https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/Just two creatives blogging about living a married life.https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/627060205874741248/our-daughters-birth-story/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/627060205874741248/our-daughters-birth-story/Fri, 21 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000Everyone has heard birth horror stories, emergency c-sections, incredibly long labours, and the dreaded third-degree stitches. Ours wasn’t amazing, but in my opinion, it wasn’t too bad either. It was https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/625459375114518528/that-pregnancy-glow/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/625459375114518528/that-pregnancy-glow/Mon, 03 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000Before we got pregnant we, (well Hannah), watched a lot of a programme called One born every minute. A show about different women in the UK given by birth in different ways. It didn’t really focus on https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/622788822094299136/a-bit-about-race/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/622788822094299136/a-bit-about-race/Sun, 05 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000This month has been an interesting one for the Bray family. Our child is growing strong, we’ve started posting a lot of videos on YouTube, but the most interesting of all has been our chats about racehttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/618393738878844928/golfball-sized-tumour/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/618393738878844928/golfball-sized-tumour/Sun, 17 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000For those of you who regularly read this blog you’ll know that we’ve been trying for a child for some time now and this year, well last year, our prayers and the prayers of many others had been answerhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/614563657099231232/coronavirus-autism-and-lungs/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/614563657099231232/coronavirus-autism-and-lungs/Sun, 05 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000You’ll probably know that March 2020 was a big month for the UK and a lot has changed in a very short amount of time. I’d say in the space of about two weeks it went from, people walking happily streehttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/612099284959150080/our-first-game-jam/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/612099284959150080/our-first-game-jam/Mon, 09 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000Since we’ve been a game Dev duo outside of our full-time jobs we’ve heard a lot about game jams. That there a good way to get ideas out quickly, try new tools and meet more people, so this month we thhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/190732443902/pressures-of-work/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/190732443902/pressures-of-work/Sun, 09 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000Do you remember in the previous post I talked about all the things I hoped to achieve in 2020? Finishing the book, finishing the game, doing a bunch of other things? I think I sort of overloaded myselhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/190198220802/hello-2020/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/190198220802/hello-2020/Sat, 11 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000I’m not really one for new years resolutions, reflecting on the past year, or generally being sentiment about going from December to January. However, I do like to loosely plan things at different poihttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/189406627732/dealing-with-the-unexpected/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/189406627732/dealing-with-the-unexpected/Sun, 01 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000Describing this month as tough would be a bit of an understatement, it’s a month where I saw my wife go through the most amount of physical pain she has ever gone through and felt a great loss for somhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/188787445592/browsing-berlin/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/188787445592/browsing-berlin/Sun, 03 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000Writing a blog post every month has made me realise how repetitive my openings are. I’ll usually start off by talking about my past, and then talk about what the posts hopes to achieve. So this time Ihttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/188019118792/a-change-of-routines/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/188019118792/a-change-of-routines/Sun, 29 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000It’s been nearly a month into Hannah’s new job as a teaching assistant and it’s been, somewhat of an adjustment for her getting back into the working world. Sleeping earlier, eating later, and taking https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/187229994902/game-development-part-2/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/187229994902/game-development-part-2/Sat, 24 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000If you’ve read our ‘game development as a hobby’ post you’ll know that we’ve been working on a game for the past few months. This post isn’t a, we’ve realised how hard it is and are thinking of givinghttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/186099095372/home-diy/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/186099095372/home-diy/Sat, 06 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000I remember once during our marriage prep I was asked what one thing about living together I wouldn’t enjoy. Without hesitation jumped to D.I.Y. It’s something we always paid someone to do growing up ahttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/185288572677/our-trip-to-ghana-part-2/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/185288572677/our-trip-to-ghana-part-2/Sat, 01 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000Keta 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 https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/185126047762/our-trip-to-ghana-part-1/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/185126047762/our-trip-to-ghana-part-1/Sat, 25 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000We’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 poshttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/184290603312/game-development-as-a-hobby/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/184290603312/game-development-as-a-hobby/Fri, 19 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000Despite 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 havehttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/183388615442/were-not-in-control/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/183388615442/were-not-in-control/Mon, 11 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000I 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, thhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/182851195967/the-magical-manic-of-marrakech/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/182851195967/the-magical-manic-of-marrakech/Sat, 16 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000I’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 adhehttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/182037476467/editing-editing-and-more-editing/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/182037476467/editing-editing-and-more-editing/Tue, 15 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000I 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 monhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/180198199592/our-first-church-getaway-together/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/180198199592/our-first-church-getaway-together/Sat, 17 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000It’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 birhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/178597270847/we-built-something-together/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/178597270847/we-built-something-together/Sun, 30 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000I 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 ofhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/177126718702/money-spend-less-or-make-more-fast/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/177126718702/money-spend-less-or-make-more-fast/Sat, 18 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000A 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 sehttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/175913793647/saturday-morning-pancakes/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/175913793647/saturday-morning-pancakes/Sun, 15 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000Hannah 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 https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/174750732582/fun-times-in-florence/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/174750732582/fun-times-in-florence/Sun, 10 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000I 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 aroundhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/173672568122/our-place-your-place/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/173672568122/our-place-your-place/Mon, 07 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000We 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 https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/172952433407/marriage-computer-games-and-side-projects/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/172952433407/marriage-computer-games-and-side-projects/Sun, 15 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000In 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 completinghttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/171243304212/from-50-to-3000/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/171243304212/from-50-to-3000/Sat, 24 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000‘Is this place cooler than Stratajet?’ Was a question that was asked to me after being at Octopus Labs for nearly two weeks. In my head the answer was, 'no’, but I didn’t say that at the time, I sort https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/170768343997/handmade-wedding-dress/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/170768343997/handmade-wedding-dress/Sun, 11 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000Personally I think we put too much pressure on brides to be perfect. I’m not one of those perfect people. I feel uncomfortable in heels and self conscious in dresses. I just knew my wedding dress had https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/170753442842/ghanaian-engagement-photos/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/170753442842/ghanaian-engagement-photos/Sun, 11 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000I’ve just been sorting through photos on our computer from the last year and thought it would be nice to share a little selection of some of my favourites! Here are a bunch of snaps from our African ehttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/169706413337/coffee-shops-of-brockley-continued/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/169706413337/coffee-shops-of-brockley-continued/Sun, 14 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000It’s a new year, a new month and therefore time for a new article. I’m starting off by finishing the task I set myself at the end of last year, to visit all the independent coffee shops in Brockley. Fhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/168938234252/coffee-shops-of-brockley-se4/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/168938234252/coffee-shops-of-brockley-se4/Mon, 25 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000I’ve lived in Brockley for just under 6 months at the time of writing this and it’s a fairly quiet part of London. It doesn’t have the commercialism of Peckham Rye, the [poshness] of Dulwich or the hihttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/167382246522/our-day-trip-to-paris/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/167382246522/our-day-trip-to-paris/Sat, 11 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000Living in the UK we’re very spoilt when it comes to traveling without much hassle. Airlines like Easyjet, Ryanair and the like have made it incredibly affordable to get to other parts of Europe. Trainhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/165933918747/how-not-to-write-a-grooms-speech/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/165933918747/how-not-to-write-a-grooms-speech/Thu, 12 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000Weddings can be stressful to plan, organise, and participate in, from picking venues to tasting cakes, trying on items of clothing and, writing speeches. Seeing other grooms do their speeches with eashttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/165405061077/sunny-santorini/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/165405061077/sunny-santorini/Sat, 16 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000If you had asked me last year to name the top ten Mediterranean places I would like to go on holiday Santorini certainly would not have been among them, in fact, it wouldn’t even be on a top 20 list. https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/163413886602/7-observations-from-gibraltar/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/163413886602/7-observations-from-gibraltar/Tue, 25 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +00001. The UK in Spanish-speaking The Rock of Gibraltar is an interesting place for many reasons. First and most obvious of all are the many British elements around the place. Yes, it is counted as part ohttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/162556249397/day-trip-to-brighton/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/162556249397/day-trip-to-brighton/Mon, 03 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000Brighton is the closest beach to where I’ve lived for most of my life so it’s no surprise that it’s been my most visited one. I can recall my younger self, screaming on the pier roller coaster, dippinhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/161390611607/why-ive-stopped-watching-tv-shows/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/161390611607/why-ive-stopped-watching-tv-shows/Sat, 03 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000There was a time when conversations at work or between friends would purely be about what shows we’ve been watching and what we expect to happen in future episodes. Popular shows like ‘The Walking Deahttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/160510994657/top-5-london-eating-experiences-of-2017/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/160510994657/top-5-london-eating-experiences-of-2017/Wed, 10 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000The past 10 months of being with Oliver have not only expanded my taste buds but also my waistline! 