I slept in by about three hours this morning. I clearly needed a sleep catch-up! As such, I postponed my planned run and spent today getting on with admin, cleaning the house, listening to synthwave, and making lists of ’80s films I’ve not seen due to Geth being unimpressed with my lack of film knowledge.
Back to work tomorrow.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Meduza – Piece Of Your Heart
Duran Duran – Planet Earth
T’Pau – China In Your Hand
The Midnight – Gloria
I was going to do my fortnightly ‘recent chart catchup’ today, but due to most of the artists responsible for recent hits being nice and timely with their videos, there are none to catch up with!
Instead, as Geth and I have been enjoying lots of synthwave YouTube playlists in the house recently, enjoy this fun claymation video by synthwave act Gunship. Spoiler: the bad guys are defeated by the power of VHS tapes!
Geth is not happy about my lack of knowledge when it comes to ’80s movies (my specialist subject is the music and fashion of the decade – I’m a bit behind on the films because it was only the slasher horror ones that I used to obsess over in my younger days!). As such, we are going to try and rectify this gap by watching lots and lots of ’80s films this year.
However, when it comes to the films and TV on the seven VHS tapes featured in this video, I’ve seen four out of seven, which is not bad going!
(Our own VHS collection is not what it used to be – I chucked most of it when we moved from Southampton, although we still have a good few that can’t be replaced on DVD at the moment. We also have a working VHS player, although it’s not attached to any of our TVs at the moment. It’s there if we need it!)
Anyway, I digress. I really appreciate this video because not only does it remind me of the claymation in classic ’80s videos like Jackie Wilson’s Reet Petite and Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer, but there has also been much more work put into it than for most synthwave videos, which are usually just clips of ’80s films and TV shows. Not that I don’t love them, but it’s nice to see something totally original!
More music videos next week.
Geth has been out boardgaming today so I’ve had a nice, relaxing Sunday in the house, writing, listening to music, and finally getting on with a few sewing jobs I’ve been putting off for years. I’m itching to get on with house stuff again now but I’m a bit busy at the moment. Maybe over the summer.
More writing this evening, and then a nice bank holiday Monday to do some more catching up tomorrow.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Jax Jones, Martin Solveig and Madison Beer – All Day And Night
Mark Ronson and Lykke Li – Late Night Feelings
Duran Duran – I Believe/All I Need To Know
Britney Spears – Oops!… I Did It Again
Lewis Capaldi – Grace
Billie Eilish – Bad Guy
I find I’m settling into sobriety now. Don’t get me wrong, I still miss cider like a missing limb, but at the same time I’m now completely in the habit of having a ginger beer instead. It’s become routine not to drink alcohol, which is all I can ask for, really.
I can’t believe how much my mental health has calmed down over the last few months. I still have depressed days, obviously, but they feel manageable in a way that they never did when I was drinking, and most importantly, they don’t have as much of an effect on my ability to get on with work and other important things.
Anxiety dream wise: I’ve noticed something very odd. I expected what would happen would be similar to the vegetarianism anxiety dreams I’ve been having for twenty years, where I suddenly realise halfway through my dream that I’ve accidentally been eating tuna fish (it’s ALWAYS tuna fish. I do not know why this is). I presumed that I would have similar ‘oops, I’m accidentally drunk!’ dreams. I haven’t yet, which I’m really glad about, because I expect they would be really upsetting.
However, what I am dreaming about – every night, which is just bizarre – is taking up smoking again. I quit smoking in 2008, which is eleven years ago now, and I’ve not had a craving for nicotine in waking life in…probably seven or eight years? I find the smell gross and offputting nowadays, and I would never want to jeopardise my running fitness by damaging my lungs again. I am the total stereotype of an ex-smoker. But I’m dreaming about it every single night. Maybe it’s my brain’s way of telling me it misses having a chemical stress release. I don’t know.
In the waking world, I’m still finding the range of sobriety resources available online and offline really helpful – it makes me feel a bit less alone with this thing.
Booze alternatives I’ve reviewed over the last month:
Things haven’t been totally plain sailing in recent weeks – I’ve realised that I need to plan better for events where everyone else is drinking, because at the moment it makes me feel a bit outside of things – but on the whole, I’m doing better, and learning to manage it better, and I’m hopeful that this will get even easier over the next few months.
It’s a weekend without a long run in it! I’ve not had one of those since…early January? It is quite nice to have my weekends back again!
I did do parkrun this morning, though. I felt free to bomb it round without worrying about conserving energy for long runs, so I managed a respectable sub-33. Four minutes slower than my PB from last summer, but also four minutes faster than the shakeout parkrun I did at Highbury Fields last weekend!
