Just two creatives blogging about living a married life.
Our ups, downs, and everything in-between.

Keta

This village town is about two hours drive East of Accra. It’s got great views of the Volta River, it’s got its own lagoon and is close to the sea so a great place for water lovers. We came here to stay in the holiday home of my mum’s friend’s brother-in-law. His place was really nice, large rooms with en-suite, a swimming pool and plenty of things to do in the river like canoeing, paddle boarding, jet skiing. It was the first place that I have ever kayaked, and the place where Hannah got terrible sunburn in her legs but it was fun.

We drove far east of Ghana and were almost an hour away from the capital of the next country. During the journey back we stopped over at our first slave trade fort, Prinzenstein one owned by the Danes. It was in pretty bad condition considering more than half of it was washed away by the sea, but there was enough of it left for us to get an idea of what went on. Our tour guide told showed us where the women used to bathe, where they slept, and where they were sold. We saw a model of the full fort which looked large. Unfortunately, the upstairs was too dangerous for us to walk on but that’s where the generals quarters would have been.

Cape coast

Our time in Accra and Keta was fun and although we enjoyed the tourist attractions we seemed to be the only ones around. That was all about to change when we entered the former capital of Ghana. Cape Coast is a place booming with tourists attractions as well as local and international tourists.

Cape Coast castle

The first of two castles we visited at Cape Coast and I would say the first proper museum we visited in Ghana not because it was large and had loads of tourists in it (we were unfortunate to have a large group of schoolgirls in front of us), but because of the information that was provided. There were books and pamphlets in the ticket hall, a gift shop, and the self-guided tour section had loads of pictures and text to go along with it. There was a section that replicated the inside of a slave ship and another that replicated the ring where slaves would be sold. It was impressive and added to the effect of the area’s sad history.

The castle itself was very well built and was better preserved than the one in Keta. Originally built by the Swiss for trading slaves it was taken over by the British who did the same thing. We saw the dungeons where the male and female slaves were kept. Our tour guide was very good and simulating what it felt like to be down there by giving us detailed descriptions while turning off all electric lights as there wouldn’t have been any in those times. The floors which were originally brick were caked with a layer of hard grey which was years of human [faeces] and dirt which was a surprise to me, as well as the bad sanitation that was in the dungeons.

We saw a prison that was used for both slaves and misbehaving officers which was built in an interesting way. The first section had a door with holes where the white soldiers were kept for a day. The second section behind the first had a much thicker door which no holes and it lead to a place which no ventilation whatsoever. This is where the misbehaving slaves were kept and were left there until they died. We walked along the edge of the castle closest to the sea which had loads of cannons, these were used to fend off invading pirates and attacking countries. Each castle had a fort nearby built on a hill so a lookout could spot the enemy from afar. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to visit any forts in Cape Coast but we might do that on a future trip.

We then walked up to the place where the governors would stay which was a drastic difference to the dungeons. They had large rooms with plenty of windows, there were kitchens and bathrooms. Many of those rooms had been modified and were being used as offices. I know Osu castle (which we didn’t visit) has been completely taken over by those in government and used as offices.

Cape Coast castle was such a great tourist attraction and I recommend it for anyone visiting Ghana.

Elmina castle

This castle is a similar size to Cape Coast castle but was originally built for a different purpose. This was the first castle built in Africa around 1400 by the Portuguese to share the gospel and for fair trade. They traded gold for things like mirrors, guns, gunpowder and so on. However, when Columbus discovered the Caribbean islands and the riches it contained, they realised they needed people to work on them, for various reasons they decided to take the people from Ghana to those islands and the castle changed from a place of goods trade to a place of the slave trade.

I don’t want to go too much into the history of what happened but I will say once again our tour guide did a very good job of explaining it to us and showing us around.  We started in a church at the centre of the castle, then moved to the storage places which later became the dungeons for slaves. There were loads of similarities between this place and Cape Coast castle. The conditions in which the slaves were kept in was worse than animals. Misbehaving officers were kept in a prison with air and light for a day whereas misbehaving/revolting slaves were kept in a much worse prison and left to die. We saw a ball and chain in the courtyard of the women which was used to torture the slaves who refused to sleep with the generals that requested them. It was all very moving, especially seeing the gate of no return, the place where the slaves would leave to go on boats.

This castle, unlike Cape Coast, showed clear signs of a takeover. The Portuguese lost it to the Dutch who had reinforced it after destroying parts of it and built their own protestant church as opposed the Catholic Portuguese one and built their own kitchen.

I think it’s amazing how much of the castle was preserved in the condition that it was. This castle, in particular, was around 600 year old and rooms were still being used as offices and gift shops.

Kakum National Park

Our final tourist attraction in Cape Coast was the Kakum National Park. I had heard a lot about this place before visiting Ghana, the famous canopy walkway that was so high up people were so afraid to set foot on it. I spoke to someone at work who closed her eyes all the way across.  So upon entering the park I was pretty nervous, I didn’t know what to expect.

Upon paying for our tickets we sat in the wooden waiting area and watched a documentary on the cape cost tourism board. A group of American students also came to the waiting area before our tour began.  Once again, we were touring with school kids. We let them go ahead of us as we toured through the rainforest.  We were told there were 240 elephants in Kakum, all sorts of snakes and birds, but unfortunately, we didn’t see any of them, what we did see however were large ants, driver ants. Our tour guide told us not to step on them as their death would all an army of them to attack. Inevitably someone didn’t listen and killed a few ants, we were told to run quickly across the path as not to get swarmed, so we did, this made the tour feel a bit rushed.

