I spent some time over the holidays pondering what I should do with this blog to make it less tedious to write and potentially also to read. Seems like single topic posts are not really what I enjoy. The idea of doing a regular weekly blog (at a minimum) came to mind – probably spurred on by the Haynes (no relation) desk diary Siggy’s mum bought me for Crimbo. I don’t normally use desk diaries like this, but it is the perfect format for making quick notes over the week.
Anyway here’s my first post in this format. let me know in the comments section if you liked it.
The week started with watching X-Men Apocalypse. To be blunt, I was totally underwhelmed by it. It was pretty boring and had nothing to offer to distinguish from any other superhero or X-Men film. Yawn! But here’s the trailer nonetheless:
Wow it looks good from the trailer. Pity it wasn’t it. Hats off to the trailer makers though.
I spent a little time playing campaign mode in Battlefield 1. I’m finding it a lot more hardcore than Star Wars Battlefront.
Then it was back to work. Everyone complaining about being tired, eating out of date mince pies and leftover Quality Street. For a four day week it was a long slog. I listened to more No Such Thing As A Fish podcasts on the drive to and from work.
I won’t talk about work here as I like to keep my professional and private lives seperate, but I do want to share this interesting video on ‘millennials’ that went viral recently and in some ways it does cover what people are calling ‘Generation-Z’ also. I found the section on mobile phone usage very insightful and it certainly made me think:
Back at home I caught up with Grand Tour and Vikings. I’m not sure if we’ve seen the last of Ragnor Lodbrok – he did have the crap beaten out of him and got dropped into a pit of poisonous snakes – but maybe he just went on a break to do promo for Warcraft. I watched the film a month or so ago and was pleasantly surprised. In fact I’d go so far as to say that it was more enjoyable than Apocalypse.
Also found the time to watch Ron Howard’s Eight Days A Week about the Beatles’ touring years. It was a very well put together documentary and reminded me how much I enjoy their music.
I started reading David Mitchell’s Number9Dream and I’m thoroughly enjoying it so far. I found myself reading the book in a Liverpool accent, maybe as a bi-product of watching The Beatles film. Odd given that it is set in Tokyo.
Before the film I watched a bit more of The Man In The High Castle and now it has gone beyond the confines of Dick’s original story, I am finding it intriguing. Although I’m not sure that featuring Concorde really works even in this alternative history as I’m sure it was developed much later in time.
I played some more Battlefront and laughed at all the new players figuring out the objectives and making all the same mistakes I made when I was a lowly rookie. I managed to finally get 5/5 kills with the sonic imploder (a gadget that really doesn’t lend itself to fatalities) later in the week and then today completed the my final outstanding Hutt Contract which involved getting 3 kill streaks with a shock blaster – which was easier said than done even though they have redefined a kill streak to be 7 instead on 10 kills.
Here’s a taster of the fun that can be had:
So I now have all the Hutt Contracts completed and feel like a millstone has been lifted from around my neck. I can now enjoy trying to get up to level 100 without being handicapped by carrying weapons I don’t like. There’s quite a lot of trophies that I haven’t got, but I find that my need for what is the equivalent of all those achievements and gamerscore I hoarded on the Xbox aren’t as important to me since I switched consoles.
Talking of Star Wars, I watched a couple of episodes of the Clone Wars animated show. I watched the show a few years ago, but never really got into it. I bought the box set (and a couple of Rebels seasons) for Christmas, so I hope I enjoy it more this time. So far so good I have to say. Although she did enjoy The Force Awakens, Siggy won’t watch it with me preferring such delights as Location, Location, Location and Tattoo Fixers.
Friday night we went out with friends to Goodliffe’s which I have already reviewed on fdndrnk.com and the highlight was a very nice starter of strips of crispy pork belly with a sweet dipping sauce and asian coleslaw. Artery hardening stuff. Saturday we tried a new Mexican in town and I did do a post about it here: Loco Mexicano. I had churros for the first time and it was amazing.
Today, before sitting down to type this up from my rather random note taking over the course of the week, we watched The Nice Guys – a very entertaining buddy detective film based in Seventies LA from the writer of Lethal Weapon and the excellent Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Here’s the trailer, I thoroughly recommend it:
I watch a lot of films every week that never really get mentioned on this blog and so I guess one good thing about this style of post is that I will be able to mention them all. Films and tv shows are a central part of my life and this will be reflected as this blog progresses through 2016.
couchmagpie 