winterlover | Reading

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30

(no subject)

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025 10:02 pm

Today has been largely eh. Last night my eyes started to feel achy but I wrote it of a bit as tiredness. This morning it was back but worse, to the point I couldn’t even do my uni reading (accompanied by my tummy feeling funny). Thus I stayed in bed all morning and part of the afternoon, which was annoying.

But now my eyes seem to be ok so… spooky season catch up.

***

17: The Amory Wars: Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness Volume 1 (chapters 1-3)

As mentioned I got The Amory awards from the Coheed gig. Having read it all now (finishing it yesterday) I have a few thoughts. As mentioned when I started reading I am a bit lost. I figured it being a volume 1 meant it would be a good place to start but instead it was dealing with stuff from the prior stuff so I was a bit lost. And then just as I got into it it finished. I’ll have to see if I can find the rest.

18: Pokémon ZA, seapeekay phasmo stream, nine bodies in a Mexican morgue, eso

Pokémon ZA is here, and other days too, largely because of alpha Pokémon. These are giant Pokémon in wild zones, at much higher levels than others, with glowing eyes. They’re highly aggressive and, thus, so scary and evil. Like if you see one you should just turn around and run cause it WILL target you instead of your Pokémon.

The phasmo stream I half watched but still was spooky. Seapeekay felt like the opposite of a final girl, cause he just touched a glowing orb and wanted to ‘make friends’ with the ghosts/demons.

I still have no idea who the killer is in Nine bodies. Sometimes with these things I’ll have a theory, but right now I’m not sure at all. I do suspect that it’s got nothing to do with the drugs on the plane.

19: Wednesday - Hyde and woe seek, Dungeons and dodongos, Pokémon ZA, dead by daylight, the grotto - buried alive

Wednesday is the first ep of tbe second half of season 2. The highlight of the ep is, no doubt, Wednesday’s unexpected new spirit guide. Yes it’s incredibly tenuous that it’s them but their interactions have been so fun. I’m sure I had other thoughts but my brain has none right now.

The first ep of The Grotto got added to the Magnus Archives feed so I listened out of interest. I am curious about it after the first ep. I a. Curious if the place it’s set having so many tunnels is gonna be a plot point

20: Pokémon ZA, Strange New Worlds - Strange New Worlds, Terror Of The Zygons, Ghost Files - The Basement That Shook Shane: Investigating Bracken Manor

Mondays stuff was covered in the birthday post, but Ghost Files I watched perhaps a bit too late cause I kept pausing cause of my focus being distracted.

21: The Amory Wars, Exquisite Corpses 2 +3+4+5, Eso

Yesterday, since mum was at the library for an afternoon so I decided to read some of my comics. I ended up reading Exquisite Corpses. Issues 2 and 3 I had picked up from a Birmingham trip months ago, but didn’t read them, and 4+5 came last week.

I am kinda glad I was able to, unintentionally, binge them this way. The concept of it is that a town has been cut off (on Halloween appropriately) and powerful families from certain states each send in a killer. The goal is to have the last killer standing (and so gain power over the others for 4 years). The people of the unfortunate town are, unfortunately, expendable.

The first issue showed one killer getting recruited so it seemed like he would be the ‘main killer’ that we follow, however he hasn’t appeared in these other issues. Instead each one has put a spotlight on one (or two), usually with one of them dying. So far it has been pretty good so far as well as pretty horrific in places. (Especially the killers in 2+3)

Hopefully I can find time to read the other comics that came, Event Horizon and The Umbrella Academy.

My hope tomorrow is I feel well enough to see Black Phone 2 but that’s also dependant on the weather and I sense that’ll be bad. I guess we’ll see.

I had intended to watch a few things on my list this week, but if my eyes are this achy I might not be able to. (I was thinking of Event Horizon and Lifeforce.)

Now though I’m just gonna snuggle Midna before heading up.

Current Mood: thoughtful

Tags:

spooky season 2025

(no subject)

turps

Tuesday, October 21st, 2025 02:27 pm

Yesterday was the reverse on Friday in that my tumble drier was brought back, fully fixed, and Murphy came home, too :D

It was class first thing, and luckily, the vet phoned just at the end of that. But I quickly found out Murphy's scan was over, he was waking up and was fine. But most importantly, we could pick him up late afternoon.

( cut for details )

James is also picking up some wooden crafty stuff on the way home. I can't remember if I said, but Lucy set up Palmers in Pyjamas TikTok which started with her Kayleigh and Bodhi reviewing different food, usually the viral TikTok kind. She's been quite successful and suggested James create his own TikTok to promote his pyrography, so he did, and the video he posted last week really took off. So much so he's got a few people ordering on it, which is kind of amazing.

(no subject)

shadowhive

Tuesday, October 21st, 2025 10:18 am

So yesterday was my birthday, I had intended to make a post about it last night but alas, my eyes went too achy. (And the spooky season catch up will be in another post)

I didn’t actually get much for the day, the main thing from mum (and her friend) was Pokémon ZA, which since it was a code I had been on since release (on and off cause of gig/opticians/tiredness). However! It did come with the bonus stuff from Nintendo which came a few days ago so I had that to open.

Inside the was a cap with a mega stone symbol on it, a mug with the starters on (with a lumiose symbol inside), an umbrella (I think with the starters on I can’t remember what the pic on the site had), a set of pins of the starters, a figurine of the starters and two figurines of the mega charizard. It is quite a lot for a bonus! I haven’t taken the figurines out of their packs but the pins look so nice as does the mug. (Some pics are here

(And mum’s friend also sent chocolate)

I did spend some more time on Pokémon ZA and I am enjoying it so far. I now have a wartortle (it did feel wrong not choosing Bulbasaur from the kanto starters but I really needed a good water type so) and battled my first rogue mega evolution which felt straightforward enough. The second one however was much harder.

I do feel that the game has done an odd choice though. The game has something called the ZA a royale and you have to climb the ranks from Z to A by fighting trainers in the battle zones at night. The thing I find odd is the game just leapt me forward from rank V to rank F which, I dunno, it felt kinda like cheating to skip that much? But other than that it’s pretty fun. I need to go clothes showing properly now I have more in game cash (though I do like my current fit that I stumbled on) and I’m debating switching one of my team for something else though I’m not sure what yet.

I also had lots of Midna cuddles, at one point Naryu was curled on my lap so Midna climbed on my chest and rubbed her lil face against me which was so sweet.

Also cause of my birthday I got a bunch of birthday codes from various plays and some are so annoying. Some last a good few weeks, whereas others are only for a week and so are practically useless.

In the afternoon (after finding the remote that went awol) I put on the first ep of Strange New Worlds on the itv player. It felt like a bit of an odd one to open with as it was half dealing with the aftermath of discovery season 2 (which I vaguely recall) while he actual ep itself was a traditional ‘first contact goes wrong’ kinda story. I am interested in finding out more about the new characters, cause I’ve only seen them from Star Trek timelines (a mobile game with characters from all the shows) and the transporter chief is so cute. Hopefully the next few eps will flesh the new characters out a bit more. But overall it was a good ep but didn’t feel like a great first ep to start with (and damn the eugenics wars info at the end is so depressing).

I had to pause it at some point cause we had a delivery which was a mix of pet food and, thankfully in a separate box, Doctor Who season 13. Also during it we had some of the red velvet cake which was nom but damn, mum didn’t even put candles or anything before just slicing pieces.

In the night we had dominos cause a birthday email came through (not mine, theirs) and it was good, but not as nice as I remember it being last time.

Then I watched Terror Of The Zygons, the first episode on the Who ray boxset.

The episode has the Doctor bought back to Earth to investigate the destruction of oil rigs off the coast of Scotland, which turn out to be caused by a monster…

Zygons is a bit of an odd one in some ways. From the booklet (and the making off) the story was meant to round off the previous season and be 6 parts. Instead this the first of season 13 story and it’s a 4 parter. I do wonder what got trimmed to make to 4 instead of 6. (As I’ve mentioned before sometimes 6 parters are too long, but sometimes not.)

The Zygons themselves are a really great design and it’s clear why they stuck in peoples memories despite only appearing in this ep of old who. Their organic technology of their ships are really unique (if a bit funny to watch sometimes) though it does mean the ships exterior (which is a good looking model!) feels like it doesn’t fit. Their whispery voices do make it hard to hear them sometimes which is a shame though. Their Skarasen is a great concept but it does kinda feel like the execution wasn’t as good as they hoped for which is a shame. (I do wonder if those 2 other eps would have featured it more and so they were glad it didn’t!) I wonder if the creature is still there, lurking in the loch.

It is a bit sad this is the last Unit ep. Like it’s a good ep for them but doesn’t feel like the last time we’ll see them (bar the odd appearance). The Brigadier is always great of course. It’s a shame it’s Harry’s last main ep too cause he was really good in this (and his actor was so scary when a zygon impersonated him). Also Sarah Jane was brilliant as always, it was nice seeing her able to put her investigation skills to work (though what was she thinking going down a secret tunnel!).

The last ep did feel like a bit of a sudden shift, changing from Scotland to London. Like it did make sense the Zygons would attack there but it did feel like a bit of a leap. And the attacks on the oil rigs being just a ‘test’ felt odd too. (Though I did love the doctor’s comment on us relying on oil which still resonates now sadly).

But ye as you can tell birthday was pretty much a nerdy day which was good.

Today I’m hoping to do comic reading as well as Fortnite and Pokémon, then bake off.

The rest of the week is gonna be fairly lazy, with mornings doing uni stuff, afternoons on Pokémon and nights being watching stuff. (Apart from Saturday which has Naryu’s follow up appointment.) I am still hoping to see Black Phone 2, either tomorrow or Thursday, though it might just be it (instead of it/Paranorman Thursday) cause of eyes being achy.

