FINALLY
...never mind all of the other things that happened this month, right?
(yes, I'm talking about the Queen's death)
Week 35 (29 Aug - 04 Sep)
Nothing of note happened during the September portion of this week, so let's move on! (At least, nothing according to the photos on my phone, anyway.)
Week 36 (05 - 11 Sep)
Again, nothing of note happened between Monday and Wednesday.
Thursday, of course...
Obviously, the... happenstance, shall we say, in question is the death of Queen Elizabeth II, but - not to seem rude or anything, but - I get the feeling that everybody's heard quite enough about that for a while, considering the way it totally dominated the news cycle for ten days.
 |
| An important moment in history. |
But that won't stop me from talking about the effect her death had on me personally!
And no, I don't mean the emotional effect.
Now, I had actually had an interview scheduled on Friday for a volunteering position - since this blog is totally public, I'm somewhat wary of sharing where exactly, but it should be on Facebook for those people who know me (who, I get the feeling, make up the vast majority of this blog's viewership) and if it isn't, I'll make sure to post it myself - but because of the Queen's death, the shop was closed, so the interview was, naturally, cancelled.
I also had an appointment to have my blood taken later in the day, which wasn't cancelled -- but while I assumed I'd been sent the necessary blood form and then lost it, it turned out that I'd never been sent one at all.
And that meant that I couldn't have my blood taken, since they (obviously, considering medical protocols and such) won't do it without a proper form.
The next day (Saturday, which you might've forgotten considering the giant wall of text just above) Maia & I decided to go to London to lay a floral tribute to the Queen -- I will admit that I went partially just to make a small mark in history, but I did also somewhat like the Queen (as much as you can like someone who lives in palatial luxury while far too many of her subjects live in poverty, but that's a topic for another day and not so much her fault as it is the governments') and so I did want to pay tribute to her.
We left very late in the day, which was entirely my fault for sleeping in late, and arrived at Green Park at about 5pm.
We ended up taking a look at Buckingham Palace because why not, and were packed shoulder-to-shoulder as a result... literally.
 |
| There were so, so many people there! |
 |
| Rest in peace, Queen Elizabeth. |
To tell the truth, I was pretty worried about catching Covid as a result, but considering how long it's been since then, _and_ the fact that we're still okay (as far as we can tell) it seems we managed to slip by its clutches once again.
On Sunday, we headed up to Grandma & Granddad's, and also to Sam & Colin's (my aunt and uncle in case you don't know) for a what I would probably describe best as a potluck.
A potluck with a lot of meat.
 |
| Bhí sé blasta (it was delicious) (if you can read the International Phonetic Alphabet, an English approximation would be /viː ʃeɪ ˈblas.tə/) That said, I didn't quite eat it in the best order, but that's not a huge issue. |
In case you're wondering, we brought frikadellen -- flat, visually burger-esque meatballs of either German or Danish origin.
I'd assume Mum & Dad were introduced to them when we lived in Germany, since we've eaten them as long as I can remember -- not so often now, but still from time to time.
To be honest, I'm surprised Sunday wasn't full of Americans being all shocked about how "kids born after 9/11 can DRINK ALCOHOL NOW?!!?" (never mind the drinking age being 18 here, not 21) but maybe the quietness had something to do with the Queen's death?
I'm well aware that makes no sense, but I cannot come up with a single other possible reason for it, so that's my best shot.
Week 37 (12 - 18 Sep)
Monday was Dad's birthday, and I also wound up having my diabetes annual review that afternoon.
I, uh... overloaded the scales when it came time to weigh me.
To be fair, it was a set of analogue scales, when it should've been digital (which I absolutely blame the Tories' constant defunding of the NHS for. It's the little things.)
Also, iOS 16 was released, but iPadOS 16 (since they split them a few years back) turned out to be delayed to October.
Why? Beats me.
Then, Tuesday was my 21st birthday! It's been three years, and we're still trying to find alcohol I don't dislike.
Either way, I received plenty of presents, and had a great day! That said, it is kind of weird in hindsight to have had my birthday during a period of national mourning.
There was a Nintendo Direct which started at 3pm, though we had to tune into the American stream because Nintendo UK weren't streaming it live, and I quote, "as a mark of respect during this period of national mourning".
They revealed plenty of information, including a completely unneeded remake of Kirby's Adventure Wii called Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe (continuing the trend started by Kirby Super Star Ultra - a remake of Kirby's Fun Pak - of using the American names even over here) - unneeded because people have only just this year finally been given a break from the three in a row other games that all look and play exactly like it, which really made the series feel stagnant.
They revealed Pikmin 4, which excited Maia - me, less so, since while I like watching Pikmin games, I don't like _playing_ them because the time limits prove too stressful for me.
