RhaenysBee

I have no business giving advice on children - but I will anyway, because I’m insufferable like that. (Of course disregard everything I ramble on about that doesn’t sound useful or is downright stupid ) I’d say don’t overthink it, you can’t sustain 24 hours of fun for several weeks. Kids enjoy “mundane” grown-up chores if you include them according to their maturity level (without burdening them with adult responsibility obviously, which can happen in difficult family situations). At least I remember feeling super important and accomplished whenever I “helped” my mum run errands or clean or cook or whatever. I’d say Include her in whatever you do and make it sound cool for her - it’s a fun mindfulness exercise for an adult to reframe their own day through a child’s eye too, you realize these things can be fun too. And sure sprinkle in the fun stuff when you can reasonably dedicate the time for movie nights or christmas fairs or crafts or boardgames or baking or all the cool things. But I’d think that tagging along with you in your everyday lives is fun and cool through a child’s eye too, not the mundane rat-race it often feels to us. (I remember it was especially super cool when I went on errands with my aunt or she took me to her company sports day and I “ran track” with her and my uncle, I even went to her handball practice once and “guarded” their water bottles and gave them to each player and that was the most important mission of my 5-6 years on earth). Of course if she’s anxious if crowds the company sports day isn’t the best example but hopefully you know what I mean. also, I hope her situation gets better! It must be super difficult and though for her especially at christmas. oh one more thing I remember loving at this age was animals. So zoo, looking for squirrels/ducks/etc in the park, getting to know the dogs of the neighborhood, etc also make for super cool kid experiences.

Oh no, I’m so sorry! Document replacement is an awful hassle.

Tesco here doesn’t do a rewind. That might be interesting at least. Wolt (which would be the equivalent of uber eats) doesn’t do one either, thank god. Boy, that one, I want to see even less than the taxi one. No to all the how you wasted money this year rewinds. In other news I’m finally off work and the weather is ugly again. The fog is so thick you can’t see across the river. Or down to the water from the bridge.

All right, the rewinds need to stop. Spotify was creepy enough, now my taxi app is shoving a rewind into my face. No. Leave me alone. I don’t want to know how much I spent on taxis this year. Those are one-at-a-time consumer decisions. Made and immediately tucked away in a dark cognitive bias box.

I’m so sorry to read this. Coming to terms with physical impairment is hell, even if it’s not permanent. And I do hope you can get to an appointment soon and get some reassurance about what’s happening. Modern medicine is impressive and if science has an idea how to deal with your eye, they will deal with it. As terrifying as it is, you are in about the best place and time in 21st century UK to get a treatment and stop the progress of the impacted eye. I wish with all my heart for the best possible outcome. And still, even knowing that there’s objective probability there’s light behind the clouds, the wait, the uncertainty, the fears, the process are draining and debilitating and dark. And I’m so sorry you’re going through that. If you ever want to talk to internet randos, I’m here. Huge hug and don’t give up.

What really bothered me and prevented the story from coming together was the lack of larger agenda on anybody’s part. And yes this is in part a world building issue, I agree, and to me it also felt like a structure issue. We had all these attempts to sketch a big picture and every single one of them just fizzled out. Oh it’s not this. Oh it’s not that either. Oh no, it’s not that other person either. In the end, it wasn’t anything or anyone. You could edit out or swap background characters and subplots and absolutely nothing would be impacted. No chain of logic, no small pieces coming together. There were so many nods to so many other better production that the show forgot to be something in its own right. I was getting everything from Red Sparrow/Killing Eve through Guy Ritchie to Love Actually (and not just because of Christmas and Keira Knightly). Helen’s motivation and stakes were to me impossible to subscribe to. Their selfishness could have been a shared character flow to bond over and humor and embrace as charisma if the show didn’t insist on portraying both of them as tragic heroes (I do think this was worse in Sam’s case). The only quote on quote good guy/decent person on the show was coincidentally the husband. 100%. It had every element to be amazing, it just never came together. I wonder if they will have a second season. I think the ambiguity of whether there’s continuation played a strong part in how bad the last episode was. They wanted to both finish and not finish it - so they did both and neither.