Next week should be Shelby Oaks! The cinema finally added it to coming soon but there’s only one showing Friday thus far. However they also added two preview showings so I’m considering seeing it and Frankenstein the same day. I’m hoping my glasses are sorted that day.

Current Mood: nerdy
Current Music: Coheed And Cambria - The Continum IV: So It Goes

Tags:

Grooving with my library! (Book post)

glitteryv

Monday, October 20th, 2025 12:20 pm

Re-reads. HUH.

None for now.

I DNF'd

*The Falconer by Elizabeth May (New Adult Romantasy) - In 1874 Scotland, Aileana tries her best to go along with her image as a member of the aristocracy. However, she's also the last Falconer, a specific type of fae hunter. She teams up with Kiaran McKay, a fae who kills his own kind. Together, they're meant to stop a horrible tragedy from happening . . .

I first heard abt this novel a good decade ago, back when I was reading a lot of YA. For some reason, I never got around reading it, tho. The only other thing I knew was that it was the first in a trilogy.

Years later, I heard that the author had revised all three books in order to bring the series closer to her original vision for the story. Now, characters were adults, there would be more on-page violence as well as some spicy scenes. Sounded like a good time to me!

OTOH, there's technically nothing bad abt the book itself. It's v. likely a novel that some folks will enjoy.

Unfortch for me, I found this author's writing to continue in a v. flowery/almost overwritten style which distracted the heck out of me. Frex (an excerpt from Chapter 3) emphasis mine:

The weak morning light filters through the misted windows, framing my mother's rigid silhouette in soft gold.

I take a sip of tepid tea, studying her. The proud tilt of her chin, the steely glint in her dark eyes--all signs of mourning transmuted into cold purpose.

This author sure LURVES adjectives. #Sheeesh!

Then there's Aileana, the protagonist, who is 21 years old* yet comes off as someone in her mid-teens through her behavior, thoughts, and opinions. She also has a "Not Like Other Girls (TM)" aura that got v. tiresome v. fast. Her immaturity brings what should've been a New Adult novel down to mid-YA levels.

* The fact that she's 21 is brought up a few too many times in that first 12%. By the fourth or fifth time she mentions being 21, I bit back an "I KNOW! YOU'VE MENTIONED THIS BEFORE!", NGL.

Finally, aside from the fae being actual!monsters (something akin to magical vampires?), there really wasn't anything in the story to bring it out of "generic YA fantasy mode". IJS. I DNF'd this book somewhere before 15% and gave it a 2 out of 5.

Had an awesome time at first (but it all went downhill from there).

* Sweep of the Blade by Ilona Andrews - After a whole lotta ups and downs, Maud accepts Lord Arnald's invitation to his home planet. She's not sure if she's going to accept his wedding proposal AND she's also thinking abt her half-human, half-vampire daughter Helen. So the two of them head on to the seat of power of House Krahr. Between an upcoming wedding between two smaller houses, alien friends, mysterious aliens, and several attempts to her life, Maud's got her hands full . . .

This is Book 4 in the Innkeeper Chronices and, something of a spin-off since it follows Maud instead of Dina. It's also an IA book so worldbuilding? Spectacular. Plot? Engaging. Pacing? Solid.

HOWEVAH, there were three things I had some SRS BIZNESS issues with.

1. The way Maud/Arland's romance was portrayed.

No one would question Maud and Arland being a Power Couple. EVERYONE knows they're in love with each other. Still, Maud has some internal stuff to work thru before her relationship with Arland can solidify for good. And that's fair.

My problem is that, even though both are staying at the same location (heck, their rooms are next to each other!), they spend large chunks of the book APART. I was tapping my watch by the halfway point because the bulk of their interactions would be having The World's Shortest Conversations Ever (TM). It's not that I was expecting a boinkfest, but I wanted MORE romance taking center stage instead of being almost an afterthought. Eventually, there were smooches and even an intimate scene (that was closed door, btw). But these happened wayyyyy later in the book.

2. Maud was too perfect.

I liked her. I truly did. Some parts of her character journey--such as processing her trauma while struggling to leave her survivor!mode mindset behind--were fascinating.

OTOH, she also had deep knowledge of aliens, their cultures, and languages. To the point she could speak Common AND Ancient Vampiric dialects! In addition to that, she was a superb fighter. Totes able to go against anyone without the help of technology. Finally, she was a brilliant tactician.

One could argue that the first two things could be explained via her upbringing. As the daughter of innkeepers, she'd met and interacted with all kinds of aliens since childhood. Readers also learned that her father had hired fighting tutors for Maud to hone her skills.

Two vague and non-spoilery examples of what I mean.

Scene A - After being treated with contempt by all but 3 vampires (Arland, his uncle, and his female cousin), Maud attends a fancy dinner. Her seat is with the 9 tachi, an insect-like alien race, who are visiting the vampire planet. The tachi are sitting v. stiffly and ignoring the Universe's Worst Salads (TM)that were presented to them.

As soon as she sees all of that, she takes fruit and prepares a plate for the royal member of the tachi present. She also speaks to them in their language. The waiters freak out and then, after some minutes, bring out plates similar to the one Maud came up with.

I 🙄 at the fact that vampires didn't know that there was a MEMBER OF THE ROYAL TACHI FAMILY in the group OR that the tachi are particular abt plating in that food must make geometric designs. BUT MAUD KNEW!

Scene B - A creature is attacking the vampire children. WHO KILLS THE CREATURE? Maud does (with some assist from Arland). This happens despite there being over 20 vampire knights present--who all decide to RUN AWAY? I... SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH.

The cherry on top was something that occurred in the last third of the book.

HUGE SPOILER

During said battle against the creature, Maud is able to temporarily stop time--which is something that only the ad-hal can do. She's never done that before and, apparently, can't do again? But, yeah, it was thanks to this ability that she was able to slay the creature and save her daughter.

And THAT was the point got Maud to cross the line into Mary Sue territory. 🤷🏽‍♀️

This last point was exacerbated by the last of my complaints. She literally had OTT skills that weren't matched (or surpassed) by the villains. Which was different from all of the other female protags in IA books. Yes, even the Kate Daniels novels.

3. The villains were painfully MID! 😞

A good villain will elevate a book no matter how mediocre the story might be. Unfortch, the villains in this novel were childish and stupid. There wasn't a single moment I worried abt any of the characters. The stakes weren't high at all.

In any case, this was v. rare miss from IA. Not nearly enough romance, Maud was too perfect, and weak villains. I did enjoyed some of the scenes featuring political intrigue, the way Maud navigated a situation that was tenuous, and the v. few moments between her and Arland. This book should've been a novella. It ends on a soft-yet-intriguing cliffhanger. I gave it a 2.3 out of 5.

It sucks to give it such a low rating (especially cuz I was entertained, but this is deffo a really meh book from IA. *Hands*

ETA: I'd forgotten to mention that part of my :| abt this book popped up after I finished a review that mentioned something that readjusted my perspective on this book. It was the fact that the vampires in this series are actually Space Colonizers--down to being extremely xenophobic toward other aliens. This in turn means that I was actively hoping for Maud to be with one of the few, actually "good", i.e. non-racist, vampires. And I basically 😔 after that. FTR, that didn't affect my overall ranking, but I am SMH ar myself for not picking that theme up faster.

It was . . . fine?

None.

Good vibes all around.

* Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews - The second novel in the Innkeeper Chronicles finds Dina hosting a summit between three different alien species. (I promise you the actual!story is way more interesting than this premise makes it sound like.)

This novel is the perfect example of what it means to have an excellent reading experience.

There were moments I laughed, others when I actual!cried. It's a book with thrilling scenes as well as heartbreaking ones. This is IA running on all cylinders cuz wow, what a book!

Did I have any issues? Sure, I had two (though they were so small they couldn't bring the rating down).

1. The solution to one of the big conflicts was a bit woo-woo for my taste. OTOH, it made sense given everything that was going on. So, even though I 🙄 a little, I got why things had to be solved the way they did.

2. This book put romance on the backseat and made it stay there for most of the plot. IIRC, not much happens in that department until near the end of the book. Before that, it's a lot of daydreaming and pining. Despite my pouting abt the lack of lovey-dovey scenes, I can't think of where IA could've inserted some romance because of all of the extremely SRS BIZNESS plot.

I also feel quite smug abt realizing something abt a character and then seeing my hunch getting confirmed, heheh. But I will 🤐.

Anyhoodle,this book was magnificent, wonderful, melancholy, thought-provoking, tender, funny, brilliant, fabulous, hilarious, cheeky, etc. Let me stop praising this book cuz I don't have all day, LOL. It's earned a SOLID 5 OUT OF 5 (If you know me, you know I don't give 5 stars to every other book I read, IJS.)

One thing I do feel the need to point out is that the lulzy vibes from the first half do segue into something a lot more serious. It was a great book that had a perfect balance of emotions.

* One Fell Sweep by Ilona Andrews - The third novel in the Innkeeper Chronicles finds Dina juggling a lot of things: rescuing her older sister Maud from a planet far away and offering sanctuary to an alien species that's on the verge of becoming extinct. As an Innkeeper, Dina likes to fulfill her guests' requests. This time, though, she might need some help . . .

LISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSEN, there was a point during which I thought my final rating for this novel was gonna be lower.

FTR, I was having a fantastic time following Dina through all of the ups and downs. I also appreciated that there were a few more human and/or humanoid characters whose skin tone was deeper. (I'm still 🤞🏾 for some queer folks to pop up in the series, but I digress.)

