Monthly Blog – June 2024

Oh boy, this is really late. But it’s also my blog and, like, 2 people read these. Anyway, I had a fun month! There were a few family days out, mostly centred around my nephew. The first of these was to a railway centre. There’ll be a lot of trains this month.

The railway centre was pretty spread out, with a main centre, museum, mini railway and steam train for short trips, about five minutes long. I love old trains. There’s just something magical about sitting in a little compartment with your loved ones, watching the world go by and pretending you’re going on an adventure. The mini railway was fun too! It’s like sitting on a little bench, riding through a little garden full of toys and statues, and pointing them out to my nephew. I also love a train museum. Trains are my friends and I feel so calm around them.

A few weeks later, we went to the zoo. We got to see a bunch of the animals close up, including the lions. We were the only people in the observation area for a while, just following the lions as they walked right up against the glass. Then some kid came in and shouted that there were lions and dozens of people rushed in.  Oh well, we got a bit of time with them. We also got to watch the giraffes feeding. At one point, my brother dared me to pour water on our dad’s head, since we were on a walkway and he was below, looking after the pram. I did, and when he looked up, my brother jumped back… into his heavily pregnant girlfriend.

My brother and my nephew really are two peas in the pod when it comes to ice cream. My brother was looking at the map and planning our route around ice cream stands, and Nephew would devour his own ice cream then wander round begging the rest of us for ours. Also, those ice cream stands my brother was planning everything around turned out to be mostly closed, to his anguish.

I also talked with one of the zookeepers about the penguins and how gay and evil they are. It was a fun discussion, and they recommended a book on homosexuality in the animal kingdom that I might read sometime. All in all, a fun day. 

Once again, I spent a weekend in Birmingham to hang out with Francis. And to go to an open day at the university I’d applied to. Everything there seems wonderful, the course looks great, and the neighbourhood pleasant. I’m looking forward to living in halls again and gaining some independence. And an en suite. The one letdown is how the uni is treating their pro-Palestine activists and encampment, including taking them to court and having them evicted. This is genuinely disgusting.

On a lighter note, I love spending time with Franc’s family. On the Sunday they let me join them for their baby’s 3rd bday party on an old steam train. We took the train to Bridgnorth and had fish and chips in the shade of the ruins of a castle. It was a lovely little town I’d never heard of before with a market in the town square and a cliffside train leading down to the river and the lower town. It was similar to Luxembourg City, in a way. 

We also went to a train museum, similar to the one I went to earlier, actually. You could go into a few of the carriages and pretend you’re driving the train or sorting post. One of these museums, I think the Severn Valley one, had a coach that was for royalty, and, honestly, I would live in it. I wouldn’t be able to ride it anywhere, because then all my books and ornaments would constantly be falling off their shelves. But I’d have it parked somewhere. 

Again, there’s something about trains. Sitting with Francis and his family, knitting and reading. Watching the rural landscape go past with its winding rivers and a scatter of sheep and horses. Watching kids running past, shouting in excitement.

The trip back was significantly less whimsical, drinking cider with Francis and his brother and laughing at stupid shit. There was a dining car selling alcohol. Man, I wish these kinds of trains were more common.

What I read:

The month started out slow in terms of reading, or at least, finishing books, before picking up steam in the last week.

Complete Flags of the World

It was fine. Kinda dated cause it was published in 2002. I wish it could’ve gone into more detail. Sometimes it covered regional flags, and sometimes it didn’t, mostly covering larger (or European) countries. It also didn’t bother mentioning countries that weren’t recognised by the UK, even if loads of other countries did, or disputed nations and regions in general. I think that would’ve been interesting. I’d love to write a huge encyclopaedia on world flags one day that actually includes everything.

Johnny and the Bomb

This is one of those rare Terry Pratchett books where the TV adaptation was better. Sometimes funny, other times just mean-spirited. Some of the stuff about racism in particular is hit or miss. It’s treated mostly as a bad thing except when Johnny does it.

Persepolis

I’ve been thinking about aspects of this a lot. It’s really informative and profound. I learnt a lot, but the history and background information didn’t overshadow the human aspect of it. This is another one of those works were every aspect has already been talked about so I won’t linger.

Equal Rites

Even this one was such a huge improvement on the first two. The story, jokes and what we saw of the Discworld were so much better. All the characters were a lot of fun, especially Granny Weatherwax. I think Esk was a really compelling protagonist. She had a lot to stand up again, and with flaws similar to a young Ged from Earthsea. She’s powerful, but arrogant, and almost permanently ends up in the body of a hawk because of it. I also really liked the climax of the story, but I shan’t spoil that.

I’ve noticed, though, that even the kindest, most principled British writers, no matter who they are or how funny they are, always seem to randomly punch down in their writing. Just every now and again, they’ll make a unnecessary, out-of-pocket joke about Greeks, or some other group.

Yevtushenko Selected Poems

Quite an enjoyable collection. I was a little apprehensive, flicking through initially, at the length of the first poem, Zima Junction, but I was surprised at how easy it was to get through compared to long poems by other authors. I’d like to read a more modern translation, though, as I’m not too sure on the credentials of the translators. One was a student of Russian, and the other couldn’t even speak it.