General…

It’s now been a full year since I first set up Sighing Bear on Squarespace and as a domain. The initial idea for the space has changed over that year, and I’m now quite happy using it as my hobby and blogging space. It’s useful for connecting with friends and family around the world without having to message people individually, acting as a social media platform. I’ve dabbled with using a newsletter-style update so I could remove social media entirely, but that’s an additional cost. For now, I’ll stick with posting my monthly blog to social media.

At the start of the month I took my child up to London to visit GOSH for their first psychology appointment and their monthly(ish) physio appointment. We had a really good time while up there and did a lot of walking! However, walking back I went over on my ankle which made it quite painful to walk so we grabbed a taxi back to the station, it was really lovely how my child tried to look after me. On a whole the day was really good and showed me how much my child has grown and become more responsible since we first started going up to London - Next on the list is tackling their worries about using the tube.

Min and I went down to Southsea for a little walk, to check out some shops, and while we were down there we went to visit Hoggies which has been on our list of places to eat for a while now. The food was great and very filling! I also discovered Barr Dandelion & Burdock there which brought childhood memories of living up North back, also some memories of my Mum. I have since ordered a case for the house which is a daily treat to myself. We also popped into Croxtons, which I have said make the best espresso martini’s, I’ve stuck with that for years now, and my opinion hasn’t changed!

I had a lovely time visiting Justasia in North End with Rachel this month, I highly recommend checking out the place if you’re ever near there and enjoy Filipino food, it was great. As an added bonus Rachel used to live in the Phillippines so had some views on the authenticity - she really enjoyed it and it brought back childhood memories. It was great getting out with a new(ish) friend and trying new places to eat. I think it is really important to try new places and experience more of what life has to offer rather than sticking to the same old.

There’s been a lot of hype coming from Once We Were Spacemen (Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk) with the original cast of Firefly, using the hashtag #bringbackfirefly and on the 15th of March they revealed all. Unfortunately it wasn’t the kind of reveal that I was hoping for, more of a teaser than anything else. Yes they’ve got Whedon’s blessing, Disney/20th Century’s interest, and other things in place, but they still have to pitch it, so there’s no guarantee. I’m hopeful as it seems it will be filling the gap between Season 1 and Serenity, hopefully answering some of the questions, and I understand the hype is needed to show the big wigs the interest is out there… But I was hoping for something more solid. I feel a bit Firefly burnt after the attempted Firefly game a few years back that never really went anywhere.

I originally bought a laptop for portable gaming, but the laptop ended up staying in my study connected to my monitor through a makeshift DP cable that it didn’t really support, so I forked out for a new system to actually be a dedicated desktop. My study desk space is really coming together now and making me feel quite happy to work at.

The hot tub came out to play this month and after a lot of fiddling with the chemical levels it finally reached a point of being usable! It was so nice to spend evenings and some mornings in the tub, especially the mornings when the sun was up. I also bought a privacy screen to go up alongside the hot tub to make things a bit more private and allow me to enjoy my naturistic ways without alarming the neighbours!

At the end of the month we had the usual gang over for some board games where we continued with the next campaign in the Legend of Drizzt game. It was a lot of fun as we removed all house rules and played bog standard rules, which was quite a challenge and by the end it looked like we were going to be completely wiped out - however - Linda dropped in and saved the day, very quickly turning the game around! It was so fun to play with everyone and have a good catch up.

Min picked up Visibility and has been using it to try and help with their pacing. It’s surprising what is high and low intensity. However it seems the app and device isn’t all that reliable as it was saying they should be capable of doing things on days they were crashing, and on days they were feeling like they could do stuff it was telling them they were crashing. So for something that’s so expensive and something that NHS officials kept pushing Min to get, it’s very disappointing - at least in the future they can tell practitioners about their experience with it when they suggest it to them.

Rum Club…

I wasn’t very happy with the rum club I was doing as it felt very overpriced and I hadn’t enjoyed the rums that had arrived, so I’ve changed it up a bit. There’s some rums I’ve wanted to try but never got around to trying it, so I’m going to pick those for the next few, then Min is going to take charge and surprise me. So I’m personalising Rum Club and will start it properly next month. Rum of the Month in April will be Kraken - Roast Coffee if you fancy trying it with me.

Game on…

Guild Wars 2

Janthir Wilds - I really loved the setting of Janthir Wilds and the story that went alongside it. It was a fantastic expansion and the addition of having your own homestead was an added bonus!

Visions of Eternity - I’ve completed all I can up to this point but I believe this is a two part expansion as it only had 8 chapters, if however there’s not more to come then it was a rather rubbish story, but I don’t think that’s the case. It was great getting more lore on the seers. I also loved the underwater mechanics!

Living World 1 - I really enjoyed the pre-story of this and getting some more insight into the main story, however I really found Rox to be so annoying, the voice/writing sounded really out of character.

