Project 365 – January

Project 365 is sort of like a diary. Every day, a picture is selected and a little diary entry is written about the day. This acts as a living journal, though some post daily, some weekly, and some like me, post monthly. I am participating with a bunch of other bloggers, to write about our day to day lives! You can read all about January here, and hopefully as the year continues you can watch how my life changes and grows. If you want, you can also check out the other bloggers participating at the bottom of this post.

January 1st – Fireworks at the Sea

We started off the new year with a bang – literally. We went to South End to see the fireworks above the ocean. It was a cold and windy night, but well worth it to look at the display. It was Southend’s first time doing a New Year Firework show, and I look forward to seeing it again next year!

January 2nd – New Year Starting

January 2nd was a day of trying to get tasks done, as the New Year always comes with lots of thinking and finishing tasks off. We took a lot of stuff down to St. Clare’s to donate it after planning the menu for the week. Dann found a fun hat there that we took a picture of. Robin and Amelia then had two friends over each from the afternoon onwards, so it was a very busy day.

January 3rd – Warwick Castle Light Trail

On January 3rd, we all went out to Warwick Castle to explore both the castle and their light trail. Light trails are a real favorite of our family and Dann and I had wanted to take our children to Warwick Castle since we stayed there earlier last year. It’s a fantastic way to get a little history in and be out and about! Everyone had a lovely time, which you can read about in our review of the Light Walk at Warwick Castle.

January 4th – Frost

January 4th was a quieter day. Amelia finished off the painting she had been working on for about a week and we played a lot of video games. Kai started with his personal trainer for his desire to go to the gym. I spent some time finishing off some work that needed to be done, despite it being a weekend, but I did go outside and take some photos of the frost on the ground, as it’s a cold day.

January 5th – Kentwell Hall Light Trail

Dann and I always go on a light trail or two with our friend Claire and her partner. January 5th was one of those dates, at Kentwell Hall, which is a light trail Claire picked out, close to her home. Before the light trail, Dann and I played Pokemon Go for the day, it was a community day, so we were out from 2 onwards. I caught 30 shinies and had a fantastic time hanging out with friends. We then headed off to the light trail, meeting up with Claire and David. The trail itself was neat, you can read about it in our review of Kentwell Hall Enchanted Light Trail, before heading to Claire’s for pinball and dinner. She made a lovely vegan curry.

January 6th – First Day Back at Work

This was the first Monday, which is a day back at work. As it’s the start of the week, I didn’t have a whole lot going on work-wise, and just spent the day getting through my tasks and getting ready for the new year. I finished off the final edits on my book, which is exciting, and did lots of boring tasks. In the evening, Dann went out to DnD and I watched a move before going to bed.

January 7th – Tabletop

Every other Tuesday we host a dinner party! This day, specifically, I had a lot of work before we went out for Spotlight Hour to play Pokemon Go. I actually got a few shinies! Then I came home and cooked up a vegan creamy mushroom pasta and made some chicken on the side. Wendy and Josie brought desserts, Claire brought drinks. We ate, talked, and then played this Revenge of the Dictators until nearly midnight.

January 8th – Pokemon Go

January 8th was particularly cold, so after a day of work, we went out to Raid Hour in the Pokemon Go Harlow group that I am one of the ambassadors of. We brought free hot coco and did our first food bank collection of the new year. It was a very fun event! Afterwards, a few of us went out for food at Mui and Koko, and then to the new vampire movie. The movie had a lot of jump scares and screaming, wasn’t my favorite so far this year.

January 9th – Speaking at Loading Bar

It’s always good to get along to Good Game Dev Club, though often we have other things going on. This time, we made it a priority as I was asked to be the speaker on their one-year anniversary. I do really enjoy giving talks! Everything went super well, people had lots of interesting questions, and a few even bought me some drinks. It was a good end to an otherwise uneventful workday.

January 10th – Under the Sea Cupcakes

Friday was absolutely a packed day. Dann and I spent the day shopping at Costco getting the house ready. Then, we grabbed the kids from school, Robin went to Gymnastics, Kai had two friends over, and Amelia and I went to the Under the Sea Cupcake Class, which was so much fun! We got back quite late before just going off to bed – it was a packed day but a fun one.

January 11th – Uptown Errands

On this Saturday, we had so many little tasks to do. After spending the morning meal planning, for Kai who has a personal trainer now, we went uptown to grab new school shoes for Amelia and Robin. They also handed in their paintings for the Harlow Open, which Amelia had entered last year. We got both their pieces submitted before running into their friends Marie and Eddy, who were also handing in art. Then, we played Pokemon Go for Raid Day with a bunch of people, including their friends Violet and Nick. It was fun but we ended up pretty tired after playing outside in the cold. Kai went off the to gym and then we had dinner at home.

