What a month, it felt like a year long. It was not really intended that way, but in the end we did two vacations in August. One started at the beginning of the month and we flew to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival. It was not our first time, but the last time we didn’t visit any shows because our time was rare. This year, I booked ahead a lot of tickets. The comedians we liked were: Susie McCabe, Chloe Petts, Jay Lafferty, Nish Kumar, Stevie Martin and Jack Docherty as The Chief. Honory mention to Eric The Submariner, not a stand-up comedian but a real retired submariner who told about his life in the navy. We also saw the Military Tattoo Parade. It was good but not so good as the one in 2016. Not so many acts like last time, very few guest countries, no special goodies. Another hightlight was the visit of the Britannia, the Queen’s beloved yacht.
I love this city so much.

Our next trip started only a couple of days after returning home. We went to the Ostsee, which I now know is called the „Baltic Sea“ in English, ha, didn’t know those were the same. My partner did a sailing course while I stayed in our apartment with the doggys. Wasn’t the best apartment and I missed having a garden. In addition, I got ill. At least the weather was really nice, not too hot like in the rest of Germany, and the doggys had a lot of fun with swimming in the ocean.

Then back to work for the end of August, urgh, which was very annoying, I need a vacation again. The month ended with me going to war with half a million other people and fight for a ticket to the Oasis concerts next year. I am still a bit sceptical about those gigs. I loved Liam’s Definitetly Maybe concerts, they were awesome and since he „turned around“ his concerts are just that which is Oasis. Noel’s concerts are also good, but his own sound and style is very different and I don’t like some of his newer versions of Oasis songs. Hope I won’t hear them next year but the original ones. I was actually trying for tickets for Wembley, but now I’ll end up in Edinburgh. For the Fringe, again. A couple of weeks after I said that I won’t visit the Fringe for the next 10 years. But not sad that I have to go again next year.

Gaming:
I played all the Clevers, a nice casual game called Bonsai, the Lord of the Rings Adventure Book game (which I am not willing to sell, since it’s more annoying than fun), Wingspan and Robin Hood.

Books:
Not so many books this month. I finally consumed My Year of Rest and Relaxation and this book was just very annoying. I also read the TikTok hit It ends with us, didn’t know that it is about abuse, so I was quite suprised when shit turned dark. Next was A House with Good Bones by T.Kingfisher, a Southern USA gothic (mild) horror. I very much liked it, it’s about a generation of women, their relations to each other and finding their peace. A more casual read was My Life the the Walter Boys, I enjoyed it as much as the TV show on Netflix.

Films:
I worked through my Netflix watchlist this month. My fav was tick,tick…BOOM, wow, much sad, but I really liked that film. I also liked Captain Phillips with Tom Hanks though the suspension was killing me. But my fav was probably The Quiet Girl, an Irish film form 2022, about a girl from a poor family visiting relatives in the countryside. There isn’t really much happening but I just enjoyed watching this coming-of-age film.
And I watched the film It ends with us. I don’t know what to think about it, it was a nice addition to the book but I don’t think the films works without knowing the book.

TV Shows:
I finished Mr & Mrs Smith, I liked the show and hope there will be a second season. Then there were a few new episodes of Emily in Paris, my hate-watch. My binge of the month was Pørni. It’s a Norwegian show about a mid 40s mother who just kicks ass in her everyday life.

What a month with so much great stuff! First of all there were two zoo adventures: I visited the Gaia Zoo in Kerkrade, in the Netherlands and it was a very nice. The zoo is beautiful, the animal areas seem vast and enriching and one can see the animals from various positiond. The next zoo visit was Zoom in Gelsenkirchen. A friend celebrated her birthday there with a nice picknick and an exclusive zoo tour. How nice, my first zoo birthday! The tour Was great, it was about 90min, we learned some things about the inhabitants and had an exklusive look at some wolves.
The biggest thing in July was my trip to London for visting my friend again. I visited the musicals Hadestown and The Book of Mormon (my second time), both were awesome and I choose very good (and cheap) seats. Since the weather was constantly perfect, I also managed to finally visit some outdoor places: Hampstead Heath, Richmond Park and Kew Gardes (including Queen Charlottes Kew Palace). Every location was so beautiful and nice, yeah, I am the person going to London to enjoy flowers, woods and the countryside.
The highlight of this trip was the concert of The Killers, with Travis as special guest. I listened to The Killers about 20 years ago, I didn’t know that they were still so big to fill the O2 arena for six nights in a row. And of course it was nice to see Travis again, for the first time in a big venue. Travis were delightful as always and did a beautiful set with some of my fav songs. Then The Killers came on stage and a party erupted, there was glitter, light shows and a handsome singer called Brandon Flowers in a glitter suit. The guitar player looked like someone from ACDC and the bass player like a typical metal-medieval guy with long hair. The show was awesome, the band is from Las Vegas and I felt like watching a Las Vegas show. Then suddenly they switched the monitors to the live football game where England was playing. The band didn’t miss during the concert that people were watching their phones and since England was on the verge of winning, they showed the very last minutes. A bold choice, I was so anxious that England would loose last minute. But they won, the arena errupted in roars and the band started to play Mr Brightside which turned the arena into a whole happy party. Really great concert, I will definitely see The Killers another time if possible.

Gaming:
Not that many boardgames but we managed to play Twilight Imperium 4 again, three players, we were bitterlich crushed by my partner and his space pirates. And on another we had a nice, long gaming session with Maracaibo, too.

