Spanish Meetings and Omelettes

Meetings were on the cards for me first thing this morning. I met up with the Spanish contingency to discuss the arrangements for the upcoming Youth for Europe meeting and so far so good. We took a trip to Piles to see the hostle we're all staying in for a bit of the week and its pretty damn amazing there, we are on a beach there which is really special. After all the formalities, I helped my host cook a Spanish omelette and considering I've never really made one before it came out really well!

England Vs Belgium... in Spain

4am bus took me to Heathrow where I flew to Frankfurt and then into Valencia. Its now just gone midnight here in Spain and I've had a big old day of sightseeing, eating and meeting new people. It all culminated with a viewing of the England vs Belgium World Cup game at a nearby bar, it was perfect company for watching because there was another Belgian in our group and that made cheering the players on feel a little bit more fiery than usual. Very much ready for bed now though after all that, I'm up fairly early tomorrow for meetings and the like, they could either be a really dry or quite good, I'll give you my lo-down tomorrow.

Packing, Running, Travelling

It was all systems go for me today since I was getting ready to for my second trip out to Spain. Did my packing first thing this morning, then I shot off to see Louis and lend him Zelda for his new Switch, then I was doing last checks back at the flat. I haven't flown by myself before so I wanted to make sure I definitely had everything I needed. Met up with Rebecca for lunch too, we grabbed an iced coffee together before I hopped on my MegaBus to London. I'm staying with Rebecca's folks again tonight and catching the 4am bus to reach Heathrow in the morning. Early start for me, but what else is new?

Redberries

Picked over a kilogram of red berries with Grandma over the course if the morning. We took a coffee break about halfway through before continuing our harvest and because we had such a mountain of them when we were done she offered to give some to take back with me. There's currently a rather large punnet of berries sat in our freezer, hopefully I have enough to make jam or a nice sauce with them.

I headed back to Bristol this evening and had a bit of a nightmare with the trains since my first one was flat out cancelled. By the time I got back though a friend of Rebecca's invited us round for theirs for dinner so we had something nice to do tonight.

Goodbye Grandad Bob

My parents got the call in the early hours of this morning to let them know that Grandad Bob had passed away.

In an act of pure kindness, Rebecca drove me down to Newbury late last night to be with my family after they got a phonecall saying that he was rapidly fading. Apparently he rallied a little bit over the course of yesterday, but slipped away in the night.

This morning I traveled down to Orpington with Mum and Dad to see Grandma to make sure she was doing alright and to offer my support.

Grandad Bob was always a big fan of this blog, every time I said goodbye to him after Christmas or Easter he'd shake my hand and say 'keep up the blog'. A few months ago Grandma showed me a clipping from their church newsletter, it featured a small article written by Bob talking about random acts of kindness. He directly quoted a post I wrote many years ago about how I walked a forgetful old lady to the police station in the pouring rain and mentioned how proud he was to have a Grandson do something so selfless. It embarrassed him greatly when he saw me reading what he wrote but it was touching to know that he wanted to share that story and that he was interested in my life.

I've never written a post purely for myself, I always wrote it knowing that Grandad Bob was probably reading it after feeding the cat or just before his breakfast and that thought always made me smile. It saddens me greatly to know that not only have I lost a passionate reader, but also a truly wonderful Grandfather too.

Goodbye Grandad Bob, words cannot express how much I miss you.

Hit the Gym

For the first time in my life I went to the gym. Rebecca had a 'bring a friend for free offer' that was apparently in warranty any day England were playing in the world cup. So I went along with her and tried out the treadmills, weight and rowing machines. Let's just say I massively overestimated my overall muscle strength in a handful of occasions, I didn't embarrass myself or anything, but I could only barely move a handful of the beginning loads while Rebecca put me to shame. For someone who has serious trouble opening lids off jars, she sure can move weights!

Scripting Saturday

Seeing as I had the morning to myself, I decided to try and get a bit more work done towards my next video. Yesterday I thought I cracked it, but today I really hit on something even better and that point now sits proudly in my conclusion. I just need to sharpen the intro and then its ready to record. During my writing down time I hopped on Steam and started recording more game footage to splice into the finished product. Got a very good feeling about this one!

Overwatch Interview

Got up bright and early to mentally prepare myself for my interview this morning. I was fully expecting a good old fashioned 1 on 1 style interview, but instead I was dropped into a group interview with 13 other candidates which was a bit of a shock.Overall though I think I did really well, it's probably the only interview I'll ever do that culminates in a game of Overwatch as part of the interview process (good thing our team won). We were all told we'd be getting a call back, even if we were unsuccessful by the end of the day so I sat by the phone and waited and waited and waited. Nothing. Now it may be that they were very busy today and didn't get a chance to get in touch so I'm currently still in limbo which is a little frustrating.

