Mash Potato May

Laced up my running shoes once again for a morning jog. I'm slowly getting to that point now where I'm actually quite enjoying the runs, I'm less of a wheezy mess when I get back and I feel emboldened by the thought of pushing myself to go just a little further. Rebecca is getting ready to head out for a long weekend in Poland with friends, leaving me behind with the cat. I've already quietly regressed back to my uni meal planning to cover the time (spag bol 2 nights, then curry 2 nights - hey, it worked for me then and it'll work for me now). I'm throwing out some feelers for some weekend activities with folks, but if I get no responses I've chartered a lengthy list of movies to watch.

Rebecca introduced me to 'Mashed Potato May'. A mashed potato being a book or a movie that has sat dormant in your backlog for so long it's a source of embarrassment. I've mostly got long movies in the list now, the kind that I have to really plan into my day - looks like this weekend is the perfect excuse to mash some potatoes. 

Will the Universe Care?

Locked in once more to trim footage and match it up with my voice over work. There's that point whenever I work on a new video I hit the point where I start to ask myself 'is this good?' and 'will the universe care?' takes a while for me to eventually settle on the optimisticly nihilistic answer of 'it doesn't matter'. They are mostly the culmination of several thoughts in my head and sometimes it feels awful not to get them out in some way. I enjoy adding to my portfolio a bit too, just another digital footprint in a way, but I make my mark little by little.

Retuning to the Editor Seat

The one job-limbo bucket list item I'm still yet to tick off is to put up another YouTube video over on my EyebrowOwl channel. I wrote one about two years ago and even recorded the voice over for it, and now I finally have the time to edit it all together. It's a shorter one than my recent outings too so it should come together a little quicker (so far that's held up as true too). I'm getting back into to swing of using the software and making my eyes square again but it'll come together just fine.

5K in May

Stuck to my all week running plan and ventured out for a 5K. Rebecca joined me for the first little leg before she splintered off, leaving me to do the remainder. I was low-key glad to be alone towards the end as I was working up a real sweat, it's the furthest run I've done in a couple of months but hopefully I'll keep the effort up now and maintain some regularity.

With big exercise come bigger rewards. There was a LOT of leftovers after Eurovision last night so for lunch and dinner we basically just reheated various yummy bits to enjoy all over again. A ying and yang Sunday basically. 

Eurovision 2026

I found my flow in the kitchen once again as I prepped the, now signature, Mexican feast for our Eurovision party. Rebecca and I were cutting up sweet corn, slow cooking pork and baking nachos. In between that though we did a little taste test of a margarita. I've never owned a bottle of tequila in my life so it felt right to get some practice in before serving them up to guests. Immediately half-inebriated myself in the process and there was still loads of prep work to do.

We got everything sorted through and things ran like clockwork once the usual suspects came through the door. We settled into the night and crossed our fingers as the results came through - then all let out a belting cheer as the right people won. Another year down - feels like such a whirlwind and it's odd it's all over.

Porky Prep

With Eurovision on our doorstep I headed out to grab the elements of our feast. I was armed with a handful of coupons and free money from sign up schemes so I felt a little rich heading into the supermarket. 'Only the finest tequila for my margaritas' thought I, reaching for the mid-shelf stuff. My cart was full of coriander, limes and avocados, which I kept nestled next to the pork shoulder from the butchers. Made lemonade and pickled red onions too this afternoon, so now all the prep work will go down tomorrow.

In the meantime I was hanging out with Rebecca and the cat at home. Watching films and quietly playing video games in the corner for the room while Rebecca takes work calls.  

Cowboys Ride Again

With a few of my fellow Cowboy Tabletop players heading back into the world of work I wanted to offer them a big blowout game for their send off. A rootin' rootin' bank heist felt right somehow and that's been something I'd been working on for a little while in the background over the past week.

I drew out a big blueprint for them to plot their caper and I gave them a roster of hired guns they could bring on the adventure, each with their own little stat sheet. My guys were very impressed with the effort I put in and the session ended up being a big success - I dare say it's been my best one yet. I doubt I'll match this level of prep anytime soon, but the guys made me think on my feet a lot this time so there was a lot of improvisational push and pull. Best part though was we also made it a build your own pizza kinda thing! I made some pizza sauce yesterday and the host made pizza dough from scratch. I really kicked myself for not taking a picture because they were legit. 

Just an all round awesome Thursday.