Beer
So far this year, I’ve been cutting down on beer. This is mainly a calories thing - I’m not a heavy drinker by any means, but I am a regular drinker, and would have one or two every day. Nothing quite beats a cold refreshing beer for me (except maybe tea), so I’ve been looking into Alchohol-free alternatives. Most lager alternatives aren’t worth bothering about as they taste so watered down. San Miguel was one of the worst, with Budvar and Heineken Zero among the ‘a bit better ’options. Citrusry ales/IPA alternatives fare much better with Adnams Ghost Ship and Brewdogs’ Punk AF and Hazy AF really hitting the spot. I haven’t tried alcohol free wheat beers yet, but I hear good things. .
The advantages of this change are twofold: I am steadily losing weight, after steadily gaining for the last year or two. Cutting out sugar in tea (I have at least 6 large cups a day) and chocolate bars has helped as well. The other advantage is being less sleepy and having more energy, which I didn’t expect. I’ll still have one or two ‘normal’ beers at the weekend, but my habits are now tending towards cutting out beer altogether.
Adobe Fresco
I like experimenting with painting styles on the iPad, and I love the fluidity and expressiveness of Procreate. Years of producing vector artwork has made me worry about the scalability of bitmap paintings though, and I thought I’d have a go at a vector drawing in Adobe Fresco. There are plenty of vector apps on the iPad, but only Fresco (and it’s predesssor, Adobe Draw) seem to capture the expressiveness that I’m after.
I tried this Grey Heron, starting with a black ink outline, and then applying colour on top. It was interesting to try, but the result looks very ‘colouring book’ to me, and one that I don’t think suits natural subjects. Next time I’ll try one without, but at the back of my mind I’m thinking that only bitmap illustration in Procreate will get me where I want to be.
Jo Morgan is the Doctor
My interest in Dr Who has been waning a bit of late, so far season 12 in particular has felt a bit ‘meh’ with plots that don’t stand up and old stories being rehashed. It also has three companions, which feels like two too many, especially when they are so underused like Yaz. However, while last Sunday’s epsiode started the same way (the Judoon are so bad they’re even mocked by characters in the story), the revelation of a new incarnation of the Doctor was marvellous! Jo Morgan stole the show, and Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor really came into its own. Great to see Captain Jack again too!