A Safe Stroll

Hadn't been out to breathe natural air for a few days so I felt like I was due for a walk. Rebecca and I took a stroll around the park on our lunch breaks and I was reminded about what a boon this park is. Under normal circumstances they'd be young children playing and couples having picnics, but today it was full of joggers and dog walkers keen to keep their distance. When all this is over, I want to throw a big picnic so we can finally enjoy our park for all its worth.

Work wise, I sent off a CV to a friend, spent some time updating and polishing it to a mirror sheen. I'm also waist-deep in writing a review for Animal Crossing, hoping to wash my hands of it by tomorrow evening if I'm lucky. Once that's done my slate will be pretty clean, always got Louis' game on my mind but when I've exhausted that I can crack on with some new projects.

Korean Frothy Coffee

I wish I'd never heard of Korean Frothy Coffee. It's all over the internet at the moment as a quarantine craft', something you can make with all the ingredients you have at home to produce something a little quirky. The recipe is simple: 2 tablespoons each of instant coffee, sugar and hot water beaten into stiff peaks, then spooned onto a cup of hot milk. Done right it'll look like this:

I managed this:

If alarm bells didn't start ringing as you read the recipe, and if you dare endeavour to follow my steps then you'll be left with a drink which is the embodiment of all style, no substance. It's a very roundabout way to put too much sugar into a coffee and drinking it only resulted in me feeling over-stimulated and cagey (its a very strong coffee). Hard avoid, don't waste your precious quarantine rationed groceries on this.   

Save the Slipping Day

The whole clocks going forward thing really threw me through a loop today. I woke up far too late in the day and before I'd even eaten my breakfast I felt the day slipping away. Luckily, Rebecca had an unpaid debt to me and her work colleagues: this weekend she vowed to at long last, watch Lord of the Rings with me. What's a better movie to watch in self-isolation may I ask? It was glorious too, Rebecca was nonplussed but glad she could watch it with me (I hope). That film alone saved the day, but things get even better once Louis announced we'd be playing an old school game of Team Fortress 2 with a gaggle of friends. We keep trying to make this more of a regular thing because we always have such a blast playing, tonight was no exception as Louis in particular couldn't stop giggling while playing.   

Take-out > Dining Out

Funny how the quarantine has re-established some of my social liberties. Any normal week I'd be rising early to open the coffee shop but now I can experience a weekend in all its lay glory. We had scrambled eggs for breakfast as Rebecca remarked how nice it was not to eat a cereal type thing first thing in the mornings, as I ate my first mouthful of eggs it was hard not to agree with her. I spent the rest of the day playing games with friends and watching Downton Abbey with Rebecca. We even treated ourselves to a Chinese take-away this evening, though we'd done nothing really to deserve it. Expect perhaps to congratulate ourselves for a whole full week in self isolation, it almost felt like going to a restaurant!

Slo-Mo Supermarket Sweep

Not that we were running out of supplies or anything, but Rebecca and I reckoned we needed to stock up on some food. So I braved the outside world and headed to Asda, Louis had been recently and told me to prepare myself for a 2 meter queuing system to get into the shop. I grabbed my trolley and walked to the back of the queue, as I approached the end of the queue, I realized it was only the beginning as the line of people snaked around the road and almost tripled in length. I spent 35 minutes in line before I finally got into the shop, I say that not as a complaint, just as an observation on how seriously they are taking everything which is good. What was better still is that I managed to get everything on my list, toilet paper and eggs included! I walked home with bags brimming with spoils, certain we'd be good for a couple of weeks. Moments later we ran out of cling film. 

Weaving Past the Wrong 'Uns

Figured I should stretch my legs a bit so I slapped on my running gear and did a very brief run around my local park. Found myself weaving through more people than I expected, but I was able to keep a fair distance from any wrong 'uns. Otherwise I was once again committed to Louis' game writing today, my goal for the end of the week has always been to hit 100 total lines and today I just hit 94. I read some of them back today, I'm pleased with 99% of them, very much looking forward to seeing them incorporated into the final product.

A Short Hike

Back to work on Louis' game today, until I got a message from one of my group chats. A chap who runs a semi-poplar YouTube channel was looking for someone to help him capture some game footage, his PC was out of bounds thanks to the quarantine. I lept at the chance to help (he did promise some exposure after all). With my good deed done I turned back to Louis' vegetables and since it was such a nice day, I brought my notepad into the garden to write, then I cracked open a beer, felt the sun on my skin and felt like a free man.

