two thousand and twenty in review

I thought about starting this out by saying "well, we survived"... but given the state of the world, that seems very tone deaf.

So pretend I said something that conveyed that same message, but wasn't that tone deaf. That thing, I said that thing.

I will say that I've never appreciated living on the world's largest island quite as much as I did this year. And living in a city with a smaller population. And having a government that wasn't actually useless.

Don't get me wrong, fuck this dumpster fire of a year. But at the same time, we haven't had it that bad here.

And you need to be thankful where you can right now.

Sadly, the set of Chinese zodiac stamps I've been using for the last ten years also ran out last year (I was a little late to that particular party, so missed out on 2008 and 2009), so we've got... whatever that is up there. So that might be the thing for the next 12 years. Who knows. Also, postage now costs double what it did when I first used one of these stamps. Because, time.

Weirdly I thought this year's monthly round up was going to be blank for several months in the middle of the year. And, don't get me wrong, it's not exactly the height of thrilling. But this year was basically about small steps or small achievements. Honestly, that's just my life currently. And some of them don't have links because either the reference was a blink and you'll miss it, or it was already covered in a previous link.

So, this was my 2020...

January: I tried dyeing IKEA chair covers. There was much DnD. I went to the ENT doctor.

February: There was too much rain on one day. We finished our Wednesday night campaign after almost two years. I changed my blog header for the first time in six years. Fringe started. I dyed the IKEA chair covers for the third and final time.

March: It was my 46th birthday. Fringe ended. I had the last haircut I'd have for five and a half months. The wheels fell off the world. I finally made the Lego Batman set that had been lurking on top of my wardrobe. We switched over to Discord and Roll 20 for DnD for several months. Wednesday games at the comic book store stopped. I discovered Board Games Arena which helped keep me sane for the rest of the year.

April: One of the Friday DnD characters died. I literally left the house twice a week at most. Plus once a month for my chiro appointment. This continued for some time.

May: I did much colouring in (from March onwards really) thanks to Wizards of the Coast. Life continued in much the same pattern, we occasionally went to places other than the supermarket on a Saturday. A tradie finally turned up to look at my busted oven door.

June: One of my former Monday DnD boys joined the Wednesday group. We skipped over Ma's birthday. Our Friday group finally got to be in the same room together. Ma and I watched Onward, one of only two movies I reviewed this year.

July: After spending much of this year turning 3d character screenshots into character art, I posted some. I finally watched Into The Spider-verse. Critical Role returned. It was the third anniversary of my first DnD game and my fifteenth blogiversary. Fuck.

August: I had my first haircut in 169 days.

September: My oven door was finally fixed. It took 126 days. I made belated birthday sausage rolls for Ma.

October: HeroForge released the ability to colour their models. It was the one year anniversary for our first Friday night game. I went out and took photographs for the first time this year. It was the first time the Wednesday night DnD group all got together in person.

November: I had people come over to my house and play board games. We had the "it's a lockdown, sorry, now it's not a lockdown" lockdown.

December: We put the Christmas tree up. I fell down. We had Boardgame Christmas, followed by actual Christmas.

Yeah, my life is really boring.

I will just stop and say that I would have gone completely around the twist this year had it not been for my friends. And online board games and virtual DnD and Discord and video chat. And Ma. But mostly my friends. 

For as much as I occasionally complain about them, I would have been confined to my house, not speaking to anyone bar Ma and the people at the supermarket. And I would have gone loopy. You gave me things to look forward to, and points in my week so that I actually remembered what day of the week it was. So, thanks.

Also, the completely anonymous randoms I've played the 1280 virtual board games with in the last six months, you get a thumbs up from me also.

As far as movies go, well, you saw the two movies I listed above. Both what I would still call "new releases"... even if one of them was from 2018. And I never set foot in a movie theatre at all this year. In fact, it was 12 months ago last Monday.

But I have watched a lot more movies on SBS On Demand. Older movies, newer movies, foreign movies for the most part. A lot of Asian movies... Japanese, Chinese, Korean, all the Asian movies. The notable ones overall include:

• Alfie (1966)
• Fist of Fury (1972)
• The Young Master (1980)
• Police Story (1985)
• Let the Bullets Fly (2010)
• Little Big Soldier (2010)
• Sacrifice (2010)
• Colossal (2016)
• Train to Busan (2016)
• Loving Vincent (2017)
• The Villainess (2017)
• Alpha (2018)
• Believer (2018)
• The Great Battle (2018)
• Rampant (2018)

I also watched the extended two part version of Red Cliff from 2009. And I kinda wish I'd seen it before this year, because it's excellent. Fills in a lot of gaps, gives characters whole storylines. I also watched other Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee movies, but those on the list were the ones I really liked.

So that's about it for 2020. Take care of each other, look after yourselves, wear a damn mask (where and when appropriate), and let's kick 2021 in the crotch.

Current mood:

post christmas round-up 2020

I just looked at my Christmas post for last year... and the bit that stuck out to me was this...

"Fuck Christmas this year. More than at any other point in recent history, Christmas was literally just a Wednesday with turkey. Granted not the worst ever Wednesday, but yeah, fuck Christmas 2019."

Aha-ha-ha-ha-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAH-HAH-HAH...

Oh you sweet Summer child... you knew nothing.

Honestly though, having said that, this year felt... both more like Christmas and less like Christmas. Less because all those things that makes Christmas special or interesting or feel like Christmas, for me at least... the picking of presents, and then the giving of same... making Christmas goodies... all of that isn't happening right now.

I realised yesterday when I was getting ready that that is the thing I miss most over the last... four years... without the income to splurge on Christmas gifts for the people I care about (and, you know, honestly, myself as well), Christmas doesn't feel like Christmas. And yes, it's not about the gifts, commercialism, blah blah blah.

But the way I show people I care about them, at least in a holiday (or birthday) context is to pick up on things they've said during the year and get them either a thing they absolutely want or a thing that they didn't even know existed but would still absolutely want if they had known.

It's not a "buy your love" situation, it's more how I say "I hear you, I see you, I understand who you are as a person". Even if it's some dumb tiny thing... like the year I did a Secret Santa at... I dunno, somewhere I worked... and I'd been having a conversation with the girl who was my Santee (you know, I'm the Santa, she's the Santee... is that not a thing... fuck it, I'm making it a thing) about particular calendars (probably beefy men ones or some TV show, I dunno), so I went and got one of those for her. Because of course.

