w/e 2024-01-07

This week I’ve veered between feeling super chill and a bit stressed, depending on whether I imagine I’ve got too much to do or not. The things I have got done include:

Those 2023 yearnotes.
A blog post on Pepys’ Diary with some costs, stats and thanks.
A blog post on ooh.directory about a feature I finished a couple of months back but hadn’t got round to blogging about.
Two Incredible Journeys and one Crazy Wall.
Re-edited @samuelpepys’ posts for February (last time round Twitter only allowed 140 characters; now he can be a little more verbose).
Monthly update of my finances – lines went up after a mostly down year so thanks global capitalism!
Booked a hotel for one future trip and trains for another (the latter always taking longer than such things should).
Two gym trips, one stationary cycle, and two yogas, getting back into it after the New Year cold.
Three short walks and two longer ones (enjoying that first resolution so far).
Cleaned the bathrooms, the porch floor, and the windows (inside and out).
Dragged a large mound of sunken leaves from the small pond, after neglecting fishing out the floaters more regularly over autumn.
Cooked some dinners.
Jointly cooked a delayed Christmas Dinner for us to enjoy with plenty of leftovers.
Haltingly got back into daily German practice after only keeping it ticking over during Christmas / New Year.
Less than one hour of client work.

Some things I failed to get round to doing:

Put up a curtain rail
Scan and digitally file a pile of papers
Write any code
Spend more time treating this week like some holiday

§ As part of the German learning I finished watching season two of Dark this week which continued to hold together the ever-expanding multi-temporal strands of plot surprisingly well. Only one more season to go. Can it continue to do that and provide a satisfying ending? I’ve had contradictory reports from different Toms, so we’ll see which is correct.

§ We also watched season one and most of season two of Reservation Dogs which is lovely. I’d heard it was good but had no idea what kind of show it was, or what kind of tone it had. Such a nice ensemble comedy-drama that treads a nice line between light-heartedness and real emotions.

A photo of a wet country road, hedges on each side, and a large dark yew tree leaning over it. A patch of blue sky is visible behind the thinning clouds. — It appears to have stopped raining at last.

§ I finished reading Slow Horses by Mick Herron this week. I enjoyed the first two seasons of the TV show so thought I’d give the book a go for some easier-than-usual reading. It was fun but, unsurprisingly, a little dissatisfying given I knew what happened from the telly. If I’m going to continue I should probably skip the second book and read the third before whenever we watch the third season. I think book then TV would be a better way round? Or just not read any more.

§ This is 2024 now, there’s no point denying the facts. We’ll just have to get on with it I guess.

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