Dirty Rotten Skallywags

Forgot I set an alarm this morning. Woke up wondering what the noise was, then I remembered, it meant I had to get up and walk to work in the wind and rain. Found myself in an oddly bad mood made worse by the fact I managed to burn myself rather badly while baking some Portuguese tarts, my moods lifted significantly after I met up and chatted with my coworkers though. Rebecca swung by too after work and drove me home in exchange for some coffee and cake, pretty sweet deal on my part.

Mark and I joined forces online in this new pirate game we're checking out at the moment. We're sailing the high seas in search for buried treasure and ghoulish trinkets in a bid tobroleplay as some rougeish skallywags. In reality we struggle to steer the ship without tearing up our bow as water pours into our hull, but boys can dream.

A Little Yellow Raincoat

Didn't have much on this morning so I figured I'd go out and see Time Magazine's Person of the Year 2019, Greta Thunberg. She was attending a big climate change rally in Bristol so I put on my jacket and waited patiently in the rain with a crowd of thousands, all to hear her speak. I was totally staggered by the amount of people that turned up, yet the vibe was comfortable and welcoming. There were a lot of umbrella in the way, but if I squinted, stood on tip-toes and crossed my fingers, I could get a glimpse of Greta in her classic yellow mac. This picture is a very poor representation of the scale of things, but it was the best one I could get where I was standing.

For anyone who wanted to know what Greta had to say I'll just point you to this track by the 1975 with one of her speeches in it, it covers a lot of the same beats:

I'm off to see Parasite tonight, doing the blog early today since I'll be up early doors for work tomorrow and I'll be rushing for some sleep. Looking forward to the film though!

Switching the Switch

All my muscles decided to seize up during the night so I woke up as rigid as a statue, guess all the running around yesterday caught up with me. I made my way down to breakfast at a leisurely pace and did a little more writing today, this time I figured I should try and do some more content for Sick Critic so I'm cooking up another small review for them. It made for a nice break from doing dialogue for Louis' game, once this is done I can head back to it feeling rejuvenated.

I also called up Nintendo customer support for the first time ever. My Switch's SD card slot never worked from day 1 by my reckoning so it is with great trepidation that I must package up my console and send it via Free Post to get it fixed. As a life-long Nintendo fan I can only hope their service team is much more... efficient compared to some of the horror stories I've heard online. I only need a small fix however so it should return to me unscathed. This Switch is my baby though, I won't hold back if they hurt it in the repair process.

Back to Furniture Village

Suffered through a horrifically restless night before waking up at 4:30 this morning to go do some filming. I was back up to Furniture Village for a single day of filming, it was familiar ground but it was great to be back in the saddle again. Several people remembered me and greeted me with 'Eyyys!' which was heartwarming. We also had a few child actors on set today, one of which was called Theo, discerning whether on not members of the crew were talking to them or me was the hardest part of my day.

Also, I found a whole bunch of clips from the Tanqueray Gin advert I worked on! Though they are only a few seconds a piece, they look super professional. Just remember, I spent all day on that shoot tying oranges onto fake trees in a studio, that little factoid will seriously change the way you see these ads.

Pancake Day 2020

Confined myself to my writing nook once more, punched through yesterdays wall only to be confronted with another smaller one. I got plenty done today but I think I'm starting to scrape my mental barrel for things to write about now, a chat with Louis about things will easily sort it all out though and give me plenty more ideas I'm sure.

We honored St. Pancake once again this year and this time I went all out and attempted Crepe Suzettes. I slightly adapted a recipe I found online by squeezing not just an orange into a pan, but a little grapefruit too just to cut through the sweetness. Reduced it into a sticky-sweet caramel type glaze, dunked some pancakes in and and hey presto. For the first time in my life I found myself accidentally cooking Dad's dream pudding, the flavours were hugely reminiscent of some of the bread and butter pudding he used to make us, all that was missing from mine was a dollop of ice cream. I'll just use that as an excuse to cook them again though!

Distractions or Excuses?

Had one of those classic days full of little speed bumps that a younger version of me would have used as excuses to write the day off. All I wanted to do today was write but a bad nights sleep and a stiff neck did admittedly start the day off on the wrong foot. Then I had to walk in the rain to find a cash point to pay the electrition who arrived a lot earlier than expected (that part was actually a plus, friendly chap too who did a bang up job). I did get a bit of work done but not as much as I would have liked, I did take this opportunity to take stock of how many lines I've done though. By my estimations I probably need to do around 300 conversational bits of dialogue for Louis' vegetables, today I hit 52 so I'm actually doing rather well. A fresh reset for tomorrow will do a power of good though, there's nothing to distract me either so I can just crack on.

