Riding a Covering Letter

 I'm so out of practice when it comes to writing covering letters. I thought it'd be riding a bike, but having looked back on old ones I've done I can't believe how put together and easy they look. I'm applying for a position that's a bit of a sidestep, still in the TV industry but it's a golden opportunity to branch out. It also happens to be one of the first job descriptions where I wholeheartedly tick every box - no need to embellish my past this time! Inexplicably, that means the covering letter is harder to write... Ah well, just got to muscle through it.

Arancini

 Been a few weeks since we shuffles down to the North Street Market. Rebecca had her little heart set on an arancini ball from her favourite stand and decended upon it like a famished hawk when we arrived. They were too tempting for me to pass up so I just had to get one too... And a brownie (the treats there are always incredible). 

Back at the ranch, Rebecca and I spent plenty of time playing games and watching TV together. Though we spend most days together, we always value times when we can just focus on each other. Rebecca did a lot of cat-sitting this weekend and she's pining for her own feline friend. The process of obtaining a rescue cat is taking longer than expected so that's getting her down a bit. I'm just trying to fill the void by giving her all my first and second hand affection.

Weed Whackers

Neglected the garden for far too long over the winter. Every day I looked out to see weeds and tat everywhere - but no longer! Rebecca and I rolled our sleeves up and got to work, making a decent dent in the work. I stood in cat poo almost 2 minutes into the job so I gingerly spent a good chunk washing my shoes, but we moved the shed and did a whole bunch of other busywork. 

Later in the evening I turned back the clock by two years and participated in an online quiz with internet chums. It was probably the best slideshow quiz I've ever done too, really original questions, and coming joint second helped too.

Elden Ring

Fully expected to be nursing a hangover after the wedding part last night. Instead, I was feeding my addiction to the latest '10/10, Masterpiece' video game behemoth, Elden Ring. It's such a humongous game that me and some people online are discussing where to find the various secrets and giving each other gameplay tips. In a bizarre way, this game feels like it's been released in a 'pre-internet' world as no walkthroughs or guides exist yet. It's all just word if mouth, rumours and stories in a high fantasy world. Being part of that is almost better than actually playing the game.

Wedding Attire

Got suited and booted, all ready for a friend's wedding. At long last, I had an opportunity to wear the suit jacket Rebecca got me as a preset nearly 4 years ago. Been a little while since I've looked so sharp, but I must say it was quite refreshing not having someone insisting on a photograph before heading out. We arrived for the reception/meal for 4 courses of Italian goodness - antipasti, pasta, risotto and dessert plus near bottomless wine. Needless to say we had a good time. I'd almost forgotten that speeches were a big part of weddings so we were treated to front row seats of some of our good friends pouring their tiny hearts out. Funny how that part struck the biggest chord with me, so much of life revolves around what is left unsaid, it's only in those holy few minutes that a speaker can honestly and undividedly share their appreciation for a fellow human being.

Low-Key Stag Due

A friend of ours is getting married and I had the honour of attending his low-key stag due. One person dropped out due to a potential Covid scare which just left three of us to play board games late into the night. The groom is a big fan of a game called Terraforming Mars, in my experience a game has never lastest any shorter than 4 hours and tonight was no exceptions. I even tried to learn all the rules beforehand but he busted out the expansion packs which left me totally in the dark. At about 1am my heart was in my throat - had I just won my first ever game of Terraforming Mars? We totted up the scores, and while I had an early lead, in reality I came dead last... We had a fun time playing it though, and if it helped take his mind off the potential stress of his wedding day then my work is done.

400 Lines

New vegetable lines flooded into my head all of a sudden. I'd spent the morning prepping to do one thing, then got pulled away by something else - guess that's life though. Reckon I just about hit the 400 lines mark for Louis' game now which is pretty incredible. My goal always was about 500 so I'm in the home stretch now. 

A Very, Very Close Shave

Held my breath without knowing it while testing out my new razor blade. For Christmas Louis got me an incredibly nice shaver, one that needs the classic razors locked into place. I lathered up my face and gave it a go, though I showed no fear to my reflection, the pounding of my heart betrayed my fickle courage. Every pass felt like a brush with death, especially when I shaved close to my nose and neck. The results were astonishing though, baby smooth cheeks and only a pair of painless nicks. I'll have to do it a couple more times to get the hang of it, hopefully my nerves will fortify in future.

