Best Summer Ever: Week 1

First update. I don’t know exactly what form these posts are going to take, so I’m just going to start typing and see what happens.

A couple of years ago, the ice cream parlour at Ripley (just a few minutes away by bus) went through an extensive rebranding process, giving itself an overhaul — calling itself “World Famous Ripley Ice Cream” — and opened up a parlour right here in the Valley Gardens of Harrogate (just a few minutes away by foot).

Unlike other ice cream parlours and their simply staggering selection of flavours, Ripley Ice Cream keeps things relatively simple. There are three options: Vanilla, the Flavour of the Week or a mixture of the two. I almost always go for the mixture. This week’s flavour was a new one to me: Turkish delight, of all things. An overly sweet flavour that’d've been a challenge for me to eat on its own (without the counterpoint of vanilla).¹

We went to see a suitably epic two-part theatrical production of His Dark Materials in Leeds. It was far superior to the big-budget film adaptation (which didn’t even make it to the end of the first book). I really liked the production techniques; in particular, the dæmons, realised through the magic of puppets operated by actors in inconspicuous clothing — echoing the Japanese tradition of bunraku. Isn’t it great how I’m able to tie anything and everything into my interests?

Just days before my summer began, I had been working hard to finish my assignments. This put me under an amount of stress, and my health suffered for it. This week, I was still feeling the effects; I had a headache and an upset stomach nearly all week, and found myself falling asleep at hilariously inappropriate moments. Although I got better over the weekend, this made it hard for me to get into the summer spirit. I do not intend to do any further work for the remainder of the summer months.

I have a new personal goal: get a new MacBook Pro. However, this takes money, and I need to work to earn money, and I do not intend to do any further work for the remainder of the summer months. So I have set my sights significantly lower: I intend to go back to the aforementioned ice cream parlour every week and try out each flavour that they have on offer. Kinda like Super Size Me, only not really anything like it at all. Fun! This is a manageable goal for me and will give me something to talk about week after week.

Wednesday was wet, so I took the liberty of watching a few of those anime series that I hadn’t watched yet. Just an episode here or there. I started off with Air, which was sad. Then there was Str.A.In (which was underwhelming), Abenobashi (which was awkward), The Big O (which was cool), Kiddy Grade (which was awesome) and My-Otome Zwei (which was better than TV Tropes said that it was). I should probably do a better job of paying attention next time. I can’t really forgive myself for using “cool” and “awesome” as adequate descriptions. I mustn’t let my mind go numb. I’ve watched one Michael Bay film too many this week.

On Friday, me and Brother went on a pilgrimage to the National Media Museum at Bradford to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in glorious, £8-per-ticket IMAX format. It was big and loud. Even with earplugs in place, the noise system produced a bass so deep that it made my whole skeleton vibrate. Luckily, we’d seen the original The Transformers: The Movie the day beforehand in preparation, so we were able to pick up on some of the film’s mythology shout-outs. It didn’t leave much of an impact on me, however. (Physically or otherwise.) If you’re in the area, though, I heartily recommend a visit to the museum itself.

The weekend was spent catching up with Scrubs season 8. I was greatly surprised by the high quality of the episodes after all these years, despite the constant re-use of running jokes.

I purchased a Crabble because Dr Ashen didn’t hate it.

Brother says that he’s going to work on a blog post “soon”.

And I think that that’s just about everything that happened to me last week.

This week’s weather forecast: Sunny spells. Top temp: 21℃.

See you soon. ㋼

1. On a side note, eating a chocolate-covered Turkish delight bar is an excellent (and delicious) way to stay awake and alert through lectures and seminars that would otherwise send one to sleep. As they’re so small, I recommend carrying a bar or two should one require a pick-me-up. [↩]