South-East Londoner's

Took Rebecca's Mum back up to London then continued on to meet Jamie and his partner in their London home. After a hearty lunch we went on a very big London walk, exploring London's South-East side. The Cutty Sark made an appearance (last time I saw it the ship was a burnt out husk). We did it all while the sun slowly set on the city that never sleeps. We dropped into a pub for a quirky pint then headed to a microbrewery for another round of drinks, pizza, games and a chats galore. Jamie has clearly found a part of the world to love and call his own, it was a pleasure to enjoy every part he showed us, while he was beaming from ear-to-ear.

Donald Duck and Friends

Rebecca's mum is staying with us just til tomorrow morning. She did a solo trip out to town centre armed with all our knowledge of local buses and came back relatively unscathed. While she was out I could play video games without feeling self conscious - the one I'm playing right now has Donald Duck fighting alongside anime tweens and I could have lost years of my life trying to explain to her why the internet and a few friends tell me it's better than Citizen Kane. Rebecca's mum thankfully has an appetite for medical dramas and was happy to rewatch a few episodes of The Pitt as Rebecca and I make our way through it. Nothing like finding common ground between families while watching patients get breathing tubes shoved down their throats.

Running in the Drizzles

Now the weather has cooled off significantly I thought now was a good day to get back I to running. I inadvertently ended up jogging during a rainstorm in the sunshine, I spent most of it wiping the water off my sunglasses.

Part two on my unexpected things was finishing up Final Fantasy. I knew I was on the final boss and my characters were all very well leveled and ready to rumble. Shouldn't take more than an hour... Then my whole morning went in the blink of an eye. I'm relieved it's all done and dusted now, this one started to get a bit too long in the tooth.

Client Dinner

I went alongside a PM friend to get wined and dined by a vendor for a camera equipment hire company. I've never really been to a client dinner of sorts I suppose, I was just delighted to find I was sat across from some actually very normal people who didn't push anything on us. It was just friendly networking, plus moussaka and vine-wrapped halloumi. 

I left the lunch to go meet a Canadian Cousin who was spending the day with Mum in Bristol. They mostly went thrifting in the nearby vintage shops and to see some nearby sights the city has to offer. I very much joined during the tail end of their day out but it was fun to show off the spots I hold dear to new eyes. 

Old Town, New Routes

With the temperatures down a smidge and an idle hour or two at my disposal I decided to hit the town. I've been sitting on a cheque to cash in for a little while now, it's just annoying my nearest bank branch is such a schlep away. But I turned it into a fun walk, going along avenues and shortcuts I didn't know existed til today. I have some family coming to visit Bristol tomorrow too so I considered today a little recce of sorts. 

Jamie came to stay with us again this evening and lavished us with compliments on the new shelves. Those things might as well be my life's work, I don't know if I'll contribute much more to humanity after them. 

Finally, Final Fantasy

Felt oddly woozy for most of the day and considering the rest of my week is looking busier by the minute I thought I'd rest instead. This time six years ago I was deep into a Final Fantasy game before heading back into work, felt only right that I'm repeating the trick now. The monsters, the music, the spells - even when the game is new to me it always feels like a homecoming. The temperature finally feels like it's broken too, fingers crossed that's the last heat wave of the year. I've never been more ready for a 19 degree day in my entire life.

The Day After the Feast

Been a while since we did the North Street shuffle, lots of new shops and pop ups to explore. The best one was a new Vietnamese sandwich place that packs their buns to the brim - just what I needed after a groggy morning following yesterday's feasting and drinking. But we had another dinner party tonight - much more civil mind. Some friends turned up to ours for a very sweet little board game night. They brought round a tiramisu that, no word or a lie, rivaled my own. We got some leftovers as well so I'll enjoy it all over again tomorrow.

Nostalgia Dinner

The common thread for all my time in the kitchen making mayonnaise, ketchup and now chicken nuggets from scratch is that it's literally not worth the extra effort. Guess that's why they call it convenience food.

I did this all in aid of the Nostalgia Dinner party - a friendly competition between some TV friends in a cook off of sorts. The best part of the day was seeing everyone's interpretation of the brief. We had two people make potato smilies, an Angel Delight and a mug cake. But there could only be one winner according to the jury and I ended up winning the night with my nuggets! 

Guess it was worth all the time and effort. 

Ketchup and Mayonnaise

Something that wasn't on my Funemployment bucket list but was something I needed to do ahead of tomorrow was make my first ever batch of mayonnaise and ketchup. 

Mayo first. I watched a whole bunch of videos on how to make it, while the ingredients stay the same there's some differing opinions on method. Jamie Oliver has never failed me in the past - a bowl and a hand whisk while drizzling in oil. Except I got a bit scared on how slowly I needed to mix in the oil so I did it at a snails pace. I ended up overwhisking, the mayo split and I got a blister on my finger from mixing - cheers Jamie. Take two was everything in a tall vessel and a hand mixer. 30 seconds later I had mayonnaise, it was perfect.

