What I Watched: The Great British Baking 2025, Season Thirteen. As I type, the next week will start the quarter finals, and the season will be over when this posts. You know the drill – you either like the show or you don’t; I really like it although it is nerve-wracking at points as the pressure to produce significant baking masterpieces increases.
Here’s the basic blurb for anyone new to the concept: In Collection 13, which is streaming now, home bakers from across the UK compete for the title of Star Baker over three rounds every episode. Each week they’ll demonstrate their personal baking style in the signature challenge, be judged blindly on their skills at the gingham altar in the technical and really show off their creativity and execution in the showstopper — all in hopes of landing that coveted Paul Hollywood handshake.
What I Read: A Honeymoon of Grave Consequence (The Unexpected Adventures of Lady and Lord Riven Book 2) by Stephanie Burgis. This series is a nice blend of paranormal, historical, and light romantic fiction.
Here’s the blurb: Margaret, Lady Riven, never expected to find herself married, much less enjoying a honeymoon with her vampiric husband. Of course, they’ve only agreed to stay married for logical, practical reasons, but Lord Riven has kept his promise to supply her with excellent tea and even better company as they travel together across the continent. Unfortunately, her newfound notoriety has traveled along with them – so she’s delighted when they arrive at a secluded inn deep within the Black Forest, far from high society.
However, the inn is full of lethal supernatural creatures who find Margaret’s arrival anything but welcome—and for all of Margaret’s academic prowess, she’s infamously inept at making friends. When a new threat appears in her own mirror, she finally realizes that the greatest danger is to her heart…and she’ll have to rely on a remarkable assortment of newfound allies to help her save the immortal vampire who holds it. A sparkling sequel to A Marriage of Undead Inconvenience that includes strong tea, light banter, and an introvert learning that she can find true community and acceptance after all..
What I Listened To: Tom Vek (Anna Prior remix) – If You Want; Dekker – Let Me Take You; and Paul Grabowsky and Mindy Meng Wang – Held Close:
Thank you for playing Brain Drain! How are you, dearest ones? Darling DeadSplinterites, what’s going on? Please do share with us!
I watched the documentary on HBO The Truth vs Alex Jones. It’s about that dick-for-brains-piece-of-smegma Alex Jones and the Sandy Hook families who sued him over his repeated claims for a decade+ that Sandy Hook never happened.
Fucking psychopath is what he is. I wish there were a crime we knew about (zero surprise if he’d committed heinous crimes and we just hadn’t caught them yet) that could get him locked up the rest of his life.
i finally watched sakamoto days…
you know…after many mentions..
its good fun
….i dont ignore your recs…imn just really bad at time management okay?
…it is fun, isn’t it
it is…i want to call it wholesome….but thats maybe not quite the right word
…with an allowance for genre…I’d say you could get away with wholesome
…his whole deal is kind of wholesome backstopped by a hidden internal well of badassery deep enough to stay that way?
Finally finished “Who killed the Montreal Expos?”
Jeffery Loria is the usual villain and he played an important role. The documentary points to the other Montreal shareholders who let their egos and small pond/big fish mentality get duped by Loria. A lot of blame to go around (strangely it’s not Lucien Bouchard either.)
Does the GBBO have a Bundt cake episode?
An excellent question, Manchu. I saw one episode years back where the contestants were to reimagine the classic Victoria sponge. Why you would want to tamper with this example of perfect simplicity I don’t know. In another episode they took on the Bakewell Tart, which is sacrilege.
…I caught a thing called “train dreams” with joel edgerton as a guy whose life is spent working logging camps seasonally as the railways got built
…not exactly fun times but a pretty good movie
…figured out how to watch that national theatre thing but haven’t found the time to yet
…& saw the first couple of episodes of pluribus but haven’t decided if I’m sticking with that or if the part where there aren’t many people other than the lead who seem likeable wasn’t overly persuading me even if I do wonder where they think they’re going with that whole thing…so…maybe when it’s all out?
Watching old clips of Almost Live which was a 90’s WA version of Saturday Night Live. Leavenworth is a silly tourist town but loads of fun. See if you recognize one of the WA native cast members that went on to be a big star elsewhere…
Listening to some good island music
I suspected it was going to be Joel.
We’re watching the Ken Burns American Revolution thing. My wife had no clue about any of that stuff and is enjoying it more than me.