January 12 – Paradox Museum

Sunday Funday! We wanted to go out and do an activity fit for everyone. So, the morning started off slow with Kai going to the gym and our girls doing their homework and schooling. Once Kai was back, we all made lunch, before heading off into London. It wasn’t that far out and Dann got us there swiftly, before we entered the museum. The thing with visiting stuff in London, especially hyped up stuff, is that you never really know what to expect. We ended up having a fantastic time in the end – even Kai was entertained! Afterword, we headed home and got ready for school the next day.

January 13 – Girls Night

Every other Monday is particularly busy in our household. I’m normally the first one up, packing lunches and plating breakfast, with Dann downstairs shortly after. Everyone follows about half an hour later, and then it’s the normal routine of packing bags, brushing hair and getting ready for the school run. Dann and I then had work for the day, with Dann making lunch for me. Soon it was time to pick up our kids and start the chaos! Mondays, Kai goes to kids DnD then Adult DnD at Geek Retreat. They normally don’t let his age group into adult, but as Dann is there, they are ok with it. The rest of us do go to Geek Retreat for the start of his kids DnD, so the girls can get milkshakes and play a board game. Then, us girls depart shortly after and I make dinner while Dann hangs out there until his DnD. After dinner, we head to Max Monday, where Amelia and Robin have a few friends they play with while catching Pokemon. We then head home and settle in for the night, watching a movie, doing face masks and painting our nails. It’s always a really fun girly evening that everyone looks forward too.

January 14th – Average Day

Tuesday felt like a very average day. The morning was an easy bit of chaos, with getting lunches packed and kids off to school. Tuesday I often have a lot of meetings, which I attend and general work. We have an event at one of my jobs coming up, which everyone is working up too. In the evening, Dann made dinner and then we headed out to Spotlight Hour. As the temperature isn’t so brutal, we had a few handfuls of people, which was nice to see. The above picture is from Spotlight Hour. (Which is a Pokemon Go Weekly event). We then headed home and I got on with some housework before bed.

January 15th – Hair Refresh

This was an extremely busy day; we woke up early, got some house work done, and then headed out before noon to help one of Dann’s friends with a bunch of little tasks that needed a car. Afterwards, we decided to go out to The Green Man pub for lunch together. This was quite a big lunch, before we headed home for a bit, then I went to get my hair done at a local hair salon. This was such a fun time, though it was very long as I had some bleaching done! I finished up right at the start of Raid Hour, which was so much fun, then I went back home for a bit and Dann went to play Magic with his friends. We met back up and one of his friends joined us to the movies, where we watched A Real Pain. It was a comedy, but a bit slow paced.

January 16th – Friends and Food

In the New Year, we are trying to have friends over every week. This time, it was Robin and Amelia’s turn. One of Amelia’s friends ended up sick and couldn’t make it, but everyone who came had a great time! There was the normal after-school judge of Robin going to gymnastics, Kai to the gym, then people appearing slowly from after school. They drew, played board games and played video games. A lot of loud fun was had! I had the task of making some dinner that Kai had picked out, which was a lot of weighing for his trainer, but he ended up enjoying it! I made a more kid-friendly dinner for everyone else. Then, once the house was quiet, homework was done, Dann made me popcorn and I headed off to bed shortly after.

January 17th – Bookstore Shopping

Friday, a day of school and a day of work. This Friday felt very average; early morning start, video games before school, then everyone heading off and doing some work. After school, Kai went to the gym and Robin was looking to go to Waterstones in our town to pick out some new books. She had gotten a comic book in the mail and wanted to find a few others as she read it so fast. We ended up getting three books she wanted and headed back home to hang out and play. Kai came back from the gym, we ate dinner, and then I had a long phone call with my dad into the evening. It was just an average Friday.

January 18th – Surprise Board Game

If you have seen the blog for long enough, you know we play a lot of board games. On Saturday morning, Robin was getting a little bored with screens and went upstairs to grab some of her Christmas gifts, which included this big pack of clay. At first, her and Amelia made some glasses and rings, and rainbows. Then, Amelia started designing a board game with Robin. All of us, apart from Kai, did a few rounds of it, with the rules sort of changing as time went on. It was a really neat idea and I am glad to see Amelia taking after her dad and creating these sort of things. Dann and I spent the afternoon playing Pokemon Go with some friends, taking on shadow raids.

