Well, it wasn't the only thing to make the news this month (worldwide heatwaves, anybody?) but it was definitely the one thing that affected me the most.
We'll start on the 2nd, when we all had dinner at a Brewers Fayre, because Mum had a voucher!
The food was nice, but it took about an hour to actually get to us -- and Mum's starter was actually forgotten entirely!
Nice food, yes, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to put up with an hour-long wait for it.
On the 6th, I decided to challenge myself, and so I began playing what's called a "Nuzlocke run" of Pokémon White, where:
a) I can only catch the first Pokémon I find in any given area (unless I've already caught one of its species or its relatives), and
b) If a Pokémon faints (i.e. loses all of its health points) it can't be used again
a) I can only catch the first Pokémon I find in any given area (unless I've already caught one of its species or its relatives), and
b) If a Pokémon faints (i.e. loses all of its health points) it can't be used again
These rules add an extra layer of challenge to playing a Pokémon game (and, for me specifically, as you'll see at the 13th, they teach me self-control.)
On the 8th, there was a GIANT MOTH in the bathroom, just as I was about to go for my bath.
I'm pretty sure I screamed (though, I'm also sure, not as much as at the wasp in London, back in September.)
The next day - the 9th - my Libre (a device I use to measure my blood sugar levels) broke less than a day after putting it on, forcing me to prick my fingers for the rest of the day like I used to before I got the Libres.
On the 13th, I got round to playing new Mario Kart racetracks that had been released a day or two earlier!
Moonview Highway, from Mario Kart Wii, was there, so I was able to fondly look back at playing that game when I was younger.
Also, I wound up cheating at my Pokémon White playthrough (using Pokémon that had, in fact, fainted) so I stopped playing and moved on to Pokémon White 2… where I also cheated very quickly (on impulse, mostly, but still.)
So I restarted that one -- and, I'm happy to say, as of writing this blog post, I haven't cheated since!
Now, as for the 14th…
The app I use to scan my Libre (to receive the blood sugar readings) had updated overnight, and it just completely broke.
I couldn't do anything, so I deleted and re-downloaded the app (which also had the side effect of completely deleting all of my data that I had saved, which in turn forced me to download my raw historical data a few days later so I could put it into my spreadsheet, but I digress) just so it wouldn't meet me with nothing but a blank white screen.
In fact, this issue turned out to be so widespread that it literally made the news.
And all because they decided they weren't being competitive enough with their rival, Dexcom, leading them to decide to turn all of their "flash" glucose monitors into continuous monitors.
I hate capitalism so much sometimes.
On the 16th, a water main just outside of my work burst, causing water to flow all down the street -- and it was followed by another water main nearby the day after!
I had, earlier, sent off my Switch Pro Controller for repair, and on the 18th the price tag came back -- nearly £52 to repair A SINGLE JOYSTICK.
The worst part is that it's still more expensive to buy a brand-new controller, so I had to cough up the money.
And then the next day my TV broke, so now there's a massive black bar running through it horizontally.
As for the rest of the month, not much happened until the 29th, when I managed to unceremoniously lose at my playthrough of Pokémon White 2 (in a Nuzlocke run, if all of the Pokémon you have on hand faint in the same battle, this is considered a "Game Over" and you have to either start over or quit. I'm not sure how often this rule in particular is followed, but I was following it, so it's relevant.)
Because of that, I decided to do the same thing with a different game this time -- specifically, Pokémon Ultra Sun!
First, though, I wanted to complete the Pokédex in Pokémon Scarlet -- this involves catching every Pokémon available in the game, and it wound up taking me a few days to do. Thankfully, though, I had had a head-start, since I was also playing it alongside Pokémon White 2, so it didn't take as long as it would have done otherwise!
Thanks to that, today (the 1st of August) I started playing Pokémon Ultra Sun all over again! I'm looking forward to facing the various challenges the game will throw at me.
Either way, that's all from me now for July, so I'll see you again at the end of this month!
Bye for now!
(Also, sorry for being a day and a bit late.)
(Also, sorry for being a day and a bit late.)