weeknotes #11
Weeknotes 09/03/2026 - 15/03/2026
Feel like I've given up regular blogging to try and cram everything in my weeknotes. Here goes!
Things I've done ✎ᝰ.📓🗒 ˎˊ˗
Made it through a stressful work week and out the other side.
One pilates session, and it was pub quiz week so I went to that too (on St Patrick's Day). Ended up climbing with a friend and getting lunch in the park on the weekend, which was nice.
Films (and TV) 🍿🎥✮⋆˙
I watched If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025), Freeway (1996), Runaway Nightmare (1982) and Nightmare Weekend (1986) (in a double bill). Also snuck in Nuts in May (1976).
Really liked IIHLIKY (I can't keep typing that out) which is weird to say about a film so designed to be stressful and frustrating, but I mostly just felt bad for Rose Byrne's character. The film heaps stress after stress after conflict on her in a way that feels almost slapstick, almost everyone she interacts with is obtuse about how she's feeling, or just doesn't care, in a way that's almost comical. "Perception is reality" Conan O'Brian's therapist character says towards the start of the film, and the camera is so in her face literally and thematically we never know what is her perception and what's "real" - they're the same? (I enjoyed this interview about the film here where the director goes into what she was trying to do (and also where, on re-reading it, I clearly stole some of those thoughts on the perception is reality line from).
I'm not a parent, and certainly not a parent of a chronically ill child, but the film led to a really candid talk with my boyfriend about mental health and how we experience and think about it.
The next three movies are super fun trash of varying quality which I intend to write up in another blog post. Here's my review of Freeway though:
I wasn't sure how this trashy, scuzzy film would hold up on rewatch, and it could definitely be argued this is exploitative schlock. Reece Witherspoon as Vanessa is just so good though! Creating a real charismatic character at the heart of the film helps, as well as piling one batshit moment on top of another so you don't stop to think about it. Sutherland also does a great job as a gross-out creep and it remains very fun to watch her repeatedly kick the shit out of him.
I've been feeling 🫀🩹🥀❤️🩹
The sun has come out here and the streets are knee-deep in al fresco diners and drinkers (14°C in the UK everybody!). That and a relaxing three-day weekend has made me feel better.
Some questions, though:
- Why do I always feel like there's never enough time? This isn't solved by working a 4-day week or doing/not doing stuff. Where does this sense of urgency come from?
- I have a real mental block around change. On a small scale I've noticed I struggle with transitions (leaving the house, starting a task) which podcast listening almost acts as a magic trigger for. And on a large scale, my brain skips forward through everything and decides the only outcome of any change is bad, leaving me anxious and pessimistic about everything. Can I change this in myself?
I'm looking forward to
Buying birthday presents for a friend I'm meeting up with next week. A book club call to discuss our latest book.
I've been reading 🍵📖
Still reading The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers, and have finished Anzuelo, by Emma Rios.
Panel from Anzuelo
Anzuelo is a tough read! The watercolours are beautiful, but I found the style, as well as the time skips in the story, made interpreting what was going on in the scenes quite difficult. The book is about survivors of an event that's destroyed the earth as we know it, and how they survive in a new landscape dominated by the sea. There's a lot of themes around non-violence, how humans live in concert with nature, and what it means to be human (and whether that matters at all, as the survivors are changed by the new world into new forms with different perspectives).
See you next week 👋