2017 has brought with it so many different eating experiences it is hard to choose only 5 for this phttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/160298905392/whats-a-ghanaian-engagement-like/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/160298905392/whats-a-ghanaian-engagement-like/Thu, 04 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000It’s easy to assume that someone who grew up with people from Ghana, went to church populated primarily of West Africans, and attended very culturally diverse schools would have experienced or at leashttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/159981767767/2017-life-update/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/159981767767/2017-life-update/Tue, 25 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +00002017 has been super crazy. So sorry for the lack of posting on my behalf. I thought I would do some filling in on what’s been happening. Firstly on the big news front… after a beautiful whirlwind of mhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/159726323582/people-of-west-croydon/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/159726323582/people-of-west-croydon/Tue, 18 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000I’ve always said Croydon is one of the best boroughs in London, not only because it’s the place where I was born and grew up, but also because it’s in close proximity to most places the average personhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/158921687082/our-pictures-are-on-the-internet/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/158921687082/our-pictures-are-on-the-internet/Tue, 28 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000Ever since A Level art, I developed an appreciation for good photography. I would always make a point to visit the photography galleries at the Tate modern and stare at the pictures, trying to imaginehttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/158351895652/gift-list-shopping-at-john-lewis/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/158351895652/gift-list-shopping-at-john-lewis/Mon, 13 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000Working in Bond street for nearly a year has made me familiar with the area. I know the location of certain stores Oxford Street, and what times the place is at it’s busiest. At one point I was even fhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/156933303187/im-writing-a-book/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/156933303187/im-writing-a-book/Tue, 07 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000I’ve often wondered what it would be like to write a book; what topic I would choose, what format the writing would be, and how many words it should have. But I have never found a decent topic to writhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/156030498952/christmas-in-cymru/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/156030498952/christmas-in-cymru/Wed, 18 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000I’ve always been a city boy at heart; I grew up and went to school in South London, went to university in Canterbury, and have travelled mainly to capital cities. So spending a week in North Wales forhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/154934271372/its-not-that-important/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/154934271372/its-not-that-important/Sun, 25 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000If you found out you only had a certain number of months to live, what would you do with it? I’m sure this is a question you might have seen or heard somewhere before. Either in a book, on a televisiohttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/154605109917/top-5-london-eating-experiences/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/154605109917/top-5-london-eating-experiences/Sat, 17 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000The past 5 months with Ollie have pushed my tastebuds out of their usual comfort zone of Nando’s, Pizza Express, and the classic Golden Arches to new extremes. Here is a round up of my top favourite rhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/154120372662/an-insight-into-podcasts-i-like/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/154120372662/an-insight-into-podcasts-i-like/Tue, 06 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000I’m one who likes to make sure my senses aren’t going to waste. I only watch TV shows when I’m doing some sort of personal project, listen to music or audio books when I walk. And listen to a lot of phttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/153514655837/when-i-grow-up/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/153514655837/when-i-grow-up/Tue, 22 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000For the longest time, I have been fascinated by the world of animation. As a little girl whenever anyone would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would say ’ a Mummy’, ‘a bird of prey trainehttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/153032214757/online-dating-as-a-christian/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/153032214757/online-dating-as-a-christian/Fri, 11 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000Being single isn’t that difficult. You get to buy what you want, eat what you want, go wherever you want to, it’s amazing when you’re below the age of 25 (or younger depending on how mature you are). https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/152590637697/setting-up-shop/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/152590637697/setting-up-shop/Tue, 01 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000I have always made things, since as far back as I can remember, and in every medium going! Firm favourites were always sewing, painting and model making. I especially had a flair for the latter and hahttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/152077060357/camera-testing-in-kew-gardens/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/152077060357/camera-testing-in-kew-gardens/Thu, 20 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000I’ve never really been into plants, I know they provide the oxygen we breathe, the salads we eat, the all natural skin products we use and so on. However, apart from the obvious beauty some of them pohttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/151942692727/top-7-crazy-popcorn-flavours/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/151942692727/top-7-crazy-popcorn-flavours/Mon, 17 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000I’m a huge fan of popcorn, I tend to go through a whole 80g bag at work every day which probably isn’t good for my health but I’ll let my future self deal with that. My go to flavour and brand has alwhttps://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/151720641367/test-post/https://hellolightbulb.robray.dev/post/151720641367/test-post/Wed, 12 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000When two creatives find themselves in a relationship it only makes sense to create something together using the best of their skills. A way of sharing ideas with each other, learning more about each o