January 19th – Extremely Busy Day

It was such a busy day, one where we were barely home! We started off the day going out to Chinese Hot Pot at our local Chinese School. They do a bunch of cooking classes, and I have been volunteering to help with their ticket sales, running the door. It’s been a really fun time, and there is so much tasty food. The hot pot had fish balls, various meats and veggies, it was fantastic and great to see so many friends. We then went over for Ho-oh Raid Day in our town, which is another event I run, as a Niantic Ambassador. We did over 30 raids and I ended up with a fantastic shiny, so all was good. We then raced off to London to pop-in to a work event, a mixer, before heading to our friend Oscar’s birthday party, which was at a lobster and burger place. I had a lot of fun, and it was really challenging only picking one photo for today.

January 20th – Pocket Gamer Connects Day One

A lot of the work I’ve been doing for the past month has been for Pocket Gamer Connects. This is a massive event in London, that lasts two days, where I am running a Big Indie Pitch each day. This is a sort of pitching competition, that takes a lot of set up and runs for around 3 hours each day. On the first day of Pocket Gamer Connects, I had the first one in the afternoon, so a bit of an easy day at the venue looking at games and meeting people within the games industry. The pitch itself went extremely well, but was tiring. Dinner was with a bunch of friends, eating some of the best kimchi rice of my life. There are so many people in the games industry who I only see at events, and it’s fantastic to hang out with them. We then went to the day one after party, which is at Bounce, a Ping Pong bar. It was loud but the drinks were good and it was near our hotel, so we got to stay a bit late!

January 21st – Pocket Gamer Connects Day Two

The second day of Pocket Gamer Connects was even more work! At the very start of the day, I ran the second Big Indie Pitch, which ran from the morning until lunch. Then I had a little bit of time before my panel, which was full of fantastic people who were talking about the future of the games industry. Directly after my panel, I hosted the awards for the Big Indie Pitch, and then mingled until pack down from the event started. Dann and I went off to a pub for a bit, before joining the rest of Steel Media for our end of event dinner, and heading home. It was a long day, but a really satisfying one.

January 22nd – Toy Fair

Now, you’d think we’d be done with events after the last two days, but Dann and I were invited along to Toy Fair. Toy Fair is a fantastic show full of different types of games that are launching over the next year. We had a bunch of meetings, so arrived early and started getting to see the entire show. There was a lot going on! I always enjoy Toy Fair, even if it is meeting heavy and even if we have just done several days of events. We came home in time to go out to our Pokemon Go Raid Hour, which is always fun, and then we went with some friends to see the movie Wolf Man. This movie wasn’t fantastic, but it was ok to watch.

January 23rd – Working, mainly.

After such a busy week, we took the day to just work and catch up on work. After a Big Indie Pitch, there is a lot of articles to write and a lot of meetings that I need to attend. I also have been approved to write another book for my publisher, so need to sort out not getting too far behind, in order to make sure I have time for that. It was good to have a day of just relaxing. I did make this fantastic curry from the Little Big Flavours Kit, for a social media collab, which was fantastic. Otherwise, it was a pretty normal, work and then chill, day.

January 24th – Friday with Friends

Once a week, we like to have a collection of the children’s friends over. This happened to be today. Amelia had invited over two friends and Robin had one friend over from school – it was a blast. Dann and I had a pretty busy day and did a trip to Costco to be prepared for the next week; lots of meal planning as well, and once school let out our house was very full! Everyone drew, did face painting, played video games, Robin had a fashion show and a bunch of kids decorated rocks to donate to the Easter Harlow Rock Drop, a community group we are a part of. I was exhausted by the evening, and I think the girls were too. Kai’s going to have people over next week, which he is excited about.

January 25th – Connecting with our Community

We woke up on Saturday and got ready to do a litter pick! Our Pokemon Go community collabs with a local Litter Picking group to host a litter pick every few months on a Saturday morning. All of the kids got really into it and Amelia and Robin even had friends attending. We ended up picking up a lot of trash and really cleaning up an area, which is such a lovely thing to do. We went home to get homework done and have lunch, before Kai went to the gym and the rest of us went out to play Pokemon Go. It was a community day, and we all got a lot of shinies! After dinner, Dann and I nipped up to a friend’s birthday party from our Pokemon Go group, which was so much fun, before returning in time to put the kids to bed.

January 26th – Bubble Planet

Sunday was a day of resets, of getting the house back together after the weekend and getting ready for the week ahead. We did want to go out and do something, so after Kai was back from the gym and we all had lunch, we headed out to Bubble Planet. I wasn’t sure if this was going to be a super fun place (full review coming soon), but we had an awesome time, even if it was a bit expensive! Everyone was equally exhausted by the time we got back for dinner and getting ready for bed, so it was a fun end to the weekend.

