Week 22: Winter chill to warm the soul

(May 28 – Jun 3)

It’s the start of of winter which, absurdly coincides with me starting to feel a lot of better about things in general. Or, maybe, that was just due to my positive week last week. In lesser news, I manage to spend lots and lots of money.

Monday

It’s frikkin cold today. Truly, really, bastard cold.

In exciting developments, the chicken coop I ordered arrives. Appropriately, I cook the kinderbesten chicken fingers for dinner, but because I’m unused to frying (following the death of my oven) I burn them. Irony?

The first item in my week of mass spending is a Star Wars drone for the kinderbesten. The purchase is prompted by the kinderbesten trying (and failing) to get an old remote control car working. I reason that a drone would be a much more fun remote control toy. We go three ways on it and it’s heavily reduced (down to $47) so it ends up a relatively minor expense.

Later, The Elderbeast and I finish watching Hitchiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (the BBC series). It’s been a joy to be able to introduce him to this, and to see how much he’s enjoyed it too. One of the privileges of parenthood.

Tuesday

I’m distracted all day, and all evening by my foot, which feels like I’ve either dropped something heavy on it, or have kicked something solid with it. I have, incidentally, done neither.

I do manage to pick up the drone on the way home, which we play with later in the evening. It’s noisy, has hideous flashing lights, and flies like a bastard, but it’s undeniably cool. On its first flight, the Elderbeast promptly crashes it into the LEGO Tower Bridge far on the other side of the room. It tumbles down, crashing into a lamp along the way. I have a go at him for not taking due care then promptly crash the drone into the kitchen counter, knocking a bottle of water to the floor.

This will clearly take some practise.

In today’s purchase news, I finally order myself some chinos. The Ben Sherman shop have a sale on, with chinos down from $120 to $50. I reason that they must be decent trousers and take a punt. I’ve only been dithering over buying some chinos for about a year.

Wednesday

My foot appears to be better today. Which is good.

I start the day with a meeting, which means wearing a shirt. Because of this I am reminded that I need to buy myself some new shirts and make a mental note to keep an eye on the YD store for their next sale. I get home and—surprise, surprise—find out that they currently have a bunch of stuff on sale. I order three new shirts, with a another $80 added to this week’s bill.

Thursday

The Elderbeast claims to be sick and, for once, he genuinely looks sick. So he gets to have the day off school. He’s still looking pretty rough after I come home from work and ends up going to bed early. Definitely not himself.

In light of the news about Amazon shafting Australian shoppers, I decide I should probably spend my birthday Amazon vouchers. I end up with quite a haul (augmented by some of my own cash) including all the Mr Men/Doctor Who books, a bunch of awesome blurays that aren’t available in Australia, and some additional pop classic kids books including bedtime retellings of Back To the Future, ET, and a ‘kids’ book of Die Hard that definitely isn’t for kids.

Friday

The Elderbeast is off school again. It’s arguable as to whether he’s genuinely sick, but I reason a second day of school will ensure he gets better for the weekend.

A friend at work suggests I look at auctions for a cheap replacement oven. I do some hunting around and find a local place auctioning off some brand new Indesit appliances. I put a bid in on an oven and cross my fingers. While browsing I also put in a bid on a dishwasher, reasoning that my current dishwasher has been sounding distinctly unhealthy of late.

The only genuine purchase of the day is cinema tickets for a trip to see Solo on Sunday morning. Somehow I managed to book tickets for Saturday morning by accident. I email the cinema (Reading cinema in Belmont) in a flap and they not only reply almost immediately, but switch the booking to Sunday with minimum fuss. Awesome people.

Saturday

It’s a classic family Saturday. We get the shopping out of the way then chill for a bit before settling down for a viewing of Kubo And The Two Strings (spoiler: it’s really good). Later, the Elderbeast scores himself an afternoon Playstation ban. Once he’s settled down we end up having a pretty awesome time: we watch an episode of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares on YouTube, and he’s inspired to make some toasted pizza bread (which turns out to be delicious). Once the Kinderbeast has gone to bed, we share some Brie and check out the Hitchiker’s Guide To The Galaxy movie—its not terrible, but a fair bit of it just doesn’t feel quite right.

Sunday

I take the Elderbeast to see Solo in the morning. It’s fun, not remarkable, but perfectly good in a pretty ordinary way—much as you’d expect from Ron Howard. In the afternoon we build the chicken coop, which comes together nicely. A fine end to a pretty good weekend.

Watched

Read

I finish The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet (finally). It was really good, and I’m glad I gave it a second chance. It’s rare for me to enjoy a story that doesn’t really have a plot as such—just a series of things that happen to a pretty well-crafted range of characters. My next book is Endurance, by Scott Kelly, who spent a year on the ISS. It’s ostensibly research for my sci-fi novella, but it’s a damn good read so far.

Eaten