge. The opening module lasts from now until May, giving me a break before continuing again with the next one after the summer. This is something I’m hoping to focus on a lot this year and while it’s worrying I’ll have less free time, it’s exciting knowing that something bigger is happening instead.

With a Covid_19 vaccination still months away for me even with good intentions 2021 is probably going to be a difficult year again. I want to be out, seeing people, having dinners, and travelling, and none of that will probably be possible again for a while. It’s reassuring however, if the world does go fully tits up again, it means I have some goals and habits, plans and resolutions to keep me ticking over. Less uncertainty please.

August Status Update

August was a month of books, boardgames, and “back to normal”.

I’ve been posting here a lot less than what I’d like to recently, and the main reason for that is that things are finally going “back to normal”. With lockdown fully eased in Scotland (wear your damn mask please), shops are open, schools are open, and I’m now back at work, five days a week. It’s good to get out of the house and do things a bit more regularly again, but the whole thing so far feels a lot like a dream: honestly, where the hell have the last few months gone? I’m finding the days having a similar effect, and after doing not much for so long it’s bizarre suddenly having responsibility, appointments, and an actual sense of time again. Night times are a crazy spin of dinner, TV, bed, and days are frequently over before they feel as if they’ve even begun, my energy levels mysteriously depleted. I’m hoping this will all balance out soon.

With businesses, places, and venues opening back up, this month I went for a few lunches, got a haircut, went shopping, and even later in the month, went to the cinema. The first outing was on a sunny Sunday to Forse of Nature, where we sat outside to eat, sat on the (sometimes wet) grass, and had a wander round the grounds. Lunch and company were great, we saw ducks, and I may have fallen in a ditch in the woods, but the best feeling about it all was just how relaxed and normal everything felt- some very long overdue reassurance for me and my doom mentality the last few months. Equally great was getting to drive to Inverness and go shopping later in the month, buying lots of books, having lunch, visiting friends and then heading home. It feels good to break up things again with such days, but arrows, facemasks, and distancing in shops are of course a constant reminder that things aren’t perfect quite yet, and might not be for a while.

This month -and year, if i’m honest- I’ve been trying to read a lot more than what I would normally. After reading the first in the His Dark Materials trilogy late last year -Northern Lights- this month I jumped into the follow-up The Subtle Knife. Against consensus, I found the first book in the series as just okay, but could see the enormous potential of both the world and the series. The second book opens up a lot faster and vastly expands the world(s) of the series by introducing some really great characters and concepts from the outset. With initial world-building and introductions from the previous book out of the way I far preferred it’s pacing and focus enormously, and got through it with enthusiasm quite quickly. The third and final book in the trilogy The Amber Spyglass which i’m reading now expands with possibility and wonder, but so far it’s taking me a lot longer to get through. The other book I read this month was On Writing by Stephen King, and after reading plentiful amounts of his work over the years, I found this incredibly rewarding. There’s a lot of good advice in here for aspiring story tellers -I have post-it notes on pages to prove it- but I far preferred the more autobiographical sections and passages, which were often just as interesting.

In August I continued playing in two Dungeons and Dragons campaigns with my two very different characters. Panwick the Pilfer is an agile and sneaky heist Halfling extraordinaire trying to stay alive while Henk is a Half-Orc Barbarian who often misses the point and lacks subtlety. I enjoy both characters and games, and next month i’m looking into starting some solo rpgs and journalling on the side, for even further escapism. With us largely house bound these last few months there’s been frequent online D&D sessions but my partner and I have been playing lots of boardgames too. This month I bought Santa Monica for us to play together, and initial impressions are pretty good. The game is an easy breezy card drafing operation where you build a beach front and then attract tourists to gain victory points, mini engine-builder style. We need to play more and especially as part of a group but so far I can safely say I LOVE THE THEME AND ART SO MUCH.

While I know lockdown, and Covid, and 2020 are all far from over it’s good to be feeling a lot better about things, and optimism is something I’m feeling a bit more now both mentally and physically. The year, and holiday, and all the weddings we were going to and so much more are written off, but I’m feeling creative and ambitious and have plenty of ideas and projects lined up for the coming months and winter ahead. It’s time to try and get things back on track!