END OF WEEK 11 & 12!

WE HAVE BEEN DOING A MANY OF THINGS!!

Last weekend we went to a place called Stourhead since we now have easy access to all the National Trust places after becoming members. We picked one of the best days to pick for it, totally blue skies! We took 5683472846 photos while there, but the property was so HUGE and awesome (POINTS TO PHOTOS BELOW) you can understand why I went a little nuts! It’s was one of those days where you had to be there to appreciate the beauty and history of the location. If you don’t know what Stourhead is, have a quick read up here. The history behind just the house itself is really amazing, and the stories of the people who lived there are pretty fascinating. 

There is even a natural spring and obelisk there, including the odd structure or two that isn’t really talked about online, such as the one where some truly sexy devil doing a squat in front of >:D it's an old well about 30 minutes walk from the main gardens (it’s also shown on the second the last photo of the second lots of photos on this post) which indicates the start of the Stour River. We spent a good 6 hours there in total, yes, there is THAT much to see! We even saw a little nest of Moorhens there too which was neat surprise. A grown moorhen looks very similar to a Pukeko from NZ!

Seriously I could go on about that place but I better not… XD

Since we didn’t ruin our feet enough that weekend, we decided to head to Southampton for several reasons: Forbidden Planet (a nerdy shop), Ed’s Easy Diner (an American style diner which looks like it has been ripped straight out of Happy Days) and most importantly, YO SUSHI!! I admit that I have really missed sushi since moving over here, and Yo Sushi is one of the places that does sushi similar to what I really enjoyed back in NZ (But it's super expensive >_o).

We ate quite a good amount of sushi, to put it lightly, but it was worth it as it scratched my sushi itch very VERY nicely! Just before that however, we had ‘breakfast’ at Ed’s and had a MASSIVELY NAUGHTY Nutella milkshake for breakfast!! I swear those things are 1000% of your recommended daily intake of sugar, but it was a treat, like the whole day to be honest… UwÚ
The Forbidden Planet in Southampton is the closest one to us, other than London, and I absolutely LOVE it there, cause I’m a big fat nerd, JUST LIKE TASHA!! :D You can see our things that we brought from there, including our new facehugger plush that we have named Fluffykins, based on something from this comic made by Tasha recently, it’s the fifth question down in it! She is happy and healthy. We feed her many faces to keep her in tip top shape! :D

Oh, and the photo of the damaged building above is a church in Southampton that was constructed in 1320, it was damaged during World War 2 by German bombing. I just the amount of history this country holds is really amazing to me...

AAAAAAAAND, speaking of sushi, we really felt like some more, so we just went and made our own yesterday as we have pure skill. Well, Tasha made most (ALL) of it while I professionally documented the procedure like David Attenborough. BUT BOY WAS IT ALSO SUPER YUMMY!! We were both starving as we were making them, but I really could not eat anything else when we were done with them. I have instructed Tash to make them for me everyday because I am totally the boss of her, we all know that right?   -UwU-

AAAAAAAAAAAAND today, we went to the amazing Corfe Castle! That place really doesn’t have some nice history, but it’s not all bad, kinda...  XD Just knowing that 22 people starved to death in the the castles dungeon which you end up walking close by, is a very unusual feeling, as you can imagine. The castle has been sieged, bought, had kings and queens stay there, but if you wanna read up on it all of it can be found on the web! 

There was also a falconier show which we accidentally got to just as it started (we always seem to time these things up perfectly). One of the falcons came ‘this’ close to taking out Tasha as it flew down past the crowd and it very nearly clipped the person who was sitting in front of us. The falconers did say that the falcons would come down close to the crown, but not THAT close!! Incredible animals they are, and I really wouldn’t want to have one of them hunting me if I was a small creature!

Other than that, we have been putting in a really good ammount of effort to our comics! I have been pushing the limits of what I thought I could do when it comes to animating in my comics and I do think that people will enjoy the comics that will be posted over the next few weeks to come. Tash has also been working like a little beast to get her buffer up for all her comics because of our upcoming trip to Ireland on Friday which will be super awesoooooome! Expect ten thousand photos for the next blog post because of that!

