Carter

Dec. 25th, 2014 08:58 pm
lathany: (Celebration)
This is Carter - chosen for me by [livejournal.com profile] bateleur and the twins.

Carter_forLJ

She's named after a The Secret World character.

Today has been a good day. Christmas dinner all came together as hoped, I've been playing my new Final Fantasy CD of battle music (with thanks to [livejournal.com profile] quisalan) and I've been for a walk. I'm a bit headachey now - but it was worth the cocktails.

Santa

Dec. 20th, 2014 09:42 pm
lathany: (Cake)
It was [livejournal.com profile] bateleur's birthday today. We spent the day at Kew and wandered Holly Walk and the Tree-top Walkway. One odd thing - Palm House made me feel very ill, we thought I might have a reaction to some plant or pollen.

I made a coffee birthday cake when we got back. OK, we've plenty of cake in the house already, but it wasn't birthday cake.
lathany: (Default)
Last week we celebrated our wedding anniversary. For the first time, we did so with the twins and everyone was involved in the cooking. I even tidied in the dining room beforehand for the first time in ages.

anniversary

Starter was little savoury tarts, the main course was steak (which the twins were not fond of) and dessert were pots of banana and black treacle. We had a red Rioja (Gran Reserva) with it.

Also recently, we finished season 2 of The Wire. I thought that the dockers were interesting and I liked the new characters (particularly Beadie). However, the series suffered from wanting to keep the old favourites without really having a role for many of them. Still very watchable though and a very interesting and sympathetic portrayal of the dockers and particularly the Sobotka family.

It's been pretty quiet on the roleplaying front, although we did have a session of Folded Edge. We found the rebel fleet of Lassiter Drives (or, at least, we think it's the rebels) and we seem to be heavily involved in the grand plot. Except... we'd rather not be. The party has divided sympathies and this is somewhat paralysing as joining either side of the war seems bad.

Last night, having been stood up by [livejournal.com profile] chrestomancy, [livejournal.com profile] venta and I went out for dinner and a few drinks. [livejournal.com profile] venta suggested Abeno for food and I loved it. We shared the World Cup Okonomi-yaki ("'Okonomi-yakis' are variations on a theme, the theme being a base of cabbage, egg and dough with spring onions, ginger and morsels of 'tempura' batter"; the toppings included asparagus, bacon, mushrooms and a fried egg) which they cooked at the table. It was slightly tricky to divide in two (said the person who watched), but very yummy. We followed it up with desserts. I had Yokohama Sundae ("Coffee Jelly, Coffee Ice-Cream, Cinnamon Ice-Cream and more in this suffusion of sensations!") and [livejournal.com profile] venta chose Arashiyama-An ("A Japanese garden of a dessert - Green Tea Ice-Cream, Adzuki Beans, Fruit, sweet Rice Dumplings doughnuts - landscaped with Cream. Meditate on your indulgence!"). Thoroughly recommended.
lathany: (Celebration)
The first time that we've seen the New Year in the with the duo. And Little Big Planet.

Christmas

Dec. 27th, 2013 09:23 pm
lathany: (Celebration)
We got back yesterday from Christmas with the grandparents. This began in Cambridge ([livejournal.com profile] bateleur's parents), on the night of [livejournal.com profile] bateleur's birthday when we arrived late having been working (and in Ryan's case at school) during the day. We were there until Monday lunchtime.

Saturday: The morning spent wandering around the parks trying not to get too damp. The afternoon in the house and the evening celebrating the birthday and Xmas. Dinner was roast lamb and the crackers had little musical whistles inside along with a music sheet. The idea was that you could play various tunes (including Happy Birthday and Jingle Bells) using the whistles. This was moderately successful, although some tunes were unrecognisable.

Sunday: We spent the morning at Josie's ([livejournal.com profile] bateleur's sister) and the afternoon at the Cambridge Arts Theatre watching the pantomime of Robin Hood. The show was rather good, once you accepted the whole "He's behind you!" and other bits of audience participation. In the evening, we watched Straw Dogs. I say we. The film reached the strangled cat and I left for bed.

On Monday lunchtime we travelled to Royston (my parents) and discovered that it was still unclear (there were two ambiguous emails) whether [livejournal.com profile] chrestomancy was going to attempt a mad dash in his car to do presents (we discovered on Christmas morning that he thought he had been clear and was not coming).