However, in the middle of my elation abt everything happening, I was worried abt the large amount of plot IA kept adding to the novel. Aside from the main storyline (which is mentioned in the premise), I counted 5 more asmaller rcs. On top of that, most of them were disparate AF. Or, at the v. least, appeared to be.

I know, I know. After reading over 20 of their books, I should've trusted that IA would stick the landing in the most graceful of ways. Which they did.

Plus there was a part where not one but TWO major reveals happened almost back-to-back. One made me sit up and clap with glee (metaphorically speaking) while the other reveal touched my heart to the point that I did cried.

Then the story comes to a close with the softest of cliffhangers while also being v. satisfying all the same.

Loved how IA went IN in terms of worldbuilding. There's a lot more exploring of the universe this time around AND more opportunities to meet a lot of interesting and weird aliens as well.

ANOTHER THING I LOVED ABT THIS BOOK was that IA anticipated their readers' questions and made sure potential plot holes were taken care of.

My one (1) issue with the novel had to do with the one (1) intimate scene in the book. Like most of IA's other novels, the intimate scene in this book was full of bad cringe. OTOH, though, I liked seeing Dina and Sean talking things out and solidifying their relationship. So my complaint is actually v. small.

This book is a lotta plot, but also tons of fun and thrills. There was romance (and a rather cringe-y sex scene) and some laughs as well as softer moments to keep things from tipping one way or another. Therefore, I cannot give it anything less than 5 OUT OF 5 STARS.

Current fic tally

Have picked up 197 and DNF'd 91. Not bad!

Some thoughts

My 😕 abt Sweep of the Blade aside, Ilona Andrews' Innkeeper Chronicles has carried my reading momentum. So yays to that!

FWIW, I didn't have super high expectations for The Falconer? Elizabeth May's books have been mostly misses for me (this the third book of hers I pick up and the second I DNF.) I do know she's got another book dropping in January that I might pick up? And I'm curious abt her historical romances. IDK

All in all, I where I am in terms of this year's reading.

Up next

Last time: [...] "a historical paranormal that's not cozy. I've renewed it for a second time.

Aside from that, I'm halfway thru the second book in the Innkeeper series and I'm trying to see which horror novels I'm gonna dive in. It's October after all. 😛"

I returned that historical paranormal (cuz I legit didn't want to renew it again.) Will try to read it later.

Right now, I've got the last two published books for the Innkeeper Chronicles, an M/M/F fantasy romance, and I'm reading the first book in a female detective series. Dunno why, but my yays for reading horror have sort of gone to ground? I might end up reading something scary next month, IDK. 😅

Tags:

books-a-go-go

AWS outage

alierak

dw_maintenance

Monday, October 20th, 2025 10:11 am

DW is seeing some issues due to today's Amazon outage. For right now it looks like the site is loading, but it may be slow. Some of our processes like notifications and journal search don't appear to be running and can't be started due to rate limiting or capacity issues. DW could go down later if Amazon isn't able to improve things soon, but our services should return to normal when Amazon has cleared up the outage.

Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.

Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.

Intelligent eyes in a hunger-pang frame

pensnest

Sunday, October 19th, 2025 12:49 pm

A full day yesterday! I started off by meeting my lovely knitting group in Biddy's for the morning, and having the usual agreeable natter.

Then it was off to Jorge's Portuguese restaurant for lunch with the family—Bun and MrBunToBe (a nickname that will be more convenient to type in a year or so), Boy, BIL and of course, Beast. Three of us has tapas, the others had a main meal. Two of them had Iberican (?) Pork, fed on acorns and in consequence a darker, stronger-flavoured meat than the customary pork. It seemed to be a good choice.

Then Beast, Bun and her chap and I went off to see Hamilton at the Theatre Royal.

It is a very interesting show, and the chorus had So! Much! Energy! They seemed to be doing challenging moves throughout so much of the show, very impressive. (And they'd be doing them again in the evening!) There was a big black guy among them, definitely a couple of sizes larger than most chorus boys: he had real presence, I couldn't help but watch him when he was on stage. Being just as flexible and lively as everybody else, of course. Beast and I spent some time debating the costumes of the female chorus members. Those skin-tight, nearly flesh-coloured leggings are, well, distracting; some of the moves might not have read as quite so focus-pullingly sexual if the women had been wearing breeches like the men were. And waistcoats instead of corsets. I couldn't decide whether at some points the chorus women were representing prostitutes, or if it was just a slightly off costume choice. Overall, I'd have preferred to see everybody dressed in the same kit. But perhaps I missed something about them? Anyone?

The sound was, I'm happy to say, mostly satisfactory during this show, apart from slight fuzziness early on. Not that there is nearly as much orchestration to overburden the voices as there would be in a more conventional musical, but it was welcome.

I suspect that when we watched the Disney recording of the OBC, there may have been subtitles. It's quite difficult to grasp all the words when they are not just Rap, but delivered at machine-gun speed. It wasn't hard to understand what was going on, of course, but there are subtleties and clevernesses that you miss if, like me, you don't listen to rap in the normal course of things. I just don't have the ear for it. Some of the 'motif' phrases were repeated often enough for me to figure them out, but I know I missed stuff.

King George was a lot more physical than the OBC George. He was, in fact, hilarious! You could really feel his butthurtness (this is not a word but it ought to be) and his glee.

Overall a very exciting show. Good to have seen it live. I may watch the version on Disney again to see if I can catch more of the words, because I have a feeling they are clever and I would enjoy them.

(no subject)

shadowhive

Sunday, October 19th, 2025 11:13 am

So yesterday ended up being pretty tiring. I went to the opticians in the morning and yep, seems my eyes have gotten worse, especially the right one which has got noticeably worse. So no wonder I’m having trouble reading stuff on the tv and have headaches. The optician thinks there’s nothing wrong with that, cause he couldn’t see anything but did refer me to the eye department ‘just in case’ (he did make sure to stress about three times he was sure they’d find nothing). It’s gonna be a week/week and a half till I get the new glasses alas boo.

When home we caught up on things, Sister Boniface, Harry Wild and then watched Murder She Wrote. Then I went on Pokémon some more. Aloha Pokémon are no joke they can be so terrifying what’s up with that?? I haven’t got too much further but I’ve switched my flaffy out cause the game gives you a shiny mareep which is so cute. (It’s fur instead of yellow was pink so it looked like candy floss!)

But then I just went so tired I ended up dozing. It made me glad I didn’t see Black Phone 2 yesterday I fear I’d have slept in the cinema.

I had planned to go to the horror/gothic market in town today (even getting extra money out when I went to the opticians) but between waking up late and rain I’ve not gone. The rain hasn’t been too heavy, but it’s about half an hour each way to walk and SoI fear getting caught in it if it gets heavier. The site for it did have pics from prior ones and it wasn’t exactly as I expected it to be, but it has had pretty rocks and dice before (but knowing my luck if I went it would have neither).

So instead I’m just gonna stay home today instead, then watch High Potential and Wednesday before dnd and then twitch con and the fangoria awards stream later (unless I get eepy sleepy).

But now tomorrow is the next month of the pass so here’s the round of this last month.

Month 3: September 20th- October 20th
20th: The Bad Guys 2 + Thunderbirds Double Bill (Trapped In The Sky + Terror In New York City)
2nd: Curse Of Frankenstein
6th: Him + Mystery film - Good Boy
8th: The Long Walk
15th: Night Of The Zoopocalypse, Tron Ares

So it’s the third month of the pass and I knew October would be the busiest time for it. It’s just over halfway through the month and I’ve seen 6 things already. (Which, and I checked, is more films than I seen inthe cinema during the whole of 2024 which is crazy)

I think my ranking of the films would be this:
The Long Walk
Good Boy
Night Of The Zoopocalypse
Curse Of Frankenstein
The Bad Guys 2
Tron Ares
Him

Thunderbirds isn’t placed there cause it’s very much its own thing (and technically it’s not a film but 2 eps of a show instead) but if it was it’s pretty high. A lot of the ones this month feel at similar level and I have to admit I did enjoy them (I dunno if that’s the right term for Him though). Thoughts on each of them are in. The film thoughts/cinema adventures tag (I might come back and add them individually later)

There are three more trips planned before the month is over. Black Phone 2 is sometime in the coming week, I had planned Tuesday but it’s looking to be changed (mum did ask why not tomorrow but I just want a lazy birthday instead of doing a morning showing, plus we have deliveries due). If it’s Friday I might watch Paranorman as well. Then the following week has Frankenstein on Wednesday, yipee! I might pop in the art gallery and ask about the art stuff that day too.

Then there’s Shelby Oaks, which is due to be out Halloween. Trouble is it’s not listed on the coming soon section of the site so I’m not sure if it will be. There is a mystery showing on that Tuesday which might be it, but it could also be Bugonia (though it’s also a shopping day which would make it tiring). So that’s very much a wait and see.

But now it’s time to snuggle, decide which of the kanto starters to choose from on ZA (I got an unexpected side mission which lead to it right before I went to bed but I couldn’t decide) and watch the stuff as planned.

Edit: And just after I hit post the rain came and hard so yeah I made the right choice to stay home.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: 5 Seconds Of Summer - Bloodhound

Tags:

(no subject)

turps

Saturday, October 18th, 2025 04:46 pm

It was quite a day yesterday.

It started well, I went with James to get our flu jabs, and got those done fast, in and out of the pharmacy before our official appointment times.

Then off to the doctor, who after a few attempts managed to draw enough blood from James to send off for the routine tests he needs. Though, I do wish people would listen when James tells them it's easier to draw from the back of his hand. I get it probably feels wrong for the medical people to start there, but his veins are so buried in the crook of his arms that it's almost impossible to find them.

