This month’s reflection question in Unravel Your Year was about the challenges you have overcome so far this year. Well Susannah, I’ve now spent 2 1/2 straight months in a 1200 sq ft apartment with four other people, and I haven’t lost my mind or even my temper (much). I can’t say I’ve gotten much accomplished in that time, but I have loads of company in this, and I’m going to take whatever I can get: we’re alive, not sick (allergy season aside), and getting along fairly well. We are extremely fortunate in many ways.
The weather this week has been unseasonably hot, and while my nascent container garden seems to be enjoying it, the rest of us not so much. I took the opportunity to open my ludicrous self-indulgence for the month, which came in the form of a 2,200-piece LEGO set, the Destiny’s Bounty from the LEGO Ninjago movie. I am indifferent to the property, but I do like ships, and LEGO, and it gave me and the teen something to do with our afternoons for an entire week. She appointed herself assistant and sorted all of the pieces as we opened each of the 15 bags and worked our way through hundreds of detailed instructions.
It is honestly an amazing set. There’s a couple of fragile points to be aware of if you intend it for active play; most notably the mobile bits at the rear tend to come off, but they are easy to reattach. It is also, as you can see, large when assembled, and I’m not entirely sure where it’s going to live going forward.
There are three removable sections, one at midship, and yes, that’s a little LEGO bathroom facility for the ninjas below, along with mementos from vanquished enemies. The anchors raise and lower on an ingenious little pulley system.
That bit of decking is a bit tricky to remove, being right between the masts, and there’s a lack of good grip points, but again it’s simple to put things back where they should go if something does come off. The stern has three layers:
There’s the wheel uppermost, and an adorable LEGO sextant and map. Under that is a training area, and under that a bedroom. It all terribly cute, and I consider it money well spent, although my 12yo son will almost certainly end up taking ownership of it in the future.
Other than that, I have spent most of the week playing with sourdough starter, having gotten some dried from a kind acquaintance. It has been revived and was used to make its first loaf yesterday.
Tomorrow it’s June; another month that lasted twelve years falls behind us.
R Jean Stevenson 