As previously promised too, here's a link to my latest video: A review of A Short Hike. It's an adorable indie game about begrudgingly enjoying a vacation, a feeling I'm far too familiar with.

Culling Lavender

Finished up my latest video after knuckling down to a big old editing session. It's locked and loaded and ready to go at the press of a button, I'm just holding on until midday tomorrow so I can hopefully get the most possible traffic. In my downtime though, I took a pair of kitchen scissors and trimmed back the lavender plant in my new garden. That's technically the first bit of self-motivated gardening I've ever done, guess it's a sign I'm 26 going on 66.

Crisp Audio

Got a new video on the horizon! First thing this morning I did the voice over recording for it, now that I'm out of my old flat I needed to figure out a new way to set up my mic to get nice, crisp audio. In the spirit of the times, I made do and mended and came up with this ingenious solution:

You'd pay top dollar for audio quality that clean in London! I got my sound rushed done, trimmed it down and started putting picture to audio. I figure I'm slightly over halfway and aiming to finish the video by tomorrow. Naturally, I'll post it here when it's ready.

Halfway through the day Rebecca and I had an inkling the situation in the UK was about to get a bit more hairy so we drove to the supermarkets for one last big shop. I wore gloves the whole time and weaved around the other customers for a big haul. Returned home feeling confident that we could comfortably isolate ourselves for a chunky period, if we really wanted we could likely go a whole fortnight if we don't get picky with our food.    

Video Calls Aplenty

Had a family first today, a Mother Day video call! Louis and I beamed into Mum's phone to wish her well. It was real nice to talk like that too, obviously it's no replacement for face-to-face socialising, but in this climate I'll take it! In fact, that was one of two video calls I did today as Rebecca dialed in to chat with her old housemates who live in London. Before the virus stuff all kicked off they had planned to come stay with us next weekend but we've had to postpone it for obvious reasons. Was good to catch up with them too though, interesting to hear a Londoner's perspective on things too. We signed off promising them a BBQ sometime in the Summer when everything has hopefully blown over, hope and warm promises of better times really does help put anxious minds at ease and they sounded delighted at that offer.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing really is a mandatory introvert's best friend. I went fishing, caught bugs and hung out with quirky animal villagers all from the comfort of my own home. Its offered a sense of warmth and routine which is remarkably comforting during these odd times, I knew I would enjoy this game but who could have dreamed it would have released at a better time? I've read online that the game is having exactly the same effect on people around the world while offering a great incentive to stay indoors - if you ever needed a case study for the social and psychological good video games are capable of then this would be a contender!

Rebecca felt the need to go out and stretch her legs after working from home all week so we agreed to go out to Blaise Castle just to breathe in a bit of the air. Naturally we kept our distance from the other punters, we came home feeling like dogs that had just been on a good walk. Thankfully we have a lovely park on our doorstep for future excursions.

Corona and the Cafe

So, we got the message a little after 5pm today that all of the UK's cafes are set to close. My Coffee 1 will stat open apparently until Monday to do take-away only, but technically I've done my last shift there now amidst the Coronavirus closing. On my lunch break I gathered some extra groceries and brought an excellent bag of coffee from a local place (also closed now) as I intend to basically shut myself indoors for the foreseeable.

There are silver linings though! The government has stepped up to offer some wages for folks like me, if that comes through for me too (which it certainly should) then that's a real burden off my shoulders. Secondly, my copy of Animal Crossing arrived just as the bad news broke. With a bottle of wine and a pizza from our favourite take-away place handy, Rebecca and I snuggled up on the sofa and forgot about the outside world for a few hours.

Despite sounding a little doom and gloom here I am cautiously optimistic (but when am I not?) I've got positive vibes about the coming future. All I can do is hold my head high and dream about a life after this has all blown over. ItIt's fascinating to consider all the things we took for granted before all this hit, but you can bet I'll be giving my family the biggest hug a few months from now.

The Final Coffee?

Opened up the coffee shop with very little fanfare. It felt like Christmas day with how sparse the streets were looking, we didn't really have any food to sell either so I think I got the measure of how the virus will affect sales going forward. Many customers came in for 'one last coffee' before shutting themselves away for the long haul, perhaps a smidge fatalistic if you ask me, but they were reading the Daily Mail...

