Real honest opinions about what to hit and what to miss: TV, Movies, and Books.
Have anyone else’s favourite shows all ended in the last couple of weeks? Succession, Ted Lasso, Vanderpump Rules – don’t judge me, I only started watching it for #scandoval. If you don’t know what that means, that’s honestly nothing to be ashamed of. I got into Succession late and binge-watched it when I was stuck in bed for a week. I was as gripped by the final season as everyone else. Am I the only person who thinks the kids are better off without Waystar?
Here are a few shows and books I’ve enjoyed lately and one to miss.
Hit: Platonic (Apple TV)
Starring Rose Byrne and Seth Rogan as two forty-something friends who reconnect after their lives took different paths. This show is low on complication but high on the laughs. As someone who has had many male platonic friends over the years, many of whom I would often have drunken outings with, a slew of in-jokes, and generally hanging around making fun of other people we knew. This show is very accurate of such debauchery. Although I’ve never accidentally snorted a horse tranquilizer (not that I know of). Sounds juvenile, and it is, and I love it. 5 stars.
Hit: The Pharmacist (Netflix)
A four-part Netflix series, easily binged in one night. Documentary exploring the opioid crisis of the early 2000s (to now) in lower-middle-class America. One man against the system. Following the death of his son when he is shot in a drug deal gone wrong, a pharmacist sets out to solve the murder and prosecute the murderer after the police fail to act. Once solved, he then turns his attention to the opiate problem and doctors working in ‘pill mills’. Really enjoyed the “if nobody else will fix it, I will” mentality and the lengths he went to to make a difference in his community. 4.5 stars.
Hit: Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (novel)
I saw this novel everywhere online about a year ago, but when I went to buy it I read the back of the book and didn’t like the idea of it:
“It tells of a café in Tokyo that allows its customers to travel back in time, as long as they return before their coffee gets cold”
Time Travel. Weird. See also: not my thing. BUT WAIT. This is a beautifully written book, offering 4 short stories of kindness and love all intertwined and set within a small old Japanese coffee shop. It’s a short book, with short stories meaning you can read just a snippet a day. I borrowed it from the library. Worth a read. 4.5 stars.
Miss: The Triangle of Sadness (movie, Binge) I did not love this. I did not even like this. But did I watch the whole movie, whilst thinking about how terrible it was? Yes. The mega-rich (and the quite obnoxious) go on an uber-rich luxury cruise and treat those ‘below’ them terribly. The only scene I enjoyed was watching an influencer and her male model boyfriend fight over who was paying for dinner. 0.5 stars.
Women could rule the world. Women should rule the world. Women will hopefully rule the world before the end of my lifetime, but maybe not. Even an equal share in the leadership and the same pay would be a start.
The last few weeks I’ve been a little despondent about whether a change will actually occur, whether the glass ceiling is actually made of glass or whether it’s made of boiling hot lava. There is no doubt that women have come a long way, but it is no longer about just having rights and it’s now about being treated with respect as a fellow human being. This doesn’t seem to be happening in our country and it is demoralising to see that even our own government doesn’t care about it.
I thought today I would share some stories from my own career, a career that until the last few years has been in male-dominated industries, and you would like to think this kind of thing doesn’t happen but it did, up until recently, to me. I am so lucky that I get to work where I work now, where nothing even remotely like this has happened.
I was told to keep my legs together and not get pregnant as my boss didn’t want to pay for me to sit at home doing ‘nothing’.
I was made to work more hours/days per week than my male counterparts to ‘prove my worth’.
When I didn’t agree with a course of action, I was asked if it was because I had my period. Stating, “my wife gets cranky when she has hers, so I thought you had yours as well”.
I bent down to tie my shoelace and when I looked up the person I was walking with had taken out his penis and was dangling it in front of my face, with a lovely “while you’re down there…..” comment.
I was called a ‘skinny cow’ in front of a room full of men who all laughed at the joke and when I got upset told me to ‘lighten up’.
I was harassed relentlessly to tell the details to a group of much older men on how I lost my virginity.
I was told to “wear a short skirt and heels” to a job interview.
A colleague who I was asking to help me with something told me I could pay with my “hairy cheque book”.
