Okay, so I'm another day late . . .

But this time I actually have a good excuse. I really wasn't feeling well yesterday.

As if that pesky headache wasn't enough, by the time I settled down to watch Someday or One Day, with the intention of finishing it as I only had 5 episodes left, I was beginning to ache too. I had a backache, and my right arm felt as if I'd been punched hard. My knees were hurting (although that's pretty much a given, especially after going out the other day), but my hands, too, were in pain, as if someone had whacked them with a hammer and broken all the bones. I was freezing cold as well, so cold that even my big fleecy hoodie, fingerless gloves and another pair of socks to go inside my usually amazing fleece-lined slipper socks didn't warm me up, so I gave up after one episode. By this time the headache was in full force, almost blinding me with the pain, so I went to bed (well before midnight!), burying myself under a mound of duvets and blankets in an attempt to sweat it out.

When I woke at about 6am, needing the loo, I was back to normal temperature and most of the aching had receded somewhat, apart from that blasted headache. But now, I had a runny nose and sore throat. I managed another couple of hours of sleep, then logged onto work, splitting my day between a couple of hours on the computer followed by a couple in bed, repeated as my energy levels seem to be non-existent. Now, I just feel a bit snotty, my throat is scratchy rather than sore and my headache finally seems to be receding, so I'm intending to get Someday or One Day finished. 

Hopefully, I will be able to wrap my head around it a bit better because there are 3 intersecting timelines with the same characters (it's a time travel drama), which is confusing the hell out of me, and last night was impossible to grasp. It doesn't help that the events don't always seem to be accurate, presumably because scenarios we haven't seen yet in the story altered them somewhere along the way. I can only hope it all sorts itself out by the final episode.

I think one of my problems with the story is the lead female, who is so incredibly selfish in every incarnation, that I find her really unlikeable, and can't help but wonder why the lead male loves her so much. Hopefully, that too will be explained, although probably won't be. 

I'm also considering returning to Hogwarts Legacy . . . but maybe that's for tomorrow.

Anyway, before I go, as ever there is a birthday to celebrate. Today is the turn of Yonghee from CIX (who you'll recall we saw live a few weeks ago).   

Happy birthday, Yonghee 🎉🎂🎁

Also, today is the first anniversary of the band Jwiiver's debut. They released this special video to mark the occasion. Happy anniversary to them! 🎉🎊

     

15 February 2023 - Ah well, I tried

Actually, I didn't really try, at least not very hard. 

You will recall that the last time I posted a proper-length blog, I mentioned that I had tried to get Hogwarts Legacy running. It was all to no avail as my old PC was woefully under spec, so I had to buy a new one to play the game (tbh, I had needed a new one for a while anyway). I spent quite a long time looking at various PCs before coming to the conclusion that a gaming one, while expensive, would probably be the best option in the long run, and would be good for working on those spreadsheets, too (no more sulking PC when I try to open 2 at a time). Then, as luck would have it, Amazon had one at a bargain price (and I really mean a bargain price) - I honestly couldn't resist.

I didn't blog on Thursday because I was sorting out all the crap I'd accumulated on my old PC  - it's astonishing just how many files etc. I had on there - and transferring them to an external HDD for safekeeping. It took all evening to do, so I didn't have time for anything else (including blogging - it seemed pointless to just say I had nothing to say again).

Friday evening was spent putting the computer together and getting everything re-set up, which always takes longer and is more frustrating than I remember. Saturday, I went to the hairdressers to get pretty hair, and then couldn't be bothered to do much, so I finished Song of the Moon, which turned out to be an emotional ride (with 2 endings!) and Poong, the Joseon Psychiatrist 2, which I enjoyed far more than the first series. I hope there won't be a third as they tied it up perfectly and it doesn't need anything else. 

I then watched the Chinese horror film Incantation, which had been recommended in several places. It was fine, but a bit tame for me. I then moved on to Three Body, as almost the whole series had dropped, but stopped after 1 episode as I really wasn't in the mood. It's now complete (and Avenue X gave it her top rating) so I shall pick it up again shortly. 

Finally, and I have no idea why, I found myself watching a Japanese film (honestly, why do I do it to myself?) called No Call No Life. I have no idea what it was about or even why I chose it - something to do with some girl getting phone calls from the past or something like that - but eventually, I got totally lost, so I gave up. I can't imagine I'd ever go back to it. Obviously, I completely forgot to blog and by the time I remembered it was way past midnight.

