In which we make a Sunday roast, play Pétanque and talk about the game Beije and I made.

Embracing the Everyday English

757 words about life — 20:58 · 26th May 2013

Surprise! It’s another post. Yeah, sometimes I spoil all of you. But don’t worry as this isn’t one of those times. This is the post in which I talk about the things I did, drank and ate in the last week. As you can probably tell, it’s exciting stuff all around.

I suppose it was only a matter of time before we would succumb to the English way of life. Ironic that it would be so close to the discovery of my new-found sense of patriotism.

The Sunday roast. Is there anything more iconic of England? No, I’m serious. Is there? If so, then let me know because I still haven’t figured out all of this stuff and I’d love any help I can get. But in the meantime I decided to make a Sunday roast.

Well.

A somewhat close approximation of it at least because we didn’t have any Yorkshire pudding… or Roast Beef… or Peas… or Baby Carrots. At this point it’s probably easier to just list what we actually had rather than what we didn’t. It was Roasted Potatoes and Chicken Breasts. Tada! And it was good albeit a bit on the boring side.

A plate of roasted potatoes, chicken breasts and roasted mushrooms.
Yummy Sunday roast.

So in a way I suppose you could say that I haven’t ventured away from Finland as far as I thought, since these two nations might have many differences but one large similarity they share is the uninspiring flavour profile their traditional cuisine has. Oh, salt and pepper you say? How exciting. Not. Now I have nothing against salt and pepper, they are both good base spices but as far as I’m concerned that is also the only thing they are good at. The base. The groundwork. Not the decoration or façade.

Beije and I have also been working — almost — daily on monorun! And it’s growing closer and closer to completion. It’s small, focused and pretty awesome and I’m constantly reminded of what an incredible — too much? — developer Benjamin Horn is. Or in his own words; “Monorun is now playable on phones, tablets and computers, and it’s fully responsive and supports retina rendering!” As you can see, he’s been busy. I’ve been busy too of course, although in a very different way. Designing the various — but few — game screens and prototyping the user flow.

Monorun! superimposed on a mobile device.

Aside for that, I’m currently hovering at a steady 50-50 of excitement and fear with the game. Excitement, because it’s [deity] damn exciting. And fear, because at this point I’m beginning to suspect that I’m not actually going to be able to make the list any more, it’s ridiculously difficult — as it should be — and after one of beije’s latest commits it’s no longer possible to just camp in a corner. So much for my only tactic then.

My wife also went out shopping with our son today and came home with a variety of Bric-a-brac.  Amongst those, the game of Pétanque which apparently — I say that because I’m as surprised as you are — is one of the few games my wife likes. She, the person who doesn’t even like the board game I’m — yes, still — developing. I’m played Pétanque competitively — not a lot but still — but after having played against my more attractive half I now understand why she likes it so much as she kept winning me 5 out of 6 games. I blamed her granny-like rolling technique to which she just replied “So you mean I throw like girl?”

Lucien and I playing Pétanque together.
As it turned out, my son and I were more equally matched.

Well yes. I suppose that’s what I mean. Damn it. I must practice in secrecy and challenge her again.

Other than that I’m still exploring the various ales England has to offer and I have a fun project in mind for it but I’m not going to spill the beans before I’ve gotten anything tangible accomplished.

Abominable weekly update. Done.

You’ve just read Embracing the Everyday English.

In which, 10 years ago, I wrote 757 words about life and I covered topics, such as: monorun! , the abominable weekly update , immigration , and cooking .