![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
delgai am not really sure how my building connects to the one next to me, so i’m not sure whether the people i can hear speaking are in the flat below me, or in a flat next to me. it’s something i’ve been worrying about in the abstract - this is the first time i’ve heard anyone - because i don’t want my music, or even my current netflix binge to disturb anyone.
i keep meaning to look at an aerial view of the building to work it out, and i keep forgetting.
—
here is a song i have been obsessed with this weekend. enjoy.
—
current netflix binge: the second season of a series of unfortunate events. the very first time i tried to watch this show i got bogged down by how sad i felt for the characters, and gave up pretty early. then, for whatever reason, the second try clicked and i watched all of s1. i haven’t exercised any patience with s2 at all. i’ve only got a couple of episodes left. all the new additions to the cast have been delightful.
—
rome was fantastic, even with the incessant rain at the top of the week. i think if i were to go again, i’d also choose to go elsewhere in italy. rome itself isn’t that big, and a week is probably too long if you don’t intersperse activities with trips to a trattoria for wine. unfortunately, the weather meant we didn’t really want to do a lot of that.
towards the end of the week, the weather improved greatly, and it was beautiful when we made our day trip to tivoli. the buses were kind of a nightmare, but fine once we were onboard.
my favourite place was the parthenon without a doubt, but seeing bernini’s rape of prosperpina kind of did a number on me. i keep looking at the photos i took and still not being able to comprehend it. we were in the room with it! it’s a fucking sculpture! how??
—
i spent last monday in a meeting about gdpr (new eu data protection legislation) which honestly went on all day, and then, after a couple of hours on tuesday, suddenly left me with nothing to do. thankfully that changed on wednesday but it made tuesday interminable. i just wanted to buck out at 3 and go home, but some of us had made plans to go to a pub quiz that night, so i stuck it out til 4, then made a trip to the west end to pick up the next in sarah hilary’s marnie rome series.
it turns out my commute is perfect for reading, and i’ve made it through my fire and hemlock re-read, and almost to the end of my quieter than killing re-read. a girl at work is re-reading hdm, which reminded me that i never finished my own re-read of the subtle knife, so that’s next on the list so that we can read la belle sauvage in a book club of two.
the reason for all the re-reads is to prep me to read new stuff, and also to maybe get myself to finish the goldfinch which i read 3/4 of in 2014, and then stopped in a fit of anxiety. (that book was stressing me out, holy crap.) but chances are i won’t remember enough of the detail of what has happened which means i’ll have to re-read the parts that i’ve already done.
—
we won our quiz! our team was called Fred the Duck, and we won by a margin of 7 points. it was actually a really good evening, especially after a such a slow day. everyone contributed, too, and we won by more of a margin than the differences between other teams. huzzah!
—
on thursday night i came home from work, ate, cleaned up, packed and then headed out at 10pm to catch a train north to chesterfield to see the (ex-) flatmate. going up to chesterfield is pretty straightforward but involves a lot of traipsing around in mud - my bff has a dog - which i don’t mind at all, except i never pack enough clothes for it. it rained overnight on friday so i didn’t go with them on saturday.
the reason for the trip, other than to spend time with my bff, was so we could go to the crucible to watch the transfer of peter gill’s the york realist which is a lovely, quiet play about two men who fall in love over the course of a few weeks rehearsals of the york mysteries, and then struggle to maintain the relationship because of class differences. it wasn’t a story about repression or homophobia - in fact, it seemed like the family of one of the characters knew and tacitly supported him - but about the real things that can stop a relationship in its tracks, despite everyone’s best intentions and desires. ben batt was the lead, playing an earnest farm worker, and i just — aaaaahhhhhh, it was so good. i was worried i’d missed it completely because i didn’t see it at the donmar when it was on in london, but it was a joint production with sheffield theatres, hence the trip to the crucible. very glad we managed to book it. the crucible is a great space, too. i love going there.
on saturday we decided to do some easter baking, which translated into some cupcakes (lush) and some samurai santa cookies that ruthy had a kit for. the biscuits came out fine, and we made duck-shaped ones with the leftover dough, but we just couldn’t be bothered with the icing, so we mixed up the red, and left the rest, and honestly it was kind of a mess. we also used the pre-made mix to make buttercream but it was disgusting so we threw that out. the cupcakes were really lovely, even though i was worried the raising agent in the self raising flour would have expired. we used a very basic cupcake recipe, the one that is so easy to remember: all ingredients (self-raising flour, margarine, caster sugar and eggs) in equal proportion to the weight of the eggs; whisk like hell; bake at 180’C for 15-18 minutes. it’s the same recipe i use for sponge cakes, but easily adjustable for more or less.
i kind of want to make cake now.
