I know what you mean about the kiss pings. I could stop with the kisses if that helps? I have about 2000 or so in the bank and cleared this years items easily - I could probably buy all the books for all my pets and still have hearts left over! It sounds as if we'll be getting another free skin because of the downtime - I'm on my penultimate one so I guess that's going to be it. I'm glad I followed my usual route of paying for the least expensive remaining! You should pick up the free skin anyway, even if you don't particularly want them. Go for the oldest ones that you don't have. Glad to hear Philip is home and resting, it's a shame he still has to suffer the catheter but it sounds as if he's on the road to recovery. Poor chap. I think we have Love is Blind but I will be giving it a miss lol! Traitors is enough reality TV for me. I've moved onto Andor now, been meaning to watch it for a while. And yes, go back to Bridgerton. I loved Season 4, not sure if that one or season 2 were my favourite. Also loved the Queen Charlotte spinoff series. I feel like I might watch it again from the start at some point as I gather Season 5 will relate to one or two characters not seen since season 1. Oh, we have Starbucks over here. It's like the McDonalds of coffee shops! I don't like it, if I can go elsewhere I will. I don't know if you have any of Cafe Nero, Costa, Black Sheep Coffee or Coffee#1 - those are the chains that I tend to go to. We have a LOT of coffee shops over here, especially in Bath because of all the tourists. But I dislike so many things about Starbucks. Particularly their loyalty app that almost never works. (I think Coffee#1 is only in England and Wales so you probably don't have that one.) Our sunshine has gone and returned to lots of drizzle again. Oh well. Maybe your sunshine will come back! Yeah my work is so much, I am quite tired of it. Three more years till my target retirement date. We'll see if I can stick it that long lol! Oh, you'll see my gold account is gone. No idea what's happened as I'm on subscription and also had a load of gold account left outside of subscription. I've put in a ticket, we'll see what's happened, I'm sure they'll sort it. I know there are a lot of errors at the moment, and my subscription is in the process of going through for the month so it's probably to do with that. But my gold account shouldn't have expired because of all the leftover time. I feel for them because my day job is bringing in a new system and I know what a nightmare it is.

I got all the skins I actually wanted ages ago. These last few are just my obsessive completionist nature lol! I'm also on the last new skin, just 2 old ones to go. Still no sign of the Traitors. Can't be much longer. Ours are usually with nobody famous and always good. Although the celebrity one here was great. Well, when I say I buy coffee out, we're talking just a few times a month. I do like to treat myself, but buying it out every day would be a bit much. I know what you mean about people grumbling they have no money and then do that. It's definitely an extravagance. We are also getting sunshine! It's been nice! Hope the surgery goes well tomorrow. Poor Philip. It's been hanging around for a while so will be a relief when it's over with. Work continues to be busy. However, the huge presentation that I was expecting to have to do next week has been postponed so that's good! And one of my team is having a presentation in a few weeks due to her long service - we're looking forward to that (though I have to write a speech - however, it'll be a fun informal thing)

Ah no, the new skins were all 25k. Think they still are. But there's also an offer at the moment where you can get any one of the skins at all from any year for nothing because of the downtime. That was good - I waited till the skin I had on had matured and then took the free one as one I needed from 2009, so saved plenty of sp. I am not sure that the biting is working this year so it would have meant spending over 3mil. I only have three more to get once I've finished the current one - one last one from this year, and then two others from about 10 years ago. Not keen on either of them, which is why they're last, but as I'm so close to completion I might as well have those last two. I also have 1000s of hearts, I'm being very half hearted (no pun intended lol) about the hearts because it was so easy to clear out all the items from the shop this year. Still no sign of US traitors here, but probably not too much longer. Drills probably hasn't got the 'give something to a user' thing as a quest at the moment because the gifting got moved to Kumos. It seemed to work okay but it was tricky to find initially so maybe that's why. Who knows?
Yeah, the trouble is if people stop buying expensive 'to go' coffee and make it at home, that will be even more people out of work. It is such a waste of money though. But I admit that I'm one of the people who do it lol Hope Philip's surgery goes well. Um... well, I have tidied some of my home. But not enough of it. Oh well! :D

Survival has started. Kumos was a bit twitchy but I refreshed on the 503 error and eventually got the 25k with no wait option and am incubating Fresh. Good luck! I'm hoping this will be the year that I clear all the skins - I think there were 3 left, plus the 4 new ones from 2026. I'll catch up on the new items in the shops later in the week. Think I have enough hearts to clear everything. LOL Game of thrones was a long time ago but Bridgerton has a new season out, it's still going! Also Bridgerton is filmed here in Bath so all very good! Glad to hear Philip is doing okay. Unpleasant but hopefully once the surgery and recovery is done with, he'll be fine. Getting sick is no fun. Yes, enjoyed my lunch out. Also glad to have a short week this week. Only tomorrow then I'm off till monday. Nice! PRobably should tidy the house up a bit though lol That's a shame Liz lost a couple of work days. Over here restaurants (am I right in thinking she works in a pizza place?) are struggling a bit because people aren't eating out as much. Cost of living has gone up. We have so many tourists in Bath that it's not such an issue for us, thankfully. But still difficult.

I am dreading it too. cries
No, I do not know about wrestling. I just know of Jimmy Superfly Snooka and Roddy Rowdy Piper. And that there is an announcer that says, "Let's get ready to rrrrrrumble!" No need for embarrassment. We all have our fun obsessions. ♥