Monday: A Thai meal in the evening at the rather excellent local Thai.

Tuesday: A walk around Royston in the morning and I made mince pies in the afternoon. Dinner was spaghetti bolognese and said mince pies.

Wednesday: Christmas! I cooked the dinner, we all opened presents and there was Dr Who in the evening (which I wasn't too impressed with. The whole 13th generation bit was pretty contrived. Actually most of it was pretty contrived).

Thursday: We headed for home and Reeve. Who was found asleep on my futon.
lathany: (Celebration)
This weekend, [livejournal.com profile] bateleur and I celebrated twenty-one years together, with help from the twins. Deep fried Camembert, Duck rolls and chocolate pots made up the menu with a lovely Sancerre and [livejournal.com profile] bateleur's choice of dessert wine. Sadly Bea was rather ill across the meal - and also the weekend - but seemed to enjoy the small portion she managed.

Yesterday's game was Mechs and saw the first full battle involving models and tape measures. [livejournal.com profile] chrestomancy had gone to some trouble with his set-up - Lego Mechs, a river of ribbon and polystyrene buildings. Plus tape measures of course. The whole thing took about three hours and, eventually, the good guys (us) won against the two enemy Mechs. It worked, was quite fun but had problems in the scaling department. The main issue was the firing range - it just seemed far too short.

I personally wasn't involved with the tape measure side of things as my character was also the party scout. I was in non-Mech scouting mode when the enemy Mechs turned up and we went to combat turns. But I did get some nice photos of the Big Bad Hulk Mutant, I got his laptop, a communications black box and an interesting map.

When the battle ended, there wasn't a lot of time left for plot to happen. However, it still did. There was an uprising from the wealthy immigrants (about 3% of the population) who wanted to take over the planet from the Navy and it looked like the remaining 97% of the population would be the part that suffered (or that's what seemed to be the case). The navy was on skeleton crew because of problems elsewhere in the system and it was clear we weren't going to be able to stop matters. So we've left the planet and are probably on our way out of the system. I guess that's the end of chapter 1!
lathany: (Celebration)
On Wednesday I got up at 6am (too early for me) and headed off to London to catch a train to Birmingham. I was off to see the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine in Birmingham, which meant Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It was a fairly interesting day, although somewhat on the long side, but the train journey up proved unexpectedly productive as I started planning the Warhammer 40K game I'm running at the end of August.

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful both at work and at home. I like tennis but I've not been watching, instead I've been checking on the results from time to time. The weather has become glorious - it seems an age since we had a really lovely sunny patch.

Last night, [livejournal.com profile] bateleur and I watched Gone (the 2012 release), courtesy of Lovefilms. It had received abominable reviews - which was unfair - but it wasn't brilliant either. On the plus side, the scenery was good and I like Amanda Seyfried (Lily from Veronica Mars). One the minus side, the plot wasn't so good, there was an unnecessary cat-in-a-cupboard moment and a rather stupid bit about how a car chase started.

Today we're planning to celebrate our eighteenth wedding anniversary (which is actually on Monday) and tomorrow we have [livejournal.com profile] verlaine and family over. So it'll be a pretty full weekend.
lathany: (Default)
A whole roast suckling pig under the cut )

There were sixteen of us and still we were defeated by the size of the pig. I ended up with a doggy bag (which I'm sure Alistair would call a hoggy bag). It was a lovely, lovely evening and [livejournal.com profile] bateleur enjoyed it muchly.
lathany: (Celebration)
My contributions to our quiz team (by which I mean the questions I could answer and no-one else could):
- What are the four Hogwarts houses?
- What are the names of the four girls in Little Women?
- Name the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
- Who played the Last Action Hero?

Yes, I know.
lathany: (Celebration)
Today I wandered up to the station to buy tickets for this afternoon. It's [livejournal.com profile] bateleur's birthday celebration (take one) with his family for which we are going into central London. There was a car alarm going off right outside the station and I was sorry for the man in the ticket office who told me it had been going for twenty minutes. Fortunately it stopped as I was leaving.

Reeve has been glaring at anyone who enters the room and looks in his direction. This is because he has come in a few times over the weekend to find various other people sitting on his futon. He feels that he needs to discourage this.
lathany: (Default)
Today was the rare occasion when [livejournal.com profile] bateleur failed to get up for breakfast having been struck down by the latest lurgy. Fortunately, he started to recover mid-day and has been downstairs since then.

