Review: Eastshade

With its release date on Steam being Feb 2019, I'm a bit late to the party but that doesn't change the fact that it has fast become one of my favourite games in the last 5 years.  I believe it has even beaten Untitled Goose Game and Animal Crossing New Horizons, and I continue to play daily on the latter and loved steaming through the former when I got it on the switch, enjoying the memes that it has continued to generate since its release.

Eastshade has a very simple 'plot' - you're a painter, fulfilling your promise to your mother (who is, I assume, dead) to visit the beautiful island and paint particular viewpoints or tourist spots.  The point of the game is to explore, enjoy and to create works of art. You build relationships with the inhabitants of the island by running errands or solving mysteries, or even fixing their love lives!  I can't say for sure yet how far your responses affect the end of the game, as I'm still working through completing all the steam challenges on my first run-through. I'll definitely enjoy finding out whether a more grouchy, morose reponse set will affect how well I get on with others and whether it affects my end-of-game experience. 

So my honest, incredibly biased (because I love it) review:

Graphics: GORGEOUS

Even on the lowest settings, its default, I was pleased by them. They are bright, they are pretty, they create a place I long to be.  On the highest settings, which my pc could easily handle, it was the same but crisper and clearer.

The island has its own little biomes . mini environments. The woodlands, fields, mountains and open plains of the moors were all surrounded by a beautiful sky and coastal views. You could see far ahead to the horizon and really enjoy being out in the open.  I found myself taking screenshots everywhere because just having paintings (and it turns out you're limited to a set number at any time) wasn't enough!

Soundtrack: GORGEOUS

I honestly have found myself listening to it on spotify when going for walks, when reading, when sitting quietly and doing some art. I've even played it in the background during quiet work time while working with key worker children at school. It's calming and matches the surroundings or locations of the island beautifully.  My husband hasn't played through the game yet but he has said how pretty the soundtrack is, musing that it'll be even better when listening in situ. 

Gameplay:  CHILL AF

You can take your time either following the paths or searching nooks and crannies or winding through the wilderness.  There's no time limit or hurry but it's easy to enough to get a task done quickly if you feel so inclined. There are clues throughout the game to help you with linked or future side quests; comments by characters, books to read (an action encouraged as each new book increases inspiration points for painting) and posters on the walls.  It's a case of engaging with everything and anything to progress - but not in a way that it's easy to miss something small. 

Once you have the resources to explore through the night, the island slowly becomes quite small and you know all the routes and short cuts.  Every time you get to an area you hadn't before, it is new and exciting and the map is just large enough to make it feel like a long way from the two main residential locations in the game.

The mechanics are quite simple but there were a couple of times where I didn't think to activate an item in my inventory to make it do what I needed it to, meaning that I hadn't completed a task! But revisiting those places were easily done once they were marked on my map.  I have found all but two places according to steam, so I still have places to explore! 

It's a game to play if you want a bit of RPG but without the grinding or stressful combat (some people find that stuff stressful, ok?) or skill required. It's a peaceful game that left me feeling relaxed.

Overall, I give this game a solid 5/5.  I just loved it and it's something I'll definitely end up playing from scratch again.  I've been recommending it pretty much everybody.  Get it!  You can preorder it on the PS4, if you're not inclined to play it on the PC.

Covid-19

Covid-19



"200+ have died!" They cried, "Lock-us in"
"We're just 10 days behind Italy, take a look!"
"Herd immunity," Boris offered, "Take it on the chin."
His Churchillian rally cry ensured scientists were 'shook'.

Schools watched with bated breath for news of closure,
Some feared not until Easter, perhaps an extended holiday.
One or two, paranoid and knowledgeable, knew: much sooner.
We must arrange a plan, it's now that we find a way.

We planned our attack: predicted which children we'd see.
The longest week trickled by as we whispered rumours and fears
KS1 would go with you, we decided, KS2 with me.
Finally, news: Friday we'd close, open only to those on the frontiers.

Children left school, some excited, some mournful.
Would they get to see their friends? Say goodybe?
For year 6, it was something just too awful,
Not to end their year on the traditional high.

Teachers managed, converting their skills online,
Streets grew silent, birds filled them with song,
While we clapped for carers, found ways to fill our time,
Tabloids pretended nothing was going wrong.