—
came back late from chesterfield on saturday, and watched the first hour of the almeida / andrew scott hamlet before calling it a night. yesterday i sorted out my laundry, which is a hassle in this flat because most of my clothes can’t go in the drier, but the flat is often quite cold, so things take a long time to dry. i end up moving things around on the clothes horse all day, and some of the items had to stay out all night as well.
at midday i headed out to southbank to see some films at bfi flare’s second-chance sunday. i paid too much for those tickets, which is my fault for booking through a third party for-profit provider, but i was especially gutted to find out that since booking opened, the festival had added love simon to run at the same time i was in to see battle of the sexes. it’s out on general release next week, so i’ll probably see it at my local, but still.
battle of the sexes was a fun - if purposefully irritating - film, which i followed up with call me by your name in the evening, which i had sort of being resisting seeing, but ended up being far more my aesthetic than i had bargained for. there’s something about seeing a film at a festival that i really enjoy - probably the way the crowd experiences humour or sadness collectively. i didn’t go to lff last year, not even one film, and i’m determined to rectify that this year if possible. next year i’d like to go to more of the bfi flare programme, too.
—
today: groceries have been bought, vacuuming has been done, remaining clothes have been put away. i’m going to finish my netflix binge, and hopefully some knitting, then i need to make dinner this evening. back to work tomorrow.
i keep meaning to look at an aerial view of the building to work it out, and i keep forgetting.
—
here is a song i have been obsessed with this weekend. enjoy.
—
current netflix binge: the second season of a series of unfortunate events. the very first time i tried to watch this show i got bogged down by how sad i felt for the characters, and gave up pretty early. then, for whatever reason, the second try clicked and i watched all of s1. i haven’t exercised any patience with s2 at all. i’ve only got a couple of episodes left. all the new additions to the cast have been delightful.
—
rome was fantastic, even with the incessant rain at the top of the week. i think if i were to go again, i’d also choose to go elsewhere in italy. rome itself isn’t that big, and a week is probably too long if you don’t intersperse activities with trips to a trattoria for wine. unfortunately, the weather meant we didn’t really want to do a lot of that.
towards the end of the week, the weather improved greatly, and it was beautiful when we made our day trip to tivoli. the buses were kind of a nightmare, but fine once we were onboard.
my favourite place was the parthenon without a doubt, but seeing bernini’s rape of prosperpina kind of did a number on me. i keep looking at the photos i took and still not being able to comprehend it. we were in the room with it! it’s a fucking sculpture! how??
—
i spent last monday in a meeting about gdpr (new eu data protection legislation) which honestly went on all day, and then, after a couple of hours on tuesday, suddenly left me with nothing to do. thankfully that changed on wednesday but it made tuesday interminable. i just wanted to buck out at 3 and go home, but some of us had made plans to go to a pub quiz that night, so i stuck it out til 4, then made a trip to the west end to pick up the next in sarah hilary’s marnie rome series.
it turns out my commute is perfect for reading, and i’ve made it through my fire and hemlock re-read, and almost to the end of my quieter than killing re-read. a girl at work is re-reading hdm, which reminded me that i never finished my own re-read of the subtle knife, so that’s next on the list so that we can read la belle sauvage in a book club of two.
the reason for all the re-reads is to prep me to read new stuff, and also to maybe get myself to finish the goldfinch which i read 3/4 of in 2014, and then stopped in a fit of anxiety. (that book was stressing me out, holy crap.) but chances are i won’t remember enough of the detail of what has happened which means i’ll have to re-read the parts that i’ve already done.
