May was something of a momentous month for me. Not blogging-wise, I’m still way behind where I should be, don’t be silly. No, I’m talking about in the real world, away from this key-covered burden that it my laptop. “What happened in May?” I hear you ask. Well, I went and got myself engaged. Yep, I’m no longer someone’s boyfriend, now I’m there fiancé. Or fiancée. Or financé. One of those, pretty sure it’s the last one.
The deed was done on holiday up in the Peak District (photos are at the bottom of the post, as that’s the “new place to walk the dog” covered for the month), during which time I also got to watch quite a few films due to the future Mrs. Me having quite a lot of naps, what with all the walking in the countryside, allowing me to waste hours upon end watching drivel like Skyline and Sanctum. I’d have got more reviews written, but we didn’t have any Wi-Fi. Sorry about that.
Target-wise I’m still mostly behind, but I did catch up on one other goal that I’d fallen back on, so progress is being made. The aim for June is to catch up on one of the other two (probably film-makers) and then move on from there. Oh, and sort out a wedding venue. Apparently they can get quite pricey.
Aim: Review 8 or 9 1001 List movies each month
Reviewed: 4
Caravaggio
Raging Bull
Sedmikrasky
The Color of Pomegranates
Successful?: No!
Aim: Review 1 “Bad” movie each month
Reviewed: 2
Sedmikrasky
The Color of Pomegranates
Successful?: Yes!
Aim: Review 1 “Blind Spot” movie each month
Reviewed: 1
Raging Bull
Successful?:Yes!
Aim: Review 2 “Film-Makers” movies each month
Reviewed: 0
Successful?:No!
Aim: Read A New-To-Me Book
Read: 1
Captains Courageous (Rudyard Kipling)
Successful?:Yes!
Aim: Visit Somewhere New
Visited: lots, all roughly in the same place
The Peak District
Successful?: Yes!
As I read a ridiculously long book last month I thought I’d alternate to a much shorter one, maybe even reading a few. Captains Courageous is about 170 pages long, a quarter the size of 11/22/63, but it took me about the same amount of time to read, even with a holiday thrown in. The problem is that Captains Courageous, which I bought some years ago on a whim I cannot recall the meaning behind, is written predominantly in a seaman-like vernacular which I found exhausting to decipher. I normally read before going to bed, and tend to aim for a chapter a night, but often I found reading the text to be so tiring that I could barely finish a page. The actual story isn’t bad – Harvey is a wealthy, privileged, spoiled son of a railway magnate but falls overboard from a cruise ship and gets saved by a fishing boat, where he must work amongst the rest of the crew to earn his passage – but sometimes the dialogue is impenetrable, and the supporting characters of the rest of the crew all kind of merged together. I’m intrigued to see the 1937 film adaptation (it’s on the 1001 List) as I’m sure there’ll be some fairly drastic changes from the book, especially in the manner of speech.
As I mentioned above, this month’s new destination was the Peak District, specifically Minster, which I deemed too small to even have aspirations of being a village. It has a single shop, and a couple of pubs that were perpetually closed whenever we wanted to go in them. It’s also entirely made of narrow roads and steep hills, yet still a great number of lorries and vans careened through it every day. We didn’t go there for Winster though, we went for what was nearby. The town of Bakewell, where the delicious Bakewell tarts originate, is quite close, and we went there often. There are loads of great walks around the area – we bought two different books before we went and did at least one of the suggested walks each day, sometimes two. Tired feet and aching legs ensued, and I think for the first time ever we actually exhausted Murphy, so mission accomplished there.
Here are some photos Aisha took on the trip. There are hundreds more, mostly of sheep, alpacas and random flowers, but I whittled it down to these:
These alpacas were very intrigued by Murphy, who does look a bit like he could be one of their smaller brethren. They came flocking to the sides of the path out of nowhere, as though we were in a Hitchcock movie. It was terrifying.
Speaking of terrifying, look at this demonic beast!
I got to do a tiny bit of cave exploring. They didn’t go back all that far, but I explored them nonetheless, with my trusty and not-at-all-good-at-posing-for-photos sidekick.
Murphy can’t swim. Nor can he use these stepping stones. Therefore, he got carried. Maybe I need to try this next time.
Mr. Kipling presents Pan’s Labyrinth.
Do you have any idea where we are? Because I’m stumped.
One of the rare occasions when Murphy was actually behaving.
The engineer in me loved these giant sink-hole style drainage holes in the reservoir.
One of the many, many snack breaks. I’m a fan of brownies, so when I found a Bakewell Brownie there was no stopping me.
And on we move into June. No idea what I’ll be watching (other than Purple Rain and Independence Day: Resurgence for podcasting reasons), no idea where I’ll be going (except work, sigh) and no idea what I’ll be reading (nope, nothing). Ah, the joys of not really having a social life or planning ahead. Come back next month to see if I ended up doing anything whatsoever.
Life Vs Film 
Congrats on the engagement! Love the pictures!
Thanks Courtney!
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Congratulations again! The Peak District seems lovely, with its 1 store yet proximity to treats and walks.
Thanks Jess! And there was more than one shop in the whole of the Peak District, but only one in our little almost-a-village. It was the epitome of quaintness.