FILMS

A Real Pain: reminded me how much I miss my Polish grandmother, one of the best people I’ve ever known.

TV

You: an absolute nonsense show but always entertaining. We’re just over half way through, and there is no way I could’ve guessed the turns it would take to get here.

MUSIC

Lonely People With Power by Deafheaven: hot damn, blastbeats are so back.

Manning Fireworks by MJ Lenderman: I regret missing out on tickets for his Glasgow show, every time I listen to this album I find a new little bit to appreciate.

GAMES

You Suck At Parking: I looooove twitchy little skill-based games where in theory I could just play it for 5 minutes, crack through a few levels and put it down, but instead I end up spending an hour trying to do something just a tiny bit better. Somehow got a time in the top 100 on Switch for a level, which I’m disproportionately proud of.

Blue Prince: it’s a roguelike and a puzzler, so obviously it appeals to me on a fundamental level. It’s quite interesting, though you can feel those two mechanics occasionally working against each other in an unsatisfying way. We finally finished the main objective right at the end of the month (I finished a video game!!!) and I celebrated it so much. Good game.

MISCELLANEOUS

Port Vale Football Club: I’m trying to draft these posts as things come up through the month and they’re fresh in my head, but as April is the last month of the football season (with only a single league fixture in May) much of my mood will be dictated by what happens to my silly little football team. A week into April, after three impressive results on the spin, I’m currently feeling cautiously optimistic.

12th April: biggest win in a long time, literally every other result going in our favour, we’re top of the bloody league. What could possibly go wrong? …ah, we’re playing second-bottom next and I will be in attendance. That might do it.

18th April: …I simply hate to say I told you so.

21st April: yelled so loud our neighbours almost certainly heard it. I don’t mind.

26th April: I cannot believe we haven’t left it to until the last game. My heart is grateful in multiple ways, what a club.

Running (or; realising I might be A Runner after all): in the 5 years since I took up running, I’ve been fortunate enough to only ever really have been unable to run due to illness, rather than injury. Getting sidelined by a hip injury for the past month or so, then, has maybe made me finally acknowledge that I actually Quite Like Running (though I fear putting this in writing will end up with a lot of people saying I told you so). Having a routine, getting to chat to my pals (and new people!) and feeling like I’m slowly improving are all things that it turns out are quite good for my silly little brain. Physio is hopefully helping but I just need to be patient.