A bed of roses

Today seems to have whizzed past, somehow.

I went to get my hair cut and he's done the front a bit shorter than I really wanted, again. The back's right, this time, though! I'm tempted to invest in some product to try to keep the front in place because there's a position where it does look good - and 50 where it's not quite right. When I went to pay, I'd reached my contactless limit and, of course, had no cash on me, so I had to find a cash machine. This isn't the first time it's happened, either. Note to self: use chip and pin on the purchase BEFORE going to the hair dresser!

This afternoon, I watched Dave from Playstation Access play the finale of Disc I of FFVII OG. After dusting, I turned my attention to paying my Barclaycard. For some reason, it wouldn't let me log in - when I clicked the link, it said the page couldn't be found, or something. I came to the conclusion it wanted me to download the app, so I did. Now, I appreciate online security has to be secure but this thing drove me nuts! At one point, it asked me to enter the PIN. I had no clue what the PIN was because I never use it to pay for stuff - I only use the Barclaycard to pay off other debt. Then I had a brainwave, and went back to the website to see if I could get the PIN - and it let me sign in! I got the PIN but abandoned the app and paid it via the website as per usual. In the meantime, Dave was watching THAT moment in FFVII OG but I missed most of his reaction because I was fighting with the stoopid app!

Since it's pay day, the husband and I thought we'd like to go to the Indian restaurant we went to last year that was on my bucket list. They do a few English dishes, including steak, so we asked the son to come but he said he needed to get to bed early. By this time, it was pouring with rain, so we ordered from them on Just Eat, instead :D Their food is just delicious.

I also made progress in FFXVI. I feel like I'm doing a lot more side stuff than main story, which I didn't feel on my first playthrough. I think there are a couple of reasons. Firstly, I'm very OP, so the battles in the main story are over much more quickly. Secondly, some of the side stuff feels like main story to me because it rounds out the stories of the important NPCs.

One of the REAL main story points I did today was an important scene between Jill and Clive. My thoughts about this are the same as when I first played - Clive is far too eager to get his hands on Jill's gift. I know it's her suggestion, and she makes it clear it's what she wants to do, but he could giver her more than 5 seconds to think about it! However, I paid a bit more attention to the dialogue between them this time - I think I was ranting about consent last time :D

I also bought the pass for the DLC and downloaded the first one, so it's all ready to go when I get to the right point in the story. I am very much looking forward to spending more time in Valisthea.

I've also noticed Astra the Hopeless Romantic changes her clothes! On my first playthrough, I spoke to her a few times and realised she was crushing on different people, but didn't notice the changed outfits. This time, I didn't bother speaking to her but did notice the clothes. I've looked it up, and the outfits reflect the crush-of-the-moment. And there's a kid near Blackthorne's forge who has a pet - but apparently he had different ones at different points in the game. If/when I play again, I'll pay a bit more attention to those two, and see what happens if I ignore ALL the optional sidequests :D

In my current readthrough of 'Northanger Abbey', I'm noticing all of the clues that John Thorpe is crushing on our heroine despite her protests. NA was written before any of the other full-length novels but was published posthumously. I'm seeing some forerunners of other characters and plot points. Catherine's refusal to accept Thorpe's attentions makes me think of Fanny's belief that Crawford cannot be serious in his attentions in 'Mansfield Park', whilst Thorpe's wilful ignorance regarding her real feelings makes me think not only of Mr Collins' persistence with Elizabeth in 'Pride & Prejudice', but also Emma's blindness to EVERYONE's feelings (including her own)! I love Austen so much. Which reminds me - I want to watch 'Austenland' at some point...

Finally(!), I want to capture a couple of weird dreams I had last night. Firstly, I thought our son shouted me from downstairs - he was angry with me over something, and in the dream I knew what it was; I woke up and it was only 3.30am and he was fast asleep in his room. I went back to sleep and had the second dream; we had a cat that caught mice and brought them to us as gifts - and also a bear, except the bear was the same size as the mice but that was perfectly natural in the dream! I don't normally remember my dreams, so I wanted to capture them.

And that will do for tonight.