Left there and came home as the tumble drier repair man was due. That actually went better than I expected, turns out the baring had gone causing the belt to snap. But the guy said it was such a good machine it was worth repairing, though due to the space needed for the repair, he'd have to take it to his workshop to do so. But, it should be fixed and back by Monday afternoon, and for cheaper than I was expecting, which is good.

After he left we did some organising for the craft fair we've done today. Got everything sorted, and then got ready to take Murphy to a vet appointment as it looked like his UTI was back again. But, turns out it was much more serious and he had a bladder blockage.

As I couldn't get him an appointment until 5:30, that meant the vet who could do the op to unblock had gone so we were sent off to the out of hours emergency vet hospital. This is where he ended up a month ago, so I knew they were nice there, but man, I really didn't expect to be heading there again.

( cut for vet stuff )

Drove home and because it was so late ended up at the fishshop for a cheese patty, chips and curry sauce tea. Ate that then ended up just waiting for the vet to phone with news, which she did close to ten.

Then to top it all I had the most horrendous night sweats that woke me up. ( cut for detail )

So that was yesterday, and I did not want to get up at 6am to get ready for the craft fair today. But I did, and the fair itself went okay.

Now we're home, and I intend to have a lobster bath, wait for the nurse to phone about Murphy, or phone them myself if I can't wait, then watch Strictly. Though tbh, I'd say the odds on me staying awake for the whole thing are pretty low right now.

We all sing together

shadowhive

Saturday, October 18th, 2025 01:16 am

So I’ve been back from tonight’s gig for just under an hour so I’m gonna do a quick post about it before flopping (and either heading up or watching something).

Train travel was fine, though I’m always a bit lost when I have nothing to do. With just my phone I don’t like using it, especially since it has the ticket on so I was just flop. Though admittedly Wednesday left me rattled about travelling (thankfully all the people I encounter today have been nice and there’s been no issues so faith in humanity restored). Annoying there was a delay pulling into the station so we were 15-20 minutes late. Which ugh, it had a knock on effect to things I’ll get to. Also since the ticket machine was (again) shuttered and no one was on the train I had to get one at the Birmingham station which was a further delay.

First stop was the station’s Krispy Kreme cause I had a free birthday donut so figured I could use it. When I mentioned I hadn’t had one since before my surgery the lady said ‘oh I’ll give you two!’ So I got an extra one which was nice. A+ nice Krispy Kreme lady. (Plus she was patient with the phone doing its usual slowness!)

I looked in the Lego store to see the new stuff and the gingerbread AT-AT does look nice and the game boy looks just like an actual one.

Alas due to the delays when I got to Primark the cafe was already closed up (and by not long either cause they were people finishing food) so if the train hadn’t been delayed I’d have got something. Bam. Next to it was an area with Stranger Things merch and there was a lot of new stuff. The Primark site has a lot of Hawkins Tigers stuff so I had assumed that was what they’d have most of but damn was it dwarfed by the Hellfire club merch. There was loads of it, from key rings to bags, to an awesome jacket with the logo on the bag (I have a mighty need). None of this stuff is on the Primark site but I took pics I’ll upload. All I got was a keyring cause of the gig which looks pretty cool.

Also hmv has a huge section too when I looked in to pass the time. They even have the DND set with Eddie on it which looks cool but damn it is weighty! I have no idea why, nothing on the box sounds that heavy but somehow it is.

After wandering around to kill time (and nomming donuts) I went to the venue. Turns out, much like when I went to see Apocalyptica forever ago, there was another gig tonight too so there lines for the different gigs and people got confused.

Inside I took a few pics of the merch to post on Reddit, since someone there was nice enough to post merch from the Eu gigs and this was the first uk date. I’d decided from those pics I wasn’t gonna get anything, one of the tour tees did look nice but not £40 nice. There was some new stuff for our dates though and there was a really nice hoodie but damn it was £65 (and since I’d seen that jacket I was like… nope). They did have some of the graphic novels Claudio (the singer) does though so I did pick one up, since they’re impossible to find when I’ve looked.

I got a decent spot, closer to the stage than usual and waited for the first support. (The wait time did make me think that I might have been able to see one of the black phone 2 showings but ah well) the first support act were pretty good! They were from Belfast and played instrumental stuff which was surprising, but they were really great! They’re called And So I Watch You From Afar and I’m definitely gonna check them out.

I did leave my spot to check if they had a cd but alas all they had were vinyls and I’m baffled that vinyls are sold at gigs, especially with the lecture of ‘you can’t bring in bags bigger than a4’. So why sell vinyls which are bigger than that? Bah.

I did lose my good spot for nothing but did get a slightly more central one which was good and probably better,

Anyway Coheed came on after that and I thought they were amazing and put on a great show. The energy of the crowd did feel a bit different from usual (don’t ask me to explain it though) but it was still good. I love Claudio and he played his heart out. (And yeah I love his curls which flung around like crazy sometimes.) and his smile is so cute. Plus he has such skills I dunno how he can play guitar vertically and stuff (or a double necked one)

I’m so glad they played two of my three fav songs from the new album, cause The Flood and Tethered Together are such epic songs (hopefully they’ll play play the poet another time) and it did make me love Searching For Tomorrow more too.

(I wasn’t a fan of the flashing stage lights though, mostly it was fine but there was one right in my eyeline that was so bright I had to close my eyes)

I am so glad I went, especially after missing out on seeing them before. Sure the ticket was more than 8d have liked but it was a good time. Maybe I’ll finally get round to putting on the dvd of theirs I ebayed awhile ago.

When I got to the station I went and grabbed a drink (cause I needed one after singing), but was annoyed the Tesco was closed 15 minutes before it was supposed to be so I had to get something else instead. But damn the train coming back was so full. I dunno why it’s usually quiet this late but nope, I had to go through three carriages to get a seat and that was a flip down one.

I did read some of the graphic novel I picked up but I have to admit. I was a bit lost. I feel I picked the wrong one (and it lacked the usual thing that other graphic novels have at the start with a brief recap of things). Still it’s pretty good despite that. (Though the villian being called Ryan means I can’t take them seriously)

When I got home I found out Set It Off have a thing with Kerrang, with a cool looking vinyl, zine and signed postcard. (It’s not sold out insanely quick like the signed Micheal/Awsten one). I might pick it up if it stays awhile, even though I didn’t like the new song on first listen. (But I mean look at it, it’s purple!) but damnit why are bands doing all the things now (5sos also did a Dork magazine cover and Luke looks so slutty)

Anyway now I’m gonna rest and it’s the eye test. I’m gonna take a bit of cash out in cause I go to the horror market (i can always put it back when I see Black Phone 2 if nothing’s there or I don’t go due to weather/energy).

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Coheed And Cambria - Play The Poet

Tags:

gig post

Pokeball go!

shadowhive

Friday, October 17th, 2025 08:50 am

Spooky season catch up

Day 14: ESO

Tuesday was just an ESO quest cause I ended up going incredibly tired, I blame having to sort the food shop alone.

Day 15: Night Of The Zoopocalypse, Tron Ares, ESO, Ranboo stream - last report

Thoughts on the films here. After that there was another ESO a quest and Ranboo playing a spooky stream but my focus was off.

Day 16: Welcome To Night Vale - The Big Game, Pokémon ZA, Pokémon stream - thrills and chills, The Simpsons - Treehouse Of Horror IV, Treehouse Of Horror V

TThe morning was a Night Vale ep though this was one of the least spooky ones. Then there was Pokémon (more thoughts later) which is vaguely spooky adjacent (there’s a graveyard) and the Pokémon stream in the night.

This one did live up to the theme name, with a few haunted house type eps. It’s always funny how there’s always someone that doesn’t believe in the paranormal despite ghost Pokémon being a literal thing. (Also there was the Espurr ep which is so feels inducing.) The oddest choice was the first ep which was the first Sabrina ep from the first series. Trouble is they just played that and not the two follow up eps (which formed a trilogy) which felt especially odd as the second is the first ep with ghost Pokémon so would fit the theming perfectly.

Then there was the next two treehouse of horror eps which I watched before bed, both of which were pretty good. It does turn out though that Disney+ has it so you can watch them one after another, I dunno if that’s new but it was so helpful, though you still have to find the first one you wanna start from. (Also the Halloween collection wasn’t in the top banner thing what gives?)

But with that I’ve hit the halfway point of the October side of spooky season. Alas I’ve not done some of the things I hoped, but there’s still time.

***

Onto the big thing and that’s Pokémon went live yesterday, yipee! I’ve not played it for several hours so here’s my early game thoughts.

I choose to start with Tepig which was my plan since I saw the starter reveal and ahh they’re so cute! I had them on the game they were the starter previously so I know how good they are. The new battle system takes a bit of getting used to, but I like it so far.

I do think the early game is a little bit too handholdy. You have to go to a few set places to introduce the mechanics (the wild Pokémon area, the first battle area, getting to the looker bureau) which can be quite restrictive especially when you see an item (or place!) just out of the area. (The handholding does feel justified now I’m allowed to explore as it is easy to get lost)

There is a lot of clothing options but idk feel an issue is gonna be that they’re all so spread out and in some cases it does feel annoying. (One area has at least five clothing stores in an arcade, each one has different items and each one has to be accessed individually). Alas I haven’t got any yet cause of lack of in game funds and not seeing anything too nice but once I do…

I also caught a shiny Pokémon! For those that don’t know pokemon have a chance (extremely rare!) of being shiny, which means they’re a different colour. People go shiny hunting but I don’t bother so I’ve only ever had a handful (and most of those are the red gyrados in gold/silver). So I was so surprised to find one in the very first wild area! It’s a weedle so I’ve trained it to a bee drill and it looks so cool so I’m definitely keeping it on my team!