Spent the rest of my day being very productive though, got round to watching Detroit which was excellent, except the third act was just too long. Then I played through the entirety of The Beginners Guide, a meta game about a struggling game developer which was really impressive considering I only paid £1.78 for the privilege. After that I settled down and cracked my next script properly now so all I got to do is fill out the blanks. This has the potential to be my favourite video yet!

Dust Free Zone

Since both Rebecca and I have been suffering a lot from hay fever symptoms and we figured that the flat might need a serious dusting session. So we spent the day blitzing the flat, I was armed with a dust cloth and vacuum and went around all the secret nooks and crannies that were caked in dust. Top of door frames, skirting boards and picture frames all got a bit of love and attention and across the board, our flat is looking spic and span now. Don't know if it stopped my stuffy nose though, because I'm still sniffing and awful lot tonight but hopefully it'll be better going forward.

Going to wake up bright and early for a hearty breakfast and a little interview revision. My interview is at 9:30 tomorrow morning and with any luck I might even find out if I was successful by this time tomorrow.

The Roach

A cockroach was clinging onto the wall opposite our bed. I would have been grossed out by it but instead I was horribly grossed out by it because it was literally the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes. So as not to disturb Rebecca I didn't tell her about it as I woke her up, her eyes were half shut while she was getting ready to tell me about her dream. Maybe I could tell her about the bug after we both went downstairs for coffee I thought so as not to cause her any alarm. Instead though she woke up with her eyeline meeting the cockroach, like some Prince Charming situation gone wrong. She bolted out of bed to get her Dad while I kept watch on the bugs movement. That was the highlight of my final day in Spain.

Got a little bit fidgety on the plane though, the woman to my right frequently chortled along to some Amy Schumer type film while the gent to my left fell into a steady rhythm of reading his kindle, nodding off and waking up suddenly as his device fell off his lap. I finished Starter for Ten within the first 15 minutes of the flight so for the rest of it I really did feel like I was just killing time. But now I'm back in England for a spell, the climate is much more forgiving here and it suits my reptilian skin. I'm very much looking forward to tucking a duvet up against my chin tonight.

Toe in the Water

Tomorrow night we'll be flying back to Bristol where the sun won't be so strong, but we are still trying to make the most of our last day together in Spain. So we went out to stroll up and down the shores of not one, but two beach towns today. Rebecca and I have had the pleasure of dipping our feet into the sea and walking along the coast every day this holiday. 'Its my favourite thing to do on holidays like these' she told me, and aside from getting sandy feet and having to dodge the odd bit of rouge seaweed I'm inclined to agree with her.

Otherworldly Supermarkets

One of my all time favourite things to do while I'm abroad is going to supermarkets. The brands, the look and even the smell is just so different to what we have at home. Carrefour is a behemoth of a supermarket chain in Europe and they have literally everything in stock, so while Rebecca's parents were browsing new seat cushions for their conservatory, I was looking at the prices if video games. Soon after our shopping trip we met up once again with the friendly holiday neighbours from yesterday for a Chinese meal in a nearby town, they are good company and we had a lovely chat about travelling and life at 20 over some sweet and sour chicken.

This evening I even managed to play some games with Mark and Daniel online, we played a few rounds of Fortnite, they were on PC while I was in my Switch in another country. What a world we live in!

Holiday Neighbours

Called up my Dad after breakfast to wish him a happy Father's Day, first time I've tested out making an international call on my mobile now we supposedly have a harmonious European phone network, guess may not have that after Brexit. Politics in general were a bit of a hot topic today, we met up with some holiday neighbours from Holland who had us round for drinks and nibbles as they discussed what leaving the EU would mean for everyone.

So far my time in Spain has been full of sun, coffee and fair bit of beer. I started reading Starter for Ten too and I'm enjoying it a hell of a lot, funny to think this time last year I was starting 1984 for the first time.

Professional Thumb Twiddler

Don't really fly late in the day too often, I finished packing my bags first thing and then spent most of the day twiddling my thumbs a bit, at least I wasn't getting up super early though. Flight to Spain was alright too, got delayed by almost an hour but it didn't affect us too badly. We waved goodbye to a dreary England and welcomed a warm Spanish evening with cheese and beer, I already know I'm going to enjoy the next few days.

Spain Soon!