The clean shave was trail run for the grooming I'll do to myself before attending our friends wedding later this week. My navy suit trousers arrived in the mail, finally completing my blue suit look. Very excited to wear the jacket Rebecca bought me years ago out for the first time too - never had an occasion to wear it until now.

Proper Pork

Full steam ahead on the porky Sunday lunch... Quite literally at times. Steam poured out the oven every time I opened it up to cram more beige yummy things inside. Turnips, potatoes and stuffing all stacked into the oven in ever-creative feats of space saving. Mum, Dad, Louis and Rachel all agreed it all came together beautifully. It wouldn't have been the dinner it was with Dad's gravy and crackling expertise, Rachel's swede peeling prowess and Rebecca's warm words of encouragement. Always a treat to see my family too, though Mum and Dad were round for almost 8 hours, time flew by so quickly.

As it was a topic of shared curiosity over dinner. Rebecca and I decided to check out Netflix's 'The House', a gently creepy anthology of stop-frame animations. Anthology films are tricky to pull off overall and this one doesn't pull off the magic trick either - one of the segment is always going to be a highlight. In this case, the very first story is a clear winner with legitimately unsettling imagery and a folklore quality. The second and third shorts were just ok, but failed to get under the skin. If there's a Black Mirror shape hole in your heart this might give you something to chew on, but it never quite coalesces into anything world changing.

Pork Prep

Got my parents coming round for lunch tomorrow, at one point Dad mentioned a pork shoulder would be coming all the way from Newbury... Then there was radio silence as Mum veto'd traveling the meat. Like some kind of twisted take on Islam, Louis and I decided that if the mountain won't come to the pig, the pig shall come to the mountain. So I bought a shoulder of pork ready for roasting. It dawned on me that I've never cooked a pig joint before, but this is what YouTube is for.

In addition, I whipped up a tiramisu while following my beautifully annotated recipe so I wouldn't mess it up again. No stresses or dramas this time, just grumbling tummies at the thought of eating some.

The Wild Bunch

Our wheelie bins barely moved when we checked them this morning - guess Bristol missed most of the storm. I only had to brave it briefly to pick up some bit for dinner and thankfully I didn't get blown down the hill. While staying in doors though I wanted to watch a film. I noticed I only needed to see one more of Rodger Ebert's 'Greay Movies' until I'd seen exactly half of his extensive list, so The Wild Bunch was the lucky movie. Boy oh boy, do I not gel with Sam Peckinpah. I was just very bored watching it, even the big shootout scenes failed to impress. Beat by beat, I wasn't given a reason to hold these characters close to my heart, nor did I fully grasp their motivations.

The Tinder Swindler

Think made some break throughs on my latest video script. I was looking at a dauting, formless mindmap for the longest time but now ideas are starting to galvanize from the chaos. Just need to keep pushing forward now and cement my thoughts. This idea has been rolling around my head for over a year now so I just want to commit it to paper and cast it into the world to be done with it. 

Trying to tie up a bit of my spare time by watching som more films once again. Rebecca and I heard a lot about the new Netflix doc The Tinder Swindler, so we gave it a watch to ride the zeitgeist tide. Turned out to be a fun little doc with a story that's gripping and well told - fans of Catfish will feel right at home with this one. Though it's an important film at this very moment in time, due to the very nature of the film its relevance will drop off dramatically so get in now while the gettin's good.

How to Write?

Writing is rewriting... Just got to do the first part and then I can worry about the second. Taking a few days break for Louis' vegetables to work on the script for a possible new video for my dusty YouTube channel. Trying very hard to get back into the swing of writing essay-style articles, a technique I had almoat down-pat a couple of months ago. I know it will gradually come back to me, just like riding a bike... Then again, I haven't done that in a while either. 

