The Ottoman Empire

For the longest time now I've been wanting an ottoman, and now after a sleepy Sunday trip to Dunelm Mill I can now say I am a proud owner of one. Here's Rebecca posing with it as it adorns our living room:

And here's the treasure trove of gaming goodies I'll be keeping inside:

In case you couldn't tell, I'm pretty  chuffed with it. We've already had some excellent use for it as a sofa foot rest as we spent the rest of the afternoon taking it easy and eating cottage pie.

To round off the evening Rebecca and I watched A Monster Calls which has a beautiful story which unfurls very gradually. It dealt with that very difficult subject of what to do when you know you have to say farewell to someone you love and that message is very tenderly told through Liam Neeson as a giant tree monster. Really good stuff which is just as meaningful to children as it is for adults.

Voice of Reason

I can now say that I have been trained at an official coffee academy. Spent the day getting paid to attend a training meeting where I was taught how to prep coffee and steam milk correctly. To a layman (myself included), making coffee really isn't that big a deal, but our trainer treated it as a matter of life and death. Good thing I nailed it all thanks to my years of service at Eddie Catz, I was basically teaching other people how to steam milk properly for half the time!

I went out to experience a real treat in the evening. One of Rebecca's friends was giving away a pair of VIP tickets to see Dara 'O Brain performing his new show 'Voice of Reason' at the Hippodrome for free. Who are we to say no to an offer like that? So after scoffing a complimentary drink in the executive lounge, we made our into the venue. I haven't belly laughed like that in a long time, the man is a natural born entertainer! Lucky we were out of range for the audience participation sections, but Dara has a real way with chatting to people during his set and pulling new material seemingly out of thin air. Really amazing show and I am so grateful to Rebecca's friend's parents for paying for our tickets - I certainly couldn't thank them enough afterwards.

Fougasse for All

Although it was my day off I popped into work to see if I could negotiate some time off next week for a filming job I was offered. It almost looked like a no-go but after a pleading phonecall with another college I just about blagged it so I walked home with a spring in my step.

Got home got plenty of extra bits and pieces done. I returned library books, wrote up two more covering letters for potential jobs and I even baked some bread! Hadn't made a fougasse before but my new mate Richard Bertinet talked me through it. Think they turned out OK, they certainly tasted good with a pad of butter though!

Cakes Pair with Board Games

After work I was loaded up with a tiny mountain of cakes that were going out of date that day at work. It was honestly more that. I could have eaten singlehandedly so it was a good thing we went out for a small impromptu board game night. Got to plat another quick round of Cosmic Encounter, plus a game of Ingenious, a game I played with Dad many moons ago - won it then and I won it tonight too!

Captain Spirit - Exploring Escapism

Oof, my day at work went on a little longer than it needed too. Closing the shop just took ages this time around, and it didn't help that we had to take a swarm of bins along a lane and up the road. Ended up getting in a fair bit later than I anticipated, Rebecca was zonked too after her day at work so we did what any tired and hungry couple would do: get takeaway. By the time the driver turned up, I'd already gotten into my pajamas to get cosy, so I grabbed the food while dressed down. DOn't thing the delivery guy minded, he's probably used to clientele like me.

The take-away gave me just enough time to finish up my latest video too! You can see my latest video all about the wonderful game 'Captain Spirit' just below. If you like the look of it then go ahead and get it, seriously, the game is 100% free to download and it was one of the best games I've played all year.

They see me Cinnamon Rollin'

I gave Rebecca my provisional driving license to hold onto for the film last night in case we got ID'd. Semed pretty harmless to leave it with her then but I was cursing that choice as I sprinted down to her office to get it from her before my driving lesson today. Shame my lesson turned out to be a bit ropey, I just could not do any of the maneuvers right this time around, it very nearly got to a point where I felt embarrassed for myself.

My bake-off night bake went a little better though. To honour Spice Week I made a batch of cinnamon rolls which turned out a lot better than I expected. Hadn't made anything like them before either so I was really chuffed with how they came out. I did take a picture of them, but on review of the photo I realised it was far too blurry to post, that and we've eaten all the rest so you'll just have to let you imagination fill in the blanks.

Everyman should go to an Everyman

Finally managed to cash in my free cinema voucher Mark, Lucy and Jenny got me for my Birthday last year. Rebecca and I went up to the Everyman cinema on White Ladies Road to enjoy a 20th anniversary screening of The Big Lebowski. I'd never been in an Everyman before, but it was pretty swanky. We're talking sofas instead of folding chairs, large theatrical ceilings and just really friendly staff - it was the perfect place to go and see one of my Coen favorites.

