A start of a new year and I’ve had a bit of time to reflect on well…the past 10 years, fuck it’s been that long since I moved to a strange new city? Yeah, it almost has been…

I have realised that one of my biggest flaws has been abandoning things that I’m involved in and that it is not simply a case of “I can’t be assed with this anymore” the issue is rooted deeper, perhaps I just simply take to much on sometimes or I don’t know where to focus my attention and it results in me losing interest in other things that I’m involved with to the point where I just simply abandon them.

To give a bit of retrospective it wasn’t to long ago that in my free time, I was running the biggest online 40k tournament in the world, streaming for it, running Glasgow furmeets (Despite lockdown, there were still a number of issues I had to deal with), being a part of convention staff for SC, being involved with a league of legends team, building and painting a new 40k army for the tournament scene, looking into various tabletop RPGs to run something and also the pressures of helping set up a new business during a very bumpy period of restrictions being put in place by the government, basically I had a lot on my plate and ended up abandoning everything other than my work. It’s sad, maybe it’s a personal issue that I have and I think to counteract it, I just need to focus on one hobby or thing outside of work and not try to do several at the same time which is causing me to burn out and lose complete interest and the ability to keep them all going at the same time.

The biggest thing I want to focus on this year is my DnD campaign, the final installment of my homebrew world which has been going now for a very long time. Sadly in the move, I seem to have misplaced a number of resources that I used to have, books, dice, maps etc but they can be easily replaced so it’s not too much of a worry. Considering my current work life is very busy, this is the only thing which I can really take on board at the moment to make it be as good as possible, and hopefully as it is the only thing outside of work that I will be dedicating myself too, I will see it through to the end.

This means that I need to make some big changes around other hobbies and yes that includes Furry as for me it isn’t exactly just showing up at a meet once per month to hang out. Over the past 5 years, there has been a lot of drama which I’ve had to take a neutral stance on, listen to various viewpoints and try to resolve the matter in a fair and calm manner. It’s not always easy and there have been times when I have lost my cool and for that I would like to deeply apologise, you know who you are. I’ve made some good friends over the years and I really do hope that they stay in contact with me (I know I’m absolutely terrible at it but I do occasionally prod folk to see how they’re doing.) But basically it means that I’m stepping down from running meets and stepping down from crew at SC until further notice and will also be stepping down as a UKFurs mod too. It was a tough decision but I believe that right now it’s the correct one to make. I will keep all my accounts such as this, but there will probably be very little contact through them other than Telegram. Funny, I always joked about “Leaving the fandom” posts, well I guess here is mine, it’s time for me to move on with other things and I hope my explanation above makes sense as to why.

I don’t plan on leaving Glasgow anytime soon, I’ve made a life here for myself now and it is a city that I have learned to love and enjoy, besides I think if I left my job my boss would hunt me down and bring me back anyway.

So onwards and upwards with 2022, I look forward to focusing all of my energy into the final instalment of my DnD campaign, coming to Roll20 hopefully in February..

I'm not going to lie, I was a little unsure about going to this con. I had heard a few rumors about it but rather than listening to them I decided with a few others to buy a day ticket for the Saturday as Livingston is not that far away from Glasgow, about 40 minutes in the car.

Upon arriving at the hotel for the day I was still a little worried as the place looked dead outside and I don't think it helped that the place looked like it was in the middle of nowhere. However upon opening the doors of the hotel and being greeted by about 4-5 fur suiters in the hotel lobby my worry started to dwindle. The layout of the hotel itself was very accommodating for the event with the open lobby stretching back into the bar area and restaurant. After saying hi to a few people and receiving our badges from con ops I went and sat in the bar and started chatting to people.

After meeting and greeting a few other furs..and a couple of pints of Bodingtons (Yes I was surprised that they had one my favourite beers on tap) I decided to get changed into my suit and realised that I was having a really good time at the con. Time had seemed to go by quite quickly as it was then time for the Fursuit walk, something which I have never been a part of before. Despite not being able to do it outside due to the weather (Yes Scotland) the staff did a really good job of planning a route through the hotel which we took, I believe there were about 30 fur suiters in the walk in total but don't quote me on that. The walk finished up in one of the meeting rooms where we all posed for photographs and then formed a conga line of suits which again went through the hotel.

I decided to get changed out of suit at this point and dropped my suit off in the extremely well ventilated fursuit lounge and helped myself to couple of Fox's Glacier Mints that were on the table and headed back to the bar for something to eat and drink. The hotel food which may seem a little pricey to some was enjoyable, I went for a curry and was quite impressed with the Poppadom crisps and mango chutney that went with it. A quick visit to the dealers' den which was very well set out was then required resulted in me buying a couple of pin badges (which I seem to now be collecting).

It was then time for the art auction, which I had been looking forward to all day. There were some fantastic pieces of art going from various artists and I wish I had brought more cash with me. I started to get into the bidding and I thought Silver aka Safety Fox did an hilariously awesome job as the auctioneer. Of course a certain proportion of the auction price was going to charity and I ended up winning a signed copy of the Scotiacon poster which will at some point be going up on the wall once it is framed.

The evening started to set it and so far I was really enjoying myself. I started chatting to a few more furs, some I knew online, some I didn't and had a few more drinks. After that I got back into suit for a couple of hours and had a lot of fun walking around and getting a few hugs.

We left the hotel at around 1am, all in all a fantastic day/evening at the con which was well organised by very friendly and approachable staff members. I will definitely be heading back next year and for the full weekend this time. ^^

As I have now started my HND in Professional Cookery I will probably start posting pictures of the things we are making up on FA. It would be useful if I could put them in a separate section from my art. Also may include some cooking recipes if people are interested ^^

I don't know what it is but I just can't get into using this site at all. I know part of me being a furry really should start using it a bit more as there is a lot of fantastic artwork, news and info on here. I've just never been a massive fan of FA and can just about keep up with Twitter/Facebook/Skype. IDK I might give it a proper shot at using FA, rather than just having this account sat here doing nothing. Was considering perhaps, sorting out my profile, blogging some recipes up and uploading all the commisions I've had done. That would be a start right? xP