Sunday, I was in a weird mood but decided I would finally start playing Hogwarts Legacy. As anticipated I was absolutely rubbish 😂. First, I had to pick my character, which could actually have taken several hours as someone who prevaricates over everything, so choosing every aspect of my appearance was always going to be a nightmare, but I thought I did well at sorting it in about 30 minutes. 

At last, I was ready to really start playing the game.

It starts with meeting Professor Fig, who is going to transport you to Hogwarts. However, en route you get attacked and end up near some ruins, which you obviously go to investigate as a pre-game warm-up. The first problem I had was that I couldn't get my character to move properly. In the pre-release days, I watched various gamers playing the game on Twitch to see if I could pick up a few hints and tips, and every time they were running about the castle or Hogsmeade, happily running up and down stairs with no problem whatsoever. 

Alas, this wasn't me. Even when I managed to get the character to go in the right direction they ended up walking into walls and stuff 🤦‍♀️ and most of the time I couldn't even get them to move more than a single step at a time. I know it probably just takes practice but it was more than a little off-putting.

Then there were the ruins themselves. Professor Fig said to investigate, but I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to be breaking all the pots and things lying around, or if I was looking for something specific. After another 20-odd minutes of gameplay, I had got nowhere . . . and then I tried to log out.

At first, I was unable to work out how to do it - none of this comes with instructions (that I could see anyway) and the Twitch players all seem to use a console and controller rather than a PC, keyboard and mouse. When I did eventually find the save area, it told me that manual saves were unavailable but that autosave was working. Remembering that earlier in the game it had come up with a message telling me not to leave while the autosave icon was showing otherwise it wouldn't save, I didn't actually recall seeing the icon at all, although that could have been because I was stressing about walking and not finding anything.

In the end, I managed to quit the game but got a warning to say that nothing had been saved for the last 23 minutes 🙄. When I went back in to check everything was okay, I discovered I was back where I started, just after the attack on the coach at the beginning of the game. I quit once more and haven't been back in since.

Feeling disgruntled at the waste of time, I decided to watch some TV, not even thinking about the blog, I'll be honest. I caught up with the latest episodes of Kokdu: Season of Deity, which is beginning to grow on me finally, caught up with Ben on Twitch where we (Quincy also came along for the ride) watched the second episode of Boys' Planet - I still have no idea wtf is going on or how we're supposed to judge the contestants when we don't see most of them.

I also got pissed off with the judges for unfairly criticising Hui (probably more MNET and evil editing, of which there has been a LOT, even in the first 2 episodes) and especially Cube for putting him in that position in the first place, but not as annoyed as Ben - although I totally agree with him.

Then, I settled down to finally watch a Chinese time-travelling drama from 2019. called Someday or One Day, mainly because I couldn't be bothered to watch anything I was already watching, as there has been a real dearth of new K-dramas (of interest to me) recently, and because the series is being remade as a K-drama and should be out shortly, so I wanted to see the original before I watch that.  

Yesterday saw me back at work, battling a headache in the ultra-bright sunshine - a nightmare when I had to drive as it was strobing, which really doesn't help. 

Yes, I went outside again (twice in one week!) because we went to see The Rose at O2 Forum. I had a wonderful evening, despite the headache, which is still brewing today, although I'm not sure Quincy was so impressed. I thought she would love them as they are a proper band, not a boy band, and they play the sort of soft rock that she always listens to on Smooth Radio and Kiss FM, but I think it just took her a little while to warm up to them as she hadn't listened to the playlist I created for her (she never does). I think the band are amazing and their leader, lead vocalist and guitarist, Woosung, released one of my favourite albums of last year, Moth. He has such an interesting and distinctive voice and they sang so well live, it was mesmerising. And yes, Quincy, we will be seeing them next year 😉.

The Rose 

That brings me to today, where once again I was back at work, battling with a headache and bright sunshine . . . and losing.

I'm going to end it here and head off to watch this week's episodes of Brain Works, which is getting more ridiculous by the week but I quite like it. Then, I ought to watch Unchained Love, as I really have been neglecting that. Maybe I should just admit that I've dropped it. Nope, I will give it one last chance.

See you tomorrow . . . probably.

08 February 2023 - It's Late So This Is Short

I don't have much to say today, and I'm busy watching Song of the Moon, so I'll update properly tomorrow (probably).

Before I go, I just want to say Happy Birthday to Song from iKON 🎁🎂🎉

07 February 2023 - Thinking of an Interesting Title is Hard Work

What to say?

