Monday
Today was a continuation of Tilly’s 18th birthday party, which meant no work for any of us! Instead we watched Father Ted, did some singing and I wrote my story and played on the guitar while Tilly went out with a friend for a few hours. I’d been learning guitar for a good couple of months before I started to get distracted doing other things, so it was nice to pick it up again. I’m focusing on power chords right now because they sound really difficult but are actually stupidly easy! So I’m learning the intros to Eye of the Tiger, Smells Like Teen Spirit and Celebrity Skin. I’m also doing a few arpeggio-riff-things like the intro to Brazen by Skunk Anansie and Nothing Else Matters.
In the evening I had a biking class at the gym. On the app it was listed as Sprint which is only 30 minutes long, but it actually turned out to be The Trip which is 45 minutes long. About twenty minutes in, some woman decided she’d had enough, got off her bike and left 😂 Don’t blame her…
Tuesday
I spent a lot of this morning reading Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. I think I prefer his account to Herodotus’ account of the Persian Wars; it’s not any easier to read, but I’m finding it more engaging and I prefer Thucydides’ more matter-of-fact writing style. At first we were going to read some choice selections of the History as it’s so long, but we’ve decided now to just go through and read the whole thing since we’re enjoying it so much.
In the afternoon, I did my piano practice (violin is on hold as one of my strings has broken!) and went on a walk. We also watched the first episode of a documentary series on Ancient Rome in the evening.
After that, Andy and I were shocked to discover that we’ve run out of X-Files episodes to watch!! I have officially watched (almost) every single X-Files episode that ever there was twice. Of course, Andy had discovered a load of similar TV shows for just this kind of emergency, so we were able to start watching the first episode of Dark Skies instead. Dark Skies is a TV series that came out three years after the X-Files did, just as the X-Files was getting really famous. It’s got a very similar story to the X-Files too – two young government agents strive to uncover the truth about a covered-up alien invasion while the very government employing them works furiously against them.
Wednesday
Again, I spent the entire morning working through Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. My mum and I have been watching a 1991 re-enactment of the History called The War That Never Ends, which is basically a bunch of really good actors (including Ben Kingsley) reading out various selections of the very long History. It’s really well done and a much quicker and more engaging way of reading through it (though I will be doing that too 😅 The documentary is more consolidation than anything else).
In the evening, Andy and I finished off the first episode of Dark Skies. It certainly got much better than the bit we watched yesterday, as it escalated very quickly from a young man going on holiday with his girlfriend to FBI agents gunning down parasite-infected monkeys.
Thursday
Today, my mum had to drive Tilly into college, so I stayed at home and did my work by myself. I got up to date on my blog, read a lot of Frankenstein and started watching a Massolit course on Thucydides.
My mum and Tilly got back and we spent a lot of the afternoon watching the Ancient Rome documentary. It’s actually really interesting and well done.
In the evening, I had a biking class at the gym called The Trip. I had to book this one weeks in advance as it’s everyone’s favourite and therefore is always booked! There are about twelve (stationary! 😛) bikes in one cinema-like room, and everyone cycles along to a cool virtual fantastical land thingy with an instructor shouting at you as you go.
Friday
This morning, I read through some Thucydides and read the relevant chapter in Tilly’s A-Level book. Then we finished The War That Never Ends (unfortunately it didn’t do the whole of the History, only the first few chapters). It was actually really, really good, especially as it was made about 30 years ago! I particularly liked the scene between Socrates and Alcibiades, in which Alcibiades is absolutely slaughtered by Socrates’ quick and clever logic.
Weekend
My mum and Andy went out on Saturday afternoon to look at cars for Tilly, and Nanny came round while they were gone. Nanny and I did a lot of continuous line drawing, which is actually very addictive and fun! On Sunday I got my pencils out and started drawing something more seriously – a picture of Scully. I’m also going to draw a portrait of Nanny’s cousin’s son, who sadly passed away recently.
In the evening, we watched a brilliant film called Falling Down, starring Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall. You can read my film review here.
I had the gym on Sunday morning, so I was dead for the next few hours afterwards before being able to get my drawing out again. Later, Tilly and I are going to make some brownies!