January 27th – A Busy Monday

Monday’s are busy in our household. It’s a day of getting everyone ready and out the door for school, then diving into work meetings. I work in video games, and on Monday I have a lot of planning meetings for social media for Toya Play Studio. Once it’s time to pick up our kids, it becomes a whole hectic chaos. Well all went from school to Geek Retreat, to play a board game and for Kai to start his DnD. He does two DnD sessions on Mondays, the first being a kid’s DnD. Amelia, Dann, Robin and I got shakes and played Oh, My Pigeons! which was a fairly simple game. We then headed off home to make dinner before Dynamax Monday in Pokemon Go. We had a new Spam dish for dinner, which Robin was excited to try, as she loves Spam. Once we were done, we went to Pokemon Go and took on some max battles. Dann then went up to join Kai at DnD for adults, and get dinner with him. I took our girls shopping, we got some extra treats, then went home to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender (the movie), do face masks, paint our nails, and have snacks. Then, it was bedtime and cleaning up from the day.

January 28th – Just Work, Really!

Some days, we don’t go out or have people over. Today, it was raining. After the school run, I went straight into work and continued doing so until the evening. There were a lot of things to do around the house, especially as Amelia’s PE kit was particularly muddy including her shoes, and there was a lot of work that needed to be done. I also re-potted a bunch of new plants we got from Costco, as they had an indoor plant sale, which has brightened up the house so much more. In the evening, we did go out to Spotlight Hour in Pokemon Go, but due to the rain it was a very small group and short time out in the cold, before we decided to come back home. It’s a simple day for us, but Dann did cook some tasty food and I quite enjoyed a day in.

January 29th – A lunch date

Dann and I went on a date to Flatford, to see their tea shop’s menu. We haven’t been there before and were pretty excited to go somewhere new. We walked around Flatford for a bit, looking at all the birds and at the lock on the river. It’s a very peaceful place! We then had our lunch and headed back home to work a bit. In the evening, we went out to Raid Hour in Pokemon Go, where we had a very good turnout. One of Dann’s friends came back home to ours for dinner, where Dann made a Vietnamese noodle salad with turkey for us all, and then we met up with another person to go to the movies. We saw Flight Risk which was okay!

January 30th – Friends Over

Before the after school rush, I had a pretty normal day of work and getting the house ready for the afternoon. Kai had asked to have his friends over today, which is a bit of a juggle! Dann grabbed Kai and one of his friends from school, then Amelia and brought them all home. Kai and his friend changed to go to the gym, then Dann grabbed Robin from school. Robin has a new after school club that she’s super pumped about, Drama, which she very much enjoyed. She then came home, changed for her gymnastics, and then Dann drove her to gymnastics and the boys to the gym. The house was quite for a bit, so Amelia played her drums and we chatted, before Dann got back and we set up Kai’s room for friends. Dann then picked up everyone from their clubs and gym, bringing them home, just as another one of Kai’s friends arrived. Teenage boys are so loud! Even though they were primarily upstairs, we could really hear them. It’s always great to have friends over, so I am glad they had so much fun, I am just always surprised about how loud they all get. I made dinner, did some cleaning, and they stayed until a bit late as Kai didn’t have school the next day. We all then got ready to bed and cleaned up, before going to bed.

January 30th – Fun Friday

As mentioned yesterday, Kai has no school today! That is quite fun for him, I suppose. I woke up at the normal time and did the normal morning lunch packing / PE kits packed / getting bags ready. Amelia and Robin were woken up for school. I had made muffins earlier this week so that’s what Amelia had, but Robin requested jam donuts. In the jam donut bag I had purchased, there were only ring donuts! Absolutely funny start to the day, but we made it work with jam to dip. After they were off to school, Kai got up and had breakfast and has been working on his art homework and playing video games. Whenever one of our children have a day off school, but the others don’t, we let them pick a place to eat out. Kai, of course, picked wings (I am so delighted I love Wing Shack, however Wing Shack wasn’t open in the end, so we went to Wing Stop). Dann and I got Original, a classic. Kai got BBQ. In the afternoon, we picked up our girls and headed to an escape room. This one was Alice in Puzzleland, which was extremely fun despite looking sort of small. Due to an accident on the road, we decided to eat out as it would have taken ages to get home, so we got TGI Fridays. As Robin said, it IS Friday. We did get home in time for Kai to go to the gym, Robin to make pin badges and play on VR, and Amelia to do her drumming – all in all, a great end to the month.