Sundays 101

Life would be pretty sweet if everyday was like today. Late morning rise, quick trip out for bits and the rest of the day to enjoy ourselves. Rebecca and I got a little bit more furniture, a stool for her dressing table and a pair of bedside tables, well I say a pair, we ordered two and got one of them at the moment. Still, I got to do a little DIY and put it together. Rebecca already called dibs on this one which is good, I treated this build as a practice round for my one so her cabinet may be 2nd best. Mark, Dan and I got together online of the gaming session that the stormy weather so rudely denied us this weekend. Rebecca and I whipped up a roast dinner too, first in the new house so I guess this means we have gotten really comfortable here. Eager to get more weekend to ourselves now, with Spring on the way I can finally address the elephant in the room that is our garden, all in good time I suppose.

Socialite (On Saturdays)

For the first time in yonks, I found myself with a Saturday and a Sunday off. This opportunity shall not go to waste! Yesterday I mentioned grabbing some bakery bread, I'm happy to report that it totally elevated our breakfast for good to great. Had a bit of chipl time after eating before Rebecca and I headed out to meet up with on of her more elusive uni friends who was in Bristol for the afternoon. We took her and her boyfriend up along the familiar route up Park Street to the Suspension Bridge via Pinkman's Bakery. Its a route that's done us well over the years with guests and it continued to impress this time round too.

So we did a lot of walking today, but that's alright because this evening all we had to do was go out and visit another friend who cooked us dinner, made pudding and showed us the Jumanji reboot that was a lot of fun. Yessir, this Saturday was jam-packed with social calls, tomorrow though is gonna be all about pyjamas and slow vibes.

The Promised Games

Stashed myself away once again in my writing nook to give voices to Louis' vegetables. Daniel asked me pretty early this morning if I fancied playing games with him, at first I thought I should use the day to get some proper work done, but then I figured I'd previously booked this weekend off for holiday to play games at the event that got cancelled - I promised myself this time for fun and games previously. I met him halfway and worked until lunchtime then I hung out with him. Had a total blast too! We sunk some real time into this simple game I picked up called Lethal League Blaze, we both got better and better as time went on and we kept learning new and cool techniques to use. It kinda reminded me of the old days when Dan and I would play games all day during the weekends of our school days. Though miles separate us, online play means that we can keep our friendship going in style.

Before games though came bread! I walked up the hill to our local bakery to try a loaf of theirs. It was still warm when I picked it up and I simply couldn't resist cutting off a slice the moment I walked through the door. Can't wait to have that for breakfast tomorrow! I forgot to mention yesterday that I knocked up a delicious batch of cold brew coffee too. I recently saw a recipe for espresso martinis that used cold brew in lieu of a shot of coffee. So at 3pm I whipped up a cocktail and drank it like a 50's housewife. Felt good man.

Mad Dash Live Stream

Completely forgot what day it was for a brief moment this morning. I agreed to do coverage of a live stream for Sick Critic and got my dates mixed up, long story short, it was going on today and I hadn't done any food shopping. I marched to the shops in the rain and got back just in time to do some work for them, it was pretty touch and go for a moment through. In between that I managed to do a bit more dialogue for Louis' game. I think I've found my groove now, I've got a good tone at the moment, I want the characters to be people that players actually want to talk to and to get some insight from. 'Quirky, but wholesome' that's my mantra.

Giving Vegetables Voices

Stashed myself away in my writers corner to begin work on dialogue for Louis' upcoming game. I'm writing reams and reams of conversations the player character can have with the anthropomorphic vegetables in a wholesome garden. In other words, I'm giving voices to vegetables. Already it's looking like its going to be a pretty big job. I did a few estimations on how many little lines I'd have to give each villager, which have been segmented into 6 types, and it could be as many as 50 per character type. I chinked away at it for a few hours today pleased with what I did though, just gotta keep going.

After writing I switched on my PC and continued playing Metro Exodus, a great post-apocalyptic game set in Mother Russia. I had to ask for Rebecca's help during a key section after a character announced I would need to make a trip into a pitch black underground bunker... that was full of spiders. So I cowered behind Rebecca for 20 minutes while she told me where to go, luckily the so called spiders were more like skittery scorpions so that dulled the edge of my fear, but a certain sequence involving air-vents that was very reminiscent of the first Alien movie pushed me to my limit. Rebecca was there though to hold my hand through the darkness, not many girlfriend would put up with that so I'm very grateful.