We got to the canopy which was really high up above the ground but it was incredibly well reinforced. The wooden walkway was on top of a metal ladder type structure placed horizontally. The walkway was walled with a thick rope mesh and there were ropes all around it to keep it from falling, this put my nerves at ease, this and the knowledge that since the park had been built no one has ever fallen through the walkway.

We walked through first and the Americans walked behind us. There were about 20 students overall which made the bride feel very wobbly but safe enough for us to take videos and pictures of it. We were on and off all 4 bridges in less than 15 minutes and I wanted to do the whole thing again.

Conclusion

Although I wasn’t a huge fan of the humid heat, the long long car journeys, and the mosquito bites I enjoyed my time in Ghana overall.

I really missed having Hausa Koko, Tom brown or Cerelac for breakfast with hard dough bread. The taste of fried plantain and beans, goat meat kebabs, grilled chicken with Jollof, Malta Guinness, and of course, Milo with evaporated milk. Fresh coconut juice, watermelons, sugar cane, pawpaws, and mangos were also great additions to my diet.

I enjoyed having conversations with family members I hadn’t seen in a while and brushing up on my [Fante]. It was weird at first seeing billboard, adverts and TV shows with just black people on them, especially for brands that are in the UK as well like Vodafone and Barclays, but I got used to it after a while and it was actually sort of refreshing. It was also quite shocking to see loads people on the roads selling food, open shipping containers on dirt pavements with shops, and driving on bumpy dirt roads. A lot Ghana to my surprise looked very third world, even in Accra, the capital. I was shocked to see that at first, but like most things there I got used to it.

For those who have been swung by this article and really want to visit Ghana, I have a few tips for you. Make sure you keep the fan on when you sleep, it makes it harder for the mosquitos to bite you. Don’t drink water from the taps or eat any vegetables. The water is safe to drink and eating vegetables that have been washed in said water isn’t good either. Take a face towel with you or buy one when you’re there, you’ll sweat so much that it will be uncomfortable so the towel will be your best friend. Take money out of an ATM instead of a forex bureau, the exchange rates are usually better. And finally, be a generous tipper.

We’ve travelled a lot as a couple and we’ve got a pretty solid process for it. Pick a location, pay for flights and accommodation, pack light, as in–hand luggage only light. And spend as little as possible if we can. It’s a process that has worked for us quite well, but it didn’t quite work on our trip to Ghana.

For starters, my mother and her friend accompanied us which meant we didn’t have to sort out accommodation or activities. Also, Ghana isn’t one of those countries you can hop on a plane and just fly to if you’re from the UK, you have to get a visa from the Ghana high commission (£60). Get a bunch of vaccinations including yellow fever (£50). And take anti-malaria medication around two weeks before your flight (£27). Not forgetting sun cream, mosquito repellent and before you know it, you’ve spent £150 per person on top of the cost of the flight.

The British Airways flight we took was a leg up from our typical easyJet/Ryanair flights. They allowed for two 23kg suitcases as well as two sets of hand luggage per person. One person’s allowance was more than enough for both of us, but other people had plans for that extra space. My dad paid for our tickets so it was only fair that we allowed him to take a few things with our extra space. My mum and her friend travelling with us added a few things as well.

Boti falls

Our first tourist stop around four hours from Accra. This place is famous for its twin waterfalls located at the bottom of Kwame Nkrumah’s house. Unfortunately for us the waterfall had but almost dried out, apparently the best time to see them is between July and August, we visited in May. So instead we did something else.

Our tour guide Kennedy took us on a hike nearby and showed us some sights as we walked past them. One, a large footprint on a rock that was said to have been made by the giants of old. We walked past a rocky wall almost cavelike, with loads of holes in it. We were told these were old banks, people would place their gold inside for safe keeping. We later passed another was a rock in the shape of an umbrella (or mushroom). It was such an unusual natural sight and the views of mountains around it were breathtaking. Our final sight was a three-headed palm tree with a so-called, ‘fertility rock’ at its base. Most palm trees have one head, but this was the only one with three, it’s told that if you sit on the rock you’re more likely to have twins or triplets.

Aburi botanical gardens

This was one of my favourite tourist attractions in Ghana. Aburi is about two hours drive from Accra and is up on a hill so much cooler than the capital. The gardens itself was huge and apparently would have taken a few days to see everything, so our tour guide only showed us the highlights.

We first saw a row of cedar trees brought from Lebanon, apparently, these were the exact same trees Solomon used to build his temple. Unfortunately, these trees were being attacked by parasite trees, ones that attack from above and hollow out a tree. In fact, many of the trees in the botanical gardens were being taken over by the parasites which were a sad sight to behold.

We saw some hibiscus plants, nutmeg trees, smelt some cinnamon barks and saw an amazing work of art called, 'the tree if life’. A tree carved by someone called Micheal who took 5 years to do it. It started with people struggling at the bottom of the tree at its roots with animals in the middle and people climbing to the top. The top had kinds and people who had made the climb successfully, it was such an interesting thing to behold and I’m glad we saw it in person, as well as seeing the person who made it.

Black star square

This place was pretty underwhelming. It was a large square with seats all around it and a large arch that lead to the sea. We were told that this part of Accra gets busy during the Ghana independence day celebrations.

The square also has a statue of a soldier near its entrance behind a bowl which looks like it is used for a flame. The roundabout in front of the square gave a good view of Accra, with the independence Arc similar to the Arc de Triumph in Paris.

Kwame Nkrumah museum

One of the few museums in the capital of Ghana. It consists of the burial place of Ghana’s first president and his wife which is surrounded by a large park, and a small museum with pictures and certain belongings of Kwame Nkrumah, we started our tour there. Our tour guide gave a great description of what each item was from his desk to his casket, and also gave clear explanations of most of the pictures on the wall.

