Soup of the Day and VPNs...

Are you counting down the days? Course you are! In just two more tiny sleeps, your new movie podcast, Lights, Camera... Aggro? will be arriving on YouTube. 

Yes, on Wednesday 17th September, you can hear my valiant attempts to introduce Phil to the absolute classic, Clueless. Can you imagine reaching your sixth decade in life before discovering the joy of Cher, Dionne, and Tai. Me either. Luckily for Phil, our podcast format came along before it was too late. He was made to watch Clueless and discuss it with me at length. What a treat for him! Subscribe here so you don't miss out on my utter exasperation.

The podcast has been occupying all my spare moments but my non-spare time has been devoted to the OG creative project, Leeza McAuliffe Book 3. Full details in Writing News below, but the key point is, time is tight. That used to annoy me when I had a 'proper' job but now it feels marvellous. 

Writing News

Arghhhh the headache of picking a title! That's my current stress. I'd love to get the front cover process started but that can't happen without a title. So what's the problem? Well, the previous two books - Leeza McAuliffe Has Something To Say and Leeza McAuliffe Has Loads More To Say - have set the tone. The name Leeza McAuliffe needs to be in the title and it ideally needs a similar scansion. That's where it starts to unravel. Any ideas that fit the flow and pattern of the previous titles, sound bland and forced. The urge to replicate a syllabic pattern shoves any interesting phrase out of the window. In the past week, I've shared this headache with three sets of friends - my writing pals, my Wednesday brunch mates, and my sixth form gang. It got everyone thinking and a whole bunch of suggestions were made. How lovely is that? I'm now mulling over an idea or two. It's getting closer. I can feel it. 

Brendan, Rebecca, and Hannah of Shrine.
Utter LEGENDS.

Culture 

Folks, I've got my first VPN! It was time. And what's the international broadcast that I've been forced to get techy for? Why, it's the Traitors Ireland, of course. We're currently into the third week of absolute shenanigans and I'm loving every single second. More importantly, Shrine Pod is doing the Lord's work and putting out companion episodes for every broadcast. If you listen to S1EP6 at 1.03hr then you'll hear my considered comment read out. (NSFW FYI). It's been an absolute blast, as have been all the Traitors series, and I'm gutted it ends next week.*

In more Culture news, I went to the cinema and watched The Roses. It's a remake of War of the Roses which I'd never seen. Perhaps if I had, the ending wouldn't have come as such a surprise. Still, it's lots of fun and Olivia Colman is excellent as usual. Other than that, I'm rewatching the sitcom Plebs on Netflix, I've seen off Death Valley on iPlayer, and finally got round to Jesse Armstrong's Moutainhead on Sky. It's a particularly chilling fiction about a world controlled by emotionally illiterate tech bros. No similarities to real life at all. At least that's what I'm telling myself so I can sleep at night.

Food and Drink

Soup season is here. I've declared it. That's why  I've been obsessively batch-making tomato soup for my lunch each day - and when I say obsessively, I mean twice. It's easy peasy lemon squeezy. Shove a load of mid-sized tomatoes into a roasting dish and bung in the oven on a low heat. After forty-five minutes, add garlic and whatever veg you've got. (I used celery, onion, and carrot.) Twenty mins later, pour it into a bowl. Season, whizz up, and add a bit of stock to loosen. BOOM. It's tasty, warming, and fit with grated cheese. Get your soup on!

Out and About

The week's been so busy with the usual stuff  I've had no time for anything unusual. There's been writing in Costa, my Wednesday brunch, a station pick up for my brother, and my writing pals meet up for drinks and book chat. The rest of the time I've been slumped in front of my laptop. Next week, I will do my best to have at least one unexpected shenanigan. Promise.

Have a lovely week, folks.

*The Traitors Ireland is on the RTE player and I've been enjoying seeing the end of the news, the weather, and the Irish ads too. Lots of references in the show go over my head. I'm not Irish you see. That's makes sense. There was one mission where the contestants had to translate Irish words and I loved it. I didn't understand what was being said, but it was fascinating. Shamefully, my personal experience of Ireland is Guinness in Temple Bar. This show, as well as the news, ads, and  weather beforehand, is giving me just a little bit more insight. Isn't life more interesting when we open ourselves up to new experiences.