Eenuh

A lot of people had been hoping/wishing for this game to become a reality at some point, and today we finally got a first look with this trailer. It looks glorious, and hopefully it will be as great as the first one was. Looking forward to see how this one turns out!

I think Italy have been the better team during this tournament so wouldn't be surprised if they win it, but then playing at Wembley for a massive home crowd might work in England's favour. It could go either way in this game!

I don't think the UK has ever been a green zone actually. Throughout the pandemic it's been listed as red (no travel allowed) or amber (only essential travel). Our wedding is next month, and with all the travel restrictions still in place and cases rising everywhere, it looks like my family won't be able to come. I haven't seen them in a year and was really hoping they'd be able to come. It really sucks. Just so tired of it all now. The small business I work for will be closing down because we are not getting any work in since this all started, so I'll be without a job soon. And then last week my aunt passed away unexpectedly and because of the travel restrictions I couldn't go to her funeral this week.

Goooood, that second half was tense! Portugal had all the possession and chances, but they (luckily) couldn't finish it off. I kept expecting the ball to go in though! Italy next, that's going to be another tough one. Not sure we'll make it past them!

Denmark are on fiiiiiire!

That Lukaku offside was ridiculous, I told @Fierce_LiNk it would just be his toes being offside or something silly. I was right. Good to see we finally got a goal though, even if it is an own goal from the goalkeeper.

Perfect, thank you! We just cancelled ours and managed to bring it forward quite a bit.

That is absolutely fine! Thanks again for letting me draw your portrait, I really enjoyed doing it!

According to Wikipedia: Since the introduction of the Big Four/Five (1999), the United Kingdom has finished last in the contest five times, with Germany finishing last three times. The United Kingdom also has the fewest top ten results of the Big Five in the 21st century, but has achieved more top five results than Spain, having reached the top five in 2002 and 2009, while Spain has not reached the top five since the 1995 contest. So it seems things have gone downhill a lot since you've basically been going straight through to the finals. I can see why this might affect your song, as people don't get a chance to hear it more than once, and it might not get promoted as much as it doesn't have to get voted through a semi-final. I had never heard the UK song before the final (and I will probably never hear it again either), whereas I had heard most the other songs in the semi-finals already. Out of the big 5, only Italy seems to be doing well in most of the competitions, the others often end up with low scores as well. About the UK song/performance itself, apparently it wasn't as good as we might think it was. I checked a lot of Dutch and Belgian comments from people online and they mostly seemed to agree that the singing was off-key and the song was boring. And I have to agree with them.

But people are only giving their vote to the song they think is the best in the competition. The UK's song wasn't the best, so it's not that strange that it didn't get any points. There were a few other countries with no or very low points from the public. Clearly there were much better songs that hoovered up all the votes basically. The UK's entry was ok, but very forgettable. I don't even remember how the song goes, all I remember is the trumpets in the background. And sadly the singer didn't sing the verses of his song very well I thought, it felt a bit flat. Not sure how I feel about Italy winning, I would've preferred a few other songs. But I agree with some of the songs that ended up in the top 10, they were the better songs. Thought the quality of songs was quite high this year as well, some great entries.

Ukraine and Iceland are my favourites. Not sure if one of them will win but I'll definitely be listening to them again. Still sad that Iceland didn't get to perform last year (and now again this year) as they would've won it back then!

Finally managed to book mine, and got @Fierce_LiNk booked as well! The second jab is a week before our wedding, so hopefully we don't suffer from long-lasting side effects haha.

It's not working for me at all. I've been trying all day yesterday and most of today just going through it again and again. Basically it keeps saying "We cannot find a slot for your 2nd appointment", so it's not letting me book anything at all. There is only one place nearby I can go to (which would take me 40 minutes by bus), the only other options are too far away. I've tried different dates and different time slots and it keeps giving me the same error message. So frustrating.