Having missed all the Christmas fun yesterday, I finally made a start on the cake (which takes about three weeks - so I'm just about in time) and this evening I put the tree up. The twins each claimed a piece of tinsel and took them off to their rooms. I'm nervously wondering where I'll find them when I go up.
lathany: (Twins)
Today we opened the first Advent window and this entry - I hope - begins my month of daily posts. The window was reassuringly mistletoe (we've had calendars in recent years where the windows really weren't Xmassy) and the candle will be unwrapped and lit tonight.

Last week was the duo's birthday. This involved a trip to Pizza Express and the London Eye on Sunday. The duo were wusses about their pizzas and one of the serving staff had to cut them with a pizza cutter. However, the London Eye was a great success.

A photo from the Eye )

Ryan took endless photos while Bea wandered around gazing at the view. Afterwards we went to see the free video (3D with bubbles) and bought Krispy Kremes which we scoffed on the train going home. The only downside is that I fell over climbing the stairs to collect tickets hurting both knees and my ankle - fortunately the bruises are nearly gone.

Their actual birthday featured cake (Ryan's) and presents. They loved all the things people had bought for them. Bea is particularly taken with her present from [livejournal.com profile] zandev and [livejournal.com profile] glittertigger, a playstation game that uses an eye to cast spells Harry Potter style. She's also very keen on her laptop (from us). Ryan likes his new photo storage (also from us), but is especially keen on the present he got from his school - a pen that colours in shiny blue ink. The Bea cake (coffee as requested) will appear tomorrow (now that the other one has been eaten) so I will be baking tomorrow morning.

We have watched a couple of films since I last posted - Angel-A and Hugo.Here be mild spoilers )There's also been a Seventh Sea session - courtesy of [livejournal.com profile] wildrogue, sadly our last until Christmas. The session itself boded with grand plot and mind-controlled powerful NPCs. The mine with its mostly-closed gateway to hell was very atmospheric.
lathany: (Dice)
A couple of weeks ago, [livejournal.com profile] bateleur and I celebrated twenty years together by going to a rather fine restaurant called Roganic. As [livejournal.com profile] bateleur has already provided an extensive write-up, I don't propose to say anything more about the food. However, I would add that the service was excellent - we were offered water when we arrived (still, sparkling or tap), every course arrived promptly and was described in detail and they brought the menu, wine list and bill to the person who asked for them. And [livejournal.com profile] chrestomancy was the hero of the occasion for providing the babysitting.

Roleplaying
GMing
I finished Meteor last night. It was a two year fantasy campaign for which I designed a world. The features were a pantheon of gods (the game featured just over a hundred) and a magic system with six types of magic - form, movement, energy, mind, disruption and displacement. When I set it up, I decided to try out running two different parties within it.
  • The Good - Both parties worked and had different dynamics and somewhat different goals. It meant I could run with more players than I usually do (seven - I don't like having more than five people in a party these days). It made more use of a background I had put a lot of thought and effort into. All the characters were good and worked (although it turned out that some magic paths were more interesting / easier to progress through than others).
  • The Bad - The parties were both on six week (ish) cycles while I was on a three week cycle and the players would have liked to run more often. The two occasions when the parties met up involved playing in somewhat overcrowded conditions (our lounge is fairly short of seating anyway) although no-one complained. I'd had a cunning plan for [livejournal.com profile] bateleur to play in both games - to NPC in one of the two, but it didn't work that well and he was constantly trying to remember which character knew what.
  • The interesting - The parties had very difficult reactions to things and stopped and started at different times. The Nemoria party ([livejournal.com profile] lanfykins, [livejournal.com profile] chrisvenus, Alistair and [livejournal.com profile] bateleur) were more directionless at the start while the Constructs party ([livejournal.com profile] quisalan, [livejournal.com profile] ao_lai, [livejournal.com profile] chrestomancy and [livejournal.com profile] bateleur) were fine at the start, but struggling with aims and plans towards the end.
  • Memorable moments - There were loads, but for the Nemoria Party, I think the tragic battle at Jist and also the Preadith Pilgrimage particularly stick out in my mind. For the Constructs party I would go with the debate about the sword of Thearanda and also the Battle of the campsite Orcet Bridge.
So, I enjoyed it, but I need to rethink the two party approach if I do something like this again.