We were not allowed to take pictures whilst in the museum but we were allowed to outside. We were told about his grave that it was designed like a tree that was cut short to represent his unfinished work. There was a large sculpture of Kwame pointing forwards above the place where he proclaimed Ghana’s independence as well as a few smaller sculptures blowing trumpets and playing drums to represent the funeral ceremony.

All in all, it was a very educational trip and was to be the first of many things we learnt about Ghana’s history.

Arts centre

This is the part of Ghana that reminded us most of the markets in Marrakech. It was an indoor market with people selling all sorts of things from bracelets, to fabrics, to wooden carved items. All the sellers tried every trick in the book to get your attention. Offering you free items, invading your personal space to explain how great their items were, and of course, tourist get the inflated price so this isn’t somewhere to come to if you don’t like bartering.

What’s more, people continued selling you things outside of the market as you tried to walk away. At one point there was a crowd of four people around us who wouldn’t take no for an answer. We had to slam the door to our car and start driving before they gave up.

Despite being a programmer, and someone with an interest in computer games it has never crossed mind to make a game. Well–I’ve helped make a small game in the past by contributing 3D assets and I have, kind of, made games before. One game, but it was really basic. A game that required clicking a moving target which got faster each time it was clicked.

I’ve never thought about programming my own game from scratch, a game that could work on computers, maybe phones, or even game consoles. I always thought that was for the realm of the super talented, those who have experience in the gaming industry or have graduated in computer science. Nevertheless, after creating a Udemy course teaching people how to write fairly complicated web development code I thought, maybe I’m ready, maybe now I’m good enough to try and make my own game.

I spoke to Hannah about this idea and she was incredibly excited, she had all sorts of ideas on what we could make. We had plenty of discussions on a 2D adventure game we could make called, ‘Yaa and the Golden Stool’. The story would be based off Yaa Asantewaa, a Ghanian woman who fought back the British opposition trying to capture the sacred golden stool. We came up with a storyboard, some mechanics, and talked about some of the bosses fights. 

In the end–we decided to archive that idea. It was far too complicated for two people who had never built a game before. We came up with something more simple, an infinite runner (like Temple Run or Jetpack Joyride), where you play as an armadillo and collect bugs. Hannah was really excited about designing the environment and animating the characters. We later discovered there are loads of games with armadillo’s in them already, so the animal changed to a pangolin. A bit like an armadillo but more prehistoric and endangered. In fact, the pangolin is the world’s most trafficked animal. We also thought it better to make a platformer ( like Mario or Sonic), instead of an infinite runner since we wanted the player to control their direction.

Hannah quickly began sketching characters and environments using Procreate on her iPad, then transferring them to Photoshop for sprite and tilesheets. I looked into what game engine to use. Unity and Unreal are the big ones most people gravitate to but I didn’t have that luxury. I planned to programme the game during work hours (we’re given 10% of our time to work on whatever we want), which meant using the work laptop, and finance companies are pretty strict about what bits of software you can install. So instead of getting a piece of software I got a programming language instead, one called Haxe. I chose to use Haxe because it is lightweight, and can be exported into other languages (useful for running the same game on different platforms). The game engine I went with was one called HaxeFlixel, mainly because it had good documentation and people had made multi-platform games with it before. 

It has been over a month of working on this game now I’m still very much enjoying the process. It’s what I think about doing most when I’m at work or commuting. I enjoy coming up with ideas and bouncing them off Hannah, hearing some of her ideas and seeing new artwork she produces. We’ve both watched a lot of indie game documentaries to inspire us and give us tips on how to fine-tune our workflow. Our favourites have been the Hades series from NoClip and Building the Bastion.

Trello and Slack have been our main project management tool for communication and sharing assets.

And we’re currently testing the game in a web browser, but we plan to have the finished game running as a native application on PC, Mac, and Linux. No mobile platforms at the moment.

We’re aiming to keep the game short, no longer than an hour, it’s kind of a test bed for us to see how difficult it is to make a game. It’s been good to go back and watch old videos, to see how much we’ve learned, and what we can do to improve the game.

I’m super thankful to Hannah for creating all the design assets so far, there’s no way I could make the game look as good as it is without her. Gaming creation was _my_ interest and now it’s become our interest. I’m glad she’s taken it on board as her own and has as much passion and enthusiasm as I do when it comes to game creation. 

Most developers say the first game you make won’t be good, but even if this game won’t be good, I certainly will have a lot of fun playing it and watching others play it as well.

I like to think that I have everything under control, well–most things. I choose the time I wake up; the time I get into work, what I have for breakfast and so on. To a certain extent that is true, the alarm on my phone was set by me and I know what food is in the house so I can plan what to eat, but it’s really an illusion, I’m not in control at all.

My phone could suddenly die causing the alarm not to go off and even if it didn’t, maybe I could be so tired that it doesn’t wake me up anyway. There could be problems with my train making it difficult for me to get into work on time, or at all. I like to cling on to the little control I have over my life and it’s often a shock when something happens that makes me realise that I’m not in control at all. Nothing has brought me closer to that realisation that what’s been on our minds for most of this month.

Hannah and I have been trying for a child for almost two years. It’s not something we thought would be difficult, so many people around us have done it; our parents, friends and family members. We didn’t give it much thought at first (well, I didn’t), I always thought it would–just happen. When it didn’t, we thought there was something we could change to fix it, maybe the issue is with us. We tried different medicines, timescales, diets. We saw doctors, took tests, but nothing seemed to change and we don’t know why.

