Once again I’m on the road, but this time, headed to Bucharest for the week.

I am trying to make the most of the latter part of my training and get exposure to as much pathology as possible. Part of that is travelling to do some courses which are not offered in the UK, and on this occasion it’s a European Society of Pathology course on lung and thymic pathology held in Bucharest, Romania. Some of the biggest names in lung pathology are taking part and I’m looking forward to getting started.

The travel so far has been chaotic, and despite promising priority boarding, Ryanair did nothing to manage queues which led to chaos with priority and standard piling on concurrently, and people shoving small bags in the overhead locker blocking out the larger ones which had been paid for in advance. After a rather painful period of time (it seemed to take about twenty minutes for the first seven people to board thanks to a general lack of awareness of how aircraft work) the air stewards removed the small bags from the overhead lockers and seemed to just about make room for the larger ones.

This is another cashless trip for me. I managed the whole time in Brussels with card alone, and I’m interested to see if I can do the same in Bucharest. We survived in South Korea with cards for everywhere except the markets (and even there some traders would accept card at a premium). I suspect Covid-19 has accelerated the move to cashless across the world, although there is a little bit of loss of the excitement around handling foreign currency and seeing the various influential figures and heads of state adorning notes and coins. The days of going to a foreign exchange bureau and walking out with a thick envelope are numbered.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

As you may have gathered from my chronologically challenged game reporting, I buy very few new releases. I used to get swept up in the hype generated by E3, trailers, and demos, but now I prefer to sit back and wait until the price comes down. There is no shortage of excellent games and with a massive back catalogue still to play, I’m in no rush. Having said that, I did go out on Saturday and pick up the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I joined the Breath of the Wild (BotW) party rather late, picking it up about five years after it’s initial release in 2017. For those who have not played it, BotW is a stunning and incomparable game that was hardly rivalled in its class until now. The combination of challenging combat, plentiful puzzles, and the ability to do pretty much whatever you fancied makes it a unique experience. What happens when you take that game and give Link a few extra abilities?

It’s game changing. You thought you could do anything in BotW? Now you really can. I’ve only scratched the surface but with Ultrahand you can now stick objects together with a sort of unbreakable superglue and create contraptions to solve even more layered puzzles. Stick a fan to a bunch of logs and you’ve made yourself a motorised raft for crossing water. Easily build a bridge to cross chasms and climb cliffs. Add to that the Fuse ability and you can turn previously bland weapons into whatever the situation calls for. Need to smash your way through a wall but don’t have a hammer or club? Easy! Just fuse a stick with a boulder and you’ve got a rock hammer. Need fire arrows? Stick a piece of Fire Fruit on the end of an arrow and you’re there. Some combinations create even more powerful weapons. Others are just plain silly: I’ve got a Keese eye impaled on the end of a rusty sword to no real effect other than for comic relief.

I’ve really only started by Tears of the Kingdom journey but from what I’ve seen so far, it’s easy to recommend this worthy follow-up. A truly great sequel which iterates and builds on everything that made the last game delightful.

Heat Pump

The installation plan from Octopus Energy is much more sensible and less destructive than British Gas had planned. Existing pipework will be utilised and radiators only changed if necessary. The next step will be getting rid of the materials from the previous installation. It’s a shame after all of the effort to get them delivered and into the house in the first place, but they’ve been in the way long enough and it’s time they moved on. We’ve even got a date for that now, so I’m looking forward to being able to use the conservatory once again.

Dinosaurs in the Park

In a great example of “does what it says on the tin”, I bring you Dinosaurs in the Park, an event held in Central Park in Plymouth. You simply plonk a bunch of animatronic dinosaurs in clumps of grass and put on a few dino-themed activities and you’ve got an excellent attraction. It turned out better than I expected, and Evie particularly enjoyed brushing the T-Rex teeth at the Dino Dentist. I do take slight issue with the “dinos are life size” signage around the outside. The velociraptors were sizeable despite their real turkey-sized forms (perhaps Jurassic Park influenced?). For dino-crazed kids it’s a great idea and one that can keep them engaged for a few hours.