When all else fails, I turn to some research or read works by other authors. Speilberg famously rewatchs Lawrence of Arabia before embarking on a new project. I'm not anywhere near that indulgent, but I find actually reading words on a page helps me out. Essays in films by Ebert and my frayed 2nd hand collection of Ray Bradbury's short stories help keep my language limber and my wording less clumsy. At least I'll have a project to tend to while I wait out the storm that's making my windows sing in low, bassy notes.

Curse of the Blank Page

Started off my day with the very best of productive intentions but just couldn't squeeze anything out onto paper. Instead, I put a little more energy into making sure Rebecca's day went smoothly. An early start for her meant an earlier bowl of hot porridge was waiting for her - anything to keep her spirits high while walking to work in the rain. I tidied up a little bit too and spruced up a fishcake dinner to the best of my ability. 

Shouldn't wallow if my day isn't going to plan, I can still make sure everyone else's is a little bit better.

Shallow Schnitzel

It's said that a poor workman blames his tools, but he never had to contend with a neighbours' yappy dog. This afternoon it just did not shut up for love nor money, all when I was desperately trying to rewrite some of Louis' vegetables. The noise was so distracting I threw my hands up and decided to do something else that didn't require much concentration. Instead of dreaming up new lines for Louis' game I started inputting them into his spreadsheet. I work on pen and paper so typing it all up takes a fair bit of time, so in spite of the dog, I still got plenty of work done.

Valentine's Day evening started with me making schnitzels. I attempted to shallow fry them, but with the amount of oil that escaped out the bottle it was closer to a mid-tide fry. Turned out really well thankfully but I forgot to cook any potatoes with dinner so it was lacking some carbs. A Gu pudding saved the dinner though, I'm sure they see an uptick in sales this time of year and boy was I glad to be a contributing statistic tonight. We rounded off the night with a classic game of Left 4 Dead, a game we've been enjoying our entire relationship. We never go all out on Valentine's, but it's always good to revisit what bought you together in the first place.

Berry-Bearing

The nearby garden centre has become a staple weekend hotspot for me and Rebecca, our mission today: find a wedding + housewarming gift for our friends. They're moving into a place with a garden and they are a big, big fans of birdwatching. So naturally we bought them a berry-bearing tree and a fetching little bird feeder to coax in some feathered friends into their new home. Fingers crossed they like it.

The rain made us yearn for a wet Sunday movie. For various reasons, I'd been talking about how good the film JFK was to Rebecca and we spotted it was on streaming services. We told ourselves we'd only watch the first chunk of it because 3 and a half hours is a bit of a commitment... But once we pressed play we were enthralled from start to finish. I last saw it well over ten years ago so a lot of it went over my head - now I could appreciate it lot more. Heck of a way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Critical Crumble

Deep cleaned our bedroom on account of my sniffy nose. We took everything out from under the bed, pull d it out and hoovered up a whole family of dust bunnies down there... Probably because we'd never cleaned it since moving in!

Louis and Rachel popped round for dinner and games tonight but I wanted to make it a little special, so I waded out of my comfort zone and made an apple and blackberry crumble. I wasn't familiar with crumble making, but a cooking video I saw recently lit a fire in my belly. The recipe called for freezing then grating butter (which Rebecca tutted loudly at) but the efforts were worthwhile. Rebecca's Dad is famously a crumble lover so perhaps I'll serve it up for him m next time they come visiting.

Virtual Board Games

Another thing on my 'Time Off Bucket-List' is thinking about doing another YouTube video. I've been mulling on an idea for over a year and I just want to get it out of my brain. I sat down and mind mapped it all out and started feeling good about it, I tried developing it a fair bit and I think it may have legs. I also went back to check out some of my old bits of writing from 2020 when I was still working at Sick Critic. That lockdown phase was all about honing my writing ability and I was incredibly proud of everything I put out in that period. I reckon I'll be a little rusty but I'd love to find a way to keep practicing that writing style.

As an early weekend treat Mark, Dan and I all hopped on our respective PC's and played some games together. Tabletop Simulator was tonight's newcomer and a game we desperately needed during the initial isolation period a few years back. It is hands down the best way to play board games with chums virtually - it continuously blows my mind just how well implimented and powerful the game is. Having not really seen Dan for almost two years and now amassing a collection of games I know he'd love, it was extremely gratifying to share some of them with him.