As the 8th week came into view,
Criticism of Boris was mounting,
Strangely only from the very few
The media forgot to be counting

The deaths as they soared up, continous lack of PPE
Where was the anger, the media frenzy?
Where was Newsnight, The Times, The BBC?
Is it only the gammon-pundit Piers, on ITV?!

As we watched the US, struggling with its protesters,
We patted ourselves on the back thinking,
At least we all want to protect nurses, doctors, us,
Except that it began to come creeping

Across the pond, into our own fetid minds;
5G! Tyranny! Cryptocurrency! It's all a ruse!
Let us out now, we can read the signs,
It's not so bad anyway; you're removing our right to choose!

So now the schools are to reopen,
For the smallest and oldest; really, just a third.
Unnoticed, Boris's slogan, in the very least broken,
harks back to pre-VE Day phrases heard:

NHS: "Never was so much owed by so many to so few"
Construction workers: "Come into the Factories!"
Around unlimited exercise: "Your country needs YOU (to stay at home)"
He urges us to stay "Alert".

Is he unaware he sounds quite absurd?

Lockdown 2020: Week 5

I'm experiencing what some professionals might name as "stress", maybe. It's very different to the stress I felt last year or in 2016 when I was looking for a new job because of the stress. Both of those felt different but both were undoubtedly stress.

It feels silly  because one could argue I'm doing less work now than I normally would during the week:
I don't have 'marking', officially. 
With the new way we're setting home-learning, I'm only really having to sort out two lessons a day (4, if you split it by year group in my case) and we've found schemes of work from other professionals who've put together helpful learning packs, so I'm not having to reinvent the wheel.
I'm only contactable between the hours of 9.15 and 3.30.
I'm only supposed to reply short, positive remarks in emails when responding to work - unless it's a queary or a glaring error, of course.
I've preset about a half term's worth of afternoon activities for the children to pick and choose from so I don't need to worry about the foundation subjects for the next few weeks.

On the other hand, I'm worrying about the progress of certain children and wondering how to cater to their needs. There's one who is new to the damn country. She speaks some English. But she's been doing a very very very different curriculum and is used to a very different teaching style - that is, by wrote, not for understanding. Her understanding of maths concepts is non-existant. She can add and subtract in columns but that's it, basically.  I'm trying to find different ways to help her but at the same time trying to remind myself that I'm being limited by current circumstances and it doesn't make me a crap teacher. In fact, this should be making me a GOOD teacher, because at least I'm trying!

I'm replying to emails steadily thoughout the day - usually just one or two lines. I can't help it though. I can't just leave it with certain children as just "good job" or "thank you for sending in your work". I have to send something a bit less disingenuous sounding.  With particular children, I've been sending next steps! Because I know they'll do it or at least the parent will remind them to think about it next time.  Which is creating more work, for myself, mentally.

I'm finding myself having to justify what I do all day to my husband, who is of course working from home and doing what he'd normally be doing. Life's easier for software engineers in some respects.


I'm feeling creative, sometimes. Fleetingly.  I can't even stick to a single playlist at the moment - I'm swinging between instrumental pieces, film/t.v soundtracks I can sing along to or my main music playlist which is basically every song I've listened to since childhood. 
(At present: I've landed on soundtrack pieces and it's only because I'm finally doing something that it's stayed there as background noise. I believe this is the trial/escape of Alice from Alice in Wonderland at the moment. Yep.)

If I watch anything, it's something I've seen before and know quite well, with a couple of exceptions.
If I play a game, it's for shorter bursts now.
I don't feel like doing exercise - the only time I'll reliably do so is when it's my expensive personal training session in which case of course I'll do it. I did opt out of doing the HIIT portion though and when given options, I'm picking things I can do a bit more reliably, even though I'm making it harder on myself now. I'm yawning by 4.45.

I've enjoyed going out for walks when I've gone but I don't want to do it when it's offered.

I'm reading my kindle and am on the final of the original Newsflesh trilogy (Highly recommend you read that) but I also spent ages browsing AO3 last night looking for a very specific POTC fanfic that I couldn't even know for sure existed (I've found three or four I'm interested in).

I want to write a story but I then switch to wanting to write a poem. Then I want to write a blog entry. But I'm not sure what to write about because who cares?