Anyway, enough of the nostalgia wander through my psyche.

I think maybe it felt more like Christmas because it wasn't just the one day, it wasn't just yesterday. This year there was also Boardgame Christmas on Tuesday with my Friday DnD group, where we got together in the actual day time and played boardgames all day, did presents (all of mine were food what I had made, because of course) and hung out and had a lovely time. So, you know, being around other people who give a shit about Christmas (as much as anyone does right now), instead of just being on my ownsome and then, boom, Christmas, may well have made a difference.

For the record, we also were supposed to do Friday DnD on Wednesday... instead of my regular Wednesday DnD (which had we attempted that would have invariably been called off)... but we didn't really do DnD... we mostly talked through our plans for what comes next since and our assumptions and expectations. So not a total waste of time. And probably useful for the DM. Certainly better than trying to push through when people weren't feeling it.

So our next, action packed, oh no, oh no, why are you doing this, fun filled game won't be until New Years Day.

Otherwise my week up until yesterday wasn't much of anything really.

I made bread again this year. I set it going on Christmas Eve (and for, I think, the second year in a row, I watched not a single Christmas movie in the lead up to Christmas, not even my usual Christmas Eve staple, Arthur Christmas, not that I dislike it or have watched it too much, I'm just not feeling it right now) and then got up just after 5am to prep it for the oven and leave it to proof for another two hours, all during which I caught up on Christmasy YouTube videos, and I'll admit, went back to bed, not so much for a nap as to futz with my phone... and maybe a little nap.

But I threw the bread in the oven, myself in the shower, packed up the car and headed down to Ma's around 8am, listening to the My Dad Wrote A Porno Christmas Special, as has been my Christmas morning tradition for the last several years. I honestly didn't track when I got there, but I hadn't quite finished the first MDWAP episode, so, inside of 40 minutes I'd say.

As usual Ma was finishing up ham hearts and mince tarts... so while I did have a loaf of fresh, warm bread with me, I also absolutely ate several fresh out of the oven ham hearts. Because I'm only human.

But eventually we sat down at the table and breakfasted on fresh bread. Honestly, I think maybe I feel the same way this year that I did last year. Not that "special". Compared with when we used to do croissants, which felt more special, mostly because it wasn't something we did on the regular. Again, Ma's mileage may vary, because I make fresh bread weekly at this point, and she only ever gets a piece the day after and not the fresh out of the oven stuff.

I fully expect that I will 100% forget I had this opinion again by this time next year, because I had the same opinion last year and didn't fucking remember. Somebody remind me mid December, yeah?

Once again, there was a dearth of Christmas movies on during the day. I mean, seriously, it's not that hard network programmers, look at the list of available Christmas movies from overseas companies. Is there a man and a woman on the cover? Are they wearing red and green in some orientation? Does the title have the word Christmas in it? Does it star a woman who was famous or slightly famous on TV in the 1990's? Is it by MarVista Entertainment? If the answer to at least 3 of these questions is yes (you get a bonus point if it's by MarVista), then get them to send them over by linear measurement ("give me three feet of Christmas movies please!")... because, seriously, I have no doubt that they'll totally do it. And given the quality and the sheer number, they cannot be that expensive.

Anyway, I digress, and I'm fairly certain that there are no Australia TV network programmers reading my blog, more's the pity.

But there was interesting enough stuff on SBS World Movies (Fifth Element, a German version of Heidi, something wacky about teenage witches from Denmark)... the latter two we left on with no sound, but subtitles, and I sassed them as appropriate.

We did presents first... after I showed Ma the stuff I got on Boardgame Christmas, and she showed me other stuff she'd gotten.

I got some good stuff overall, I think you could call this "a little bit of what you like"... I got a little something of any number of my interests with the exception of maybe a novel of some sort:

• Tasha's Cauldron of Everything book
• Out of the Abyss book (from Fluffy, to run for the Friday group, probably not until 2022 tho)
• Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home DVD double pack.
• Typo 2021 Fuck Yeah calendar
• Here To Slay board game (from Mr and Mrs, the other half of the Friday DnD game)
• Critical Role Don't Forget To Love Each Other mug (also from Mr and Mrs)
• Chessex Borealis Royal Purple and Gold dice with glow in the dark glitter (Mr and Mrs again)
• Kiki.K notebooks and fox head pen (Mrs really couldn't help herself)
• L.L.A.M.A. card game (for "winning" Boardgame Christmas, because, sure)
• New canvas shoes, basically the same as the last four pairs I've bought
• Smash A5 holographic cover notebook
• Scentsia Tealight Holder with Spinning Silver Snowflakes
• Primrose Hill Set Grilled Peaches and Honey candle
• Aeroplane Jellies (Lime, Raspberry and Purple Grape... I have no idea why, except Ma)
• Hersheys Chocolate Syrup
• Coles Gingerbread Man/Iced Biscuit

And given this year there were things I knew about, things I had known about and had forgotten, things I didn't think were going to be for me (for example, the tealight holder... I knew Ma bought one, I had assumed for someone else... also the notebook was supposed to be for someone else, but I'd said she could slide it my way if she changed her mind), and things I didn't know I wanted until I had them (which pretty much covers Fluffy and Mr/Mrs presents).

Ma enjoyed her calendar, which was something of a relief. Like I knew it was good, I knew I liked it, I wasn't 100% certain it would be her aesthetic. She loved it. Phew. And this year, as opposed to the last... two years I wanna say... I didn't forget to get her the nougat she likes. So she was pleased with that.

I got a Merry Christmas message from Fluffy as we were finishing up, so I took that usual 5-10 minutes that happens at some point on Christmas to relay my Christmas wishes via text and social channels to the folks I care about. And then my phone did the random beep dance on and off for like the next three hours. Not that I texted that many people, some of them just took their time LOL.

Anyway, eventually I did the present photo... I forgot my camera yet again (doubly annoyed at myself because I remembered I needed to take it when I was in the shower this morning, but forgot as soon as I got out), so I was doing the iPhone thing again. Not bad, but never as good in the quality department honestly.

This year at least we got the BBQ and the lunch timing right... and put the potatoes in to roast with the turkey and sausage meat. I honestly don't remember what we did in the hour the turkey was cooking... but we did something, I prepped everything else for Christmas Day Salad, and we went from there.

Normally I do a more complete table photo... but I realised two things, a) they're basically all the same, b) this year's one was shitty quality because iPhone plus directional lighting and c) who cares. If I'm interested at any future point, we had fizzy red grape juice this year instead of fizzy apple juice. And I made the salad dressing with olive oil, vinegar and cranberry sauce.

