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Hello all. 'Tis August, so I thought it's about time I updated the old blog. So, here I am!

First thing's first: behold my latest bakes! Fistly, brownies. I usually just make chocolate fudge cake because it's my go-to easy cake. However I wanted actual brownies this time, and took to BBC Good Food. The recipe is a bit expensive because it needs lots of dark chocolate, but it produced perhaps the nicest brownies I had had in a long time.

Secondly, an olive oil cake. I was a bit sceptical about this one but it was actually really lovely. The olive oil really enhances the texture. Can recommend! Shoutout to Lily for lending me her ultra-fancy actually-from-Greece olive oil for it.

Cuppa Conquest was a fun project for my holiday in Norfolk. Now I am home though, so don't have much to add to it for now. Perhaps another time! Norfolk was great though, lots of nice places to go to, and we were right by the beach. Most relaxing!

I got back from holiday just as Bloomburrow prereleases began, and on that weekend I met with some friends for lots of MtG gaming. We played with our new Bloomburrow Commander decks and it was so much fun. Miss Bumbleflower is an absolute beast! Of the 3 games I've played with her so far, she has won me 2 and got me joint second in another (me and the other last player were having an infinite value showdown and ended up calling it a draw because we were hungry). We also split the cost for a draft booster box of Phyrexia: All Will Be One, and that was really fun. 'Twas a great weekend!

One last thing on the topic of MtG: I keep making cards based on me and my friends' D&D characters, so I might make a page for those at some point soon. And I also might make a page to dump my MtG dekclists. Keep your eyes peeled.

Anyways, I'll see you in the next post. I must get back to having a whimsical and joyous summer! Until then!

Good tidings. I have one thing on my mind right now, and it's Bloomburrow. I am so excited for this new Magic set it's crazy. The cards have such cute art and the cards seem actually wuite powerful (a nice change after the last 2 sets). I have the Peace Offering Commander deck on pre-order and I cannot wait to go and collect it. I have 2 friends also getting Commander decks from the set and I'm very excited to get to paly with them. It's just been a while since I had some new cards, so I'm really looking forward to it.

I also have something to annoucne: a new page on the site, being Cuppa Conquest. It's my quest to find the best tearoom around by rating them all comprehensively. If you're interested, do check it out. I've just gone on holiday so there'll be lots of tearoom trips soon, so I should have a good amount of reviews soon! I will also add a map to it at some point to show my tearoom-faring adventures.

That's all. Might have some holiday photos posted here soon. Until then!

Hello all. I hope this log post finds you well. I've done a little bit of renovation in the log department. Mainly, we now have an RSS feed! You can paste in the link to the RSS feed into your RSS feed reader of choice to receive notifications whenever I update the log. How dandy!

Another small change: posts are now presented in pages. Might make browsing a little less painful since you won't need to load every post at once merely to see one post.

What else have I been up to? Well, not too terribly much. Desperately, and unsuccessfully, hunting for jobs is the main thing, since I need a way to make money for rent next university year. Other than that, I've mostly been playing lots and lots of video games! I am perhaps biting off a bit more than I can chew though: I am currently playing through 4 RPGs. Which is definitely a lot! But I just had lots of games I wanted to play this summer.

My current favourite is The World Ends With You. Until this summer I didn't really know anything about it. I had heard people speak well of it in past, saying it was an exceptional DS game, but I had never really looked into it properly. The way I ended up playing it was one of my friends wanted to do a Pokemon soul link for Pokemon HeartGold Version. I wanted to play on original hardware, so I spent a bit of time getting my old DS flashcart working. When I was loading it up with ROMs, thinking about what I should use it to play, I remembered hearing good things about TWEWY, and here I am.

My thoughts on the game are fond. Combat is still quite hard to me even though I'm on week 2. It's just a bit overwhelming having to handle the combat on both screens. But I do like it a lot. The pin system is so customisable. And the story is pretty decent too. But what I love most is the music and aesthetic of the game, because if you take one look at the game you can go "Yep, that was made in the mid-2000s." Which is something I love. Not sure why, but I do just love how games were then.

So I'm having a very good time with TWEWY! I definitely want to play the sequel when it comes out. And, FYI, my favourite chracter is, by far, Minamimoto. He's so funny and I like his hilarious way of speaking. He's one of those characters that just makes me feel very seen.

The other games I'm playing throught at the mintue are the aforementioned Pokemon HeartGold Version soul link, as well as Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros. and the Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door remake. Though I don't have much to say on those. You know me: love my Pokemon, love my Mario, simple as.

Anyways, that's all. If you subscribe to RSS, please do let me know. I'll se you in the next post. Until then!

Hello all. Here's a little update on how my summer has been going.

