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What did you do this weekend?
As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their weekend. Did you make any plans? Take a trip? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!
It's christmas season and things are at a stand-still here in Brussels, so there isn't much to do. Still, I did finally watch Casino Royale (there is an excellent video from Lessons from the Screenplay on its introduction action-chase sequence by the way).
Been trying to train on Beat Saber some more after letting my arms rest a couple of days. Today I finally full-combo'd Linkin Park - New Divide on Hard+Fast+Ghost. Ended up top 5, really happy! I also just beat my first Expert+ level ($100 Bills).
Had my second date over the weekend. Went very well, though it's become obvious that a relationship would simply be too difficult (way too many obstacles there) so I don't think it'll go any further than it has. I'm glad to have her in my life though, especially right now.
Well, that's really about it. That and some work; I'm getting some motivation for a personal project, glad to be working with React and Typescript again.
We had a very strange Christmas gathering with my in-laws. Luckily there was some respite from the weather, as we were outside; it was a lovely day for mid-December. We did a gift exchange, and that was a bit weird - we bought and wrapped the gifts from my in-laws for our kids, but they still had some other care packages for us, so we had to carefully look at them before we could take them and disinfect them later.
We also had a socially distant event on my little 1-block long street. Most of the houses with kids got together around dusk on Saturday, and we walked up the street and sang christmas carols, all about 5 meters apart. We didn't really get that choral sound that most choruses go for, but it was still lots of fun. There's something lovely about a neighbourhood getting together and saying "We might not be as physically close as we could be, but we'll all join our voices together and try to spread a little cheer". There are 22 houses in total on our street, and 8 of the homes came out to sing, and 10 of the homes had people come to the door and clap and cheer for carolling. Because the group was so big, we had family groups covering most of the space between both sides of the street, so we were carolling both sides at once. Rum was also involved; generally it was a really nice event. I hope we continue it next year. Earlier in the day I had to scramble to put up our Christmas lights; we just hadn't got around to it yet. I guess I haven't been in much of a holiday spirit yet.
I spent some time thinking about that lack of spirit. The run up to Christmas has a lot of "ritual" for my family. My birthday is on the 15th, my father-in-law on the 18th, so we have these built in mini celebrations that lead up to Christmas. My mom usually has a big get together about a week before my birthday for the extended family for our Christmas kick-off, which was cancelled this year. Birthday parties were mostly cancelled - we had a virtual "jackbox game" get together which was fun, but was briefer than most other family get togethers. My father-in-law's birthday was celebrated remotely. These things missing have been a big drain for me, and have made it difficult to get into the Christmas spirit. The events of the weekend were both helpful in that regard; I feel a lot more connected to the idea that Christmas is this week, and that we can still be celebratory, because there are a lot of things to be thankful for around here.
Anyways, that's what I did - two christmas events and some introspection.
There was some kind of light festival (projections on building) in the city center this week-end, it was a good occasion to do some night photography. I was expecting to find a dead city with everything closed but in fact the party was going strong, lots of packed bars and restaurants. Mostly young people though. I'm a bit shy taking picture of people, but it was dark, I had my mask and hood on, and stayed pretty far with a 85mm, so it was quite fun.
https://imgur.com/a/WESeyZJ
Made it up to the ski hill finally. It feels more COVID-safe than it sounds -- masks are required in the lift lines, singles have to ask before joining your party on a chair, and in general you are gloved and only touch your face with your ungloved hands.
Anyways there was about 5 inches of fresh snow so the boarding was awesome and definitely helped me restore a bit of sanity and normalcy to the holiday season.
Nothing all that exciting, did some work in the garage on Saturday, but it was mostly small things that needed to be done to be able to focus on the bigger stuff, plus cleaning up a transmission oil spill from the Tercel's drivetrain that I assumed was fully drained. Normally an oil spot, even one that large, wouldn't bother me and I'd just power wash it out later, but transmission/gear oil stinks and I wanted to address it immediately. At present it's been diluted, degreased, and covered in kitty litter to soak it all up. I'm on vacation, so I'll likely get it swept up sometime before xmas.
Sunday was finally taking down a swing set, moving it two hours away, and reassembling it for my near-as-makes-no-difference niece who was thrilled at her early xmas present.