Woah. How did it get to be November? It’s practically 2018!
The clocks have gone back, the nights are longer, the days are colder… but let’s take a look at the exciting things that happened in October, before we get too upset about the weather.
What BeckyBecky Did
ICYMI, October marked the beginning of my brand new job. I’m working at at Leeds NHS Trust doing PR for their recruitment department, and, four weeks in, it’s super interesting. I’ve done everything from create new leaflets to represent the trust at a career fair to help out with the Macmillan coffee morning on my second day!
Incidentally, while I’m definitely scaling back my company significantly, I still have a couple of clients… which means last month also marked Social Quirk’s fifth birthday. Hurray!
October also marked my 27th birthday, and my birthapalooza spanned for over two weeks. By the end of it, even I was kind of sick of my birthday – one week with the surrounding weekends is definitely long enough!
But as part of it I got to see tons of my favourite people. The birthapalooza kicked off with my parents and brother visiting, and we spent the day together. Later that week we went out for dinner at Tim’s parents’ place.
The day before my birthday we traveled down to London. We met with a friend for drinks, then a bunch more for a birthday meal, then Tim and I spent my actual birthday wandering around London, doing a spot of shopping, and generally relaxing. Saturday was a megagame, and on the Sunday we did some boardgaming.
One night the next week, Tim cooked for me. Then the following weekend was my EU-themed birthday party, where everyone came dressed up as an EU country, and brought a food and a drink from that country.
I got tons of awesome presents too! A few board games, various blogging accessories, two teeny Pop figurines, and lots more. And excitingly, I upgraded my phone (coincidentally, not because it was my birthday) and now have a nice shiny Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
Finally, right at the end of the month I joined the gym along with my friends Ellie and Laura. We’ve tried out one class so far (Ellie went to two on consecutive nights!) and I’m looking forward to getting some exercise back into my routine.
Where BeckyBecky Ate / Drank
Meals Out
As mentioned, my birthday involved a loooot of great food. As it should!
When my family visited, we went to Teppanyaki Leeds. It was my second time there, as I went with Tim before we started dating, and it was just as awesome as I remembered. I love Teppanyaki – it’s such a fun way to eat! Even more impressively, my brother enjoyed it too, and he’s quite a fussy eater.
Out of Yorkshire
Down in London for my birthday meal, we went to Bar Remo, an Italian place I found on TripAdvisor that fit the bill of “nice-sounding, mid-range Italian place that’s good for groups”. The food was great and the company even better. They even brought out an ice cream with a candle in while my friends sang “Happy Birthday”.
Later that evening we went to a bar I’d been wanting to visit for a while: London Cocktail Club. We visited the one just off Oxford Circus. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting to be honest… it was better. Totally relaxed, with fantastic music, foosball tables, and impressive cocktails. And again they spoiled me – I got a birthday sparkler in my drink, and a free test-tube shot.
The next day, Tim and I stopped by Hummingbird Bakery, where I foolishly ordered for the Insta. This rainbow cake was MASSIVE and there was no way I could finish it all… but it was totally worth it for the photo.
For dinner we went to a Korean place, Bibimbap Soho, where I finally got some more seafood pancake – probably the food I miss most now I’m in the North. And the classic bibimbap ofc.
Meals In
For my birthday meal, Tim cooked his incredible pizza. I’m afraid I didn’t take any photos because basically I just wanted to eat it 😀
I was crazy excited when I discovered that, for a limited time only, the Double Down was coming to KFC in the UK. I really wanted to try one when I was in America but never got the chance. And now I have. It was so so so unhealthy for me but I don’t regret it.
Drinks
At the start of the month, Tim and I met up with Judith, a friend from megagaming that we hadn’t seen in far too long. We had a drink at Red Door, which meant I got to buy their awesome disco-ball cocktail.
After that we headed to Shed for a drink, mostly for the music. And that music got us in the mood for… kareoke! I love Mix Kareoke bar and many a tipsy night has ended in one of their private rooms (although this time we stayed in the main bar and sang on the main stage!).
I was also invited on a work night out, and we went to Mean Eyed Cat on Merrion Street. I’d definitely recommend going there, for one reason if nothing else – they have a dice deal! You roll a dice and if you get a 2, your drinks are 25% off, if you roll a 4, they’re half price, and if you roll a six they’re free! Plus, with every single drink (free or not) you get a free teeny pizza!
What BeckyBecky Cooked
I’ll be honest – it’s a lot harder to cook fancy meals when you’re out at an office all day!
I made a batch of my black-bottom cupcakes for the work Macmillan coffee morning. Overall this was a more successful batch than my first lot. But I only had one muffin tray, and I wanted to make 24 buns. Instead of waiting, I put cupcake cases on a flat oven tray, and it… sort of became a tray bake!
