Impressionable Stranger

Dropped in to my usual barber up the road for a trim. I've been seeing him for almost a year now and we've seldom said more than a dozen words to eachother in that time. It was only when I mentioned I was getting it cut for a funeral that he tentatively made conversation. A lot of my life I think about the strangers that have made an impression on me - I wonder how many people's lives I've touched who don't know my name.

People that aren't strangers though are Mark and Lucy, whom we shared an almost twelve hour Saturday with. They had a board game they were eager to share with us called Eclipse - an epic scale space war game which took us from lunch til dinner to play. I got trounced, but I didn't mind because they put on an immense spread of food for us. Homemade pizzas, strawberry mess, a light salmon dinner and simmered peaches with ice cream - what a bloody treat. The day went too quickly though, we looked up at the clock and the next thing we knew we were catching the night bus home. 

French New-Wave Nemesis

Caught up on writing my Letterbox reviews for all the films I've seen recently. I also made a little list of all the remaining films I haven't seen from Roger Ebert's 'The Great Movies' volume one. There's only nine I haven't seen so I'm quietly using that as a North Star whenever I fancy an old movie with gusto (there's a pair of hefty pick from the 1920's which will be fun). There was a short Jean-Luc Godard one I glossed over so I gave that a watch today... In doing so I remembered why I don't like his movies. I guess I just struggle with French New Wave, thankfully that's not a problem that affects my day-to-day. Only 83 minutes long and I was still counting down the seconds... Maybe I need to read Ebert's thoughts to see what he sees in it.

Obsession

Did a top to bottom house tidy, which was much needed after a week of DIY, but especially important because we had a bevvy of guests over for another movie night. This group has kinda turned into a 'lets all watch a modern horror film together because there's safety and comedy in numbers'. Obsession was tonight's film which was a remarkably intense viewing. It was virtually all in the central performances which were spellbinding, I didn't want to look away... Until I had to because I was too chicken to keep my eyes on the screen. We all had a hoot though, that was the key thing. It's always fun doing group movies sessions, always takes me back to the days of Film Friday.

Glue, Clamp, Oil

Operation shelves has entered it's final phases. I took some of the excess wood to get trimmed down into bookends which I then glued & clamped. Once bonded, Ioved onto oiling them all. I basically had a little assembly line of bits that I checked on every half an hour as I did other stuff. As a byproduct of this however I never really settled into anything. Even when I was done for the day, my mind couldn't settle on one thing for more than 30 minutes. I was antsy and fidgety for no good reason. The shelves will all be done tomorrow though as a result of my hustling - we can't wait to see them in action!

Manchester Motorhead

A very early night yesterday set me up well for my day of paid courier work for a TV job... At least, I'm cheaper than a courier and I get to keep all the profit! My car was packed out with costume returns heading to Manchester for a pre-9am drop off. This meant my alarm went off at the same hour you might expect when you go to catch a cheaper flight. Even in the middle of Summer I found the nighttime and was even driving in it for almost an hour. I low-key wish the trip out was actually worthy of an anecdote, but I drove there, dropped off, and drove home. Considering I'd been driving for seven hours and messed up my eating pattern I felt close to ok when I got back. The key lag bit me just before supper, but nothing a long sleep won't sort tonight.

Better yet, when I got back my Screwfix order was ready for collection. Rebecca's shelves needed some boards glued together which was a new experience for me, but now they look more robust and premium now. Our replacement internet box also arrived so after three days off grid I can finally doomscroll to my heart's content! 

The Incident at Galley House

 Got totally engrossed in the hottest detective game of July. The Incident at Galley House is a very cool little murder mystery game about stepping into the past to figure out the timeline of suspects and victims. It's plays around with the Agatha Christie whodunnit formula while peppering in a we'll judged amount of Sci-fi. The end result drip feeds 'ah-HA' moments to the point where it's hard to put down... I was so absorbed I almost forgot to drill in Rebecca's bookshelves!

The Odyssey

We bucked our circadian rhythm, had a big, late breakfast and headed to the cinema at 11am. The Odyssey was almost booked up when we went to get tickets yesterday, but this early screening actually was a blessing in disguise as we got to see the movie on a massive screen and a thumping sound system... So much so that I think my ears are still ringing a bit after watching some of the more intense action sequences. The film was ace though, I actually enjoyed it substantially more than I expected which is always a treat.

Speaking of treats, we decided to keep a good thing going after the film and went out for pizza and then a taproom for a drink. I realised one of my favourite things about our city break holidays is trying out the best foodie spots, and it's nice to treat my home city in the same way sometimes - makes you appreciate it all over again. Lastly we did some prep work on building Rebecca's bookshelves. I'm now ready to drill holes and mount everything on the wall. It's been a long time coming, but I'm really excited for the results.