I’m still early game so I’m looking forward to finding more plays and doing more battles (I’ve only done one night so far) and I’m curious how they’ll make it so the setting of a city doesn’t feel limiting. But so far it’s a good time.

Other things.

I’m still a bit rattled about the train thing. I had an email about doing a survey (probably cause I used the net on the way back) so I made sure to let my feelings known. Then it mentioned complaints so I decided to do that too. It has made me nervous about travelling today but eh.

However I have booked my ticket to Coheed, last night which I feel is the latest I’ve left it for a gig, so I will be off tonight. The merch for the eu leg hasn’t been impressive so I’ll probably not get anything which is good.

My plan was to pretty much go to the gig, after picking up the birthday Krispy Kreme from the station and looking in the Lego store. However I saw on instagram that the Birmingham Primark has a Stranger Things themed cafe so I’m going to that, since I’ve no idea when I’ll be going to Birmingham and I dunno if it’ll be time limited. It does look pretty cool. I did see a menu so I’ll probably just have an ice cream since the meals are all meaty.

I did watch Celebrity Traitors Wednesday though I need to iplayer yesterdays today (damn it and Taskmaster having the same time slot). I’m so pissed at who the first kill was on Wednesday I hoped he’d last longer (not naming names here unless anyone else is behind).

Yesterday 5 Seconds Of Summer dropped the next single which I’ve only heard once but damn they also did additions of the album with each of the boys on and each one has a different exclusive track which is so annoying! They look nice but damn. I’m debating between emailing support and switching from the regular to one or holding off and getting the bundle (alas the timing is so irritating!)

Anyways, I’m just gonna see about doing uni reading now then Celebrity Traitors and Pokémon before heading out.

Also after the last post I started a Letterboxd here and put in all the October films I’ve seen thus far

Current Mood: nerdy
Current Music: Coheed And Cambria - In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth 3

Tags:

(no subject)

turps

Thursday, October 16th, 2025 05:19 pm

I've been re-reading Musketeers fic this last week or so. I started due to whumptober, but as that's not as busy as usual in the fandom, I've been re-reading some favourites, too. I haven't got there yet, but suspect a Dragon Riders series re-read will be in my future soon.

I've also read an ER/The Pitt cross I enjoyed, where John Carter and Robby discover they're half brothers after an unexpected meeting. They're not fandoms I usually read it -- I saw the rec on my network -- so suspect this could be a common thing, but I enjoyed this take on it Like Brothers We Meet.

Rosie cancelled class yesterday due to being ill, so I had an unexpected free morning. James was off too, and normally we would have gone to the cinema or for a walk/drive, but he'd scheduled his annual long term condition nurse review for midday. Of course, three different nurses completely failed to get any blood out of him, so he's back tomorrow, so a doctor can try.

That's after we both go to the chemist to get our flu jabs, but not Covid boosters this time, as it seems the vast majority of people in the UK don't qualify for them now. So chemist, doctors, then home as the tumbler drum has stopped turning, so the repair guy is coming out late morning. Hopefully, it's just a snapped belt, and it can be fixed as the machine itself is still heating up, so *fingers crossed*

I also watched Bodhi for an hour late afternoon as her mams went to her first parents evening. She's doing well at school, starting to recognise and write quite a few letters, though her teacher said she's very quiet. Which made me laugh as she literally didn't stop talking once the whole time I was there.

We played superheroes with Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America and Hulk action figures. They had quite the adventures, especially when they met a herd of dinosaurs. Though, poor Hulk seemed to spend a disproportionate amount of time on the naughty step.

what next is the question?

pensnest

Thursday, October 16th, 2025 04:22 pm

I've been hibernating with a nasty cold for a few days—even had to miss my mixed chorus rehearsal for the first time ever—but today is Beast's birthday, and we went for a celebratory brunch at Number 33. He had The Beast, appropriately, a mighty collection of sausages, bacon, black pudding, beans, bubble and squeak, mushrooms, hash brown, fried bread, and eggs. I may have forgotten something. I'm still contemplating what to cook for supper—the original plan was a rib-sticking stew, but I think it might be pasta with chicken and mushrooms instead.

Slightly to my surprise, I have written about 10,000 words of not-fanfic. A bunch more to go.

(no subject)

shadowhive

Wednesday, October 15th, 2025 04:09 pm

After using my glasses for good chunk of yesterday it seems that my eyes can adjust to the smudge’s presence, which is good so that meant going today to the cinema.

I did kinda regret going this morning though cause ugh. There were a team of three ticket people on the train but not to check tickets they instead harassed people. The machine at the station wasn’t working and they just weren’t believing anyone or helping, so that was needlessly stressful.

In town I just went to the cinema and they had the cool Tron Ares cups that light up! They posted on their insta so I asked and the guy just gave me one saying it was free, nice!

Trailers were pretty much stuff I’d seen before though the Zootropolis one was new as was the Avatar one, plus there was the Predator one which looked like it might be interesting. However! The best one was seeing the Mandalorian and Grogu one on the big screen! Ahh I’m excite!

Thoughts on Zoopocalypse and Tron Ares under the cut.

( Read more... )

The rest of the night is gonna be spent flop and snuggling Midna (and watching Celebrity traitors). I might sort the Coheed ticket after noms.

Then tomorrow! That’s gonna be Pokémon release day yay! So I will likely be on that for the afternoon, then Taskmaster in the night.

Current Music: Seapeekay stream

Tags:

Fannish 50 S3 Post 43: More comparisons between Agatha C.'s adaptations!

glitteryv

Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 11:21 am

Based on an Agatha Christie novel from 1944, Toward Zero is the fifth and final book featuring Superintendent Battle. It's been adapted a few times; I'm most familiar with the two (out of the three that have been made so far) TV adaptations below.

The general premise is the following:

Neville Strange is a famous professional tennis player who is known for being calm and classy. He'd been married to Audrey for nearly a decade. They get divorced due to Neville cheating on her with Kay. He goes on to marry Kay, the now second Mrs. Strange, while Audrey remains single.

For whatever reason, though, Neville and Audrey remain friendly. They agree to visit Gulf's Point, the house of Lady Tressillian (a rich woman who is the widow of Neville's guardian) at the same time. This is borderline scandalous since it means that there will be two Mrs. Stranges (Lady Triessilian is v. old school so the household staff (frex) address Audrey as Mrs. Strange). In any case, Neville, Kay, Audrey, and a few others try to make the best out of an admittedly awkward AF situation only for ppl to start getting murdered…

It's not a fave of my Christie standalones, but I get why it's an alluring story to adapt.

Towards Zero (2008) (Hoopla)

This is a 3rd season episode of ITV's "Marple" series.

Some folks don't like it cuz it's pretty much an AU of a non-Miss Marple book. Don't know why, but ITV thought it cool to start inserting Miss Marple in all kinds of standalone novels to varying degrees of success. I mean, I get they were running out of Marple novels, but Christie did write several short stories they could've worked with.

IMO, this is one of the most successful efforts. Especially when contrasted with the bumbling mess that was The Pale Horse episode. YMMV.

ANYWHO, in this episode, it's established that Jane (played by Geraldine McEwan) and Camilla Tressilian (played by Eileen Atkins) are childhood friends who have kept in touch throughout the years. Coincidentally,Jane happens to visit Camilla at the same time Neville, Kay, Audrey et all show up.

FWIW, the three most famous actors in the cast are Saffron Burrows as Audrey, Tom Baker as Fredrick Treves, and the late Julian Sands as Thomas (Audrey's cousin.)

I really like Burrow's portrayal of Audrey as a woman who is sweet, cultured, and kind. In addition, her version of Audrey always has an aura of sadness that makes viewers intrigued. Greg Wise as Neville Strange is ridic good in playing a playboy fella who is extremely likable.

The pacing is good, Miss Marple's addition brings a playful vibe to a twisty story, and the omitted bits from the original novel aren't missed.

Do I have any criticisms?

Actually none. If you're a fan of Miss Marple, you'll like it. Same if you just like good mysteries.

Do I recommend it?

Yes, I do! I watched it on Hoopla (it tends to be available over there every so often.) Sometimes, I've also seen it available on Amazon Prime Video.

I'm giving it a 4 out of 5

Queerness level

None that I could see, unfortch.

Towards Zero (2025) (Britbox)

I'd seen the trailer for this version and was intrigued enough to keep an eye out for it.

This one follows the same story with the key difference that it's a bit more faithful to the novel. Also, the most famous actor in the cast is the great Angelica Huston as Lady Tressilian. She's AMAZING and one of the best things in the entire mini-series.

The next most famous actor is Matthew Rhys as Inspector Leach. In this instance, he's a functional alcoholic. Unfortch, tho, because he's the second most well-known actor in the cast, the producers keep inserting him into the narrative (by having him talk to other characters and then fade into the background) in a way that is ultimately v. sloppy. I guess they didn't want to wait and bring him in at the logical point (after the murders begin), but there we are.

With the exception of one actor (that I'll talk abt later), everyone in the cast is pretty solid from beginning to end.

Some of the characters are played by actors of color (and, thankfully, the script adjusts with adding some touches abt race and racism that, although light, are welcomed. I detest raceblind casting that ignores how different a character's story would be if they weren't white.) The cinematography is cool as well.

One Trigger/Content Warning I gotta mention is for attempted suicide. [Character] tries do drown themselves. It's pretty disturbing. FTR, the character is OK afterwards, but still..

Do I have any criticisms?