No LAN Party for the Boys

Checkedy phone on my lunch break and got some good news and some bad news. Bad news was that my weekend video game retreat got cancelled on account of the venue being flooded. Pretty gutted about that because it was meant to be a fun time for me, Mark and Dan, upshot is that I'm getting virtually all the ticket price refunded so I have a fair bit extra cash on me now. That wasn't the good news though, the real good stuff was an email confirming that a filming crew want me for a music video shoot next month, I've never done a music video before so it'll be a real feather in my cap. Its also a new set of contacts so if I impress them it could lead to bigger things down the line.

Early Curveballs

Ran into plenty of curveballs during my open today which was oddly useful. I was training a new guy about what do do if you run into any issues during an open and we had oodles of tricky things to deal with. As a result of the early start and the late pub session last night, I was ready to call it a day before the sun had even come up, still I endured because I knew I'd enjoy a lovely evening with Louis and Rachel once I powered through the shift. Finally got a chance to play my shiney new copy of Ticket To Ride, I lost badly but still had fun - one to potentially play with my folks!

A Late Christmas Bonus

Can't remember the last time I started work so late. Had the opportunity to enjoy a leisurely wake up/breakfast, I seldom get a chance to properly relish in a morning routine with Rebecca too so it was a welcome change of pace. A team meeting followed after work and it was the usual stuff, sell more seasonal coffee, make sure the paperwork is up to date etc. There was talks of doing another board game night and I'd be well up for that. We left the meeting to enjoy a big old roast dinner thanks to our Christmas bonus, had a beef and Yorkshire meal at a nearby gastro pub, plus a few stouts. I'm training the new guy how to do opens at the crack of dawn tomorrow, with any luck I won't feel too worse for wear.

Rugs 'n Curtains

Blocked out a pretty perfect little Saturday. I took Rebecca up to the local bakery and green grocer to pick up some pieces and to proudly show her around our neighborhood. There was a handful of extra house bits to finish up, so we picked up a rug and some curtains which really tie the rooms together. For the longest time our dining room and spare bedroom/office were lacking curtains, at long last, I can play video games in a dark room without having to squint at the screen.

Mark and Lucy swung round in the afternoon for a big game of Terraforming Mars, I could barely remember the rules but we just about managed to stumble through it for a really.close match. I busted out a falafel and med veg platter for them and we talked the hours away. They both gave us the thumbs up for the curtain colours too - guess we did good.

Happy Romance Day 2020

My cold has gone! Just in time for me to get soaking wet on my way to meet Rebecca in town for a nice meal - what better way to celebrate February the 14th? All joking aside, Rebecca and ai took it easy in the romance front this yeah, we just went to an uptown burger place to enjoy some good grub together. You know you've hit a good place in your relationship when you don't mind your partner watch you munch away at a meaty sandwich, garlic mayo dripping from your chin. Felt nice and easy going, I'll continue to show my love for her tomorrow when I cook her up a nice breakfast and show her around our local green grocer.

Sofa Survey

A couple of chaps came to do a little sofa survey for us first thing this morning, basically they had to come and see if the couch we bought will fit through the front door. They gave us the thumbs up so now we just have to sit tight for 5-6 weeks, I'm already counting the days until I can stop watching TV on a bean bag.

I sat down at my downstairs work desk for the first real time today to do some tinkering on some upcoming projects. Louis and I had a little meeting last week about me doing some dialogue for his new game so I did some brainstorming to get the ball rolling. I'm actually really looking forward to doing a deep dive on that project and doing a real good job. Need to buy some multicoloured pens I think for some hardcore note taking.

My cold has all but gone now, just some lingering mucus that'll hopefully subside by tomorrow morning. I say hopefully because I'm up at the crack of dawn first thing tomorrow, last thing I want is to feel like roadkill.

Wildlife Wonders

My cold is still bogging me down, every time I think its receedind it somehow comes back in full force. Since I hadn't left the house, or taken off my dressing gown in 36 hours I figured I should probably try and greet the day somehow and Rebecca provided the perfect excuse. The M-Shed had a free exhibition for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year so We went out on her lunch break to look at some gorgeous snaps of nature. To my chagrin there were a LOT of up-close pictures of giant spiders, but everything else was marvelous. This little one was my favourite:

Just a perfect moment.