Returned home with a bottle of milk and gave a call to my parents, got the thumbs up from them and heard they were doing alright. Dad even boasted about buying a new board game, very much looking forward to trying it out with them once this all blows over.

Sofa for the Shut Ins

Day one of Rebecca working from home went swimmingly well, we've both got our own rooms and desks to work in so we never feel like we're crawling on top of each other. I'm hard at work pecking away at a new video script, I got it all done today except for the very last sentence which always stumps me. Once I get that written out, the video shouldn't take too long though.

Just in time for our self isolation, our sofa arrived! The brave men at DFS braved the plague-ridden streets, risking their lives for our comfort. We couldn't be more chuffed with it.

Just gotta wait 48 hours until my copy of Animal Crossing arrives and I'll be set for the shut in.

High-Seas Hijinx

Rebecca brought home her work laptop and monitor this evening because for her, it's official: she's working from home indefinitely! Now she'll be doing email and conference calls while I strut around in my dressing gown with my 6th cup of coffee in hand. Joking aside though, she's actually pleased as punch and I'm looking forward to spending a bit more time with her.

Want to know the best way to combat the impending sense of doom? Join up with some friends online and play some video games, that exactly what Louis, Mark, Dan and I did and I gotta tell you, for three hours this evening I forgot about everything else going on in the world while playing Sea of Thieves. Our high-seas hijinxs were the ultimate form of escapism and a wonderful way to spend an evening with chums.

Bus Souls 3

I have a love/hate relationship with that moment when you wake up 30 minutes before your alarm goes off. On the one hand, you can take stock of how much longer you have under the covers and you can dain to savour every second. When it happens at 4:30 in the morning though, it just reminds you that you're expected to get up and march to the cafe. Work was unremarkable, outside of a passing comment one of our regulars dropped. Chap's a bus driver, friendly, in his mid-40's, we parley, small talk often but today he casually brought up that he's having a real hard time beating a boss in Dark Souls 3. I couldn't believed my ears at first. I asked him where he was stuck, it is one of the hardest games ever made after all, I was impressed he played it at all, but I was even more gob-smacked when he revealed he couldn't beat the final, super hard, secret boss. Neither of us had beaten him so we made a friendly wager to see who could defeat him first. I rushed home, booted up the game and slogged through a grueling battle, emerging victorious. Can't wait to brag to him.

Story

Had the luxury of sleeping in a bit today since I was on a closing shift, this also comes with the perk of scooping up whatever pastries and sandwiches are going out of date at the cafe. Turned out, there was quite a lot of grub going since we were so quiet over the weekend, the public have undoubtedly started buttoning down the hatches since the Coronavirus developments, guess we'll see how badly that affects us.

At last, I finished Robert McKee's 'Story' too, only took me 5ish months to read it! Learnt a lot from it though, I feel like my appreciation of films has gone up and my writing has become.e a fraction more guided. Most valuable lessons were about character and the importance of rewriting virtually everything until something's essance has been distilled - I look forward to being able to put his advice to good use.

Pan Pud

Had the fright of my life this morning while opening the cafe. With the door locked right and my headphones blaring loudly I didn't hear or see the milkman silently unlock the door and creep up behind me, fully intending to scare me. Luckily we're on good terms and I can take a joke, but if it had been anyone else I think I might have died on the spot.

Following work Rebecca and I threw a little dinner evening with Louis and Rachel. It provided the perfect excuse to try a new recipe for a 'self-saucing chocolate pudding'. Cooked the whole thing in my skillet and topped it off with coffee, when I took my first mouthful I couldn't believe my hands made something so delicious. It was effectively a super decadent melt in the middle pudding, a damn good one too! I got only one photo of it before we scodfed it, but I'll certainly make it again.

Stout > Gravy

I played a super sweet little game yesterday called A Short Hike, I was so enchanted by it I felt compelled to make a video review on it for my YouTube channel. That space hasn't received much love in since December so I figured I should spruce it up a bit. I did the first chunk of writing for it today in between heading to the supermarket and marveling at the gaps left in the pasta and toilet roll aisles. Luckily, we have plenty of both for when the apocalypse comes.

Made a classic cottage pie tonight with a little twist though. I cracked open a bottle of stout and poured some of that in to lend a really deep, dark flavour to it all. It was so good, I'll need some convincing not to do it in the future. I think the cottage pie has unequivocally become my signature dish, I feel like I've got it down to a science now... in truth I'd love to get to know another dish as expertly as that. Need to look out for a new favourite.

