Pets Galore!

 Howdy!

It's been a long time! I last wrote a blog about my personal life back in March! 

Part of the reason was that very little happened during Spring Term. Though, having re-read that blog, I've remembered I promised a double blog which never materialised. My apologies.

For the entirety of Spring Term, I was stuck at home because of lockdown. That was really annoying, in part because the seminars for one of my modules would have taken place in the Agriculture building - Agriculture being where my great-grandmother did her course.

Pippin's a sentimental dog.

I went back to Reading shortly before the start of the Summer Term. At my flat, it was only me and two of the other boys; most people wouldn't return until late May. There were no modules in the Summer Term - instead, there were revision sessions in preparation for exams. Unfortunately, exams are still necessary at university. I also had to do a project essay - a mini-dissertation! It's three thousand words long, and on a topic of your choice. I chose to do mine on the Wars of the Roses - specifically, the extent to which the personality of Richard, Duke of York, played a role in the escalation of the Wars. Not, as some might think, the famous Richard III - his uncle, who was also called Richard, Duke of York. The first Richard, like his nephew, stole the throne from the rightful king, but did not live long enough to enjoy his new crown. My conclusion was that York's personality did play a major role; I ended up getting a 2-1 (upper Second Class). For the exams, I utilised the tried-and-tested strategy of writing flash-cards. It worked, though I had to write an insane number of flashcards - and that was only looking at three sections of each module! The exams themselves were online - they started at 10 in the morning, and you had 23 hours to write them. We had to write between 800 and 1,500 words in each exam - happily, I was able to consistently achieve around 1,200-1,300 words. I did well - I got an A in two exams, a B in three exams, and a D in one exam.

Oreo demanding FOOD!

Another important thing - I found a house for next year! Of course, that was back in March...

I'm moving in with three other people - two boys and a girl. They're all nice, and I'm looking forward to living with them next year.

During the final weeks of term, I had a lot of fun going for long walks. This will probably sound hilariously ironic to anybody who knew me when I was in Africa... On my last full day (the day before I went home) I walked for about 2 and a half hours along the River Sennet - it runs through Reading. It was a fun walk, though very tiring. Though it wasn't 2.5 hours in one direction, 2.5 in the other, it was 2.5 in total.

Term ended on the 8th of June; the 13th was my sister's 18th birthday. To celebrate, I cooked her a three-course meal - vol-au-vents, egg-fried rice with sweet and sour sauce, and millionaire shortbread. We also went on holiday from the 13th to the 19th, to Norfolk, though I don't know whether that was to celebrate, or just a holiday. One of Karys' friends came with us - they met at a Scouts trip to Madagascar a couple of years ago.

Sunset at the beach

The stay in Sheringham, Norfolk was fun - we spent a lot of time at the beach. We also discovered a new dish, called dirty fries - chips with meat, cheese and condiments. On the way back, we visited some friends - the place we stayed in belonged to them. Though in sadder news, during the holiday, we learned that Granny has breast cancer. She's still around, thankfully, and had an operation on the 10th of August- she's currently (at the time of writing) recuperating, and doing better than expected. We also drew with chalk on a seaside mural - others had done it before. An old man saw and got upset with us, which upset Karys - on her birthday! Though in fairness, the guy didn't know that.

I also, during the summer, started a series of posts, reviewing Doctor Who episodes. Specifically the ones where the Doctor regenerates, because I'm a nerd. Though don't feel guilty if you haven't read them: only three are out. Also, my parents have warned me that it's pretty niche; though on the other hand, writing them has been a lot of fun, even if very few people have read them.

Sheringham from on top of a hill

I've also gotten a job! Well, two jobs. One is looking after people's cat's while they go on holiday. Sam, Frodo and Fern were return clients, naturally. Progress has been made with Fern - after two years of feeding him periodically every summer, he is now comfortable enough with me to let me stroke him! Frodo and Sam were as friendly as ever. Also, one evening, Frodo smacked Sam in the face, then ran off...for no reason at all. Cats are strange. It was particularly amusing because I was re-reading Lord of the Rings at the time, and the contrast between the Hobbit Frodo and the cat Frodo could not be greater.

A new client was Oreo, Karys' cat. Now that Karys has her own place, she can go on holiday, necessitating leaving her cat behind (yay?...). So I have to look after him. Oreo's the only cat I feel comfortable picking up, though that is partially because I've done that almost all his life. He's a middle-ground between Fern and Frodo and Sam: I stick around to keep him company, but only really need to stay until he's eaten. I also got to look after two dogs, a cat and...around half a dozen fish. All belonging to the same family. Due to dogs being more care-intensive than cats, I had to stay in the house; it was quite pleasant. The dogs are very friendly: one is two, and the other is around eleven. The cat's the same age, though I didn't see much of her, and I didn't ask the fish their ages. Did feed them, and avoided killing them. The dogs weren't allowed upstairs, though the older one (Alby) kept sneaking up anyway, partly because the younger dog (George) kept play-biting him in fits of boisterousness.

Apparently he wanted a cuddle. Instead, I laughed at him for forgetting how to get off the counter. No wonder he looks annoyed.

And it's cat pictures all the way down!

I also got to visit my cousins, Neve and Huw, with my mum and dad. It was nice to spend time with them. Neve's almost ready for primary school - she starts in September! Huw turns three a month later, in October. We spent the afternoon at Will and Hel's place. I was in charge of looking after Neve and Huw, because the elder adults wanted to sit and chat, but the children wanted to play games. It was enjoyable, especially because Huw has an adorable habit of jumping up and shouting "My go!" when his turn comes. Neve got bored eventually and wandered off, then the games kind of devolved into me and Huw basically cheating.

In other family news, my cousin Christi (who was in Africa at the same time as me) had her first child in early June; he's called Immanuel. I made a Minicraft fox cub toy for him. Minicraft toys are (were...) sewing kits where you could make your own toys - I loved them when I was younger. I made loads, including my own fox cub. I also made a lot last summer. Sadly, the Minicraft toys stopped being produced a few years back; it does rather explain their scarcity on internet shopping sites. The fox cub arrived safely, and both Immanuel and his parents seem very happy with it, which is nice. Minicraft came full circle in a way: one of my first toys, Kigi, comes from a line which went out of production almost two decades ago now; as Christi said to me, when thanking me for the fox cub, I loved Kigi literally to bits. Now a new member of my family has his own toy, from a now-discontinued line, which he will in turn love to bits. More than one new member, though: Neve and Huw also have Minicraft toys, which I made for them last summer, and I made a toy for each of Sarah's nephews and nieces. Considering Minicraft is no longer producing, I sure managed to find a lot of kits!

Sleepy Pippin in the shade!