Recently I made the trek to Warwick Castle with some friends. It was a very good outing. I had been there twice before, but both instances were many many moons ago. I think since then I have acrued a lot more medieval fantasy based interests (D&D, Fire Emblem, etc.) which made me enjoy it even more this time. I can very much recommend it. The castle and dungeons were great, the jousting was spectacular, and it was an all round good day out.

A project me and a freind have been working on this past week is assembling Ultimate Monopoly by jonizaak. We thought if we had a bunch of people over to play it one afternoon it'd be most hilarious. However, we didn't expect it to be such a pain to compile: it needs resources from Monopoly, Monopoly Stock Exchange, Monopoly: The Mega Edition, and Monopoly Super Add-Ons. It took us a while, but we got there. We're going to play the game in August, so after we're done with that I might make a follow-up post reviewing the chaos.

With said friend I also made an orange and almond cake. Not something I've ever made before, but it was very tasty. Can recommend. It was very funny to make though, requiring you to simmer an orange for an hour so it purees more easily.

Dungeons & Dragons is a game very prevalent in my mind right now. I've been playing a lot with my group going through Lost Mine of Phandelver at the minute, and I'm likely going to be playing with another group too, soon. I'm looking forward to getting to make another character. Nothing's set in stone right now, but the updates to the Wizard in the 2024 PHB are really making me want to play an Illusioner. It's just a subclasss I've never really thought about before, but I think really suits my playstyle. I might ask if I can use the updated version since I really like the enw features it gets. We'll see. I'm just glad that I want to play Wizard again, because my old wizard was one of my favourite characters I've ever played. It's a much needed return to my roots.

My quest of learning Magic: The Gathering is going well too. I've made a deck centred around Sefris of the Hidden Ways that makes a ton of value by going through dungeons super fast. It's super fun! If a little strong for the rest of my playgroup. I've managed to find a fourth person as well, so I'm no longer stuck playing 3 player Commander. Huzzah!

I think that's all I have to tell for now. Summer is going well. I have lots to occupy myself, and when I'm not occupied I am quite happy to just sit there and chill. It's nice not having to work constantly any more. So, I shall see you in the next post. Until then!

Hello. It has been a hot minute. Let's just say that the revision season was a painful time. That's all. At least exams are over now, and I have a prosperous summer ahead of me. So, what's new?

Not much to show on the front of bakes. I wanted to bake more this term as a way to relax between work, but I just couldn't muster the energy most of the time. That does not mean it was a fruitless term, however. Behold yond marble loaf I concocted a few weeks back. I'm jolly well pleased with it if I do say so myself.

I've been going to card games at uni this term which has been fun. I've got to play as lot more MtG which is nice. I've even got to play with some friends from home over webcam. So, I'm a lot more experienced in playing. What I need experience in now is deckbuilding, which is something I will improve over the summer. Right now, I ahve a home-made Ghoulcaller Gisa deck, which is a bit janky, but I'm working on it. And, I have an Ephara, God of Polis deck which I borrowed from a friend. They're both very fun, but being such a fan of ghouls, I'm looking to keep improving my zombie deck. We'll see how that goes.

When I've not been revising or playing MtG, I've been up to my neck in TTRPGs, which has been nice. Tomorrow, I'm starting a game of Lost Mines of Phandelver as a halfling death cleric, and I also started playing Vampire: The Masquerade as a Malkavian vampire, while also running my own D&D game. After a relative draught of RPGs last term, my thirst is verily quenched now.

Other than that... Not much to tell, really. I've mostly just been working. So, thank goodness I've got a break. It's nice to just have the time to work on projects like this. Updating the site feels nice. So, I'll see you in the next update. Until then.

Hello! It has been a hot minute since the last post. You've got my university's bloody exam season to thank for that... Revision is plentiful and difficult, but I'm surviving. I get a week or so of respite now, which is pleasant.

My last post was just after my birthday. I've not been up to too much since then, really. I did mention I had acquired a loaf tin, which I've put to good use by making a lemon drizzle cake. It's a non-stick tin too, so it came out of the tin like a charm!

Now that I'm back at university, though, I've started going to card games on a Thursday. It's very fun! The people there are nice, which is good because I was quite scared about going since I didn't know anyone. Last week I played three games, winning one, which I was very pleased with. I've not had times to make any deck modifications though due to exams, so I'm heading back in tomorrow with my un-modified copy of the Gonti precon from Outlaws at Thunder Junction.

I do, however, plan to make a new deck at some point using Myrkul, Lord of Bones. I unpacked him from a booster of Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate I opened recently. It was a lovely surprise, since he's my favourite god of the Forgotten Realms. And it was even more of a surprise to see he's in the top 100 commanders on EDHREC! A card that I liked being good? Preposterous!

Anyways, that's all. I'm signing off for now. See you in the next instance.