After a quick whizz around Holt centre where we are stayng, Evie wanted to see the beach so up the road to the seaside town of Cromer
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RRR and C?
Rest, Recuperation, Recreation and Consolidation.
Well, that’s what I’m hoping to get out of this here family summer holiday, which I’m now on. We are staying in a Georgian Town House in the North Norfolk town of Holt, a place that I bet we’ve either visited or been through many times before. Since we had many holidays in this neck of the woods when the children were small. Mainly because of the beaches, and it’s amongst the driest parts of the country, which was a big draw for my wife Rachel in the 2010s when we came regularly when summers in the North West were almost constant rain! The house is big and spacious, and slightly quirky in layout because of its age. Its also very white and beige, which is a nightmare for clumsy old me. I’ve already broken a toilet seat! But it also brought to mind, the episode of Dr Who from the 80s, where the Dr is regenerating into Peter Davidson and most of the episode is spent putting the recovering Doctor into a very white neutral space, to get a definite sense of who this new incarnation is. That’s where I’m at. In a spotless environment, without my pack of animals (we now have yet another cat, for reasons I’ll go into) and the distractions of my daily life. There’s been a five major family crises in the last 6-7 months, and while it’s left me stronger overall, I’m still catching up with myself. Hence Consolidation.
More about the actual holiday, since the weather is gorgeous and I’m in the heart of historic Norfolk, so there will be all manner of photos and holiday journaling!
Recently Its Been a Bit Like This…
Me with hot weather, fecking Tory Leadership Circus, kittens pooping in corner of H’s Bedroom (and he only noticing tonight, after it’s been doing it for five days ), and listening to goth music.
To expand…
Hot Weather – Last couple of days its been 34-37 degrees celsius. Yesterday was a record-breaking high. Apparently, we are going to have heatwaves like this every three years now, unless we get the Climate Emergency sorted.
Tory Leadership. So Boris has resigned, and we have to put up with a leadership contest splashed across the Media, in to appoint yet another unelected Primeminster – of dubious character. Whoopee.
Kittens pooping. We have a new cat, Max, who everyone loves dearly, but needs to do its poos outside!
Listening to goth music…it was an accident, sometimes the YouTube algorithm gets it so wrong.
Posistive thing, I learnt that there’s a movie from 2011 that mixes Sean Penn being an ageing Robert Smith Goth with Talking Heads music, called This Must Be the Place.
On the Bus, into town
It’s a lovely day popping in to town to pick up tea and drop off some post.
Recent listening discoveries
Recently, things have been a bit weird, in both the external and internal worlds.
Here’s some music that has been my soundtrack.
and in those bleak-bored moments, lots of this, my official staring into the uncertain void…
Here’s a TV show I’d love to see
A Dr Who spinoff version of The Thick of It, based entirely on Gallifrey. There could also be “rediscovered” a spin-off of this spin-off based on Classic Who, based on Yes Minister.
Little Lost Warbot
I’m currently listening to a “five-star” rock playlist on a rediscovered IPOD classic which was put together pre-2015 over a good course of a decade. This was my typical work-journey music, that blotted out other bus passengers conversations and was the soundtrack to my frustrations at the time.
It is an artefact from a time before I fell out with Heavy Metal/Alt/Hardcore Punk, roughly dated 2015 (the year when Lemmy died). It’s like the very shouty soundtrack of the thoughts of a Giant Warbot 😀
Some standout tracks amougst the mercilous onslaught of METAAAAAAAAALL \m/ 😀
January Bloody January
It used to be I had long self-indulgent Long Dark Night of the Soul in February, where at my lowest ebb of energy, all manner of Self Doubt Demons would assail me. When I realised this and stopped moping about this self-inflicted torture, I turned it into a marvellous game of self-discovery and healing 🙂
So the Universe seeing my Mastery of February sends me real horrors and misfortune to keep me on my toes in January instead, where I’ve only a smidgen more energy than in February, and Christmas has lulled me into a sense of complacency. The last two years have been well – interesting. I’ve been up to it, and with the right attitude, the ability to change my perception (and others), and newfound powers of “getting things done quickly”, I’ve been dealing with these real issues as easily as the imaginary ones that cropped up in Feb The trick is that something that has manifested physically in the world is just as easy to banish as something that is hovering in the mental plane, and with the same methods of imagination, affirmation, visualisation, the combined concentration of focus and clarity of intent (or “sheer bloody-mindedness” as my Lancastrian ancestors would call it).
