So the new year has gotten of to a typically slow start. We've mostly just hung out, played Minecraft and enjoyed each other's company. We did spend a lovely evening with friends yesterday though it was curtailed somewhat by a brief storm and rain. Nine spent a good chunk of time splashing around in the lake though, for safety, I made sure a shower was had when we got home as you just never know with public lakes. Ten joined in for a bit but then came back to where we were hanging out and chatted which was lovely.

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I find it interesting that, in life, we put a lot of weight on the future being better. Tomorrow will be better, there's always next week, or, as I thought, next year will be my year. This is a somewhat pessimistic view and, if I'm honest, I think looking at life that way is a good way to view life, but after a few tricky years I genuinely was looking forward to closing out 2023 and kicking off 2024 with a fresh outlook. As it turned out, 2023 ended very differently than I thought and 2024 became a very different year. There's been positives from it, for sure, and I look ahead to 2025 with the same "this will be my year feeling" and I guess, at least, this time, it's far more within my control.

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I'm a big fan of the Alien franchise, with my absolute favourite being Aliens, so much so I backed the excellent documentary, Aliens: Expanded. It's a four-hour long documentary filled with some really interesting stories, anecdotes and it was a fascinating watch. If you're a fan, it's worth the purchase. Anyway, when I heard that a new Alien movie was on the way I was both happy and apprehensive. Much like the Predator franchise, recent installments had been lacklustre, however, the existance of Prey filled me with a little bit of hope that, in the right hands, we might get a decent movie. So knowing that director Fede Álvarez's history being in horror movies, those feelings of hope increase and, after watching the movie this past week, I'm glad to report that we finally have a movie that adds to the franchise rather than detracts.

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It's been quite some time since I'd been to a Formula 1 Grand Prix. The last one was in 2005 though it was rather swanking in that it was at Monaco. However, the ticket I had was for general admission and was a lovely present from Cat. She couldn't come with me so I took my good friend Kieran instead and had a great time on race day watching Kimi Räikkönen emerge victorious driving for McLaren. From what I remember it was an entertaining race, well, as far as races at Monaco go, and I really enjoyed the atmosphere that even us plebs up in the cheap seats (so cheap we were standing) felt a part of it.

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As far as bingo cards go, I don't think I had any of the things that have happened in the last six months or so on mine. For the first time in over twenty years I am single and living on my own and navigating my life in its new form which, at times, has been anything but easy. I don't really want to go into any sort of specifics of the whys and wherefores as, to be quite honest, it's not like it change anything, nor do I think it'll be overly productive. For the most part, though, I've tried to look at the positives and doing my best to put my best foot forward.

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I haven't written here as much as I thought I would this year. Mostly I just kind of forgot and also reminded myself that this is really here for when I want to write something rather than feeling obligated to. Still, I thought I'd have written a bit more but there you go, maybe 2024 will yield more inspiration. This year has been something else, especially the last few months. Lots of things going on, and lots of introspection. Where all that will go next year remains to be seen, I have certain hopes but ultimately some of that is beyond my control and one things I have been really focussing on is concentrating on what I can control, which is myself and how I respond.

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