February 2024

Again a bit late, but here is my February recap. The first half of the month was pleasantly quiet. Some boardgaming sessions with friends and a visit to the Banksy Exhibition here in Cologne. It was great seeing so many pieces by Banksy, especially the ones that require some context. For example, they rebuild a bathroom with his art on the walls. Biggest thing in February was my trip to London. It has already been a year now that my friend moves there. We visited Hampton Court Palace and went to a morning classical music session at the Royal Albert Hall. And then we just enjoyed the nice weather which was way better than in Cologne. The last two weeks were then a bit stressful with social work things and doctor’s appointments, plus the weather being city and public transport on strike, my mood was pretty low then at the end of the month.

Boardgames (and other games):
I am happy with the games play in February. A lot of Clever, a bit of Qwixx and The Game. We also managed to play big games like Ark Nova and Everdell Farshore. And we played an „Escape Room“ game, it was different riddles that where all related to being on a ship.

Books:
I read more than I thought I did! I finished 7 books. I think my fav was Neuroqueer Heresies by Nick Waker where I learned that neuroqueer is actually supposed to be a verb. I like the conceopt of neuroqueering. I listened to I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. I didn’t know her as an actress but her story about her abuse mother pushing her into child acting was very disturbing. And to the last book was Diana by Andrew Morton. It was a bit boring because I knew the stuff from other stories and of course from the TV show The Crown. But it’s still fascinating how they pulled the stunt of making a autobiography without anyone knowing this at the point of publication.

Films:
Not much going on here. The Creator was as boring as any Star Wars movie. The other movie I wateched was Pride & Prejudice. I really like Colin Firth, but Matthew Macfadyen is the better Mr Darcy.

TV Shows:
We finished Home Before Dark which was an okayish show but probably nothing I’ll remember for long. I also finished the 8th season of Queer Eye which I am sorry to say was rather boring. I also watched the BBC Show Pride & Prejudice, it was a bit too slow for my taste but I liked it anyway. And then there was a lot of Shameless. I watched the whole 8h season and bits of season 6 and 9.

January 2024

January was the month of various doctor’s appointments. Including my nose operation, I had a correction of the nasal septum in order to breath better through my nose. It was with full anesthesia but only 20 minutes of surgery. The whole thing felt like a drive-in. I got there, changed, had a short conversation with the anesthetist, then the operation started and 30 minutes later I was awake and out of the practice an hour later. The operation went well so far, but at some point the silicone splints inside my nose drove me crazy. And I had constant headaches. I had to water my nose 3-4 times a day and a part of that water kept being inside my face/skull and since I am very sensitive in the skull area I got headaches from this. I was glad that I was on sick leave. I had various other doctor’s appointments, check-ups, etc. and a very stupid and unpleasant appointment with a person who I had the impression was incompetent and unprepared. It still gnaws at me. There were few social appointments, all before the operation: a snack & play with friends, a game of Twilight Imperium 4 with three players and one offline game of Pathfinder.
Oh yeah right, there was also a lot of snow for a week or so. This was very nice, the world was beautiful and the doggys enjoyed playing in the snow very much.

Boardgames (and other games):
Well, there was Twilight Imperium 4, Planet Unknown, Robin Hood, Azul and some of the Clevers. I very much enjoyed Planet Unknown which I got from the librabry. Maybe I’ll buy it some day. I also played a lot of Baldur’s Gate 3, almonst only in Act 1.

Books:
Yes Please by Amy Poehler was a good audiobook. I need to rewatch Parks & Recreation with her. Defiant by Brandon Sanderson is the last book in the Skyward series. It was not as good as the previous books but I still like this young adult sci-fi series. Then I read When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill which was an interesting alternate history read.

Films:
We finished watching The Lord of The Rings, still my fav movies. We also watched Renfield, a weird Dracula adaptation with Nicolas Cage. Rebel Moon really sucked, it reminded me of Star Wars and I don’t like Star Wars.

TV Shows:
A bit of For All Mankind. I still like the show but the fourth season was weak compared to the previous ones. We watched Monarch which was kind of ok. I liked the new Percy Jackson show though it’s cleary aimed for people with a very low attention span. Everything happened so fast and some things were skipped. Then there was a lot of Shameless. I love that show.

Dezember 2023

December was kind of stressful, but also many good things. There was: a nice birthday party with a delicious buffet, breakfast with colleagues, the Christmas party at work (with a previous two-hour lecture with surprising content), a very good trip to Amsterdam (especially to the Pikachu Van Gogh Museum) and finally New Year’s Eve with friends with an epic game of Twilight Imperium 4 and the role-playing game Ten Candles.

Boardgames (and other games):
December ended with another epic game of Twilight Imperium 4 (I won, ha) and thus I completed my challenge to play four games of it in 2023. I also played two games of Everdell and Dominion with friends, both great games. Otherwise I was occupied with Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Playstation.

Books:
I finished A ​Court of Silver Flames and I didn’t know before that there are no other ACOTAR books so far. Oh no! I really liked the Silver Flames one. I also read I was born for this by Alice Oseman, a cute book about a fan meeting her idol in rather weird circumstances. And it’s not a love story.

Films:
We watched all the Hobbit films. I know that a lot of people like to give hate on them and complain that there isn’t enough material for three films. Well, I disagree. I quite like the films and think it was good to make three of them. We watched the second Avatar film The Way of Water which was surprisingly good. I liked it more than the first one. A very weird film was Leave the World Behind. But now I know why I’d never buy a Tesla.

TV Shows:
I binged Lessons in Chemistry, we finished The Crown and I finished Servant. I liked all of these shows very much. I watched the Beckham show which was okay but nothing special, a few episodes of For All Mankind and I started to watch Shameless.