So we did the lunch thing. And it was... essentially it's the same thing we do every Christmas at this point. It's nice, we always make way too much of it, it's never as good as left overs, and it can vary massively depending on the dressing. This year wasn't bad, as per the above.

After lunch we tidied up, and then I taught Ma how to play Here To Slay. When I say teach... we played four games, I accidentally won the first (I didn't realise I'd gotten enough heroes until like a turn and a half later), she kicked my ass on the second and third games (while still not completely being sure what she was doing) and I barely squeaked in a victory in the last game, otherwise I might not have been speaking to her for the rest of the afternoon... lol.

Then, several hours later we had dessert. Not quite our usual, only because we didn't do melted chocolate things this year (I mean, I did, but we didn't do it together), so no leftover chocolate shards to stab the dessert with. Otherwise it's basically the same, meringues, mince pie flavoured ice-cream and fresh berries. A decent effort.

It was a little after 6:30pm by the time I gave up, we packed up my car with various and sundry goodies and presents and whatnot, I left Ma's place at 7 and had a pretty decent run home. Where I unpacked but didn't immediately put all my presents away.

So yeah... not the worst Christmas ever for the yaniism household. It's just this year that makes everything worse and harder.

Today, being Saturday, and the shops being open albeit later than usual, I went and did some shopping. I did go on my own, because it's supposed to get hot today (it's starting to now, but isn't quite there yet), and I saw Ma yesterday, so it didn't make a lot of sense for her to come down just to do minimal shopping and then drive home again). I didn't buy a ton of stuff, but I needed a few essentials, like milk, sugar, that kinda stuff. And weirdly, for going to the supermarket at 10am on the day after Christmas, it felt remarkably like the usual Saturday crowd.

No clue what I'm doing with the rest of my day though. So, you know, same as every Boxing Day really.

Current mood:

not my usual christmas message

It's not my usual Christmas message... but then it's not a usual Christmas.

I hope you and yours are safe and healthy this holiday season, and let's hope for a much saner 2021.

Current mood:

photo saturday: holiday trash

Something... out of the ordinary for today's post... it's not photos I've taken, it's not DnD Character Colouring Book... instead, it's the Holiday Movie Poster Generator by Doll Divine and Shidabeeda (also available in Non-Binary flavoured).

I'm not sure I would really survive the cringe factor from watching many actual Hallmark/Netflix or similar holiday movies, they are interesting to have on in the background while you're doing Christmas related things, but as a ridiculous artefact of pop culture and as something I will happily watch other people review and make fun of, I'm totally here for.

And they're so damn formulaic that this generator is both pitch perfect and a ton of fun to play with (especially the text part). These are just some of my favourites (I made entirely too many)... Mia, Grace, Rebecca and Valentina... and their unnamed but hunky love interests. Well, except Embracing Christmas... that dude is totally either hot young Santa or Santa's hot young son. So, you know, Claus.

I also only broke the cardinal "the couple must be dressed contrastingly in red and green" once. But she's also wearing both green and red, so that counts.

Moving on...

This week was... the week before the week before Christmas. Which I realise is self evident, but also an accurate description.

Monday I finally printed Ma's calendar. But Wednesday was when things really kicked off... starting with a morning trip to Officeworks to drop off the calendar for binding and whatnot. Then Wednesday night we finished up the DnD game from last week... only four of the six people who started playing it bothered to show up. Which was fine, except that our cleric wasn't there and we were fighting literally ALL the zombies.

Grrr.

Everyone survived and it was fine... and I liked the way the adventure turned out... one of the more interesting moral decisions. Which in fairness, while these adventures haven't always been superb, they have had some interesting moral choices. Which I like.

Anyway... on Thursday I went to pick up the finished calendar. And we can just insert my usual rant about Officeworks and their printing/binding section at this time of year. They had enough staff this year, that wasn't the problem. What they still didn't have was a good system for organising those staff so that people who were just picking up items or dropping off jobs to pick up later didn't have to stand in the line forever. By forever, I mean somewhere less then 15-20 minutes... maybe... I wasn't really paying attention, but it felt like a long time. And longer than it needed to be.

And no screw ups with the finished product this year, which was nice. Also, no printer fuck ups on my end when I was printing it out, honestly, so that's cause for limited celebration.

From there I went up the hill to see Tink for my... fourth/fifth(?) haircut this year. Which is definitely a thing when generally I have about 12. But it has given me a chance to grow out my hair in ways I wouldn't have done otherwise, and I'm pretty pleased with the general result.

Thursday night I made Rocky Road, since we're not doing other goodies, and that was a production. I used my giant/deep non stick cooking tray, and dumped what was basically two whole batches worth into one. It came out pretty damn nice honestly. And when I sliced it up later I ended up with big square pieces.

Then Friday I had my chiro appointment... which also meant public transport... both of which meant wearing a mask (because that's what they asked for at the chiro). I also stopped into Greenlight Comics for the first time (I think) since the middle of March. I only spent as long in there as it took to find and pay for the latest DnD book (my Christmas present from Ma), before heading out again.

And then it was Friday night DnD. I had made dried apple and cinnamon bread... the apple always swells up way more than I think it should/is going to and I needed to put in about four times the cinnamon. But otherwise it was good.

Friday night however is a story. Not a fall down, go boom story like last week... but definitely a story.

I've mentioned before that there is actual scientific research out there that says that your brain can't tell the difference between real actual emotions and "graph paper emotions" to steal a concept, if not a term, from Critical Role. Things that happen at a role play game table. At least in the moment. So when you feel something, you feel it.

In our Friday night game, my character, Nightingale, has been in love with one of the other characters for probably a couple of months in-game, but almost a year real time I think. And while the DM knows and Fluffy, the third player, knows, I never told mentioned it to the player in question. It wasn't like it was a kind of game where we're going to get deep in the romance weeds, so there wasn't any point. I also wondered how long I could play her as someone in love with his character and him not be aware.

Because as far as my girl was concerned, it was unrequited love. For a whole host of reasons, but, you know, an interesting dynamic to play.

But we found the MacGuffin of the campaign this week. Well, we found it last week, but we needed to jump through a bunch of hoops to get our hands on it. And the MacGuffin *spoilers* turns the character who takes it into an angel, meaning they'll all powerful and ass-kicky for the final fight, but when the game is over, they go off to do angel things.

