Friday, February 05, 2016

Doing, reading, listening etc.

Andy Prokh 



What the hell? It's Friday again? What is this 'time' bullshit that keeps passing? And I'm sure I told myself I'd do this every Friday, this blogging thing? 

But I just blogged yesterday. What's that? Rules are rules? Shut up.

_


I actually haven't been doing a lot of reading and listening this week. Between a storm day that kept the girls home from school on Monday, no electricity for much of Tuesday and a bunch of errands that needed done on Wednesday both my internet time and my writing time has been severely bollocksed this week.

Reading: I've been reading some actual paper books, which has been nice. I'm reading Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons, a Memoir by Lady Trent, which isn't a memoir, obviously but a faux-memoir, about a Victorian-ish era lady dragon enthusiast. It's good, not great. I like the mash up of historical fiction, science fiction and memoir and it's easy bedtime reading but I'm not riveted and I doubt I'll read the rest of the series. 

On the recommendation of a dear friend who shares my prediliction towards Anxiety and Doom I'm also reading Fear, Essential Wisdom For Getting Through the Storm by ThichNhat Hanh. It's less annoying than any other bhuddist books that I've read but it's slow going as it keeps making me cry. Most of what I've read so far are similar techniques, strategies and ideas that I learned about in therapy a few years ago and promptly forgot, all of which do in fact help to dispel my anxiety, once I've stopped blubbing.

Looking at my internet history to see what I've been reading online this week is cringe-worthy, it's almost entirely how to attract the rare cats in Neko Atsume and 3 Messy Signs Your Main Sewer Line is Clogged (I'll spare you the story that led to that one. And the link.)

Reading/Writing: On the recommendation of another friend I did read this BrainPickings piece on the psychology of the daily writing routine, which is something I've been trying to cultivate. Between 9 and 12 is now my Writing Time. Last week went better than this one and between the disruptions of lack of electricity and excess of children at home I managed a paltry 5000 words to last week's 9000, but whatever, I'm still doing it and I'm being kind to myself and I'm letting myself do just one hour when three feels like it might kill me dead. Baby steps.


Watching: Nye and I are watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix at the moment. I've seen it all before but that doesn't seem to be making it any less brilliant/gruelling. People in my real life keep looking at me like I'm deranged when I say that we watch a TV series about American football. These are people who are not doing the internet properly. 

Also watching this vaguely obscene clip of James McAvoy on Cbeebies, over and over again and laughing my arse off.


Listening: Old episodes of This American Life, which are as wonderful as ever. New episodes of Serial, which I find distinctly meh but I can't seem to give up on. And Radio 2, which was back to back Terry Wogan on Monday which made me cry and reminded me that I need to re-watch Stoppit and Tidy Up with my children. Did anyone else watch that as a kid? Nye is literally the only person I've ever mentioned it to who even knows what I'm talking about.



Housekeeping: the food processor is a Kenwood FDP613 (you have to pay more for one with a memorable name). I chose it because it was cheap (for a food processor) and we are broke, also it has pretty good reviews. So far (aside from being mad at it), it does seem good. I don't think it's powerful enough to make smooth nut butter but whatever, Nutella. I never did find the plasters that I KNOW I bought, but a tiny piece of panty liner and a good length of washi tape makes a pretty good alternative, in a pinch. You're welcome.








21 comments:

  1. thanks to you I started listening to Liz Gilbert's podcast on my walks with the little one and it's good. real good. like listening to the best friend's advice about life. thank you for sharing.

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    1. I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I find her so reassuring.

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  2. We're almost done with re-watching Friday Night Lights for the 3rd time (it seems to have become something of a January/February tradition) and agree on how brilliant/gruelling is still is. I couldn't stop crying during one of the episodes we watched last week - it's just so well done.

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    1. p.s - I remember Stoppit and Tidy Up but I hadn't remembered that Terry Wogan was the narrator!

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    2. It's surprisingly brilliant, even having seen it before I'm taken aback by how good it is.

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  3. I had completely forgotten about Stoppit and TidyUp!!

    I love FNL but we got stalled somewhere in the series where they move to the other school - is it worth persevering to the end? Actually, why am I even asking that, if it has Coach Taylor and Mrs Coach and occasional topless Tim Riggins then of course it's worth persevering.

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    1. Oh you NEED to watch the rest! We've just started on series 4, where they change schools, and I think it's much better than series 3.

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  4. I never have time to read anymore so no proper suggestions but I am so happy you are blogging again!

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  5. Skye O'Neill5/2/16 1:59 pm

    Oh my god oh my god, Friday Night Lights!!! One of the best series of all time, with one of the best and most feminist final episodes ever! Love it so much.

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    1. Oooh, you have me really excited for it now! I can't actually remember what happened in the final episode.

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  6. Thank you for the James McAvoy clip. No really, thank you.

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  7. We absolutely love Friday Night Lights- literally the best thing ever. It's nearly a year since we watched it so maybe we can start all over again! Have you seen Parenthood? It's the closest series we found to FNL and we haven't found anything yet to replace that! Xx listoflovelythings.com

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    1. I have! I watched all of Parenthood last year while I was editing weddings, I loved it. It also had quite a lot of the FNL cast in it, which I found kind of distracting!

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  8. Shit Cara! I've just caught up and what the f* else can I say but sorry!! In my last comment I said I'd send you power outages and some cuts and bruises for good measure (along with some love and hugs and all that jazz) and then blow me down I read your posts and the bloody crap stuff got there all the way from Oz! A thousand apologies girlfriend. Send all the crap back. I'm wrapping up a much better package as we speak - Nutella, babysitting vouchers, James Macavoy, three extra hours in a day and a Thermomix.
    Better? (Big love and also so happy you're writing more. Yes yes yes)

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    1. YOU MEAN IT'S YOUR FAULT?? GET OFF MY INTERNET.
      (j/k, love you. thank you.)

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  9. Stoppit and Tidy Up....I thought I was the only one who remembered i! :-) Happy Birthday!

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    1. Nope, not just you! And thank you.

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  10. introv.butterfly9/2/16 3:55 pm

    Sorry to hear you're struggling with anxiety again, I keep chalking mine up to the weather, so maybe when spring comes it will all get better? (not reassuring in the least, I know) Also, I love this new posting thing you have going on. Keep up the good work!

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    1. Thank you. I'm sorry you are struggling too. I can feel it lifting with the weather, and absurd doses of Vitamin D tablets.

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play nice.