There were some issues…

Firstly, I wonder why this is 3 FREAKING HOURS LONG? A full hour could've been taken out and the story would've worked fine. The excessive runtime means that the pace is GLACIAL for most of the miniseries. Lots of moments of the cameras panning or zooming into a close-up and just staying on the actor's face for no apparent reason. Things do pick up once the investigation is underway.

Secondly, Ella Lily Hyland as Audrey Strange is full of mixed signals. Her version of Audrey is of an assertive woman of the world. Which clashes with the character's storyarc. Audrey is meant to be the character that viewers are meant to sympathize with the most (even while suspecting her). However, due to Hyland's portrayal, most viewers will basically SHRUG everything off, IJS.

Thirdly, there are two other characters who don't add a single damn thing to the story. I'm guessing they're present to bulk up some of the main cast? But their inclusion into the overall narrative is so forced that I could only ROLLING EYES EMOJI.

Before I go into my fourth complaint, I gotta preface that I'm not a prude, I don't automatically clutch my imaginary pearls whenever there's a sex scene. Ideally, sex scenes (especially when it comes to not having existed in the original material) will make sense.

I say that cuz the team behind this mini-series (just like the 2016 adaptation of Witness for the Prosecution) decided to add a lot of spice. And so, there's a scene SPOILER in which two characters are making out on the staircase that's in the foyer. Things get heated up to the point that the guy starts to eat out the woman right then and there. Anyone can literally see this happening. END OF SPOILER It's so fucking random cuz it does not fit with the tone/mood of everything that happened in the miniseries. My best guess is that the producers were aiming to go for shocking, but it ends up being nonsensical AF.

Some of the characters' motivations aren't clear and so, when the murders begin, viewers are like ???? abt the goings on. This is weird given that the length of the miniseries. Even weirder is how much infodumping happens. There's more than enough space to show instead of telling!!! IJS.

MOVING ON.

Another actor I had a hard time with was Mimi Keene as Kay Strange, nee Elliot. That character is brash and sensual with just enough charm to keep her from being super unlikable. The problem here is two-fold. For starters, Keene has a limited acting range. She can do angry, vicious, and alluring without any problems. However, she is unable (at least in this version) to do vulnerable or conflicted at all. On top of that, she's got what's casually known as "Instagram/Influencer face". Yes, she's dressed up and styled in the mid-1030s fits, and she looks gorgeous, BUT she gives the impression of being someone on her way to a costume party. Unlike the rest of the cast who look fine, Keene's fits kept me taking out of the story.

And then, there's the end…

FTR, the identity of the murderer and the reasons why they did what they did remains faithful to the novel. However, the mini-series goes past the reveal and decide to show what the surviving characters are gonna do. It was (bad) cheesy.

Do I recommend it?

Not really. It was a mostly disappointing viewing experience. The story was slow AND convoluted. Some of the casting was so-so. I'm giving it a 1.6 out of 5

Queerness level

The way Keene (as Kay) shows her jealousy of Audrey's bond to Neville is by REALLY focusing on her. She makes it look like Kay kinda wants to get with Audrey. It was v. ???? cuz Hyland (as Audrey)'s response was to play along. And it's unclear if it's because she's attracted to Kay OR if it's just to further humiliate her? I kept raising an eyebrow at the two or three scenes where the vibes slide into potentially (and deffo toxic) F/F.

Though I do have to say that the two of them had INTENSE chemistry. Like WAY more than either of them had with Neville, LOL.

Le Trailer

Watch on YouTube

This is the artsier of the trailers. It does a really good job on establishing the suspense too.

Tags:

Lost in the flood

shadowhive

Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 12:15 pm

Spooky season catch up

Day 11: fortnitemares, nine bodies in a Mexican morgue, eso, embrace the darkness part 2

Nine Bodies In A Mexican Morgue due the same thing that Hell Motel did, include a flashback to a character at the start of this week. So, naturally I assumed he’d be doomed. Then the title came up as his name and I knew it was so over for him. Which sucks cause he was one of my favs.

A ‘good’ thing about my glassses fucking up is I had to get back to Embrace The Darkness.

Day 12: fortnitemares, Wednesday - if these woes could talk, shoto spooky stream, some bad spooky stream - poppy playtime

Shoto and Badboyhalo did spooky streams though again, my focus was off cause of exhaustion.

I did manage to watch Wednesday which I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do but I did use my older glasses. It was the last of the first set of eps which feels like a good place to share thoughts.

Under a cut for spoilers.

( Read more... )

Day 13: embrace the darkness part 3+4, ESO

I managed to do a quest on ESO, I had hoped to finished the Apocrypha quests before the new event happened but tiredness and glasses screwed that up. But yay for spooky creatures,

Also finished Embrace the darkness which was pretty good. I had a feeling there’d be a reveal of the ‘bad’ aliens actually being good so I’m glad I was right. Can’t help but be puzzled about all the tardises flying past in the first ep.

***

And now onto yesterday. Before we went the mail came and one of the this were the comics I had on preorder so now I have the following to read:
*Exquisite Corpses 4+5 (I still need to read 2+3 oop)
*Event Horizon Dark Descent 1+2
*The Umbrella Academy Plan B 2+3

When will I read them? Who knows cause up yesterday I got too drained and it feels the rest of the week is a bunch of stuff (more on that later).

At the opticians they, predictably, said the glasses weren’t fixable by them. I asked if I was due an appointment since it’s been awhile (and my eyes have felt worse) and apparently I’m overdue. Usually they send a letter when it’s time but have I had one? Nope. Sigh. I’m booked in Saturday so there’s that, but that means no new glasses for at least another week.

I am wondering if the new glasses will mean I can have better focus and everything but I guess we’ll see

When I got back I tried to use the superglue to repair the break only I fucked up and got the glue over one of the lenses so now there’s a smear over them. I looked up how to get it off lenses and tried everything I could find but no luck ugh. I’m gonna just wear them for today and see if the eye compensates.

The plans for the rest of the week are kinda dependant on that (plus energy, plus weather). I do have the old glasses which are a workable temporary solution but…

The intent of the week is this:
Wednesday - cinema trip: Tron Ares (and maybe Night Of The Zoopocalypse)
Thursday - Pokémon ZA release (which thankfully is the one thing not glasses dependant)
Friday - Coheed gig (once I get ticket)
Saturday - Opticians, maybe a cinema trip
Sunday - Horror market, dnd

Tomorrow’s cinema trip depends on how I feel with glasses as well as weather, which feels like it could go either way. It also depends on working out when to go for the best, which is dependant on if I see Zoopocalypse first (a 10am showing) or second (a 3:50 showing). The cinema also has a Tron Ares cup thing with the light cycle which is pretty cool so I might see about that.

Coheed depends on how I feel about must sight, I was gonna get the ticket when my money went in but causa the glasses fucking up… I have got a setlist from the EU dates so I have been listening to that. It has got 2 of my 3 fav songs on from the new album which is good so it would be nice to go. (Oddly there’s none from one of the other albums of theirs I really liked)

I had hoped to see Black Phone 2 before the gig but alas all the cinema times are just before or during it, even with new times. I had took a morning optician appointment in case they added an early afternoon showing Saturday but alas nope. I’m not sure I have it in me watch three films in one day for it (since the earliest showing is 5:20 which feels too late for me on a post gig day plus I’d like to see strictly), so I’m looking into going Tuesday or Wednesday depending.

(And speaking of Strictly I can’t believe they had a Sunday dance based on the Minecraft movie, that was insane)

There’s a horror film market Sunday thats walking distance away so it’s weather dependant. There was one earlier in the year just after I saw Sinners but it was too crazy then to see but I saw on the website that there was one now.

Then in the night there’s MCC but also ITV is showing Star Trek Strange New Worlds so I might check that out since I’ve never seen it.

Anyway now it’s to wait on the food shop and then ??

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Coheed And Cambria - Everything Evil

Tags:

spooky season 2025

(no subject)

turps

Monday, October 13th, 2025 09:11 am

We decided to swimming yesterday morning, and what a mistake that was. It was a family swimming session, so I should have known it would be busier than during the week which is all lane swimming, but it didn't click just how busy it would be. In the end I tapped out when I hit half my usual lap total, because no way was it possible to swim in a straight line. So, I won't be weekend swimming again.

After that we headed off to see Kayleigh as my baby sister was 40 yesterday. We stayed a couple of hours and I got hulk smashed a bit by Bodhi and had some birthday cake before heading home. I'll be picking Bodhi up from school today, my first Bodhisitting for quite a while, so no doubt I'll be getting Hulk smashed again then, too. I also had a very vivid dream about not picking her up from school and her being left there last night. Guess today's pick up had lodged into my head somehow before I went to sleep.

We've been to see two films in the last couple of days. I Swear was amazing, one of the best films I've seen this year. And then on SaturdayTron: Ares which was loud, brash, visually interesting, and had Jared Leto who is always easy on the eye. So while it wasn't amazing, I didn't regret watching.

Thursday I went to a light show at Durham Cathedral. Our slot wasn't until 7pm, so as we got there earlier than that there was a lot of waiting around to get in, but it was very much worth it. The interior lights were beautiful, and I'm so glad we went.

I'll share a few photos here, but if you want to see some short videos, I've posted at my insta here.

( photos )

The curse continues

shadowhive

Sunday, October 12th, 2025 08:20 pm

So it feels that this week has been curse. Between student finance acting up (it’s still not up), one bag being forgotten, the other breaking and the sd card being completely useless last night a new issue occurred.

I was seated, ready to watch through the Wildhood special features as planned. I reached up to lift my glasses to scratch my nose and this happened.

Yep they broke in half. I dunno why, cause I wasn’t rough or anything but… ugh.

Obviously I couldn’t do anything with them last night. I tried to find the superglue but had no luck so all my plans were screwed. I listened to an audio and then went to bed.