Books:
I finished 7 books. It was not the best reading month. I read „Sorrow and Bliss“ by Meg Mason. It has some Eleanor Oliphant vibes but I didn’t like the main character at all. „The Stars too Fondly“ by Emily Hamilton was an okayish space opera but the 20/30s characters sounded and behaved like teenagers, it was very annoying. „Throne of Glass“ by Sarah J. Maas started off soooo slowly. But at the end it got interesting and my friend promised that the second book is way better. „One of us is lying“ by Karen McManus, I thought it would be like „Pretty Little Liars“ but it lacked the bite. The suspense to the incoming murderer reveal was rather declining than growing.

Films:
Only three films this month. I watched „Finding Dory“ for the first time and liked it way more then the first movie. Then we watched „Whiskey Tango Foxtrot“ on Netflix. It was very weird but kind of interesting? Last movie of the month was „The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare“. I hate films with Nazis (especially when one is played by Till Schweiger) but this one was quite okay because it played on the sea and the island Fernando Po (Now Bioko), different locations than the standard WW2 films.

TV Shows:
I finished Kaulitz & Kaulitz and now I am ready for a second season. The I finished the Walter Boys which I quite liked. Next up was Emily in Paris, despite not really liking Emily and Paris, I watched all three seasons this month. I also finished the 4th season of The Boys, why do shows always feel the need for gory violence? But besides that I also liked that season. Then we went on to watching Gen V, a spinoff of the Boys, that I enjoy so far. And I started watching Mr & Mrs Smith, the new tv show, also quite good.

What a month! It was half very good and half very bad.
The good parts were meeting my friends, playing Pathfinder Rusthenge and visting a beautiful, small wedding of two friends. The best part was my visit to Manchester where I saw Liam Gallagher live. It was a special occasion because he played the whole Oasis album „Definetely Maybe“, plus some other songs from that era. I wanted to see the show in Manchester because that is were Oasis (and many other cool bands) are from. It was not my first time in Manchester, but my last visit was long ago. Still I had the same thought as at my last visit: „Woah, a lot of Cosplayers, Emos and Goths here“. Upon my arrival I went to the city, I got some jollof rice and fried plantain from an Afro-Carribean food stall, then I went to Afflecks which is a three-story house full with small vendors who sell „alternative“ stuff like dark batsy goth things, colorful lgtb stuff or shiny stones and jewellery. Then I went to a mall and had a very contrasting program there. I visited the Manchester City fan shop and got me a scarf. Not a real fan of that club but I like the colors and the logo. (Not my first time buying sports merch because of the colors). Afterwards I crashed in my hotel room and the went to the concert. It was so awesome, I cannot describe it in words. Probably the best concert I saw. I loved the crowd who went nuts when „A Town Called Malice“ by The Jam was played beforehand and then continued being crazy energetic throughout the whole concert. What a day.
The next day I had to leave the hotel at around 10 but my flight was in the late evening. Since it was raining, I did a little museum tour. There are two free buses in Manchester that stop at all the important sights, so I went by bus. The museums (Science/Industry Museum, Art Gallery) where so much better than I expected. The Science Museum made even looms sound interesting, and the Art Gallery had such interesting exhibitions. One was focused on art from the 18/19th century that appropriated other cultures like Iranian or Yoruba. Every piece of art had annotations by people of color. Then there was an exhibition relating art to the climate disaster. There were also annotations and personal views to the pieces of art. I really liked this mixture of old(er) art and new thoughts.
Well, afterwards I strolled around the city and then drove to the airport early. Way too early. My flight was delayed about an hour. I arrived so late at Düsseldorf Airport, at about 10pm and then had trouble getting a train to Cologne. I paid way to much money for an ICE because I didn’t want to wait any longer. What a horror trip back home.
Coming to the rest of the month: I got my second round of Corona. Well, it had to happend someday, some friends of mine also got it a couple of weeks before me. I think I had about 5 corona shots over the last years but still I got pretty ill, lots of headaches, very very tired and a stubborn cough. I wonder how bad it would have been without the vaccines (I am absolutely pro vaccine in any cases). In addition to Corona, my work was so stressful and annoying.
At least I could end the month with a good thing, having a snack and play with my friends. So, June has been a rollercoaster.

Gaming:
I can repeat what I wrote last month: „Still playing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. I still like the storyline and the basic gameplay but oh boy, why are there so many repetitive sidequests and stupid mini games?“
I didn’t play that many boardgames but we finally tried Nemo’s War, it’s a solo game but of course you can play it as a coop. And I got Bonsai from the librabry, which is very nice and cute. I’m afraid I want to have that game.

Books:
I finished 8 books this month. Best one was Assassin’s Apprentice, a re-read. It was still as beautiful and lovely as I remembered it. But 20 years ago I thought of Burrich and Verity so very old and now my thoughts were how young they are just being in their 30s.
What I also enjoyed very much was I hope This FindsYou Well by Natalie Sue, a mix of drama and cozy novel in an office setting.

Films:
6 movies. I liked The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes but I think it would have been better as two or three movies. I also liked Gozilla Minus One, Sea Fog (Korean drama) and Babylon 5: The Road Home (so sad that many actors of the original series are dead already).

TV Shows:
I fininished You. Didn’t like the fourth season with the setting in England that much, but I liked the twist. Next I finished Fuller House. I don’t really like the humour of that show but it was nice seeing their faces again and having the storyline focues on the girls, now women. Then I had an intense binge on Hacks. I love the show about two women, one an old diva comedian, the other one a young gen z comedian, having to work for the older woman. We also finished Bridgerton. I think Penny is my fav character, I like her love for writing and gossip. I also watched the first season of The Alienist, it was okay but 19th century is not my fav time. Another binge on Beef, brilliant show with awesome actors. And as last show I started Kaulitz & Kaulitz. It’s a reality show about two twin brothers who are in a band called Tokio Hotel. I didn’t know that the band still existed, back when I was a teen they (who were also teens back then) were huge. I wasn’t a fan but it’s fun to revisit them and see how they changed.