I think using a broker is a good idea, especially for your first mortgage. We used one as we had no clue where to even begin with everything. We probably didn't get the cheapest deal, but that wasn't down to our broker (it was due to the fact that some lenders' online systems couldn't deal with @Fierce_LiNk long name at the time ). It takes a lot of hassle away going with a broker though. When we remortgaged two years later I just did it myself, but I felt like I knew what I was doing at the time and had more free time to look into it. Good luck with the house buying everyone! It's a stressful time but worth it when you finally get your own place.

Congrats @nightwolf! So happy you finally got to marry! And you both look amazing! Love your dress!

Hahaha @Fierce_LiNk always says exactly the same thing.

That looks gorgeous, and delicious!

The movie is divided into different parts, as Ashley mentioned, so you could just treat it like watching episodes in a series and split it over 2 or 3 days. We were a bit silly and watched it all in one go, finishing at 3am haha. Funnily enough, yesterday the original Justice League was on tv and so we decided to have it on in the background to compare it to the Snyder cut. There's a looooot of differences. One of the main things we noticed is how much quicker everything is in the original. You can tell they had to stick to a shorter running time and so just edited out loads of footage... which didn't help the film at all. I think more time is given to each character and sequence in the new version, which improves the storytelling. In the original it all feels rushed and a bit pointless. So having seen both back to back, I preferred the Snyder Cut. It's still not an amazing movie (but then I find superhero films rarely are amazing apart from the Nolan ones maybe), but they've managed to improve on it at least. Flash and Cyborg received a bit more screentime which was nice, as they felt a bit tacked on in the original.

I really wouldn't do it when there's a nest in there in Spring, it will probably get abandoned even if you don't touch it. Might be best to get it out of the way now or wait until Autumn (they recommend to not trim any hedges/trees between March and August to not disturb nesting birds).

Jealous! These are sooooo pretty! Though I know I'd never be able to keep one of these happy haha. I've seen so many posts in Facebook groups of people asking for advice on their dying White Fusion, it sounds like a right dramaqueen. Have you got a humidifier or somewhere damp you're going to keep it? I'd love to see some photos when you have it!

I only first heard about Affinity recently and it sounds interesting (and cheap). I might have to try it out to see how it compares to Photoshop. I currently get Photoshop (and the other Adobe programs) through my job, but it might be good to have an affordable backup in case I lose that.

I've been looking for a new laptop as well to replace my old MacBook Pro. The advice seems to be that for creative work, Apple is still the best out there. It's just annoying that they ar so expensive! But yeah my current one (8GB RAM) is just not running properly anymore and often lags or crashes. I use Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, After Effects... so I feel like I need something powerful. Apple's new M1 models seem to run really well though apparently, so I'm keeping my eye out for the 16" one and see how much it would set me back. But you can already get a 13" one now. Also, I don't own any other Apple products. I can connect my Wacom tablet and use my external harddrive (you probably can't use a Windows configured one on a Mac and vice versa though). If you do buy Apple, just check what ports it has and if they work with what you're planning to use.

I know @Fierce_LiNk uses weightlifting shoes similar to the ones @MindFreak posted and he really likes them. Not sure what brand they are but I'm sure he can tell you hah. He ordered them online I think, not sure many stores would stock them.

Hahaha, I guess it's not obvious what a whiteboard video is. It's basically one of those animations where it looks like a hand is drawing on a whiteboard. Here's one I made during the first lockdown (normally we use voice overs but not with this one as it wasn't a client video, just something to keep me busy haha). I'm sorry that you haven't seen your family in such a long time, it must be especially hard since you've had the baby and they've all had to miss out on that. And yeah, having to cancel Christmas is just not fun at all is it? Fingers crossed you can see them in the new year! My sister has told us she is expecting her second child, so I'm hoping for her sake that things return to normal soon so she can at least experience a normal birth and have family support her. I'm really putting all my hopes on these vaccines haha.

I will pay good money for one of these. Are they available on your Etsy shop? Can you draw guinea pigs? Hahaha yes, I should be able to draw guinea pigs! The listing for a portrait is on my Etsy shop, though you can also email me directly to get it all sorted (and to send me photos of your family so I can draw them). I'll send you a PM. Yeah, that's the new set I made! I can send to Germany if you want, I think I did the last few times you ordered as well haha. If you want, you can PM me which ones you would like.