In total, we have done 62,362 footsteps the last two weeks and why we are both losing weight around our tummies despite some seriously bad milkshake eating!

Oh, and over the last few weeks we have been playing a stupid game to see how many Mini’s (you know, the car) we can see each week… we are normal, HONEST. Our highscore is currently 271… WOOOO! We aren’t allowed to count the same Mini once we have seen it, so each Mini we count must not be one we have seen before. I’m sure we have counted the odd Mini more than once now and again, but we tend to forget what number we are at the beginning at each day and revert back to a number that we both remember from the day before, so it’s a good system!  XD

That’s pretty much it I think! We’ll see you guys in about two weeks or so! <3

That dude in the background has totally been caught digging for gold...

END OF WEEK 9 AND 10!

WHUPS! I really overshot the blog post for the last two weeks! My bad! I have no real excuse! >0< We have done many things over the last two weeks! Not a heck of a lot of exploring mind you, but stuffs!

We went to the Tank Museum for a day with Tasha’s littlest sister Triniti and Tasha’s nephew Cody which was a blast! I have never seen a tank close before, let along whole bunch they had there from all over the world and different times, from WW1 to modern times! It’s one thing watching documentaries on them and actually seeing them in real life. Being able to physically compare an American Sherman tank to a German King Tiger was such an eye opener to me. Thank heavens that those times have gone, and I have so much respect to all those people who went out and fought for us so we can have the lives we have now… It’s funny how so many people treat their lives like rubbish when I’m sure any of those men would have traded anything to be out of those situations they got put in to be in our shoes right now… ANYHOW, it was still very fascinating to see! We actually spent a good 5-6 hours there, which just flew by!

It was recently Tasha’s sisters birthday (EMILYYYYYYYYY!) the weekend before last and we had a super nummy BBQ for lunch. Tasha took control of the BBQ and we spent a good hour trying to get the coal for it going, using about 6042 fire-lighters in the process. It eventually got going in the end and everyone gobbled down everything super quickly as we were all starving and then we all just sat down and died from sleepiness afterwards, which is by far the best way to celebrate a birthday if you ask me!

ALSO, we are going to Ireland in about two week for about five days! We are mainly going to look at some places where Tasha’s ancestors lived many moons ago. There were a couple of places there where my ancestors came from but we had to cross them off the list as the places were either too far off the main course or we just didn’t have enough information about the places to make going there worth it. Next time maybe! So, expect a few Ireland photos in a few weeks time!

Just in case anyone hasn’t seen it (there being buttons on the menu for it on this blog) I highly suggest that you check out Tasha’s comic Hoi Butt which has been updating like mad recently with comics about her and I. They are kinda mushy, especially the most recent one, but I totally love them so much! LOVE THEM!! >w<

Tash and I have also recently signed up for Lootcrate because we are total freakin’ nerds. If you don’t know what Lootcrate is, it’s basically a package that gets sent to you month that contains a bunch of nerdy stuff depending on a theme, so totally up our alley! I have wanted to do it for a while but I have never done it, but that has all changed! The only dumb thing about it is that there is only one t-shirt per month in it and so we will have to change it from male to female each month so we can share the shirts evenly over the months. AH, FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS.

The first crate we got had an ice mould for a twenty sided dice, a photo of which can be found below somewhere!

Apart from all that gumpf, I’ve still been looking for jobs and getting no good bites as they all seem to be through recruiting companies which I have learned you can’t trust over here XD I shall persist though! We also spent nearly all weekend hammering out comics as it was super rainy and therefore perfect snuggling up and drawing weather! :D

I’ve also been having major craving to play Star Wars Battlefront more and more so I have recently been asking Tasha to hide it from me so I can’t play it when she heads off to work. However, I have accidentally found it twice already within a week, so if anyone wants to play a game of hide and seek with Tasha don’t expect anything too epic. You’ll just be disappointed.

