I woke up today to a very quiet house. My girlfriend was at work, and my cat was asleep.

For the first part of the day, I was watching countless videos on YouTube about gardening, DIY, and practically anything else that YouTube recommended to me. The cat was also popping down regularly for attention, before going back to sleep on the bed.

I did a tiny bit of programming in the afternoon, which is the first real but if work for the app I mentioned a while back. It’s still a secret, but at least it’s officially begun development. I didn’t get much done, as my mum and sister cane round for a coffee. Luckily for them, the cat was very active, and played with them for a while.

In the evening, I cooked dinner, and watched some more YouTube at the same time. And after I ate, I went to the pub with a friend for a couple of pints!

After I got back, we played with the cat a bit, and somehow ended up watching The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Just before yet another bank holiday weekend, I ended up working from home. There are some negatives to not being in the office with my team, but there are quite a lot of positives. One being the fact that I can go out for lunch with my girlfriend!

After work I managed to watch the live recording of The Instance, which is a video podcast about World of Warcraft and other Blizzard games. I never really get to listen/watch this as it’s about the time when I’m commuting home.

For dinner we had a Chinese takeaway. And afterwards I ended up watching Casino Royale, just because it happened to be on the TV when we finished. I’m not a die hard James Bond fan, but I can appreciate them if I’m coerced into watching them. Admittedly, it being on the same channel that the TV was tuned to wasn’t really coercion. It’s more a perspective of my laziness.

Just about the end of the working week, and it feels like it’s gone pretty fast!

After work I cooked pasta bake for myself and my girlfriend, and then I managed to watch the Arsenal game in between. We beat Valencia 3-1!

After that we played some Call of Duty on the PS3, and then attempted to play a board game. It was a trivia game about TV Shows and Movies, and it turns out that we’re too tired for that. So it’s time for bed.

So it was pretty much a carbon copy of yesterday.

I went to work, and as usual, had issues with the trains. I did some more web development, which I also coordinated with a designer on. That was the fist time I think that me and a designer have worked on something together, and i was honestly surprised by the results. Although I can’t share anything here unfortunately.

After work, I finally managed to see my girlfriend, after her two night shifts. We cooked quesadillas for dinner, and then I partially watched the Barcelona vs Liverpool game, and we also watched some random shows that she likes, and I secretly pay attention to.

I also got in a bit of World of Warcraft, and we played with the cat loads. So all-in-all, a pretty good day.

Today has been very much just getting back into the swing of things. I had some issues this morning with the trains, so that aspect was back to normal.

At work, our entire team, which was formed recently for a new project, is getting to a point where we have tangible results starting to appear. I personally have been doing a mix of server-side code in Java, some theory/diagrams, various configuration stuff, and a bit of web development. I’m by no means a web developer, but I have enough skills for an MVP that we’re working on, and it’s really fun. Although, Swift development will always be my primary focus.

After work, I had dinner which was cooked by my girlfriend. Again, because she was starting a night shift, and would leave before I arrived back home from work.

So because I had a few hours with not much to do, I went out in the evening for a coffee with a friend, and honestly not much else. I listened to some podcasts, and watched a couple of videos on YouTube. But mainly I’ve been doing nothing. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

It’s now 11 pm roughly, which is the time I aim to write this entry everyday. And after it’s published, I’m going to have an early¹ night”.

I’ll start with the boring stuff: I went to work, set up my new desk in our new floor, and worked on a project. When I got home, I ate my dinner that my girlfriend made before she left for a night shift, and I watched a few videos on YouTube.

However, tonight was a different story. I just watched Avengers: Endgame. I’m not going to spoil anything here, but I would like to announce that I finally have a favourite film. I’ve always had multiple “favourites”, but this one is everything.

Today started with a nice lie-in, followed by a disappointing performance by Arsenal as soon as I woke up. So nothing too great to dwell on.

Over on the blog, I did link to two articles today. The first being Matthew Cassinelli’s Reeder 4 review, and the second being a really interesting video about how someone turned an apartment into an indoor jungle. Well I thought I linked to these articles, but for some reason they apparently didn’t publish earlier. So I’ve literally hit the publish button while writing this.

I cooked another roast dinner, which was slightly better than before. But there are still some improvements to make. Such as broccoli with cheese sauce, and stuffing!

Tonight was spent playing various games. I played a tiny bit of World of Warcraft, Fifa, and No Mans Sky. I attempted to play Call of Duty and Overwatch on my PS4, but they were hidden behind huge hour long downloads. So alas, they will have to wait.

Ever since moving in to a new home with my girlfriend, I’ve been thinking of ways to add a bit more nature. We both like the look of plants, and having quite a lot of green in the house, but she would prefer fake ones, and I would prefer all real plants.

As I was watching videos about what other people have inside their house, I discovered a woman called Summer Rayne Oakes (@homesteadbrooklyn on Instagram). A channel called Barcroft TV have a great video of her apartment in New York, and shows how she fits in over 150 different plant species.

It’s absolutely incredible.

While I wouldn’t mind living in this apartment, I’m pretty sure whatever I go with, won’t be as crazy.

When I heard about Reeder 4 being released, I wasn’t quite sure what benefits it had over Reeder 3. Thankfully, Matthew Casinelli wrote a great piece:

iPad users who have been holding out hope for an update to Reeder for iOS can relax – a new version was released today with full support for all devices on all platforms and some interesting new features.

After reading the full article, you’ll have no surprise that I ended up purchasing the app.

You can find Reeder 4 on the App Store.

Me and my girlfriend had quite a lie in this morning, and after we got up we watched some television and I played some games on my Mac.

Eventually we went for lunch, which was actually a very late breakfast at our usual cafe. This was, of course, followed by a regular bit of shopping for house stuff.

In the early evening, I was out for a coffee, and also dinner at Wagamamas with friends.

While I was out, my girlfriend was watching Moana, so when I got back, I watched the rest. I also managed to convince her to watch Mighty Joe Young afterwards, as that was a film I watched loads growing up.

I also watched a few videos on growing indoor plants, which I really want to do. I don’t just want to grow a couple of basic plants in pots though, the videos I’ve been watching are people that have essentially, micro-forests in their house.