womump

I had Kodiaks practice on the evening of 30 December, which meant getting home very late as usual. I did get up and out for the last hot yoga class of my festive pass in the morning of 31 December. From there I did a run into town to pay in a cheque (a cheque!) to N's savings account on the last possible day before it expired. After I got home, I looked at how many tickets remained for the public skate I was booked on, did some subtraction and decided the rink would be too full and I was too tired, so I cancelled the Last Skate Of The Year, and had a nap instead. It was marvellous.

In the evening we had a little family movie night with drinks and snacks:

• Chicken Run (which everyone but Nico had seen before)
• Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (which only Nico had seen before) - fun, but omg there were bad parenting choices, and excessive ~suspense~ due to even more bad choices in the final action sequence
• Wake Up Dead Man (which Nico was uninterested in, but the other three of us enjoyed)

We managed to finish the last film with about fifteen minutes to go before midnight, so I put on BBC One on iPlayer and we watched some Ronan Keating and then the fireworks from London, and then I left Ronan Keating providing background music while sending and replying to HNY messages on my phone until I decided sleep was a better plan.

This morning I got up and used a free gym pass to get to a weights class, and confirm my opinion that I want to return to a regular gym routine. I met friends M, J & K for pub drinks this afternoon, and spent a bunch of time afterwards sorting out logistics for ice hockey games on Saturday (Kodiaks 1 are away in Chelmsford, Kodiaks 2 are "home" in Peterborough).

Tomorrow I will take Nico to a pantomime in the morning, work a half day in the afternoon, and go to Warbirds practice in the evening.

Books on pre-order:

1. Platform Decay (Murderbot 8) by Martha Wells (5 May 2026)
2. Radiant Star (Imperial Radch) by Ann Leckie (12 May 2026)

Books acquired in December:

• and read:
  1. Last Victim of the Monsoon Express (Baby Ganesha) by Vaseem Khan
  2. Harmonic Pleasure (Mysterious Arts 6) by Celia Lake
• and unread:
  1. Park Avenue by Renée Ahdieh
  2. Wounded Christmas Wolf by Lauren Esker
  3. Gift of the Magpie (Fated Mountain Lodge) by Lauren Esker
  4. Claiming the Tower (Council Mysteries 1) by Celia Lake
  5. Apt to be Suspicious (Liminal Mysteries 2) by Celia Lake
• and previously read:
  1. The Green and the Grey by Timothy Zahn
  2. Triplet by Timothy Zahn

Books acquired previously and read in December:

1. Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
2. The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus 1) by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
3. The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus 2) by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
4. The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus 3) by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
5. The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus 4) by Rick Riordan [May 2016]
6. The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus 5) by Rick Riordan [May 2016]

Borrowed books read in December:

1. The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
2. The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson [3]
3. Bad Day at the Vulture Club (Baby Ganesha 5) by Vaseem Khan [3]
4. Inspector Chopra and the Million Dollar Motor Car (Baby Ganesha) by Vaseem Khan [3]
5. Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
6. The Demigod Files by Rick Riordan [3]
7. The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan [3]
8. The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles 1) by Rick Riordan [3]
9. The Throne of Fire (Kane Chronicles 2) by Rick Riordan [3]

I was right about how much I could read this month when I bought books, I was wrong about how easily I was going to get diverted by reading borrowed books instead. I finished up the Inspector Chopra series and intend to move on to the Malabar House series by Vaseem Khan once I've read and returned more of the Rick Riordan backlist.

[1] Pre-order
[2] Audiobook
[3] Physical book
[4] Crowdfunding
[5] Goodbye read
[6] Cambridgeshire Reads/Listens
[7] FaRoFeb / FaRoCation / Bookmas / HRBC
[8] Prime Reading / Kindle Unlimited

Shoresy is a Canadian comedy show about an ice hockey team, currently available to stream on ITVX. It is very crude (swearing, sex & toilet humour) and very funny, and it loves hockey. The episodes are short, around 20 minutes, and the seasons only have six of them, so it's relatively fast watching.

(ITVX insists on checking in with me at the start of each episode that I really want to watch "very strong language and adult humour". This made it great for watching in bed because if I fell asleep, it wouldn't keep playing past the end of the current episode.)

Anyway, despite the aforementioned crudity, it is often weirdly wholesome. There's a lot of little repeated catchphrases, I think maybe the show's own meta-commentary on how much of hockey discussion is cliché-ridden, but like Terry Pratchett wrote, sometimes things become clichés because they are true. Hockey brings people together. Hockey players give back. By the community, for the community. Go till you can't go no more. Episode 3.6 in particular manages to capture how a high-stakes hockey game feels, and is probably my favourite of the entire four seasons.

So anyway, this weird crude funny show got past my usual reluctance to watch TV on my own, and even to rewatch some of my favourite parts. I gather season 5 started showing in Canada on 25 December, but no idea if it too will come to ITVX.

(Trivia point: the executive producer of Heated Rivalry is Jacob Tierney, who also produced Shoresy. I didn't realise this until I'd started watching, but ok, this guy loves ice hockey, just like Rachel Reid does, no wonder he chose to adapt her books.)

Yesterday (Christmas Eve) I worked a half day from home before finishing for the year. I spoke to a few of my family on the phone. I went skating with some of my uni teammates on the last public skate until Saturday, but sadly failed to persuade any of the others to wear a santa hat along with me. I brought a teammate's kit back to my house so I know I have it to take to meet her in Prague next month (did I mention I'm going to hockey camp near Prague in January with the Women's Blues? same coaches & place as I went to last June). I got stocking supplies for the household.

In the early evening Tony, Charles and I gathered for the ritual watching of Die Hard and followed it with Knives Out. I enjoyed both films very much, still. I filled the stockings for everyone before going to bed, and fell asleep over a library book.

I am grateful for my home, my family, my friendships, and all the good things in my life.