Center parcs, Sister Alice and the Holly Walk

[lathany]

We've been away for the weekend to celebrate my father-in-law's 70th and - because it's the following day - the duo's 9th. Center parcs is pretty, covered in lights, has deer and has a rather awesome swimming pool. But the best thing? The warmth of the villa we hired (except at night when it was too hot) - we picked an excellent weekend to be somewhere cosy.

• The birthdays - The three cakes were different and beautiful - Josie used coloured icing to paint a pattern on J'J's fruit cake, Ryan had a chocolate dinosaur and Bea had a vanilla cat. The presents went down well - Ryan was instantly possessive of his camera whilst Bea tucked herself into a corner of the sofa with Super Scribblenauts. There was also too much food and drink of which my favourites were the red wine bateleur and I brought, the champagne, the dolma and the duck (and, of course, the cake).
• Sister Alice - My (ex) staff member bought this for me (along with The Player of Games) as a leaving present. It's by Robert Reed and was initially five (long) short stories. It's readable, interesting, set in the future, involves super-powered almost-invulnerable beings and gets meta very quickly.
• Deja Vu and The Butterfly Effect 3 - Deju Vu stars Denzel Washington. He's the lead, the best thing about the film and makes it immensely watchable despite the utterly unbelievable science fiction element. As bateleur noted, he makes his way through a scene watching a woman in a voyeuristic set-up managing to look smitten rather than a stalker (West from Heroes take note). The Butterfly Effect 3 isn't nearly as good, but is worth watching if you have seen and enjoyed the first one (otherwise don't bother). It uses a slightly different approach to the first two and is miles better than the second one (which, as I said earlier this month, was rubbish). It's not as good as the original though and still has a tendency to dwell on its sex scenes (like the second one did). And the protagonist is still a bit of an idiot, but a nicer idiot than the guy in Two.
• Holly Walk - Last weekend, we did something I've been meaning to do for ages - we walked Kew's Holly Walk during the berry time. We've never managed before as it falls in term time and the duo aren't big walkers (well, Bea isn't). But with a bribe of cake, they came along and I enjoyed myself. I love holly and holly berries; in part, I guess 'cos they remind me of the festive season and I love Xmas.
• Xmas cake - Speaking of Xmas, we're at home so I'm making the whiskey Christmas cake and I've done the first two steps (ie. now have a cooked cake after soaking the dried fruit for a week).

Christmas-wise I've got a fair way through the present-buying and have a stack of cards to write. Plus I have a candle and calendar for Wednesday. I love this time of year and have my leave already booked. Also I have two Meteor games in December (weather permitting) and have finally finished the big map of Vebrica.