A letter from Jan 08, 2025

Dear Concert Go-er, Happy 2025! The past month has been agonisingly boring given work, coursework and revision. Now, to be fair, Christmas did happen which was pretty hype, and also Sonic 3 was INCREDIBLY HYPE. Jim Carey ****** it and Shadow was perfectly characterised and the amount of references was AMAZING. Also I absolutely can't wait to see what they do with Metal Sonic and Amy in Sonic 4. Okay so maybe my month wasn't completely terrible. But man, I totally ****** up the due dates for my coursework so my literature review is just really mid and I couldn't even finish the MFM coursework which is a real shame. I don't think they'll let me EC it but it's worth trying. And work has just been insane I can't get a break honestly. And I haven't even started revision... It's going to be a rough few weeks, but you'll be out the other side so hope all's good over there, you better be rooting for me! Hope you got the Kikuo jacket finished! Last month I spent a stupid amount of money on Shadow merch, and I absolutely stand by that decision I love it all. A lot of it is still with Laura but I'm 100% cool with waiting. And my order from Australia STILL HASN'T SHIPPED! The first package was lost in transit and then the artist got ill and their friend just forgot to ship my order lol. They finally responded to my messages yesterday and honestly I thought they'd died or something so I'm just happy that I'll actually get my package eventually, not even mad about the wait. And yeah I sorta spent like £200 on more merchandise, I branched out this time and got some Metal Sonic and Chaotix stuff as well, and it's all from Europe so barely any delivery cost yippee. I stayed up the night before Sonic 3 (which I watched on it's opening day, and then rewatched a couple days ago) to finish Shadow 05, and then I played it for several more hours to make sure I got all 10 endings, not just the main 5 (even though they're literally the same) and then played every level with each objective. I was planning on sleeping afterwards but just didn't have any time because I had to dye my hair and do my makeup WHICH WAS ON FLEEK. I just finished Sonic's story on 06 as well, but man I miss Shadow 05. I want to play it more... Christmas was super nice, my Reddachi pins coincidentally showed up on Christmas eve which was a really nice surprise, and then the presents I got were also perfect. I really love my Airpod Maxes, the noise cancelling is perfect and transparency mode is amazing, and I LOVE the colour. I absolutely love the pokemon Christmas jumper I got, looks really good with my Super Shadow pin as well. Oh yeah and I got an AMS system for my 3D printer but I haven't been able to use it yet since I haven't been back at uni yet. Can't wait to try it out though! Also Chris really loved the Dandadan mask I made him for Christmas which I'm super happy about, he said he actually was thinking about buying one so I guess I read his mind. Daddy was really happy with the sweets I got him which is good cause I threw in a couple random types I'd never heard of in there. Yoshi is doing SOOOO much better now that he's living with his dad. He actually gets to eat proper food and his dad's been giving him money for stuff like haircuts and such. He asked for £20 and his dad gave him £50! Now where was this generosity last year huh? Josie had her baby boy, Janek, on the 10th of December. Ended up being a c-section because he was so big, and also because he was choking and they actually needed to resuscitate him. It was a rough birth and she was in the hospital for several days but they're both doing much better now, she seems very happy with him. I'd like to visit her sometime after I've finished exams. I talked about it with Chris and he seemed very happy with the idea of us living together in the future, I'm slightly less happy about that being in London though. I really hope he realises we can't afford London prices on new graduate wages, particularly if I'm only working 4-day weeks on minimum wage, though I do hope I'll get a raise at some point. And I know a teacher's salary is nothing to be amazed by. Really I think Farnborough would be perfect because the sixth form is there, and also Yoshi. I wouldn't mind Basingstoke either I was supposed to start working 3 hours ago, so I should probably start even though my hands are freezing and I want to play Sonic 06. Best regards, Arlo "Space Colony ARK enjoyer" Linnard