Work was work-like, I spent most of the day listening to music - mainly the January playlist, but also The Rose and, this evening after I decided I wasn't in the mood for TV, my original 2022 albums playlist, which has some absolute bangers on it, including pretty much all my top 10 (as yet still unconfirmed) list. Yes, I should be trying to complete my 2022 lists but it'll have to wait a little longer as I just need to chill out.

What I really want to do is play Hogwarts Legacy, the massive new open-world RPG game that was released on early access today (it's officially released on 10th Feb). I did pre-order it - and yes, I know I'm considered a traitor to a lot of the Harry Potter fandom for doing so - but sorry, while I fully support people's right to exist as whatever gender (or not) they best believe suits them regardless of how they were born and will always defend that right, I'm also a massive HP fan and have waited forever for a game like this to come along (and believe me, I've played them all, including the now sadly departed Wizards Unite, which I enjoyed more than Pokemon Go because of the wizarding element and the small thrill of various AR magical creatures appearing in my lounge).

However, the first problem was that Steam seemed to have an issue dealing with the number of people who had purchased the game and wasn't working, then it was but only slowly, so it took about 3 hours to download. I'm not really a gamer, so everything I play is on the PC (the last time I had a console it was a Super Nintendo back in the 1990s - I still have it somewhere in a cupboard along with Wolfenstein 3D - my favourite of the games) and I'm generally talking Hidden Object games that require me to point at stuff using the mouse. 

The next problem was that despite seeing the requirements to be able to run the game, it never really occurred to me that my geriatric PC might not be able to cope with it. I'm not sure why I didn't think of it before. I mean, if I open too many browser windows it goes into a sulk and freezes up and stops my keyboard and mouse from working, so an amazing high-spec game is unlikely to run.

To be fair, I haven't actually tried it yet, I just downloaded it and then my PC froze everything that was open so I had to restart it, Then I realised the time and that I needed to get this entry written before I did anything else. It has also just occurred to me that maybe I need a controller of some sort, which I don't currently have either - so yeah, not really ready to play, even though I want to.

To be honest, I'm so bad at games that I probably won't be able to play it properly anyway. I think I was just going to wander around the castle and wizarding world and marvel at everything and talk to the characters; if I could manage to do anything within the game itself it would be a bonus.    

Anyway, I'm going to end here because I need to get a drink - I've been on the Oolongs this evening (Adagio's Dancong Aria, which I really liked and T2's Oolong Chocolate Chai, which I reviewed in my tea blog back in 2017 and also really liked), although I shouldn't because they still have caffeine and sleep is hard enough to come by as it is without adding late-night caffeine to the mix. Maybe I'll have a hot chocolate or something to try to counteract it. 

Before I go, Happy Birthday to Jay (Jinhwan) from iKON.

  

06 February 2023 - Is It Monday Again Already?

Baekhyun is finally back from military enlistment 😊. He did a live stream earlier today on Youtube (which should be available for rewatch later). Unfortunately, I got a phone call and missed the last half hour, so I'll need to catch up when it's posted.

WELCOME BACK KYOONG, YOU HAVE BEEN MISSED!

It's stats time again, so I've been busy with those, and drinking lots of tea. I started with T2's Morning Sunshine, which is a blend of several Indian and Rwandan teas. I quite enjoyed it but noticed I was getting a headache. While it might not be down to the tea (it was really sunny today, which definitely didn't help), I didn't want to take a chance with so much work to do, so I switched to their Irish Breakfast (Sri Lankan/Indian), which I already know and like and isn't as strong as the other one. This evening, I utilised my new Postcards from Afar (Dusk) tea set along with some Milk Oolong from Rosie Lea Tea. 

The headache is still niggling away in the background, but hopefully, with a decent night's sleep it will disappear, or at least not get any worse.  

This evening I'm relaxing with Kokdu: Season of Deity, which I'm still not sure about yet, and I'm going to return to Song of the Moon, as it's been a while since I last picked it up and I need to get some of the C-dramas finished as there are a lot of new ones that are starting shortly or have already started that I want to see.

I did finish The Silence of the Monster on Saturday night. The series was a bit patchy, particularly in the middle, and the main cast was young and inexperienced, which showed at times, but overall I quite enjoyed it. I was ready to give it a solid 8 rating, but then the last episode happened and it pushed it right up to a 9, just for that one episode alone. I look forward to seeing more from the young stars in the future.

