Sunday, 15 February 2026

TV

The Diplomat
3x04 Arden
3x05 Birdwatchers
Weird time jump and status quo changes between episodes four and five, so extreme that it feels like the start of a new season or something. Makes me wonder if they were expecting Netflix to do their two-part release thing, which didn't happen.

Richard Osman's House of Games
9x51 Week 11: Monday
9x52 Week 11: Tuesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]

Fiction

Swords Against Death by Fritz Leiber
X. Bazaar of the Bizarre [the end]

Video Games

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

When I loaded this up today, I actually had a plan to act on what I said yesterday... then I hit an unexpected roadblock (in short: a bug I thought I'd fixed, but hadn't), spent a bunch of time clearing that, then did a spot of travelling, with the usual distractions, and eventually ended up at the first waypoint on my target... after well over an hour of play. I do love this game, but at times like that, it feels pretty frustrating. I even had to set it down for a bit (gasp!)

When I came back later, I finally progressed to my fifth city — huzzah! Didn't have time to explore most of it thanks to all that wasted time earlier, but hey, progress. And it's only nine days since I encountered my previous one! Real progress. If I keep going at that accelerated rate, I'd finally visit them all by... early April. Jeez. Huge game.