I was tempted to head into town for Free Comic Book Day, but in the end I decided I’d rather hibernate (it’s cold for May – we had a bit of hail at parkrun this morning). As such, I’ve spent the rest of the day catching up with admin and writing, which is going to be a bit of a theme this weekend!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper – Shallow
Charles & Eddie – Would I Lie To You?
Sam Cooke – Wonderful World
I first heard that this exhibition was coming to the V&A in early 2018, and was excited to find out that it would coincide with my London Marathon trip. As soon as the tickets became available in the autumn, I booked a slot the day after the race, banking on the fact that the pretty outfits would distract me from having to stand on marathon-tired legs for a couple of hours!
Dior is my favourite fashion house, but I didn’t actually know much about the life of Christian Dior himself, so the initial part of the exhibition, which focused on his early years and his first forays into the fashion industry, was really interesting. The late ’40s and early ’50s fashions shown were beautiful (and probably totally at odds with postwar austerity/rationing for most European women, but…!).
There followed an equally interesting section about Princess Margaret’s love of Dior clothes and how it fitted in with her already-colourful life as a young royal. They had the dress that Dior designed for her 21st birthday portrait on display.
Later in the exhibition, there was a large room dedicated to the history of the Dior house and its different creative directors throughout the years. I appreciated the ’80s era designs best, of course…
…but the most colourful and fun dresses on display were those of John Galliano, who was creative director during the ’00s. I’m not normally a fan of ’00s fashion (largely due to too many cringey memories of wearing it), but I really liked these.
I bought the exhibition book afterwards, so I’m looking forward to curling up with it at some point and looking at some pictures that are a bit better than these ones off my phone camera!
I was also excited to see that the V&A have another fashion exhibition on at the moment – one about Mary Quant. My post-marathon legs couldn’t have coped with another hour or two of standing, though, so that’ll be one for next time I’m in London – it’s on till February 2020 so there’s plenty of time.
I had a bit of day job work to do this morning, but in the afternoon I was able to relax a bit with music and internet. Now spending the evening catching up with a few quick writing tasks.
Looking forward to a similarly quiet weekend!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Sam Cooke – Wonderful World
The Midnight – Gloria
It’s been a busy day – I went to the polling station with Geth first thing to vote in the council and mayoral elections, then to Slimming World (I put on an obscene amount of weight this week but I’m trying not to panic because it’s presumably just post-marathon bloat – this has happened after races before). I’ve spent the rest of the day doing editing for clients.
Tomorrow should be a slightly quieter day. I’m already looking forward to the bank holiday weekend!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Richard Marx – Right Here Waiting
Glenn Frey – The Heat Is On
The Power Station – Some Like It Hot
David Bowie – Fame
Mike & The Mechanics – The Living Years
Heart – Alone
Level 42 – Lessons In Love*
Arcadia – Election Day
Abba – Lay All Your Love On Me
Duran Duran – Meet El Presidente
Genesis – Land Of Confusion
*RIP Boon Gould.
I still have a few more phone boxes from Mum and Dad’s travels to share before I move onto my London Marathon ones. Here’s another one from Dumfriesshire.
(Coordinates 54°84’87.0″N, 4°26’41.5″W.)
This one is an abandoned husk that’s being slowly overgrown by plants. Sad but beautiful!
Lots of appointments and lots of work to do today!
I picked up my new prescription sunglasses at the opticians this morning (finally!), meaning I no longer have to choose between being dazzled or blind when I’m out in the sunshine. I’m currently finding pretty much all daylight far too bright due to the uveitis, so I’m really happy that I’ve been able to collect them now.
In the afternoon, I had a follow-up appointment at the eye clinic. This was a bit of a saga (eye is healing okay, it’s just that they needed to do a lot of checks) and took quite a bit longer than expected. Have to go back in again next week as well, which is slightly stressful.
The evening appointment was more enjoyable – ukulele class has started up again! This term, I’ve moved up to ‘beginners’ from ‘absolute beginners’, and it’s nice to be starting a new class with new tunes. Looking forward to the term ahead.
In between all that, I’ve been doing day job work. Business is booming at the moment so tomorrow will probably be similarly hectic!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Arcadia – Say The Word
David Bowie – Fame
New Order – World In Motion
The Midnight – Gloria
Coolio and LV – Gangsta’s Paradise
Billy Ocean – Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)
Liam Payne – Polaroid
Johnny Cash – Ring Of Fire
Pink – Walk Me Home
Bee Gees – First Of May
Vangelis – Chariots Of Fire
Sam Cooke – Wonderful World
The Beatles – Paperback Writer