I also watched the movie Labyrinth for the first time ever (which is funny because I recently got a t-shirt for Labyrinth from Lootcrate and got a Labyrinth comic from free comic book day!) and I don’t know how I hadn’t! It has David Bowie as the main villain! HOW HAD I NOT SEEN IT!!  DX< We also watched the live action Super Mario Bros movie which was beyond crazy but I thought it was great, but that was to be expected. This is all you need to see to understand what I mean.

We have also been Geocaching again for the first time in a while and not doing too badly if I don't say so myself UwU I am also now leaving behind some old Beefpaper cards in some caches we find if I can as pictured. >:3

I’ll update this blog again just before we head to Ireland before the 10th of June! :D

END OF WEEK 7 AND 8!

HEY HEY! It’s been two weeks since I updated this thang! It was mainly because week 7 was rather uneventful and just full of boring life stuff that everyone does so we thought we would combine week 7 and 8 into one nice, juicy, plump update.

We went back to Bloxworth to see the bluebells again now that they are fully out! It was pretty awesome, the first thing we saw was a HUGE herd of wild deer! But they disappeared off into the forest once we started to approach the entrance D:

Last time we were there, we saw a bunch of tadpoles in puddles, the weather has been warming up a lot recently, so this time we decided to take a container, and spent about 30 minutes fishing out tadpoles from all these puddles that were drying up into a larger one in hopes that more will survive!

Afterwards we popped in to see the family, and I'm starting to notice a common occurrence every time I go there...Squealer (one of their cats) REALLY enjoys using me as a perch! She'll keep meowing until I pick her up and she will just climb on my shoulders and stay there until Tasha peels her off me XD

 It was free comic book day on Saturday so Tash and I waddled down to one of the comic shops in town and grabbed a whole bunch of comics for free because they were freeeeeee! :D It was nice to be able to actually partake in it for the first time ever as back in New Zealand I would of had to travel 2 hours just to find a comic shop, but now it feels like the world is just outside my doorstep and I love it! I also just love the feeling that the comic community exists physically rather just just in cyberspace. *LOTS OF GOOD FEELS STIRRING ON THE INSIDE*  >w<

There were also super tall storm troopers there which just made me feel like one big fat nerd instead of a skinny tall nerd I normally am.

Yesterday we went back to the New Forest which I haven’t been to since I was over here last September, and it was just as awesome as last time. It’s just so pretty and huge and there are so many little things all over the place to find. Tash and I walked deeper into the forest than any other walkers (most of the people were on bikes, weeeeeeak) and it was just so tranquil and dead quiet. All we could hear was the wind through the trees. We decided to take a short break by a little tiny stream and munched on our lunch, because we were so quiet, we didn't notice a whole bunch of deer standing close by. We got up to leave and they just bounded by us and hopped off into the distance! It was so random but just amazing! I would go back there every week if I could, the only trouble is it takes a while to drive there  DX

Also, one of the photos on this blog shows a weird pattern on a tree trunk. That's from one of the New Forest ponies having a munch on it! Some of the patterns they make are awesome although not very good for the trees.

Afterwards we walked back (only after getting a little bit lost) to the car only to get a bit of a shock. When we arrived that morning there must of been about 15 cars in the car park, but when we got back, I would not be surprised if there was close to 150 cars bumper to bumper all around the area! Something I am learning from being here is to get to places early and beat the crowds!

Something that is kinda good and bad is that I have to go get some work done on my teeth today which is eh but what I was surprised to see is the cost is so much less over here because I am a member of the National Health Service (NHS) over here. The cost of just one filling over in NZ would have cost me about £60 or about $130 NZ dollars where £50 over here gets the all done. It’s not good that I need a couple of fillings done at all but that was still quite a nice surprise considering!

We also recently found a Puss Moth by complete mistake (I was just walking from the car to the fence to look at the view because… I like views?) and I almost stepped on it. Tash has never seen one before as well, so I guess they must be fairly rare! It clung onto Tasha’s hand with its feelers and it really didn't want to let go, poor little thing  XD It’s caterpillar form is very cool looking to, have a look!

We also got our haircut a week ago which was well needed. Tash got her hair cut super cute (we all know she is cute enough anyway, it's just backing that cuteness) and I got mine cut about the same length as I always get it cut...boring XD 

More shots of us can be found on our Instagram if you really want to be a nosy nelly.