As for ketchup (a condiment I've never cared for) I just threw all the ingredients in a pan and slow reduced it for like four hours. It makes me chuckle how much sugar you have to put in it to offset the vinegar, basically adding two contrasting flavours to cancel eachother out. My final sauce has a bit of an acidic zing to it, I always hate how sweet ketchup tastes but I might need to mix in a touch more sugar to keep the masses happy.

Both staple sauces ended up being much more complex than I expected, lot of fun to make though. This is all in aid of the dinner party I'm bringing some bits over for. The theme is nostalgia so I'm making homemade chicken nuggets with the aforementioned sauces. Hope they go down well.

Maximum Booch

Every now and then I walked up to my jar of newfound kombucha to give it a taste. Louis warned me this one had a zing, what I was not ready for was how quickly it would be ready. Previously I waited 3 weeks to get my sweetened tea to taste a little vinegary. This new batch was ready in less than 24 hours. Now I have a backlog of sour soda to drink before the next load is ready... Bottems up I guess.

We did have someone we could rely on knocking back a few glasses of the stuff coming over. Good old Dan was with us this evening for a hangout and a board game. Dan's basically the only chap we've shown Obsession to - which is basically Downton Abbey the board game and he seemed to really jive with it. We got a few more virtual sessions to book in with him over the next few weeks now too, looking forward to spending more time with him.

The Eclipse of '26

The whole day I was getting hyped up for a generational event: the eclipse of 2026. I met up with Louis and headed up into our park to secure a good spot. We didn't have the special glasses, not did we bother to put a pinhole in a cereal box, we just went up to be a part of it all. While chatting I was slowly unlocking my memories of the last eclipse back in 1999. I was barely cognisant then but the day still made an impression, guess the novelty of it dimming at midday stuck in my memory. It's also funny to think that I've seen two eclipses, both in green spaces called Victoria Park, albeit in different parts of the country.

The actual covering of the Sun part was rather underwhelming. I was expecting the park to be shrouded in an eerie twilight, for dogs to start barking and birds to loose their circadian rhythm. In reality, things just got a little less bright, a pre-dusk before the real dusk. Guess that's on me for not getting the special glasses to enjoy the true majesty of the moment, but it was cool to be a part of something - I'll have an answer to the question 'where were you during the last eclipse.' 

Don't let it Die on the Vine

Made the aforementioned bucket list for my funemployment. At first I peppered in the usual 'watch X number of movies' and 'finish this big video game'. But I realised that I'll still have mental bandwidth to do all those things even with a job. I stead I want to focus more on writing and developing the ideas that I don't want to let die on the vine. 

I got one more video essay to finish writing up, if I think it's good enough I'll commit to making the video too. I want to do another Cowboy D&D campaign with my usual posse. It's so or die time for all that, and when I have a deadline I feel the burn.

 

Last Days of Rome

The call came, the five months of funemployment is coming to a close. By early September I'll be getting stuck into a new job so now I'm treating the next month like the last days of Rome. I did some writing, I watched a Japanese movie from the 50's and while Rebecca was out tonight I played not one, but two short narrative games from start to finish. Gotta maximize the remaining days I have and finish everything I wanted to during this gap on my resume. Maybe I need to make a bucket list of sorts...

Bye Bye Balloons

Scrounged some more blackberries on my return trip to collect my newly sharpened knife. I was so ready to give it a test run on a tomato or cucumber but we had to pack down and leave our Air B&B as soon as I got back. 

We brunched in an overly twee little breakfast parlour, the kind of place that had three cuckoo clocks, none of them kept the right time. Still, the food set us up for a revisit to a walk round Symonds Yat Rock to enjoy the viewpoints. Then it was time to return to Bristol. Just in time to march up the the park to watch the final bout of hot air balloons going over... But they cancelled it. We rolled up our picnic blanket with a heavy heart and returned home to contemplate the week ahead.

Blackberries on the Vine

Visited a familiar English Heritage site, Goodrich Castle to show Rebecca's parents the ruin that's in pretty good condition. We bought some mead in the gift shop (something to enjoy when the Summer finally breaks), then we ventured into Ross-On-Wye for a nose about.

In the early evening I headed out on a solo jaunt. A chap who offers a knife sharpening service lives a half hour walk away from our Air B&B so I made the uphill trek. Because I was running a little early for our appointment I took my time on the walk and foraged a mountain of blackberries. Every bush I found I basically had to eat one from. I'm reading a book all about malnourished and shipwrecked people so being able to scrounge for my own sustenance felt amazing. Just hope my fingers weren't stained too purple as I handed my knife to the fella.