I mean, hello, welcome to DnD, we have cookies, you can dump your coat on the bed.

We knew what the MacGuffin did (in broad strokes anyway), we knew that his character was being moved in the direction of the sword by his deity, I knew the player probably wanted to take it (it's a pretty cool story arc, honestly... and he already had to give up one major item earlier in the game). But it wasn't our only option. I also knew that him taking it was something my character didn't want. She wanted to be selfish, she wanted him to stay, to return with her when all of this is over and maybe... I dunno, build a life together. Or at least have a shot at it.

After a very long and very tense combat... and I mean very long... normally we'd wrap up by midnight, especially if we had a good stopping point (which we did), but the DM just pushed on through. Which I was happy about, although it seemed weird. But there are moments that happen just the way that they are supposed to, and this was one of those.

We fought the bad guys, the narrative "cut scene" happened on cue (which I suspected it might, what with, you know, understanding how stories work... both as a character and as a player), and we find ourselves standing there with the MacGuffin. And a decision has to be made.

Fluffy makes his case for why he could take the MacGuffin and I sat silently,arms crossed. My girl doesn't sit silently all that often, so clearly something was up.

I don't remember all the details or some of the timing, but he said her name and I told him that he didn't need to take it, but that I'd support whatever his choice was. And he reached out and cupped the side of her face (and given that he's 7 foot something and she's 5 foot nothing, basically he palmed her head like a little basketball. She then laid her tiny hand on the back of his giant mitt.

And she told him she loved him. I didn't mean her to, it just came out... and I'd played that moment through in my head more than a few times, and honestly, every single thought and plan left my brain. I thought he hadn't heard me, but he had, and told her he loved her back (squee!), but by this point he was getting glassy eyed and I was DEFINITELY glassy eyed... and I knew... I knew.

I knew he was going to leave her.

And while still cupping her face, he reached out and took the sword. Cue the heavenly choir and the big fluffy angel wings. And we were all in tears. We called it a game there, because, honestly, it was past 1am anyway, and none of us could have kept going. Because after the adrenaline rush comes the crash, and we all ended up shaking and cold. You know, shock.

Over a make pretend graph paper game. The best fucking game.

It was also so weird that one of their cats reacted to the mood in the room during the emotional drama. Clearly they were picking up what we were putting down (or, you know, it was after 1am and we were "in their space"), but it was super weird.

And afterwards, once we stopped the game there was much real people hugging and saying "fuck" and "oh no" and other such things, but also a definite sense of excitement. Both for what had just happened, and how good it was, but also for what is to come. It's tragic as fuck, but it's a great story arc, for both of our characters. For all of our characters really.

It also means I've made some choices about her future path, which is exciting all on it's own, because it's not a path I saw coming, and I love story-based character decisions. And now we get to kick butt with an angel. So that's a thing that's definitely happening.

For the record, it was just after 2am when I got home. Definitely our latest session to date.

And then I was up about four and a half hours later and headed out to the supermarket on my own, since Ma was getting her hair did.

Shop, shop, shop... home, home, home... unpack, unpack, unpack.

Basically I decided that I'm having pizza all week. I mean, home-made pizza, which I do a very good job at if I do say so myself, but I honestly couldn't be bothered coming up with other options in the lead up to Christmas. Because it's four days, one of which I traditionally have pizza on anyway, one of which I'll be out at DnD, one of which I will have been out all day playing board games and eating ham hearts. And then there's Monday.

So I got home by about 8:30, Ma arrived just after 10, and we didn't do much of anything, because, as previously stated, weekend before Christmas. So she hung out until noon, and then headed home.

There we go.

Current mood:

photo saturday: between a rock and a wet place

Everything hurts... I hate everything. Fuck my stupid "fall down go boom" body.

But that story doesn't occur until later... so how's that for a pre-credit teaser. I mean, that covers about 90% of it, but there is more of a story.

Otherwise... I finally got... well, inspired isn't the right word, because I was so definitely not inspired, but I made Ma's calendar for 2021. 

The theme for this year is "abstraction"... because other single words more appropriate for 2020 like isolation firstly felt a little too on the nose, but also hopefully won't be quite as apt for 2021.

So instead, abstraction... basically I looked for shapes and details, and perhaps a little weirdness here and there. I still need to print it, which is always a whole rigmarole in and of itself... and then get to Officeworks some time in the next two weeks (honestly, the next week, because fuck trying to do anything the following week) and get it bound appropriately.

A task, for obvious reasons, I usually prefer to have done well before December.

We'll see what happens.

Otherwise, pizza is fast becoming the default for the beginning of my weeks... homemade pizza, and I'm not mad at it.

Wednesday's DnD session was... fine... weird but fine. We'd never played these characters actually in the same room together, but we have played these characters together extensively. So it was fucking weird, honestly. And our poor DM... we asked a shit-ton of questions, none of which were covered in the somewhat shabbily written module. So he was winging it for most of the preamble.

Bless him.

This week's Friday/DnD bread was... pizza bread. Tomato paste in the wet ingredients, cheese and salami added to the dough after first proofing, and kinda rolled up. I was gunna roll it, I don't think it quite worked the way I'd thought it might. But it was tasty, even if some element of the paste interfered with the yeast somewhat and the dough didn't rise as much as it could have or should have done.

Friday night was... good. I pause because objectively, good... subjectively, honestly I was a little underwhelmed. And I don't even really know why... there's nothing I can actually point at that leads me there, it is just, as they say, a mood.

Maybe it's because the combat that seemed like it was super fucking difficult the last time we did it was a "blink and you'll miss it". Sure, we made some smarter choices, and our front liner got a new magic item that seemed to make a difference... but I dunno. It may also have been that I felt fucking useless the whole game. Even though I was doing stuff.

I'm not going to pick at that particular thought too much however, I don't want it to spiral into a full on line of reasoning, it can just fuck off into the aether from whence it came.

We finished late, I drove The Fluffinator home, I drove myself home. That, as they say, "has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move"... well, mostly the second part. And only really one person for the first part. Me. I'm the one person.

I got out the car and things went thusly.

• Bad: Falling over in the dirt at the side of your apartment building at 1am, skinning your knee and bruising/cutting your hand.
• Worse: Your house keys flying out of your hands somewhere in the bushes and not being able to find them.
• Worst: Having 5% battery left on your phone. 

