Dear Patreon #2

Are you there, Patreon? It’s me, Johnny.

Hi all, it’s been just over a week since I last checked in with one of these so I thought I’d fire off another little newsletter for your delectation. I can’t promise this one will be as upbeat as the last, but I’ll try my best! I hope you’ve all been having a lovely time since we last spoke.

Things I have been enjoying lately

No Hard Feelings by Wolf Alice. I used to be a big ol’ Wolf Alice fan and then sort of forgot about them until this track came on in a mix and I thought oh, this is lovely. It’s a bittersweet song about a relationship ending but the singer deciding that’s quite painful enough without complicating the situation further with bitterness.

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo is the sequel to the excellent supernatural novel Ninth House. Ninth was quite an intense read (and this one is looking to be along similar lines) but I find Bardugo’s writing so much more compelling in this series than I did in Shadow and Bone or Six of Crows. Highly recommended.

Warhammer 40k Boltgun is a boomer shooter, which is normally enough to put me off, but the lure of 40k got me to sit down and play this one for a bit and it is honestly brilliant. Stomping around like a big space marine and shooting at heretics feels simultaneously delicious and very messy, kind of like eating a plate of nachos when you’re too hungry to think straight. That’s not a very good analogy but I’m hungry and I haven’t started making dinner yet so there we are.

Popcorn. I’m eating a lot of it at the moment because I had one of those pancake day realisations that I can just… make some whenever I like? And nobody can stop me? Also it’s definitely not a skill but I’m really proud of how few unpopped kernels I get at the end of every bowl. It’s never more than half a dozen these days. Again, I don’t think this is a skill about which a person can reasonably boast but it feels like one and I am definitely proud. I prefer salted, if anyone is wondering.

Other bits

How’s Watson?

She’s ok but for the next 7-10 days I am going to be a big ball of nerves. Long story short she has a very small lump on her leg close to where she had a tumour last year. I took her to the vet today to get it sampled and we should hear back in a week or so. To be honest I’m fairly convinced her cancer has come back but the lump is tiny compared to the last one so if it is bad news, at least we’ve caught it very very early. I’ll keep you posted but for now if I seem out of sorts it’s because I’m worrying about a very sweet dog.

How’s Blood Bowl?

Slow going. Still haven’t wrapped up the game I mentioned last week, but there are plenty of other matches happening so at least the league is interesting.

How’s work?

Pretty good, thanks - I was frustrated not to do a painting stream this week but yesterday I was BIG SAD and today I was simply too tired after going to the vet. That said, it was lovely going to MCM last weekend and meeting some Lovely Skelly Pals in the flesh (and bone? I guess?) It was a very good time.

That’s all from me for now, I’m going to see about dinner.

Take care of yourselves!