Sunday Catch Up

This week, aside from working, we have been gearing up for Summer of Sonic which was yesterday. We got up at 5 am and went to bed at 2 am. We met up with a couple of friends, two from university and the rest we know online, and went out for dinner at Wagamama afterwards which was nice.

Our town at 5.30 am.

The queue, in Brighton at about 9.30 am.

 Sonic came along to say hi, it was very cute because there were some little kids around too.

My fiancé playing Sega All-Stars Racers Transform. Steve Lycett from Sumi Digital also annouced that NiGHTS and Reeala will be playable in the game!

Some of the crowd. There was a large downstairs room and then another room upstairs with merchandise, art tables and food. There wasn't as much as the last couple of years, but they had an electrical fault at the original venue so had to move it all to this venue the night before! So I imagine they couldn't fit it all in.

Takashi Iizuka, Japanese game producer, game director, game designer, level designer, scenario writer and currently the head of Sonic Team did a Q & A.

 

 Cosplay contest, the Werehog won!

  Crush 40 performed! We've seen them before and I don't think that it was as good as the last time we saw them,  but it was still great. The sound system wasn't great, so at times it was little difficult to hear the lead singer, Johnny's, voice over everything else. My fiancé's ears are also still ringing!

Sunday Catch Up

Well, this week I've mostly been working on my project and doing my work, as usual. Other than that it's not been terribly exciting. It's been really hot the last few days so I've eaten lots of ice lollies and we finally broke out the fan. The it rain on and off all day today, of course. But at least it waters my flowers for me, most of which the snails seem to have been snacking on.

My fiancé's grandmother has been very difficult today and yesterday. She's always fine with me, most likely because she doesn't really know me, but she'll be very short with her son and grandson which makes things a bit awkward, especially when all everyone is trying to do is help her and keep her safe. This is all part of the fun of taking care of an old lady with Alzheimer's. It's never anything personal, but that doesn't make it any easier either.

When my parents visited last week my mum gave us lots of different packets of instant, microwaveable Indian food that is free from additive, artificial colours, MSG etc. They're so yummy! Seriously, way better than we expected them to be. The company, Kohinoor, prides itself on being healthy and authentic, so if you see them around I urge you to give them a try.

These are the kind we've been trying:

The dahl is particularly good. My fiancé's only complaint is that "it's all a bit brown" but I suppose that's what happens when you don't add colour to things, plus it might just be the ones we've been trying. We haven't tried them all but I will buy them again if I see them. Also, yes I am the kind of person who contacts companies to tell them how yummy their food is. Last time it got me some free Quorn vouchers!

So that's about it really this week.

Sunday Catch Up

As you may have noticed, there's been less weekly updates. This is because I'm working on a project that I'm hoping to do on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays! So most of my week has been spent on my usual work but also on this project, which I'm not telling you about just yet because I'm a big meany.

Today my parents came to visit! My mum texted me the other night to ask if they could pop down and of course I said yes. Every so often they like to come down to see me and we go out for lunch, have coffee and just generally chat. They enjoy the change of scene and we also enjoy simply seeing each other.

This I love about seeing my parents:

We go out for lunch

We walk around town or along the beach

We then go somewhere different for coffee and maybe ice cream

We talk about what my sisters are up to, what other family members are up to, what I'm doing right now etc

They bring me new plants

They bring me food, often treats like chocolate and biscuits, this time they also bought weird instant curry things

My mum often includes odd little things, this time it was lots of pairs of socks and a half finished knitted blanket she thought I might like to complete

My mum always says hello to the gerbils and rats, even though she doesn't really like rats because their tails creep her out

They often pop in to say hello to my fiancé's grandma even though they don't have to, which is really kind. It's also pretty funny because my mum is deaf and my fiancé's grandma has Alzheimer's.

I especially love my parents because when I say things like "I'd really like to *insert activity here* one day" they don't just laugh at me. In fact they usually ask me how I would do such a thing, if you can make any money out of it and tell me that I might as well give it a go.

So, my fireplace now has two lovely green plants sitting on the hearth and the cupboard is stocked with yummy things! Hope everyone had as nice a weekend as I did!

Sunday Update

This week has seen me catching up with Game of Thrones, I some how ended up being six episodes behind. During the final episode I had to pause because there was a seagull outside squawking and dive-bombing a fox that was standing on the front wall of our house, which was certainly weird! We live on the seafront so have a lot of seagulls, and we have a flat roof so I think they like to nest up by there, and we're opposite a small park so you often see local foxes trotting along the road and into the surrounding bushes. Game of Thrones was as amazing as always and I'm so sad that I have to wait a year for the next series, so I'll be buying the next book (A Storm of Swords) soon to get my fix.