Having completed a campaign, I'm now thinking about one-off plans for the next Con. Also, I can finally read Dark Heresy without worrying about it influencing my Meteor campaign.

Playing
Seventh Sea re-started on Tuesday and this time we set off across the land of Germany Eisen and promptly found a ghost inn. The resulting interactions were creepy, strange and - I think - a little bit helpful. Most characters have been contacted by people asking for them to come home (to different places) and the party is going to have to figure out where to go as soon as we complete our business in Eisen.

Computer Games
I promised a write-up of the two Darkness Within mystery/horror point-and-click games when I finished them. The short version is that the story was interesting (inspired by Lovecraft), the atmosphere tense/scary in places but that the gameplay was awkward and I constantly needed a FAQ. For a longer version:

There were originally supposed to be three games in this series, but the company finished the story in two games (which can be bought together) and, as far as I can tell, then stopped being a company. The two games they produced had some good elements, but I could also see why they hadn't get excellent reviews.

On the plus side, the story was genuinely interesting and there were a number of unexpected developments and scenes. The first of the two games (In Pursuit of Loath Nolder) in particular had some great surprise moments - such as the appearance of the poet (I won’t say more). Also, the inclusion of nightmares along with the day-to-day world was a nice touch. Every time I moved to a new night or day I was very keen to see where I now was.

I liked the two main characters - Harold (the protagonist) and Loath Nolder (who mainly appears in the second game, The Dark Lineage) - which particularly brought home the rather gruesome fates they suffer. Perhaps it's in keeping with the genre, but one thing that stuck out is that the main character does seem to make what Bea would call "poor choices". Example: Exploring the house of the murder victim? Go alone and do some rope climbing in the dark! Howard never told his friends anything and never asked for help. Perhaps that’s a mark of a bookish police detective, but it left me scratching my head and blinking at the screen several times. That said, his friends didn’t seem that bothered about him either.

The big problem with the two games was the gameplay. The main part of the game is usual for the genre - wandering around the environment reading things and interacting with objects. However, the game also has a couple of other elements - the first is a process for examining documents and the second is about combining items or ideas - both are nice concepts, but rather irritating in practical terms. The process of examining documents is that when faced with a new paper, letter or book the game gives you the option of underlining key words and sentences. Trouble is, some key sentences are really obvious and others are not. I found I wanted to underline everything, a few lines at a time, to process a document into clues. The combining items feature appears in many games in the point and click genre. What makes Darkness Within different is that this is also used for ideas. This is a lovely thing in theory - you combine some of the thoughts your character has and then reach new conclusions. However, in practice, you need all the associated thoughts to be able to use the mechanic and this is frustrating when you have only some of those needed. Also, in the second game, I’m not sure there were many places where the combination feature could be used for ideas (I don’t recall finding any).

Outside these two features, the game has other problems. The main ones being missing hotspots, huge areas and needing scenes to activate objects. The missing hotspots issue is caused in part by the screens scrolling up and down as well as right and left. There were several occasions when I missed something on the ground and it was really annoying. The huge areas were just painful. Whenever I was stuck, the next thing or stage could be anywhere in a huge range of locations as the character was almost never restricted in movement and the resulting plodding around was extremely frustrating. Finally, the inactivated objects were a nuisance because it meant I wandering around looking for things only to discover what I needed was something I had already examined, but could not previously pick up.

The overall result of the system was that the game had some nice ideas, but these were somewhat drowned in the inevitable plodding from place to place re-examining everything. So, I found it was just about worth playing - with a FAQ to hand.