I even managed to sneak in a white Russian before the screening just to feel the vibe a bit more, it just felt right. Moreso than ever, I appreciated how the film paid homage to film noir, now that I've seen a few more Raymond Chandler adaptations I can see where the inspiration for the film's style and structure came from. Still found it outrageous funny too, seen it about 4 times now and I'm still picking up little tidbits that I missed that gave me even more reasons to love this film.

How much for a Pint?!

I've been for a night pit in London a few times now, but it never ceases to amaze me just how pricey the capital is. Even though I paid £5.90 for a pint, I had a really nice time wishing and old uni friend a warm happy birthday. We finished up quite late last night and stayed at theirs, you could tell they did a hospitality degree because we woke up to bacon and eggs with a mug of coffee.

You'd think a breakfast of that caliber would keep me going but in reality I spent the whole day feeling like a slowly deflating balloon. I think working all of last week has suddenly caught up on me and my adrenaline supply is exhausted. I'm sure I'll bounce back in due time though.

Post Shoot Dampness

Jumped in a U-Drive with Mark first thing this morning to help him pack down from a shoot he was on last week. Sounded like he'd had a few late and soggy nights filming outdoors so I was happy to help him out however I could.

After lifting and shifting a lot of damp equipment and props I finally retired into my living room and had a few hours all to myself which was a proper treat. I just turned off my brain and played a few games - it was glorious. A bit later on Rebecca and I drove down to her parents house for the weekend and I was so burnt out I nodded off while they were watching the tennis. Here's to a weekend of recuperation.

10 Days on the Trot

Today marks the last day of continuous shifts for me. I just finished up 10 back-to-back working days at Coffee Number 1 and I actually cannot wait for my day off tomorrow. It wasn't just making coffee that kept me busy today though, I stepped into the offices of Creative England for an informal chat to follow up an application I sent them. Technically this wasn't an interview but rather and introductory talk about the role so we could each gauge how suited I'd be for the role. Fingers crossed I hear something positive from them, I'm due to get word sometime next week.

After the interview I pecked at the keyboard for a bit to prep my new video, I ended up shitting my eyes for a bit and I noticed that I was starting to nod off! Couldn't believe how shattered I was. I'm gonna have a nice relaxing weekend to recover though.

Lil' Owl Pin

Found myself training the new guy at work today, not so long ago I was in exactly his position so it felt a bit weird to be on the reversal.

Got home to do a bit more work on my latest video, the script is really shaping up now and if all goes according to plan, the video will be done by Friday/Saturday. Giving myself a bit of a deadline keeps the momentum going I find.

Speaking of Eyebrow Owl, a little while ago I spotted some really adorable pins made by a Bristol company called Peskimo. When I saw this little guy I couldn't resist:

I still don't know what to pin him onto, but I'm sure I'll find him a good home soon.

Puddings a Plenty

Got into work extra early this morning so I could get the upper hand on the open. Went to go do my first job (grinding beans for the filter coffee) and the grinder just didn't turn on. I was so tired I didn't even want to waste the energy stressing about it so I got the team leader to sort it out once she got in since she'd dealt with that kinda thing before.

Got home to an email from the most recent job I applied for and they are already looking to have informal chats with potential candidates, I was lucky enough to make the shortlist! Going for that on Thursday afternoon now.

The good stuff kept rolling in too, our Bake Off treats this week were on top form. Rebecca made some very cute sticky toffee puddings, first time she'd ever made them too and they came out great. Rachel prepped individual trifles for everyone and they were delicious too. I'm certainly all puddinged out now as I feel like I'll be rolling into work tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Louis 2018

Wrapping Louis' Birthday present this afternoon was a bit of a mission. I had to literally lug it back from the post office before taking it out from numerous cardboard boxes. Amazon clearly drew inspiration from Russian Dolls on that front. Wrapped it and walked it over to Louis a bit later and he was pretty stunned to unwrap the complete Calvin and Hobbes collection. Its a present that I've always been meaning to get Louis and now that I have a bit of income, I could justify getting it for him.

We went out for a very late lunch and a beer at a Greek take-away place and played a bunch of games until the early evening. While it may not have been the biggest Birthday he's had in a while, I at least hope my company made it a little more joyous.

Drop it like it's Hot

Had a bit of a clumsy work day, ended up dropping a few bits an pieces, 90% of it all bounced, the other 10% was some ladies ciabatta. Not as big a deal as it could have been but I still got home feeling shattered - this marks day 6 on the trot now as my next day off is currently slated as the coming Friday.

When I got home Rebecca and I worked together on one of my latest job applications which ended up in a strong position. I've got to go to the post office tomorrow, with any luck Louis' Birthday present will be waiting for me there - think I got a winner this year.

