Status:
Bit of a sludgy day today. Couldn’t get going at all this morning, didn’t get much pottering done and had a sleep in the afternoon. I’d probably categorise this as a minor crash, which is positive as it’s not a proper big crash. My body needed to rest, so I let it.
We have a magpie building a nest in a tree in our garden, remarkably close to where we hang out, although it’s a very thorny tree so it probably feels safe. It occasionally peeks out before flying off and I realised I could actually get a decent photo with the long lens. So I spent a while waiting for it to appear. No joy today so I had to make do with the above cropped-in shot of it in a faraway tree.
Fi was off this morning to register as an extra for the new Peaky Blinders series which is filming in Birmingham this year. Friends of hers in London have done this sort of thing, so she knows the basics. Apparently the main requirement is you must have 1950s hair – no highlights or whatnot – and apparently Fi has “great hair”. The new film just popped up on Netflix so I guess we’ll be watching that to see what kind of things extras do in a Stephen Knight production.
Overnight listening:
- In Our Time: Dadaism - This was a lot of fun and definitely will be worth a proper re-listen. I like the idea that young people gathered in neutral Switzerland to escape the madness of 1910’s Europe. I wonder where they might gather today?
Music:
- Fi’s got a bit obsessed about that Conrad Taylor Rosalía remix thing from the other week so I gave it a listen. I tried my hardest but all I could think of was Put a Donk on it which, to my horror, is 17 years old.
Reading:
- Britain’s sauna boom heats up as people seek warmth of human connection - A fluff piece, for sure, but I’m intrigued by this bit: Precisely how taking a sauna triggers its benefits is still being studied, but the general idea is that it places the body under controlled heat stress, producing responses similar to moderate exercise, such as walking. I am unable to do sufficient levels of exercise at the moment so I wonder if this would help?
- Jenny Murray dies aged 75 - I grew up with my mum listening to her on the radio and have fond memories of her voice, memories that I refuse to allow her subsequent career as a reactionary Daily Mail columnist to tarnish.
Watching:
- James Baldwin: “There may not be as much humanity in the world as one would like to see, but there is some. There’s more than one would think." (1:16)
- Villeneuve: Ride the Coming Storm (3:26) - Supercut of shots that evoke an eerie post-human landscape from the films of Denis Villeneuve.
Telly:
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - this is such a good show…