April 7, 2020

Lockdown Blog 15: Addicted to Netflix, books, games and [insert other]

First things first, who’s seen Tiger King? And who’s been more and more surprised each episode by the level of craziness that takes place?! For those who are blissfully ignorant about what I’m referring to, there’s a new Netflix series about a unique subset of humankind, living in America: Big Cat owners. I’m not normally one for reality TV (unlike Johnny who’s an aficionado) but this has kept me entertained and, at regular intervals, induced my jaw to drop. Without giving too much away, all I can say is it’s unlike anything you have ever seen and, undoubtedly, will see again in the future.

To balance the murder, mayhem and madness of Tiger King, I’ve gone back the the Naughties and decided to finally finish Prison Break. The first series was epic. The later series…hmmm….perhaps not so much. That said, it’s easy TV and as far as escapism goes – for both actor and viewer – it ticks the box. Once we’ve finished Tiger King it’s onto the much anticipated Money Heist Season 4, which came out the other day. We’ve been itching to watch it but want to finish with big cats and their outrageous owners first!

You’ll be pleased to know that the tree ferns are starting to unfurl some lovely little fronds. I’ll keep you updated as they grow. It’ll be mildly faster than watching paint dry. Also, going to try my hand at tapping a birch tree. Apparently if done correctly the tree sap is clear and delicious…who knew?!

On the book front, over the past fortnight I’ve thoroughly enjoyed devouring an absolutely wonderful Jonas Jonasson treat: The accidental further adventures of the hundred-year-old man. It’s the sequel to The hundred-year-old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared. Unlike Prison Break Series 2 (or maybe like Prison Break Series 2 if you think so) it’s as good as its forebear. The style of writing is very cinematic, I would say. I’ve just started the next one called The girl who saved the king of Sweden. So far, so good, and I have the final one called Hitman Anders and the meaning of it all to come.

On Saturday I started play Fifa 14 on my Xbox 360 for the first time in 2 1/2 years…yeah, I know…It'll either turn out to be a really good idea or a really bad idea. I was umm-ing and ahh-ing about doing it but I thought, why not? The key will be to limit playing time because some of you may not be aware of the fact that I have a bit of a gaming addiction. Once I start, I find it difficult to stop. My self-control over the years has been woeful at times. Probably best to leave out too many more details in case you change your opinion of me as someone who has the ability to make sensible, smart, mature and rational decisions. I’ve also downloaded Ticket to Ride and am proud to say that I’ve only spent an hour in total, so far, playing with my neighbour online. It’s great fun and wayyyyy faster than the board game counterpart, which is obviously still fun.

On Friday and Monday, Liz and I, along with our mates James, Lizzie, Katie and Will, had a wonderful evening hangout out, eating, drinking and laughing together on video chat. No doubt you may have done something similar over the past few weeks. It’s a great antidote to life in your own company, which we’re getting more than our fair share of right now. The six of us have decided to make it a weekly event which is great!

Finally, as I’m typing this, I’ve started uploading archive footage from over the years to our KS Dropbox, the mothership of our audiovisual library. We’ll be choosing selected clips and uploading them to our social media accounts in due course. I love all this old school stuff even if some of the quality is lacking due to the process of transferring from TV to VHS to DVD to Cloud. The VHS to DVD part was done by my father-in-law Tom who had to upload it in real time which is HUGE effort. When you see a carefully edited portion online in the coming weeks and months, spare a thought and perhaps a kind word to him for making it possible.

Finally, finally, happy wedding anniversary today to my brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Cathy! Love ya heaps.

Take care everyone. Bye for now!