I become more like myself in the evenings - maybe because my brain knows that it's "normal" for me to be doing what I'm doing in the evenings.

This set of tweets helped me to feel better about all this:

So I should be patient with myself and forgiving. If all I get done in a day is make one powerpoint presentation that's basically been screenshots of work somebody else has kindly shared and a video of me reading a chapter of our class book for school, then that's good enough. 

Good enough should be an OFSTED rating, but that's a whole other rant.

 I'm ending with a very appropriate song: 'Shiny' from Moana.

Well, well, well
Little Maui's having trouble with his look
You little semi-demi-mini-god
Ouch! What a terrible performance
Get the hook (get it?)
You don't swing it like you used to, man

Me too, Maui. Me too.

Lockdown 2020. Week 4

Time passes quickly

It's been a long time since I last wrote here.  A lot has happened. I wanted to - I have some drafts with notes on books I read and wanted to review when I got back from Japan - but last academic year was.... well. It wasn't one of my better years, teaching. Let's put it that way. It was hard - it was emotionally and physically draining.

I don't want to think too much on that - I'm more or less recovered. I am less likely to jump out of my skin at every loud noise - it's just particular ones that get me now.  So that's good.

But lots of good things happened too!  I passed my NASENCo Award, so I'm officially allowed to be a SENCo for my school.  I think I've deepened my professional relationships at my school - I certainly do not want to leave it.  Any other boss - heck, if it had been the boss at my previous school - I'd have walked. I am very grateful for her support and how much she put herself in the firing line so that I could have some semblance of normality within my classroom.


Anyway. That's part of the reason why I've not been writing.   I was writing essays and doing case studies and zombie-ing out on the sofa.

This year has been weird too! It was going really quickly for me. I've enjoyed it - I LOVED autumn term with my new class. Oh my goodness, I did.
A huge part of that was that we picked up a new scheme of work for English and I did my first proper unit using The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo which was fantastic - the work, the text, everything. It's such a wonderfully written story and the whole class - yes, every child, was engaged with it. How many can say that with full honesty?

We've read some great books this year and done some fab work in school.

Then from the second half of February, everything started to go wrong.  March was the longest month of my life - and I had a really long year last year.  You all know it: the epidemic in Wuhan was spreading and people were closing their borders. There was discussion in the UK whether or not we should go into lockdown like Italy and Spain.

We are proactive at my school. Our head has her ear to the ground and connections quite high up: we knew the schools would close, it was just a matter of when.
We discussed worst-case scenarios, we knew two weeks before Boris Johnson did, what we were going to do if we had to close.  It was no surprise.  We had occasional updates through our headteacher  - "We're going to eak it out to Easter break"   "We'll probably just make it to that last week"  then, when I needed to go home cause I wasn't feeling great, "Take everything you need from the server because I don't think we'll be in tomorrow" - well she was wrong about that but we did get the announcement from Boris to the whole country (cause why on Earth would the DfE tell schools before the rest of the people?) that the schools would close on Friday 13th.

And that was that.  We sent the children that hadn't dropped out because they were high risk or displaying mild symptoms home with their bags full of junk from their drawers, PE kits, a pencil and a workbook that I'd prepared with all their login information for various websites that we use for learning.

It was a strange feeling. For the younger children, it was a strange adventure - NO SCHOOL!!!
For the more mature of my class and certainly for the oldest in the school, there was an air of reluctance as they left. We'd gone through how online learning would work. We'd shown them what I and my colleague had knocked together on Thursday afternoon as a mock up, so they could picture what they'd be doing.  We'd had our Easter break up afternoon two weeks early.  Many did not think they'd be back before September.

The year 6 felt robbed - they haven't done their final school play, where they finally get the choice parts.  They haven't got to do their SATS and show off the hard work they've put in (one or two were perhaps relieved at this, but in this cohort, it was a real blow for them).  They haven't had their big year 6 treat - would they get their leaver's pool party? They didn't get to sign their t-shirts or do any of the other Rites of Passage that year 6 do now. They didn't get to Jump the Hump! (A ludicrous ritual that nonetheless means a lot to the community)

The first week of working from home was fine. I went in the first Monday, partly as part of the Keep-Everybody-Smiling committee. There were just 8 children in the school.  Lunch time was like a strange residential trip. Then, I went home, not expecting to be back in the building until Easter.

