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lathanyToday is the last day of my fortnight holiday as I'm back in the office tomorrow. It's been an excellent two weeks as I've managed to do pretty much everything I wanted, both in terms of household chores and in terms of Enjoyable Stuff. I started the fortnight feeling sleepy and wanting a rest; although I was also keen to get out and do the things that are difficult to arrange with the duo around. The days went like this:
Saturday - This was the day of finishing Final Fantasy XIII and watching Fargo, along with the usual origami session with the duo (the tiny tall hat) and cooking with Ryan (pea and bacon risotto). I also washed all the kids things ready for their holiday in France.
Sunday - I following up the end of Final Fantasy XIII with completing Dirge of Cerberus, trimmed back bits of the garden, plus another origami session with the duo (a "house"). I also started making plans for the week ahead.
Monday - I made some lemon cake for lunch which the grandparents attended before they departed with the duo to Portsmouth. Having finally got the mess makers out of the way I settled down to the planned cleaning and tidied, dusted and vacuumed the lounge. In the evening I started on Star Ocean: Till the End of Time which I've played a long way through before (in 2005) but never finished. Thing is, I'm really completist about my computer games - but if I don't manage it this time, I'll admit defeat.
Tuesday - This was the big day of cleaning (no coincidence that it was also the first day post-twins, with them gone it was likely to stay clean/tidy for longer). The upstairs bathroom was vacuumed and washed and then I attacked Ryan's disaster area (aka his bedroom) and tidied, dusted and vacuumed. We also managed a walk around Ashford and more Star Ocean.
Wednesday - Over to Isleworth for a visit to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chrestomancy and his Arkham game. We ate lunch in the local pub (which does a yummy bangers and mash). We walked alongside the river, but failed to see the kingfisher that appears during chrestomancy's run and then returned to the house for three games of Arkham (we won the last). I was impressed with the garden as he's started growing vegetables (successfully); although it's not swayed me from being a flower garden person.
Thursday - This was Kew Gardens day.bateleur and I pottered around stopping for our usual cake and coffee (at our usual place - the Pavillion) and visited various bits of the gardens including the treetop walkway and Evolution House. Afterwards we visited the nearby Ask for a meal before trotting home. It was a good day, but I was still rather tired and enjoyed the walking less than usual (the cake however, was still as good as usual).
Friday - Back to the housework and Bea's Huge Mess was gradually transformed into Bea's bedroom. I continued with Star Ocean and also sorting out the last bits of session prep for Meteor.
Saturday - The Jayden Party of Natalya, Viktor, Sergei and Pen (quisalan, ao_lai, chrestomancy and bateleur's DPC) launched into session two. Their day included the Procession of Light (in celebration of the Meteor), fighting dodging the Mask of the God Crine (The Armoured One) and someone they believed possessed by Nithaté (with a short pause for blueberries, raspberries and strawberries with double cream courtesy of quisalan). The session went smoothly (from my viewpoint) and the group now plan to visit the Meteor site. Meteor was followed by the start of the Farscapeathon (with white wine and beer for the drinkers of us), although bateleur escaped the group obsession and went to program instead.
Sunday - We continued watching Farscape episodes (with breaks for cinnamon cake and sausage and gammon casserole all produced bybateleur whilst we watched) until we got halfway through season one and the players all needed to go home. I'm now completely hooked on Farscape. Luckily for me, I now have the Farscape discs, so have continued watching - although I'll go back to the stop point when we all meet up again.
Monday -floralaetifica stayed over, talking Norway and dance (and a little bit of Heroes raised by me). She departed for Ponderosa the following morning leaving coins with little holes for the duo.
Tuesday - We built new desks for the duo to go in their now-tidy bedrooms. Then, we spent the evening withseveral_bees and kevandotorg for food (paella and crumble), wine (sauvignon blanc) and board games. These were Tigris and Euphrates (which I liked - it's sort of a contested resources game), Tsuro (which I've played before) and Bananagrams which is very approximately a quick Scrabble game.
