#390 - Gold Rims

Ah those cherry pills give me a great and satisfying sleep.

I ate a little old white cheddar before bed too, and that gave some vivid and realistic dreams, not that I could remember any of them. But you wake up thinking, wow, that was a wild and crazy dream. Fromage is the best drug in the universe!

It was another chill day at work with nothing on fire that needed putting out. Everything was running at a comfortable pace today and that meant very little stress. I did some approvals and answered some messages before my ten AM meeting started. I made sure to make myself a cup of tea, because you never know how long these things will go. A bunch of the department heads were absent, so the meeting went by fast. It was just a meeting where all the department heads can let everyone know how things are going and to inform people of any issues they are encountering.

And with things going fairly well, there wasn’t that much to say.

I got back to do approvals for a little while and then took care of some requests from our scene setup department that encountered some assets that were missing. After taking care of those, I watched a lieca reel for an upcoming episode to prepare for the meeting tomorrow. One thing I noted was that there was a greater chance of us reusing or repurposing some of our background paintings for this episode, which would help us to get caught up in the long run.

I’ll have to do a deep dive tomorrow and really look into the reuse. I know some of the reuse is painted at nighttime and it needs to be daylight colours. So technically, not a reuse for use but it would be for our layout department, who wouldn’t have to draw anything for it those ones.

I did a bit more approving and revising.

At lunch we managed to get another walk in at the Provincial Park near our house. The weather was sunny and cool. A perfect day for waking in the woods. There were plenty of dogs in the park again and a few pesky cyclists as well.

We both really needed the fresh air and walk today. Robyn twisted her ankle on a root that was sticking up out of the ground, and we had to stop for a bit before she felt she could go on. Luckily, the damage wasn’t permanent, and she was able to keep going.

Robyn took a call from one of her classmates while we were walking and that allowed my to sink deeper into my thoughts. I have been attracted to videos about people living in vasn, on boats and recently Americans who have moved to Vietnam. There is a channel that interviews ex-pats on why they moved to Da Neng. They show us their apartments, favourite places and go over the total costs of living there. It’s surprisingly cheap compared to North America, while still having all the modern conveniences. The medical expenses are so reasonable that they rarely out in an insurance claim. The claim isn’t worth it considering the price of the service they get. And they also mentioned that the speed with which they get an appointment is impressive. A call to the doctor’s usual gets you an appointment later that day or the next day. That’s completely unheard of in North America.

And in the part of Da Neng, the beach is just a few steps away. It’s really starting to look like a great place to retire. And of course there is the great food too. Only real issue is the heat and humidy as well as the rainy season.

These unusual, but freedom providing lifestyles are very interesting to me these days.

After getting home from our walk, I opened a can of Rio Mare tuna and couscous for lunch. It’s a tasty and somewhat healthy quick lunch that I enjoy. I got right back into doing approvals. The section I was approving needed some work and took much more time for me to fix. I also got a message from a painter that wanted me to look and approve their wide shot. We ask the painters to do this, so they don’t have to go back and fix an entire section. We correct the biggest shot first and they know how to deal with the rest of the sequence of paintings.

Robyn had her monthly dinner with lady friends, and the kiddo was off at school, or so I thought. More on that later.

I decided to treat myself to a meal as well, so I ordered a Carnita crunch wrap and loaded potatoes from the Mexican restaurant again. Those loaded potatoes are my new addiction. The crunch wrap isn’t too crunchy by the time it arrives at the house. Maybe, next time I will through it in a frying pan with a little butter for a couple of minutes.

I watched some YouTube in the living room. It was the guy who travels to odd places, sometimes with his brother. I had seen the first installment of the boat cruise to Alaska. The was the third episode where they headed to the loneliest place in America, Chicken Alaska. A small goldmining town with not much to offer but it’s unique residents and the beauty and quiet of Alaska. I find these types of videos both amusing and informational.

I did some of this writing using the new receiver and the Mic Mini. It seems to work really well with the Dragon and Word software. It really does increase my words per hour. It’s probably double what I can type at this point and as I get more comfortable with how to talk when using dictation, the word count should continue to increase.

And now we get to the kiddo. Earlier in the day, while I was working, he started working on getting a ride home. He stated that he had a great deal of homework to get done and he needed all the extra time possible. Taking the bus would add hours to his day.