We see ourselves as relatively healthy people. We both don’t drink, smoke, or eat large amounts of unhealthy food. And although we’re both very open to adoption, it would be nice to know for sure that we won’t be able to have our own, and why. We’re both in limbo, uncertain of what our next steps are. This all brings us back to the fact that we’re not in control. Life under the sun (beneath the heavens) doesn’t make sense to us.

Maybe God intends for us to adopt, or to wait a few months/years before giving us a child of our own or, to not have any children whatsoever. It’s almost humbling not knowing what to do next. Taking the burden off ourselves and giving it to God. Taking the questions, the decisions, the crying late nights away and giving it to someone else. Saying, God, whatever you want for us we’ll take it willingly. It’s tough but much better than the alternative.

Ollie

Photo ‘Pilots taking off’ Jon Flobrant from unsplash.

I’d heard and read a lot of things about Marrakech before our trip there. Mainly good things, but the bad ones are what stuck in my head. ‘You’re entering a Muslim country so dress moderately and adhere to the rules’. 'Never take the first price a taxi driver gives you, always haggle.’ 'Don’t take directions from someone who is pretending to be a tour guide because they most likely are trying to get money from you.’

These were the thoughts that went through my mind on the plane ride to Morocco. I didn’t want to mess up, get into trouble with the law, or haggle, I really wasn’t looking forward to haggling. We got to the airport, converted some money then thought we would check out the main square, Jamaa el-fna since it was closer to the airport than our hotel. This was our first mistake. 

It wasn’t After hopping off the bus and making our way to the square that we were shouted at from all directions. Men leading up to the square trying to sell us watches, glasses, or vr headsets, women cutting on small chairs selling  books, men in large stalls selling all manor of seeds, nuts and fruit juice. It wasn’t the type of shouting that you get down an East end market, it was the targeted, personalised type, with eye contact. 'Excuse me sir’, 'hey madam’, 'come and try this’, 'take this’, 'buy this’. It wasn’t something either of us had experienced before. Although we were impressed with the colourful, business of the place we didn’t stand in one place long enough to take it all in. We continued Brockley walking into a sheltered, narrow market. At this point our costs a bags were still on and we hadn’t freshened up from the flight so we weren’t intending to spend too long in the Medina. 

It was much quieter here, less open but that was alright. People sold more food, bread, ornaments, bags, shoes, clothes, everything you could think of. It was nice, but after a few minutes if walking we weren’t seeing anything new so we thought we’d make our way back. Stopping to locate ourselves on Google maps we were stopped because a friendly local who informed us there was a leather market worth checking out, he started leading us before we agreed and we followed as not to seem rude, but we had a feeling he would ask for money afterwards. Surprisingly he didn’t but passed us to his friend for some reason. The walk was long and it looked like we were getting more lost so we thought we’d make our own way which, didn’t work out too well. We got lost again and was directed by another local. The dirt paths we walked along were incredibly busy and tight, we had to stop every so often to let a motorbike past, or a main on a donkey pulling a cart. Once the local could take us no further he asked for money and we complied buy, he wasn’t too happy. He wanted more, the money in my pocket he said, and another man out of nowhere came along and agreed with him. We refused, made and walked away, but we were still lost. 

We were there for about an hour and a half in total, walking past stalls we had seen before almost in circles until we asked tourists, not locals for the exit. After we got out we vowed not the return there anytime soon and looked for a taxi. We caught the eye of one and went through our haggling strategy. Don’t go above 150 Dhs, we’ll start at 100. As soon as we have our destination the taxi driver said the journey would be 200 Dhs, around £18 for a 25-minute journey, that sounded a bit expensive. We said 150 or we walked, and as we started to go elsewhere he called us back and said he’d do it for the price we asked, but called someone else to drive us. This driver ended up taking an unusual route. Driving through dirt tracks with open fires and stray sheep. We were worried, 'maybe he would threaten us for more money’, we though tracking our journey on Google maps, 'maybe he would beat us’. Luckily none of that happened and we arrived, safely to our hotel. We paid him 150 which he wasn’t happy about. After checking in we emptied our bags, and lay on our bed and went through the day. Is this what Marrakech will be like? What kind of holiday have we organised for ourselves? Fortunately, our trip took a very different turn in the subsequent days.

Parts of Marrakech look quite third world with large empty dirt blocks, people riding donkeys and overgrown weeds, but it also has some really nice places like Gueliz. Gueliz (pronounced Geleez) is the part of Marrakech I believe most resembles a European city with Arabian architecture. It had upmarket retail stores(H&M, [Strada various]) as well as fast food restaurants(McDonald, KFC) and small [creperies] along the pavement. We went into a large shopping mall with plenty of more stores. But we didn’t just visit Gueliz for shopping, we were there for the Jardin Majorelle. This was a small, beautiful garden with exotic plants which were well looked after. There was security guards along the way to keep people moving but that didn’t stop a crowd of people congregating around a blue building taking pictures of themselves. The garden also included a memorial to fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent who happened to have a museum very close to the Jardin. Overall it was worth the long queue and the 70Dhs for the experience and a nice change from the hustle and bustle we experienced on our first day.

The following day was an earlier start than usual for us. We booked a camel ride about 40 minutes drive outside the city, near the Ours Tensift river. Luckily our hotel booked taxis for us so we didn’t have to haggle again, good news for the both of us. Neither of us had ridden a camel before and we both really enjoyed it. They were large, didn’t smell, and moved really slowly. My camel (Madi) was less stable than Hannah’s (Olivia), but as long as I held on to the metal handle I knew I would be fine. Our guide Ali spoke great English and did a good job of keeping us calm. He even made a camel for me out of leaves he picked up nearby as a birthday present. We met Ali’s aunt who gave us some sweet Morocco mint tea and some star-shaped biscuits.

