I had a cold in November which was very annoying. My first real cold since 2019 (not counting Corona in 2022). But never mind, it was over quickly and the rest of the month was really nice. We had friends over for boardgames, I visited my other friends for more boardgames and snacks. I made a little trip to the Ruhrpott, had breakfast with friends before we went to an Escape Room. It was my first one and it was fun! It started in the animal department of a ship, so fitting since we love animals and zoos. No surprise: afterwards we visited the zoo in Gelsenkirchen. It’s my second fav zoo in the area, right after the one in Wuppertal. Afterwards we went to a restaurant. It was a really nice day.
I visited two concerts. The first one was Noel Gallager in Düsseldorf. 20 years ago, I saw Oasis for the first time live at this venue, living so close that I could go there by foot. I still remember how high I was after this (no drugs were involved). One of the happiest moments of my life. So now 20 years later and there I still am. I liked the concert, I liked the new album, I even liked the opening act. Additional fun was to watch Noel’s (20something) daughter in front of the stage, taking pictures, singing along but also being on social media and not paying any attention. Not so fun was the standee of Pep Guardiola on stage that gave me the creeps. I could only identify him because I know the colors of the football club Manchester City and I saw Pep on Ted Lasso. Oh I am very happy that German tv was at the concert, so that I have the concert on video now.
The other concert was Babymetal and honestly it sucked. The band was good, I could have really enjoyed them. If I would have been able to see anything. The venue was the Palladium in Cologne. The stage is way too low (I compared pictures with concerts at other venues), I couldn’t see any of the dancing that is part of the show. At least many many people were constantly filming the concert (why do you watch a concert through your screen??), so I could look there to see something. But I could have watched a youtube video instead, too.
I finished November with baking a lot of cookies. Of course the standard butter cookies were the worst again, I always struggle with the dough. But I have five other sorts so far, some with spices, some with marzipan and they are all excellent.
I also visited the first Christmas Market, we had nice food and then went to a café. It was my friend who lives in London, and she asked me to book my next stay at her place soon. So I got plane tickets for February.
November was a good month because I managed to see my three close circles of friends!
Boardgames (and other games):
November started with a holiday and hence with a long game of Twilight Imperium 4. It was epic and fun. I played a lot of Azul this month and fell in love with the second implement Azul Stained Glass of Sintra. It was a copy from the library. I also borrowed a copy of Arak The Lost Ruins. It’s a good worker placement game but I wouldn’t buy it since the design is ugly and there is too much material to quickly play the game. I bought two solo games by Rainer Knizia. The very ugly Schwarze Rosen and Number Up. I like both very much.
Concerning Videogames I am back to Octopath Traveler II and I played a bit of Baldur’s Gate 3. Unfortunately, I still struggle with my seating arrangements with the playstation. I moved it to the bedroom to play from bed because I cannot sit without leg pain on the couch. But the tv is too high in the bedroom to play without craning my neck. It sucks so much that I can’t use the playstation properly in any place. I wish I had my old couch back or that my armchair would have space in the living room 😞
Books:
Lazy reading month, I only finished four books. A Court of Frost and Silver Thorns was quite nice because it is about winter solistice. Of course I am all in for the spicy content. But I also like about the series that it is often about everyday life. You don’t get that much everyday life in fantasy. Funnily, my other fantasy book, Yumi and The Nightmare Printer, was also about everyday life and about people’s jobs in fantasy worlds. I really liked this book, it sometimes reminded me of Final Fantasy X and then I read in the afterword that Brandon Sanderson was inspired by the game. I listened to two memoirs that were quite shocking. The Woman in Me by Britney Spears, narrated by (the) Michelle Williams. It was horrible to read about Britney’s enslavement to her father and how she was treated as (made to be?) an mentally ill patient. The other memoir was by Matthew Perry, my beloved Chandler from Friends, who died too early in October. He writes about his livelong struggle with addiction. It made me so sad to read the book and even sadder because it seems like he was undiagnosed with Adhd. Maybe proper meds for his lack of dopamine would have helped? We’ll never know. What made me also sad is how much he was like Chandler (a non-addict version) and how Chandler got the happy ending with a nice wife and kids, that Matthew always wished for. Chandler and Monica were my idealized happy couple. It still makes me sad that Matthew is gone. (And I wonder if there is something terribly wrong in the rehab system in the USA. Wouldn’t be surprised since their whole medical system is an utter mess.)
Films:
No films this month!
TV Shows:
I finished the 3rd season of Morning Show which was just a as good as the previous seasons. I would have never expected such a good political and sociatal drama (well, and Jon Hamm in a guest role was a nice addition). I also watched Who is Erin Carter on Netflix which was a good mini series. Then I went over to Shrinking, I didn’t like the first episode but then the show got better, especially thanks to Harrison Ford’s role as grumpy old shrink. Next up was my show of the month: Servant on Apple+. Its visual style with the old large house is very gloomy, the story was excellent, there were so many shifts in story-telling and characters without the show becoming confused. It’s one of the best horror/psychological dramas I have recently seen.
Other good tv shows this month: The Crown but, wow, what a soap opera the life of the royals has been. And For All Mankind started it’s fourth season which is so far very entertaining and well done.