Things I've Enjoyed This Week, Issue 1

This blog "series" needs a snappier title, but welcome! Here's a snapshot of what's going on in my life, and/or things I've enjoyed this week. Hopefully every Wednesday, but let's see if I can make it a single week, then whole month – small steps!

I had a day off work today! Midweek days off are nice when they have purpose, it turns out. Some family visited briefly, which was lovely. Their visit to my house for the first time since buying it caused me to reflect on how far I've come and how well I've done, in a very positive way. I don't write that for bragging, it's just important to resurface occasionally from all the negatives currently in the world and the ensuing mental spiral. It's almost as if I need to stop reading the news.

📚 This week I started reading 'This is How You Lose the Time War'. No real opinions yet, but it's nice to start on a book again.

🎧 I've started listening to Mo Gawdat's 'Solve for Happy' on Audible when I go out for walks. In terms of podcasts, while I was in town visiting a supermarket I had an interesting episode of 99% Invisible about "world foods" aisles in supermarkets in my ears.

🎥 On YouTube, I found the Vincenzo's Plate channel which has some hilarious reactions to TikTokers ruining (or, more kindly, reinterpreting or reinventing) pasta dishes. I feel good about continuing to get my TikTok filtered through Instagram re-posts, YouTubers reacting to things, or friends sending me links, rather than mindlessly scrolling myself.

🦉 I'm on a 19 day streak of learning Ukrainian on Duolingo! Why Ukrainian? I felt like it was (sadly) topical, so maybe it will come in useful someday. Also, I've never tried learning a language with a non-Latin script – so far it's really interesting.

The two book and audiobook categories above got me thinking if it was reasonable to differentiate them. I'm never sure if Audible counts as reading a book these days, or if people are still precious about paper or Kindle books. It's still words going into a person's brain, with no visual stimulus, and the original source was a book?

Next week I'm heading on a European trip – three countries' capital cities in seven days. Seeing some friends, meeting some new ones, and generally relaxing and being a tourist. Looking forward to it!