Wednesday - I cleaned the downstairs bathroom and vacuumed both corridors before the duo came home. (I also played Star Ocean and watched some Farscape getting in my last big daytime bout of both before Ryan and Bea came home). We were pleased that they both liked their new desks (and their tidy bedrooms).
Thursday - I had my hair trimmed and got back to the business of origami - a piano (which Bea rightly criticised for its lack of piano-like features).
Friday - I mostly used Friday to sort out the few remaining jobs I'd lined up for the fortnight. These included writing to my MP about the public sector cuts (as asked to by my union), checking the various bills and things I get on-line, registering with a couple of sites and buying a copy of Machinarium (which I've not yet tried). Friday's origami was an oblong box. In the evening we watched The Talented Mr Ripley - I really loved it, it's one of the best films I've seen this year, I liked it for the progression through the plot/development of characters (or perhaps that should be detailing of characters) and that nothing Ripley accomplished relied on the stupidity of other characters. The ending was slightly abrupt though and felt too early an end.
Saturday - KinderCon started, sobateleur took Bea along and I stayed home with The One Who Doesn't Like Crowds. Ryan and I visited the cake shop (he had a cup cake and I had a slice of a tart which is rather like a mince pie but with cherries and other Xmasy fruit in it - if it has a name, I don't know it!), the dry cleaners (to collect my three coats) and the flower shop (I asked Ryan to choose some carnations and he's chosen some gorgeous deep pink, almost red ones). We also made some fairy cakes at home, plus Ryan and Reeve had a long play in the garden whilst I did some Meteor prep and a lot of Star Ocean.
Sunday - KinderCon is continuing so I again have the Hippo. Today is the rather boring combination of packing for the duo (they are going to Royston for a couple of days) and ironing.
It's going to be odd to be back at work tomorrow (not to mention tiring - I haven't been up before nine lately). However, I really feel that I've had a great fortnight and have managed to do everything I felt I should do along with lots of things I wanted to do. Ah well, next big stop will be Xmas! At least I still have much Farscape (I'm about a quarter of the way through season two) and Star Ocean (I'm mining copper) to keep me happy.
Saturday - This was the day of finishing Final Fantasy XIII and watching Fargo, along with the usual origami session with the duo (the tiny tall hat) and cooking with Ryan (pea and bacon risotto). I also washed all the kids things ready for their holiday in France.
Sunday - I following up the end of Final Fantasy XIII with completing Dirge of Cerberus, trimmed back bits of the garden, plus another origami session with the duo (a "house"). I also started making plans for the week ahead.
Monday - I made some lemon cake for lunch which the grandparents attended before they departed with the duo to Portsmouth. Having finally got the mess makers out of the way I settled down to the planned cleaning and tidied, dusted and vacuumed the lounge. In the evening I started on Star Ocean: Till the End of Time which I've played a long way through before (in 2005) but never finished. Thing is, I'm really completist about my computer games - but if I don't manage it this time, I'll admit defeat.
Tuesday - This was the big day of cleaning (no coincidence that it was also the first day post-twins, with them gone it was likely to stay clean/tidy for longer). The upstairs bathroom was vacuumed and washed and then I attacked Ryan's disaster area (aka his bedroom) and tidied, dusted and vacuumed. We also managed a walk around Ashford and more Star Ocean.
Wednesday - Over to Isleworth for a visit to
chrestomancy and his Arkham game. We ate lunch in the local pub (which does a yummy bangers and mash). We walked alongside the river, but failed to see the kingfisher that appears during chrestomancy's run and then returned to the house for three games of Arkham (we won the last). I was impressed with the garden as he's started growing vegetables (successfully); although it's not swayed me from being a flower garden person.Thursday - This was Kew Gardens day.
bateleur and I pottered around stopping for our usual cake and coffee (at our usual place - the Pavillion) and visited various bits of the gardens including the treetop walkway and Evolution House. Afterwards we visited the nearby Ask for a meal before trotting home. It was a good day, but I was still rather tired and enjoyed the walking less than usual (the cake however, was still as good as usual).Friday - Back to the housework and Bea's Huge Mess was gradually transformed into Bea's bedroom. I continued with Star Ocean and also sorting out the last bits of session prep for Meteor.
