HexMachina

Good to see you, it feels like a long time! Sorry about the home repairs but it must feel good to be a homeowner? I fell behind on the show so it's not been a weekly event caught up now though so will do the last episodes weekly. I'm getting into jam making? Why? Because Le Beau demands jam, that's why, and I must oblige!

I climbed the walls in Kotor, unwisely in the midday heat. Whew. Sweating, red faced, but damn those views were worth it. Had some frozen margs afterwards to make up for it. Honestly I would love to be back. Edit: Sorry to hear Buck, stay well, rest up. I like the new show well enough, it's not must watch TV bust has some spectacular moments and great performances. Haven't checked ROP yet, I might give it a go before my amazon expires

Apparently Cosidine said in an interview somewhere he does and I'm assuming that comes from the script. Interesting that the episode ended as it did. Presumably that was Viserys' last breath, but I thought he'd be dying in the last episode of the season. Very interesting. I've only just caught up so are we currently missing Aegon's and Helaena's children? I also thought, given her obsession with spiders, they were going to have Helaena be the one poison Viserys as my recollection was that she was the last to visit him in the books. Watched the preview for next week which looks interesting, I was trying to place the scenes and couldn't place many of them based on what I recall from the source.

I've been behind but finally caught up and your reaction (followed by more tempered reaction afterwards) pretty much matches mine. I'd also add that Alicent has continued to impress me (the actress) all season but that is more because I've not commented before today. Cut him in half and count the rings I gave it an 8 overall, with moments that were a 10

I was very tempted to IM you actually...but then I wondered if it was weird. Dubrovnik is beautiful and yes warm enough to swim right now. As I said we had a lot of luck and hit a sunny spell after a fair amount of rain. We were actually forecast thunderstorms all week but only had one on Monday which was great. I live alone but in a bigger flat than before (2 bed 2 bath)as I have guests quite often. And my partner stops over too but we live apart. It's good though as I use the spare room for an office when I work from home. Where/how are you living these days? Eta: also have you visited the former Yugoslavia countries? We learned a lot just on our day trips it was fascinating. And Montenegro was beautiful absolutely stunning

Read back a little: Lany, lovely to hear from you and sorry the workload is unbalanced and the son is being a bum. I'm sure you can get him into shape though. Glad you get to see the rest of your family more! Rhae, Buck, winter is apparently encroaching in the UK from what my friends told me while I have been away. It was getting there when I left too which is sad. I live in a nice flat now though so it shouldn't be so bad as it's less drafty. Those energy bills though...

Greetings all from sunny Croatia! We have been very lucky with our holiday and only had one brief rainy morning and the rest has been a week of glorious late season warmth and sun. It's been such a fabulous week, we toured the old town of Dubrovnik (yes, we saw the Game of Thrones filming locations though we didn't do the dedicated tour), I walked the city walls (Le Beau said her legs are made for sitting, not climbing) and made a friend from the Philippines. We went up a cable car and had some boogie drinks while watching the sunset, explored Lokrum. We've also been to Montenegro and explored Kotor, again climbed the old walls, went to Perast and saw Our Lady of the Rocks. Went to Bosnia and Herzegovina today and had a lovely day in Mostar sipping Turkish coffee and doing some serious wine tasting. Tomorrow is our last day so after so much packed in I think we will take it easy with a light stroll and some relaxing, maybe a spa treatment at the hotel. It's been the best time and all the better because I've not been abroad in so long. Hope you are all well!

And one!

I don't have the comparison point of the books but now the show is done(? I'll stay hopeful) I'll be giving them a try. Looking forward to seeing the changes and hopefully getting further info on some things the show didn't have time for. I agree that the show did a great job with casting actors who gave a lot of life to these roles Aside from Drummer, who I just mentioned, and Avasarala who I've praised before, I very much enjoyed Amos and Bobby. For two characters on the quieter and more emotionally reserved side I thought each of them brought a lot to to their roles, especially Amos (Wes Chatham). I should dive into the bonus stuff while my Amazon is still active

Incredible, congrats Starkess!

I just booked a trip to Vienna end of November/beginning of December which naturally brought me to TTTNE. How are you all?

Once you've started you may as well go all in. No point showing up just a 'little' hungover. What are your shots of choice?