Films
We've seen two more films - Fire Walk With Me and The Raid. The former was rather disappointing, but the latter was excellent.
  • Fire Walk With Me - We finished Twin Peaks last year, so this seemed like a good idea. In addition, Mark Kermode had thoroughly recommended it (although responses were mixed). So I watched it, and was disappointed. My huge complaint was that there was little or no new information. The dark fate of Laura is already known and this film shows very little of anyone else. Yes, Kermode is right and Sheryl Lee is excellent as Laura, but that simply isn't enough in itself for me. I think the most telling comment I read was that Lynch apparently said he made because he was in love with the character of Laura Palmer and, if so, yeah - that's what it looks like. Like most other people, I would have liked a sequel (I knew in advance this wasn't) and the couple of lines alluding to Dale's fate simply were not enough. I gather two more films were planned to complete the Twin Peaks sequence but these were cancelled when this film flopped. A shame, but I can also see why.
  • The Raid - Subtitles or not, this is excellent.The characters are interesting, the plot works and if the action is a combination of realistic firefights and unrealistic martial arts - well, even they kind of work. I loved this and I want to see the sequel (in production). Apparently the Americans are remaking it with the original director.
Not a lot else is going on right now. Work is busy - as always in the autumn - and I'm gearing up for dark evenings, dark mornings and the Halloween -> Xmas shopping.
lathany: (Default)
Turns out I was very fortunate in picking my summer leave this year. The weather has suddenly improved, just as my commute stopped. I've a nice long time off and a few things planned. I also aim to spend my quieter days alternating various jobs (housework mainly) with reading, films and computer games.

Apart from our twice-monthly LoveFilms offerings, [livejournal.com profile] bateleur and I actually got out to see a new film release not that long ago.

Prometheus, Indie Game: The Movie, Drive and Balibo )

Apart from watching films, I've been playing a lot of Diablo III and I'm approaching the end of normal (or, at least, I'm pretty confident that I'm now in the last boss fight).

  • The Good - I have liked the quests in Diablo III, they vary (or, at least, as much as they can in this genre) and mix the short with the long. I also like the character upgrade system - there is some choice of what version of character to play (although, as [livejournal.com profile] bateleur points out, less choice than in II) and there appears to be less scope to create an unplayable variant than in the previous game. I also like the various references to the previous two games - a revisiting of the old I Kingdom characters as well as places and people from II. In particular, a number of the bosses made some welcome reappearances (FRESH MEAT!)
  • The Bad - Before I really get into my rant, I'll put in the need for an up-to-date computer and the naff font (I can never read the pluses on magical items) in the bad list. Now for the rant - I think my biggest problem with Diablo III is the multi-stage boss fights. I'm not a big fan of them in any game and III has taken the worst option - the multi-stage approach without check-points or save-points between sections. I guess that the idea is that once you've beaten a multi-stage boss you have an incredible sense of achievement, but this doesn't work for me. Instead I have an incredible sense of boredom whenever I see the first stage(s) again as I have to go through them repeatedly to figure out how I'm screwing up the later stages (not helped by repeatedly dying shortly after entering the later stages). I vastly preferred the II approach. Admittedly, the last fight is made even worse by a certain absence that I wasn't expecting (and has meant I've had to rework my strategy rather a lot). Other bad stuff? Well, in many ways the game feels unfinished. For instance, there's a traitor that I'm fairly certain doesn't get dealt with (although, maybe it's still in the last part of the game I haven't finished). Also there's loads of things which are not yet unlocked (presumably because you're supposed to go from playing "normal" to playing the harder levels to unlock them), but it's a bit frustrating to be fully aware that there's game content you won't get anywhere near during normal play. Finally - I think I've complained about the being on-line bit before, but, it's bad. The servers sometimes glitch and are sometimes down. This does not make for an enjoyable playing experience.
  • Overall - I can now see why this game has thoroughly mixed reviews. It deserves them. However, still a fun game, although rather harder than the previous two.


There has also been a certain amount of roleplaying. The local group is currently playing Revolution (the game with pretty character sheets) and I am running the final sessions of Meteor. I suspect my campaign will be over in just two or three sessions.

About the games )

What else? At the start of this month, we celebrated our seventeenth wedding anniversary with food and alcohol. Details and pictures over on [livejournal.com profile] bateleur's LJ.

Finally, I realised yesterday that I've been blogging for ten years. I wrote my first entry "Teddy-tipping" on 19 April 2002. I'm pleased that LJ is still here and still active, although perhaps less so than it once was.
lathany: (Dice)
Friday was [livejournal.com profile] bateleur and my sixteenth wedding anniversary. We celebrated in the usual way - with food and alcohol. Food was little savoury tarts, then prawns, fish, stuffed courgettes and three grain rice followed by bananas and sultanas fried in rum and served with cream. The alcohol was Pimms, a rather nice bottle of white and Grand Marnier. Sixteen is the first anniversary in my Book of Lists that doesn't have an associated material and it suddenly feels like a big number.

