Wow, time flies. Again a lot to do at work and a lot of stuff giving my anxiety the whole month. But also some good things: we had a very nice and entertaining tabletop rpg session of Mausritter. Such a beautiful game and easy to get into. We also played Pathfinder in March and I am not sure if I will ever become friends with Pathfinder. The system seems complicated and clumsy and I still don’t really enjoy playing it. Long and boring encounters and not much to do besides it. I had more fun with my brief experiences with DnD but those were too short to properly compare to Pathfinder. Anyway, a big fun thing in March was our short trip to Hamburg. My third time, but my first two visits were on business trips where Hamburg didn’t leave a good impression. But this trip was so awesome that Hamburg may become my favorite big city in Germany? (Of course after my home city Düsseldorf). It was such a beautiful trip! I love how much water there is in the city, it’s like Amsterdam but not so chaotic I guess? I hope to come back to Hamburg some day.
Oh and there was a visit to a small concert with a pirate metal band. Not my choice of music but it was quite ok. First time in ages that I drank cocktails but they weren’t that expansive and quite good.

Gaming:
I just played the standard boardgames like Azul and Clever. And a lot of Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s a pitty that the third act is so boring and bad compared to the two previous acts (not I didn’t finish the game in March…)

Books:
I finally finished my two too long books: Iron Flame and Crescent City 2. The first was okayish but too long. The second was utterly boring and though I skipped many chapters it still took too long to read.
But after those books I had a streak of cozy nice books: Remarkably Bright Creatures, Lessons in Chemistry and Sweet Bean Paste (ok this is about Hansen Disease/Leprosy, so that part isn’t so cozy).
I also read Unlearning Shame by Devon Price, which got me thinking a lot about my fields of shame (some body parts, some my mind parts, things from the past) but I don’t think that I’ll be able to let go of it soon.

Films:
I watched Aquaman 2 which was fun. Of course I am always in for stories about brothers! I also watched The Last Unicorn for the first time. I didn’t watch it before because everyone was saying how sad the movies was. And it totally wasn’t? I am really confused about people’s childhood memories. (But there were some scenes that I would have been afraid of as a kid). The film was good but not my favorite style of animation.

TV Shows:
We finished the old anime series Queen Millennia. I enjoyed the show very much, it is typically Japanese with a complex story and some wild turn arounds. I also finished Shameless. The ending was good and fitting to the show and characters but yeah I got a bit sad because I am going to miss the Gallagher’s.

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 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.