Weeknotes 140

London became cooler and wetter this week. It feels nice. Smalltalk with strangers has changed from “this heat!” to “this rain!” and I’m enjoying the novelty.

Boris Johnson is out:

The problem is, I finally feel defeated. […] What’s the point? I am trapped on a dying island ringed by a shadow of human shit and Brexiters took away my right to escape it.

Liz Truss is in and she’s made Jacob Rees-Mogg responsible for energy and climate change. We are fucked.

A new Amazon Fresh store opened nearby, which might’ve been a fun curiosity except they don’t sell anything I want to buy so I can’t get any use out of it. I did at least return a package by dropping it off there and the process was way more convenient than posting it.

Clearly I was so engrossed in beers & tacos with Murray last Wednesday that I forgot to get out my phone and write a note about it. Let the record show that it happened.

On Friday I met Joe for a cheeky afternoon pint, sat under an umbrella in a courtyard in Shoreditch while the rain fell intermittently around us. Was Berg really so long ago? Yes.

I rode to Finsbury Park yesterday to see James, Roz & family for a little celebration. The sun shone and it mostly didn’t rain.

I saw a bit more of House of the Dragon. It’s still kind of watchable but not remotely gripping yet.

Part of the problem is that there’s nobody charismatic to latch onto, unlike Game of Thrones which had some properly likeable/hateable characters from the outset. More importantly, the title sequence is bad — it’s far more confusing and illegible than the straightforward map it replaces. It’s also surprising they’re reusing the Game of Thrones theme music. You can’t fool me! It’s not the same show!

I started The Rings of Power but haven’t made it past the first episode. It’s very heavy on exposition and I’m not confident I can face another solemn dragony prequel where everyone talks in a tortured medieval way and nobody behaves like a real person.

It was enough of a slog that it snapped me out of my trance and made me remember that I don’t really like fantasy. Game of Thrones sucked me in years ago by mildly subverting and defying genre conventions, but one thing led to another and somehow I’ve ended up watching straight-up fantasy by mistake.

The Queen died. Time passes.

There’s the usual culture shock of seeing other people performatively care about something that doesn’t affect me at all. I am at least enjoying this narrow window of time when you can say “it’s what she would have wanted” after anyone does anything.

I’m a bit annoyed that the bonus bank holiday is happening while I don’t have a job. Feels like a waste.