We relaxed a bit the next day before taking a taxi to the Bahia Palace, a must-see attraction in Marrakech. I usually keep myself informed when visiting a museum or building as to why it exists and who it’s for, sadly I have no idea why the palace existed or who stayed in it, nevertheless, we still enjoyed it. The palace has plenty of white walls and fountains (which were not working). We had fun looking through the colourful stained glass windows and taking pictures around the large spaces. Although there were a lot of tourists around the place never got too busy. The area around the palace–Mellah was surrounded by shops and restaurants. We purchased a fridge magnet and tries some famous Moroccan couscous which, to be honest, wasn’t much different from couscous in the UK. As we were not far from it we decided to give the market square another chance. It was busier than when we first went with snake charmers and people carrying monkeys this time. Once again we couldn’t take the shouting and the attention we got so left five minutes after entering.

As the day got cooler and darker we walked around Marrakech and ended up at the beautiful Koutoubia mosque then though Parc Lalla Hasna which had the most amount of fountains I have seen in a park. It was also very green and peaceful which was uncommon around the brown and red buildings of the city. We felt safe around d the part we were, the King was in Marrakech so there were plenty of police and guards so we continued walking. We ended up in another park, the Cyber Park to be exact. It was different from Parc Lalla Hasna but also beautiful and peaceful, with bus stop size screens around most corners.

Although we spend a lot of time in the city walking around and visiting museums we spent a reasonable amount of time in our hotel, the Fellah. The Fellah Hotel was a gated compound which had a great swimming pool, a gym, library, spa and restaurant. We spent every morning in the restaurant for breakfast and was there one evening where we both tried and fell in love with tagine. We didn’t spend much time in the library or gym and although the weather was around 24 degrees the pool was too cold to swim in. We did, however, experience a traditional Moroccan hammam session in the spa which, was different. Being in a steamy room for half an hour then getting scrubbed and showered by someone wasn’t what I expected, but both our skin felt softer and cleaner from it so it’ll most likely be something we try again.

Overall we had an amazing time in Marrakech and although we would have done things differently knowing what we know now it’s somewhere we would be more than happy to visit again.

I try to have something published on this blog at least once a month and for the most part, that has been achieved. However, something happened in December 2018. Something that caused me to miss a month and we’ll, that thing is still kind of taking place right now. If you haven’t guessed what it is, maybe the title of this post will give you a hint.

Over two years ago I decided to write a book, the first draft of which was completed around November last year. Hannah hasn’t stopped singing my praises. I think she’s told almost everyone we’ve met. It’s an achievement I’ll admit, but it’s not quite an achievement to me yet. At least until other people are reading it. Until others are reading the sci-fi story reading that I made up and somehow, managed to write down on my phone during my commute. In order for that to happen, I need to do some editing, well, lots of editing.

I’ve been reading and rereading chapters, tweaking words and incorrect grammar until it makes sense until I’m comfortable with others reading it. Hannah and other family members have got involved which I’m super grateful for, and so far I’m happy with the first five chapters. Five of 22, so I have lots more editing to do.

The goal is to get it published by a big publishing company, like Penguin or Harper Collins. I that’s unsuccessful then I’m more than happy to self publish. Big publishers require a publishing agent, and publishing agents don’t say yes so easily. I’ve got my eye on one, Curtis Brown Creative, who need a synopsis, cover letter, and the first 10,000 words of the book. It’s almost like applying for a job, except jobs require much fewer words. Everything has been written but not yet edited. So on top of editing the book, I need to edit those things as well. Oh–the things I do for fun.

So, 2019 for me has been the year of editing, and Hannah the year of painting, more about that later in the year. It’s fun, tedious and repetitive at times but I’m enjoying it. And I honestly can’t wait to get Crimson Hail and the secrets of Valour in the hands of everyone very soon.



Ollie

It’s not unusual for me to meet up with people from members of church outside of Sundays; breakfast with the boys in Liverpool Street, one on one lunch with those who work nearby, and evenings for birthdays or group socials are just a few things that have been on my calendar in the past. However, spending a whole day with a group of people from the Globe church was something I hadn’t done before, something completely new to me.

Upon entering Fraser chapel in the King’s Center I was shocked by how many people half turned up, there must have been between 80-90 which was much more than I expected. We all sat down with our custom made booklets and half opened mini Milky Way bars and listened to a handful of talks from the leaders of the church focusing on what we could do as a whole to move forward, to move closer to Christ.

I was particularly encouraged from knowing that our walk with Christ isn’t a sprint to the finish, that it doesn’t matter how quickly we get to our goal as long as we are moving, not completely standing still. I often read parts of the Bible and not understand what I have read even after reading the same passage over and over again. Sometimes I wonder if I’m wasting my time or if I could be doing something that will give a feeling of progression. But now when I read a part of the Bible I don’t understand I know there is a goal I am moving towards, and I keep that as my focus, this motivates me to keep reading.

There was some time after the first talk to anonymously write down the things we struggled with in our Christian walk which would be discussed in another talk. This was pretty revealing to me because it showed we all struggle with similar things; regularly praying, reading, finding the things of the world more fun than the things of Christ. It felt good not to feel ashamed or feel like a failure in the presence of other believers, it was good to know that we all hadn’t figured it out, we all hadn’t reached our goal yet.

These topics continued after the talks when we were in the foyer eating dinner the group that I sat with spoke about the struggles we had with evangelising to people at work, the struggle of knowing that if a co-worker didn’t receive the gospel well it would make it difficult to go into work every day, seeing and attempting to avoid them. We also went around the table and each gave our testimonies, this was really different from the usual questions that are asked such as ‘How has your week been?’ or 'How was your journey here?’