Power Wash Simulator 2 - I revisited this game to finally complete the achievement that was bugged when I first played it, so I’m now at 100% in my Steam achievements (yay) but they also released a new free map, so I spent some time working on that. I enjoy this game as it lets me chill, but also gives my brain time to think about what’s going on in my life, get a bit of perspective on what’s going on.

Resident Evil Requiem - So this came free with my new computer and I thought it could be a bit of fun to play. Visually it’s an absolutely stunning game and I imagine the story is on par to other Resident Evil games I played when I was younger -however- I don’t play games to be tense these days, the ongoing suspense waiting for that jump scare didn’t do it for me. So unfortunately it’s a game that will not be finished (or properly started). I think at my age I’m looking for more relaxed games.

Shows & Movies…

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Season 15 - Episode 11/ Episode 12, 13, 14, 15 - I’ve decided to stop doing an entry for each episode as a) I was paying more attention to taking notes than I was enjoying the show and b) It was a bit samey. Instead I’ll do an end of season thing I think. In any case my views still stay strongly on Amanda being a terrible person and I feel that she is acting this persona rather than showing who she is. I feel the other housewives hit it on the head, she’s promoting her business to everyone, treating the housewives like they paid to join one of her classes. I’m also deeply suspicious that she’s used what she knows of being in a cult to head up her own business based on cult ideas.

Justified, Season 2 - I’m really enjoying all the twists and turns of this show and Season 2 had plenty of them, however, Season 1 was vastly superior.

Justified, Season 3 - A great season which I thoroughly enjoyed watching. I really enjoyed the introduction of Limehouse and his character, as well as seeing more Dixie Mafia story.

Celebrity Traitors, Season 1 - Oh god this was so addictive and neither of us could stop watching it! We binged the entire season over about two days and I have no regrets - it’s a must watch!

Ladies of London, Season 1& Season 2 - Being a fan of the Real Housewives shows it’s been interesting watching Ladies of London Season 1 and comparing the US and the UK ladies directly, there is a very different feel to them. It’s also interesting being back in the UK and the difference between the fashion in the UK and the US, in the US shows it’s all Gucci, Dolce, Cartier, etc. things I consider more mainstream fashion, while in the UK it’s names I don’t know, which makes sense as I have no clue about fashion. It’s an entirely different league. I really enjoyed watching this season and look forward to getting through the others.

Batman: The Dark Knight - I love the version of the Joker in this, Heath Ledger is fantastic! Bale makes a great Batman, but he’s no Keaton, but I would say he’s my second favourite and the Bale trilogy is a great trilogy.

Pillion - So, Aleksander Skarsgard playing a gay biker role was kind of a big selling point for me with this movie. It’s a fantastic movie and I really enjoyed it, in some places it made me get a bit teary. However, there’s a lot of things that really didn’t feel right about it, but the main points were the lack of consent and no signs of safe sex in it. I felt the movie could have been great and educational.

American Werewolf in London - When I was younger (about 5 I think) I managed to watch this as the VHS had been left in the player, it gave me nightmares for years. This month I watched it with Min and it was a fantastic movie, I can see how it would have scared me at such a young age, that transformation was great, even by todays standards. The movie was good fun and had lots of comical parts in it. I’m glad I went back and watched it. I now no longer fear werewolves.

Music…

There is a distinct possibility I may have indulged in buying vinyls this month… I may need to take a break next month!

I’ve been in a bit of a Doors mood this month, fortunately Min has access to their Dad’s old vinyl collection which had the albums Strange Days, Waiting for the Sun, and L.A. Woman, it’s been really great listening to these on vinyl rather than digital.

New Vinyls;

Bob Marley- Legend; An iconic album that takes me right back to being a kid, it’s an album I heavily associate with my Mum and it was lovely to listen to on vinyl. It did bring up some feelings, but on a whole it’s a lively album full of story.

Garbage - Garbage; Full of fantastic tracks with very distinct vocals. There’s so many songs on this album that I loved and brought back very fond memories.

Garbage - Beautiful Garbage; Firstly, what a lovely looking vinyl in milky white, it really stands out. Secondly, I’d forgotten how much I loved Garbage when I was younger. Androgyny was my first introduction to Garbage, I remember seeing the video on MTV and being smitten by it. The whole album is fantastic with some iconic songs.

Gwen Stefani - Love. Angel. Music. Baby; Woah! What a lovely shade of pink this vinyl is! When I spent two months in Australia I was listening to this album all the time so all these tracks are bringing back so many good memories. Shame Gwen went full Maga. Also listening at 33rpm really changes up the tracks!

Nirvana - Nevermind; I wasn’t so keen on Nirvana when I was younger as -everyone- was into them, however, after listening to the album I realised I knew most of the songs and I really enjoyed them. Fantastic album.

Photography…

This month I’ve been working on my coursework for the course which has mostly been a lot of writing and reading about legal stuff, which has been massively demotivating. However I have been doing some photo editing in Lightroom which has been rather fun to see photos that didn’t come out that great, but making them come back to life.

Below you can see the Before and After shots I took for my coursework, the original is on the left and the edited version is on the right.