It really is the end of (another) era.
This month began with me celebrating the fact that I didn't go out to eat at all in February… by going out to eat, of course.
Sure, it makes just as much sense as celebrating completing Dry January by getting plastered (never mind all of my Januaries are dry because I don't drink) but never mind, it's fine.
On the 3rd, a pair of trainers that had been bought online for me arrived, and I started wearing them the very next day!
They're much more comfortable than my other new shoes - which we'll keep for special occasions, mostly formal ones - and they're all I've worn so far since then, too!
Also on the 4th, Mum and Dad went off to Guildford to see a talk by Professor Alice Roberts, whose TV programmes we all very much enjoy. The talk, funnily enough, was also very good - so I've been told, seeing as I didn't go - and there was even a book signing session, though Mum and Dad gave that one a miss because of how long it was - "longer than a wet weekend" in Mum's words!
The 10th was, of course, Mother's Day - dear America, it isn't in May - and we had a special breakfast of smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels to celebrate!
Maia, being the more put-together out of her and myself, got Mum a pink backpack, which she loved.
Maia and I went to Reading on another of our sibling days out on the 13th!
Naturally, we went to IKEA while we were there, but the ice-cream machine unfortunately wasn't working for whatever reason, so I had an extra scoop of ice cream at Creams later to make up for it.
I also got a phone stand, and with it I was able to set up a feature called "StandBy" (yes, with the stupid-looking camel case) to replace my bedside alarm clock!
I still use my alarm clock, though, because it has a thermometer inside it, and I still have enough uses for a thermometer that I can't just throw it out, unfortunately.
The next few days, while interesting in their own rights, weren't important enough to have photos associated with them, apparently:
On the 15th, I was caught in a cloud burst - but ever since the could burst back in October 2022, I've made absolutely sure that I never leave home without an umbrella, so it didn't affect me too much!
On the morning of the 16th, I found that I'd unexpectedly lost 5-6 kg (that's about 10-12 lbs in old money) of weight over the nine weeks of the year thus far, which if it continues, bodes well for my health!
And - this one has a picture, fortunately - on the 17th, we were going to celebrate St Patrick's Day with a full Irish breakfast… but the black and white puddings were both still frozen, so we settled for a "fake McDonald's breakfast" instead:
On the 18th, six students came into where I volunteer, as part of work experience - it felt like we were practically packed in like sardines!
(It wasn't that bad, but it was busy… and I wanted to use an idiom for the hell of it, so why not?)
The next day, I was playing a Pokémon ROM hack (which, in this case, amounts to a Pokémon game set in a fan-created location) when I accidentally loaded a save-state (which, funnily enough, saves the state the game is in at the time) that set me back 7 fights, which amounted to about half an hour of playtime.
I was not happy, but I eventually went back on and got through it all once again!
On the 20th, Maia took her driving theory test, and successfully passed!
Congratulations, Maia - next stop, driving for real!
To celebrate, we had croque madames for lunch!
Having played Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush (which I got from Maia for my birthday last year, although I didn't mention it then) over the past couple of months, I actually beat it about halfway through the month, and decided afterwards to play its prequel, Kirby: Power Paintbrush on the DS - though I bought it on the Wii U eShop instead, just before it shut down last March - and I've noticed it controls a lot more awkwardly than its ten-years-later sequel.
On the 26th, Mum & I went into town and had lunch out at Morrisons, because why not?
We also shopped around a bit and bought some things - including lamb for Sunday, though I'm not having any today because I don't actually like lamb.
The next day - the 28th - I woke up with a sore throat, and that evening my Eustachian tubes started playing up, which (though this was a conclusion I'd already come to eariler in the day) told me that I had developed a cold.
The day after that, we went up to visit my grandparents!
Somehow, though, just as we were about to set off, I managed to (accidentally!) break my glasses - the left arm snapped off in the most awkward position possible (right next to the hinge!) That forced Dad to go back inside so he could get some superglue to repair it.
As a result, I had to wait for the entire trip up before I could wear my glasses again… and about a minute after I did put them back on, they snapped off again, leaving me with no glasses for the trip back either. Dad very kindly stuck them together with epoxy resin when we got home, which I left to cure overnight.
In the meantime, while we were up at the grandparents', I was enlisted to help with moving an old grandfather clock piece by piece (most of the pieces were actually surprisingly light) from my great-uncle's house down to my grandparents' house. It went well, actually!
And, as is customary for Good Friday, we had fish and chips for dinner that night (no pictures though.)
The next day, I put on my glasses - and they didn't break!
Then, a couple of hours later, they broke again anyway. In the meantime, I did the same thing I did the previous evening and put on my non-broken sunglasses. Maia says they make me look like a "blind hipster" (her words, not mine!) And, to top it all off, my Eustachian tubes were STILL giving me grief (though less grief than on Friday.)
I also decided to completely change this blog post - though you won't notice any difference reading through it - and start writing it directly in HTML, because the way Blogger (the blogging website I use) itself handles HTML is, shall we say, terrible.
Anyway, that leaves us only with what's happened today!
Well, for starters, my Eustachian tubes STILL aren't fixed, but complaining won't fix anything (unfortunately!)
Meanwhile, in what's become a running thing every Easter, we went out for a special breakfast this morning:
Unfortunately, Mum wasn't with us, because she had to catch a flight over to Ireland to be with her extended family over the weekend.
We (that is, me and Maia*) DID, however, get a LOT of chocolate from Mum and Dad - so we're as set for Easter as ever!
*Technically, it's supposed to be "Maia and I", but how else is language supposed to evolve over time other than by changing word usage in this fashion?
Anyway, that's all from me for this month - so I'll see you at the same time next month!
Bye for now!