Weeknotes 312

Happy Twixmas.

I booked my Christmas rental car three months ago so it’d all be sorted by the time I visited my parents in December. The main reason for doing it so far in advance was to make sure I could get a car from the rental place that’s a ten-minute walk away so it would be easy to collect and return.

Unfortunately that location silently closed in November and I didn’t find out until they sent a reminder email last Sunday with a pickup address six miles away. Getting myself all the way to the other side of London for 8am on Tuesday morning, then driving back to where I started so I could load up and start my journey, was an unexpected extra dose of stress at an already febrile time of year.

Thankfully, beyond that surprise obstacle, nothing went badly wrong. The latent Christmas energy was safely released after I drove to my parents’ place without incident and spent the traditional few days staring at the Christmas tree.

Gym visits: 🎄.

Revelation Space progress: 🎄.

We watched Slow Horses season five spread across Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. It did the job: watchable, mildly amusing, and passed the time with family in a peaceful way. I get the sense that everyone involved is capable of doing better but it seems to be successful in its current form so what do I know.

I do wish they’d use Jonathan Pryce a bit more. He’s such a good actor but he must be in it for less than five minutes.

I finished Pluribus after getting back home. The finale was, unsurprisingly, bad, featuring television’s most implausible character behaving like no human would.

I’m almost impressed by the audacity of making an entire season of a show where nothing happens and nobody’s likable. Joke’s on me for sitting through it. If you think Pluribus is good TV then I don’t understand you.

I’m glad (I think?) that Frances feels my bran pain and has found solace in Weetabix. This sense of asynchronous, intercontinental togetherness on quotidian matters is surely what blogging was invented for.

I’m also glad Tom shared his beans story cos I enjoyed it a lot at the time and I’m enjoying it again now.

I’m legit slightly on edge about what Alice will think of Piranesi even though rationally I bear no responsibility for it. Now I know how Denise feels.

Tomorrow begins my actual holiday. With all responsibilities finally discharged, I get a full week of no obligations, no expectations, no plans, just peace and rest. Oh, except I have to write yearnotes, but that’s my fault.

So that’s it for now. See you on Wednesday.