It was bright but a bit cold today. It’s starting to get dark around six now, and so I am on the sofa tonight with my blanket and a marathon of Strictly episodes to catch up with. May start lighting a few candles once I get a bit more organised later this week!
I’ve mainly been getting on with admin today – it’s going to be a quiet week (as far as I know!), so I’ll have a really good opportunity to catch up with everything. I’ll also finally be able to do some more work on my text adventure game!
I will get out for a run or a walk (or both if I’m up early enough) tomorrow – much as I’d like to snuggle up in the house for the rest of the season!
Not an OOTD: all the episodes of It Takes Two on the digibox for me to watch!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Slade – Coz I Luv You Duran Duran – White Lines Duran Duran – Come Undone Revo – Ship Upon The Open Skies Traditional – The Big Ship Sails On The Ally-Ally-O Wamdue Project – King Of My Castle The Knack – My Sharona Trevor Something – Miami Nights
My long-awaited lazy day arrived today and I have thoroughly enjoyed it! Geth was out at a Keyforge tournament, so I just spent the day online playing with various running apps and websites that give you achievement badges. Always good for motivation when there are no races coming up in the immediate future!
I feel nice and refreshed now for getting back to work tomorrow.
Not an OOTD: my achievement badges (so far – still need to log a lot of my running history) on Fetch Everyone. I certainly earned that ‘running in France’ badge – I didn’t have any GPS files for the runs I did in the Cévennes in July 2015, so I had to create one manually!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Michael Land – The Scumm Bar (MI1) Traditional – Sospan Bach Trevor Something – Miami Nights Altered Images – Don’t Talk To Me About Love Jackson Browne – Rosie Howard Jones – I’d Like To Get To Know You Well Michael Land – Planet Threepwood Gunship – Dark All Day USA For Africa – We Are The World Madness – One Step Beyond Ed Sheeran and Stormzy – Take Me Back To London Slade – Cum On Feel The Noize
The last couple of weeks have been pretty full-on and I think I need to delete a few files from my brain now, as it no longer appears to be working.
Good things today:
Rain cleared up for parkrun and I was marginally less slow than last week
We won two out of three missions on our Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth campaign
I (or my slow cooker, really) made the best curry for tea
I’d best leave it there. Hoping to be slightly more with it tomorrow.
Not an OOTD: these are not the marbles I have currently lost, but they’re very pretty in my decorative wooden bowl with these tealight holders. I’ve had most of them since early childhood.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Michael Land – Jazzy Voodoo In The Swamp Kygo and Whitney Houston – Higher Love Jim Croce – Bad, Bad Leroy Brown
Another hectic day today. I went for a walk to the supermarket first thing, and then came home to do a full day of editing work for clients. Now catching up with a few admin and writing jobs this evening.
Dragging myself to parkrun in the morning, and then Geth and I have boardgaming guests round to continue our Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth campaign tomorrow afternoon! Hoping to get the bulk of the campaign finished so that we can start a more seasonally spooky game in October.
Sunday will be for sleeping. I hope!
Not today’s OOTD: sleep, glorious sleep, on a gloriously ’80s grey leather sofa in a beautifully coordinated and comfortable blue ensemble.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Michael Land – Phatt Island Gary Numan – Cars Duran Duran – Union Of The Snake Peter Hames – Ordinary Man Elton John – I’m Still Standing Jim Croce – Bad, Bad Leroy Brown Michael Land – The Scumm Bar (MI4) JLS – Everybody In Love
Last night, in retrospect, wasn’t the best night to have scheduled a trip out to see a gig. Well, it might have been when I booked the tickets a few months ago, but by the time it actually rolled around, Geth and I were both fairly exhausted due to the preceding fortnight being absolutely non-stop for both of us.
However, I’d been waiting to see Gary Numan for a long time (I believe I was first planning to see him play at the notoriously cancelled Alt-Fest festival in 2014) and so I was determined to go out, enjoy myself and not fall asleep! It helped that we arrived just in time for doors, as it meant we were able to get a seat close to the bar and enjoy the show from further back.
The support act was Kanga. I quite liked their industrial stylings at first, although the tracks did start to get a bit samey towards the end. Both Geth and I are in a place where we’ve reached industrial music saturation point over the last year or two – this does happen periodically – and so I will keep the artist in mind for when I’m more in the mood for listening to that kind of thing again.