I believe this year’s Globe away day went really well. Not only did I speak to a handful of people I had never seen or spoken to before, and eaten more than my fair share of cakes, but engaged in meaningful conversations that I believe brought me closer to certain people, and also to received a reignited motivation to focus on my walk with the Lord.

I have a habit of keeping receipts whenever I spend something and keeping a record on an excel spreadsheet. I’ve done it for as long as I’ve had a proper job and it’s been a great way to keep track of how much I’ve spent, but I don’t enjoy using spreadsheets, I’ve never found then super user-friendly.

I came up with an idea while back called Trimm, a pretty, stripped-down way to track expenses. I created it on my own in 2014 and I intentionally made it really social, a bit like Twitter with followers and counts for what things had been spent and although it worked for me, it didn’t work for others. People didn’t what other people to see where their money went. I also spotted a few bugs with it the more I used it which I continually put off. It wasn’t until the app suddenly prevented me from logging in that I thought it was time to recreate it, from scratch.

I told Hannah about my idea and she was really excited to help me and to try out some user interface work which she hasn’t done a whole lot of before. I gave her a few features that I wanted and an overall colour scheme which was all she needed to start working. Throughout the week she showed me her progress and I was always impressed, the use of colour, spacing, and fonts for the four pages she had come with were much better than what I could do and what I had in mind and in turn, inspired me to work on it as well, I didn’t want all her hard work to go to waste.

After about two months of writing code outside of work hours,  asking a few developers for help, and sending a lot of support tickets to my web hosting company I eventually came up with a new version of Trimm I am happy to use. Something that is intuitive, user-friendly, and pleasing to the eye. As of this month, I have ditched my excel spreadsheet and use Trimm for all my expenses.

This is the second time Hannah and I have worked on a web-related project (the first one being this website) and it’s always fun to do so. Sharing ideas, collaborating on features, and ultimately focusing our skills towards a common goal.  Not many couples have interest and job roles that complement each other, and now with Hannah being freelance means, we can have more time to work on projects together.

Ollie

A friend of mine often thought of ways to make money quickly and joined various online programs to achieve it. Investing in the stock market; setting up a blog for affiliate advertising, creating a self help book full of royalty free articles. He’d tried pretty much everything you could think of and nothing worked. He didn’t make large amounts of money quickly in fact they had the opposite affect, less money and wasted time, but he kept trying. I never understood his perseverance, his drive or his desire.

Hannah quit her job and became a freelance graphic designer April this year. I was an incredibly proud husband when she told me she’d done it. Her previous job cause a lot of stress, anxiety and loneliness, being one of two employees at a small graphic design studio wasn’t doing wonders for her health and wellbeing. Since leaving she has become a much happier and less stressed person, however being an employee of a company is one thing and being the only employee of your own company is another.

Finding clients, figuring out pricing, doing your own admin and self promotion are things that an employee would rarely have to do all at once, but a freelancer might have to. This is even before any actual work (in this case graphic design) has taken place which is a lot if you’re starting out.

It’s been over three months of Hannah being freelance and she now has a good amount of work under her belt to keep her going at least for the next four months which is fantastic. Although her overall earnings from being a freelancer so far is less than what she earned as an employee I’m still incredibly proud of her and I know that number will increase as she becomes a better, more confident freelancer. We’ve become a bit more frugal because of this and we tend to do more thinking and questions asking before money is spent. Can we afford going on holiday outside of Europe, inside of Europe, or should we not go on holiday and save what we have? Should we get the car fixed or just take public transportation for a while? Should we eat out or stay in for our date nights?

We’re very blessed to have what we have and live in an area of the country with such abundance. It’s easy to look at others and wish we could have the same, but our situation has made me think of the less fortunate, those who can’t afford what we have already and live off benefits. Those who don’t have a roof over their heads, a bed to sleep in. Those who are already deep in the red and have to work multiple jobs to keep up with their rent. As the thoughts of not being able to afford something I previously would have been able to creep into my mind I think of how worse of we could be and thank God of our present circumstance, however, it were all taken away from us, if both our bank accounts were completely emptied out I’d like to think I’d still have an optimistic view of life, that I would still thank and appreciate God, that I would continue to put all my faith in him but, I don’t know.

As I see YouTube adverts of successful businessmen making X million a year selling tickets for their seminars on how you can do the same, then see the hundreds of video testimonials from the people that have made seven figures from following their program I know it’s something that benefits the owner of the scheme more than the participant, I know there’s more chance of it failing than succeeding, and I know as a Christian I shouldn’t look to money to solve my problems but, sometimes I get the feeling that everything would be much better if we could make more quickly somehow. Even-though I know He provides for the birds of the sky who have nothing which means He’ll definitely continue to provide for me but every now and again the thought pops into my mind that making more money should solve everything.

My friend often thought of ways to make money quickly and joined various online programs to achieve it. Although I don’t think I’ll understand why he continued after his attempts failed over and over again, I can relate a bit more to him, and others like him as to why they went down that route in the first place.

Thanks to Christian Dubovan and Unplsash for the image.

Hannah and I have been married for over a year now and quite early on I started a tradition of having pancakes every Saturday morning. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to do it every morning mainly because we’re not in our house or together in the same place each and every Saturday, but I’d say we’ve had pancakes each morning for about 85% of the time. Having a consistent breakfast for this length of time has revealed a difference between Hannah and myself, that difference being my wife is a creature-of-habit whereas I like to try something new more often than not. Every time we’ve eaten pancakes Hannah has stuck to sugar and lemon juice–which is fine, an impressive level of consistency, I, however, have experimented with toppings massively, to the point where some experimentations haven’t always worked out.