I've been very naughty and not read the book I'm supposed to be reviewing next, and I'm considering ditching it for now because I'm just not getting into it at all. I can't pinpoint why though which is very annoying. Instead I've been reading comics, mostly Girly Volume 3, Shadoweyes, Temujin and Sam and Fuzzy: Fix Your Problem. All of which I recommend others read too, they're all very different to each other so if you don't fancy Shadoweyes, you might like Temujin, and so on.

It's Dickens Week in our town until next weekend and there's lots going on. I'm not really a Dickens fan but it's lovely to see everyone out, lots of people are in costume and there are Victorian carriage rides too which is pretty cool. There's also a small fair with stalls selling preserves, Victorian costume pieces, jewellery and such. We went to have a look yesterday and came back with American sweeties, so not very Victorian but very yummy. I might go back for a jar of marmalade because they have some delicious looking concoctions on display.

I've been working as usual but also working on my own project as well. So, it's been a relatively quiet week. 

Sunday Catch Up

I spent most of this week in Yorkshire! My Grandpa and his wife were visiting from Canada so myself, my fiancé, my Mum, my Dad and my niece all popped up for a visit. We also saw my other grandparents who live near Leeds twice and did a bit of sightseeing too.

We visited Knaresborough, Whitby, Bradford, York, the Cow and Calf on Ikley Moor and stayed in a bed and breakfast my parents have been staying at for years and years which is on The Chevin ridge. So we did a fair amount of travelling around. We also drove through the North York Moors national park to get to Whitby because my Dad fancied taking the scenic route, a.k.a. he got lost.

The Cow and Calf, Ikley Moor

 It was very misty on the second day we went up, we didn't have the camera with us the first time because my parents just randomly decided to visit while we were on the way to the supermarket to get some shopping for my grandparents. My fiancé took these photos.

Knaresborough

We only briefly visited Knaresborough. My Dad grew up very near to here, he used to go fishing in the river you can just see in the photos, and it's also where my parents got married! My fiancé took these photos at the top of town, near the castle.

York

This is why we visited York. My fiancé and I have been to York once before, and I've visited several times. When we first went to York together we discovered a small restaurant called El Piano. We had a big jug of hot chai tea and a selection of yummy dishes, all vegan by the way and all very, very yummy. Everyone must visit El Piano. All of the food is amazing and the staff are super friendly, it's always an award winning restaurant which is really no surprise. If you're ever in York and fancy some delicious nibble, check out El Piano.

Whitby

 We walked up to the Abbey and the church next to it (as you can see above) to take some pretty photos. We didn't go into the Abbey because you have to pay and we're cheapskates, so we walked around the outside and saw some really pretty swallows darting about over the fields and one that was sitting on the telephone wire and chirruping away to it's buddies. It was adorable.

This was a little alleyway that looked like it just dropped away into the sea! There was actually a slipway just below, for a boat, but it still looks pretty awesome. 

A seagull sitting on Captain Cook's head.

Delicious Ferreo Rocher sundae from a cute little ice-cream parlour called Ice, it's next to the market square and we highly recommend that you visit them if you're in Whitby!

Bradford

 The square outside city hall has awesome fountains and weird steam things, which you can see myself and my niece playing with.

 This is what Bradford station looks like, it has weird twisty sculpture things outside and has an overgrown patch next to the platforms. I've never been to an overgrown train station before, especially not in a city!

National Media Museum

Bradford

A little collage of some of the things at the National Media Museum.

The three largest images are from the 'Life Before The Internet' exhibit.

From top to bottom, left to right:

Street Fighter arcade machine. Gaming consoles including Sega Megadrive, N64 and Snes. Kinect visualizer programme. My fiancé reaching into a curved mirror. Old television sets. Morph. Set from Wallace and Gromit The Wrong Trousers. The Wombles.

What we returned from Yorkshire with:

My Mum gave me the tin of Jubilee tea and the French cat books (French For Cats and Advanced French For Exceptional Cats), they are written in both French and English and are hilarious. The mug is from the Jorkvik centre in York. The animated origami is from the National Media Museum as is the Sign Language book, which my fiancé bought as a 'bathroom book', and the poster is an underground Super Mario Bros level which we've never seen anywhere else. The penguins and the York hoodie were bought for us by my parents, the hoodie is for my fiancé and the penguins are for both of us. My fiancé adores penguins by the way.

