Today I subscribed to Crunchyroll via Amazon Prime as I wanted to watch “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End”. This anime has such amazing artwork. Kiera and I watched the first episode.

Youtube’s been showing me clips for months now. The story follows Frieren, an immortal elf, who has lived for centuries and has experienced countless adventures with her companions. However, while Frieren remains unchanged, her human friends age and eventually die, leaving her to continue on alone.

The manga/anime explores themes of mortality, friendship, and the passage of time. Frieren’s journey is not just a physical one but also an emotional and existential one as she grapples with the nature of her existence and the inevitability of loss.

Something different!

Whist I was looking for the first episode, I noticed Crunchyroll had Jujutsu Kaisen - my all time favourite anime series. As I haven’t yet made my way through season 2, that’s certainly on the cards now.

Bravery

Was reminded of a quote from a Book/Movie called “We Bought A Zoo”. An old friend re-quoted it in a LinkedIn post:

“You know, sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage. Just, literally, 20 seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.”

Expecting the usual post full of complaint about how shite work is? Not today! So, on Friday, my team lead was off sick. So, who does everyone rely on? That’ll be me. Who solved all their problems. Me again. Who did they complain about my team lead to? You guessed it! Me again! So, labour-wise, an excellent day!

NubeGo / Stackzone

I poked my consultancy on Friday, trying to prep them I guess for me not being renewed. I got back such a great response that I considered perhaps I’m seeing this all wrong:

Hi Chris. Sorry to hear it’s political with --redacted big consultancy--. It’s
exactly this type of lock in that --redacted company-- is wary of. I did speak
to --redacted senior manager-- earlier this week to discuss timely renewal of
your contract.  --redacted senior manager-- is very much of the view that he
will be extending the contract and is very happy with the work you are doing
(more than happy!).

I will follow up with --redacted company name-- to make sure your renewal is
being progressed.  Hope that helps.

Needless to say, that makes me fell a LOT better about this whole experience. I won’t count my chickens before they’re hatched but I’m terribly grateful for the support. In the evening, the missus fancied a Chinese meal. Our usual place close down months ago so we decided to go back out and try the local Chinese buffet. Sweet baby jebus! We won’t do that again! It wasn’t pleasant at all.

Saturday

The missus and I slipped off for a quick bite at Las Iguanas. Delicious as always but we were next to a tables of loud children (Mid-20-ish people). Enjoyed it still!

Sunday

As per every single Sunday, the missus and I popped up to the mother-in-law’s resting place. The trees are starting to bud and her plot is looking good. For a change, it looks like we picked good flowers that the Muntjac deer won’t eat. The rest of the day was filled with food shopping and prepping for a super delicious “One Pot Spanish Chicken” we found here: https://www.itv.com/thismorning/articles/clodagh-mckennas-one-pot-spanish-chicken

It ended being really good - but I over-cooked the chicken breast. When it says to brown them, it really means it.