I did a lot to fill my time the first week. I did the preparation for the next day - powerpoints, pdfs, videos.  I filmed myself reading a chapter of our class book, which many parents thanked me for - or let their children email me messages thanking me. I recorded poems from our Poem A Day book, putting pictures to my voice.  I did some picture books for the younger year groups. I worked between the hours of 8.45 and 16.30 and then I switched off. I even resisted the call of day-time television. I wasn't on holiday.

Week two was tough. Because I'd not been going out - only for a shop one day, or a walk one afternoon - the weekend tricked my brain into getting into holiday mode a week early. A few of the parents stopped emailing me work - making me wonder why I was going to so much effort. Then, out of the blue, two or three emails with such lovely, appreciative messages of gratitude, from parents who don't normally say such things to me. It was worth it afterall.

I was child-minding 2-4 children the first week of Easter.  Two families of 2 siblings on the Monday and Tuesday, then one family of 2 on Wednesday, then a key worker child joined us on the Thursday.
Given the lack of takers, we decided to close the school for Good Friday and Easter Monday.
I went in wondering whether I should plan activities for them. Do they need structure during the holiday? I had some art ideas that I'd found on facebook. I used one of them in the end. That was enough, it turned out. The children were just happy to be able to do play together, go on the chromebooks/iPads or blow bubbles outside.  They needed the chance to switch off from the weird 'new normal' as much as we did.

The first morning, we had to make cards for the elderly in the village. That gave us some structure. The Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday was just finishing off the dinosaur handprint art we'd started. The children who were only in Mon and Tues didn't want to do one and the child in on Thursday didn't want to do one. So that kept things simple.  They played and chilled out and we didn't have to do much at all. To the point where I ended up doing the artwork myself!  Check them out:

But it was really really tiring! Having only myself most of the day for a fortnight, suddenly being at the beck and call of 4 chatty little loves was really draining!  How I'm going to cope going back to school when we eventually do reopen to the wider public I don't know.

This week I'd been completely in holiday mode. I had days where I did NOT get dressed. But I've also been keeping up with my personal training sessions (definitely got dressed for that) and tried to do Zumba at least once a week. I've even managed to do a lot of this on our roof terrace. I've been relatively active, whatever my husband would tell you about things.  I've left him to it, working from home at the dining table.

I've ordered planters for the railings of our terrace,  to plant bee-and-butterfly-friendly flowers. The former have arrived, the latter should be here this week.  I've been on long walks through the bluebell woods and across the fields around the outside of our village. I've taken lots of photographs that I might not have bothered to go looking for otherwise, or felt as though I had the time to do if I had other places I could go.

I do bloody crave a Costa right now though.

Big Japan Trip Take Two: Plans for the future

We're on the plane home now. It's going to be daytime the entire flight, because we're flying backwards in time. According to our watches, the whole journey is only going to be only 7 hours. It's actually 10 + 1.5hr in Poland +3hours to Heathrow.  Weird how time works, isn't it? I mean, no wonder Trump can't work out time zones!

Since we're not doing anything more this trip, we've already started compiling a list of things to do next time, in 2021 or 2025. What's that? We might have children by then? Well they'll bloody well come with us, is what will happen. Also if we go during my maternity leave, we can go when it's not 35+ degrees.

• Just a few days in Tokyo - about 3 days in Tokyo, to acclimatise after the flight, visit our favourite haunts 
• More Hokkaido - we'd hire a car. They drive on the left. Hubbo can practise his Japanese enough to get by when we have to deal with the men who fill your petrol for you.  That way we can visit the national parks (bears! waterfalls! Coastal paths! Forests!) and other more remote towns that are too difficult/time consuming by public transport.
• Okinawa
• Island hopping
• Moominland - that's opening in 2019! It looks AMAZING.  Tove Jansson's niece or great niece or whatever has been very complimentary and did some stuff behind the scenes, I believe.
• Super Mario Land - because, duh.  And since it's part of Universal studios, I am well up for that. Also we get to stay in our favourite hostel again, maybe. 
• Hakone - without the crap weather this time
• German-style spring water resort places, for the fun of it