January is still with me, the solutions to various woes haven’t manifested themselves (but they’ve been bloody well ordered and will turn up), but I reckon I’ve cracked it in an “I can see you, stop it now” sort of way 😀
For such is the way of a Wizard of Awesome and Win Sometimes life seems to suck, but if you get on top of it, you get to turn it around to your advantage 🙂
Dealing with Mr Angry
So I went to Angrytown this morning and brought Mr Angry Newt home with me. He was great pain in the ass while he was here. Shouting, scaring everyone, simmering with resentment, and being an all-around grumpy sod. Logical reasoning wouldn’t make him go away.
Until I realised even Angry Newts just need an open forgiving heart, and to be hugged in warm unconditional love. Then it turns out they will go meekly away mumbling sorry 😀
My Best THINGS OF 2021
I can’t believe that 2021 is nearly over. It flew past. So before they ring out the old and call in the new, here’s my list of things that were high points in the world of stuff this year.
Best Film: Dune, so good I saw it twice for my 50th birthday. Once with Evie and once with Henry. They loved this fantastic version, as did I. Although I still love the 80s David Lynch version (more like a Shakespearean take). Yes, I will be buying it the moment it comes out on blue ray/4k 🙂
Runner up: The Suicide Squad.
Best LP: Gengis Tron- Dream Weapon.
Swirling ambient, techno beats dreamy vocals all mixed with urgent metal guitars. The sci-fi soundtrack to a world after us.
Favourite Music Video: Sphinx by Gojira off their new lp “Fortitude”, which also features the epic song “New Found“.
Favourite You Tuber (new category): Joshua Weissman, a twenty-something chef from Austin, TX, that kind of reminds me of a young Mike Patton (Mr Bungle/Faith No More singer). Amongst many other things, he is responsible for introducing me to making Kimichi at home (although I substitute apple for the pear and soy sauce for the fish sauce).
Runners up: Vincenzo’s Plate (for Italian, I now can do spaghetti in tomato sauce right and omg I’m never going back), Aaron and Claire (Korean) and Will Yeung (Vegan, mainly Asian).
Best computer game, Far Cry 6. It may not be the most original game. Detracters are getting at it because it rehashes lots of stuff from previous incarnations of the franchise. Still, it is the highly polished version of the Far Cry experience, the story flows nicely, and it has got that baddie from The Mandolorian and Breaking Bad. Its been my holiday in the sun since I got it for my birthday two months ago. Oh, and it’s got Danny “Machete” Trejo in it. Winning 😀
Best RPG this year: I’ve been even more obsessed than usual with my stuff this year (mainly OpenQuest), but the Fallout RPG by Modiphius rocks my boat being a huge Fallout 4 fan. Even if it turns out to be a bit dodgy as a game, it’s a huge setting and equipment guide, lavishly illustrated with concept art from Fallout 4. Sure I could probably rip the illustrations off the net from various Fallout wiki’s, but it’s lovely to have it all in a properly printed hardcover book. Honourable mentions Dee Sanction (All Rolled Up), Mythic Babylon (by my friends at the Design Mechanism) and Beowulf (by Jon Hodgeson and his ferociously talented team at Handicraft games). I should probably do a round-up of cool RPG stuff that has come my way this year.
Best RPG related moment of this year. OK, this one of mine, but seeing 300 copies of the nicely printed OpenQuest (with colour plates and ribbons!) turn up outside my house on a big fuck off pallet and the resulting Great OpenQuest Mailout that occurred back in July/August rocked hard.
