Tag: mental health

Hello world – I’m back!

Yes, I’ve been lax about writing this year. Indeed, my last regular updates on here were to do with the execrable new adaptation of The Stand, and that finished in February.

So why the lack of writing? Well, as you may have seen from the one entry I have posted since then, my mental health has been patchy at best – and it’s not conducive to concentrating while you write.

But it’s also been down to work. After the first lockdown, I was bemoaning the fact that I’d lost my teaching job here in Barcelona; well, that didn’t last long thankfully, and now I have three. Between three employers, most days of the week my teaching begis at around 08:00 and finishes at 22:00. It’s been great having the work and I (mostly) enjoy it, but it doesn’t leave much time for anything else.

In fact, so busy have I been that I haven’t even found time to watch the new season of Doctor Who, let alone review it. That’s not ideal, as reviewing Doctor Who was the main reason I started writing this blog, way back in 2006.

But! Not only are classes winding down for Christmas, but I’ve also caught Covid. Thankfully the symptoms are mild (if persistent), presumably due to my having been vaccinated.

However, it means that I now have time on my hands while I self-isolate for the requisite ten days. Time which I’m going to use to kickstart my writing again. And where else to start than by finally watching the new season of Doctor Who?

Of pandemics, social media and mental health…

“Marvelous technology is at our disposal and instead of reaching up for new heights, we try to see how far down we can go…how deep into the muck we can immerse ourselves!”
– Eric Bogosian, Talk Radio

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on here. I’d thought, initially, that the pandemic would enable me to do some sort of ‘Journal of the Plague Years’ a la Daniel Defoe, but that soon faded when I realised that, when you’re locked down, there are no events to write about. Not for me, anyway. No baking banana bread or learning to crochet here. Just the endless, repetitive routine of being stuck in my tiny Barcelona apartment, with my windowless bedroom, trying as best I could to not interfere with my roommate having to work from home in our tiny living room. Continue reading “Of pandemics, social media and mental health…”

Doctor Who: Season 12, Episode 7 – Can You Hear Me?

“You’re wrong about humans. They’re not pathetic. They’re magnificent. They live with their fears, doubts, guilts, they face them down every day, and they prevail! That’s not weakness. It’s strength.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Ostensibly a stab at one of the horror stories Doctor Who has traditionally done so well, Can You Hear Me? was another divisive ep in the way it took on another Big Issue. This time it was mental health, a topic the show has dealt with before (rather more effectively in my opinion) in 2010’s Vincent and the Doctor. The difference here is that rather than showing us a historical figure beset by his personal demons, this time it was the TARDIS crew who were revealed to have fears and anxieties of their own. Continue reading “Doctor Who: Season 12, Episode 7 – Can You Hear Me?”