It's been a busy month or so. I hosted a birthday party (the first on my own), the girls and I took a road trip to the beach and back via the Zoo and then there's been a decent amount of life admin as well. All-in-all I'm pretty proud of myself as certain aspects of life feel a bit more on-track than they used to be. With that being said, however, I've been having a few more moments than I used to where the reality of my situation kind of hits.

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Despite outward appearances at times, I do quite like cooking. I probably should cook more often but often it's down to convenience. After a long day at work or trying to fit something in when I have the kids, a microwave meal is the easiest way forward. I don't have to prep anything, I don't have to wash up after and, generally, they're not too bad overall.

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So the new year has gotten of to a typically slow start. We've mostly just hung out, played Minecraft and enjoyed each other's company. We did spend a lovely evening with friends yesterday though it was curtailed somewhat by a brief storm and rain. Nine spent a good chunk of time splashing around in the lake though, for safety, I made sure a shower was had when we got home as you just never know with public lakes. Ten joined in for a bit but then came back to where we were hanging out and chatted which was lovely.

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I find it interesting that, in life, we put a lot of weight on the future being better. Tomorrow will be better, there's always next week, or, as I thought, next year will be my year. This is a somewhat pessimistic view and, if I'm honest, I think looking at life that way is a good way to view life, but after a few tricky years I genuinely was looking forward to closing out 2023 and kicking off 2024 with a fresh outlook. As it turned out, 2023 ended very differently than I thought and 2024 became a very different year. There's been positives from it, for sure, and I look ahead to 2025 with the same "this will be my year feeling" and I guess, at least, this time, it's far more within my control.

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I'm a big fan of the Alien franchise, with my absolute favourite being Aliens, so much so I backed the excellent documentary, Aliens: Expanded. It's a four-hour long documentary filled with some really interesting stories, anecdotes and it was a fascinating watch. If you're a fan, it's worth the purchase. Anyway, when I heard that a new Alien movie was on the way I was both happy and apprehensive. Much like the Predator franchise, recent installments had been lacklustre, however, the existance of Prey filled me with a little bit of hope that, in the right hands, we might get a decent movie. So knowing that director Fede Álvarez's history being in horror movies, those feelings of hope increase and, after watching the movie this past week, I'm glad to report that we finally have a movie that adds to the franchise rather than detracts.

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It's been quite some time since I'd been to a Formula 1 Grand Prix. The last one was in 2005 though it was rather swanking in that it was at Monaco. However, the ticket I had was for general admission and was a lovely present from Cat. She couldn't come with me so I took my good friend Kieran instead and had a great time on race day watching Kimi Räikkönen emerge victorious driving for McLaren. From what I remember it was an entertaining race, well, as far as races at Monaco go, and I really enjoyed the atmosphere that even us plebs up in the cheap seats (so cheap we were standing) felt a part of it.

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