Budgie Chronicles

I haven't talked much about our beautiful yellow budgie Bruce, so let's change that.

Bruce is actually female, but it takes a little time before it's obvious - the 'nose' changes colour to indicate it. She's usually quiet, but she isn't afraid to yell a lot when surprised by loud noises or whenever we leave her alone to go out. She's also capable of singing quite nicely, though it's not particularly common. Unfortunately, she's quite tricky to handle. Although very willing to come up to our faces and nibble on our noses, she's afraid of our hands and will back off from our fingers if we attempt to get her to step up to them, which is usually something budgies learn quickly.

However, today our persistence paid off; I reached into the cage to play with her, and guessed she was calm enough to try something a little exotic. I don't like grabbing her with my hand, but as she is so unwilling to step onto fingers it's the only way I've found to handle her. After letting her relax, I carried her out of the cage and stroked her for a minute or so while she looked around. Then I set her on my leg and waited to see what she would do.

She was still breathing very hard, so I was worried she'd start flying around at random as usual. To my surprise she walked about carefully, then started rubbing her head on me! Something startled her and she did fly briefly, landing on the floor and looking a little confused. After a little coaxing she walked right onto Emily's hand, which is something I've never seen her even close to doing before. She was happy to let Emily pet her wings and back! She even stepped from Emily's hand to mine, and ate from a fruit bar while still being held. We decided it was long enough for her to be out, and returned her to the cage; she hopped back by herself.

I'm looking forward to what she can learn to do next!

Oh, I've also played some games. I've warmed up a bit more to Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 after giving it some more play. The different Mobile Suits can play very differently, and despite how crappy the non-Ace suits are, they can still be pretty enjoyable, especially when you take out the ridiculous giant suits with them. I've beaten all the Official Modes so now the game is beaten. Mission Mode looks like it will take forever to max... I spent about 15 hours working on Milliardo before realising that he can't join Operation Meteor, so bringing all pilots to Friendship is actually impossible for him. I've started again with Domon, because his voice samples crack me up.

Dream team: Katejina, Domon, Yazan, Ghingham. Also maybe M'Quve because IT WAS PRICELESS!!
The yelling would never stop.

Wakefield CeX

CeX is the greatest shop!

First, some DVDs to watch:

• The Ultimate Fast Show Collection - this is what we actually came for, so naturally we bought a billion other things too.
• Lord of the Rings Complete - Special Extended DVD Edition - Emily wanted to see these again; I wonder what the extended edition adds?
• Iron Man - Emily also wants to see the backstories of the Avengers, as we both really enjoyed that film.
• Captain America - The First Avenger - ditto
• I Am Legend - it's not quite the book, but I think it's a really good take, also Will Smith

So now down to the real meat... JAMES:

• TimeSplitters [PS2] - I have TimeSplitters 2 and like it, so why not?
• Haven: Call of the King [PS2] - I have no idea what this game is!
• Eternal Quest [PS2] - I have no idea what this game is either!
• Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 [360] - ahahaha
• White Knight Chronicles: Origins [PSP] - kind of a strange entry to the series, but I don't have a PS3

Also went to Games Workshop and bought Warhammer: The Island of Blood, a starter set for Warhammer Fantasy with High Elves vs. Skaven. Emily really wants to paint this stuff! To help with that we also got Hobby Starter Set (set of 9 paints, flocking, brush, glue etc.) and a Chaos Black spray.

No money left now. Noodles for the rest of the month.