Things I thought: Gym classes are good fun

I’ve been a gym member since I was 16, but only recently started going to classes.

According to a 2026 fitness report, just under one in five people in the UK (19%) are gym members, with 41% of those regularly attending classes. That puts me in a surprisingly exclusive club of just over five million people who book onto them.

This may explain why I now have to plan my workouts an entire week in advance!

Numbers aside, the main reason I’ve warmed to classes is the social side. For years, I worked out almost entirely on my own – and I still do – but I’ve reached a point where getting out of the house and feeling like I'm part of wider society is appealing.

I've found working out alongside others encourages chatting and is a great way to wake up my brain after a full day working from home (remote workers unite and take over).

I suspect this feeling is widespread given how we're all navigating the complexities of a post-Covid world. It's becoming easier than ever to drift into quiet isolation and dodge social interaction, which is rarely great for mental health. 

The dopamine hit from exercise matters, but so does feeling there’s something at the end of it - a social connection - beyond just slightly bigger muscles or achieving faster running times.

To cut a long story short, since signing up in November, I’ve settled into a rhythm of:

• Boxing introduction every Wednesday (very popular)
• Core and cardio every Thursday
• The occasional strength class

That’s two to three classes a week, alongside my usual 'Monday Runday' and a couple of dumbbell-heavy gym sessions.

I’ve also upgraded to a fancy gym called Condition and ditched the doldrums of PureGym. It costs more but I don't mind. The atmosphere is noticeably better – people don’t seem scared of accidentally looking at each other when they're replacing weights.

The only downside is occasionally bumping into personal trainers out in the wild, but thankfully they’re all great: friendly, social, and honestly just very normal.

So yeah. Would recommend getting into classes. I'm enjoying it a lot :)

Things I Listened To — My October/November Spotify Playlist

Okay boring bit first. A couple of months ago I realised I wasn’t listening to much new music so I came up with a genius idea — make a playlist for any new song I come across and enjoy. 

I’m tracking them bi-monthly which means I’ve created the grand total of two playlists so far. It’s a fun way for me to try and discover new music and doubly good because Spotify now recommends more things I might actually like. Yay \o/

This month followed a similar theme to last month in the sense it was dominated by indie female vocalists. No shame here but it probably explains why my Spotify Wrapped labelled my taste as 'Bubblegrunge'.

The first song I added this month was Big Pink Bubble by Beach Bunny, which I’ll be honest… I now skip every time it comes on. They have better songs and I already added most of them to last month’s playlist (Prom Queen, Clueless and Nice Guys).

I then stumbled onto The Ratboys and added a couple of tracks — I Don’t Go Out at Night, Elvis in the Freezer, Light Night to be precise. Later additions were a bit more random when I realised I’d only picked around 25 songs in two months. 

Cue left-field options like The Magnificent Seven by The Clash, Wrong Turn by Kim Petras, and The World’s First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip by T’Arctic Monkees. All good, but not exactly brand-new discoveries.

In terms of highlights, Good God by Daffo easily takes the crown — probably my favourite song of the month. Yoshi’s Island by glass beach also got a lot of repeat plays.

Here’s the Top 10 for the month in no particular order:

Good God – Daffo

Elvis in the Freezer – The Ratboys

I’m So Sorry – Beef & Sidney Gish

Who Needs You – The Orwells

Yoshi’s Island – glass beach

Frequent Letdown – illuminati hotties

Johnny – Yucky Duster

For You – Free Cake for Every Creature

Filming School – Sidney Gish 

Amoeba – Clairo

And here's the actual playlist if you're into that:

Things I played: Majora's Mask - A fun but sometimes frustrating time-travelling adventure

Me and Majora’s Mask have a slightly fraught history. 

I first played it as a teenager via a ROM emulator and promptly broke the game by cheating my way into places I clearly wasn’t meant to be. I tried again in 2017 on the Wii U during my master’s degree and gave up somewhere around Snowhead. Playing — and finally finishing — it on Switch last week, I think I now understand why it took me so long.

It’s a game of dazzling highs and deeply frustrating lows.

If you’ve somehow missed the last 15 years, Majora’s Mask is the direct sequel to Ocarina of Time, developed in just over a year by Nintendo’s EAD studio. Link is pulled into the strange land of Termina, trapped in a repeating three-day cycle as a mysterious mask threatens to crash the moon into the world.

That cycle defines everything, mostly for the better. Progress is built around rewinding time, meaning dungeons and quests unfold over multiple loops rather than one clean run. Key items persist, money doesn’t, and planning becomes essential. The masks feed beautifully into this, giving side quests real weight and purpose.

What I love most is how singular it feels. There’s no other Zelda like this. It’s dark, melancholic and often unsettling, with the moon hanging over Clock Town like a quiet threat. The music, characters and time mechanic combine into something genuinely strange and memorable.

But it’s also cryptic and, at times, stressful. Certain progression chains feel opaque enough to demand a guide, and waiting for specific days can turn tension into irritation. The main plot is surprisingly slight too: only four dungeons, with Stone Tower arriving far too late to carry the whole thing.

So Majora’s Mask sits firmly in my middle tier of Zelda games. I admired it, often enjoyed it, and occasionally had to push myself not to stop. Still — I beat it. And that feels oddly fitting.

Onto Mario Galaxy next.