Spic and Span Kinda Man

Dreaming up little side-quests and odd jobs for Louis' game at the moment. The stage has been well and truly set by things like Animal Crossing where villagers ask you to do fetch quests and the like. Louis has already implemented similar things in his game but I'm trying to think of something a little different your character can do, all within the parameters of the game. Got a fun short list of activities now that I need to pitch to him to check feasibility - hopefully we can end up doing something a little different.

Once the creative juices ceased to flow I got an unusual spurt of motivation to clean the house. Rebecca was in the office and I had some new music to listen to so it was the perfect opportunity to phase out and get to work. When I get in this mood I start seeing things I otherwise neglect. Where does dust settle most, what's that weird stain on my kitchen counter and do I really need all this junk on my bedside table? All good questions which can be solved with some elbow grease. Now that I've dusted and compartmentalized a lot of my stuff I feel a lot 'airer'. Funny, I only enjoy cleaning when it's my idea. When someone else forces me to I take no pleasure in it... To the chagrin of my Mother.

Work Chums

Wrote some vegetables, played some games, watched a film and read some of my book. Perfect day for a man of leisure. Actually, better yet I went out for dinner and drinks with the Sanditon production team in the evening. Was lovely to see them without all the additional baggage that came with the job. We were all just chums having a social life, I enjoyed myself so much I lost track of time and left only a little after 11pm. It wasn't a final farewell just yet though, that'll be at the screening next month - very excited for that now.

Bye Bye Scotland

On our last morning in Scotland we made our own porridge. It was a sombre affair heating up the oats and quietly stirring them together. The hours we had left in our gorgeous B&B was drawing to an end, and by extension, so was our holiday. We washed up the bowls, packed our bags and dropped the key through the letterbox. No turning back the clock now.

We did another museum, another bookshop and another bespoke cafe. It was like playing out greatest holiday hits. We rounded it off with a visit to a nearby pub for the last lunch of haggis - somehow we avoided it until now and any trip to Scotland wouldn't be complete without eating some. We boarded the tram to the airport and a few hours later we were back home. As lovely as it is to be back, it's always a bittersweet feeling. Back to the real world tomorrow (a reality that's hitting Rebecca harder than me presently). Lots of fond memories made while we were out there though and extremely vindicating to have finally made the trip after Covid made it so difficult.

Arthur's Seat

You guessed it, Rebecca and I took a jaunt to a nearby cafe to grab a bespoke breakfast. It wasn't just us two today though as we met up with a friend who is currently studying at Edinburgh Uni. We caught up over coffee and porridge and they gave us tips on things to do while in the city (best ask a local 'ey?). We got directions to the best way up Arthur's Seat too, an activity that I've been greatly anticipating. We took the path right up to the peak, all while enduring the harshest wind speeds I've ever faced. People always say it's windy atop the seat and I always blew off that observation... Well now I can relate! It was so gusty at the summit that if I fell into the wind I would've fallen in slow motion! Felt incredible though, to have scaled a legendary hill, the reward of an almighty view of the city was well deserved.

It's coming up to the end of our trip now. To mark the occasion we had drinks and cocktails at a nearby pub. We stumbled on back to our B&B feeling wistful. Though it's almost over, we'll have nothing but fond memories of our trip. 

Alas, we've yet to get any material reminders of our holiday, that's what tomorrow's are for.

Happy Birthday Rebecca 2022

The Birthday girl and I headed over to our breakfast reservation for a full Scottish breakfast. That's all the usual trimmings but with black pudding and a potato scone - all the fuel we'd need to go and do one of Rebecca's favorite things: go second hand book shopping. Edinburgh is rich with bookshops and we had a blast visiting some of the very best in the city. From the shelves of Tills to the ladder-ladden Toppings, we saw it all. Only cats are better than books in Rebecca's eyes, so we stopped by at the city's only cat cafe which boasts a Chinchillan Persian, Norwegian Forest cat and even a hairless sphinx... The latter of which perched on Rebecca's shoulder during our visit.