It probably hasn’t crossed your mind ever to have a pancake with strawberry jam and cheddar cheese or with jam and peanut butter or even, with Greek yoghurt and peanut butter which–tastes as bad as it sounds. Its easy with pancakes to try a different topping for each one and whenever I hear, see or have the thought to try something new with my pancakes, Saturday mornings tend to be the time for that. My favourite combination so far is Greek yoghurt, honey and banana, although I’m sure something else will take its spot in the future.

I had never made crepe style pancakes from scratch before getting married so this recipe from BBC good food came in handy the first few times but it has since been adapted not only to make more pancakes but to make a slightly better tasting one, here is the recipe for anyone who is interested or me in the future if for some reason I’ve completely forgotten how to make it.

Items required

• Frying Pan
  
• Kitchen Scale
  
• Measuring Jug
  
• Ladle
• Whisk
• Spatula
  
  

Ingredients

• 150g Plain Flour
  
• 300 ml semi-skimmed or full-fat milk
  
• 2 medium eggs
  
• Half teaspoon of vanilla essence
  
• Quarter teaspoon of salt
  
• Sunflower oil, coconut oil or butter for frying
  

Method

1. Put the frying pan on a stove and set the heat between medium and high. 7 if you have an electronic stove.
   
2. Place the eggs, flour, salt and vanilla essence into a bowl with a small amount of milk and whisk until you have a smooth paste, add more milk if necessary. Try to get the paste as smooth as possible but don’t worry if you have a few lumps.
   
3. Slowly add the rest of the milk while whisking to have your finished pancake batter.
   
4. Place a tablespoon of oil or a teaspoon of butter in the pan and try to cover most of the surface with it.
   
5. Place a small amount of batter in the frying pan, less than a teaspoon’s worth to see if the pan is hot enough to fry on. When the batter starts to sizzle, you’re good to go.
   
6. Take a little less than a full ladle of batter and try to cover the whole surface of the frying pan with it.
   
7. Wait for a minute, or until the corners have started to brown before turning it over and cooking the other side for about a minute.
   
8. And that’s it. enjoy the pancake with the topping of your choice. 
   

I visited Rome back in 2015 and it was the first place o had been on holiday that I felt truly relaxed. The first place I visited where I sat in a park for about an hour and observed the people around me, sat and watched people walk past me as I didn’t Al fresco multiple times. I think it had something to do with the relaxed Italian culture, so ever since then, I made it a point to visit Italy once a year. Which I have achieved most years apart from 2017 for various reasons, so with that mantra in mind Hannah and I decided to go to Florence, primarily to see the breathtaking renaissance artwork and architecture. So we sorted out travel and accommodation with last-minute and packed our bags for a warmer climate.

Our arrival to Pisa airport was thankfully uneventful. We found a bus that took us right from the airport to Florence in 70 minutes which somehow was quicker than the train so we hopped on and enjoyed the views of the Tuscan countryside until we got to the hustle and bustle of Florence. The buildings were much more colourful than I expected with bright oranges, yellows and browns. The streets were filled with more and more tourists the closer we got to the centre with cobbled alleyways full of clothes shops and restaurants decorated with cured meats and cheeses hanging from their doors. We passed many gelaterias and museums dragging our suitcase until we reached where we were staying, the Michelangelo loft. The placed looked like a very modern Mediterranean apartment in a cave with high ceilings, clay almost everywhere and the odd smell of candles which emanated from the tap water. We entire our suitcases, at some pizza from the yellow bar, and rested for a full week of fun things ahead we hadn’t yet planned.

There’s not much significance attached to the first Sunday of the month back in London but in Florence, it’s pretty special, it’s the day when all the museums are free. Yes, in London most of the museums are free all the time (hopefully that hasn’t changed by the time you’re reading this). Popular places like the Uffizi and the Accademia museum were all free and we took advantage of it. The queues were long but definitely worth it. The Uffizi, in particular, has the widest array of renaissance sculptures and artwork I have ever seen in my life. Every room of the ‘U’ shaped museum had detailed paintings or sculptures and even the corridors between rooms had ceilings and walls full of artwork. We spent the bulk of our time that day in the Uffizi starring, listening, admiring. The famous David sculpture that took around 3 years of Michelangelo’s life to create was situated in the Academia which was breathtaking to see upfront, there are a few replicas around Florence but the original is definitely much better than the others. There are a few other things to see in the Accademia but not much, in fact, I’m happy we didn’t pay for it because all we really wanted to see there was the David sculpture, then again 8€ for a museum isn’t that expensive.

Fun fact about Florence, in 1966 the river Arno which goes through it had a terrible flood which killed over 100 people and damaged many masterpieces. The place we stayed had a marking above the door that showed how high the water reached and we didn’t know that making existed until on many occasions where we returned home we saw a group of tourists staring at our door. It felt awkward to walk in a few times walking in with people starring but we got used to it after we found out why they were doing it.

Speaking of the river Arno, the river itself was nothing special, maybe only slightly nicer than the Thames but the bridges and the buildings surrounding them combined to create a scene I had only seen in pictures. There was one pedestrian bridge that had buildings on either side of it, each one a different warm tone selling expensive jewellery and ornaments. The street was cobbled and there was always a crowd around a street performer or a group just admiring the view.

One thing that shocked us in Florence, well one of two things was the lack of green spaces, parks and such. Being surrounded by luscious Tuscan fields it was odd to not see more patches of green, and when we did see them, we often had to pay to get into them. The botanical and Boboli gardens were the main bits of green we saw and we were more impressed with the latter. The [] gardens are another testament to the amount of wealth that part of the world had. They were large and full of different, well-decorated sections. The entrance had a beautiful fountain with a large set of stairs behind it, each 20 or so steps were separated with a flat section. There were difference sculptures in the middle of the steps and lots of foliage on the outside. The higher you walked the greener it got. More sculptures are found at the top as well as a lemon orchard with lemons of all shapes and sizes. Finally, we came across a gated circular lake with lemons, flowers and oranges in the centre, as well as a large sculpture with a real heron above it, such an impressive sight.

