I’m taking a small detour from my usual tone for this one — still me, just a little more grounded than usual.

There have been a few turning points in my life — the kind you don’t see coming until you’re standing in the middle of them, trying to work out whether you’re meant to stay, leave, or sprint in the opposite direction with your coffee still in hand.

I won’t go into the personal details. Some choices belong in the private archive, not the public one. But I will say this: the hardest decisions are usually the ones where you realise something has been draining you for far too long, and the only way forward is to put yourself first for once.

Making that call isn’t dramatic. It isn’t glamorous. Most of the time, it’s the quiet kind of survival — choosing boundaries, choosing peace, choosing a path that doesn’t leave you carrying someone else’s weight on top of your own.

That doesn’t make the decision easy. But it does make it necessary.

So while the internet gets to hear about my struggles with aggressive sea fauna, angry wolves, and vehicles that absolutely should not be flipping that often… the real-life challenges stay off the grid. And honestly, that’s the healthiest balance I’ve ever found.

We’re not a family with a long list of sacred holiday recipes. There’s no legendary dish that only appears once a year, no ancient cookbook with pages stuck together, and definitely no competitive baking. Our approach is closer to: “make something warm, make something tasty, and make sure it doesn’t turn into a survival scenario.”

Most years, it ends up being simple comfort food — the kind you can put together without needing a flow chart, a timer, or divine intervention. It’s about feeding people without stress, not impressing the neighbours with a five-course meal that requires a respec halfway through.

Sometimes it’s a proper sit-down dinner. Other times it’s whatever we can pull together between work, life, and keeping the general chaos at bay. But there’s always one constant: something warm, filling, and familiar. The sort of food that gives you a breather before the next round of yearly madness.

Nothing fancy. Nothing dramatic. Just quiet, reliable meals that make the day feel calm for a moment — which honestly is the best holiday tradition we’ve ever managed to keep.

If I suddenly didn’t need sleep, the first thing I’d do is try to remember what “rested” actually feels like. Once that moment of disbelief passes, though, I know exactly where those extra hours would go.

I’d pour every scrap of bonus time straight into Survivor Incognito — more runs, more disasters, more questionable survival strategies that definitely shouldn’t work but somehow do. Imagine the backlog I could clear with an extra six to eight uninterrupted hours where nothing needs my attention except whichever world I’m currently trying (and failing) to survive in.

While everyone else sleeps, the house would finally fall silent. No distractions, no interruptions — just me, a half-finished mug of coffee, and whatever creature is lurking around the next corner in whatever game I’m in. The perfect conditions for chaos.

Would I become more productive? Possibly.

Would I become significantly more chaotic? Absolutely.

Extra hours don’t automatically make life easier… but they would make the diaries longer, the mistakes funnier, and the survival attempts even more questionable. Which, let’s be honest, is very on-brand for me.

1. Loud chewing
Nothing triggers my inner survival instincts faster. I can be perfectly calm, sipping coffee, and the moment someone starts chewing like they’re trying to speedrun a meal, my brain immediately considers evacuation, hibernation, or self-exile to the woods.

2. People who block doorways
It’s like a real-world pathfinding bug. You’re trying to move from Point A to Point B, and suddenly someone decides the doorway is the perfect spot to stop, ponder life, and become a human traffic cone. Please step aside before I have to jump sideways like I’m dodging a Timberwolf.

3. Being interrupted mid-thought
My thoughts are fragile. If they get interrupted, they’re gone — not respawning, not fast-travelling back, just gone forever. Let me finish the sentence before the brain tab closes itself with an error message.

Food in my home works a lot like food in a survival game: it doesn’t need to be fancy, it just needs to keep everyone alive long enough to face whatever chaos tomorrow brings.

• The Hearty One – the kind of meal that hits like a max-calorie stew in The Long Dark. Warm, filling, and ideal for days when the weather—or life—gets dramatic.
• The Quick One – real-world equivalent of realising you forgot to bring food in Subnautica and you’re too far from the lifepod to care. Fast, simple, reliable.
• The “How Did This Turn Out So Good?” One – the wildcard. No expectations, no guarantees, but somehow it ends up being the favourite thing of the week.

Nothing Michelin-starred. Nothing that reveals anything personal. Just the everyday fuel that keeps the Survivor Incognito camp going—one plate at a time.