At the very least, I had my Lego Joker torch, which lives permanently attached to my DnD bag, so at least I wasn't either relying on my phone torch OR flailing around in the dark. It's not a very bright torch, all things considered, so there's also that. I did spent a LOT of time saying "no, no, no, no, no, fuck, please, no, no, no".

I flailed around in the dirt and the dry leaves and the stupid scratchy bushes. And I could not find my keys. I knew where my hand had hit, roughly, but nothing. And I was bleeding, and in pain, and in shock and did not know what the fuck I was going to do next.

However, this story does not end with me sleeping in my car (which, honestly, never occurred to me until this morning). There is a fourth dot point.

• Priceless: Finding your keys hanging in a bush seconds before you give up looking!

I was very close to giving up, coming upstairs and... I had no actual way to finish that sentence honestly. But I took a few steps back, swept my torch across a space that I didn't think the keys had any business being. And there, just on the edge of where I was looking... a circle shape about a foot above the dirt in the branches of one of the bushes.

And I thought, there's no way that is actually my keys until my fingers closed around the hard metal of my keyring.

Yay!

So I hobbled upstairs, dropped all my crap, cleaned up the graze on my knee, sprayed it with a little Betadine (povidone iodine) that I'm pretty sure I bought in the early Cretaceous period... or, you know, October 2011 (and honestly, I still remember that fall, even if I have no memory of the gym instructor mentioned therein) if we're not being overly dramatic. Thankfully the internet tells me that Betadine possibly... probably... maybe... has no shelf life, so it should still be okay. Which is good I guess. I hadn't even thought about that until just now honestly.

A very sore and somewhat shaky Yani got into bed at that stage, but initially every time I needed to move or roll over or whatever, my everything hurt. Okay, yes, mostly my left knee, but also my right palm and my right elbow and my right arm in general because it took the brunt of the fall down go boom. So, very ow, much sore.

And this morning you could add stiff to sore... plus getting in the shower and getting a graze wet. Never pleasant.

So I got my shit organised... chose the other pair of identical (well, black instead of dark blue) shorts after having sat in the dirt the night before, and was ready and waiting when Ma arrived.

We did the supermarket thing... I forgot to buy pizza bases, which is clearly a problem, since my intended menu for Monday and Tuesday is... you guessed it... pizza. I'll pick some up tomorrow.

Otherwise we bought supplies for... well, let's not call it Christmas goodies... because we honestly just thought about it and firstly neither of us could be bothered, and secondly, neither of us need all that much stuff honestly. We don't have the people to give it to, and otherwise we end up just chowing down on it ourselves until like the middle of February. Which is great, but also, not.

So instead I'm gunna make Rocky Road, since it's the least fussy thing we do and I can do it all on my own... that's basically what happens anyway. But later in the week, when it's cooler. Or, you know, when it's filthy hot and I have all the aircon happening, I haven't decided yet.

One of the "drawbacks" to having had a blog for fifteen years is that I realise that I first made Rocky Road fifteen years ago (maybe sixteen, I don't remember honestly). Good golly Miss Molly.

But I also want some of the ham hearts for the week before Christmas... but I want them freshly baked, because nobody but me ever gets to have them freshly baked, and honestly, they're missing out. So Ma and I did a "test run" today. And that test run turned into basically me having a container in my freezer full of ham hearts ready to get popped into a very hot oven at a later day. Woo.

And it wouldn't be Christmas Goodie Making Day if I didn't have to take an emergency trip to the supermarket for something we forgot or ran out of. In this case, ham. At least we kept that tradition alive.

Ma also made a first batch, by which I mean my giant oven tray full of them, for us. Which we then chomped our way through as lunch, and I just finished the last dozen off as early dinner

Oh, and the Lego store finally opened in Marion... so not going to brave that until mid January at the very earliest. But very excited that it's here.

Also, side note. Ow. Just ow. In general. Ow. And *sigh*.

I am definitely not going to be staying up too late tonight... my whole body is exhausted, and I need the sleep I think.

Otherwise, I'm done for now.

Current mood:

photo saturday: rusty

At a certain point, I have to play the "one of these things is not like the other" game with photos... this week is one of those.

It was also one of those weeks that we so uneventful that I legitimately forgot what I did last Sunday... which was not uneventful.

Last Sunday, being the last Sunday in November, and very nearly the beginning of December, was the day to drive down to Ma's place and put the Christmas tree up. Whoop-di-do Basil.

Honestly, for both of us it was pretty much just going through the motions. Which potentially isn't the best thing in the world... but this year has been... A Thing.

But I had breakfast, then drove down to Ma's, dithered around a bit, then got down to it.

As usual, the first task was the "reading of the previous sass"... when I leave myself notes in previous years or comment on previous thing I've written.

Yeah, the reaction to the dialogue with myself on two separate boxes was slightly visceral. More so the one not shown, but really, when you can sum up your reaction to a year by simply stating the year. It tells you a little something. Or a lot of something, honestly. And yes, box text me is often sassy to both previous year me, and occasionally to future me. It also often tells you about my mood at Christmas that particular year. I feel like 2013 was pretty positive, with the new tree and all... 2014, 2016 and 2019... yeah, they're all a mood. 

For the record, many of the notes I leave are actually useful notations for Christmas tree related decorating, things that I would otherwise totally forget with a 12 month gap between them. But all of it comes with a side order of sass. Because me.

In both 2018 and 2019 we did rainbow stripes for the tree. And that's only about 50% because it's just fucking easier. You know that this zone is this colour, you fill it up as much as you like, you don't have to worry that there are two red ones too close together, because that zone is all fucking red baubles.

We didn't do that this year. For some unknown reason. And honestly, I wasn't happy with the final version. But then I don't have to live with it or look at it more than about three times during the season, so fuck it.

I did leave notes for other ideas for next year though.

Anyway, we did the tree, we put together some snowman lights Ma picked up at IKEA's after Christmas sale last year, that's them peaking at the top of the tree photo. But there was also a big single version.

I put out Ma's nativity... because, for some unknown reason, tradition. Honestly, it all stems back from when we had a full nativity, plus a ridiculous giant manger that had a weird stage, and I like to set dress it and arrange the figures. Now she has a much more streamlined and simple set and I dunno... it's all a bit m'eh.

Or maybe I'm a bit m'eh. Yeah, that second one.

Then we had a bit of food and I gave up and came home.

Because my usual Sunday was subsumed by the Christmas prep, I did my Sunday on Monday. Which also may have contributed to the weird out of sync feeling I've had for much of this week.