Sadly, the same can't be said of last night's choice, Midnight Horror: Six Nights. It was driven by the desire to watch something spooky, but this omnibus of stories sadly failed in all respects. A couple of them were a bit creepy, but all of them seemed to be lacking in some way, and a couple of them left me wondering what the hell was going on. It wasn't the fault of the cast, of which all the leads were women and pretty well-known Korean actors, but the stories seemed to be missing an ending and there was nothing to tie them all together, as would be expected by an anthology series.

Today's birthday is the lovely U-Know from TVXQ!

Finally, someone posted a meme on Twitter for people to add their Spotify on repeat playlists. I've linked to mine and shown the list below - if you've been keeping track of what I've posted previously there aren't really any surprises, are there? 😂 

On Repeat playlist for 06 Feb 2023

05 February 2023 - Erm . . .

I really don't have much to say today, and I'm past the midnight deadline, so I'm going to leave it and catch up tomorrow.

Honestly, it's been a real nothing day and I can't think of anything I want to say.

See you tomorrow.

04 February 2023 – Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting (Vocally not Physically)

So, I’ve started watching MNET’s Boys’ Planet on Twitch with a K-Pop reactor I follow regularly. It’s the first time I’ve watched a band creation series, although I have watched their previous competition series’ with already established bands: Road to Kingdom and Kingdom: Legendary War, and have heard and seen enough of their evil editing to know that it probably wasn’t going to be light entertainment.

The programme features 98 ‘boys’, who are vying to become one of the 9 members of a new band that will debut after the show ends. Each week they provide performances, on which they are judged by mentors, who award them up to four stars, the points accruing as the series progresses. Additionally, there is a public vote, which is done via an app. I’m assuming that each week the least-voted members are eliminated.      

I was already a little apprehensive, as Hui, the leader of Pentagon (who you may recall are one of my favourite K-pop bands), has, inexplicably to just about everyone, chosen to take part in the show. Considering his immense talent and experience, you could imagine him as one of the mentors and judges but not as a contestant, going up against what are in the main, teenage boys in the early stage of their careers.

Universes (Pentagon’s fandom) had, not unreasonably, been expecting the band to release a new album once Hui returned from his military service as it’s now been a year since their last one (In:vite U) came out, but instead, we were greeted with this news and some evilly edited trailers that give the impression that his performance wasn’t as good as expected, which didn’t do anything to help allay our fears about the future of Pentagon and Hui himself. In fact, the fandom has been pretty much split between those who want him removed from the show and those who will support him regardless.

It was with this apprehension that I approached the first show, and it didn’t take long for me to be both annoyed and completely confused. I know from the shows I have watched previously that they spend a lot of time focussing on non-important stuff and rarely give a full performance, often cutting away to show the reactions of the other contestants and judges or reshowing particular moves several times, but considering that viewers are supposed to be voting on the contestants based on their performance in the first show, I don’t see how they could do it.

First of all, of the 98 contestants, I don’t think we actually saw the performances of more than a quarter of them. They are split into two teams – Korean and Global, who are competing against each other, and from there are split down into further teams. However, it made no sense to me – some of them were in teams of 3 or 4, whereas others performed individually. In several cases, the opposing teams performed the same song. In the case of 2 individuals, they were given a difficult (and old) 2PM song (definitely not designed for solo performance) which, unsurprisingly, neither performed particularly well alone. But then they got them to perform together and they did it much better. Both were then marked down by the judges, as their solo performances were the ones that counted (so why bother with the joint performance?).

But then there were several groups who were mentioned or even briefly introduced, who they didn’t even bother to show the performances of – so how are we supposed to assess whether these people are worth voting for if we don’t even get to see them perform because they wasted time on showing one of the Korean trainees getting ready for his slot instead?

The answer, it appears, is that each group/performer has a video uploaded onto Youtube, which you are supposed to watch in addition to the show (but honestly, who has time for that? The show was already 2 hours long). I was also told by other people watching the stream that many contestants have previously been on other band creation shows, so they already have supporters who will vote for them regardless. This all seems very unfair to me.

As expected, MNET’s treatment of Hui was pretty poor – the aforementioned trailer showed him being tearful, and seemed to indicate it was due to criticism of poor performance (unbelievable to anyone that knows him) but instead, turned out to be because one of the groups performed Pentagon’s Shine and he was understandably a little overwhelmed at being recognised like that.* But then MNET tried to insinuate that Shine had been the highlight of the band’s career – hinting that they’re washed up – when nothing could be further from the truth. While, undoubtedly, it is their best-known track, their popularity has been steadily increasing with each album (particularly internationally) and Universes have worked hard to raise their profile.  

We didn’t even get to see Hui’s performance as they ended the programme before he got to sing, but I feel that scheduling him to perform immediately after making him give feedback on the group covering his song when he was so emotional, was probably not putting him in the best place to shine either.

I will continue watching the show, as I am interested to see how it develops and I enjoy interacting with the other people on the stream, although I fear there will be more frustration over Hui and his misuse. 

I’m also interested to see how one of the other contestants does as he’s from Lay’s agency, Chromosome. A couple of others have also sparked interest among the streamers, so we’ll see how many of them make the final 9. Hopefully, it’s not going to end up like one of their previous band production series where the cheating was so rife that it had to be cancelled without the band ever debuting, and several people connected to the show’s production ended up in prison.

*This is not the first time MNET has used a performer's tears inaccurately in their advertising. In 2019, they used a video of Chanyeol crying at 2018 MAMA’s, with the caption that he was crying for joy (at winning an award). The truth was, EXO and their fandom were so badly treated at that award show that they were upset about it, and Chanyeol’s emotions reflected the feelings of many. Actually, MNET has done several shitty things to EXO over the years – including stealing their concepts and making fun of them – they had to withdraw one advertisement as it received so many complaints from the public.

03 February 2023 – It’s Friday!

Today has actually been a pretty good day. Work wasn’t as bad as I expected, although that might be because a lot of people seemed to be away. Anyway, I managed to get finished at a decent hour, which is always good when going into the weekend.

This morning, Baekhyun posted on Twitter to remind us he’s back soon (3 days and counting), and then the EXO account confirmed that he’ll be doing his post-discharge livestream on Youtube on Monday. It will be good to have him back, not least because it means we’ll get some new EXO activity (please let it be OT9 🤞).

My Spotify wasn’t working earlier 😱, which did ruin my day a bit, but when it came back I added some new tracks to the January playlist, including 3 brand new boy bands who have just debuted (8Turn, The7 and BXB).

Today's K-pop birthdays are Kyuhyun, the maknae from Super Junior (and arguably one of the best vocalists in K-pop), and Jibeom from Golden Child. A very Happy Birthday to both of them. 🎉🎁🎂 

Kyuhyun and Jibeom

Additionally, today is the third anniversary of DKB. Congratulations guys! 🎉🎊✨

DKB

This evening I watched Everything Everywhere All at Once (I did spend the whole evening listening to EXO again yesterday), which I absolutely loved. To call it bonkers would be an understatement, and yet . . . yet, there was such a poignant story underlying it. I really hope it wins all the awards.

The rest of the evening is going to be spent catching up on K-dramas. First up is Poong, the Joseon Psychiatrist 2, which is far more entertaining than I had expected. I have to admit I almost dropped it at the end of season 1 as I wasn’t sure where it could go as it had wrapped everything up pretty well, but while watching the latest episode, I realised it has transformed itself from a murder mystery series into a romantic drama.  

Then it’s back to Brain Works. It seems as if it’s been a really long time since I last watched it, but it’s only been a week.

02 February 2023 - It's All Too Much . . .

Honestly, I really can't be bothered today. But having praised myself yesterday for writing regardless, I can't really take a day off now, can I?

So, work was horrible but not as bad as it could have been (but I still have to get through tomorrow yet). Music was (and is currently) EXO again (I'm linking to the playlist I've been listening to rather than their page for a change). I did also listen to the January and February playlists (I shall link to them rather than list everyone on there because I'm feeling too lazy to do that tonight).

Tea has been mixed today - I started with the last cup of the Dickensian Connoisseur Blend 😭, then moved onto something that called itself English Breakfast, but was quite clearly closer to an Earl Grey blend 🤮 (I'm looking at you T2). Fortunately, I only had 1 serving so don't have to waste too much tea. I still wanted unflavoured tea so moved on to Fujian Baroque, which is another lovely strong blend by Adagio, but after a couple of cups I could feel a headache brewing (not necessarily tea-related but it doesn't help), so I switched to Rosie Lea Tea's Afternoon Tea blend, which is a bit lighter (and perfect with a slice of cake, it says - sadly, I had no cake 😔).   

Food, too, has been mixed. I started with a Huel salted caramel protein shake for breakfast, then as I had hunger pangs by about 2 p.m., I had a portion from one of their hot & savoury range, the chick'n & mushroom pasta. I had some shopping delivered this afternoon, so have just completely broken the healthy eating to have bread rolls and real butter (my downfall) - I was supposed to have a salad. I may end up just inside my calorie limit, but it's going to be much closer than yesterday. 

Not sure what I'm going to watch this evening. I may finish the last few episodes of The Silence of the Monster as I only have about 6 left. But part of me is feeling in a film mood - I quite fancy Everything, Everywhere All at Once, but I'm also feeling in a horror mood again, so maybe I should go that way instead. I'm also aware that I am well behind with Three-Body as they're releasing lots of episodes a week, so I'm currently 15 episodes behind 🙈.  

Or maybe I should just ignore the TV and carry on listening to EXO 😂. 

01 February 2023 - It's a New Month!

So, with the exception of that week when I had a migraine, I have managed to write something every day. Well done me 👏🎉

To be honest, this is something of an achievement, and I feel quite proud of myself for doing it every day, even when I couldn't really be bothered.

Mood

My mood is all over the place at the moment. I generally feel quite happy, but then burst into tears for no good reason (or maybe that should be the smallest of reasons). Work was okay today because it's monthly stats time - and while they frustrate me, I also, weirdly, find them strangely relaxing. Tomorrow will be less good as I have a lot of stuff I ignored today and will have to face and deal with it then.

On the downside, my brain was not functioning properly this morning, so when I went to buy the tickets for Gary Numan's shows I didn't clock in time that there was an option to buy all three nights (at a reduced cost). I only noticed it after buying the tickets for Thursday night. I then purchased the 3-ticket option (obviously), only to discover that I couldn't cancel the earlier tickets, as they don't give refunds 🤬. Now, my only option is to wait until the tickets go on general sale on Friday and see if I can resell them. 🤞 If I can't then I've just paid about the same as it would have cost had I bought all 3 separately. 

Even then, it will still be cheaper than 2 Ateez tickets cost (and they were face value too!) - why the fuck are K-pop concerts so bloody expensive? Mind you, Quincy looked at Madonna tickets (for a laugh, we already knew it would be too expensive) and they made the Ateez tickets look like they were a giveaway! Seriously, hasn't the woman already got enough money?  

I'm also on a bit of a seesaw after watching the final 2 episodes of Missing: The Other Side 2 this evening. I enjoyed the show so much and am gutted that it's over, especially when there are so many questions still unanswered and a whole load of new ones, with the introduction of the carousel and Im Siwan. If there isn't a third season soon, I will probably injure someone.

Anyway, I can say for sure that it has now taken the top spot in my all-time favourite K-drama list, although Kill Me Heal Me still runs a very close second.

Music

Yesterday's revelation that EXO was nowhere in my monthly Receiptify was so shocking that I immediately rectified that by playing them for several hours last night and all day today. They really are the perfect band for casual listening as between the main band, the sub-units (EXO-CBX and EXO-SC) and the solo albums/tracks of Suho, Xiumin, Lay, Baekhyun, Chen, Chanyeol, D.O., Kai and Sehun, it covers just about every genre you could want. I did also sneak in Unthinkable (FTIsland) as I missed it.

Food and Drink 

I had put off eating healthily (apart from all those salads, obviously) until February, as I still had a lot of stuff from Christmas to get through, and with my birthday to celebrate (or not, as was the case in the end). But now it's time to buckle down and try to stick within my calorie limit for the day. 

Thus, I reverted to a Huel protein shake for a mid-morning snack (by the time I stopped for a bite it was too late to call it breakfast). This evening, I had some chicken and bacon pasta from Iceland and I upped my water (and Waterdrop) intake considerably. I'm pleased to say that even with my cheeky evening ice cream (Crunchie Blast today), I have managed to succeed in coming in under the limit. Day 1 is a success! 🎉

The rest of the time, I had a lot of tea. Today's choice was Rosie Lea Tea's Dickensian Connoisseur Blend, which is a decent, strong proper cuppa made from a blend of Chinese Yunnan and Mao Feng and Indian Darjeeling First Flush teas. Sadly, it seems it's no longer for sale on their website, and even more sadly, I have just run out of it 😭.

Day and Night version 

However, on the bright side, my order from T2 arrived today, so I have plenty of new teas to try. I also have these rather pretty tea sets, that I couldn't resist as they were so cheap in the closing sale. I shall miss them, as they always gave good service and wrapped everything so nicely, and their teas are top quality too.

Some of the many teas I bought

I see I'm running late again, so I'll end it here. I've probably said enough for one day anyway.