Weeknotes 133

Earth’s yellow sun punished the hubris of my social plans by making all the trains get basically cancelled, so Alice couldn’t get to me on Tuesday and I couldn’t get to Paul on Wednesday. Fortunately it was powerless to stop me cycling round the corner to have breakfast with Chris on Monday before the heat really kicked in.

Train company instructions to avoid travelling “unless absolutely necessary” sent me into a spiral of doubt about the circumstances under which travel is ever absolutely necessary.

The only ironclad example I could think of was the X-Files season six episode in which Bryan Cranston has to keep driving otherwise his head will explode. Or I suppose the classic film The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down.

Since I couldn’t use the return ticket to Yorkshire I’d bought, does that mean I’ll get my 150 quid back? In principle yes; in practice we’ll see whether anything happens “within ten days”.

I realise I’ve already made this point, but Monday and Tuesday were unpleasantly hot — as expected, it was the highest temperature the UK has ever seen.

My flat is warm at the best of times so I couldn’t do much except close all the windows & blinds, turn the air conditioner on and wait for it to be over. At the time it felt like a monumental waste of two days of my life but in hindsight they weren’t very different from any other days.

I found myself feeling nervous last week about inadvertently spoiling The Sixth Sense by making a joke about Bruce Willis. That film came out in 1999. What’s the statute of limitations on spoilers? And, crucially, is it more or less than 23 years?

Some footage leaked from The Last of Us Part I and internet men got very upset that it’ll be the same game as the original, just updated with Part II-quality graphics and accessibility. But that’s what I was hoping for, so I’m fine with it. (Bonus: no multiplayer!)

Stray came out on Tuesday and I streamed it for a couple of hours that evening.

I really like it so far. (Viewer feedback: “HFW Tom is reluctant. Stray Tom is full of the joys of life.”) The opening section is completely free of any HUD or menus or other distracting UI, which feels refreshing, and the focus on allowing the player to do Cat Stuff for its own sake is admirable. The adventure bits are open-ended and fun and chill, and the beautiful visuals & soundtrack create an emotionally compelling atmosphere.

I do think the occasional stealth/action sequences are a mistake because they’re so tonally inconsistent with the rest of the game’s gentle puzzle-platforming, but they’re infrequent enough that I’ve been able to ignore them and not let them spoil the rest of the experience.

I feel a bit sad that I’ll probably never get to play Home Free, but Stray is a fine substitute.

On Friday, once the rail network had cooled off, I took a nice impromptu trip to Preston Park to see Alice. Afterwards I walked down to Brighton, saw the ocean, wandered the North Laines and treated myself to a maudlin cup of tea & slice of cake before getting the train home.

Due to a little-known historical law it’s mandatory in Britain that nobody on the train is allowed to know how to shut the fuck up, but I was rescued by noise-cancelling headphones plus Background Sounds on my phone.

Thanks to a tipoff from Sharla I bought some Tajín and sprinkled it on mango and pineapple and stuff. It’s extremely good. I’d initially cycled to Mestizo to buy it, but when I arrived they told me they’d sold out of their last shipment in a single day and wouldn’t be getting more for another two months, so Amazon it was. 🤷‍♂️

In other delicious dust news, I tried putting MSG on popcorn for the first time and it was amazing. This implies I can put less salt on which is probably good news for my organs.

It’s crept up on me that almost every restaurant, cafe and pub in the UK now has a sign next to their toilet telling you not to put anything except toilet paper into the toilet. When did this become such an epidemic? What are people (particularly men) putting in toilets?

I’m feeling extremely purposeless, which is disconcerting. Perhaps it’ll pass.

The days are becoming cooler again.

Back to work tomorrow.