For my EU’re Awesome party, I decided to go as Sweden (if you didn’t guess from the Ikea bag outfit above). My drink was Rekorderlig, and my food was homemade Swedish meatballs with mashed potato… It was hardly a fancy finger food, but the gravy dipping sauce went down well!
What BeckyBecky Gamed
Megagames
At the start of the month Pennine Planners had their Pitch meeting, where we decided on the calendar for next year. I pitched two games, Everybody Dies III: Playing With Fire, and Lorem Ipsum. And excitingly, ED3 is officially on next year’s calendar, along with Tim’s SPAAAACE game, and a ton of other awesome sounding games. Check out the Pennine 2018 calendar.
My first megagame of October was A World Divided. I signed up pretty late for this one, because honestly Swindon is horrific to travel to. But I’m glad I did, because I had a great time as Chancellor of Macmahon, one of the colonies. The setting was the American Revolution in Space.
And on the day after my birthday was another megagame! This one was Red Dawn, the game of the Russian Civil War, and I was one of the truly terrible Cheka, aka the Soviet Secret Police. It was quite a disturbing role to play, but a very interesting experience.
And it technically happened in November, but before I wrote this blog… the Megagame Makers 2018 calendar is up too. I’m signed up for the first 3 games and eagerly awaiting signup to open for the rest.
Boardgames
It’s been a big month for boardgaming! I received three for my birthday: Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Jack the Ripper, Game of Thrones boardgame, and Codenames Duet. I haven’t really had a chance to play any of them yet, but I’m super excited about all three!
What I did get to play was the Arkham Horror Card Game. This is something that my friend Ben first showed me back in July, and it was awesome. I’m hoping to go stay with Ben again soon to play a longer scenario.
I also tried out Port Royal, which to be honest I didn’t get into. I made a couple of mistakes early on which set me back for the whole game. But the biggest boardgame disappointment had to be Betrayal at the House on the Hill. I’d heard so many good things about it, but the ending was just such a let down, thanks to confusing mechanics, misleading directions, and a feeling like I couldn’t actually do anything (I was the betrayer). I do want to give it another try though because I think it probably has some better endings available.
We showed Keeleigh and her fiance Kyle, both boardgame newbies, the game Ticket To Ride. I’m not much of a fan of it – not complex enough – but I actually won this one… so I guess it’s growing on me 😉
We also showed them Ascension, a deck-building game that Tim and I have both gotten a little obsessed with. You can also get it on mobile (which both of us have done) so you can play whenever, wherever, and without an opponent.
What BeckyBecky Watched
Natch I watched all of Bake Off (including Extra Slice, so I could see if my fail cupcakes made it on), and I’m also keeping up with The Apprentice.
Netflix-wise, rather than jumping on the Stranger Things bandwagon (although I’m sure I will shortly), I actually binge-watched Riverdale over the course of a couple of weeks. It’s no Pretty Little Liars but it’s certainly gripping. Plus apparently Sabrina the Teenage Witch will be starting up as a companion series!
I also rewatched Line of Duty, which is honestly one of the best crime shows I’ve ever seen. It’s just so… it goes places you wouldn’t expect it to. Plus it has a ton of procedural stuff which for some reason I really enjoy.
Finally, I watched Coherence, technically on November 1st, but it was my Hallowe’en movie night so I’m counting it as October. If you enjoy thrillers and thinky movies… watch it! I literally watched it again the next night just to try to understand it better, and I’m sure I’ll be watching it again soon. It’s just so clever and complex!
What BeckyBecky Blogged
Okay, so I definitely get a bad-blogger slap on the wrist for letting blogging fall completely off the radar last month. I literally published four posts… I promise this month, it’ll be at least 6, but I’m not going to push myself to do my usual 10.
The most popular blog post was my one about the Red Dawn megagame, and I’m slightly worried that so many people have read about me being such a terrible person…
What BeckyBecky Insta-ed
My most popular Instagram photo (and I can totally see why) was this epic shot from my Teppanyaki Leeds meal with my family…
Also (and again, this has happened in November not October) but yesterday I hit my 500 follower mark! *parties*
Next Month for BeckyBecky
This month I’m mostly looking forward to really settling in at work. It’s been a good few weeks so far, and I’m excited to keep getting to know the people and the job better.
I’ve got my last two megagames of the year coming up: playing Undeniable Victory and controlling The Last Romans.
I’m also going to mention it… Christmas! I’ve got the Leeds Lights Switch On to look forward to, and planning on starting my Christmas shopping shortly.
What have you got planned?