Senses working overtime #556

1 Welcome: 2026

Yes, it's a world cup year! Wahoo!! New Zealand will be there this time.

2 Watching: English Premier League

Jade and Ivy visited last week. Ivy and I watched Liverpool play Leeds. Ivy was unimpressed with the football on offer, as Arsenal weren't playing.

3 Reading: Truman - David McCullough

I didn't make much progress with this book in 2025 (only 75 pages). It's not that it failed to capture my interest - it's well written (Truman won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography); it's more about its daunting size. So my goal since January 1st has been to read at least a page every morning in 2026 as I'm having breakfast. 

4 Watched: Outlast (season 2) and Win the Wilderness

Great reality competitions on Netflix.

5 Listening: Introducing Dinah Lee (1964)

A mint copy for five dollars from Vinyl Countdown, New Plymouth.

Overtime: Dolly Parton

If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one.

Senses working overtime #530

1 First week of the study break:

Photo by Matias North on Unsplash

2 Reading: Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell

The novel centres on a fictional 1960s British psychedelic rock band called Utopia Avenue. Quite apposite given my recent run down of Pink Floyd's late sixties albums on Goo Goo G'Joob. 

David Mitchell even has a scene in the book where characters watch a 1967 Pink Floyd gig. Fun.

3 Listening: Pink Floyd's Ummagumma 

Specifically, the live sides.  

4 Reading: Truman - David McCullough

5 Watched - Alone: Frozen

Overtime: 

Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day 

Thorton Wilder