Dear Patreon #15

Hello folks, 

You’ll doubtless have noticed that this is a newsletter and not a Patreon post announcing a new episode of Press Any Chiodini. Forgive me - it is on hold until next week. Without going into details, it’s been a most unusual week and I’ve needed to take some time to process things. I don’t feel comfortable sharing details, but I can assure you that I am fine and I will be back on form next week, when we can all get back to the important business of beating the snot out of everything that moves in midgard and beyond. Thank you for your understanding! 

Right, newsletter time. Let’s do this. 

Three things I have been enjoying lately 

The Loxwood Joust is a lovely ren faire-adjacent event that takes place over the first three weekends in August, and it’s absolutely fantastic. There are two honest-to-goodness jousts each day, there are puzzle quests to undertake, and there’s even a full contact medieval fight pit if you want to watch a bunch of grown men whacking each other with genuine axes. You’ll have to wait until next year if you want to catch it, but my goodness it’s worth doing. Hello to everybody who said hi last weekend! 

I really love a good sandwich. I think sandwiches might be one of my favourite things ever? Anyway, I had a sandwich with hummus, tomato and salted crisps yesterday and it was an absolute banger. A few days before that I had some sourdough baguette with nduja, pesto, chicken, tomato and camembert and that was pretty great too. Please tell me about your favourite sandwich, I am always looking for inspiration. 

Hunt: Showdown has been out for ages now and I’ve dipped in and out of it several times over the years. It’s a fairly hardcore extraction shooter set in a wild west stuffed with horrible monsters. It’s just had an enormous update so I dropped in with two friends last night to see what was what. It took ages for us all to download the update and then update our graphics drivers and then make sense of the new UI and then drop in for a game and we were absolutely, joyfully dreadful. A combination of being rusty and just deciding to throw caution to the wind and sprint everywhere did not serve us well, but we had a great time. After three games our nerves were too jangled to keep going so we swapped out for Helldivers 2 and blew up a lot of bile titans. All in all I’m fairly sure we spent longer prepping for Hunt: Showdown than we actually did playing, but it was an absolute delight. I might stream Hunt sometime, the pacing and the tension are both fantastic. 

Usual questions

How’s Watson? 

She’s been unbelievably good lately - the kittens are zooming about the place almost constantly and she is so, so gentle with them. One of them has taken quite a shining to her, so sometimes she has to deal with a tiny grey ball of chaos getting all up in her grill. I took her to Loxwood Joust with me to give her a bit of a break and she had such a lovely time - she ran about the woods constantly and charmed a lot of people. She also spent an afternoon lying down in the (very cold) ashes of the previous night’s campfire, I think they might have been cooling on her tummy. Anyway, she’s been my constant companion for nearly 8 years now and she continues to wow me with her sweetness. 

How’s work? 

As mentioned at the top of this newsletter, it’s been an Unusual Time for me lately. I’m looking forward to getting back on it and injecting a sense of normality back into proceedings. I am, as ever, extremely grateful to my patrons for their support and understanding. 

How’s Blood Bowl? 

The league is in the grip of The Summer Lull which happens every year, so nobody’s played in a good while. There’s always a delightful rush of games come Autumn though, so I’m looking forward to that. 

Right, that about does it for this newsletter - thank you very much for reading! Please, please tell me about your favourite sandwich.