So I tried some of the new netflix releases… The Perfect Couple - This fell sooooooo flat. Textbook example of biting off more than one can chew. Half the plot with half the characters with twice the depth could have worked beautifully. The scenes were crowded, most of the chaeacters had too little to do, the investigation was plain pathetic, none of the characTer stories worked, because there was no time to explore them enough, most characters were one way or the other horrible people. I couldn’t say who was the lead character, I couldn’t say if this was a sloppy crime drama or an unfunny crime comedy, because it didn’t work either way. The dialogue was stale and distant, the characters were boring without a trace of relatability. There was a strong sense of this is something chatgpt might have thrown together. There was some really great acting mixed into the overflowing bowl, and I do want to know what plastic surgeon Nicole Kidman frequents, because boy that person knows their shit. Black Doves - British, Christmasy espionage with Keira Knightly. What’s NOT to love? Well it was awfully boring in the sense that I wasn’t the least invested in anybody’s situation. Ben Whishaw is an amazing actor but his character was an insufferable unprofessional hypocrite who hindered everybody else and was in a constant state of pity party. Even though he was supposed to be some sort of mentor to the heroine , he had serious issues with walking the walk rather than just talking the talk. The M character lacked in both charisma and acting, the main “villain” if you can call her that was a weird caricature with neither the build up nor the presence to matter. The husband worked as a character, the contract killer ladies were a delight. Keira Knightly herself did a great job and had a decent albeit not a great character too, but was perpetually stuck in a ridiculous plot that went absolutely nowhere. Her love interest which seemed to be the sole motivator for her to be in the plot was vague and weak and didn’t evoke any sympathy or investment. I can only assume the title (and the whole concept) was a weary attempt at Anglofying Red Sparrow, it worked as little as that one did a couple years ago. So perhaps it wasn’t quite the best inspiration in terms of title, or movie. The conclusion of the plot was bewildering, ridiculous and it felt like I sat through 6 hours for absolutely nothing.

Thanks! Happy birthday to you too! Hope the second half will be filled with fun and celebration after the academic start!

Yeah, I would definitely go to the cinema. And I missed out on two musicals of Christmas season already, so why not substitute. And it’s an excuse to hide away from my tasks in the dark in a comfy chair with a pretzel.

I have heard only good things about the movie Wicked and I’m pretty curious to see Ariana. But. The PR is an absolute cringe fest and thus a very strong motivator to not give my money to this production. It’s not fair to judge book by its cover just as it’s not fair to judge a movie by its PR. Then again, what else are you going yo judge it by? I’m completely on the fence about this movie. Maybe the solution is to get off social media and watch whatever tickles my fancy, sit in the cinema completely blind about what to expect and pass judgement at the end. (like I did with Conclave) because PR usually misrepresents the movie and why should I dismiss the work of hundreds of people because the PR manager was a maniac? I do miss the cinema experience so maybe I should let this urge be my guide in the deadly serious and complex decision of watching or not watching Wicked…

It does, thank you! I’m only the top 0.005% listener of Ava Max. (Though I think I might have been a top 0.001% listener of Santiano last year when my Viking Tavern phase dominated the Pink Princess Pop one… insanity)

My birthday dinner was postponed so I went to the christmas market and had street food and a rum punch alone, then I wasted a lot of money on expensive makeup on the shopping street. I got home, I checked my spotify wrap which always makes me feel like an obsessive freak with a triple split personality*. And now I will watch a Meg Ryan comfort movie which is the guilty pleasure of my 30s. I don’t mind, it was nice enough for a weekday birthday and I have extra plans for Sunday. Besides the point is that I made it another year and I’m so grateful and happy to still be here and still have a clear bill of health. Emilia Clarke posted her birthday cake on instagram which said Still alive, still hot. When I make it to 35, I will order myself a cake like that. Anyway, life is good. I love life. And much like with people, I can love life while still sometimes be annoyed and pissed off by certain parts of it. I guess I have finally matured into the mindset that I know I can and do love my life without pressuring myself to enjoy every second of it. I love the whole package. / ramble ramble… it’s not even the punch it was so weak… * so spotify sums up my split personalities as such: February was your Pink Pilates Princess Hollywood Pop phase. April was your Viking Tavern Medieval season. November was your Theatrical West End Broadway moment I mean that sounds like me, and I always knew I was a nutcase, but before the data revolution at least computer programs didn’t rub it in my face in celebratory visuals

I will sign up too! Im so sorry to have missed the previous game. Time to be back on the acrophobia bandwagon.

Honestly, I’m not even sure. The general challenge was that you need twice to three times as many words/syllables in Hungarian to express the same thing as in English. So a ton got lost in translation, and the lyrics were still so crammed that the singers had to talk so fast you could barely make out what was said in the theatre. We mostly just enjoyed the choirs and the melody. There were also translation choices I don’t necessarily agree with, I suspect they wanted it to be smart/cool. I think sticking with a blander yet grammatically-correct-er word would have served them better than non-existent half words and outdated slang (this was most apparent with divorced-beheaded-died-survived). Don’t Lose Your Head and Get Down worked best in Hungarian. /language ramble well if and when I’m in London again, I’m definitely watching it with the original lyrics. Oh I think I know this artist, I remember coming across her music in my modern medieval obessesion era. Will give it a listen, thanks!

I liked the show but the translation was quite horrible so I only got to appreciate the lyrics via spotify.