Lemsipper

My cold decided to stick around and bother me long into last night. When your head and nose are both stuffy there's no good sleeping orientation, I almost woke up feeling more tired than I did before I went to bed. Today was a pure recovery day as a result, it also marks the first official day where I: A) Didn't have work and B) Didn't have any massive house related jobs. It was a bonafide day off which I used drink Lemsip and catch up on my gaming backlog. I mentally drafted a few projects I want to work on too, I'll see how I feel tomorrow but I'd love to get back to working on something a little creative and a little fun.

Storm Walker

Faced the storm for an almighty walk up to Whiteladies Road to hand in our old flat keys. Spent just under two hours walking there and back again because I was too proud/stubborn to get the bus. Now I'm already coming down with cold symptoms so in hindsight the walk may have not been my wisest idea. Guess we'll find out tomorrow if this illness is here to stay but the fact I'm already prepping the Lemsip for easy access tomorrow is a bad sign, and it all lands on my days off too... Ah well.

Farewell Flat 40

The howling wind and the downpour of rain served as a kind of pathetic fallacy as I walked to my flat for the very last time. Rebecca and I did the last round of hoovering, replaced all the light bulbs and took one last look at the place we used to call home. For just over three years that flat housed many film screenings, board game nights and hearty dinners for friends and family. Guests would frequently comment on how we managed to turn such a small living space into such a cosy abode, and looking back on it now I realise I may have taken it all for granted. I certainly wasn't expecting to feel such a wave of emotion to closing the door on our flat, but after Rebecca and I said a little 'thank you' to the space I could just about bring myself to shuffle our the building.

It made me think back on the first day we saw the place. Rebecca and I had a few flat viewings prior and we devised a code to silently express if we had a good feeling about a property: We'd squeeze eachother's hand. I was barely in the flat for a few moments before I knew it was the one, I squeezed Rebecca's hand, she did the same and the rest is history. 

I never took many pictures of the place, but I did get a few just before we started packing up just to capture it in its heyday. I post them here not in memoriam, but as a reminder that our new home can be even cosier.

Wakey-Wakey Time

The sound of the neighbour kids getting up at 7:30 this morning typically would have resulted in grumbles, instead it inspired me to get in touch with my inner-child and get up early for some Saturday morning video games... AKA: Wakey-Wakey time. I spent and hour or so playing Tomb Raider before Rebecca woke up and asked for some porridge, I chucked some frozen berries into our breakfast and it was like eating and all-day crumble.

It was a gorgeous day for a walk so we strolled out into Bristol centre with Rebecca's folks. We stopped by a furniture place and Rebecca bought a very swish dressing table. Wearly from walking we all got a coffee and I later retired home to meet up with Mum who was visiting for a spell. I helped Louis put up his new door knocker (shaped like an avocado bumblebee) and walked to the pub for Rebecca's official Birthday meal at the Victoria Park. Feeling a little full of pizza and a little tipsy right now, my pillow is beckoning me back to sleep. Gotta do it all again tomorrow.

The Nordic Cafe

For Rebecca's Birthday Part II I took her out for brunch, but not just to any old place. I see this place every day I walk to work, I see their menu pop up on Facebook and the owner is a regular at my cafe. This place is called The Nordic Cafe, it does scandinavian themed treats and is the unofficial Moomin cafe of Bristol - I couldn't wait to take Rebecca there. Yet she was oddly apprehensive when we went in, for a woman who buys smoked salmon like it was going out of style, she was hesitant to order anything fishy there. Eventually she settled on something salmon related, and you know what, it was the best damn brunch I've ever had and her tune quickly changed after the first mouthful - bet it tasted like humble pie for her. We even went back for a slice of Grandma Cake which was unique and delicious, her words.

Afterward I took her out to buy her dream Birthday present, a hand-made art deco mirror. We picked it up from the guy and we're still debating about where to put it up. We didn't get too much of a chance to discuss though because Rebecca's parents were down to visit. I cooked them up a Sheppard's Pie at their request and they were smitten with it. It was nice too to have a 4-person meal around our dining table, felt very social while eating and I'm already looking forward to having many other good meals with good company around that table.