My Burrito with Jamie

Had a bit of time this morning to work on Louis' game, got a cool 80 total lines now and I'm looking forward to breaking the 100 barrier. Of course, I had to say farewell to Jamie who's been visiting over the past few days. We popped into a few bookshops, I bought a Ray Bradbury and we got lunch at Mission Burrito, an old favourite of ours. Nice to see Jamie again, he's clearly got a lot on his plate with his studies and work, I just hope he enjoyed his city-break in Bristol.

The afternoon was spent reading, playing new games and watching My Dinner with Andre which I've somehow dodged for yonks. I had an inkling that I'd enjoy the film, in some ways I'm actually glad I waited til I was a bit older before seeing this one, its themes definitely resonated more with 26 year old me VS 19 year old me. Despite being intellectually cynical, it had a strangely life affirming ending that made me pause for a moment before getting back to the rat-race of my life.

Finger on the Pulse

After making a big old bowl of porridge for Rebecca and myself I glanced at my phone to check some news articles. Rumors about gaming's biggest annual convention (E3) being cancelled due to Coronavirus were spreading like wildfire so I decided to cover it for Sick Critic. During my research for the piece, it became clear that although the event hadn't officially been cancelled, all signs pointed to that being the only outcome. I wrote an article about the cancellation rumors and drafted one for when the event was officially cancelled so all we had to do was press a button to post the article.

An editor however misread my instructions and posted my second article straight away. For just over an hour we were the only website around saying 'E3 Cancelled' before that was a fact. Naturally, we pulled it sharpish once I pointed out the error. Shortly afterwards the event was called off so I worked with the staff to put together an updated article that covered everything, my editors were clearly chuffed with my work though and I gotta admit, I got a buzz from getting the news out quicker than some other outlets.

I went out to meet Jamie in town afterwards, we grabbed a really delicious coffee in a favourite place of mine. If someone told me a coffee could have tasting notes of medjool dates I would've scoffed at them, but after tasting it I was seriously impressed! He came back to see the house afterwards and we played games like old times.

Once he left I decided to just commit and try to beat one of my favourite games of last year (Resident Evil 2) while earning an 'S Rank'. To do that you have to beat the game in under 3 and a half hours, considering my first play-through clocked in at just over 6, I figured I had a real mission ahead of me. So I sprinted past zombies, skipped every cutscene and cursed whenever I went down the wrong hallway, I was on the clock after all. I crossed the finish line with a final time of 2 hours, 22 minutes - I couldn't believe it either. Rebecca was impressed and I was speechless, it was such an adrenaline rush, I could barely sit still afterwards!

Man, what a great day. All the while I felt like I had my finger on the pulse of life. Seeing old friends and smashing personal milestones is a great feeling, just wish everyday was like this!

Psychic Curry

Hit the town for a new pair of jeans first thing this morning. It feels like every pair I get develops what I can only humorously call a 'crotch hole' after 8 months so I really wanted to get something a bit more robust. I walked away with a decent pair that fit me well, that's the best I can do for now, the clock is ticking until that hole turns up but I can enjoy this pair as much as possible until then.

Jamie is in town too as of today, he's staying with Mark and Lucy so Rebecca and I headed over to meet up for dinner. I said on the drive over how much I fancies a curry, imagine my delight when Mark revealed he was also thinking of getting a tasty, spicy curry. We ate like take-away kings and played Decrypto until it was time to go. I'll no doubt see Jamie sometime tomorrow, just got to figure out which trendy coffee place I want to take him.

Carb Combo

Ran out of milk first thing at 5am so I had to have some nourishing toast, this started my carb-combo that I wasn't gonna break for the rest of the day. I'm talking toast for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, more toast for a snack and garlic bread plus pasta for dinner. Anyone would think I was about to run a marathon with all that carb overloading. In reality, I just forgot to go shopping the day before so I got to taste what being a student was like again.

Anomia

Slept like a log last night and felt refreshed and ready for a day of traveling and merriment. Rebecca and I packed up the car to get back to Bristol for Lucy's Birthday bash hosted at our favourite board game place: Chance and Counters. Played my first ever game of Pandemic there, fitting considering the current climate, but it was a little word game called Anomia which won our hearts. Cute symbol matching and word association game basically which had us all screeching our answers and howling with laughter.