In the morning I asked mum if she knew where superglue was to fix them and, after looking at the glasses declared instead I should ‘take them to the opticians in the morning’ to see if they could fix or put the lenses in something else. So instead of them being fixed I was given an old pair which aren’t great for my eyes which is far from ideal. I feel that I might be due a test (cause of how my eyes have been achy and bad at reading text on the tv) so feel they might just say to be booked in for that instead. Which… that isn’t ideal when I handed my glasses both for cinema trips and to see Coheed and waiting on that would likely take a week or longer even if I got in tomorrow.

Then tonight, when I said I’d just have to superglue them if they said I’d need testing, mum magicked up the superglue and I’m so annoyed by that cause I could have had them sorted earlier. Now I’m holding off till I go but ughh. (It hasn’t helped my already tiredness)

Ugh.

And I’m gonna add it here so I’m not adding it to another post. (Next one will be back to spooky season stuff.) but I found out yesterday that Ian Watkins is dead. Sounds like someone stabbed him and it killed him. Honestly I’m more surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. I haven’t appreciated his face splashed everywhere (everytime I open my email it goes to the news section with his mugshot which I don’t wanna see)

Also don’t appreciate that yesterday some dick decided to gloat to people. He went to one of Ian’s old tweets from 13 years ago (before anyone had any idea he was the monster he is) and replied to people generally being a prick about it. I bit back to the asshole then blocked him (apparently he’s some perfect Angel that has never interacted with someone that turned out to be horrible). Ugh.

But yeah tomorrow is, instead of whatever else I had planned, is gonna be a trip to the opticians after seeing if mail comes. Maybe I’ll spend the rest of the day doing other stuff I meant to (like comic reading or getting back to Hades II).

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: Foolish stream

(no subject)

shadowhive

Saturday, October 11th, 2025 06:20 pm

Spooky season

Day 8: The Long Walk, Embrace The Darkness part 1

Wednesday was mostly The Long Walk, but then in the night my eyes went achy. I put on one of the spooky Doctor Who audios I have, Embrace The Darkness, but only managed the first part before getting too tired (and, alas I’ve not listened to the other 3 parts). It is good so far though.

Day 9: Fortnitemares update, pokemon thrills and chills stream

Fortnite’s Halloween update went live Thursday and the map looks so cool and spooky. There’s also a demon rush mode (with K-pop Demon Hunters theming, though I dunno how themed it actually is). There’s a lot of new skins added for things this time too with Scream’s Ghostface, Wednesday, Art The Clown from Terrifier and The Grabber from Black Phone among others. Plus there’s also a new mothman npc and he’s so cute I love him.

There was also another Pokémon spooky themed stream. Again it was had some eps with ghost Pokémon more so than being spooky themed though it did have some good spooky ones too. Including a spooky forest, an Pokémon creativity illusions and a haunted house. There was also the odd choice of putting two Alolan eps that were the climax of an arc but without the buildup were just confusing.

Day 10: Fortnitemares, fantastic four 4, eso

Friday was more Fortnitemares, plus I finally read the Fantastic Four comic I got the other week which was pretty good (and definitely spooky!) I loved that Allie got a chance to really shiny this time, plus the unexpected spaceship story was so unnerving.

And then there was another ESO quest which, again, was definitely spooky vibes.

***

Non spooky vibes now but uh the last days have ended up being so tiring.

On Thursday we went down to B and Q to get a new lightbulb for the extractor fan thing above the stove. We’d tried online but had no luck finding the right thing. Even here wasn’t an exact match so we had to try our luck (thankfully it was) then I popped in game to pick up detective pikachu (it was still on offer) then we went in b and m. And mum decided we had to get pet food from there (instead of the co-op from just up the road) so we had to lug it back which was tiring).

Thankfully we didn’t miss the stuff we ordered though that was annoyance. The micro sd card I ordered from prime day? Not the right one for the switch 2 which is annoying. I looked it up and the right sort of sd card is three times the full price for the same size which is so irritating. Also the bag replacement came and the only downside to that is no zip compartment inside and the strap is so much shorter than the old one.

Then mum wanted to take Naryu to the vet for her jabs which meant I couldn’t go out Friday. I was debating whether to go or not anyway but to have the choice removed was… annoying. Even more annoying? She changed her mind yesterday morning about going. (We couldn’t book an appointment cause the phone was dead). Thankfully the store opening didn’t look as good as I expected but still.

Then today we did end up going and they managed to squeeze us in, but of course they found issues with Naryu’s ear so no jabs anyway and instead she has meds. Sigh.

It’s all meant I’ve been so tired and even more low energy which is such an annoyance. (Not helped that I’ve been out 5 of the 6 days this week😭)

In other news Black Phone 2 has listings but alas they mean I can’t see it opening day if I go to see Coheed and Cambria as planned (I’ve not got my ticket but will when money goes in) so it’ll mean watching sometime the following week most likely. (And cause of not going yesterday sometime this week I’ll be seeing Tron Ares/Zoopocalypse)

But ugh that means that a week on Monday is my birthday which, bleh birthday. At least I’ll have Pokémon and the new Doctor Who boxset to start (if it arrives). There’s also a horror market thing the day before so we’ll see if I feel up to going.

However there was also a second delivery yesterday and it was this.

Thoughts ahoy!

( Read more... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Strictly

Tags:

film thoughts

I keep reading... (Book Post)

glitteryv

Friday, October 10th, 2025 12:38 pm

Re-Reads. HUH.

None so far.

I DNF'd

I did get v. close to bouncing from one of the books, but I finished it out of sheer curiosity.

Had an awesome time at first (but it all went downhill from there.)

* Bitterbound by A.Z. Louise (M/F romantasy) - Kin is a literal soulless assassin who is abt to complete her latest mission. Only for Verias, her target, to react with quiet acceptance. She starts a conversation with him, and then proposes a trade: she'll set him free and, in exchange, he'll help her find her soul and destroy it.

This book was promoted as a "slow burn, assassin x target romantasy". I was R-E-A-D-Y for Knife Waves and the people who love them!

On the positive side, I liked that Kin was 40 y.o. while Verias is in his mid-to-late 40s. Both are bisexual. Kin is Black and fat. The worldbuilding (and the worldbuilding ONLY) is quite robust. Especially w/r/t to the magic system.

However, I did have some serious issues with this novel. Behold my list of grievances:

1. This book should've been 100 pages shorter. It also needed a good developmental edit.

2. I also was not onboard with Kin and Verias' romance. Based on the promo, I was expecting a lot of tension between them as they travel to the place where Kin's soul is being held. After all, Kin WAS going to kill Verias and they're strangers.

Unfortch, the "slow burn" only lasted until the 15-20% mark. By which point, it's pretty clear they each find the other attractive. Kin also slides into protector!mode by Chapter 2, so any bit of potential push-and-pull between them disappeared into the ether. I do think they had good sexual chemistry. Their intimate scenes were good. The whole emotional side of things, though, was lacking.

3. Although I liked Kin as an MC, I did 🙄 at her characterization as an assassin. FTR, she's v. good and brutal at times. However, something that kept recurring throughout the story was that, whenever she needed to fight someone 1 on 1, she'd either let them go OR temporarily incapacitate them.

The moment I realized this was during a scene when she chokes a female assassin until the assassin passes out. Then a friend of Kin walks in and says "wow, you must be getting soft. Why didn't you kill her?". Kin in in the middle of replying to her friend when her friend takes a knife and kills the assassin. I was v. ???? as to why Kin didn't do that in the first place, IJS.

3.5 I was also uncomfortable with the fact that 2 out of the 3 soulless assassins shown were Black people (Kin and a nonbinary character named Merrit), with the 3rd one being a nameless white guy who shows up in 2 scenes total. Meanwhile all of the sorcerers are white.

See also the fact that Kin is Black and Verias is described as white.

AAAAND the over-reliance on mentions of Kin's hair to identify her as Black was odd. Most of the time, the book describes Kin's hair as long, curly, and dyed red. She never wears it in braids nor uses any kind of protective hairstyle. IIRC, she only mentions hair oil once. And, due to a temporary loss of magic during a specific scene, she is annoyed to see that her hair is now kinky.

IIRC, her skin tone was mentioned fewer times when compared to her hair. The ONLY reason why I noticed this was because the latter happened so often.

I'm also v. "that's not quite right" when it came to descriptions of her body. Readers are told she's fat and that's abt it. Oh, wait, there's a scene where Verias mentions Kin's curves. I... OKAY THEN!

What I mean to say is that there are ways to describe characters' races and bodies. This author did a bad job of both.

4. I'm not sure if the author intended this book to be the first in a series or a duology or what. Because there are a few things that get brought up in the last part of the book only to be left drifting into the ether.

SPOILERS FOR THE LAST THIRD OF THE NOVEL

* All throughout the book, there is an evil lord who wants to take over everything. Kin murders him (in the silliest way possible) near the end of the novel; the evil lord's adult children are also killed. This inspires the people to stage a really fast revolution and destroy the evil lord's armies. Which is fine.

HOWEVAH, this results in a bizarre power vacuum. Especially because there are ZERO mentions of who exactly the evil lord's armies have been fighting against? The socioeconomic system appears to be feudal in nature, but it's not quite defined at the same time. Then, things get even more absurd at the end of the book when the ppl want Kin to organize things/become a leader since she's the one who killed the evil lord. What?

FTR, she does decline the offer, but this does point out that no one else is worthy/around to take care of things. IDK.