I got offered money for sex. “Can’t you just pretend you don’t know me and I could pay you”.
I got called a “stupid fucking bitch” by a male supervisor in front of the site manager by a colleague, my HR complaint was dismissed.
Australia has a long way to go. Especially if you are a woman.
It’s just taken me about 14 days to write this blog post. It’s been open and chipped away at for two weeks. Every time I start, I stop. Or lose my trail of thought. Or you know, find something else to do. Doesn’t bode well for the rest of the year, considering I was thinking I should have ‘focus’ as my word for the year.
Like the rest of the world I kind of knew everything wouldn’t magically get better when the calendar flicked over to 2021, but damn weren’t we all HOPING it would. Speaking of calendars, if you need to save some cash you can reuse an old 2010 as the days and dates finally line up. Dig through those old desk drawers.
It’s easy to focus on what a shit-show 2020 was. Fires, floods, plague, COVID, isolation, loneliness, online uni group work. COVID has been awful. People are sick, dying and fighting over the last roll of toilet paper and can of spam. We’ve seen the worst in humanity and let’s face it ourselves. Face masks are not a good look on anyone. At the post office this morning (wearing a cap, sunnies and face mask) I got called “gentleman” as in “let the gentleman go first”. Note to self: I really need to pluck my 4 stubborn neck pube/chin hairs. COVID needs to go.
However, what if instead of focusing on the bad news and mental toughness that 2020 brought with it what if we look for the slight tiny pieces of good news and celebrate:
Trump won’t be President for the next 4 years.
People are starting to recognise the climate crisis, it’s getting some momentum. There has been a big acceleration in countries and businesses making climate commitments.
Africa is now free of polio.
More people turned to health, vegetable gardening, and prioritising family time.
People showed empathy, a sense of community.
We collectively S-L-O-W-E-D down a bit.
We explored our neighbourhoods and went on holidays in our own states.
Workers are getting the job done even at home. Business continued efficiently, productively and with higher engagement.
Personally, I reached my goal of a full half study load, if that makes sense – 4 subjects completed with distinction. I even managed to not lose my shit at group work online. Fun fact: I loathe group work. For one subject this year I was sitting on 92% (well into high distinction territory), but after a group assignment that got 55% I ended up just scraping into the bottom end of a distinction. I could write a whole post separately on it. My goals for this year are the same to complete 4 subjects, give myself a break, stop hating myself so much and try to focus.
Our family is now not known for our Christmas spirit, in fact, most of us are emphatically, absolutely anti-Christmas. Now. It wasn’t always that way. Growing up, the lead up to Christmas was filled with anticipation, hope and joy. That was until we woke up Christmas morning.
I know it’s not good to get kids everything they want for Christmas, but when you really really want a boogie board and end up with a “foam rider” or really would like a bike and end up with an almost life-size doll at the age of 15. Let’s just say disappointment becomes your friend.
When Mum told me to shut-up on the “Santa’s not real” front, or I get no presents. I was VERY tempted to spill the beans.
I get that my parents didn’t have loads of cash, we grew up on the poor side of Parramatta. However, I don’t think it was really too much asking for one good present instead of 15 smaller (read: cheaper), less significant ones. Christmas meant perpetual disappointment as well as a chance to polish up on my acting skills. “Wow thanks Santa, I always wanted a 3 piece suit with shoulder pads in lime green and pink. How did you know?”
The other part of Christmas that was, hmmm, not so inspiring was the food. As far as I know, we are the only family who could actually lose weight at Christmas due to our yearly consumption of turkey salmonella and mouldy bread rolls (usually purchased the week before the actual day to ‘beat the rush’). The ‘jelly turkey’ is a huge turkey cooked for the same amount of time as a standard (and much smaller) chicken. One Christmas the turkey was still cold in the centre even after having come straight out of the oven. Mum always got really offended when we had to get up in the middle of our meal and ‘nuke’ the turkey in the microwave. We all have an ‘iron gut’ from Mum’s cooking. Forget kombucha, kefir and kimchi we had our yearly injection of jelly turkey salmonella…..yum!
