Day 48. 99,612 words. On holiday this coming week. Don’t expect much in the way of updates or word count changes. I may update them or I may not. Work will be happening on my phone.

On Friday, the 5^th of January, we went to the zoo because it’s one of the main things that Wump and Toop can pretty much be guaranteed to enjoy. We lost Grandad for a little while in there but he turned up again near the elephant exhibit having spent about half an hour wandering around like a lost dementia-sufferer and making friends with all the staff.

My dad and I[1] also paid a visit to Laurie, an old friend of the family who is severely poorly with cancer. That was pretty sad but it was good to see he was almost like his old self when he complained about how boring the hospital was and gave my dad a bit of shit. He’s a really lovely bloke. Cancer’s a bastard.

[1] Just to clarify, I’m messing around with terminology here but “Grandad” is my dad, I’m just calling him what Wump and Toop call him. In the same way, Uncle Jim is my brother. Perth isn’t that small a town.

After that, Mrs. Hatboy and Wump and Toop and I headed to my old pal Mick’s place for dinner. I’ve been friends with Mick since we were both about 4 years old and we went to pre-primary together. We parted ways in year 3 but continued to hang out through the console gaming years until he finally headed over to Sydney and I went to Finland. He came back to Perth to work, get married, and start a family, all of which he’s managed to carry off very successfully. It was great to catch up with him again and meet his family.

And holy shit, that mojito ice cream cheesecake was fucking amazing.