In between packing for Spain tomorrow I cracked on with scripting my next video and so far I'm super pleased with it. Probably work on it a bit while I'm away too so its ready for me to cut into a video by the time I get back next week.

Rebecca very kindly went into town and bought me a pair of goggles for swimming in the pool next week. I'm a blubbering wreck without them since I have such sensitive eyes, be good to do some proper swimming again too.

Driving Theory Test

Big day of my driving theory test. Got up a little earlier for some extra cramming before I walked to the test centre. I was feeling confident but not big headed which was good, but that quickly evaporated once I sat down and started the test. The very first question stumped me. Usually in the mocks I did I whizzed through them, but here I spent a lot of my test time having a to stop and think properly.

The hazard perception part started a bit weirdly too, very first clip featured a chap herding cattle across a field. Nothing too strange about that I thought, but I looked closer and noticed all the cows were CGI. I figured it was hard to find that particular hazard in the wild for the DVLA so I thought it was quirky, next question though I noticed that not only was the car in front CGI, but the pedestrians, roadsigns and some trees were all digitally imposed into the footage. It was seriously distracting because nothing looked real, speeds of cars all felt a bit fake too. So that threw me off initially but I eventually got into the rhythm.

I got about 3/4 of the way through and kinda prepped my self to deal with the fact I failed. Imagine my surprise when I found out not only did I pass overall, I got 100% right in the multiple choice section! Really pleased all my hard work and revision paid off. Practical test here I come!

Loving Dragons

Met up with one of Rebecca's old work friends for an afternoon of games. He had the day off work today and we hadn't seen him in a while so it was nice to play a few rounds of Cuphead with him.

Rebecca and I spent this evening celebrating our 4 years of dating! We went out to a nearby Greek street food place The Athenian for some amazingly good wraps stuffed with halloumi, real good grub! Since I knew Rebecca would be a fan, I put on How to Train Your Dragon - she was instantly won over by Toothless

Smashed (Bros) More Mocks

Day 2 of the intensive driving theory revision has gone swimmingly. Plus I applied for another job AND I even got an interview booked in for a job so the good times are slowly rolling in. To top it all off, Nintendo finally got a chance to show off there E3 direct all about Smash Bros and it didn't disappoint. They announced that they are literally bringing back every single character that has ever been in the series with a few new ones so I couldn't be happier.

In the evening, Rebecca and I took the bus up to Henleaze for a casual dinner with chums to complete the lovely day I was having.

Mock Motorways

Mock tests were the name of the game today, I'm doing all I can to get ready for my driving theory test coming up this week. I've now read the highway code from cover to cover and I've done five mock tests online. I bombed on the very first one I did but I passed all the subsequent ones after learning from my mistakes. Even Rebecca was impressed with my knowledge while we went through one together. Just need to keep it up and I'm sure I'll smash the test.

Brunch, Glorious Brunch

Met up with one of Rebecca friend's from home while having brunch - guess we were feeling a bit trendy. I had a 'granola sundae' which was a total luxury at 10:30 on a Sunday. We are back in Bristol now getting ready for the week ahead. I've got my driving theory test soon so I've been swatting up with the highway code, which was actually a better read than I expected. I'm going to make up some mind maps tomorrow to help me visualise and remember all the tricky bits so I can nail my test.

Colourful Flight Pass

Seeing as Rebecca's Dad is a bit of a plane spotter, we took him out into Central London to see the flight pass for Trouping The Colour. We stood on Waterloo bridge to see a handful of impressive planes go by, followed by the Red Arrows. Rebecca took this great shot after they released some very patriotic vapour:

We came back for a BBQ and I was asked to make burgers, who am I to say no to that request? Did a damn good job of them too, Rebecca kept mocking me and calling me Gordon Ramsey because I was trying hard to impress with them. Her sarcasm quickly evaporated after she actually ate them though.

Damn you Hay Fever!

Oh man, my hay fever has kicked off massively today. Went out to meet Rebecca for lunch and came back a snuffling wreck. I feel like I've been slammed by a freight train even 10 hours later. We're both in London now for Rebecca's Dad's Birthday weekend, hope I can hold back the sneezes for the BBQ tomorrow.

The Perfect Cookie

Rebecca called in sick today on account of her hay fever flaring up massively in the night and she just felt rotten when she woke up. I figured it was my good boyfriend duty to take her mind off it somehow and try to do something a little fun and productive while she was moping around. So after watching a few videos on how to bake 'the perfect cookie' we decided to take a stab at it ourselves.