When we weren't in Yorkshire we were at my parents house in Essex. My Mum recently treated herself to a few quails and they are adorable! We have six of their eggs in our fridge and they're so tiny, when we cook them I will take a photo. The quails live in a long, tall run that my Mum made so that the local fox won't bother them, their run also contains some plants, bark chippings and two sand baths for them to play about with. They also have a little house at the end to shelter in.

So yes, that was my week! Next week's update will not be anywhere near as exciting.

Sunday Catch Up

I have spent most of this week working, reading and doodling. So it's been a great week!

It was vegetarian week this week and seeing as I'm already a vegetarian, I wrote about How To Be Vegetarian Without Alienating Everyone Or Having To Eat Rabbit Food instead and it is now my fourth most popular post!

I also read Habibi this week in a nice two hour sitting. I lay on our bed, eating cherries and reading while my fiancé made us veggie fajitas. It's absolutely amazing and incredibly beautiful, so definitely check it out.

I spent yesterday sketching out a mini comic which I'm hoping to scan, ink and maybe even upload today.

It was also my Dad's birthday yesterday so I got to have a nice chat with him on the phone. He had a nice day and he wanted to discuss bikes with me because he wants to buy me a bike for my birthday this year, he thinks he's found a nice pale blue ladies bike that will suit my needs. It has a basket!

Sunday Catch Up

Myself, author and friend Maudie Smith and another friend and fellow writer

Well, this week was the Writes of Passage anthology launch, we I recapped on Friday. Since then I emailed two publishers, received and email from an agent I've been talking to for a while and I'm still waiting for some others to get back to me. The rest of the time I've been working and finding some new memes for the blog to keep things fresh!

Yesterday our little seaside town was showing Grease on the beach! We didn't go because my fiancé isn't fussed about Grease and I'm not really a fan. I can watch it, but I wouldn't actively seek it out. I did take a walk though to take some photos because there were so many people walking past our house and down to the beach! They also did a Grease inspired 50's dance on Friday and today they're doing a record break attempt to have as many people dancing as possible. They did a similar record attempt last year but with Abba.

That's about it really! Friday's post will fill you in on the excitement of the anthology launch but other than that I've not done much. Wednesday was mostly spent sleeping in and letting my feet recover from standing around for hours.

Hopefully tomorrow my fiancé and I are going to Canterbury so I might have a more interesting update next week!

Sunday Catch Up

Well this week has been...interesting.

Alexandra Ristorante

My parents came to visit on Sunday and we went out for lunch in Ramsgate. We wandered around the harbour and ended up eating at a really nice Italian restaurant called Alexandra Ristorante, my Dad was very happy because he ordered mussels for a starter and got twice the amount he thought he'd get. He really likes seafood. My dad liked the food and the staff here so much he wants me to have the wedding reception here! They left me with chocolates, cookies and some nice new plants too, so it was a really lovely visit as usual.

Monday however we found out that my fiancé's best friend had committed suicide. He'd known her online for about 3 years, they talked every day and played games together too so were really close. Everyone is still very confused about why she chose to end her life and still very upset, understandably. But I always think you need to stay positive. What has happened is awful and I doubt that her family and friends will ever truly get over it, but I really hope that no one is blaming themselves.

“You cannot save people, you can only love them." - Anaïs Nin

You can't force people to be happy and you can't force people to talk to you. All you can do is love them and be there if they need you. The rest really is up to them. We'll probably never know why she made the choice she did, she didn't leave a note or anything, so I think it's best to not dwell on it because it's fruitless and just leads to more upset. When anyone dies, in any circumstances, it's always best to focus on all the lovely moments you had with a person while they were still with us, rather than focus on the sad times. I doubt that someone you loved, who loved you too, would want you to be unhappy.

So, on to more positive things.

By the way, I have a Tumblr dedicated to my Animal Crossing adventures!

I've not had any work to do this week, as is sometimes the case with freelancing, so instead I've spent the week with my fiancé and playing copious amounts of Animal Crossing. I also finally finished reading Dearly Departed so you can expect a review at some point in the near future!

I also made homemade iced coffee and it actually tasted nice! I used coffee ice-cubes instead of regular ice-cubes so that it wouldn't get watery.

Sunday Catch Up

Well this week has been a little more interesting than usual because my work has all been focused on writing blog entries for one of the websites I write for, so that makes a nice change. I have to write about companies, products etc as usual but it's just pushy and more like an article. It's supposed to be friendly, informative and chatty, which makes it not only more interesting to read but also more interesting to write. So, for example, this week I wrote about what to do on holiday in Amsterdam and Brussels, how to get a great fake tan, a review of The Hunger Games and two recipes, amongst other things. I generally like my work anyway but this just makes for a nice change of pace.

