That was the Bake Off that was

Whew !

I only started watching the Great British Bake Off a few years ago but I've really enjoyed it while it lasted. I think some of that stems from watching stuff Mel and Sue have been involved with since I went to uni. They're a naughty pair those two but they remember they're there to entertain first and foremost.

That's something really important, the viewer is the person who is absolutely key. The entertainer has to bring the viewer (or reader for here !) with them and include them in what's going on. And that shows in the viewing figures this show gets. You can guarantee it'll be the highest watched show in GB this week.

Mel and Sue have always been like that. They'll bring in the naughtiness to add some fun but in the end, programmes like Bake Off are all about the contestants and the tasty creations they cook up. And it was the same 20 years ago with their Late Lunch and Light Lunch chat show programmes. The inclusiveness is why I watch people like HeyChrissa and why I've gone away from watching a few other people on the internets.

This is the last year of Bake Off as we know it though. It has gone away from BBC and 3 of the 4 presenters have walked away. I don't think I'll be watching the Channel 4 version, they're a much more trash tv kind of channel, although BBC can be pretty trashy too. Bake Off is about the only thing I watch(ed) on BBC lately. Oh, Doctor Who and Sherlock as well.

Oh and after that mention of the HeyChrissa earlier ... I have her stream on in the window behind this one. She is playing Playstation VR at the moment (looks fairly decent and promising although - Job Sim - nah) and is edging closer and closer to the window ... chat thinks something may occur ...

Oh - job thing. I'm on holiday this week to regain some energy back and get some healing in. I did think about heading out at some point but ... I don't think I will be to be honest. (I'll get to that in a mo - nothing bad).

I have been on and off enjoying the games and generally chilling out over here. I'm in much better condition than I have been, although it's still silly easy to set that condition back again. The aim is to be a little bit better than the day before. Continuous improvement of how my outsides are. No backward steps.

My ankles are almost right but not quite there yet. And even then, there will be more healing time needed before they're tough ankles again. (There's more damage than just my ankles but the ankles are safe? to talk about). Switching to mostly using moisturizer (Aveeno for the win!) and only very sparingly using that HC45 healing gunk seems to have helped a lot.

So no heading out this week. I'll be ensconced in front of the cricket again from Friday. Protect those ankles some more. After so long with this condition, I have extreme wariness about doing daft things and setting back the healing. It's kinda inhibiting.

That said, if an offer came up to drag me out of the house then I'd jump at it. Real Life people are far better than games. And getting used to new mobile phones ...

I've been on an assortment of the games this week :

Darkest Dungeon turned brutal. It switches between the town and dungeon adventures. Every game week sees another 4 venturing into the dungeon. It was ok up to 20 weeks, fairly easy apparently even. And then it developed a taste for Adventurer Blood. Perhaps my own fault for putting a torch in something that said "Put torch here to taste oblivion".

It's a very simple looking game. That's from a different encounter which my heroes survived ... barely.

And then there's the Stellaris and Hearts of Iron strategy games. I haven't actually taken one of those to their full conclusion yet. I'm avoiding getting the new Civilisation game, from watching a few gameplay videos it seems to need a patch or two. Problems like overactive barbarians and weak opponent AI.

I tried a new one today, a free to play (with many non intrusive microtransactions) game called Path of Exile. It will be very familiar to anyone who's played a Diablo game. Plays well too, although I think I would get bored of it quickly. It's not really the type of game I get hooked into.

Apart from that, I've been steadily adding apps to the phone ... It has a decent selection on there now although I am skipping the First bus mTickets app. It's always useful to look at reviews for apps, especially when they warn of it taking your money and not giving you tickets. Poor show First Bus, which is exactly in line with their level of service in Bristol lately. They're not helped by our traffic planners but ... apps should work and the buses should run on time.

I think I'll be admitting defeat for now with the Android iTunes sync. The Doubletwist app depends on a file transfer method that has been out of Android for a good few versions now (surely they should update their program ?) and I'm not paying the £7 for the wifi sync verson. Nope. I'll keep the old iPhone around for now. It'll be happy bluetoothing the music across to the car and I can run it without a sim card.

Back soon. Still more healing to do, still energy to catch up on. And sleep too !