25 Things on the 25th, Post #5

1) After unseasonable warmth and then three days of cold, the forecast in the subtropics looks dead-on average for the next few days. This is a v.v. good thing.
2) It means that I can use my oven! Tonight: warming the last of last week's homemade whole wheat bread with a topping of garlic butter.
3) That decadence accompanied steamed veggies, I hasten to add.
4) Books I'm reading: the latest LeCarre, and Bernardine Evaristo's Booker-winner Girl, Woman, Other, which is powerful.
5) Book I just read: Lucy Parker's latest London Celebrities romance Headliners (click the link for a GREAT cover). Loved it loved it loved it, although I suspect it's helpful to have read the previous book The Austen Playbook first (and Parker scatters cameos by a couple of the other couples/characters in the earlier books, which I enjoyed).
6) Nick, the hero of Headliners -- phwoar.
7) And because I am vast and contain multitudes, I just ordered the play-text of Tom Stoppard's new work Leopoldstadt.
8) I am reading rather than watching much of anything these days.
9) Still, I might watch the thriller series The Stranger when it drops on Netflix this week.
10) Richard Armitage is a solid lead, and apparently Tony Head plays a baddie. ASH even shows up on the poster! :)
11) And I did enjoy the Nicolas Tesla ep of Doctor Who (didn't finish watching the one before it, about the resort, due to boredom). Mmm, Goran Visnjic as Tesla! Delightful.
12) Also am waiting on the new album Hotspot from the Pet Shop Boys. The first single "Monkey Business" is irresistible disco-EDM.
13) Loved this Guardian article about the PSB.
14) Also loved (from the article) this Neil Tennant quote about how they club in Berlin (where they live most of the time): They are regular visitors to its notoriously hedonistic techno mecca Berghain, although their approach to the club seems impressively genteel, as befits men in their 60s. “We go on Sunday lunchtimes,” smiles Tennant, “around 12 o’clock. We treat it as pre-lunch drinks – we go up to the Panorama Bar and have a glass of prosecco. You get the people who’ve been there all night, they’re absolutely twatted, but then there’s a fresh crowd coming in as well, and it’s a very interesting atmosphere. And it’s great to walk in from daylight on to the main dancefloor, which is completely dark, there’s just a kick drum playing four-to-the-floor, and it’s really, really exciting in an alienating way.”. I mean, bless.
15) I am trying not to think about the political nightmare here in the US, but I am failing at it.
16) And this will be a bad week for my friends in the UK as well.
17) I have to fight the ongoing feeling of powerlessness.
18) Other news: Master Danger continues to be unsteady but his spirits remain high (and he remains evil).
19) I am on Day 162 of my Duolingo French.
20) I am terrible at it, but we persevere.
21) I am also persevering at my Barre class on Thursday nights (my hamstrings are not thanking me right now).
22) Next week is the big 5K in my Small Town, and I am not trained at all for it. We will see if I try to run much.
23) My best friend A in town will be walking due to a health scare. (She's fine, thank heavens.)
24) It reminds me to be grateful for my own ability to move.
25) Hugs to all, and may you be able to find good things in the midst of the hard times.