Weeknotes 40

I’ve had an extremely leisurely week off. The weather’s been nice enough for a few walks around the neighbourhood but otherwise I’ve been enjoying some rest. Set your expectations accordingly.

While I had plenty of time to waste I took the opportunity to replace a leaky inner tube on my bike. That isn’t normally a big job but it had reached Malcolm in the Middle proportions because of several factors: nowhere convenient to work on my bike, no spare inner tube, no floor pump, hard-to-remove “puncture resistant” tyres, all multiplied by my unwillingness to go to a bike shop during a pandemic.

The biggest frustration was trying to buy a pump to fit only a Presta valve (which is what every bike I’ve owned has used) without the unnecessary complication of also fitting a Schraeder valve (which I’ve never seen in my life). I tried to find something Presta-only but was defeated by the tyranny of the Schraeder.

Thanks to this conspiracy by Big Valve, I have a new bike pump with two holes in its nozzle, one of which I have to remember to avoid because it doesn’t work on bikes.

I wasn’t intending to watch a full 16 minutes of people trying to jump from a 10 metre diving board but I’m on holiday so I did and it was weirdly compelling.

Well, Claire Saffitz is officially out of Bon Appétit, so presumably Gourmet Makes is really over. This outcome feels correct and unavoidable given the circumstances but it’s still sad that it’s over. It was good while it lasted.

I’m also sad about cinemas closing, but I accept it’s probably inevitable regardless of coronavirus because most cinemas are miserable places to watch films. They’ve had no incentive to change that because of artifical exclusivity so it’s just got steadily worse over the years.

I can’t remember the last time I went to a cinema for any reason other than wanting to see a new film sooner. I hope more films get a simultaneous home release in future so I can actually enjoy watching them.

In other death of cinema news, we watched a few Netflix films. I’m Thinking of Ending Things was interesting and pretentious and the font was too small. Marriage Story was comparatively straightforward and gave the three excellent main performances plenty of room to breathe. I don’t know how I thought Gerald’s Game was going to play out but it was more horrific than expected and I enjoyed it.

Over the weekend we watched The Haunting of Bly Manor which was enjoyable enough if not particularly good. It’s certainly not as inventive or scary as The Haunting of Hill House; there’s nothing in it to rival the supremely creepy ending of Steven Sees a Ghost, for example, or the technical ambition of Two Storms. But it trundles along alright and somehow survives its clunky writing, unrealistic depiction of 1980s England and laughably bad British accents. Spooky things are inherently fun in October and apparently that’s where my bar is these days.

Back to work tomorrow.