Warm salutes and salutations, good folk of this small corner of the online world! I hope you're having yourself a lovely day, wherever in the world you may be reading this, the ramblings of a Shep who is honoured by your company. ^__^

So, what's been going on the past couple of months? Well, to tell you the truth, I suspect I may have collectively been out of the house for longer than I've been in it. First came my annual pilgrimage to Furnal Equinox, then Easter with family, then a hen do in Malta, then a wedding in Neath, stag do in Poland... the poor Ukrainian fellow I'm hosting has barely seen me all spring! :P

Alright, let's back up a wee bit. First came the long-since-planned journey to Toronto, to both staff at and enjoy Furnal Equinox for the ninth year in a row. And every time I have returned, I have left feeling over the moon, delighted to meet up with such wonderful people in a city I just can't stop loving. If you'd like to know what I got up to over that long weekend in mid-March, you can read all about it in my update posts from the convention (the rest of them will be up very soon, pinky promise!).

Next up were the not-so-long-since-planned trips. I couple I have known since university decided early last year that they would tie the knot, and while 'match made in heaven' is a rather cliché term, it honestly couldn't be more suitable for these two. I happen to be very good friends with the pair of them, and so having held their engagement party, the time came for the hen and stag to arrange their parties. Though many ideas were thrown around, the hen eventually decided on a four-day trip to Malta, while the stag chose a five-day adventure to Gdansk, in Poland. I was invited on both, and after scrounging my pennies together, it was to both that I happily accepted said invitation.

I've been to Malta before (with some photos from that beautiful Mediterranean island visible in my gallery!), and this time was no less enjoyable. More so, in fact, as it didn't end with me getting food poisoning! :P We wandered the city of Valletta and the (not-so) silent city of Mdina, enjoyed a boat ride around the island of Comino, and sang a whole night away at a karaoke bar. Good times all round, especially with the warm sunny weather. ^^

Gdansk... well, that was another story. See, I have visited Poland before - a one-day stop with my dad many years ago, to visit the site of the infamous Auschwitz death camp. A harrowing and sombre visit, let's just say I wasn't setting my bar of expectations too high for this visit. Boy, oh boy, how wrong I was, and how massive a humble pie I must eat! The city and people of Gdansk took every one of my expectations, carefully loaded each of them into a howitzer, and fired them over the horizon. Aside from the Baltic weather (ha!), the city was clean and modern, the museums were superbly laid out, the people were lovely and welcoming, the food was exquisite and cheap... and speaking of cheap, 50p a half-litre of beer is nothing to sneeze at! In short, Gdansk really is a hidden gem in the heart of Europe, and I'd go back in a heartbeat.

So, that's the good stuff! However, travel aside, the bad streak of luck with technology I've been undergoing this year continued. Shortly before I left for Furnal Equinox, my laptop began encountering blue screens of death on start-up. A visit to the local electronics store presented the situation thusly - you've had it for six years, maybe you should buy a new one. Rather tough to do when one's budget has just gone on travel and tourism. Thankfully, following a factory reset, it hasn't just come back to life, it's actually working better than it has in years! I'm therefore taking it easy, nursing it along while my funds recover, so I can give this loyal machine a proper farewell.

It gets worse... the day after my laptop blue-screened, my six-month old work laptop screamed at me when I tried turning it on, and then died completely. Our IT department couldn't fix it, and so have sent it back to the manufacturer with a Post-It! note stuck on it, bearing a big question mark. As such, I now have a replacement, but there's no telling at this point how much longer that'll last. Adding to that the breakages of my phone, my watch, and my Daicycle in just a couple of months, I very nearly broke the bank, as well.

Still, there is a bright side to all of this! Having finally resolved much of the tech issues I've been suffering of late, I've been able to start posting again, though given everything that's been happening I realise that has been quite sporadic. For that, I do apologise, and after concluding my report posts from Furnal Equinox (hopefully by the weekend), I will be back on a more regular posting schedule, with posts where I'm not finding myself writing lengthy descriptions.

Plus, with the onset of spring, my plants are growing once again! I've started a more diverse herb selection in my kitchen, which I hope to have as a nice centrepiece in a future renovation of my kitchen. My outside herbs are also bursting into life, and after some careful nursing, my tomatoes are just about ready to go outside. I'm so proud of them! Last autumn, I also took advantage of a couple of sales to buy some bulbs, and even amid a pretty rubbish year in terms of weather, it's been very nice seeing my garden fill with colour as flowers bloom at different times. :)

In short, dear reader, the year has had a bit of a rocky start, but we're making the best of it, and spring has now arrived. Here's looking forward to warmer, drier, and sunnier days ahead! Many of which I hope will be spent in your excellent company, both from behind the computer screen and in the fur. Until then, I wish you all my very best, as I always do, and hope that the strengthening summer sun will shine brightly on all of your days, so that you too may bloom like the pretty flower you are. ^^

Flt/Lt. Dai, out.