alba: a wildlife adventure

I love short games. I don't care if an experience is only a few hours, if those hours are free from filler and don't waste my time. I'd much rather have a game leave me feeling like I want more. I got that feeling with Alba: A Wildlife Adventure.

The game has you playing as the titular Alba, on holiday on a Spanish island with your grandparents. The mayor is planning to build a luxury hotel on the decaying nature reserve, and it's up to you to get enough signatures on your petition to save the reserve.

You do this by tidying up the island, and generally doing good deeds. Along the way there's an ongoing quest to photograph every animal and bird on the island.

It's very simple and heart-warming. But it has a nice message and doesn't try to be anything it's not. Taking photos of flying birds was sometimes frustrating, but apart from that I have nothing negative to say about the game.

Make more short games, people!

tags: games

permalink | posted by nathan on Friday, the 9th of July, 2021, during the most productive hours of the day

birthday part 3

Beth made me a salted caramel birthday cake. :)

tags: life

permalink | posted by nathan on Sunday, the 4th of July, 2021, when he should have been getting ready for bed

birthday part 2

So for once I actually organised something for my birthday! Well, I say organised. I'll be honest, Tom hosted and Archie brought the food, so I did very little of the organisation. Still, it was a fun day. We sat in Tom's garden (under a shakily put up marquee) and chatted and played some games. Alex brought his "new" girlfriend - it's been a long time since I've seen him but I'm glad he's still coming to stuff. We inevitably ended up watching the England vs. Ukraine Euro 2020 match (running commentary of bad jokes, a podcast that should be named "Nerds watch Football").

Nice way to spend a birthday. It's nice when people make an effort for you - maybe I should try and do more for other people :)

tags: life

permalink | posted by nathan on Sunday, the 4th of July, 2021, at some point in the morning

birthday

Well it's my birthday! I'm 26 today.

One thing I always think about on my birthday is how bad I am at remembering other people's. It's nice to be remembered, so perhaps I should make more of an effort to do it for other people.

As we're moving pretty soon most of my gifts from Beth were either edible or usable, or things that I'd want to keep after we move. Chocolates and bath bombs for the former, Vancouver/Canada books and bib shorts for the latter.

Also: it's very sad how uncreative I feel when I'm working. It's been a busy couple of weeks (one of my reports is going for promo, 2 people are leaving and 2 people are joining the team, my intern is starting, new quarter is starting with big new projects...), but it's been frustrating that I haven't felt like I wanted to write anything. It's very obvious compared to holiday. I guess everyone needs to relax, but still.

tags: life, self, meta

permalink | posted by nathan on Saturday, the 3th of July, 2021, at some point in the morning

end of our holiday

We're finally on the way home after a 2 week holiday. I'm pretty sad it's over! Especially now our plans have changed, and I've got to go back to work properly (and not have another two week break in a couple of weeks).

The holiday itself was really great. The first week we spent in the lakes was really what I needed: a beautiful, relaxing part of the country, with a lot to do. We went on walks, scrambled over ghylls, and ran some fells.

We also met up with my cousin that I haven't seen in years. It was really great to see her, and explore some things about our family that I never really considered before. We also espoused mutual adoration for Cobb Court.

We then went to York for a few days, including our 6 year anniversary. By the time we got to York we were both pretty ready to chill out and read our books in the sun, which is what we did for a lot of it. I did enjoy learning about the layered history of York though, from the Romans to Medieval York, through to the Victorians ruining everything.

On our anniversary we had an hour to buy each other gifts and cards for £25. Beth and I both agreed it was fun but stressful trying to find something good in budget and in time! We also went to Pairings, a wine bar that does charcuterie and matches it with wine. I'm not a huge wine lover but when someone else picks me a good wine to drink with good food, I'm all ears.

We spent the last couple of days in Harrogate, mainly to go to the Turkish Baths. Harrogate itself isn't the nicest town, but the Turkish Baths were great, and we had a couple of good meals (and a great round of mini-golf, even if I did lose).

On the way home, we stopped to visit my Ba. I hadn't seen her in quite a while (I'm a bad grandchild), but it was really nice to see her. I'm becoming a lot more interested in my family history and so hearing some of her stories and seeing some old photos of my Dad as a child was actually really nice.

And that was it! Sad to be home. Don't want to go back to work tomorrow, or sort out the house for moving. Oh well, life goes on!

tags: life, holiday

permalink | posted by nathan on Sunday, the 20th of June, 2021, during the most productive hours of the day