—
we won our quiz! our team was called Fred the Duck, and we won by a margin of 7 points. it was actually a really good evening, especially after a such a slow day. everyone contributed, too, and we won by more of a margin than the differences between other teams. huzzah!
—
on thursday night i came home from work, ate, cleaned up, packed and then headed out at 10pm to catch a train north to chesterfield to see the (ex-) flatmate. going up to chesterfield is pretty straightforward but involves a lot of traipsing around in mud - my bff has a dog - which i don’t mind at all, except i never pack enough clothes for it. it rained overnight on friday so i didn’t go with them on saturday.
the reason for the trip, other than to spend time with my bff, was so we could go to the crucible to watch the transfer of peter gill’s the york realist which is a lovely, quiet play about two men who fall in love over the course of a few weeks rehearsals of the york mysteries, and then struggle to maintain the relationship because of class differences. it wasn’t a story about repression or homophobia - in fact, it seemed like the family of one of the characters knew and tacitly supported him - but about the real things that can stop a relationship in its tracks, despite everyone’s best intentions and desires. ben batt was the lead, playing an earnest farm worker, and i just — aaaaahhhhhh, it was so good. i was worried i’d missed it completely because i didn’t see it at the donmar when it was on in london, but it was a joint production with sheffield theatres, hence the trip to the crucible. very glad we managed to book it. the crucible is a great space, too. i love going there.
on saturday we decided to do some easter baking, which translated into some cupcakes (lush) and some samurai santa cookies that ruthy had a kit for. the biscuits came out fine, and we made duck-shaped ones with the leftover dough, but we just couldn’t be bothered with the icing, so we mixed up the red, and left the rest, and honestly it was kind of a mess. we also used the pre-made mix to make buttercream but it was disgusting so we threw that out. the cupcakes were really lovely, even though i was worried the raising agent in the self raising flour would have expired. we used a very basic cupcake recipe, the one that is so easy to remember: all ingredients (self-raising flour, margarine, caster sugar and eggs) in equal proportion to the weight of the eggs; whisk like hell; bake at 180’C for 15-18 minutes. it’s the same recipe i use for sponge cakes, but easily adjustable for more or less.
i kind of want to make cake now.
—
came back late from chesterfield on saturday, and watched the first hour of the almeida / andrew scott hamlet before calling it a night. yesterday i sorted out my laundry, which is a hassle in this flat because most of my clothes can’t go in the drier, but the flat is often quite cold, so things take a long time to dry. i end up moving things around on the clothes horse all day, and some of the items had to stay out all night as well.
at midday i headed out to southbank to see some films at bfi flare’s second-chance sunday. i paid too much for those tickets, which is my fault for booking through a third party for-profit provider, but i was especially gutted to find out that since booking opened, the festival had added love simon to run at the same time i was in to see battle of the sexes. it’s out on general release next week, so i’ll probably see it at my local, but still.
battle of the sexes was a fun - if purposefully irritating - film, which i followed up with call me by your name in the evening, which i had sort of being resisting seeing, but ended up being far more my aesthetic than i had bargained for. there’s something about seeing a film at a festival that i really enjoy - probably the way the crowd experiences humour or sadness collectively. i didn’t go to lff last year, not even one film, and i’m determined to rectify that this year if possible. next year i’d like to go to more of the bfi flare programme, too.
—
today: groceries have been bought, vacuuming has been done, remaining clothes have been put away. i’m going to finish my netflix binge, and hopefully some knitting, then i need to make dinner this evening. back to work tomorrow.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-02 03:16 pm (UTC)The Goldfinch stressed me out, too. Lord, but I love Donna Tartt. It's just that she creates gen-angst out of thin air. It's really something...though I suppose one could say it's not quite so gen, this book.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-03 04:23 pm (UTC)i’m in the uk, and we’re still party to eu legislation that was enacted before the commencement of brexit negotiations. at some point we’ll swap out gdpr for an equivalent but my understanding is that the bill is being drafted with gdpr in mind (so that businesses don’t have to transition twice). i actually work in insurtech but my job gets a little fuzzy around the edges and i end up looking at a heap of different things. i’d made the assumption you’re in the states? though, if a business is transacting in the eu then you’re still beholden to the legislation, so that’s not a marker for anything!