Walking back to our Air B&B we got an ice cream (despite the freezing temperatures). As is customary we watched a film of Rebecca's choice too and The Cat Returns was the flick lucky enough to get played on my phone for an audience of two. I hope Rebecca had a lovely Birthday away - one to remember for sure.

Hello Edinburgh

Credit where credit is due, Glasgow's subway is a thing of beauty. One circular line, two directions. That's it. No chance then if us getting lost heading the the West side for another stonkingly good breakfast and a trip to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. It reminded me a lot of Bristol's museum in the best possible way, lots of decent art there, enough for me to want to stop and drink some of them in. A very wet and windy walk to the BBC building came next which was a real mission, we were soaked through and our morale was shaken, nothing a hot chocolate couldn't fix though.

We waved Glasgow goodbye as we headed to the next city in our trip: Edinburgh. Only been here a few hours and I already prefer it as a city. Plus I had the best ramen of my life for dinner... Bodes well for the rest of the holiday.

Putting Mad

The in-joke between me and Rebecca when we go on holiday is that she's very good at all the organizing, my expertise lie in finding the very best places to go eat. Tracked down a cute nearby coffee shop for breakfast, we started off our day right with a terrific batch of Lorne sausage and scrambled eggs, might be the best brekkie of the year so far. We then marched through the sleet to Glasgow's cathedral and necropolis, drinking in the views and architecture of the city. They wow'ed more than the Modern Art museum anyway which felt a little undercooked.

In the afternoon we met up with an old uni friend who I hadn't really seen since graduation. We played mini golf and ate out at a trendy doner kebab place (that's right, they finally gentrified doner meat). Was lovely to see them though, they're moving back to England next month so it may lead to seeing them more often. Tuckered out after the walking and the cold, need our beauty sleep to look fresh for Edinburgh tomorrow.

Landing in Glasgow

Back in 2020 Rebecca and I had planned to visit Scotland. For obvious reasons, that fell through. Over the last two years we'd rebooked flights a handful of times in hopes that the pandemic would have calmed down. Today we finally got to make our trip. I'd almost forgot what it was like to go through the motions of being in an airport! But a few hours after Rebecca finished work we both found ourselves in the heart of Glasgow. It was mid evening when we arrived so we didn't want to do anything more involved than finding a pub. I found one on Google, the location didn't instil much confidence in Rebecca but once we got inside it was the perfect vibe. Even moreso when massive group of people all came pouring into the venue minutes after we got a seat. The place felt alive and bustling (in a good way), an early indicator that this is going to be a super holiday.

Gotta Scare Fast

Commited just this morning to writing Louis' vegetables but I managed to get a lot more lines than usual done. All of them revolved around stinging nettles funnily enough, guess I had a lot of pent up material about them from my childhood. The remainder of the day was spent prepping for my stream to make sure it was all set up properly and that I'd put on a decent show. I ended up getting butterflies a few minutes before the stream started, but once I got into the thick of it (alongside the vocal, and greatly appreciated viewership of Mark and Dan) I was in full swing. I wanted to beat Resident Evil 2 in under two hours, my final time was much, much quicker at 1:38 which I couldn't believe. What a way to end a Wednesday before heading on Holiday tomorrow - next stop, Scotland!

Quest Lines

Shifted my focus to helping Louis come up with unique character quests for his game. This is the real juicy stuff where we can afford to tug at heart strings and provide something meanful for the player. I've been developing a few recently but came up with a doozy of an idea today which I became so exited about. Might never see the light of day mind, but it was such a treat to dream up something unique.

In other fun news, I'm trying my hand at streaming once again. Armed with paychecks from work, I bought some new filming gear about a year ago which I was eager to try out but life so often gets in the way. Now that I'm a temporary free agent, I wanted to get back into something with stakes. 

Tomorrow night at 20:00 I'll be streaming a run of Resident Evil 2, trying to beat the whole game in under 2 hours (beating my personal best). It'll be spooky, sweaty and cosy - if you'd like to tune in head to twitch.tv/eyebrowowl at 8pm tomorrow.