When I wasn't working I was drinking a lot of tea, as usual, and coffee, as usual. I watched quite a few films this week including: Freaky Friday, the 1976 version which is hilarious, Mulan, Food Inc and Supersize Me.

Click the image to make it bigger!

Food Inc was really interesting, it didn't really tell me much that I didn't already know but it was interesting none the less. I didn't realise how corn is in pretty much all manufactured foods but called all sorts of things so you don't realise, how most US food, especially meat, is produced by only a handful of companies and jut how disgusting meat is. I don't eat meat and I've always found it pretty gross anyway but it's another thing entirely when they can show you how diseased it is, how it's then sterilized before being shipped out and how even then some still gets through and can potentially kill people. Yummy! Food Inc does show the poor animals in horrible conditions and the slaughter houses, it wasn't too graphic (except for the poor chickens) so you don't need to worry about that if you find such images upsetting. There's just a few places where you might want to take the chance to make a cup of tea. Definitely worth a watch.

On Thursday the Summer of Sonic venue was announced which is awesome. We've attended the last few years and this year have managed to get some other friends to join in the fun. It's just a really fun day for people who still love that spiky blue hedgehog and want to play some games, chat to friends and generally hang out with some cool, if somewhat nerdy, people.

Saturday was our four year anniversary so my fiancé put together some photos of us:

These bottom two are cool because the left is us in 2008 a little while after we started going out (24th May) and the right is our third anniversary and the day we got engaged (2011)!

We started the day with cream teas for breakfast, then I made veggie shepherd's pie for dinner and we pop across to the funfair on the green opposite our house to get some donuts as a treat. We didn't get up to much but it was a lovely day anyway! I also went to the shops and on the way back walked through the cat park, which is a little patch of green with a path going through it and a few benches and flowerbeds. There are two cats that hang out there, one black and one two-toned grey and light brown, and they're super friendly so I sat and had a cuddle with them for a little while before heading home. They apparently belong to the lady who lives in a flat next-door to the park and she has more cats who all hang out in the park, but I haven't seen any other cats around recently.

Today my parents are visiting and we are going out to lunch, but my fiancé is at work so he's missing out. He does have leftover shepherd's pie though so it's not all bad.

Sunday Catch Up

So, this week saw the Writes of Passage anthologies arrive! My two copies are sitting on the manga/comic bookshelf. One copy is going to my mum and the other is for me.

A baby Storm and her (now deceased) sister Brave

I also had to take one of our pet rats to the vet on Monday because she had a mammary tumour. She had an operation on Friday to remove it and is now recuperating in the spare cage. She's being very good and not fussing with her stitches but I don't trust her sisters to be so well behaved, which is why she's being kept separate for now.

I just threw Dr Pepper all down the sofa arm and my leg...great.

Anyway, I also finished Skyrim this week! Finally! The final battle was not as awesome as it should have been and I was only level 28 so I thought it would be much harder. It was over in a few minutes. I still love Skyrim and think that it's a great game, I just wish that it had been a bit more challenging in places. I'm also not entirely sure what to do with my game-self now.

It's been proper pirate pillaging weather all week so I haven't gone out very much. We went out for breakfast yesterday and luckily it didn't start raining again until we got back home. There is a café near us that does delicious veggie breakfasts that are also pretty affordable. It's a huge portion and it comes with tea or coffee. Delicious. I also love that their kid's menu includes jam sandwiches.

I've been playing The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap this week too. I started the game a while ago and then completely forgot about it. It's so much fun, possibly one of my favourite Zelda games and it hasn't made me rage too much. The only thing I hate about Zelda games is how easily I can get lost on a quest, for example I spent a good half an hour wandering round and round a dungeon because I had missed one tiny thing and therefore couldn't progress. I did figure it out in the end but it was a really boring half and hour.

I've also been playing Animal Crossing again. I lost my original copy a few years ago which was pretty devastating, I then bought another copy but it's not quite the same. I miss my old villagers and I miss my big shop with the hairdressing poodle and I miss my big house! But my new village is okay. I like that I have Hopper the Penguin these days, but I still miss Peanut. I also have City Folk/Let's Go To The City on the Wii which I do really like but I just haven't played it very much. I might have to return to that town at some point and see who is still around. I will also be getting the 3DS Animal Crossing game, and yes I've watched the Animal Crossing film. Animal Crossing is one of my favourite franchises, if you hadn't already figured that out.

I am still reading Dearly Departed and it's actually pretty cool to read it when it's so rainy and windy outside. Intense!