The other anxiety-induced part of Christmas was the pudding. My grandmother would bake a traditional plum pudding that included having sixpences throughout. So you would have to try to mush it up with your teeth to ensure you didn’t actually swallow coinage. Of course, being incredibly anxious I ALWAYS thought I’d swallowed one and would end up trawling through the World Book Encyclopedia looking up “copper poisoning” or “nickel poisoning”. Siri? Do you poo out coins if you swallow them?
Christmas normally ended in with us in tears after Mum yelled at us about how ungrateful we were and how there were starving kids in Africa that don’t even get turkey, let alone jelly turkey. P.S. Please don’t tell my Mum I wrote this….. She still scares me!
Merry Christmas! Bah Humbug! Hope you all have an awesome day! As always, thanks for reading!
I use the term “need” very loosely. I’ve never really felt bad about not having a husband/boyfriend/significant other in my life, I don’t feel as though I’ve missed out by not being married. However, that all changed for a small 10-minute window the other evening as a GIANT HAIRY RAMBO HUNTSMAN decided to make my bedroom his own.
I saw Rambo Huntsman downstairs in my living room about a week ago. We were peacefully cohabiting the space together, as long as he stayed on his side and I stayed on mine. We could keep eyeballing each other, from a safe distance. Later, lying in bed, I realised I was being watched. He had decided that my bedroom was now his space and I was having none of it. I grabbed a spatula from the kitchen, an empty bowl and some cardboard and tried to move him back outside where he belongs. Even though he ran UP MY ARM, I still tried to preserve his life. Gently placed him outside and closed the door.
Next minute he has squeezed himself in through the gap between the two sliding glass doors and races. Races. Warp speed, to go back upstairs. I had no choice. This dude had zero respect for my boundaries and we could not live in peace with each other any longer. With the insect spray in hand, I sprayed him until he turned white. This just egged him on even further. He didn’t even slow down on his continuing mission to get into my bedroom. I had to hit him with the thong (for USA readers and others: thong = flip flop). It was my only option. I feel bad but I can’t help his stubbornness and bad decision-making skills.
Actual Size.
If I had a husband I would assume that he would have just taken care of it. Big assumption. But I do assume that must be what it’s like to be married, nonetheless. The husband deals with the insects. And garbage. And pipework sewerage stuff. I know old fashioned blah blah patriarchy blah, independent woman blah. But, the way I see it the husband would do everything I don’t want to. Can you tell I’ve never been married?
So, that’s what I’ve been up to lately. As well as pondering whether the spider is not he but is actually a she? Does she have a family she was trying to provide for? Has she laid eggs in my bed/ear while I sleep? Do I need to burn just my house down or the entire neighbourhood?
Sorry everyone – I’ve lost my writing mojo lately. Turns out working full time, doing a couple of uni subjects also having a bout of terrible anxiety makes me a very tired and worn out gal.
Not sure why the anxiety has been bad, maybe a mix of a few things, spending 99.9% of my time at home alone, combined with a dose of general doom and gloom, extinctions, elections, covid, general humanity loss got a little overwhelming for me and I thought I was dying again. I am actually super proud of myself that I have bounced out of it so quickly. Heavily medicated but feeling 99% back to my normal self. That counts doesn’t it?
The trouble with vomiting, can’t sit still, pacing around the house, can’t leave the toilet anxiety is that it makes getting anything done….well difficult. A 4-page uni assignment took 5 days. 5 days! That’s about 4 days too long. I wasn’t even overly happy with it. Should pass but hardly going to win any Nobel prizes for it.
Do you know what else I did for the first time in a long time…….? I went on a date. With an actual living breathing other human being. I know it’s hard to believe. That anyone would want to spend time with me is absolutely astonishing, and overwhelming. I told everyone at work and keyed them up with a “quick one of your products is being recalled” message to get me out of it half-way through, but I actually got through to the end. He wasn’t for me, and I wasn’t for him but ….. A date!
I have gone on some nice hikes lately to clear my head and get out of the house. This picture was taken at Blackheath…..no filter…..seriously! Look at that late afternoon light! Yes, I am old now and say things like Look at the light! Also, this was taken about 2.5 seconds before I told an approx 8-year-old to mind his own business.
I purchased a new diary, all shiny and new for a new year – one befitting of how I have been feeling lately – mental health wise. I think it suits me.