Other than that we have just been hammering out comics like nobodies business and getting out to enjoy the weather which appears to have gone straight from winter to summer overnight! It suddenly went from wearing two pairs of socks to shirt and shorts weather over the weekend! The sun isn't setting until just after 8pm and rising around 5am. Not complaining though! Just means more time outside for adventuring!!

END OF WEEK SIX!

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD has been the word for this week me thinks!
Seriously, I have eaten some of the nummiest foods ever this week! (apart from that Thai, which we had that one time... twice.... we've already had it twice... AHEM).

Firstly, we went to an amazing place called Corianders where 99.9% of everything on the menu is spicy, so naturally I WAS IN HEAVEN AND GOBBLED MY THREE ENCHILADAS DOWN LIKE NO ONES BUSINESS  >:D We went there to celebrate Tasha's grandma's birthday. Going to a restaurant and munching in her honour is the least I can do to celebrate her birth am I right? UwU
Tasha and I couldn't behave ourselves for too long, but who didn't see that coming?

Secondly, on Saturday we went to the only sushi place within 592942 miles of where we live AND GOODNESS.
MY GOODNESS.
They make it to order, so you do have to wait a good 20 minutes for the dude to make it for you but man is it worth the wait! They don't have the huge variety of flavours like they do with the sushi in NZ (and I hate fish so that cuts 97% of the menu down for me here) but what they did have I loved!

And just to destroy the bowels after that, we dropped into a neat little place called Sprinkles and ruined all the hard work we put into this mornings walk with one blasters sundae which is pictured somewhere on today's blog. We have decided that we couldn't eat for the next 5 days because of this, so don't envy us too much.We are basically already dead.
I'm sorry Ryan. That promised hug will never be fulfilled.

I also got my new computer!! It's nothing amazing special to brag about but it does exactly what I need it to do for my comic work and such, so I am a happy Shane. Tash and I must have looked pretty scruffy when we went it to buy it, the first guy who assisted us looked very unhappy about us not buying his highly recommended anti-virus software. I was very tempted to let him know I worked on an IT Helpdesk for the last 6 years of my life and so feel pretty confident with computers, but ah well, it's kinda funny none-the-less.  XD  Well, nearly every other shop assistant from the store avoided us, one person even went straight past us to go help the people behind us. It was the first time I actually considered complaining about it to someone further up the food chain there but we decided it wasn't worth it because WE HAVE PLACES TO DRAW AND COMICS TO WALK TO! :D

We have also be watching the show "Flight of the Conchords" which is about two Kiwis living in New York trying to make it big in their band Flight of the Conchords, and I can recommend it to the moon and back! This is actually the second time we have watched through both seasons because it's that good, and if fully takes the mickey out of NZ in so many ways. Just look at this poster. It's all you really need to see to understand the humour of the show.

Other than that, we've just been trying to plan a trip to Ireland, which we've now moved to September due to how quickly the weeks are going already, and we kinda ran out of time to book things!! Tasha has also been researching into other places she'd to take me which are close by, such as Stourhead which she has highly recommended to visit! So hopefully when the weather is good, we'll get some awesome photos from there :D and maybe Longleat Safari Park!! 

See you guys next week!! :D

END OF WEEK FIVE!

Whups! I was meant to update this two days ago but life took over and stopped me. I'm currently writing this at 3:45am in the morning on my phone as I couldn't sleep tonight for the first time since getting over jet-lag while listening to the LittleBigPlanet soundtrack from the PS3 game which is truly crazy yet super fun sounding considering I haven’t played it in so long. Ahhhh, nostalgia! I LOVES IT! Go look up the LittleBigPlanet song called Atlas you will have an idea of what I am talking about *DANCES ALONG IN BED A LITTLE WHILE TRYING NOT TO WAKE UP TASH* >U<

