Yes, yes, I know this was going to be a daily blog, and it is (was), but real life is a tricky thing and sometimes it foils the best-laid plans.
Last time I posted I wasn’t feeling too well, and unfortunately,
it only got worse. By the weekend I was so ill I couldn’t even get out of bed
(I wasn't alone in this as Quincy went down with it too – must have been from The Rose concert). Between the shivering/overheating, bone-breaking pain, aching,
coughing, sore throat, earache and just generally feeling bloody awful I had no
energy to do anything, let alone blog. Even watching TV was out because I
couldn’t get my brain to process what I was seeing and listening to music was the same.
Sleep was pretty much the only option.
Unfortunately, despite still feeling more dead than alive,
the following week at work was a tough one. While I would have preferred to
stay wrapped up in bed feeling sorry for myself, it wasn’t to be. Instead, I
ended up working late almost every day to get everything done that needed sorting.
I dosed myself up with every type of drug I could think of and battled through,
recovering enough to attend the Ateez concert at the O2 on
22 February – there was no way we were missing it given what the tickets had
cost.
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| Ateez in action |
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| Fix on! Mingi spitting bars |
It was a brilliant evening and was just the boost I needed
to help cheer me up and pull through the virus (I guess all the work helped
too). Although it has dragged on and I still have little energy even now, and
some weird possibly related side effects (complete loss of smell and taste at
the time which is still 90% gone even now, and vertigo whenever I lie on my
left side (my preferred sleeping position) which may have something to do with
an ear infection, plus general ongoing light-headedness all the time), I’m
finally beginning to feel as if I’m heading back to normal . . . just in time
for hayfever season (hurrah for all the silver birch trees around my flat that are
currently pollinating like crazy 😖).
So, although I felt a bit better, I still had little energy
for doing anything much and with work still crazy it made me less inclined to
do anything but settle back and watch TV (The Blood of Youth – a Chinese
wuxia drama with some crazy special effects starring the ever-pretty Lee Hong Yi, which I’m just finishing today). I know it’s probably because
I’m old, so it takes longer to recover from everything, but I am honestly fed
up with being knackered just from walking to the loo and back.
I also finally went back to Hogwarts Legacy and began the game in earnest. Currently, I’m about 9% of the way through (I’m pretty certain I’m officially the slowest player ever). I have finally mastered the art of running up and down stairs (sod being a Hogwarts student. I had never considered what those 142 staircases meant in terms of getting to and from classes – you need to be bloody fit), although I do still walk into things: walls, people etc. more than I probably should. I have been duelling, despite not having a clue what or how I’m doing it – although I had to quit from the game a few days ago because there were some foes that I just couldn’t work out how to attack.
I have generally been pootling around, working my way
through the main game, picking up side quests as I come across them, although I
still can’t work out how to find the stuff that shows up when I cast the Revelio
spell (I’m assuming that I’m not currently at the right level and it will come
to me eventually). I’m not sure I’m playing it right as all the tips videos I’ve
watched have talked about stuff becoming available at various levels (generally
8 upward) but I’m level 12, I think, and only a few things are available to me
so far, and none of the big stuff. At this rate, I’ll be at level 100 before I
finish the main quests 😂.
Anyway, it’s horridly addictive, extremely frustrating but
also incredibly challenging – both the general navigation and keyboard use and
the puzzles in the game itself. I have to admit I’d like to learn to fly so I don’t
have to keep running everywhere!
I had intended to play some more this weekend as I took a
couple of days off to do laundry/tip business and general adulting (like buying
food), so was expecting to have a bit of free time, but villainy virus has kept
my energy at a minimum, so everything is taking longer and I haven’t yet gone
back to it because I know when I do I’ll just get lost in it for about 4-5
hours. Maybe tonight, although I really want to finish this series and I can’t do
both at the same time, plus I need to be up early tomorrow as it’s my beloved Onew’s
solo concert at stupid o’clock in the morning.
One thing I did do earlier this week, was to sort out my Spotify
playlists. Now, I know I’m still way behind with sorting out my 2022 lists (I
will finish them one day . . . or maybe I just need to admit defeat and go with what
I already have) and rather than get into the same pickle at the end of 2023 I
have devised a new strategy. First, I’m creating a playlist for each month,
with an accompanying spreadsheet which lists everything on the playlist. I’ve split
the spreadsheet entries into the 3 Spotify categories: albums, EPs and singles.
At the end of each month, I’m choosing my 3 favourites in each category and
adding them to separate playlists. By the end of the year, I should have 36 entries
in each playlist, which should theoretically make choosing my top 20 for the
year that much easier.
In order to share easily, I have added the current playlist
(March) to my blog sidebar. This will be updated to show the current month's
entries. I will also add the links to the monthly playlists and overall Top 3s
when I get a minute. Interestingly, so far, it’s been the ‘singles’ category
that has given me the most trouble with choosing a top 3. I did decide not
to include Key’s Killer in the album playlist as it’s a repackage
of his 2022 album Gasoline, which was my album of the year (this much I know), so
I can’t really add it this year too, although I do really love the extra tracks).
For that reason, I also excluded Yesung’s Floral Sense
as it’s a repackage of Sensory Flows (that was a really quick re-release
as the original only came out on my birthday).
Fortunately, it only seems to be SM that releases
repackages, and as they’ve now been taken over by Hybe (long story for another
day), maybe they won’t be doing that any longer. However, fair warning, when
EXO has their comeback (scheduled for the second quarter), if they repackage, I
probably will include it because I’m biased like that (and there’s unlikely to
be anything released in either month I’m going to like more – calling it now).
I also, rather embarrassingly, discovered Zhang Binbin’s
Spotify page and have listened to his tracks so much in the last few weeks (I
love his voice, okay, and it was soothing listening when I was ill – that’s my
excuse and I’m sticking with it), that he topped my monthly Receiptify
list (in the top 3 spots 🙈). Unthinkable by FTIsland
also made a return, as did a lot of Lay (I was listening
to a lot of Chinese music in general) and Woosung, plus an entry by
Corbyn, who released my favourite album in February, the absolutely
perfect Our Static Seatbelt.
See you tomorrow (probably).
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