Back to work at the cafe first thing tomorrow, if I could do a 4:20am wake up time last Saturday, 5am will feel like a lie-in!

Debut Music Video

6am call times means you battle London tubes to arrive for 5:45am, you feel it then too. For my first ever music video shoot I helped set up a school gym to look hip and trendy. The band was Andy and the Odd Socks, as such, their core audience is fairly young, in the 3-6 age bracket, and we had 80 of them turn up to star as the crowd cheering the band on. I ended up acting as a bit of an assistant director on this one which is a feather in my cap, worth the early, early start anyway!

Happy Visitors

Hoovered like a madman so the house would look spic and span for my Mum and my Granny who were both visiting today. Mum hadn't been round in ages and was struck by home homey we'd managed to make the place in such a short time. Granny Sue was also smitten with both mine and Louis' house, she came down especially to see our new digs and she couldn't stop complimenting us on how well we've done. I felt proud too. It felt nice showing them around and taking them to a nice local pub for lunch. I think they enjoyed their visit.


Rebecca and I are heading to London this evening since I'm on another filming job: a music video with around 60 children so it should be pretty interesting! I have to set my alarm for a truly ungodly hour,

What Does a Vegetable Eat?

Following a week's break I sat back down to tend to Louis' vegetables. I'm sitting on 74 completed lines now which is fab, did some fun once today too, the kind where the characters ask the player some questions and your responses give different outcomes. I met up with Louis briefly to clarify a few things, mostly I wanted to know if the vegetables ate... vegetables. We deemed it cannibalism so I'll have to reword one or two of my things, but no harm done.

I finished up that written review yesterday for Sick Critic and I thought I'd pop it here now that its been published. It for Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, a fairly old game now but with a remake incoming its started trending again now. Give it a read here if you're interested.

Grammar German

Received some peace of mind once I heard my Switch arrived safely in the hands of Nintendo's engineers. They slapped me with a small bill for the repairs and now it's just a matter of time before it comes back to me - just in time for Animal Crossing I hope!

Otherwise I once again relegated myself to my writing cubby to finesse my latest review for Sick Critic. I've submitted it for the editor's to look at, just got their grammatical feedback and I challenged them on one point (long term readers are probably chuckling to themselves because they know from experience that I don't care about grammar most of the time). I always thought that when using a possessive apostrophe on someone's name that ends in 's', for example Chris would be written as " Chris' ". Apparently though, " Chris's " is the correct form. A quick Google confirmed that I've been lied to all my life about this. Even Rebecca, the proof reading queen, was stunned to learn this fact. Please challenge this in the comments if you have strong opinions about this, I think I've gotten to the bottom of it but I'd love to hear other people's thoughts.

Happy Writer + Reflections

Felt good to brew up a cup of coffee at home and sit down to get some serious writing done. I'm currently finishing up a review for Sick Critic and it's one of those projects that I started well, is proceeding well and will end well - Just a really natural process. I'm reading it back while I put on the finishing touches and I'm immensely pleased with it. To satisfy my curiosity I went back to read of my written content I worked on exactly a year ago and it looks cute to me, I write reviews so much better now and seeing that kind of growth is really humbling. Today wasn't meant to be an exercise in how hard I could blow my own trumpet, but sometimes its good to reflect and celebrate how you've developed personally.

Pin Pride

Affixed my little coffee cup pin to my apron before work because I feel like it would jazz up my look a bit. Perhaps it was too understated though, not a single person, customer nor colleague made a comment. I'm going to keep it there though, it was a very cute Christmas present from Rebecca and I'll be damned if it doesn't make one person that isn't me smile.

Had a nice chat with Mum on the phone this afternoon, she and Granny Sue are thinking of popping down to Bristol on Friday, can show them the house and my great choice of curtains in the dining room. Might wrangle a haircut too, I'm a little past the point of shaggy now.

Scheming a Scottish Get away

Sailing the high seas with Mark, Louis and Dan. That's all I could think about during work today and it gave me all the pep I needed to push through the early morning start. This afternoon I had possibly one of the best 4 player gaming experiences I've had in years with the guys as we raised an anchor, hoisted the sails and went in search of treasure. Its rare that the four of us can carve out a few hours in our adult lives to do something together like that which made me cherish it all the more.

Rebecca and I also discussed some plans for a mini holiday sometime in April to Scotland! I've never visited the Northern part of our island and I already have an inkling that I'll love it up there.