Plus, it's been RIDICULOUSLY hot (and it'll get even hotter soon, I'm sure), but that's less notable.
Also, last month, I was wrong -- meat arrows actually place meat where they land, which can be used to distract or lure enemies.
So, we may as well begin with the 2nd, when I was kept awake by a cooing pigeon (a wood pigeon, to be exact.)
I mean, sure, it was 10am, so I should've been awake and up anyway then, but that's all down to my sleep-schedule issues, which aren't the focus of this.
Also it came back the next day at 6am, so that time was definitely its fault.
The day after that, the 4th, my relatives - Brenda & Eugene, and their daughters Gráinne, Molly and Isabelle - arrived here in England for a week-long holiday.
I did worry about how I could get the girls to warm up to me, but a couple of Mario Party games over the course of the week certainly helped!
I also got a cold, and woke up with an agonisingly painful throat on Maia's birthday, the 7th.
That day, we all went down to a local beach, where I had an ice cream:
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| I can't remember the last time I had a twin-cone ice cream. It was many years ago, certainly. |
Maia managed to get sunburnt, too - what a lovely birthday present, courtesy of the universe!
That day, we all played our first Mario Party game, too - Maia & Isabelle (playing as Peach) were 1st, Molly (playing as Rosalina) was 2nd, I (playing as Yoshi) was 3rd, and Gráinne (playing as Daisy) was 4th.
The next day (the 8th), we went to London, although Dad stayed behind.
I was actually worried that my cold was really COVID-19, so I tested (I do not miss the tests from back in October) but, thankfully, I came up negative.
And let me be the first to say that going to London without a proper itinerary (or a suitably small list of places to see) is an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE.
We had lunch in a McDonald's, which - as befits a city of nigh-on ten million people - was absolutely heaving, and then we had to wait ages for a tour bus to take us to the Natural History Museum, where I sat down and drank water for an hour with Mum, while everybody else had a look around.
And THEN, just as it seemed a plan to see Buckingham Palace that I hatched was working, it turned out the bus was terminating beforehand, but luckily it was only a few minutes' walk to the palace, and then we followed the route (using the Tube) that me & Maia used when we laid down flowers for Queen Elizabeth back in September.
And that STILL wasn't the end of the woes, as in spite of it being 8pm, the train was so full we literally COULD NOT SIT DOWN.
I could feel the sweat trickling down my back.
It was horrible.
Long story short, I pledged not to go to London for any reason for the next year.
And that was before the world's worst train ride, too.
At least it wasn't like that the whole way home, I guess.
I also got some nice photos:
Also, they announced a new video game, Sonic Superstars, which will release in the autumn:
Oh, and I also got sunburnt myself.
And used up about ten travel packs of tissues, too.
The next day (the 9th), we played another game of Mario Party, where I somehow managed to win thanks to the end-of-game bonusses!
We went over to the house where Brenda, Eugene & the girls were staying for dinner that day as well, and played some games afterwards (at least until it was time for Isabelle to head to bed.)
The next day (the 10th), we all drove to Basingstoke to see the Milestones museum!
First, we went along their "Pier" area, which was filled with (playable) examples of entertainment throughout the years, including some arcade games like Frogger, Asteroids, Space Invaders, Super Pac-Man (whatever "super" means), VS. Super Mario Bros. (which I played, but managed to die repeatedly in World 1-2… I swear I'm usually better), Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario Bros. (which I know from Super Mario Advance!)
After that, we had a look around the main exhibit, a not-to-scale recreation of a Victorian town, complete with school (where Molly decided to take on the role of headmistress, and kept giving everybody detentions - it was sweet, really) and working sweet shop, where the girls each got a bag of sweets! There was a teddy bear museum, too - a Droste-effect museum, if you will!
We had lunch at the Beefeater nearby (I had fish and chips, as well as ice cream for dessert) and then had a look around the B&M store (apparently at Gráinne's request.) I found strawberry-scented air freshener, which is currently sitting in my room, at arm's length, as I write this, as well as a 2-pack of Tuc biscuits.
Also, that day, it managed to reach 30 °C (which I definitely felt) and I somehow wasn't aware of that ahead of time, which is quite unlike me.
Brenda, Eugene & the girls headed back home to Ireland the next morning - Mum, Dad and I were all there to see them off, but Maia was in work. I also went to work that afternoon.
…and then we have the next main event of this post -- the 12th.
I woke up (after turning in at 3.10 am - that's what I mean by "terrible sleep schedule") and could tell something was wrong, but I could find nothing.
Eventually, I clicked -- nothing.
My fans were off.
"It's just a blackout," I figured, so I waited for them to turn on so I could go back to sleep.
And I waited.
But nothing happened.
And then, upon opening my door, I was met with the sight of Mum's room (not Mum & Dad's, since Dad was down in Portsmouth for an Army thing) being on.
When my fans weren't working.
I went down, and as it tuned out, there was something wrong with the circuit breakers -- they'd been tripped, but they were still in the "on" position.
That turned out to be a red herring, since as soon as Mum tried to fix the issue, they flipped to the "off" position like normal, but that still left us with the problem of none of our electronics working, except for the overhead lights (since they run on a different "loop" than the mains sockets.)
Eventually, Mum got Steve, one of the electricians (a "sparks", as she said, which Wiktionary does say is a valid meaning of the word, although I doubt he's part of a merchant navy) from her work, to look at the problem -- and it turned out, in the end, to be a big freezer kept outside.
All the food inside had melted and started to rot, too, so Mum & Maia cleaned it out later that day.
I, on the other hand, called in to work to say that I couldn't go in (because I'd only had an hour and a half of sleep at best) and they were okay with that.
But, really, what a day that was.
After that debacle, not much of note happened for a while, though there were a few things:
On the 16th, Mum & Dad went to a rock-music thing in town.
The next day, Mum & I played a game of Mario Party - which she won!
slight Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom spoilers
I got the last (i.e. 120th) Lightroot that day, too, and the last (i.e. 152nd) shrine the next day!On the 19th, I discovered I'd somehow lost 10 kg without even trying (which made me suspicious, because the last time that happened it ended in diabetic ketoacidosis.)
There was a Nintendo Direct on the 21st, where the end feature this time round was a brand-new game called Super Mario Bros. Wonder! Here's the trailer:
Yes, that's Mario turned into an elephant.
No, it doesn't make sense.
They also announced a remake of Super Mario RPG, which - I'll admit - has me intrigued.
On the 26th, I discovered an inexplicable glass shard on the living room floor… by stepping on it.
It took FIVE MINUTES to pull it out of my foot. And it HURT, too.
And that's about it for this month!
I hope you enjoyed reading, and I'll be back - as usual - at the end of next month!
Maia thinks she deserves "street cred" for helping pick this title.
"Maybe not 'street cred', but 'internet cred'," she says. "Why meeeeee?"
"ytvfd", she types.