I am 7 months late but finally managed to get around to the final season. Well worth the wait and I will absolutely miss this show, its been such a delight from beginning to end. Standout for this final season was definitely Drummer

Quick point regarding Maeve, this season she has also worked extremely hard to get herself ready to face Homelander. She's stopped drinking (mostly, just then one tipsy night with Butcher) and says she has been training. I think this is a lot different to the Maeve from season one and two. Maeve also showed she could at least hurt Stormfront in season 2 and that was before she began making an effort to train more. I didn't have an issue with her going up against Homelander in the finale - he was also clearly holding back from killing her for most of the fight

Thank you all, appreciate the input and think quite honestly I just needed to get that out of my system somewhere. Everything you've all said sounds sensible and I'll likely just bring it up as a point in my next 1-2-1 that maybe our team should have these opportunities and would make more sense from a business perspective

I am in a strange situation at work. Generally everything is going well, I enjoy the job, enjoy my team, feel I get paid fairly, etc. However, recently there's been a situation that really just seems like a complete lack of awareness from one of the senior operations team (not directly above me but higher in the business structure I guess). She has mentioned, repeatedly, a trip she is taking to New York to pitch our services to our office there. There was a little jealousy at first of course but kind of just accepted it and moved in. But as the trip has got closer its felt more and more annoying. She is going to pitch our services without actually knowing what it my team does and how we work. Over the past week and a half I've been asked to prepare case studies, a presentation, and coach her on what it is we are able to offer. And yesterday she asked me to dial in remotely to assist with the presentation in case anyone had questions. Bearing in mind the time differences, this means I will need to stop late on the day of the presentation. I (and others on my team) are now feeling incredibly frustrated and resentful that this person has been sent on this trip that we have done all of the work for. Not only would we have liked to go, but we'd have been more suitable. If anyone asks her a question after the presentation she won't have a clue how to respond. It feels like this doesn't even make sense from a business perspective. Am I being u reasonable to feel so resentful? Would it be reasonable to discuss how I'm feeling about this with my manager (who also had to assist this person in prepping for the trip)? I feel petty for thinking like this but there it is

I mean its a TV show, what did you expect it to do? If its not making profit its getting cancelled.

Tell him you're on your period and couldn't possibly operate such a complicated machine at this time because you're all in a tizzy

I'd guess he said it as a selling point knowing there would be obvious overlaps between his target audience and fans of GRRM. Promising the series is already done would be a big selling point (not sure the exact year he made the claim but I guess there had already been the wait between aSoS and aFfC)? maybe he thought he could deliver on that maybe not, but I don't find myself willing to believe much that he says when it comes to the progress of his books.

"Kindly following up on my previous email (attached)...."

I'm going to have to resubscribe to Prime for this, is the show weekly after these first three episodes? I'll cancel once I've watched this season (and the final season of the Expanse!) so tryi g to decide whether to just wait until the full season isnout

This might be my favourite song on the album which is saying a lot. Edit: You didn't really expect me to not post something on release day did you?

By saying the words "I'll have an Aperol Spritz." Joke, I'm sure they're good for some but not for me. I worked late tonight to meet a work deadline and have just got home. I'm going to treat myself by opening a bottle of wine* and drifting off to the new Florence album. *A bad idea, probably, I will undoubtedly throw up and have an awful hangover tomorrow but I have no spirits left and didn't have my card when I passed the shop so cheap wine it is. Edit: Ended up drunkenly weeping while listening to music, but a good cry every now and then does the mind good

Someone decided it was a good idea to have a drink reception after our firm's charity event. Ah good bye.

Hi! Glad to hear things are going well. Your thesis sounds very interesting, obviously very relevant to queer communities but equally applicable to all kinds of atypical/chosen family setups. Kind of silly but I once listened to a podcast discuss the film/book Matilda from a similar perspective of Matilda as a queer child, discovering their 'powers' (querness), being rejected and misunderstood by her birth family and eventually discovering her chosen family through school and Miss Honey. Anyway, rambling, good luck with the thesis! Hopefully not too stressful, I know mine drove me to the brink when I was doing it but I had a lot going on back then. Fingers crossed on your creative writing too. @Buckwheat @RhaenysBee long overdue but I agree with your assessments on Bridgerton. Apparently Kate is a fan favourite in the books (which I have not read) and I was watching just thinking how terrible she was. Edwina all the way for me. Rhaenys, the final season of Killing Eve....I...no words.