I was surprised about the runtime too, but it explained why it started at 8 instead of 7pm. Have a lovely time, it’s going to be a blast!

Well after that initial promise to stick around as an extra, I totally ghosted this game didn’t I? Sorry about that Castellan buuuuut I love the self help titles you all came up with,it’s such fun to read them back lovely stuff!

It must have been months since the last time I checked in here The other week I watched SIX the musical about Henry VIII six wives, and since then it’s been playing in my brain nonstop. Here is the ultimate ranking of the songs by me - which you need in your life, because… well you just do. 1. All You Wanna Do (Catherine Howard) - ultimately the most creative lyrics with the deepest subtext and the best melodies. 2. Don’t Lose Your Hear (Anne Boleyn) - the most fun lyrics and best choir to sing along to, also she’s my favorite queen (that said, the subtext did no justice to her story). 3. House of Holbein - this is pure gold, the melody, the accent, the creative lyrics. Sadly very short. 3.5. No Way (Catherine of Aragon) - great melodies, good lyrics, overall very solid. 4. Get Down (Anne of Cleves) - fun lyrics, good choirs, just not necessarily my favorite style of music. 4.5. Six (Outro) - fun, good melodies, great choir, and creative rewrites of the lyrics 5. Ex-Wives (Intro) - slightly overlong, but exposition is necessary, great choirs 6. Heart of Stone (Jane Seymour) - this is a beautiful, powerful, slow love song with a lovely choir and a necessary versatility among the other songs, but I just like the fast paced, upbeat dane along songs in musicals. 7. I Don’t Need Your Love - a bit bland and the least fun, catchy, creative of the songs. If you enjoy musicals at all, do listen to it on spotify and enjoy. *dance emoji*

Whatever floats your boat. I’m sure it’ll look great! we had a family lunch today. Absolute horror. Goodness, I want to have a 4 week holiday alone, off grid, far from all of them, preferably in a deluxe psychiatric institution. Then, I might be ready to reenter everyday life. I drank the better part of a bottle of wine alone and that helped. Now I want quiet and my book.

Well, I’m very unused to it at this point. And I will welcome two extra inches, which should grow out in 3-4 months. But generally yes, I hope it will be a bit more managable and perhaps a tad healthier. good luck with growing out your hair! Any particular length or style you want to achieve in mind?

I had my hair cut. Like properly to shoulder length, as opposed to 2cms from the ends. It’s the shortest it’s ever been since I was 10. I kinda hate it but I also kinda love it and most importantly it’s finally distinctively different from what it’s been for 20 years. Also, I’m in my 30s (which I surprisingly love) and I want to look it. I want to look like I’m 31, rather than 21 or 25 or whatever. And in a way, a long bob gives me that sense of I’m a grown woman who’s seen her fair share of shit. I

On the topic of kettles. Both grandmothers had a gas stove top kettle, it boiled the water relatively quickly. My mother though… boy she had the bizarre habit of making tea in a drip coffee maker. As a child I completely believed that the purpose of the machine was to make tea and only realized it was for coffee when my mother reached middle age and she started drinking coffee too. Then she got a Nespresso machine and after I left for uni and discovered electric kettles, I bought her one too. She uses neither, and to this day keeps making both tea and coffee in a drip coffee machine. Absolutely hopeless. I’m forever team electric kettle ever since I moved out and got one at 18.

So most of my Q3 was spent on the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith (pseudonym for JK Rowling). I read Cuckoo’s Calling, The Silkworm, Career of Evil, Lethal White, Troubled Blood. I’m currently on Ink Black Heart. My favorite of the first 5 was probably Troubled Blood, but all of them are phenomenal. What they all have in common is the Rowling factor - the buildup is always much more satisfying than the solution. But, it’s master storytelling, the dialogue is great, the characters are deep, layered, vibrant, lovable, the atmosphere is brilliantly British. It’s a page-turner, it’s amazing. I couldn’t love this series more if I tried. Beside that I listened to The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting which is Evanna Lynch’s autobiography, who played Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter. I laughed, I cried, I learned. She has a lovely, friendly, open, real and raw style which grew on me within the first half hour. She also narrates it herself, which makes the story all the more authentic and close to my heart. It was a beautiful, fun, touching listen. I plan to buy a paperback version too. And I’m currently listening to Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari. I’m… undecided. I will wait and see where it’s going before I voice an opinion.

While everbody gets a bomb so we can all obliterate ourselves, please don’t forget… It’s breast cancer awareness month! Self-check, schedule a screening appointment (and go to your screening appointment, too)! Or encourage your female friends, relatives, coworkers, etc. Wear pink. And ditch bombs.

Could I join, in a way where I might skip a round here and there based on business and anxiety? like an extra player or something?