Saturday - The Jayden Party of Natalya, Viktor, Sergei and Pen (
quisalan, ao_lai, chrestomancy and bateleur's DPC) launched into session two. Their day included the Procession of Light (in celebration of the Meteor), quisalan). The session went smoothly (from my viewpoint) and the group now plan to visit the Meteor site. Meteor was followed by the start of the Farscapeathon (with white wine and beer for the drinkers of us), although bateleur escaped the group obsession and went to program instead.Sunday - We continued watching Farscape episodes (with breaks for cinnamon cake and sausage and gammon casserole all produced by
bateleur whilst we watched) until we got halfway through season one and the players all needed to go home. I'm now completely hooked on Farscape. Luckily for me, I now have the Farscape discs, so have continued watching - although I'll go back to the stop point when we all meet up again.Monday -
floralaetifica stayed over, talking Norway and dance (and a little bit of Heroes raised by me). She departed for Ponderosa the following morning leaving coins with little holes for the duo.Tuesday - We built new desks for the duo to go in their now-tidy bedrooms. Then, we spent the evening with
several_bees and kevandotorg for food (paella and crumble), wine (sauvignon blanc) and board games. These were Tigris and Euphrates (which I liked - it's sort of a contested resources game), Tsuro (which I've played before) and Bananagrams which is very approximately a quick Scrabble game.Wednesday - I cleaned the downstairs bathroom and vacuumed both corridors before the duo came home. (I also played Star Ocean and watched some Farscape getting in my last big daytime bout of both before Ryan and Bea came home). We were pleased that they both liked their new desks (and their tidy bedrooms).
Thursday - I had my hair trimmed and got back to the business of origami - a piano (which Bea rightly criticised for its lack of piano-like features).
Friday - I mostly used Friday to sort out the few remaining jobs I'd lined up for the fortnight. These included writing to my MP about the public sector cuts (as asked to by my union), checking the various bills and things I get on-line, registering with a couple of sites and buying a copy of Machinarium (which I've not yet tried). Friday's origami was an oblong box. In the evening we watched The Talented Mr Ripley - I really loved it, it's one of the best films I've seen this year, I liked it for the progression through the plot/development of characters (or perhaps that should be detailing of characters) and that nothing Ripley accomplished relied on the stupidity of other characters. The ending was slightly abrupt though and felt too early an end.
Saturday - KinderCon started, so
bateleur took Bea along and I stayed home with The One Who Doesn't Like Crowds. Ryan and I visited the cake shop (he had a cup cake and I had a slice of a tart which is rather like a mince pie but with cherries and other Xmasy fruit in it - if it has a name, I don't know it!), the dry cleaners (to collect my three coats) and the flower shop (I asked Ryan to choose some carnations and he's chosen some gorgeous deep pink, almost red ones). We also made some fairy cakes at home, plus Ryan and Reeve had a long play in the garden whilst I did some Meteor prep and a lot of Star Ocean.Sunday - KinderCon is continuing so I again have the Hippo. Today is the rather boring combination of packing for the duo (they are going to Royston for a couple of days) and ironing.
It's going to be odd to be back at work tomorrow (not to mention tiring - I haven't been up before nine lately). However, I really feel that I've had a great fortnight and have managed to do everything I felt I should do along with lots of things I wanted to do. Ah well, next big stop will be Xmas! At least I still have much Farscape (I'm about a quarter of the way through season two) and Star Ocean (I'm mining copper) to keep me happy.