Happy Birthday Rebecca 2020

Rebecca had a bit of a miserable Birthday last year on account of her being very poorly then so I decided to up my game and do my darndest to make sure this would be a great day for her. Headed to the shops first thing to grab supplies, I was baking a cake and a pallet of nachos for party guests this evening. The cake I managed to prep and hide before Rebecca came home and the nachos (plus lashings of homemade guac) were all cooked without a hitch. Rebecca came home, the guests arrived and we all chatted the night away while giving folks the grand tour of our new home which I lovingly hoovered from top to bottom earlier in the day. I presented the cake to an unsuspecting Rebecca and I knew at that moment that she was having a great Birthday.

Coffee 4 Hire

Louis very generously bought me a grapefruit from our local green grocers the other day, I looked at it this morning and decided 'now is the time.' Good lord it was a good grapefruit, paired with some banana porridge I started the day off right, nothing was gonna stop me having a great day I figured. How wrong I was.

I worked a cover shift in another coffee shop in Bristol in a decidedly busier part of town. The lady I greeted, who I worked alongside with for the rest of the day looked haggard, she revealed she'd been working the whole morning by herself and instead of 4 people on the shift, it was only going to be me and her. I didn't let this phase me, but eventually it became clear that the staff didn't stick around long-term in that Coffee 1 for a reason. It was horrifically busy all day, how anyone can muscle through that as a 9-5 is beyond me since it basically unreasonable but the staff have just taken it as a fact of life, those who stuck around anyway. I couldn't wait for my day to end.

Penultimate Cargo Shuttle

Braved the frosty morning to open up the cafe, I'm still getting used to my new commute in the morning, the journey feels long only because its unfamiliar I guess. Finished cleaning out the oven and packed up the last of my personal bits from the flat. Rebecca and I did the penultimate cargo trip this evening after a big old food shop, I'm so ready to finally get my evenings back, feels like every night we've been hustling to get everything sorted with the house. After this weekend it should all be sorted though, then I can at long last put my feet up.

Filthy Oven

Got in touch with Microsoft tech support after breakfast to sort out my expired Windows 10 license, glad I called then up instead of buying a dodgy code on eBay! They gave me a brand new code there and then, sorting me out and thus bringing my PC back into full swing - its ready to go to StratLAN later on in the month.

I walked to Louis' place to have a small meeting with him about his latest game, basically someone needs to help him write reams of character dialogue. I threw my hat into the ring and he gave me a brief and I already can't wait to get started.

First things first though, the house move is almost complete but we still have to deep-clesn our old flat. Rebecca did a good few hours of work the other day so now I've tapped in to do the other half. I got the ropey jobs though: cleaning the oven and fridge. But I rolled my sleeves up and armed with a bottle of Oven Pride I tackled the nasty parts. I'm heading back there tomorrow after work finish up but we really are so, so close to closing the door on our flat for good.

Coffee Shelf

A beautifully cooked weekend breakfast gave us all the strength we needed to tackle a big day. Took a drive up to a retail park to check out our dream sofa again, and pick up some DIY bits, mostly for my 'coffee shelf'. Since buying the house my dream had always been to put up a cute little shelf in the kitchen with all my coffee bits and bobs, todayarked the day that dream came true. But it wasn't without blood, sweat and tears. Any domestic handyman willntell you that putting up shelves is one of the hardest things to do when it comes to home improvement, I fancied myself as a bit of a expert since I've put up exactly one curtain rod, how hard can it be? Numerous things went wrong at first, I did rigorous measurement to ensure it would all end up happy and level yet it still looked like it was doomed to be wonky. I was rapidly losing faith as I tried to rectify it but as I tightened the final screw, it all came together. This was the fruit of my labour:

A gorgeous shelf that makes me eager to make a cup of coffee.

Blood and Beans

What a busy day at work! The sun shone in Bristol for the first time since Christmas so people were all out an about, inexplicably ordering iced coffees and fruity smoothies in February. I broke a glass today that a customer stacked precariously and proceeded to stab myself in the palm with a spindly shard. It didn't hurt but it bled like crazy, but the blood went unnoticed by a customer who insisted I gave her some napkins to stuff in her jacket. Who are these people?!

 I was ready to leave work even before my day started but after finishing I met up with Rebecca at our old flat tondo some deep cleaning, not my first idea of a relaxing time but it's another job done. I got a WiFi extender for the house too so now we can enjoy the internet in all corners of the house, thick walls be damned! We're enjoying Netlfix without the need to buffer again and it's true bliss.