August City Break

Did some pottering around and some slow motion packing for our weekend away. I have no idea why we always end up in the Monmouth area for a city break, but this time Rebecca's parents wanted to experience the piece and quiet that only the Wye Valley can offer. It always takes a few minutes to adjust to the idea that your local post office is also your butchers, bakery and grocery shop. The only pub in town (that isn't a scary looking social club) usually has a food menu but because they don't have a chef at the moment we had to go to the chippy (which is still a win). It really is peaceful out here though, no doubt we'll sleep soundlessly.

With a Paddle

My Summer of 2026 can be mostly associated with boats. Boat parties, holidays and hangouts. Now the season is beginning to draw to an end and all good things must pass. I joined my friend who owns a small riverboat for one last cruise to stash it back in the marina til next year. Just the two of us (and a Bluetooth speaker) on a tepid August day. We did a pair of locks then cruised into the pack marina. The water was full of algae and other nasties, which is what we think clogged up our engine and killed it. Just meters away from our mooring point we found ourselves up shit creek, thankfully we had a paddle... One very small paddle that is. Somehow I managed to row the vessel back towards the docks (my friend was low key freaking out, but I was determined to make it work). So despite it being a fun Summer send off to begin with, it turned into one of those bleak endings that will probably cost my buddy a bunch of money to fix. 

I had a great time though. 

Bookshelves Complete

The final push to complete the bookshelves. All I needed to do was to screw everything down into place and lock it all in. The literal second Rebecca finished work she came downstairs and started making piles of all her books - assigning post-its to label each stack. I was playing games online with some chaps tonight so I didn't get to see her wave her magic wand, I only saw the 'Ta-Dah' photo she sent up and it looks wonderful. There's room for everything, plus space for a handful of small photo frames and knick-knacks. It really completes the room and makes for a great talking point for guest. 

It was only 18 months late in the build... But I reckon it was worth the wait. 

Desirably Uneventful

I let Rebecca sleep in for a couple of hours while I pottered around, she needed the rest so we could make it back home to Bristol in one piece. Time back was desirably uneventful, we played games, read books and ordered take out (we deserved it). Rebecca had a theatre show to catch in the evening, leaving me at home to play a horror game that eventually got under my skin. It didn't help that the cat kept chirping during some especially creepy moments so I couldn't tell what was real anymore. One to resume tomorrow when the sun is up and the lights are on.

Funeral - Dorothy

It's been almost five years since I last wore my funeral attire. I know this because I found a COVID facemask in my trouser pocket from Granny Sue's funeral. But today was to commemorate Rebecca's Grandmother, Dorothy who passed away recently.

I got ready with Rebecca and her family, dressing in all black and waiting for the funeral directors to collect us from the house. We followed behind the hearse in the escort vehicle and filtered into a lovely little service. The wake followed at a nearby pub where select friends and family retired to where stories of Rebecca's Nan were passed around. 

In my mind there's two types of funerals. The kind where you get hugs and the kind where you give hugs. I was mostly there as an emotional pillar for Rebecca, doing all I could to make the day a bit more bearable for her. There was a lot of trepidation heading into the day but she's very glad the day went as it did. She's a very brave lady and I was proud to stand by her side throughout the day.

Book Club Basher

I forgot to mention that a couple of days ago I officially became the owner of a car. Rebecca transferred ownership of her old and faithful Vauxhall Viva over to me (after I gave her a couple of quid of course). Rebecca has recently acquired some new wheels which took us up to London today. Because it had air con and that new car smell I was half convinced it was an airport rental vehicle... Hopefully that magic lasts for a long time.

I brought my laptop and microphone along with me so I could attend my virtual book club. Everyone rated this month's book 4/5, minus me who gave it a significantly lower score. I didn't want to dunk on the book too hard though because I didn't want to make anyone feel too embarrassed for enjoying it - I kept circling back to 'and that's why I personally didn't get much out of it' which absolved me of a lot. These days I'm in the business of speaking my mind but not cruising to rustle feathers. 

Impressionable Stranger

Dropped in to my usual barber up the road for a trim. I've been seeing him for almost a year now and we've seldom said more than a dozen words to eachother in that time. It was only when I mentioned I was getting it cut for a funeral that he tentatively made conversation. A lot of my life I think about the strangers that have made an impression on me - I wonder how many people's lives I've touched who don't know my name.

People that aren't strangers though are Mark and Lucy, whom we shared an almost twelve hour Saturday with. They had a board game they were eager to share with us called Eclipse - an epic scale space war game which took us from lunch til dinner to play. I got trounced, but I didn't mind because they put on an immense spread of food for us. Homemade pizzas, strawberry mess, a light salmon dinner and simmered peaches with ice cream - what a bloody treat. The day went too quickly though, we looked up at the clock and the next thing we knew we were catching the night bus home.