Another full-on week

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Well, I thought it would be a quiet week, but it ended up being pretty full-on with work and other things! I organised Geth’s new office on Monday, and we had a lovely visit from Mum and Dad yesterday and this morning as they were testing out their car to check a recent issue. Other than that, it’s been a fairly nonstop work week. I’m hoping there won’t be too much next week as I need to relax and prepare for the marathon! Nine days to go…

Hallowe'en sweets
The Hallowe’en sweets are officially open! Picked this haul up at the train station in Birmingham last week and have finally tucked into it tonight after finishing all the ice cream in the freezer this week. Really hope I can find some Jaffa Cake Spooky Cake Bars this year…

This week’s earworm playlists:

Saturday

Andy Taylor – ‘I Might Lie’
The Power Station – ‘Some Like It Hot’

Sunday

Duran Duran – ‘Planet Earth’
The Beatles – ‘8 Days A Week’

Monday

The Beatles – ‘Drive My Car’
Yasumasa Kitagawa – ‘Great Cross-Examination (Moderato)’
Elton John – ‘Crocodile Rock’

Tuesday

Marika Suzuki, Hiromitsu Maeba and Masato Kouda – ‘By Powerful Bonds – Victory!’

Wednesday

‘Korobeiniki’ (the Tetris theme music – except it’s the YouTube version with lyrics detailing the entire history of the Soviet Union)

Thursday

Marika Suzuki, Hiromitsu Maeba and Masato Kouda – ‘When The Windmill Spins’
Sailor – ‘A Glass Of Champagne’

Friday

Soft Cell – ‘Tainted Love’

Adventures in Coding: Retreating, Reflecting and Rallying

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I feel like I’ve been talking about making my next game all summer, but unfortunately I’ve not been able to get much done on it!

Since ParserComp in June life has been a bit mental. I had a very busy summer with work, I’ve been marathon training for London (twelve days to go – eek!), events have started up again, and with all of that going on I’ve been making sure to prioritise ‘me time’ (i.e. videogaming) in the evenings and on weekends, so I’ve been struggling to find time for game creation. I really wanted to get one of my games finished for IFComp, but it hasn’t happened this year. However, October is looking nice and empty (after London that is!), so I’m hoping to be able to make a fun short scary game for this year’s EctoComp.

I possibly burnt myself out a bit early in the year. I was really proud of what I did with Barry Basic and the Quick Escape, and I had a lot of fun making Waiting for the Day Train, and I got a lot of work done on Marie (which is going to be enormous!) in between those two projects, but all of that was pretty intense and so maybe I needed to do other things for a while. I’m keen to get going again now, but I am going to wait until after the marathon and just brew some ideas in the meantime. I am a massive Hallowe’en fan and had such a good time making Hallowe’en: Night of the Misty Manor for the Adventuron Hallowe’en Jam a couple of years ago, so I’m already excited even though I don’t know what I’m making yet!

(I already have three ideas just from writing this post…)

Pixel vampire
The Fat Vampire may return! You never know…

parkrunday: Town Moor #511

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A nice post-GNR slow plod after a long and busy week!

Sadly, Town Moor parkrun couldn’t do the traditional GNR t-shirt group photo today for COVID security reasons, but there were lots of photos both official and unofficial so I’ll have a hunt online for those later. It was great to see everyone in their smart burgundy t-shirts (it may be my favourite Great North Weekend t-shirt yet – and I’ve got seven of them now!).

I’m still not quite used to the post-hiatus route on the Moor and it does mess with my mind a bit when doing sections that used to constitute different points along the course. For instance, the opening stretch of path from the old course is now past the halfway point on the new course… but when I’m running that bit there’s a part of my mind that still thinks ‘oh no, we’ve only just started!’.

In terms of parkrun I have very definitely settled into a pattern where it takes two ploddy miles for my legs to de-stiffen and so it’s only in the last mile that I can build up a bit of speed. This is not a problem at the moment as my focus is the marathon, but after London I really need to work on my stiff calves so that I can run parkrun properly again.

Post-parkrun
Love that burgundy shade!

I was intending to do Leazes parkrun next week but Geth is worried about it being full of students due to Freshers’ Week so I will have to have a rethink…

A month of two halves

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The first half of September has been almost back to pre-pandemic levels of Being Out And About! Weddings, races, gigs… it’s been a busy time, but so joyful to be able to see people and do normal things again. I even finally got to see Duran Duran this week! They announced a couple of short-notice gigs about a fortnight ago and I jumped at the chance… especially seeing as I already had a ticket for Andy Taylor on the Wednesday and so it was set to be the best coming-out-of-the-pandemic return to gig-going week I could have hoped for!

I’ll review the gigs in depth here eventually but I’ve also written pieces on them for a couple of fansites/publications so I want to wait until those are out first.

Anyway, the second half of September, in contrast, is empty, and I plan to make the most of that. I will only be leaving the house to do parkrun and an occasional long-ish run (my short daily runs are now all being done on the treadmill to reduce my risk of injury in the lead-up to the marathon) until I leave for London, with the one exception being the day I’ll be helping Geth unpack boxes in his new office. I am guarding that time very carefully as I want as much physical and mental rest as possible over the next sixteen days!

I am also getting organised for Hallowe’en so that I’m not rushing around with that in October. Some exciting things coming in the post soon…

Gig t-shirts
T-shirt collection well stocked up this week! Love both of these 🙂

Saturday

The Wombles – ‘The Wombling Song’
Duran Duran – ‘Come Undone’

Sunday

Mika – ‘Grace Kelly’

Monday

Mark Knopfler – ‘Local Hero’
The Running Channel – ‘Run With Me’

Tuesday

Meat Loaf – ‘Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through’
Duran Duran – ‘Invisible’

Wednesday

Duran Duran – ‘Tonight United’
Andy Taylor – ‘Bringing Me Down’
Gloria Gaynor – ‘I Will Survive’
Duran Duran – ‘Friends Of Mine’

Thursday

Duran Duran – ‘What Happens Tomorrow’

Friday

Tom Jones – ‘Delilah’
Duran Duran – ‘Ordinary World’

Phone Box Thursday: A68, Bonjedward

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Here’s another phone box that Mum and Dad found in southern Scotland!

Blue phone box
Blue phone box, A68, Bonjedward, 5th September 2021.

(Coordinates 55°50’37.4″N, 2°54’56.6″W.)

If you move up and down the road on the Street View image linked above, you can see the phone box change back and forth from blue to red as the pictures update! I love a repainted phone box, and blue seems to be a very popular colour for them.

Interestingly this one has got a working phone inside, which is unusual for a repainted example!

Another Scottish box next week.