July was very busy and now August was very unbusy. I must admit that it was also a bit lonely from time to time.
I had two nice dates with friends for boardgames and snacks. And two roleplaying sessions, one in an ongoing offline group for Pathfinder, the other with a new online group where we will play DnD The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. I am so looking forward to this campaign!
It was also time to get back to work after my vacation. My team-mate also came back after a longer hiatus. To celebrate her being back, we had a delicous long breakfast and brunch at another colleague’s house where we could sit outside in her beautiful garden. And we went to a couple of lunch breaks together. This was very nice, I love going to cafés and restaurants, it sparks so much joy.
Boardgames:
I didn’t play as much as I wanted to but still I got a couple of games in. The best one was Everdell. I like it so much and the design is beautiful. Other than that I played a couple of smaller games like Azul, Clever or Fantastic Realms.
I finally finished the first campagin of Welcome To The Moon. I really didn’t enjoy this game and will sell it (probably today).
Books:
I listened to the autobiography Verse, Chorus, Monster! by Graham Coxon. Despite being a huge fan of Oasis, I also always liked Blur and especially Graham Coxon because of him being so weird and such an awesome musician. In the book, he talks a lot about his struggles with social anxiety which even led to him becoming an alcoholic. Of course I also liked the bits about the britpop wars and what a big influence the labels and press had on it. Well not all of it, the beef between Damon and Liam was pretty real. I also listened to the audiobook Looking after your autististic self by Niamh Garvey where I got some good advice. Then there were two books I struggled with: Human Acts by Han Kang, it was about a revolt in the 80s in Korea, history I definitely don’t know anything about and due to the stories changing narrators and perspectives I struggled with this book. I had a similar problem with the classic book Beloved by Toni Morrison. I get why this book won a pulitzer award but it was so hard to read with the changing perspectives and going back and forth in the timeline.
Films:
August was the release of Red White and Royal Blue. And the film was as good as I hoped it would be. Even better than the book. It’s a cheesy romance about the son of the president of the USA falling in love with an English prince. But my fav movie was A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks. It was so cozy and wholesome. Other films worth a mention:
– The Favourite with Olivia Colman playing a very disturbing role.
– The Florida Project about a poor single mother living in the shadow of Disney World.
– del Toro’s Pinocchio with Cate Blanchett voicing a monkey that is only doing monkey sounds. Imagine casting Cate Blanchett for this!
TV Shows:
Oh, a lot of shows in August, so what I lacked in social contacts I substituted with tv shows.
I did a speed run through Sweet Magnolias. I wanted something easy and light and I got it. It’s about three 40something female friends living an upper-middle class life in Southern USA. I don’t think that living there is like in the show, with no racism and polite, emotionally aware hot men, with every women having to choose between two men. But the show is there for entertainment and I felt very entertained.
I also finished Ted Lasso Season 3. It was the best season and a beautiful ending for the show/the first arc. Then there was the second season of Heartstopper which was cute and nice to watch. Another show finished was Daisy Jones & The Six. I didn’t like the casting of some of the characters and it made me angry through the whole show. There are finally new episodes of Foundation. I love the plot around Empire and Lee Pace’s performance as wanna-be-god-like emporer. I also got my hands on a copy of the fifth season of The Handmaid’s Tale. Not possible to watch it on any streaming service, so I got it from my library.
Still like the show very much, despites it’s very heavy theme. Elisabeth Moss is such a brilliant actor. I once saw her (and Jon Hamm) live during a screening for Mad Men. In reality, she looks so tiny and fragile, yet she manages to play this furious, strong and frightening character in the Handmaid’s Tale.