I also Made the Christmas at my house on Monday. Tuesday. I Made Christmas on Tuesday. Which was my Monday, because... arrgghh... yeah, that.

The entirety of the Christmas I made was sticking the red glittery bow I bought two... three... two years ago on the front door. Putting my not-Lego wreath on the door. And getting out my neon Christmas tree that I've had for about 15 years and plugging it in. You know, the minimum amount of effort for me to consider the apartment Christmased.

So anyway...

We managed two different DnD sessions this week. Well, that's semantics, but more on that in a bit. And I don't know if my rant from last week had an effect, but we'll see... I feel like we might manage next week, but the week after maybe not. The following Wednesday is Christmas Eve Eve, and that's already been spoken for by the Friday group.

But we will have to see what happens.

Friday night nearly didn't happen... and then it was going to happen... and then it wasn't DnD and was board games instead.

And because we didn't know what we were doing, I didn't prep the bread on Thursday night, but when a decision was made around 11am on Friday, I threw together bread. I threw some of the leftover mixed fruit from the attempted Hot Cross Buns back in April, along with some mixed spice and some cinnamon, and checked on it four hours later, and it was gigantic.

Then I knocked it back, set it in place on the tray, left it another two hours, giant again. Bread is so fucking weird man.

And then I baked it and my whole house smelled like warm cinnamon, which clearly is not the worst thing in the world. And it was pretty good bread, very HCB-lite, but tasty.

It's so weird to think that fifteen months ago, I had no fucking clue about making bread. Now I'm all about making bread.

Anyway, since we weren't doing DnD, we did board games... board game specifically... the Buffy the Vampire Slayer board game, which is more mechanically complex than the name might lead you to believe. The box said that a game should take between 45 minutes and an hour to complete. Three and a half hours. Yeah... sure two of us were playing it for the first time, there was much referring back to the rules and we occasionally overthought what we were doing. But we won. Barely and by the skin of our proverbial teeth.

But it was nearly 1am by the time we were finished, and I didn't get home until after 1:30am. So a big night really.

Today was... m'eh.

I mean, it's a mood, it's a theme... it's a lifestyle choice.

We did the supermarket. I don't know that I will be wearing the mask we got at Kmart last week to the supermarket again, because it made me all kinds of crazy. Partly because none of these fucking masks sit on my face in a way that is comfortable for more than about 12 seconds. Which is just irritating.

But we didn't buy a super huge amount of stuff. More of the same in general really. I'm slightly obsessed with my own pizzas right now... not making the bases, because effort, but going to torn on the toppings.

Then we came back here, were very undecided, ended up deciding to not do anything, and Ma toddled off home.

So, yeah.

Current mood:

photo saturday: water coloured

I've been staring at a "blank page" for about 45 minutes... I say "blank" because, you know, photos.

I know I've said it about half a billion times before, but sometimes starting one of these posts if the hardest bit. Especially when there's not much of anything to talk about.

However, I do want to make a note of the fact that I made two amazing pizzas this week. Like pizza is nothing new, but this was a lot more ingredients than I would usually use, and it was damn tasty. Salami, capsicum, red onion, mushroom, tomato... and cheese obviously. Delicious.

DnD was weird this week... with one thing and another the Wednesday game didn't happen. After last week's session also didn't happen (for more obvious reasons)... and I know that people flake out in December at an exponential rate, so I may have spat the dummy a little...

In the last three years we've never managed to actually play any games in the month of December, somebody cancels, then someone else doesn't show up, and all of December goes by and we never do anything. I would, however, like to finish this module before January. So, do something for me, look at your calendars, appointment books, diaries or the crayon scrawling on the wall of the asylum and work out if you can actually manage a single Wednesday between now and January, share that information with the group and if we have a consensus, yay. If it's easier for people to do an online thing, I'm fine with that. Alternatively, just say now that you can't do a game for the entire month of December, let's not do the "oh maybe" last minute cancellation thing, because that's just frustrating. Know that I love you all, but sometimes herding cats through IKEA would be more productive.

Yeah. That. I was kind of pleased with both the "crayon scrawling" and the "herding cats" lines.

And I got an 3 affirmatives (with two other presumed affirmatives, because they're not the problem) within 45 minutes. Because sometimes you just have to put the Dad Pants on.

Anyway... Wednesday didn't happen. And then Friday got moved to Thursday. Which made sense, because the forecast for Friday was "fucking stupid hot". But it did mean that my brain was somewhat confused a few times yesterday concerning what day it was.

I also made the most amazing bread. Okay, the dough was SUPER sticky and wet, but it still worked. I threw cheese into with the flour, and then when it was ready for forming into a loaf, I folded some salami into it, randomly, because of the aforementioned sticky. And I don't know if it was because it soaked some of the liquid out of the dough or it just "steamed" inside the dough when I cooked it, but it was SO tasty.

The DnD itself was okay... no major events. We're currently going through a dungeon, well, a dungeon by any other name, so I expect things won't be super different for a few sessions yet.

Otherwise, not a lot of anything this week.

Today was also more of the same.

We did the supermarket thing. I really wish I'd picked up a few other things last week, given that whole products were just sold out this week. Not really hugely surprising, given the fuckery of last weekend. But still.

Even so, we did a fairly big shop, wearing our masks like responsible adults. And I realised why it stayed in place pretty perfectly last week, but this week it was doing my head in. Also why everything seemed to go to shit when I was at the check out last week. Headphones. When I was wearing headphones the mask stayed in place. Without headphones, not so much. We also picked up some new masks... made by Bonds... which is not really surprising, they have the material, they have the technology... but you're basically wearing a pair of undies on your face. Which is a mood, certainly. They're also just that tiny bit too small for me, and that bit too big for Ma. Le sigh.

After supermarket, we came back here, did the unpacking thing, did some YubTubs, then Ma wanted to go to Kmart, so we did that... And found better masks... or at least ones with a better shape to them. Honestly, I think unless you spend a little money on getting one with a decent shape, made of decent material and with decent elastic straps, it's all a bit m'eh.

But at least we have choices now.

That was it though. And now I'm just waiting for the cool change to properly hit my place. I mean it's mostly here, but there's a band of rain that just hasn't arrived yet.

Oh, and tomorrow I will need to summon up the energy and the effort and the ability to give a fuck in order to put up the Christmas tree at Ma's place. Blah. Future me is definitely not going to enjoy the messages 2020 me is going to leave on boxes this year, I can tell you that much.