The main reason I haven’t updated this blog is because my laptop is starting to pack up and I don’t think another reinstall of Windows will fix it this time, so a new UK one is in the books for this afternoon which will be super duper good! Though some of the keys on the UK keyboard being placed oddly compared to NZ keyboards, so don’t be surprised if you see some odd words with the @ symbol randomly placed into them now and again, or something XD

Last week involved looking for jobs! I'm still really trying to find a job which wasn't available in NZ because opportunities lack there slightly in comparison. I recently asked a comic shop if they had anything available (they didn't unfortunately BUT MAN THAT WOULD BE AN AWESOME THING TO HAPPEN LATER ON) but I'm gonna keep on looking! I just don’t want to settle for a job I don’t particularly enjoy straight away because “that’s what people have to do”. If there is one thing I have learned from life over the last two years it is that anything can friggin’ happen and any small move taken can change your life forever. 

Another thing that I have realised is that your life choices are in your own hands, despite what a lot of people make the world out to be. You are responsible for where you are in your life most of the time, and most of the time, you are the only one who can change it. I personally just don’t want to be  another name in human history who just existed, I want to leave something behind that isn't simply genetic or that can inherited, which is another reason why I am doing Beefpaper! I don’t ever plan to stop it so hopefully it will be a record of my life from when I was 23 all the way up until I can no longer draw/breathe, but we will see what happens! SO YES ANYWAY I GOT SLIGHTLY DISTRACTED THERE I AM JOB HUNTING AT THE MOMENT  XD

I also saw some of the legendary bluebells that Tasha has been telling me I needed to see since we basically met roughly two years ago AND THEY ARE VERY PRETTY! Odds are we are going to go back and have a look at them again shortly as they were not all out, so expect some pictures next week too! We went there with Tasha’s uncle Neil and her Grandma Jill, who has been working on my family tree for me over the last few months now which I really can’t thank her enough for!! It really is amazing to see where you actually come from and to actually some faces next to those names! If you don’t know much about your ancestry then MAN GO HAVE A NOSEY! Odds are we are probably somehow related, everyone seems to be by the freakin’ looks of it if my tree is anything to go off! 

I've also been gaming a heck of a lot with many different pals which has frankly been awesome toos, including our comicing pals Red and Flynn (playing Don’t Starve Together), the super mega awesome TK (playing Borderlands 2 as pictured above) and even one of my super old friends from way back on Star Wars Battlefront which was a big surprise but an awesome one at that! I do feel like my comic work has suffered a bit because of it all so this week is gonna be all about getting back on track, hopefully…… I feel like I have just jinxed it terribly by saying that….. *GLARES AT DYING LAPTOP IN CORNER OF ROOM* >____>’ 

END OF WEEK FOUR/ONE MONTH!

GEOCACHING GEOCACHING AND MORE GEOCACHING!! 

And comics, of course!

Most of this week has been taken up with a large amount of comic work as my comic 'buffer' had gotten down a little since all this moving and adventuring guff started happening, but it's mostly all back up to date! My comic is also about to become fully freehand (for the characters anyway) as I have always drawn my characters off a template of sorts to help me draw them accurately, but no more! The first comic is this style is going up next Thursday UK time and I am super happy that I have finally gotten to the stage where I can draw like this as I am no longer restricted to preparing comics on the computer. I can do it on paper like they used to do it back in the day so comic production should go up a little bit hopefully! YAY FOR GOOD STUFFS!

We geocached LOADS this weekend and we walked about 9-10 hours this just exploring around the place and caching it up! I know I have said it before but if you can go Geocaching freakin' DO IT, especially if you have a buddy to do it with! IT'S SO MUCH FUNS AND IT'S EXERCISE THAT DOESN'T FEEL LIKE EXERCISE AND IT MAKES YOU THINK! In the second image above, for example, the little pink capsule was suspended up in a tree, held up there by a little log that Tasha can be seen holding and you can see a few more images below of some peoples handiwork of hiding their caches around. And also, if you are a clumsy muppet like me, you could even fall over and tear your hands and knees to pieces! :D Tasha, being the big caring dork she is, patched me all up super good so I'm all better now. I was super lucky to not wreck my DSLR camera that I was carrying with me at the time as it had it's lens cap off and I fell pretty badly, but it only came out with a little scratch on its case which is cosmetic so it's all super good!

