A Very Pleasant Bank Holiday Weekend
The days of the week are whipping past with indecent haste, but at least that spurs us on to evening time and the weekend. Saturday brought me a nice heap of Kickstarter rewards – the awesome Pigs Vs Cows custom Lego (more to be said on Wednesday) and a roll up Musgard mud guard for my bicycle. I’m looking forwards to trying that out with the inevitable rain next week. It also came with stickers and a pin badge, so I was of course delighted. I do enjoy supporting some of these campaigns. I have no particular interests but I’ve backed the two above, plus a few comic and book projects as well as several improv shows. It’s very satisfying and I do like getting the rewards as well as knowing that I’ve helped someone do what they want to do.
I’d no idea that being allowed to stay in this country was either so expensive or such a pain in the arse, but one of my very best friends has just attained permanent resident status (which is awesome). There was a party to celebrate his outpourings of cash to the government and successful completion of the ridiculous quiz they have to pass. We were all quizzed ourselves on Saturday and I’m relatively proud to say I got 19/23 (23% higher than 60%) as a combination of guesswork, sarcasm and dimly recalled history. They weren’t terribly relevant to living here… I don’t understand why we make it so damn hard for educated useful people to stay here. Great party though, I suppose we might not have had that if it were easier…
♥ This week’s scribbles
Tuesday Autofiction: I Know Not What
Wednesday Lego Blog: Pigs vs Cows Kickstarter custom Lego stuff.
Thursday The Desert Crystals Part 19 “Newly Spectacled” Adventure in the dark.
Friday Film Review Shorties: Kick Ass 2 / The Heat / Now You See Me (2013) Films! Films, I tell you.
Updates on my thrilling life
Writing
A victory week of hitting writing aims alongside basic human survival – satisfying. I’ll be swinging back towards Rosenhatch and company in The Desert Crystals this week. Probably. It is very much its own man as stories go and I don’t seem to have much control over where it goes. It’s like being tied to a wounded buffalo. Confusing and bloody. I am so far behind in even remembering what films I’ve seen I have almost lost hope of catching up with filmic scribblings. I shall try, honest. I’m finding the folding of Autofiction and Slightly Broken blogging to be quite satisfying, as well as self-indulgent. “It’s good to talk” and all that.
Tuesday Autofiction: Tasty Tasty Amitriptyline The utter wonder of regular sleep.
Wednesday Lego Blog: Jabba’s Palace A cool build that required immediate customisation.
Thursday The Desert Crystals: Part 18 “Cut and Dried” Piracy high in the sky.
Friday Film Review Shorties: The Lone Ranger / RED 2 Fun films, if not likely to be Oscar bait.
So I broke my Jabba’s Palace extension. Yep, almost immediately. Arse. Not to worry- I’ve expanded it and made the replacement more in keeping with the general style, and slightly less likely to be broken further.
Very importantly, Lego Minifigure Series 11 is out! This gives my other half the chance to use her super-powers of blind bag fingering. This set has none of the aggravation of Mr Gold’s exploitative approach to the already money-grubbing aspect of blind bags. Instead Lego have turned out a genuinely delightful set of figures – the Yeti, Gingerbread Man and Elf all look amazing and there’s a wealth of print detailing on all the figures. We have half of them already…
Improv Comedy
We have a show this week! This Friday in fact. We’re doing a near-cabaret mix of styles and players and I’m really looking forwards to it. Shortform, longer stuff, fun and foolishness. Join us! I’m also looking forwards to teaching improv comedy as an enrichment course for New College Nottingham this Autumn. It’s an exciting opportunity to excite more people about improv. I’ll be teaching with Parky and Marilyn – fun ahead.
Media Intake
Books
I’m into the second in the Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko – Day Watch. Like the first book, it’s a series of long interlinked shorter stories, this time with a focus on the Dark Others (who make up the Day Watch – watching the Light Ones). I’m still confused by why The Daily Telegraph thought this was “JK Rowling, Russian-style”, it’s nothing like Harry Potter. The magical world of the Watches is much darker, more adult and more interesting.
Films
We’re still hitting our Cineworld cards pretty hard – we’ve seen Two Guns and We’re The Millers this week. Two Guns was fun, but I’ve already forgotten most of it – Wahlberg and Washington do lots of punching, shooting and running. We’re The Millers was just funny and undemanding, with plenty of silly and fine situational comedy emerging from the mismatched fake family falling into family habits and fights. I haven’t seen Clueless before, but it’s on right now. It’s quite annoying – there is far too much squealing coming from the TV. Merly and I are not amused.
Events and Excitement
MissImp in Action – Friday 30th August
8.30pm at The Corner, Nottingham.
High energy improvised comedy show.