Current mood:

photo saturday: four walls

This week has been... a lot.

Not as much as it perhaps could have been, but still a lot.

And on top of that, Summer has decided to arrive and be all Summer in Australia all over the place. Fuck that noise.

Honestly, this is going to be a pretty short post all up.

So there was no DnD this week. Because SA went until lockdown between Wednesday night at midnight and tonight at midnight. A whole "don't leave your house, wear a mask, one person can go to the shops once a day" lockdown.

Honestly, with the exception of DnD and going shopping on my own today, it didn't really affect my movements at all. Because it's not like I go anywhere most of the time. What it did affect was the inside of my brain. By which I mean my brain.

As I said to someone during the week, it's like being told not to think of elephants. You weren't thinking of elephants, you have no reason to be thinking about elephants, elephants aren't part of your life right now. But now you can't think about anything but fucking elephants. And having the house all closed up, which fabulously cool and air-conditioned, didn't help. Because situational claustrophobia I guess.

And, honestly, I think actually looking at the news probably didn't help. It's not something I generally do either, and haven't for a while, since I worked out that it's generally 50% bad stuff, 30% bullshit I don't care about and 20% stuff that isn't actually news.

Anyway... that was basically the week.

Today I took my mask and my latex gloves and my hand sanitiser and my headphones and headed off to the supermarket at 7:15am, getting there before they opened at 7:30 and doing a shop that felt like we were back in March... only, you know, worse. Because, WEAR A FUCKING MASK but also wearing a mask wasn't fun. But I survived. And was home by just after 8am.

So that was my week...

Current mood:

photo saturday: random details

Honestly, I do love spotting weird random details to take photos of...

Otherwise, this week was Too Fucking Hot, Giant Thunderstorm, Basically September Again.

And I made chilli, which wasn't bad. Certainly not the most interesting chilli I've made, but tasty enough. Plus, I really only got sick of it by Friday, so not bad all things considered.

Wednesday night's DnD was fine... the adventure has, I think, three stages of fights to it, the first one you're supposed to "lose" very quickly (in that the bad guys are going to achieve their objective and you move on to the next sequence)... Instead, because we're all special and overly specialised for causing mayhem, we spent three hours (more or less, I didn't actually time it) in that first fight. And haven't technically lost it yet. I think we're about to at the top of next session though.

Friday was also Chiro day, so I headed into the city and did that, wandered about for a bit, came home, made bread, went to Friday night DnD.

And yes, my character will absolutely rearrange the world to suit her wants and desires. Firstly, she's a bard. Secondly, she's a drow. Do the math people. Even if it means using the truth like a finely pointed weapon. Sorry, especially, not even.

Mostly this session she got her ass handed to her because, honestly, I got cocky. I mean, mostly it was fine. But why is she the one who always gets, to paraphrase an episode of Buffy, "the funny syphilis". First pig lycanthropy, now Bulezau poisoning with boils. Urgh. And she's the pretty one. The pretty one with the shit armour class. That I can't do anything about.

Today... today was fine. We did the shopping, I finally threw in the towel and will not be making a single food item to last me through the week. I will actually be cooking multiple times during the week. Pray for me. Not that I can't do it, I just mostly can't be bothered. But I'm also finally going to make pizza, after I've been wanting to for a few weeks but never quite manage it.

After the supermarket, we did what was ostensibly a trip to look for presents or something. And, as Ma pointed out, we went looking for presents for other people and only bought things for ourselves. Not a lot of anything, honestly. And we did buy things for other people at the second stop. So yay us.

Or something.

Otherwise, not much excitement.

Current mood:

photo saturday: beach greens

More photos from last week's beach trip... green plant stuff, just because I was in the mood.

Also, this is my "once every four years" dip into the world of politics, specifically a WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK AMERICA. The election was on Wednesday. It's now Saturday and we're waiting for four fucking states to finish counting shit. Like, count faster or something, I dunno. But also the fact that the race is this fucking close after the last four years beggars belief. I mean, I'd say "How?", but I already know the answer to that.

But we wait, and we hope that the last four years can finally be consigned to history and eventually be a joke or a cautionary tale or a collective fever dream.

Anyway...

This weeks tuna noodle casserole wasn't perhaps as good as the one from last time. Don't get me wrong, it was decent, I just don't know what magic thing I did the first time to make it really good. Or it could just be that I hadn't had it in quite a while at that point.

Tuesday I had a... I was about to say home invasion, and that is a very, very different thing and not at all what happened. But also, theoretically, it's the good version of that. Wow, I should stop talking now. Anyway. I had people. In my house. For socialising. And board games.

Our Friday night DM (I probably need to come up with a blog pseudonym for her, because, you know, it's gunna come up... I'll mull) and Fluffy came over for board games, because she had a day off and she wanted to do daytime boardgames. And why the fuck not.

We might have gone to her place, but the weather last week was stoopid. Being very hot for two days, and then very cold for the remainder of the week. Because, say it with me now, we don't have seasons, we just have random weather. Which is also fundamentally untrue, but occasionally feels true in those between times. So everyone came to my place, I cranked the aircon, made a fuckton (the technical term) of sausage rolls, which were well received and we spent several hours playing board games. Which was great.

And I sent some sausage rolls home with both of them, and still had some left over for myself.

Wednesday I ignored the aftermentioned shit show from the top of this post until the point that I thought it would already be over, mid afternoon. How wrong I was.

Then Wednesday night we had DnD again and finished up the adventure from last week. And nobody died. In fact, I honestly don't think I got hit at all during the final fight. I feel like I should have been, but it just never eventuated.

Friday night's DnD game was... interesting. A couple of things came up that were accidents of bad dice rolls which resulted in more interesting things that would have happened if we'd gotten good rolls. And by we, I mean, not me. I had good rolls in this scenario. Just for the record.

I also think that I have my bread recipe down again after several weeks of finding that sweet spot (so to speak). So it might be time for fucking around with additions again. And of course the Friday group will have no objections to that at all.

Today wasn't much of anything really.

We did the supermarket thing. I'm aiming for chilli this week... because... fuck it, I felt like chilli this week. Even if the weather intends to do a repeat of this week and be too fucking hot and then colder than it should be for this time of year.

Unlike the last couple of weeks, we didn't have a specific plan of what we wanted to do, or where we wanted to go, and we ended up heading to Spotlight because I kinda wanted to look for a couple of things. One I totally forgot about once we were there, and the other I decided against, at least for now. I was also very tempted by one of those "little tiny room" kits, because they're so beautiful, but having watched about five minutes of the "how this all goes together" video I just found on YouTube, I'm glad I changed my mind, because I'm not sure I have the patience or dexterity to actually make one of them.

