Sunday Confessions

Hi! It's been a while so here goes nothing...

I confess: Um I just realized I don't have my Sunday Confessions header pic, or in fact ANY pictures saved on my new computer! By some miracle after our computer died our friend was able to retrieve access to the hard drive for us, but that requires, um, I'm not too sure...plugging things into other things and deciding what things I want to bother putting on my sparkly, speedy, clean, purrs like a quiet kitten new computer (did I mention I love her?!).

It's an ACER Aspire T (not an ad or affiliate or anything because I suck at blogging for dollah bills yo), but I am just so impressed with how instantly she turns on, how quiet she is, and how responsive. Yes we are in the new, early days of our relationship stage do not disturb lolz!

I confess: I'm struggling a bit with balancing going to the gym "for enjoyment" as opposed to "it's a boring thing I have to do to keep my knees from flaking out". The novelty has worn off a bit, and now I feel guilty if I don't go at least 3 times a week, but I am not really interested in the body shaming fitspo tone of the way they run their classes (in my admittedly somewhat limited experiences). Saying that I met a girl last week who was nice and said one of the spin classes is really good with the trainer and the music so maybe I will give it a go, but generally I'm not finding it super inspiring or motivating to be there.

Like I'm happy and feel good after a workout but I think I'm just bored with my routine, and I feel bad paying for any outside exercise classes but a friend and I are thinking of yoga in the Fall - I do miss having a moment of zen type exercise class in my routine (I went to Pilates for about 3 years until a year and a bit ago now when my teacher moved away).

Does anyone have any tips for keeping the gym/working out fun? I made a new very rap-tastic Spotify mix this week which is slightly outside my wheelhouse, and that helped a bit to re-energize me, I am so bored of my mixes on my mp3 player right now.

I confess: I got sucked into watching The Hills: New Beginnings reboot as it's available on NOWTV at the push of a button and I'm weak, ok. I admit I watched the original early seasons of The Hills sort of passively, I don't think I watched after Lauren Conrad left (I think she left? She's not in this one anyway!). Not that Lauren was a super fascinating personality, but she provided a sort of neutral vanilla milkshake moral center to the show. I remember not liking Speidi (that's Spencer and Heidi), but not in a fun, love to hate way, more in a "Ick these people are the worst way" so that probably drove me away.

I guess the reboot intrigued me because of the whole "where are they now?" thing, and wow, did it deliver on several fronts. I love that it's awkward and obvious these people haven't hung out in 10 years, that some of them are sort of frozen at the age they became famous in the wise words of new baby cast member Brandon Lee (whose mother Pamela Anderson shows up to sage his new house so yes, the hippie crystal chick in me was enthralled ha ha!), and that some of them have even mellowed and are now selling (very expensive!) crystals for a living (Speidi).

And then there's the eternal Peter Pan "I surfed in Nicaragua for 4 years and came back with a vocabulary slightly outside my actual wheelhouse" blue eyed punk Justin Bobby. Ahhh Justin Bobby. So pretty, so empty. I read a funny tweet about how we've all had a Justin Bobby and yes I felt seen.

The producers of this show did such a good job making us root for Justin Bobby and newly divorced Audrina, despite all of our better instincts, in the first episode. And then they just fully pulled the rug out in episode two when JB/Justin Bobby immediately went back to his player for life ways and started a totally not romantic friendship *cough* with Steph "ugh go back to London" Pratt.

Even if the whole love triangle is completely made up (pretty sure it is as there are no secrets on social media these days which adds another dimension to these shows), they are doing a really good job setting it all up. The only person I don't really care about is Brody, or what's his name that used to date Lauren, I just find them really basic/boring.

Sorry I digress/I won't bore anyone with more Hills chat, what I actually wanted to share (for anyone interested in The Hills!), is that I discovered a really great podcast about the show called Unwritten and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a smart, funny, sardonically snarky but also thoughtfully done weekly rundown of the show.

It is presented by three (late?) millennial type Canadians, two girls and a guy (but no pizza place - ba dum bum!), and they have a lot of fun with it but it also has a sort of refreshingly NPR-esque tone for a podcast about a reality show. Plus they say "aboot" a lot which I enjoy!

They don't just take the show at face value, they do a lot of research/digging, are all fans of the original so have feelings/opinions that occasionally pop up. They admit to lots of the guilty pleasure type thoughts we have watching reality t.v., the curiosity about stuff/ like how do they afford this, where is that dress from, is it paid for by the show and can I justify a Pratt Daddy Crystal in my life etc. (I...cannot. Seriously $200 for a crystal you can buy on Etsy for a tenner?!).

I find it a fun listen anyway, it breaks things down in a less reactive and face value way than what you get from say, Twitter responses to the show. I would almost argue that it has a degree of psychological and pop culture discourse that make it worth listening even if you don't watch the show. I am fairly new to podcasts but this one in particular does the job that a lot of t.v. writing used to, whereas now I feel like I mostly see samey recaps of stuff everywhere.

I am trying to get more into podcasts, they are good to put on in the background when I am doing other stuff (hmmm would that work at the gym?). I have tried the more interview-y type ones and they are ok, I do want to check out David Tennant's, but I liked the roundtable discourse style of The Hills one I found this week a lot.

Does anyone have any must listen podcasts to recommend to me?

I confess: We had a heat wave this week in the U.K. and yes by most standards it was not that hot in Scotland (I think some places up north hit the 80s though we tapped out at around 78!). It's hard to explain why that feels so hot here - for one, there is no air conditioning in people's houses, and the houses don't really cool down at night if the air temperature doesn't (we can't really sleep with our windows open because of the noise also NO SCREENS which I have mentioned before drives me nuts!).

So anyway there's a lot of silliness and drama when the U.K. gets actual summer weather but legit, in London on the un-airconditioned tube in 98 degree weather must be HELLISH. I was there once when it was tipping into the early 90s in May and it was unbearable.

So um yes I was laughing at a story doing the rounds about these "chicken filet" things you can freeze and stick in your bra to stay cool...at the same time under boob sweat is a MARE for me so um yes I made a DIY ice pack, and ALSO applied this magical thing called Prickly Heat "Snake Brand" powder(!) - no I have no idea why it is called that, but it's like icy menthol powder, I bought it for a heat rash I get from the sun (did I mention we are not used to seeing the sun?) or overheating or whatever, not exactly sure what causes it. Um yes so I made a icy cool under the bosom relief system, it was bliss! Patent pending ha ha!

How was your week?


(Sunday Confessions linking up with Becky at The United States of Becky)