August 2024

What a month, it felt like a year long. It was not really intended that way, but in the end we did two vacations in August. One started at the beginning of the month and we flew to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival. It was not our first time, but the last time we didn’t visit any shows because our time was rare. This year, I booked ahead a lot of tickets. The comedians we liked were: Susie McCabe, Chloe Petts, Jay Lafferty, Nish Kumar, Stevie Martin and Jack Docherty as The Chief. Honory mention to Eric The Submariner, not a stand-up comedian but a real retired submariner who told about his life in the navy. We also saw the Military Tattoo Parade. It was good but not so good as the one in 2016. Not so many acts like last time, very few guest countries, no special goodies. Another hightlight was the visit of the Britannia, the Queen’s beloved yacht.
I love this city so much.

Our next trip started only a couple of days after returning home. We went to the Ostsee, which I now know is called the „Baltic Sea“ in English, ha, didn’t know those were the same. My partner did a sailing course while I stayed in our apartment with the doggys. Wasn’t the best apartment and I missed having a garden. In addition, I got ill. At least the weather was really nice, not too hot like in the rest of Germany, and the doggys had a lot of fun with swimming in the ocean.

Then back to work for the end of August, urgh, which was very annoying, I need a vacation again. The month ended with me going to war with half a million other people and fight for a ticket to the Oasis concerts next year. I am still a bit sceptical about those gigs. I loved Liam’s Definitetly Maybe concerts, they were awesome and since he „turned around“ his concerts are just that which is Oasis. Noel’s concerts are also good, but his own sound and style is very different and I don’t like some of his newer versions of Oasis songs. Hope I won’t hear them next year but the original ones. I was actually trying for tickets for Wembley, but now I’ll end up in Edinburgh. For the Fringe, again. A couple of weeks after I said that I won’t visit the Fringe for the next 10 years. But not sad that I have to go again next year.

Gaming:
I played all the Clevers, a nice casual game called Bonsai, the Lord of the Rings Adventure Book game (which I am not willing to sell, since it’s more annoying than fun), Wingspan and Robin Hood.

Books:
Not so many books this month. I finally consumed My Year of Rest and Relaxation and this book was just very annoying. I also read the TikTok hit It ends with us, didn’t know that it is about abuse, so I was quite suprised when shit turned dark. Next was A House with Good Bones by T.Kingfisher, a Southern USA gothic (mild) horror. I very much liked it, it’s about a generation of women, their relations to each other and finding their peace. A more casual read was My Life the the Walter Boys, I enjoyed it as much as the TV show on Netflix.

Films:
I worked through my Netflix watchlist this month. My fav was tick,tick…BOOM, wow, much sad, but I really liked that film. I also liked Captain Phillips with Tom Hanks though the suspension was killing me. But my fav was probably The Quiet Girl, an Irish film form 2022, about a girl from a poor family visiting relatives in the countryside. There isn’t really much happening but I just enjoyed watching this coming-of-age film.
And I watched the film It ends with us. I don’t know what to think about it, it was a nice addition to the book but I don’t think the films works without knowing the book.

TV Shows:
I finished Mr & Mrs Smith, I liked the show and hope there will be a second season. Then there were a few new episodes of Emily in Paris, my hate-watch. My binge of the month was Pørni. It’s a Norwegian show about a mid 40s mother who just kicks ass in her everyday life.