All the recipes we read called for toasting/browning butter which is something I've never done before but I tell you what, it was totally worth it. We dolloped out blobs onto a baking sheet like so:

They always look a bit funky before being baked, but once they came out, they looked like a bloody treat. Have a nice close-up shot so you can bask in it's glory - if you press your nose up to this picture you can actually smell fresh baked cookies.

 

In case you couldn't tell by the tone of this blog, we were very pleased with how they turned out. So far, they are the best cookies I've ever baked too!

In between all the baking, I applied for another job and generally pampered Rebecca back to health, I think she's doing much better now and hopefully she's much better in the morning.

Last Day of June

Here we go, yet another review video up on Youtube now, this one if for Last Day of June, a pretty cool indie game adapted from a music video. I'm really pleased with how I cut this one and I tried out a few effects here and there that I think help out the look and flow of the piece. I do feel like my writing and script could have been a little sharper towards the end though, but I know now not to make the same mistake twice. Enough modesty and self evaluation though, here is my review for Last Day of June:

 

Finished the video and set it exporting, in that time I made myself the most filthy omelette I've ever made. I was starving at this point, and I just wanted to get something proper cheesy in my belly, can't say I wasn't satisfied as I ate it. I'm a noisy eater anyway Rebecca can attest that I chowed down on this pretty loudly. Eat large, live proud.

Ethereal Editing

Woop Woop. Finished writing up the latest review for my next video and I've already done about 1/3rd of the video editing process. I never pick the easiest games to make video reviews of I realised, I often pick ethereal experiences with no action in and those kind of games rarely have any fist-pumpingly awesome footage to splice in. Think I'm doing the best I can though to keep my video engaging.  

On a slightly less fortunate note, the filming job I went to an interview for last Friday got back to me and its a no from them this time round. I sent them a nice email thanking them for their time. Now my July is looking a lot more free than I was expecting. 

Way with Writing

Big old writing session was on the cards today, went through the script for my upcoming video and I've taken it up to 95% completion. Eager to get it done and dusted now so I can get it out of my life. I realised that I basically end it on a low note before giving it a recommendation so the whoel thing feels a bit false. Probably need to add a small bit at the end to make it a bit softer. With any luck it'll be written up by tomorrow and I'll have started the editing process.

Aside from that Rebecca and I have booked our flights to Spain for this years Youth for Europe excursion. Having looked through the itinerary I think it's going to be a really lovely one and I'm really looking forward to going.   

Badminton Doubles

Mark and I have taken a bit of a shine to badminton over the past few months and this time Rebecca and Lucy came along for a few rounds of doubles. Took a little bit to remember that I had a team-mate and I should let Rebecca have a swing or two instead of bull-charging the shuttle every time. We had some pretty even games though and Mark said afterwards 'ah, I'm glad it didn't feel so one-sided this time.'

Pearless and my second year housemate Beth came to Bristol for a day visit so Mark and I showed them the sights. We hit up the Bristol Museum, Pinkmans bakery and Weatherspoons for a top of Park Street hat-trick and that made for a really solid few hours. Think they both had a good day and they are already speaking about the next time they can come and visit. 

Final Ghibli

Spent most of the day looking after a poorly Rebecca since her hay fever reached terminal velocity.

As of tonight I can now say that I've seen every feature film produced by Studio Ghibli. Louis and Rachel popped round for fish and chips and to watch When Marnie was There which was a nice way to send off the studio. While the central mystery of the story was paced well and the characters were very human, the real showstopper was the smaller details in the background. Interior shots were jammed with tiny things that added a real warmth and charm to the whole piece, grounding it further and making me marvel once again at the talent within the studio.

Speedy Interview

Haven't had a job interview for a little while so I was a little nervous going down to London today to apply to be a runner for A League of Their Own. I was a few roads away from their offices writing up some notes on how to best sell myself and I was about to strike my esteem-boosting Superman pose when Alex Haddon, my old housemate, bumped into me. Crazy coincidence that and chatting with him made me feel much more at ease.

When it came to the actual interview it was over in a literal heartbeat. I would say the whole thing lasted just over five minutes. They had my CV printed off and I took them through what I did super recently and they seemed pretty happy overall. Just a bit peculiar how quick the whole thing was.

Figured I was going to spend a lot of time traveling today so I tried to do something to fill that time and a good book always does me well on long journeys. I packed Rebecca's copy of Animal Farm, I noticed it was only 100 pages long and I thought I'd make a big dent in it, instead I read the whole thing in one sitting - really enjoyed it. Sure the analogy is a little transparent, but I didn't mind, it was like experiencing Russian political history in fast forward and having studies the rise and fall of Communism at A-Level, I had a vested interest.