August 2023: Closing the Gap

For whatever reason, we were spared from the global heatwave, as well.

Trust me, I'm NOT complaining. I, for one, can't wait until it gets cold again.

and at least I have self-consistency in my love of the cold, unlike MOST of this country

On the 1st, I finally completed the Pokédex (the list of all Pokémon in the game) in Pokémon Scarlet!

For my trouble, I received an in-game diploma (which I can view at any time) and an item called the Shiny Charm, which increases the chances of finding a Shiny Pokémon (a purely cosmetic difference where they have different colours and sparkle whenever they appear, normally having a ~0.025% chance of appearing) by three times!

I started that "Nuzlocke run" of Pokémon Ultra Sun that same day… and lost only three hours in.

Suffice to say, I was NOT impressed, and started again the next day -- and it was clearly second time lucky, since I got through that same fight with no issues at all!

(Sure, I later wound up giving up entirely on playing Pokémon Ultra Sun, but I'm still planning to re-start it again later on in the year -- by which I mean somewhere between late September and early October.)

I went to Reading with Maia again on the 2nd, and we found out that M&S do a nice white chocolate milkshake!

We had lunch at IKEA like usual, though it managed to absolutely POUR with rain later on, which we had to walk through to get back to the train station.

On the 4th, I tried the strawberries & cream frappé from McDonald's for the first time (even though I'd meant to try it for several months before! I just kept forgetting.)

It was nice! Even if the first one I had wasn't blended properly, leaving large chunks of ice at the bottom… I kind of enjoyed that too. Plus, all the others I've had were blended properly, so it's fine!

here's my hand holding the 2nd one (I think?)

On the 16th, I played "Maiacraft" -- that is, I played Minecraft alongside Maia!

It actually wound up being one year, minus a day - that is, 364 days - since the last time we'd done something like that.

This house looks incomplete because it is incomplete.
I plan to add a roof in our next play session, though!
(I just need to figure out what to make it out of.)

On the 19th, I finally beat Paper Mario: Sticker Star, a game which I first played ten-and-a-half years ago, according to my 3DS Activity Log.

It wound up being much easier than I expected. Honestly, I'm not sure why it took me so long in the first place.

We went up to see Grandma & Granddad on the 24th, and they - along with everybody else - are doing well, which is good to hear.

And, on the 27th, I played a game of Mario Party with Mum!

She may not have won like she did last time, but we both enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.