We also came across a house that had a couple of really grumpy alpaca's in their back garden munching on their trees...I think we should perhaps phone Peru in the morning to let them know D:

I also had my first ever hot dog ever this week which was a thing! They were Quorn hot dogs which are meat-free (I can't even tell the difference with Quorn products, honest to glob) and I can say is NOM NOM NOM! They are a thing in my life now which is not going away any time soon. It's just another thing that Tasha has made me addicted too, as well as tiger bread which is probably the yummiest bread I have ever eaten.... CURSE YOU TASHA! CURSE YOOOOOOOOU!! She had also told me off a couple of times because I may or may not have eaten half of it before we even made it home <_<;

Other than that it's pretty much been life as normal (as normal as life is here) and soldiering on with day to day things! Boring stuff like playing Star Wars Battlefront on the PS4 and destroying rebel scum dramatically. Y'know, day to day stuff! (SERIOUSLY THOUGH THAT GAME IS SUPER MEGA FUN I MAY BE ADDICTED AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH). OH! We are also up-to-date now with the Walking Dead :D We watched the last episode of season 6 last Tuesday and GHFJDKGHSDKLJGHJFKSD DANG THOSE CLIFF HANGERS!

I now leave you with these lovely images from using the app FaceSwap <3

WEEK, THE THIRD!!

I'm officially all set to go for being a working joe here in the UK! My National Insurance Number came through which means I can officially work now, so the great job hunt can really begin! I am not really rushing out to get an office job straight away considering there are so many opportunities for all kinds of different work here so I am keeping my eyes open for anything that may catch my fancy, but I am really unsure as to what my fancy is at the moment.... WE SHALL SEE!

This week has been rather quiet adventure wise as THE Tasha has gone back to work and stuffs, and it wasn't even a full week because of Easter! DX Still, we are still making the most of the time we have together! We have both wrecked our feet a little (AGAIN) after a walk we did yesterday to the beach. My little toes were like little cherries and Tasha's shoes just EXPLODED, so we will need to go buy her some new ones, WON'T WE EGG?? HMM?? >__>

My bank account for the UK is finally all sorted too! For some reason they failed to fill it with money. I will call them on Monday to sort that out...

To reward ourselves for maiming our feet on Saturday we spontaneously went to a Thai restaurant for lunch (I actually had the brochure for it up on my bedroom wall back in NZ for the past 5 months, it was just by chance we decided to go there). And, well.... IT WAS SOME OF THE YUMMIEST THAI FOODS WE HAVE EVER HAD EVERNGJEHOIHGKEHHGRWJKN!!!! It was only a small portion, being lunch, but HOLY MOLY IT WAS SO SUPER YUMMY!! It was called Sakuna Khrua Thai and DANG GO THERE IF YOU CAN! I can recommend it to the moon and back, because it will send you there with it's yumminess...  >U>

My mums fish tanking business all the way over there in NZ is all in full swing too and Tash recently designed this super freakin' amazing logo for it!

Not too shabby if I don't say so... UwU

If you click on this link it will take you to her Facebook page, so if you know of any places in Whangarei that need an amazing fish tank or if you have an existing tank that needs a darn good spruce up, then you know what to do!

We have also acquired two new additions to our little family just today! Two tiny little hiss cockroaches named Red and Flynn (based off our super mega awesome webcomic pals who do the equally amazing webcomic Liar's Dice). Tasha's sister TK owns the two hissing cockroaches shown in the photo on this post and we don't think they are old enough to start hissing yet... but we are waiting patiently like two strange, proud parents for the day Red and Flynn hiss their first hiss!  >w<

SPEAKING OF WHICH, THEY ACTUALLY MADE A COMIC ABOUT IT! They also demand that you listen to this song as you read the comic, which is indeed very fitting! :D

Tash and I have just finished our monthly gaming hangout with our Patron's who support our work on Patreon and I am completely knackered for some reason so I am going to it the hay. All I can hope is that Red and Flynn don't crawl into our brains as we sleep.