Newcomer Praise

Met the weekend staff for the first time, there's a nice young lad called Gabe who complimented the way I worked the til and chatted to customers - just met the guy too so his praise meant an awful lot to me.

I kept getting pictures from Rebecca during my shift as she showed off all the different animals she saw at the zoo. Little bit jealous she saw my spirit animal (a tapir) in person. I regrouped with her and her folks in the evening for a few drinks and a nice meal. I did the responsible thing and only had two small drinks early in the evening since I knew I'd be working early again tomorrow.

Squiffy Collar

Braved my first early shift this morning, good thing I'm used to early call times on film shoots or it would have felt really alien. Once I got back I cracked on with some more job application bits and pieces and re-recorded a bunch of video I worked on yesterday. I finished it all up and thought it went really well, then I looked at myself in the mirror and noticed my collar was all squiffy for the entire thing. I reckon I'll get away with it though...

A Mouthful of Glass

Today felt like eating a mouthful of glass. Work was fine, but it very wildly fluctuated between a ghost town and a metropolis. It was just hard to keep busy and stay afloat at the same time.

Once I got back from work, I got stuck right in with some video and voice recording stuff for my collab video with another YouTuber. He wanted me to appear on camera, which is something I haven't really done until now. Turns out my phone shoots at a high quality, but I had to erect a very informal tripod using virtually every DVD and game case we had in the flat. End result was very serviceable so I jumped into the edit and noticed something a bit naff. After importing my footage into Premiere Pro, the picture and the audio somehow started to unsync, so what was meant to be a 15 minute job, turned into an hour job because I had to re-sync all the audio manually.

It got to about 8pm and I decided that I was quite hungry. Some pesto pasta with cheese sounded quick and easy. Boiled up my pasta, grabbed the pesto out the firdge, dropped the jar, jar smashes. Oh good. But only the corner of the jar broke, I figured I could still get some tasty, tasty pesto if I just scrapped it out carefully enough, hopefully I wouldn't get a mouthful of glass. First bite I took I felt a massive crunch. Binned it all immediately and had a dinner of spaghetti and cheese instead.

I just rolled with the punches and I treated myself to a bit of the chocolate Rebecca got me for my Birthday (which was incredible) and a little bit of games. There's always a silver lining if you just keep pushing through it seems.

A Quiet Cafe

Finished up all my customer and health and safety training for work, spent a little over 2 hours blazing through disability and food safety compliance too. Met my new manager too, he seems like a nice chap and he actually engaged with me on a friendly level, we chatted about Netflix shows and the like. First bit of chat I've had since I started, probably because the place was dead for most of the time, first time for everything I suppose.

Bread Week

Rushed home from work so I could start proving my dough. It was Bread Week on Bake Off so we prepped some tasty breads to eat while watching. I ended up doing another ring loaf, but I mixed in some walnuts and cranberries, turned out tasting exactly like Christmas - I'll be having that for lunch next week that's for sure. Louis rocked up with a focaccia which he knocked out the park, really tasty treat that was. Our little Bake Off viewing sessions are a real highlight of the week now, something for me to look forward too after a long day at the cafe.

Happy 25th Birthday Me!

25 years is quite a landmark. 'Quarter of a century' is the expression I heard being thrown around the most and in that context it does make me feel a little old. I reckon this is the first Birthday I've had where I actively feel like I've aged a bit, with any luck that maturity will transcend into goodness over the coming year.

Got a handful of gaming bits and pieces (as per) from my parents and Rebecca, along with a very nice jumper and a rather fetching headphone stand as presents. Really good haul this year, I started off this month with zero games to play, now I have too many!

Once Rebecca drove me back to Bristol we decided to get a nice takeaway lunch from a local burger place. Unfortunately, something went horribly wrong with the delivery since half our order was missing and our food was cold. Rebecca spent the next 20 minutes on the phone while I dashed down to the takeout place to pick up a replacement order - all was well in the end though.

After that I went out to see BlackkKlansmen, which was followed by a few drinks with friends at the pub. One of the more active Birthdays I've had in recent memory (Rebecca is still apologizing about the burger situation) but its turned out to be a really nice day. Thanks to everyone who wished me well or came out for a few drinks with me, you helped make this day feel very special.

Beacon Hill Tourist

Seeing as I'm now a Downtown Abbey convert I thought it would be nice to go up Beacon Hill with Mum and Rebecca. In lieu of binoculars I had to bring along one of my BB gun sniper scopes, everyone was mocking me as I bundled it into the car, but they weren't laughing when they all wanted a go with it to see the castle up close. We even got a bit lucky with our timing since an antique plane flight pass went over us while we were on the hill. So on top of some great views we saw a handful of biplanes - pretty neat!