And, of course, they finally revealed the title of Zelda BotW's sequel -- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom!
...with that title in mind, it does make sense why they didn't livestream the Direct on the UK channel.
Either way, since my last birthday, the closest TGI Fridays, where I've had my birthday meals for years, shut!
So we simply went to the next-closest one, which funnily enough is in close to the opposite direction. I also managed to find a Creams ice cream place more-or-less on the way home, so we stopped off there as well.
The next day, Wednesday the 14th, I had a diabetic clinic appointment, which... was shorter than the annual review, but apart from that, not particularly remarkable.
Then, on Friday, I had earlier managed to re-schedule my volunteering interview, and I was accepted immediately, to work on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays! (yes I'm using the Oxford comma, it accurately represents the hesitation between the two last items on a list when speaking out loud.)
The next day along saw us all go out to Bournemouth (well, "it's not Bournemouth," says Mum, but my phone agrees with me that it's so close that you might as well call it that) to celebrated my 21st birthday!
It turns out battered sausages aren't really all that and I probably should've gotten saveloy instead, but, as I have only ever "heard" (for want of a better term) in Paper Mario, "hindsight is 20/20".
Also I had an ice cream, so I'd say - terrifying climb up a hillside that proved I absolutely do have acrophobia aside - it was a good day!
 |
| Ice cream! |
 |
| The constant, very irrational fear of falling and dying horribly! |
Week 38 (19 - 25 Sep)
Monday, as I'm all sure we're acutely aware, was Queen Elizabeth's funeral.
Ultimately, while the death of a monarch is indeed a sad thing - as too is the death of anybody - we do eventually need to move on, because time and tide wait for no man.
Or woman, in this case.
That said, the Royal Family were completely justified in taking another week for personal mourning, because they are the principal group who the Queen's death genuinely did affect the lives of on a deeply personal level.
That said, Maia dragged me to London _again_ on Thursday, this time on a tour of the Science and Natural History museums. We actually wound up staying so late in the Natural History Museum that we stayed until about 2 minutes before closing time!
 |
| This is brilliant out of context |
 |
| We had a picnic lunch in Hyde Park! |
 |
| I screamed at a wasp. Twice. |
 |
| We saw Queen Victoria's memorial to Prince Albert. |
 |
| A prototype of the Clock of the Long Now; the full clock is designed to keep time for 10,000 years! |
 |
| Ah yes, giant ground sloths They kept avocados alive -- if not for humans, avocados would be extinct now |
 |
| There's nothing quite like staying somewhere so long you get kicked out at closing time. |
After that, we had dinner at TGI Fridays (again), this time at Leicester Square, where I'd last (and first) been to six years ago, as seen in this blog post from the time: http://www.lifeoflucasblog.co.uk/2016/03/week-overview-mon-21316-to-fri-25316.html
 |
| food is nice |
 |
| always, always nice |
As a result of all those London trips, the MVP of this month has definitely been my hand sanitiser bottle, keeping me and Maia safe from catching Covid. (Also Maia is another MVP because she refilled my bottle earlier on!)
Of course, unfortunately for me, that day of having the socks walked off of me was the day before my first day at my new job!
That said, I'd say it all went well, and it's certainly nice to be pushed out of the house and finally have meaningful interpersonal interactions with people to whom I'm not related.
Sunday was a lot more relaxed than Friday, and I got to leave an hour earlier than I thought because it turns out the shop closes at 4 instead of 5 on Sundays! (Also I got to leave about half an hour earlier than that because there wasn't anything else for me to do that I'd been shown how to do, and there wasn't anyone free to show me -- but keep that quiet!)
(Also it hardly matters now, since I've been show how to do most things now anyway.)
Week 39 (26 Sep - 02 Oct)
After working on Monday, and vacuuming a (somewhat) large area for the first time in my life, Tuesday was spent having an extremely long lie-in, because I now understand why people drink tea or coffee in the morning, because it's been so hard getting up - hopefully I'll get used to it soon.
Then, Wednesday saw the release of the latest update for the game Terraria, which I'd been waiting for for weeks beforehand - I'm two(-and-a-bit? I'm writing this early, so I don't know) days in now (because today hasn't given me an opportunity to play much yet) and I have to say I'm enjoying it a lot!
Among many, many other things, there's a new liquid called "shimmer" that can transform items thrown into it - a few of which give permanent boosts to various in-game stats! ("Permanent" insofar as "permanent for your current character, but not for any other character you might have now or create in the future".)
At any rate, that seems to be everything that's gone on this month.
It's turned out to be quite eventful, hasn't it?
Well, hopefully I'll be kept occupied enough not to get bored in October -- as long as I still have enough free time to play games!
I'll see you next at Halloween, but until then... bye!