It was very pretty though.

And that was it really. We talked about poking around in Officeworks, but we didn't really need anything, and neither of us could really be bothered.

Current mood:

photo saturday: beach textures

I'm putting the DnD Character Colouring Book on hold for a few weeks, possibly ten weeks, because I have actual photos again. New ones. Ten weeks worth in fact.

This week has been A Lot.

Sunday I cleaned the kitchen. And made the discovery that the big baking tray I've been using since I moved in here is actually the grill tray, but nobody bothered to put it in the correct position, and it's much more useful as a baking tray. I also made potato and leek soup... which was... fine. I mean I forgot to put the cream in it before I had a bowl, and after I'd had a bowl I blended the whole thing up. It was tasty enough, it was just a little bit m'eh.

Then on Monday I cleaned the rest of the apartment. By the end of which I was exhausted. And I'd also needed to make an emergency run to the shops to replace my mop which broke halfway through cleaning the bathroom. I also spent a whole hour wiping down the venetian blinds in my bedroom, because they were filthy (because that's the window that actually gets open and I have a main road going past the front of my place)... and because the land agent mentioned them specifically last time. And I had to change the water over like half a dozen times. Not fun, but I was pleased with the results.

I also "rediscovered" candles. Which sounds dumb, but I had a bunch of candles I bought back in 2016 after SA had had a massive, statewide blackout, because I had one poxy candle at the time and went to bed at like 8pm because there honestly wasn't fuck all else to do. And they've just been gathering dust in the cupboard, so I got them out, and once I was finished cleaning, I like one, just to make the place smell pretty. Given that they are IKEA candles though, I had no fucking clue what most of the fragrances I had were... Green apple I know, because it's green and has apples on the label, and vanilla ice-cream (maybe just vanilla), and Christmas 2016 (which appears to mostly be orange and spices), but the other two are "bowl of purple stuff" and "black stone". I chose Black Stone, which is actually really nice. And I've been burning it on and off all week. So now I'm going to turn into one of those Candle Gays (is that a thing, I don't think that's actually a thing).

Then Tuesday, the inspection day, rolled around. I got ready, had breakfast, did the dishes, and headed on out, taking my book and my camera with me.

I wasn't completely sure what I was planning to do, or where I was planning to go, except for the fact that I had just under two and a half hours to kill. What ended up happening was I took a ride down to Glenelg. Not in any direct way, I was kinda sorta headed to "the beach", but arbitrary decisions led to me ending up at Glenelg. And it was raining when I got there, so I was going to settle in and read my book for a while, but then it stopped and I got out to take a few photos.

That turned into an hour-long wander from where I parked, along the foreshore to the jetty, along the jetty and then back to the car.

And by the end of it, I was so broken. After the big walk on Saturday, two "days" of cleaning, including moving most of the furniture around, and then an hour long walk lugging a fairly heavy camera... I was done.

But, as I've said multiple times, there is nothing better than coming home after a rental inspection. Because the inspection part is over but your house is ridiculously clean and tidy and it's just the most pleasant feeling. Plus now with extra candle.

Wednesday was the first time since March that the Wednesday DnD group actually met in person. Well, the whole group anyway. Since the other week when they were supposedly going to play board games and I couldn't be bothered going because it was too warm and I hadn't had enough sleep. So they all (characters and players) got together and had a big old adventure without me.

Honestly I'm actually fine with it. It was my choice, so I can't really blame anybody else anyway.

We got three quarters of the way through the module, but we'll finish that off and start the Part 2 next week, then probably finish up that the week after. So at least it's a better plan than we've had in the last few weeks.

Friday was good... the bread I made is possibly the best loaf I've made in a while, insomuch that it wasn't too wet or too dry, I realised that I needed a little more water than I've been using before, and it all just worked out. It is a little weird that I think the loaves have been paler after they're baked than perhaps they were before... which just seems odd, because now the seal on the oven door is actually working properly, so what's going on. Couldn't tell ya, but it's weird.

After Fluffy arrived we were talking shit, as we do, and checking out YubTubs, as we do, and the algorithm suggested this... and I was curious, so we watched it, and were very confused to start with, not least of all because of the thumbnail...

But by the end we were both totally spellbound. I'll fully admit, I didn't even know Christian Coppola existed (turns out that he's only a distant relative of the Francis Ford Coppola end of the family), but this is just exquisite. I mean, yes, Dylan Sprouse is ridiculously beautiful (plus that luscious hair), but this is just an amazing film. Full kudos to both Christian and the cast. Just spend the 18 minutes. Even if the middle of it is kinda confusing. Totally worth it.

And while I took the whole thing pretty much at face value, it's worth diving into the YouTube comments afterwards because people have some interesting ideas.

Friday night's DnD game was yet another instance of us avoiding what could have been potentially lethal combat with an appropriate use of spells and some lucky rolls. Honestly, there was some definite panic-roleplaying at certain points, and the opening of a door that shouldn't have been fucking opened. Because there's always a door that shouldn't be opened that somebody subsequently opens. Because DnD.

We had fun though.

Today was... okay.

We did the supermarket thing. I'm going to make another batch of Tuna Noodle-Do this week, because it's going to be hot, then cool, and that ended up being good "leftovers" (in so much that while it's technically left over from the day I make it, that's actually the point). So hopefully that works out as well as it did last time.

Afterwards we headed into the city, fairly early honestly, all things considered. And we got to exactly the right carpark at exactly the right time, because the woman who had just left it came over and gave us her ticket, which still had 2 hours left on it. So score.

Mostly I wanted to look at candles (see, Candle Gay), but I also wanted to get my Typo calendar for next year... the joke might wear thin over 12 months, but right now, I'm totally fucking here for it. It's a shame they don't have a Disney themed one this year, but yeah, given the amount of time I actually look at the thing, it'll be fine.

After we'd walked the length of the Mall, picked up a few bits and pieces, been given free cans of Pepsi Max Mango (which is... fine... it's been forever since I actually had Pepsi Max but honestly I could barely taste any mango... but it was free, and free is always better than not free), we headed back to the car and did a brief stop-off at Haighs, because chocolate.

And that was it really. Plus I still have an apartment that essentially looks like it did when I got home after the inspection, which is great.

Current mood: