General…

With it being my 40th last month and Min’s 50th next month we booked ourselves a spa break at a fancy estate, as it was such a big thing I’ve done a write up of it which you can find here.

Min and I popped down to Southsea to collect our clay pots from Fat Clay, which I’m really happy with now they’ve been fired and glazed, I’ve no idea what I’ll be using mine for but they are a memento of my 40th and a new experience.

When I was first able to vote I tended to vote down the middle, over the years I’ve leaned more to the left and eventually found myself voting for Labour, but the current state of Labour is far more to the right than when I was voting Lib Dems, it’s not the party I voted for. They have a lack of backbone and seem to be pandering to the right wing voters, stomping on human rights within the LGBTQ community and on a global scale. This month I’ve taken more of an active role in politics and actually listened to what parties are talking about, as a result for the first time I’ve actually contributed to a party and joined them; I’m very proud to say I’m Green.

It’s been almost 7 months since my child had their operation so up we went to London to see the surgeon. He believes by now that there should be some twitching in the face, however he’s not seeing any now, he did say we all heal differently so it may take longer, but it’s important for my child to continue trying to ‘activate’ the nerve. They left the appointment feeling quite low as they thought progress has been made, and felt they were one of the 1/5 where no smile is attained.

London itself was a massive drain for me as I did near 25,000 steps, which would be fine walking around fields and forests, but concrete is not comfortable to walk on and it triggered my plantar fasciitus. I’ve since started using some arch support sleeves on my feet which are wonderful!

Since this trip my child’s mental health has declined quite a bit, often claiming to be ‘wubaboo’ which is a term they use when they have a lot of feelings/emotions going on, unable to figure out how they are actually feeling, a sense of being overwhelmed. As a result they’ve fallen into old habits of refusing to go into school for one reason or another.

On the topic of health, Min’s health has been declining a lot lately as they’ve had a lot going on back to back, with not a great deal of time to actually recover. They ended up spending time bed bound with shortness of breath, pains, discomfort, and high fatigue. The Wet Leg concert was the last of our planned events up until Yule so the next few weeks is intended to be a rest period. At the end of the month the house was hit with a cold which knocked me for six, then hit Min and wiped them out.

The Wet Leg concert itself was amazing and my first big gig in a long time and I absolutely loved being there. It was so amazing seeing them perform on stage, and the seats I had were exceptional, giving me a clear view of the majority of the stage. I absolutely loved when they played Chaise Longue and the audience took over, Rhian broke down in laughter before composing herself and continuing the song.

I managed to get all of the Yule presents, stocking presents, and advent calendar gifts bought and wrapped before the end of the month this year, which means I don’t have to stress about any of that going through December. Every year I do an advent calendar for my child which is a wooden unit with 21 drawers in it, this year I’ve tried something a bit different and bought some Japanese savoury snacks (they are obsessed with Japan) so each day they will get to try a treat from Japan, on top of extra gifts on key days. I’m a little anxious about the snacks in the drawers as I don’t know how they will take them, however they opened up number one today and were excited about the idea!

I started watching Alien Earth this month and after the first episode I wanted to watch the entire franchise in timeline order, while searching for the list I ended up reading about Predator being in the same universe, which then took this hole deeper and I followed a timeline order involving the Predator and Alien franchise. You can read more below.

Next Month…

Min’s actual 50th is at the start of the month and I’m quite excited for this, they realised they weren’t having a turkey this year for Christmas, so I’ve decided to cook (my first turkey!) them one for their Birthday. It’s also a time to celebrate Yule & the Winter Solstice, followed by the end of the Gregorian Calendar.

Gaming…

I’m still playing Jump Space on and off which I’m rather enjoying but I’ve reached a point where playing solo is much more intense and attention demanding, unfortunately my play time is rather fluid and hard to pin down, so arranging playing with friends is a bit more difficult.

I have however bought Power Wash Simulator 2; I loved the original game and found it a good game to chill with, more of a therapy game, and it looks like the new game has some fun features included. The only problem with this game is that it lets my brain have ‘brain weasels’ thinking about past events I would changes, things I wanted to say to people, etc.

Movies & Shows…

Prey (2022) - When I first watched this I was amazed by it, so it was a nice way to start my dive into the universe. Loved the whole native indian vibe of it all.

Predator (1987) - The OG. It is of its time, full of suspenseful music for no reason, straight faces, big muscles, and explosions. However, it was good fun.

Predator 2 (1990)- A great contract to the original by being in an urban jungle instead. I really enjoyed the flintlock pistol at the end, especially after only recently watching Prey.

Alien vs Predator (2004) - I remembered a lot of this movie but still enjoyed it, the crossover was fantastic and well executed.

Alien vs Predator Requiem (2007) - I wasn't sure if I'd watched this before but after a while I remembered bits of it. It felt like it was an action movie that was filmed with a black filter, it was very difficult to make out much of anything. The movie itself had some very dark elements to it (child chest burster and maternity ward scenes jump to mind), it's my least favourite of the movies so far.

Predators (2010) - This was an interesting spin on the Predator franchise and I really enjoyed it as a standalone action movie, it didn’t feel like it had a lot of depth to it though, it was however interesting to see the two types of Predator.

The Predator (2018) - I enjoyed this movie as an action movie, it had more going on that the Predators movie, but I still felt it quite lacking in substance.

Prometheus (2012) - Although there are some things I don’t like about this movie (the being chased by a rolling ship and running in a straight line!) I really enjoyed this movie as a re-watch. I thought it was trash the first time I watched it, but this time around it worked.

Alien: Covenant (2017) - A great continuation from Prometheus and introduces David’s Xenomorphs but also the potential conflict of Alien and Predator being in the same universe as it’s the type of xenomorph we see in the Alien vs Predator movies. This leaves me conflicted in does the Alien franchise begin with Prometheus? Or does it begin with Alien vs Predator. I’ve thought about this through the month and read other people’s articles on this, and I am of the belief that xenomorphs are an ancient race created by the black goo, David managed to unlock the same sort of xenomorphs we’re used to seeing through his genetic experiments. The xenomorphs and eggs we are used to are seen early on in Prometheus as pictures/statues before David actually creates them.

Alien: Earth - I really enjoyed this tv series and seeing more of the synth development as well as the corporations on Earth and how they fit into the universe.

Alien (1979) - Often when you watch the newer sci-fi movies that are meant to be in the past they do a terrible job, making everything sleaker and more advamced. In Alien that isn't the case, the tech seems to be somewhat the same, which I really like. They did a fantastic job. Even today Alien stands up as a suspense sci-fi horror.

Alien Romulus (2024) - Fantastic follow up to the oeiginal Alien, showing us what happened to the xeno that Ripley purged into space. The ending hybrid xeno thing was... I have no words. It ruined the movie though.

Aliens (1986) - An excellent sci-fi action that is riddled with iconic one liners and flashbacks to my youth, still standing the test of time. It’s a great movie but from memory, the end of the greats…

Alien 3 (1992) - In my head this movie was absolutely terrible, however I found it really enjoyable and thought it was a good movie on a whole. I feel the end of this should have been the end of Ripley’s story though, not to the whole Alien franchise as they’re not bound to Ripley, but there should not have been…

Alien Resurrection (1997) - … This travesty. To begin with the cloning of Ripley felt very ‘ugh’ and to end with, the mutation Xeno-Ripley thing was just too much for me. The middle bit of the whole movie was great, enjoyable, and seeing Sigourney Weaver, Ron Perlman, and Winona Ryder together was heart throbbing. I feel the movie could have worked 200 years after Alien 3 without Ripley being involved, however much I love her.

Station 11 - What an absolutely fantastic show! It showed a dystopian earth but with a focus on culture surviving, not just the human race. It had some dark moments, some things I’d not seen on TV before, the acting was superb, and the casting of Kirsten through her ages was amazing! Highly recommend this show, expect to feel some emotions!

Only Murders In The Building, Season 5 - Another amazing season! I didn’t think they’d be able to keep pulling this off but it’s such a well written show with such a star filled show each time. I’m very eager to see what they do with the next season.

Music…

While in London I popped into FOPP and picked up Queen - A Kind of Magic on vinyl which has been on my wishlist for some time, it’s a great place for records, there are so many and I can see myself visiting more often when in London. I had a good listen to the record which gave me some very happy feels.

I went to see Wet Leg perform live at The Guildhall in Portsmouth which was so much fun and made me feel quite emotional when they came on stage. I’ve not been so into a band or artist in many years as I am with them, I feel they kind of recapture my youth.

Speaking of my youth, at the end of the month I fell down a Placebo hole which gave me this nostalgic desire to listen to some of the old bands I used to listen to when I was 15 odd which was an absolute blast! It also re-introduced me to Kittie, a band I was really into when I was 15 and I remember a friend coming back from America with the newly released Spit album as a gift, which I adored. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Kittie released a new album last year and they still maintain that contrasting harsh and soft vocals I loved.

Photography…

Tv Mode (Shutter Priority) was what we learnt at the end of last month, although I wasn’t present for it as it was over the half term, but with a 5 minute lesson with my teacher and my new trusty book, I managed to do the homework. These photos were taken seconds apart with the first one (on the left) taken at 1/800 sec (yes it is spinning) and the second one (on the right) taken at 1/5 sec. Initially I took the picture just on a plain white background but that didn’t seem to look right, so I added a chain around it to give it a bit ‘more’ to the photos. It was a fun experiment and I look forward to fiddling with this setting more in the future. In the gallery below you can find a couple of photos of my child helping me experiment using a sparkler, which I’m really chuffed with.

After working on Shutter Priority we went full (minus focus) manual and learnt to create the images that we made in Shutter and Aperture Priority which I rather enjoyed.

While in London I took my camera up with me and took a few photos of the city in manual mode which was good fun and I really enjoyed going down Leake Street and taking photos of the graffiti. It was fun taking photos in London however I was quite pressed for time so didn’t get to do quite as much as I would have liked to, in the future I think a day trip to London just for photography is on my cards.

I also took a little trip to Portchester to visit the market, while I was there I went down to the Castle and took a few more photos in full manual mode (including on the bridge, so I had to use the ring focus), I really enjoyed this experiment although I found I was focusing on the wrong things (but have since learnt how to adjust the focus with the analogue stick) which didn’t quite get the exposure how I wanted it. It’s all an experiment and I learn from my failures though.

There were some fantastic clear nights this month so I tried taking a few photos and experimenting with my different lenses for astroshots. The 50mm prime lens I have is fantastic for taking in a broad night sky as it can take in so much more light than my other lenses. My 10-18mm lens is terrible for night time shots as it doesn’t let in enough light. I didn’t bother using my 18-150mm as it’s the same f stop as the 10-18. I did use me 100-400mm and managed to get a fairly decent shot of Venus (I think?) which involved trying to keep the tripod stable.

November 2025