Met up with Daniel and Jamie too since they were both in town. Dan was eager to play a bit of Bloodborne which made for surprisingly good viewing, we all acted as backseat gamers while he struggled to deal with a host of Victorian zombies. We rounded off the evening with a game of Dixit which is always great and a roast dinner. Shortly after the main course was done with Mum and Dad came out with a cake and sung Happy Birthday to me since I won't see too much of them tomorrow. The cake is always a tradition I enjoy though and it was lovely to spend just a few days back in Newbury.

Newbury Beer Festival 2018

Strolled down to the Newbury Beer Festival with Dad and Rebecca late this afternoon. I usually have the Midas touch when it comes to selecting decent beers at the event, but this time round I didn't pick a single decent drink. The porters were too dark, the IPAs were too bitter and even the grapefruit beers were just a bit plain. Just picked a bad hand this time round - it was good enough to line my stomach though so I stumbled back home and tucked into some scrambled eggs.

Weekend Day Dreamer

Finished up my first week at the new job after clearing up after a truly massive crowd of kids that descended upon the shop like a swarm of locusts. They were chucking paper airplanes and making a fair old ruckas, it fell to me to clean up the bombshell of crockery they left behind. My coworker wearily informed me they come in every Friday so I can look forward to that again next week...

No matter now though since Rebecca and I are in Newbury to celebrate my birthday weekend. Got the Beer Festival to attend tomorrow afternoon followed hanging out with plenty of old friends.

Just wanted to say a quick 'Hello' to Grandma Margaret. I just got off the phone with her after arriving in Newbury and she told me that she's become a regular reader of my blog. If you're reading this Grandma, then I hope you have as lovely a weekend as I will.

Long Day of Up and Downs

Got up nice and early for my day trip to London and back for an interview. While I got a bit fidgety after all the travel, the meet-up itself went really quite well. I feel that I often make a good impression during interviews and this time I even left having a bit of a laugh with the guys I met, definitely one of the warmest sessions I've had recently. I got back to Bristol while my dinner was thankfully still warm, I mulled over doing some packing for the weekend but I was so tuckered out I decided to just play a few games and cuddle Rebecca instead - just what I needed after a long day of up and downs.

Mr Carson

Seeing as I had a bit of time before my shift started, I hopped back on both the job search and developing concepts for my next video. That's very much what I'll be doing during my days off now and I'm pretty stoked for it. Speaking of days off, tomorrow I'm headed up to London once again for an interview for a personal assistant role, I've been watching a lot of Downton Abbey recently and the idea of being someone a bit like Mr Carson puts a smile on my face.

Cake Week

I was reminded of a line from Mark Kermode that never fails to make me chuckle. Whenever he's not a big fan of a film he says 'It's like slamming your finger in a car door'. I can now empathise with that feeling a little closer after today since I managed to sandwich my pinky finger in between the dish washer door at work. While it wasn't massively painful at the time, I'm now getting a small bruise under the nail, I'm reminded of it whenever I put even a ounce of force on it.

Louis, Rachel and Rebecca and I have all decided to embrace the Bake-Off season as we've arranged to have group viewing sessions of the show while dining on week-relevant bakes. Since it was cake week, we each prepped a cake to eat while watching - it was about as quaint as you can imagine. Even Louis didn't put up too much resistance.

Coffee Number 1

Started my work at Coffee Number 1 down on North Street today.  Think they gave me a woman's apron though, I don't think the men's uniform stipulate that I should wear a pinny. I soldiered on though, learning how to use the til and how to close up the cafe for after hours. Time went a little slow today, but once I learn the ropes proper I'm sure the days flow will move in my favour.

In the meantime, my PlayStation is getting plenty of use, we've just rigged it up to play Netflix and Amazon stuff so we basically have a smart TV now. Played plenty of games on it too and I just finished Uncharted 4, I hadn't played the previous games since first year but this new installment put a real smile in my face. Especially the ending which plays out as a love letter to the fans. Not sure what to play next now...

Gromit Unleashed 2

Seeing as it was the last day of Gromit Unleashed 2 down in Bristol, Rebecca and I went on the hunt to find some of the ones we missed over the past two months. That meant trekking up to the suspension bridge and back again, but it was all worth it for this selfie:

Heading into work tomorrow for my first proper shift, hopefully it all goes well!

Coffee Paperwork

Went into my new workplace to sign a whole load of paperwork and to do a little bit of computer training. Think I'm all good to hit the ground running on my first official day on Monday. Afterwards I swung into town to meet up with Mark and Chris, we had a drink a chewed the fat, ended up having a really nice day actually.