Week 9: The nah… week

(Feb 26 – Mar 4)

Bit of an off week this week. Lots of trouble maintaining focus and so forth. I’m vaguely aware that every other week tends to be slightly more of a struggle than the one before (or after). Maybe I’ll start to pay a bit more attention to this over the coming weeks. So, why not tune in for my impending breakdown in fortnightly instalments 😉

Monday

Having settled into The Handmaid’s Tale last week, I find tonight’s episodes very heavy going. There’s a constant sense of dread and awfulness. But, the show is very, very good, which makes it easy(ish) to persevere.

Tuesday

The Elderbeast plays his “too sick to go to school” card. I’m skeptical, but after being called to pick him up from school exactly last week ago I’m wary of a repeat performance. He seems genuinely low in energy, so I acquiesce. It means I have to take the day off work too, which is both good and bad.
I decide to use the bonus time to sort out some shopping chores, and the Elderbeast is sufficiently – if not miraculously … suspiciously, even–recovered by lunchtime for us to head out. We end up having a splendid time, and even fit in an impromptu haircut for the beast.
Unplanned days off are the best 😉

Wednesday

I have a bad night’s sleep. I wake up at 3am (for no apparent reason) and get back to sleep about an hour later. Morning arrives and so does the Kinderbeast, asking for his breakfast. I’m surprised that he’s, atypically, up and about before my alarm has gone off. I’m even more surprised when I discover my alarm went off an hour ago and I slept through it.
Despite this inauspicious start, the day is not unbearable.

Thursday

I have another night of broken sleep and wake up headachey. I only make it through the day thanks to repeated infusions of cake.

Friday

After a week of underwhelming achievement, I’m determined to use my #childfree weekend wisely–mainly by starting to tackle the creeping morass of weeds that calls itself my garden. In order for this battle to commence I’ll need to launch an assault in the early hours of Saturday morning, before it gets too hot. The first step in this plan is getting my weekly shopping out of the way on the way home. So I don’t have to go and do it on Saturday morning. So I can get up and go straight out in the garden tomorrow morning.
So far, so good.

Saturday

I get up and, somewhat to my surprise, I get out into the garden. I don’t tackle the part I was intending to tackle, but I tackle another part that definitely needed tackling. The job done, I retreat inside to tackle my second major to-do of the day: preparing for a presentation I need to deliver in a couple of week’s time. It’s been booked for months, but naturally I’ve left it until now to prepare.
I complete that job and force myself to spend some time sitting on the sofa, eating waffles, and watching classic Doctor Who. This week it’s City Of Death (the one set in Paris, and written by Douglas Adams). Thanks to a fortuitous repeat on BBC just around the time that I properly got into Doctor Who, it’s one of the classic stories that I have the most clearly defined memories of. It doesn’t let me down. Julian Glover is the perfect villain. The story is witty, clever, and timey-wimey. Tom Baker still has the intense energy that seemed to largely abandon him in his (subsequent) final season. It’s great stuff.
My final to-do of the weekend is to clear up the random areas around the house (mostly surfaces) that have accumulate clutter over recent weeks. This doesn’t take long, but it’s a very rewarding exercise. Much of the clutter ends up being in my bedroom (writing desk, bedside table, bookshelves). I spend some time sorting my space out and retreat, happy with the results.
For the evening I enjoy my traditional #childfree dinner (steak, steamed broccoli, and soy-butter mushrooms). Things take a distinct downturn when I forget to add the soy sauce to my soy-butter mushrooms. Let me tell you, -butter mushrooms are a hugely underwhelming experience in comparison! I almost save the day by dousing the fried mushrooms, post-frying, in soy sauce, but there’s no denying that my dinner has the taste of disappointment all over it.
The Saturday night movie is Logan, which I’m excited about checking out. I’m surprised, but certainly not disappointed, to find that my downloaded copy is the ‘noir’ version. I had plans to buy the disc, but had downloaded the noir version in a fit of petulance over it not being included in the Australian blu-ray release. I then completely forgot to buy the blu-ray. Either way, it’s a great film, and I don’t feel in any way that I’ve missed out by watching it in black and white.

Sunday

Sunday night is our Netflix ‘hidden gems’ night. I let the Elderbeast choose our film and he, surprisingly, goes for People, Places, Things–a light-hearted drama starring Jermaine Clement as an artist trying to put his life back together after his marriage breaks up. I love the the Elderbeast doesn’t always go for the obvious choice, and has developed a taste for what is most easily labelled indie film.
It’s pretty good as well. The plot is nothing new, but the dialogue and the performances make it stand out in my mind days after we’ve seen the credits roll.

Watched

Read

I decide, on Sunday, that I’m going to make a super effort to finish my book (All The Birds In The Sky). I don’t quite get to the last page, but I make big dent in the remaining page count.

Eaten