I can’t talk about a trip to Florence without talking about the food. Definitely some of the nicest ice cream I’ve had (well, I guess that’s the case for any place on Italy), my favourite flavour being the niccola. The spaghetti carbonara I had there is something I remember fondly. As someone who classes carbonara as their 'speciality dish’, the taste I got from the one in Florence was completely different than the one I make. There was so much more flavour, colour, and the spaghetti itself was thicker, adding a different feel to the meal overall. The pizzas were really good and to be honest, not massively different than something I’d get from a good pizza place in London, maybe I haven’t eaten enough pizzas to discern the taste different correctly. Sandwiches aren’t the sort of thing that jumps to mind when someone thinks of Italian food, but people go crazy for it in Florence, we’ll they went crazy for the sandwich from a particular store. All'Antico Viano was a place that had the longest queues I’ve ever seen for sandwich whenever we walked past it. The place was so popular it has three stores on the same street and they were all as busy whenever we were there. We can people with mouthfuls on the pavements earthing them. Mothers, children, students, we had to try one to see what all the fuss was about. I got the inferno and Hannah, the summer sandwich and I’ve got to say, I wasn’t disappointed. The sandwiches were huge, and filled with slices of cured ham, olive oil, mozzarella and tomatoes, held together with soft white bread.

In conclusion, we had a great time in Florence. We weren’t sure if Hannah would be able to fly let alone enjoy the trip because of her operation a week before, but we thank God she recovered quickly, and also got lots of rest.

We made the decision last month to put our place on Airbnb, something that was recommended to us by a friend at church and–it makes a lot of sense. We own a property in Zone 2 of London, it’s a place where many people around the world would like to visit (London that is, not our place), and we’d make some money on the side if we let one of those people stay where we live, it’s a win-win for all parties involved. That being said, we had a few hesitations that prevented us from jumping into it right away.

One, would someone be able to find where we live? Whenever people have visited us they often go to the wrong block since they all look similar and aren’t numbered very well. Two, would someone be happy to stay in our tiny flat? Our flat was originally a one bedroom flat that was made into a two bedroom flat by turning the kitchen into a spare room and merging it with the living room, it’s the perfect size for both of us who expect flats in London to be small, but will someone from outside of the UK’s capital feel as if they have been bamboozled? And finally, will our belongings be safe? Will someone destroy or damage something we own; soil the carpet, mark the walls or even worse, steal something. These and many other things were going through our minds.

Airbnb is a very well known reputable company, people are reviewed and rated so it’s unlikely that someone who stayed in our place would do something nefarious and if they did, then we’d cease to use that service, so that answered our third concern. As for the first and second one that would be solved by making the price lower than others around us, that way if it took them a long time to find the place and/or they weren’t happy with it, then it being cheap will hopefully help them get over that. With our concerns over, Hannah got herself a host Airbnb account, tidied up our place and put a few pictures of it on the site.

We got our first booking on the same day that we made our place official on the site which means two things. Our price was super low or that air place is really nice and everyone wants to live there, or both. We accepted the booking, took our holiday in Florence and I’m happy to say everything went well. The host found our place, loved it, and had a great time in London. I’m not sure how many more holidays we’re going to go on this year but we will definitely be making some money out of our empty place when we do, it’s such a no brainer and I highly encourage others in our position to do the same.

Ollie

In my days of being a bachelor I was always proud of achieving as much as I could during a weekend, and ‘achieving’ to me was usually working on a web-related project, writing an article or completing a computer game. In fact, I was so proud of my achievements that I’d create an elaborate year in review stats page and try to improve on it every year.

I would keep track of how many games I’d completed, films and television series I’d watched, even counted the number of images I posted to Instagram every year. But something happened at the end of 2016 which drastically affected the stats for 2017. The number of games played decreased by 57% between 2016 and 2017, side projects about 40% and films, stayed just about the same. Avid readers of this blog will know that August 2016 was the date I met my lovely wife-to-be Hannah who has changed me for the better in many ways and after over 10 months of marriage (early days I know), there still a part of me that wishes I could spend more time playing games and working on side projects.

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

Genesis 2:24 ESV

The verse above located at the end of Genesis 2 was written after God had created a woman from the rib of Adam during the beginnings of the world. This verse is also quoted in Matthew 19:5 and Ephesians 5:31. It’s obvious from reading the verse that God wanted Adam and Eve to be 'one flesh’ even though they were two different people and also, this verse wasn’t written for Adam as he didn’t have any parents but for those who would come after him. I believe it’s not only referring to a physical parental departure but also a mental one, leaving the single life and independent living to become two people of one mind. Say someone were to move out of his parent’s place and live on his own for a few years before getting married. If that person still carried the mindset they had when they were living on their own into marriage then they haven’t really 'left their father and mother’, even though there has been a physical departure, there hasn’t really been a mental one.

So what does that mean for my scenario? Should I throw out any desire to play video games or engage in my own side projects because that’s not what Hannah is into? Not entirely, but I do those things a lot less than I did when I was single. Communication is key–and I believe as long as those things aren’t hindering a growing relationship with my wife and Christ, then they’re okay to engage in every once in a while. As long as they don’t overtake my life and become the 'be all and end all’. And if for somehow that ends up happening, then I hope my wife will be the first person to tell me I need to straighten realign my focus.

Oliver