where is home? 🇨🇦🇬🇧
and other musings from this month
Hello from Canada!!! 🇨🇦
I don’t know what time it is or where I am in space and time but I arrived safe and sound in Canada, albeit jet lagged.
My trip has only just started but I’m so grateful to be here (and extra-grateful it’s not that long of a flight here). It ends up being a full-day of travel but it could be so much worse.
After doing London-Toronto and back for so many years, I’d say I’m a bit of a professional. Just call me a “Professional Jeg-Lag Survivor.**” I find forcing myself into a Canadian routine as quickly as possible helps turn the jet lag around. So getting up at the right time, eating lunch at the right time, having dinner at the right time and forcing myself to stay awake until the right bedtime. It’s rough for a few days, but being really strict about it all right from the get-go usually means I’ll turn around faster.
**any typos or grammatical errors aren’t my fault
Even though we’ve only just got here, we’ve already done so much - including a Blue Jays baseball game! ⚾ 🇨🇦 I haven’t been to a game in aggeeesss so it was great AND it was $1 Hotdog night 🌭 I think the final count for hotdogs sold that night was nearly 90,000. That’s a lot of wieners.
The annual joke is that my partner and I always get sick whenever we visit Canada. Sadly it’s a joke that’s often true and actually not funny at all. After both working from home for years, we basically are never exposed to germs anymore and once we travel abroad BOOM instant sickness.
But so far so good. I probably just jinxed it but not much we can do. I’m actually hoping that maybe my year of solo trips in England has helped. Nothing like getting coughed on on the Tube to help build your immune system, right?
A+N Updates
YouTube is always a rollercoaster ride and this month was no different. I went from one of my worst-ever videos (which British biscuit is best for dunking) to a great upload (the British test I have to pass for my next visa). From one extreme to another! 🫨
It can be soooo easy to fall into a spiral.
Come up with video idea - super excited about it
Work hard on video.
Post video.
Nobody clicks on the video.
Youtube thinks: “Wow, this must suck” and stops showing the video
Video dies a horrible, pitiful death.
Alanna cries.
It’s like Youtube sits me down and says: “Honey, maybe you’re just not that good anymore, huh? Maybe everyone hates you” as Youtube condescendingly pats my hand.
Screw you, Youtube! You’re not my real Dad!!!!!
One of my biggest pieces of advice for other creators (whatever platform you’re on) is simply: keep going. If I stopped, disheartened, after a video did poorly (or got shitty comments) I would have stopped June 2017 (I know the exact video, too lol maybe you watched it?).
You can’t please everyone and you certainly can’t please a faceless algorithm so you just gotta keep going. I’m always proud of the original content I create and sometimes that’s all you can ask for.
Rant aside, I also posted reacting to Greg Davies (didn’t realise so many of you don’t think he’s funny 💀).
And finally this month, I tried a bit of an experiment. Originally I made a video called “Reacting to Britain’s CRAZIEST Tescos!” with a thumbnail very much in my usual style. But then I thought: let’s try something different. I changed the title and thumbnail before posting and I was so excited about it. But sometimes it’s worse when you’re excited because you don’t want to get your hopes up.
But I got my hopes up.
And the video did so well!! AHHhhhhh! I love it when that happens.
I appreciate that you won’t like every video I make and that’s absolutely to be expected. But I do appreciate the continued support, kindness and encouragement over the years to allow me to take chances and try new things. So thank you 🙇🏻♀️
On Twitch this month I broke out Sims 3 (a personal favourite), plus we had a Golf With Your Friends tournament and crashed out over a craft. Love it. Definitely didn’t nearly cry over a craft, certainly not.
If you’d like to watch a bonus full-length weekly video, please consider joining me on Patreon or Youtube Memberships. I post the same content on each platform, but I know some people prefer staying on Youtube or vice versa.
This month for my exclusive content I shared a behind-the-scenes vlog, did a posh Waitrose taste test, packed for Canada and opened SO many PO Box goodies. All very different videos, but all really fun to make!!
What I’ve been watching + reading
This month I read No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy and loved it. It was another one of those movies I always meant to watch but never got around to it, so I decided to read the book first and I’m so glad I did. It’s beautiful, bleak and brutal - my favourite!!
It’s also one of the closest book-to-movie adaptation I’ve ever seen. The film perfectly incapsulates the book and follows it (nearly) exactly. That doesn’t happen often.
After a Texas/crime/thriller/western/shootout type book, I read The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. This is a really fun and accessible fantasy book with the added bonus of a murder-mystery. Sometimes I find fantasy books to be intimidating because the world-building and lore can be super confusing but this was pretty simple. Plus you can absolutely just read this book on its own, rather than having to commit to a 6-book series.
Bits that made me laugh
I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the rest of this trip, but either way I’m excited! Hope you’ve had a great September and a wonderful start to your autumn!
Alanna x