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!

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.

Hello, readers. This month has been going pretty alright. I went on a day trip to Oxford recently which was quite nice, and definitely a highlight of recent times. A friend of mine was in a play which I went to see, and it was very good. I didn't manage to get any spectacular photos, so here's an average one I took of the river, and one of a beautiful painting in G&D's:

Also, while I was there, my friend and I made white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake. (Recipe is by iconic Mary Berry, and can be found here.) We also used his bread machine to make chocolate bread. It was certainly an unusual beast to say the least. It was surprisingly like normal bread, only truly tasting like chocolate when proper chunks were in your bite. I didn't think to take photos before they had begun being devoured, but here they are nonetheless:

Another bake of mine recently is classic scones. I made a batch for Mother's day to make a cream tea in a box. Recipe is, again, Mary Berry's, which you can find here.

In the gaming department, I've been playing a lot of my new copy of Splatoon 3, which is a game I've been meaning to get for absolutely ages. Found it in the local CEX for £30 and thought "why the hell not". It's as spectacular as I expected. I'll be representing Team Keyboard in next weekend's Splatfest, so watch out!

That's about the highlights of my life since last update. I don't have much to say right now, cause I'm quite tired. Thankfully, it's the end of term now, so I'll be heading home soon for a much needed break... If you can even call it that, because I've got 5 exams to revise for and 2 programming courseworks to do. It's whatever. I'll hold out, because I always do. See you then.

Hello all. Here's a brief blog update.

Today (or, well, now yesterday) was Pokemon Day. The Pokemon Presents livestream was very good. I am pleased that the leaks about Unova or Johto games were wrong. It was very nice to have something not predicted by leaks. A lovely surprise indeed.

Though I've not been playing it, I've been listening to a lot of the Splatoon 3: Side Order OST. Splatoon music always goes hard, but man, this is another level. And I'm a big fan of dedf1sh too. It's cool that the game properly commits to them being non-binary, cause that's not something that gets represented properly nearly enough.

Also, here's some blondies I made last weekend: Recipe is here.

Lastly, university is going pretty ok. I've just got to wade through the end of term turmoil induced by having two big programming courseworks to do now. Then, on the other side, all that awaits me is the further despair of revision. Such is university indeed... See you in the next blog post.

Recent bakes

I'm firing up the old blog again. Thought it would be nice to have somewhere to put things.

So, for a returning post, here are images of my most recent bake: a red velvet cake.

Not exactly the most flattering images. He was most tasty though. The recipe is here. It's unusually easy and not too expensive for a red velvet cake. No doubt Mary berry's magic at work. I also made some pancakes with the remaining buttermilk, but didn't take any good photos of them.

Also, here's a Devonshire honey cake I made with this recipe. Not the best shot, since my phone died before I could get a good picture of it's wonderfully moist cross section. But it was a nice and easy, but very fun bake.