March 2025
Kickstarted March not how I intended on going on through this month; I was hit with a rather nasty migraine which wiped me out for the entire day then left me with residual tension headaches for a few days after - fortunately these aren’t as frequent as they used to be.
The house has been a topic of focus for this month with the work completing on the garage, porch, and hallway/landing completely refreshed. With the garage basically falling down it was high time that it was done, as a by product of getting it done all of the crap that was stored in there is gone and the room is now easily accessible, it’s a joy to go in there and grab my tools. The porch is keeping the house much warmer and offering much more space for packages and muddy boots, unfortunately it has meant losing some of the original features of the house. As for the hall and landing, that has been the biggest of transormations with it being the last space in the house that reminded me of the ex. The hallway has more space and I’ve had colour added to the wall making it feel much more welcoming rather than washed out. The banisters have been repainted as well as the doors, in satinwood white making it all feel much more richer.
I’ve always had some major driving anxieties, despite passing my written and practical first time. Over the past few months I’ve been taking refresher courses and my instructor has told me I can do it, I’m a bit too eager to get on and off the roundabouts, but I’m fine otherwise. The lead up to each lesson I’ve felt tightness in my chest, panic, and my mind races into ways I can avoid going, my anxiety with driving is purely in my head and I’m aware of this. So in an attempt to tackle the initial anxieties I’ve been trying hypnotherapy. My first session was quite interesting, Hannah was running through the relaxation technique which reminded me a lot of the Yoga Nidhra I’ve done in the past, however with this I lost a period of time. I remember thinking to myself how I could feel my head leaning to the side and relaxing, then the next minute she was counting me out of the '‘hypnotic state’. It was quite an experience and at the very least I came out of it feeling rather relaxed.
Started up the old games night with Mike, it used to be four of us but Nev has blocked Min and I since the divorce, and Min is currently struggling with their health quite a bit at the moment. Hopefully in the future at least Min can join us, but it does seem that the ‘Llama Squad’ won’t be making a return, which does have me rather sad as I liked our little group, beyond that, I lost a brother and good friend. But, one cannot dwell on the past and it was a wonderful time being a space dwarf with Mike in Deep Rock Galactic, I never really gave the game my full attention, but it’s such a great game to play with friends. Good to have that catch up with him too as we don’t get together that often.
This month the dog has been really unwell with a bad tummy, which lead to throwing up blood. This is my first experience of this and it was very scary, the poor boy has been looking very low and sad, as is to be expected. It did feel at times that he was at the end of his life, but he made a recovery, he’s eating something now and gradually returning to his normal self, although a lot slower than he used to be, but he is 14 now!
Min and I did manage to get out of the house and go Down Range to do some axe throwing, what we had planned to do for Valentine’s but were unable to get to due to physical limitations. I had an amazing time and we had the whole venue to ourselves, so we got to play with the normal axes, the thin metal axes (which Min loved) and the short handed axes. The feeling of lobbing an axe at a target and it thudding in place was so, so very satisfying. I have considered the idea of setting up a lane in the garage!
My child’s operation has been the main focus of this month as they had their their second operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital. A lot of the month has been spent having appointments with the people involved, preparing for the trip up there, finding a place to stay for the whole week that they will be in hospital, and looking for gluten free friendly places for myself. The first stage of their operation started in 2022 but was delayed due to the surgeon retiring, they are now much older and dealt with the whole thing so much better, with a firmer understanding of what was going on. They were very sensible with everything they did, the questions they asked, etc. The staff at GOSH were absolutely fantastic with them and made the whole ordeal that much easier, making my child feel comfortable even though they were in a great deal of pain. They still have a long way to go on their path to recovery but they have exceded my expectations and shown just how strong they are!
Unfortuantely I haven’t managed to get out much for walks due to the work being done on my house, then it was getting everything ready for London, followed by the op itself. I’m hoping that once routine is established I can get back out and enjoy some of the outdoors.
Games
I finished the main story of Avowed and thorughly enjoyed what I played, the story was rich and interesting and the gameplay was spot on. In the end my character became a gunslinger with a hint of magic, which was different for a fantasy RPG, however my gameplay changed from being slow and sneaky to loud and chaotic. It was fun and different though.
Having complete this I downloaded the next game in my list on the Xbox PC Game Pass - Frostpunk 2 - I always loved the idea of the original Frostpunk game but I never tried it as something else cropped up, so it was nice to tick that box and give the franchise a go. It is a very different kettle of fish from my go to builder being Civ, the politics actually work and there’s so much depth to the city and beyond. However it didn’t take me long to get a bit fed up with it.
Started playing Deep Rock Galactic with Mike as a weekly gaming session, it’s nice having this period of time to play with a friend and catch up on what’s going on in our lives. I have also spent some time playing solo and am thoroughly enjoying that, I wish I’d given the game more of a chance when I first got it.
Books
Alice in Borderlands, Volume 2 (Manga) - A good read as far as a manga goes, I don’t think I’ll be continuing with the manga though, strangely I felt it worked better as a tv show.
England’s Withcraft Trials - Started reading this while I was in London and so far it’s an interesting read.
Movies & TV
The Gentlemen (Movie) - I wasn’t sure if I’d watched this before but as I watched I realised I had. Still, it was a great movie and I thoroughly enjoyed rewatching it!
The Gentlemen (TV Show) - Going straight in from the movie, this was a good fun show that followed the concept of the movie, however it seemed to be more of a paralell universe than a sequel with the Glass family replacing the Pearsons.
Squid Game, Season 2 (TV Show) - Finally got around to finishing the season and was left utterly dissappointed by the ending. It feels like Season 2 is half complete.
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills; Season 14 TV Show) - My guilty pleasure! I’ve tried the other Real Housewives and found them lacking. Erika is still my favourite of the housewives because she seems to be the most sane… which is saying something.
Borderlands (Movie) - A well deserved low score from the critics; it was nasty, passable if you didn’t know anything about the game, but as somebody who loves the Borderlands franchise, it was horrendous! Every character was wrong, so wrong. The whole thing felt stilted and uncomfortable. The best character and closest to the game character was Marcus, he was fantastic, but just a bit role.
Gladiator 2 (Movie) - Fantastic movie that threw you straight into the thick of it before adding the politics of Rome in to the mix. It worked really well as a sequel and brought flashes of the original back to me. Well worth watching the two of them back to back I reckon.
Police Academy 1, 2, & 3 (Movie) - I had a craving to watch one of my my childhood favourite movies expecting it to have dated badly… but it was actually quite enjoyable and brought back all the feels and memories.
House of Gucci (Movie) - A very slow paced movie with some fabulous actors, although the cast could have been more Italian (Adam Driver and Jeremy Irons didn’t feel right - although performed well).
Son’s of Anarchy, Season 1, 2, 3 (TV Show) - I’d heard good things about the show in the past and I think I tried watching it years back, but from what I recall I must have started in the middle of a season beyond 1. It’s slow to start with but I stuck with it and am thoroughly enjoying it, every character seems to be rich with backstory and secrets. Jackson is a bit of a nonce, but everyone else is captivating me, I want to know more about them. The show is not afraid to hit the hard topics which is refreshing. I have found my interest starting to fade as I’ve been through the seasons, Season 3 being a bit of a bore with all the Irish stuff painted through American eyes, however the twist at the end of the season made it all worthwhile.