* The place where the soulless assassins are created is blown up, and all but 2 of the sorcerers are killed. It so happens that those two sorcerers have survived because Kin didn't kill them when she had the chance and instead LET THEM GO. *sighhhhhhhhhhhhhh*

* Sometime during the last chapters, Kin finds out she has had the same ancient and powerful magic her parents have. BUT her mom deemed Kin to be too emotional/volatile to wield the magic and so she repressed her daughter's power. Does Kin manages to convince her mother to free her own magic? Maybe teach Kin how to use her powers? OR, perhaps, Kin tries to figure out a way to break the barriers on her own and/or with Verias' help?

NO. Neither thing happens. Instead, Kin and her mom have an argument abt it. . . and that's it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

* To top all of this off, there's a plague spreading everywhere. And things are so dire that the city the MCs are at is under lockdown. But both MCs have things to do, so they keep going places and returning to the city. I can't even . . . 🙃

In short, just as the book is winding down, the author is packing in a LOT of storylines that remained unsolved. IDEK what to tell y'all.

5. And then, there's the ending. 🤪

Kin begins the story bound to a nameless sorcerer who took her soul and stored it in the Vault of Souls. This was done as punishment for a crime she committed (attempting to steal a brooch that belonged to the evil lord dude.)

She ends the novel

BIG SPOILER AHOY!

bound to a NEW sorcerer who takes her soul. But it's TOTALLY COOL THIS TIME cuz the new sorcerer is Verias + they're both IN LURVE + he added an extra spell to keep her safe or whatever. Oh, and Verias is holding Kin's soul inside his body, right next to his own soul.

THIS IS A TERRIBLE ENDING! Kin angsts/worries A TON abt her soul. She's OBSESSED WITH GETTING RID OF IT FOR GOOD across 300+ pages ONLY TO END UP IN THE SAME SITUATION (BY HER OWN VOLITION, MIND YOU), BUT 💓LOVE💓, Y'ALL. 😬😬😬😬😬😬

IMO, the author chickened out. A much better/romantic ending would've been to fuse Kin and Verias' souls together. OR, hell, have Kin actually try to destroy her soul and either fail or succeed at it. IJS.

Although I did finished it, the more I read this novel, the more my general reaction was "I guess?"

I truly wish the author had gotten a good editor to rework this novel into something less messy and overstuffed. The ending was the opposite of awesome. A v. dissatisfying read. I doubt I'll ever read anything else by this author.

This book is not horrible enough to give it 1-star, but it's also not one I'd recommend to anyone. So I'm giving it a v. rare (for me) rounding up rating to 2 out of 5.

It was . . . fine?

* One Final Turn by Ashley Weaver (Historical mystery) - 5th and last book in the Electra McDonnell series. It's 1941 and Ellie goes to Lisbon, Portugal on the most important mission of her life.

The first half of the book was a true BORE. And I say that as someone who has not only read the previous books in this series, but also the entirety of the Amory Ames novels. Seeing Ellie reminiscing abt her past adventures was annoying. And then, whenever the book moved away from that, it'd be nothing but full descriptions of what she did and visited in Lisbon.

There was a lot (and I do mean A FUCKING LOT) of telling instead of showing. So, despite Ellie going here, there, and everywhere, the mood was incredibly passive. I got the feeling that everyone (Ellie, me, and the author) was waiting for something (anything!) to happen in order to get things going properly. FWIW, although I understand why the book had to be set outside of England, I do wish that the author had edited out a few of the pages abt Ellie's trip to Lisbon.

My one (1) quibble abt the finale had to do with the fact that the series ended way too early into WW2. Although I do firmly believe in the strong HFN finale to the series, I couldn't help but think abt the fact that all of the characters still had a few more years of the conflict to live thru. So that dimmed my yays a bit.

THANKFULLY, things got verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry interesting in the second half of the novel, heheh.

For starters, there was the romance between Ellie and Major Ramsey and the utterly delicious curveball that the novel threw in their direction.

THEN the story took off and I practically zoomed thru the rest of the book.

My fave character was Archie. Loved his personality. His friendship with Ellie was delightful AF.

IMO, the best part of this novel has to be the last 10 chapters. I gave this book a 2.7 out of 5.

Good vibes all around

* Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews (Urban fantasy) - Dina owns a Victorian bed and breakfast in a small Texan town. She's got one guest, is a doggie parent to a cute Shih Tzu, and is an overall normal person. But there's more to Dina, her inn, her dog, and and the guest.

She butts heads with a new neighbor while investigating a dangerous creature terrorizing her neighborhood. Even though she really shouldn't get involved, Dina is not abt to let chaos reign... This is the first book in IA's Inkeeper Chronicles series.

Whenever I start a new IA book, I do so with high expectations. After reading 20 IA books, I know that my expectations will either be met or, more often, surpassed.

Did this novel have fantastic worldbuilding, a gripping plot, and excellent action scenes? YES. YES, IT DID! I also liked Dina: she's a protagonist you cheer for from page 1. Her dynamic with Sean was ridiculous, but that's to be expected in an IA book, hahah.

One thing I kept in mind was the Andrews' blueprint. The female MC will almost always be an attractive, cishet woman who's somewhere in her 20s. She'll have some degree of snarkiness. Her male love interest will always be a literal alpha dude (see Curran in the KD series and Connor in the first trilogy for the Hidden Legacy novels.) I've come to accept that and gently 🙄 because it's so rare for IA to step into something different.

A friend of mine mentioned something that I agree with: this novel is v., v. white. Every single human character is white. And I deffo :| at that. SOME characters of color (as well as some queer ones) would've been super, IJS.

I also have to say the last part with the actual!Big Bad got a bit convoluted. Finally, I kinda 😒 at Sean when, right before the final battle, he does something after using his wolf-y aura or whatever. A part of me was like "bruh, this could be considered assault, but you do you, I guess...". FWIW, I'm aware of the inevitability of him and Dina becoming a couple (especially since he's on the covers for books 4 and 5). But that doesn't mean I'm thrilled of how things began.

Aside from that, I did ended up LMAO a lot and found this to be quite the thrilling urban fantasy. So I gave this novel a 4.7 out of 5.

Current fic tally

Picked up 194 fics, DNF'd 90.

Some Thoughts

Readingwise, things were v. uneven. One novel was a disappointment, one was quite meh, and I was gaga over the last one. In any case, I seem to be way past the (now usual) summer reading slump. Huzzah for that!

Up Next...

Last time: "am halfway thru the third one (which is NOT set in space)--though IDK if I'll finish it, and ended up renewing the fourth book before it was due back to the library. I'm also in the middle of another book which is the last one in a series. 🤞🏾 for good reading ahead!"

The third book I'm talking abt is Bitterbound (which some folks had also talked abt as being a queer femdom romance. FTR, yes, the two MCs are bi, but that's it AND the femdom is so subtle I almost missed it). Meanwhile, the fourth book is a historical paranormal that's not cozy. I've renewed it for a second time.

Aside from that, I'm halfway thru the second book in the Innkeeper series and I'm trying to see which horror novels I'm gonna dive in. It's October after all. 😛

Tags:

books-a-go-go

(no subject)

turps

Thursday, October 9th, 2025 03:24 pm

I met up with

tara yesterday and had a lovely time.

We arranged to meet at midday to give me time to go to Rosie's class first, drove to Sunderland after that and met T off the metro where I got to have a good hug because it's been far too long since I've seen her. And yet, despite living in Australia she remains one of the fannish friends I've met the most, from our popslash days when we took Corey to the aquarium when he was a very young kidlet, to now. She's been with me to cat cafés, dog cafés, restaurants, to my house, walked lots of the NE coast, met most of my family, seen me at my highest weight and lowest and is just an awesome person who I'm glad to have in my life.

We walked to Sheepfolds Stables for a coffee, and doughnuts for me and James. James also went to check out Propa, Si King's -- one half of The Hairy Bikers -- place which serves typical northern food. Though, yesterday they also had lasagna pie on the menu which I certainly don't see as northern, though does sound interesting. James was hoping to actually see Si as he's often there, but it wasn't to be.

From there, we drove to the coast for lunch at Prego, where we ate and talked for what turned out to be over four hours. What can I say, living half a world apart from each other means we had a lot to talk about. Then, sadly, we took T back to her hotel and I had to leave with another hug. Such a good day ♥

Yesterday was also my oldest nephew's birthday, then on Sunday it's a big birthday for Kayleigh, and my middle nephew is 18 on Monday, so an expensive time in terms of gifts. A financial situation not helped by Pauline deciding to cash in the birthday meal out we'd promised her on Sunday gone.

Despite the unexpected cost, that was a nice meal out, but both James and Pauline had an upset stomach the next day, meaning it had to be the beef they'd both eaten as the culprit. We were planning to go to that restaurant for our Christmas family meal out with Pauline and my brother's family, but food poisoning, no matter relatively mild, is rather off-putting, so we're looking for somewhere else now.

The fly tipping is still going on, each week more, each week it gets reported. But one day last week I noticed someone had picked up one of the black sacks of rubbish and thrown it on top of the shed roof of the neighbours we strongly suspect are doing the fly tipping. Now, it's not a method I'd normally approve of, but at this point I say, good on my next door neighbour, who admitted throwing the sack back to them on his way to work early one morning.

We're off to see this at Durham Cathedral tonight. Hopefully, it'll be lovely to see.

I love the winter...

...it brings us closer together

June 2021

Navigation

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

Grooving with my library! (Book post)

AWS outage

Intelligent eyes in a hunger-pang frame

(no subject)

(no subject)

We all sing together

Pokeball go!

(no subject)

what next is the question?

(no subject)

Fannish 50 S3 Post 43: More comparisons between Agatha C.'s adaptations!

Lost in the flood

(no subject)

The curse continues

(no subject)

I keep reading... (Book Post)

(no subject)