I am a bit tired of his parasitic nature. He constantly plans how other people can do things for him. I have more than enough on my plate without being his taxi service. But, in the interest of his education, I agreed. I arrived at his school after a twenty-minute drive through the tail end of rush hour traffic and sat waiting in the car. He texted me to make sure I was still coming, which is offensive, because when have I said yes and not turned up?

Never.

Never is the answer.

And then he tells me, for the first time, that he is at work, not at school. Now I am driving twenty minutes back, and then another ten to get to his work. And then back again home. He managed to waist almost forty-five minutes of my time and made me burn extra gas. And gas ain’t cheap these days folks!

I am starting to dislike anyone who treats my free time like it’s a commodity set aside for their personal gain and comfort. There are a group of people who are going to hear the word ‘No’ coming from me more frequently in the future.

The season finale of Slow Horses was on tonight and I sat and enjoyed every moment of it. The series has drifted off a bit from the books, but it all still makes senses. This season at least two of the Slow Horses were killed off. A brave move by the author to kill off characters people have come to love. And yet, it means as the reader or the audience, you never know is going to be safe.

And that brings a little more joy to the stories they spin.

I was happy to see that they already had some footage filmed for the next season. That should guarantee us a least one more season of the show. They will soon be caught up to the book series at this rate. I wonder if we will see another novel by the author in the new year. He has ither series he writes in that were also made into Apple TV shows. I wonder what books he’ll be focusing on? Or will the shows finally depart from the books and make up their own way like Game of Thrones did?

Time will tell; I guess. Not a terrible problem for the author Mick Herron to have though.

Robyn came home from her night out with some groceries. The kiddo who begged me for a ride home because of all his homework immediately had Robyn drive him somewhere. I sat and wondered about all that homework he had.

He didn’t seem to have much of it to do as soon as he was home!

 Robyn returned and set about doing some schoolwork.

At least someone was doing schoolwork!

I spent some of that time writing and the rest watching a film on Apple TV called The Wizard of the Kremlin. It was an interesting look at the guy who helped Putin come into power and ran a lot of the operations Putin came up with. Some of those operations were wars where a great many peoples were killed including the attacks on Chechnya and the Ukraine.

He also helped Putin steal all the wealth from the Oligarchs, including the state tv, oil and gas companies as well as just about everything else he could get his hands on. The movie was based on a book and clearly stated at the beginning that all the characters were fictional. But if it was a fictional story, it seemed to hit the nail on the head.

I always find movies set in Russia interesting because all the dynamics of the country and the culture are often very different to our own. And I like to see new cultures in new ways. Of course, this was a film and how much of it was true is up to debate. Somethings just can’t be known.

I watched all the way to the end, so it must have been entertaining!

It was great to see Robyn sitting in bed, working on her new laptop beside me. It was the first time she’s used since we got it for her. I think she really liked the ability to type her homework out while in bed, secure in the knowledge that she would be able to upload everything without any worries. It brought a little joy to my heart as well.

Of course, I was a little nervous about the laptop, because I picked it out and it’s the same model as the one I have. And even though I love my laptop, she might not have felt the same. I like the fact that it’s only a fourteen-inch screen. It’s light and compact and powerful enough for what I use it for. And I like that this model had an older screen that uses less power and isn’t as bright. Since I tend to type in darker settings most of the time.

But she seemed to be happy typing away and using it just fine. The only glitch we had with it tonight was the date and time needed to be reset. Robyn lent the laptop toa school mate, and the person returned the machine with a completely dead battery. But once we plugged in the charger cable, and after a windows update, everything ran just fine.

I ordered a set of gold rimmed cocktail glasses so I could drink my Pisco Sours in style while I was at the cottage. I had never heard of this style of glassware before, but apparently, it’s called a Coupe glass. A long stem and a wide shallow cup on top and of course, I went for the gold rimmed variety because I am fancy like that.

They should provide me with the right feel for drinking a lovely Pisco Sour. I just have to remember to bring the Pisco Sour premix up with us when we leave.

Anyway, it’s almost one AM and I am up at seven to ride the train into the studio once again.

Until tomorrow.