Four days of Fun, Food and Photos
Well, that was a nice four day weekend! I managed to fit in lots of fun things, including gaming, reading and Lego, and I made some yummy meals so it was quite good. I got quite a bit of PlayStation time in which is most important. I had been playing InFamous but I finished that off last week so I decided to play Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 which I've not played at all yet. It turned out to be rather boring. There's some side-quests that aren't in the book or film at all and appear to have been added in just to make the game longer. While Hermione and Ron are working out how to get into the Ministry, Harry goes off on his own to rescue some Muggle-borns. Like you do when you're Undesirable Number One. So you have to fight your way through this weird abandoned electricity substation, then a camp in the woods and finally escape from a cave of dragons. Why was that last bit not in the book?! That would have been great! After you've done the Ministry bit and got the locket, you then randomly start following Dean Thomas and Griphook, supposedly trying to hear what they're talking about. You wander through the countryside, into a caravan park, a partially destroyed building and oh look, is that a weird abandoned electricity substation? For some reason you now have to go through the entire setting of the substation again, but backwards. And at the end of that level, the path is blocked and you need a certain spell that you don't have so you have to return to the sodding substation AGAIN. Did the designers run out of money first or ideas? I'm guessing the former seeing as the mechanics are also a bit crappy. In various places, there's conveniently placed crates and rocks for you to take cover behind but I soon realised they hinder more than help because they get in the way and your perfectly placed Expelliarmus hits a box, rather than the wizard attacking you. There are potions to throw such as Garotting Gas or Exploding Potion but they either fall at your feet or shoot over the heads of everyone in the vicinity. And numerous times I couldn't see a thing because Hermione's head was in the way, blocking the whole screen! Bah.
When I gave up gaming for the day, I managed to take some more Lego photos. I made a moon/alien planet landing, an airport and I had planned to do a zoo as well but I ran out of time for that. I also got some reading done but not as much in the way of actual books as I'd hoped. I was lucky enough to get an account invite for AO3 (http://archiveofourown.org) and so I've been going through my writing to work out what pieces are good enough to be posted on there. I thought it was just for fanfic at first but apparently not, it also accepts original work as well so that's excellent. I don't think there's any other site that lets you put up both, it tends to be one or the other. I've only got one piece up so far which is the first ever fanfic I wrote. Despite the fact that it's been posted on FFN and my writing journal, I was still incredibly nervous when submitting it! That rather took me by surprise. It's been so long since I put my writing anywhere, I'd forgotten how nerve-wracking it is! It seems to have been quite well received so far though which makes me feel quite positive about posting more.
I had planned a nice menu for the weekend and I think I did quite well. Friday was a bit of a cheat day because I made Thai chargrilled fish (courtesy of Mr Birdseye) with crispy potatoes (courtesy of Mr Sainsbury) with peas and carrots. On Saturday I made goulash and Sunday was chicken pilau, both of which were made from scratch and very yummy. Monday was a mix of cheat and made from scratch because I made Chinese plum chicken with stir-fried veggies and Tilda's egg fried rice. That didn't quite work out as well as it had in my head so that was a shame. And just to make you super jealous of my mad cooking skillz yo, tonight I'm making salmon pie. There's a piece of fresh salmon that's too big for one but not quite big enough for two, so I'm using it to make a fish pie which will make it go further. It's gone rather jolly cold again so it'll be nice and warming too.
The weather has certainly been interesting to say the least these past few days. Friday was quite warm and sunny, but it seems to have got successively colder each day. On Sunday there was a storm about 2pm complete with thunder, lightning, torrential rain and a serious amount of hailstones! It was very intense. Then this morning, the weather couldn't decide whether to chuck it down with rain or snow so it did both. At the same time. It's currently sunny but it's still rather nippy and there's thunderstorms forecast for 3pm, 7pm, 10pm and 1am. That'll be fun! There's snow forecast on the odd day or two over the next fortnight yet. So much for March going out like a lamb!
When I gave up gaming for the day, I managed to take some more Lego photos. I made a moon/alien planet landing, an airport and I had planned to do a zoo as well but I ran out of time for that. I also got some reading done but not as much in the way of actual books as I'd hoped. I was lucky enough to get an account invite for AO3 (http://archiveofourown.org) and so I've been going through my writing to work out what pieces are good enough to be posted on there. I thought it was just for fanfic at first but apparently not, it also accepts original work as well so that's excellent. I don't think there's any other site that lets you put up both, it tends to be one or the other. I've only got one piece up so far which is the first ever fanfic I wrote. Despite the fact that it's been posted on FFN and my writing journal, I was still incredibly nervous when submitting it! That rather took me by surprise. It's been so long since I put my writing anywhere, I'd forgotten how nerve-wracking it is! It seems to have been quite well received so far though which makes me feel quite positive about posting more.
I had planned a nice menu for the weekend and I think I did quite well. Friday was a bit of a cheat day because I made Thai chargrilled fish (courtesy of Mr Birdseye) with crispy potatoes (courtesy of Mr Sainsbury) with peas and carrots. On Saturday I made goulash and Sunday was chicken pilau, both of which were made from scratch and very yummy. Monday was a mix of cheat and made from scratch because I made Chinese plum chicken with stir-fried veggies and Tilda's egg fried rice. That didn't quite work out as well as it had in my head so that was a shame. And just to make you super jealous of my mad cooking skillz yo, tonight I'm making salmon pie. There's a piece of fresh salmon that's too big for one but not quite big enough for two, so I'm using it to make a fish pie which will make it go further. It's gone rather jolly cold again so it'll be nice and warming too.
The weather has certainly been interesting to say the least these past few days. Friday was quite warm and sunny, but it seems to have got successively colder each day. On Sunday there was a storm about 2pm complete with thunder, lightning, torrential rain and a serious amount of hailstones! It was very intense. Then this morning, the weather couldn't decide whether to chuck it down with rain or snow so it did both. At the same time. It's currently sunny but it's still rather nippy and there's thunderstorms forecast for 3pm, 7pm, 10pm and 1am. That'll be fun! There's snow forecast on the odd day or two over the next fortnight yet. So much for March going out like a lamb!