Monthnotes: May 2023

Bank holidays everywhere, but none of them relaxing

Tuesday 6 June 2023

Music has the right to children ascending the throne

Right at the top of the month, I was at my favourite music festival getting destroyed and listening to stupid donk remixes. Much better than watching some fat fingered fuck sit on a gold chair.

Weird to be a staunch anti-monarchist and see it everywhere before and afterwards, but not during. Even on our way back on the Monday, we stopped in Birmingham Star City and they had a statue up. It was pretty ironic that a man who has never worked a day in his life was asking people to donate a day of unpaid labour to charities just after a horrific display of ostentation.

Bangface is where I get to hear all the music that I love and hang out with my friends that I only see once a year.

It’s a pretty special place to me.

We felt brutally sick afterwards, which wasn’t as much fun.

Venues

We’ve been browsing wedding venues and picked one that we think really suits us. We picked somewhere in North East London that is in a pretty area. Now comes the rest of the planning.

The last weekend in May had us at a wedding in Oxford. The venue was beautiful, and it was fun to go to another wedding while planning our own.

Wales

After Oxford, we drove a rental car out to Porthmadog in Wales. The Welsh Highlands is full of incredible landscapes.

We visited Portmerion one day, which is a surreal Italian style town right on the coast with some other mad stuff, like a chines style lake, and a dog cemetary.

China lake Portmerion

Portmerion

We followed a little trail that took us out to a view point. The tide was way out, so the view was incredible.

Estuary Estuary And a panorama

Clouds passing over the sand like alien spaceships

On our second last day, we booked a boat trip out to a Puffin Island near Llanfairpwllgwyngyll. The wind was insane and we saw that other tour companies had cancelled their trips out that day. Our boat operator carried on. They took us further inland for a quick tour and only told us we wouldn’t head out towards the sea when we got back to the pier. It was pretty disappointing.

In Porthmadog, we went to a nearby pub on two of the nights. On the first night, a Tuesday, the Police were called after we left to deal with two drunk women. And then they were called again when one of the women tried to kick the door in. When we went back a few days later the barman told us the story. That evening, a family kicked off at being served a chicken wing with a pink tendon. They ate the rest of the wings and then due to some miscommunication when paying for what they had ate, the Police were nearly called again.

Wild scenes in Porthmadog.

The day after we left that where the highest temperature in the UK was too.

Manchester

Continuing our week away, we finished it in Manchester with some friends. Touring shops, pubs, taprooms, and restaurants. It was the FA Cup Final, Arctic Monkeys, and Coldplay, so it was a pretty busy weekend. I’ve been in Manchester a few times before, but this was the first time I properly got to explore it.

Honourable mentions

  • The Legend Of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom - Incredible fun. What a game. Full of slapstick comedy as I try to build contraptions to complete elaborate tasks only to completely fuck it up in a hilarious way.
  • Taskmaster Season 15 - Speaking of completing elaborate tasks and fucking it up in a hilarious way, Taskmaster is as good as ever.
  • Human Origins: 7 million years and counting - I bought it in the oldest bookshop in the world a few weeks back when I was in Lisbon, which seemed a little ironic to me given the subject matter. It’s been a nice read instead of doomscrolling.
  • Succession - Still the last episode to go, but I think it’s been spoiled for me.