1610: late pie

Throughput

• We made this banoffee pie and it was amazing (this actually happened a few weeks back and I forgot to mention but it was really good so I thought it was worth bringing up). Our tin was a bit small which meant all the layers (and especially the caramel) were extremely thick, but we just had very narrow slices (and gave it all away to friends)
• Went out for drinks with a friend of a friend, which we've been trying and failing to organise for a few weeks now. Coming out of Covid, I realised that I prefer in-person conversations to online ones, and 1-1 to group conversations, so I tried to dial up the number of those I organised with my friends, and that is probably one of the best tthings I've done in recent years, so this year I thought I'd try and do that with people who I know, think are cool and would like to know better. A slow process, but going well so far.
• I also happened to see one of my favourite authors, John Higgs, in the pub! He was extremely lovely when I came over and interrupted the conversation he was having with his friend to tell him how important his books were to me. I encountered Stranger Than We Can Imagine (which I think I called Stranger Than We Can Suppose when I was talking to him—guess I was thinking of the Haldane quote) at a time in 2019 when I was feeling very down in a lot of ways and for a lot of reasons, and reading that book really gave me some reassurance that the way that I thought—not what I believed, but how I approached thinking about stuff—was... valid, I suppose? It was just the right thing for me to encounter at the time that I did, and it was nice to be able to tell him that.
• Josef was feeling a bit ropey on Friday so we didn't do Memhaz, then CM started feeling ropey so we didn't go to the get-together we were going to, then on Saturday I started to feel a bit ropey too and CM's illness progressed to the point where she didn't feel up to going to the hen night she was planning to... bit of a bum weekend, but it did at least force us to take it somewhat easy.

Output

• I wrote something about an old article about people on the internet who talk about ADHD.
• I wrote something about personality and political beliefs.
• I wrote something about enjoying good writers.
• I recorded an episode of a new podcast that will be out soon(!?!)

Input

• Started watching the Octopus documentary. Hoping this will help me to understand that 10-part Ghost Stories series which was good but very difficult to follow.
• Watching Gilmore Girls, I feel like some of the characterisation is getting a bit inconsistent, but still enjoying it. We've also taken some brief tangents into Youtube videos on the topic, and my goodness, are a lot of Youtube Gilmore Girls videos some low-effort endeavours.
• Went to see Perfect Days at the cinema and it was so, so lovely. Tom compared it to Aftersun; it has a lot of the same 'acute observation of everyday situations' vibe but thankfully also less of the ambient dread. There's also a lot of shots of the main guy driving around Tokyo which are really like my beloved Driving Japan videos. I will agree with Stephen Bush that it maybe could've been a bit shorter, though.
• Tried starting about five books but none of them have taken yet.
• I saw this root beer cordial in a shop the other day and it's incredible, I've been drinking way too much of it.

Keep it real! Over and out.