Kanga’s stage lighting was not very photography-friendly so this is as clear a picture as you’re getting, I’m afraid!
Once Gary Numan came on, though, the energy in the room was fantastic. He kicked off with ‘My Name Is Ruin’, which is very familiar to audiences now having been the lead single off last year’s hit album Savage. We then had a selection of tracks from pretty much every era of his career, with the ’70s and ’80s hits not really making an appearance until towards the end – being a fan of those early albums I would have liked to hear a few more, but I loved the variation in the set and appreciated the chance to hear some songs that I’m not so familiar with! The encore was also a nice touch, with some quieter songs in the mix, including a demo track (‘Intruder’) that hasn’t been released anywhere yet.
Very quick update due to getting back late from the Gary Numan gig at the O2 Academy in Newcastle tonight. It was IMMENSE and I will tell you all about it tomorrow!
Shiny ticket!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Michael Land – Big Tree Michael Land – The Drinking Contest Jackson Browne – Rosie Michael Land – The Lua Bar Mesh – What Are You Scared Of? Duran Duran – Serious Wham! – Freedom Gary Numan – Are Friends Electric? Andy Taylor – I Might Lie Jim Croce – Bad, Bad Leroy Brown Levellers – Carry Me Gary Numan – I Die, You Die The Wonder Stuff – Give Give Give Me More More More
We’re still on the same block of Great George Street in Westminster, which has a very smart set of K2 boxes. Just a couple more to go along the marathon route!
Red phone box, Great George Street, London, 28th April 2019.
The manic week continues. I’m looking forward to the weekend so I can get on with making a few improvements to my text adventure game.
After finishing off my poems for tonight’s poetry reading this morning (I really wish this didn’t get left till the last minute every month, but it is what it is), I had editing work to do for a client during the rest of the day. I then headed off to ukulele class (I’ve been able to squeeze in a bit of practice here and there over the last few days, so last week’s challenging songs are already feeling a bit less challenging!), followed by a mad dash to poetry night. I’m not really nervous about reading at poetry night anymore, and it’s become something I really enjoy doing every month.
I read a poem about autumn tonight. I love autumn.
I’ll love it a whole lot more once this ridiculously busy week is over.
Not really an OOTD (or at least an extremely belated one): discovering autumn for the first time, a very long time ago. Those crunchy leaves have never lost their appeal, although I’m probably less likely to try and eat them nowadays.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Michael Land – The Scumm Bar (MI4) Marilyn Monroe – Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend Aaron Carter – Crush On You Duran Duran – Girl Panic! Chris Isaak – Wicked Game Jackson Browne – Rosie Duran Duran – Skin Trade Jim Croce – Bad, Bad Leroy Brown
I’m getting some really nice feedback for my text adventure game! People seem to like the story, which I’m very happy about.
A fairly productive day today as I caught up with all the admin I’ve been neglecting over the last few days. I also sorted out the house as Geth and I had boardgaming guests coming round tonight. We played a few more missions on our Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth campaign – hoping to finish it soon!
It’s going to be a fairly full-on week as I’ve got things on every evening. I say this every month, but I hope October will be quieter…
Not an OOTD: we defeated this guy in the Lord of the Rings game tonight. He’s not nearly as tough as he looks!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Cascada – Evacuate The Dancefloor Michael Land – LeChuck’s Theme Duran Duran – Michael, You’ve Got A Lot To Answer For Hue & Cry – Labour Of Love OneRepublic – Counting Stars Jim Croce – Bad, Bad Leroy Brown The Clash – I Fought The Law
After a busy few days of writing and coding it was good to have a break today. I spent the day playing some of the other entries to the Adventuron CaveJam – it was nice to get back to playing games rather than slogging through the code! A reminder that you can play my entry here if you fancy trying a text adventure. Feedback welcomed!
Back to work tomorrow.
Not an OOTD: a location from my adventure. The graphics were a bit of a last-minute bodge job – will be updating them at some point!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Duran Duran – Violence Of Summer (Love’s Taking Over) Altered Images – Don’t Talk To Me About Love
