I love the summer holidays. Many of my most abiding memories from my youth are of sunny days spent in Greatfields Park in Barking, playing football or cricket with my older brother and other locals from the area. It will be the rose-tinted nostalgia speaking but the summers seemed to go on forever and were full of marathon sessions of cartoon watching and video gaming.
As I got older and became a primary school teacher, the summer holidays remained special as it meant time to catch up with friends, unwind, travel to London for visits to museums, galleries and shows and giving some time to my hobbies, namely reading comics, gaming and going to gigs.
Having kids changed all that: the summer holidays meant having quality family time together and ensuring that they are kept busy and entertained but balancing that with relaxation. Also, it's good for kids to be bored on occasion, right? As my wife and I were both teachers it meant we had a great time as a family but as my wife moved away from education into a full time role on the council without the holiday perks we teachers enjoy I'm now Daddy Daycare. Now this analogy doesn't really hold as I am their parent and it is not a job in the regular sense but a part of parenthood, but you get the idea.
This has meant a squeeze in hobbies or downtime - except it hasn't really. Sure, I can't sit down for a 3 to 4 hour gaming session but I've been able to find piecemeal chunks of time to finish the following over the six weeks summer holidays:
Films
King Richard
Robocop (the OG)
Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Conquest for the Planet of the Apes
Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Annie (remake)
My Spy: The Eternal City
Blade Runner: Final Cut
Dangerous Days: The Making of Blade Runner
Touching the Void
Dark City
Chungking Express
To the Devil a Daughter
Young Sherlock Holmes
Coraline
Legend
Series
Diagnosis Murder (Season 1- don't judge me, my wife loves it)
Master of the Universe: Revelations (6 episodes)
The IT Crowd (Season 1- I know the creator is problematic but it is one of my favourite shows)
Manga Series and Films
Shadow Star Narutaru (13 part series)
Kotaro Lives Here (10 part series)
Haibane Renmei (13 part series)
Dragon's Heaven (OAV)
Gundam I
Gundam II: Soldier of Sorrow
Books
The History of Japanese Video Games Vol. 3 by John Szczepaniak
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
The Imagination Chamber: Cosmic Rays from Lyra's Universe by Philip Pullman
Constellations: RoboCop by Omar Ahmed
The Skeleton's Holiday by Leonara Carrington
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
Parasite Eve by Hideaki Sena
The Movie Doctors by Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode
Studying Chungking Express by Sean Redmond
Summer, Fireworks and My Body by Otsuichi
Ico: Castle in the Mist by Miyuki Miyabe
Magazines
Infinity (x2 editions)
Edge (x3 editions)
The Darkside (x1 edition)
Retro Gamer (x3 editions)
Audiobooks
Locke and Key- Joe Hill
A Movie-Making Nerd- James Rolfe
The Disney Revolt- Jake Freedman
Podcasts
Retronauts (2 episodes)
The Back Page (6 episodes)
VGApocalypse (8 episodes)
Miss Me? (8 episodes)
Desert Island Discs (5 episodes)
Good Bad Billionaire (3 episodes)
High Score (2 episodes)
I've put away the gaming for the entirety of the summer (except a couple of hours of Illusion Island and Mario Kart 8 with the girls) to plough through some of my massive 'pile of shame' using a combination of physical and digital media. My Kindle app has allowed me to read whilst waiting on the kids and shopping line queues and my Audible app has allowed me to listen to books whilst moving and organising the house, travelling along in my car or when walking the dog.
Sure, the gaming backlog remains but I've moved house, had quality time with the kids, socialised and eased some of my cognitive load I've had for articles and ideas for this very website. I haven't published anything since the beginning of the holidays but will now resume the work as the new academic year is upon us and routine is back.
I still have a huge media backlog left but I've made a heck of a dent in it and it is a relief as the guilt of accruing more books and films was getting to me (and to my wife in all fairness). I feel artistically, intellectually and creatively nourished now. Nom, nom, nom! On with the new academic year of teaching.