From having had a relatively quiet year last year, 2011 has been full of roleplaying games. Last week we had two on.
  • Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor - This is a supplement to Monsters and Other Childish Things being run by [livejournal.com profile] smiorgan for [livejournal.com profile] chrestomancy, TheHattedOne, [livejournal.com profile] triskellian, [livejournal.com profile] bateleur and me. We play eight and nine year old mutant orphans who no-one loves. We've had two sessions to date, the first of which involved everyone picking on us (although we were eventually saved from The Bad Guys by a psychotic car) and the second of which involved us finally making a friend and watched other people have bad things happen to them.
  • Meteor - This was with the party who have just completed their fourth pilgrimage (of four). They spent the session critical-failing magic tests and fighting minions of the Diseased Ones. I'm now heading for a session involving both parties. And a few gods. I'm hoping that they'll get to reach some agreement about the Diseased Ones. Or at least agree that they are A Bad Thing.
It's been a while since I ran a one-off, but there's a Con next year and I'll be planning something for it. I recently read an entry (over here) about one-offs and I agree with the points raised:
  • Signpost the plot clearly.
  • Character attributes should fit on an index card.
  • Maximum of 2 fights, preferably 1.
  • Individual character information should fit on a sheet of A4.
  • Stick to 1 scene per hour (on average).
  • Give the PCs a reason to work together.
  • World - keep 1 location per scene maximum, plus outside the sandbox as one location.
  • Assume your PCs will never sleep until the game is finished.
I would add three points to the general list and one for Con one-offs. Firstly, the better one-offs I've seen tend to work on a strong concept which can play out in a few hours (this is in the same way that constructing a short story is different from constructing novels). Secondly, one-offs almost always want pre-defined characters. I have seen player-generated characters for one-offs that worked, but they tended to work because it was impossible not to rather than because they were well-chosen. Thirdly, make sure that the characters all have a role; this is equally true for other types of game but arises particularly in one-offs because the characters have less time over which to establish niches for themselves; such things have to be pre-established. Also, for Con one-offs, it's important to be aware of the number limitations (ie. don't write for a party of four if the Con needs six). So:
  • Strong, one-off suited concept.
  • Pre-gen characters (or a very strong steer for players).
  • Ensure that there's a role for everyone and it couldn't equally be done by some subset of the party.
  • Check limitations - such as number of players - for the Con.
My past solo one-offs have been rather hit-and-miss - Working With Children went well whereas the BadgerCon Athory one-off wasn't particularly memorable. My main failings are usually that I don't run with a good one-off concept (it tends to be too big) and that the party has come unstuck. It is perhaps no co-incidence that I've generally had more success with mini-campaigns (such as Kaleidoscope and From The Cellars of Xanadu).

Much of my spare time has been spent on Twin Peaks episodes (which I'll review at the end of the season). But not all.
  • The Lies of Locke Lamora - This was recommended by [livejournal.com profile] al_fruitbat and [livejournal.com profile] _alanna and I really loved it. It's a very clever plot set in a fantasy background about thieves who become confidence tricksters. Technically, it's the start of a series but the book is fairly stand-alone (although there's at least one character you expect to meet and then don't and another whose exit isn't detailed). About my only whinge is that the book is very light on female characters.
  • Brighton Rock - We watched the remake, which is worth it for Helen Mirren alone (and a bit of Gollum). However, the film itself isn't a masterpiece and is generally a bit too dark for my tastes.
I don't have much work news to report. However, the next time I want to take a long lunch break at work, I think I might spend it poking round the British Museum. I've finally figured out that it's just round the corner from where I work. And it's free.

41

Mar. 30th, 2011 10:03 pm
lathany: (Cake)
Another year and this time I've reached a prime number. Today was a rather quieter birthday than 40, not least because I was working. Still with the good presents and yummy cake, though.

My presents:
- The Beatles Rockband
- Grim Tuesday by Garth Nix
- Storm Front by Jim Butcher
- The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
- Halting State by Charles Stross
- Rats Saw God by Rob Thomas (he of Veronica Mars fame).

(About half of those worked their way onto my list after recommendations from [livejournal.com profile] al_fruitbat and [livejournal.com profile] _alanna - many thanks.)

The birthday cake was [livejournal.com profile] bateleur's special chocolate cake (with cinnamon and cloves and sultanas) - both Bea and Ryan approved.
lathany: (Default)
Valentine Day came, so we did our usual thing of nice wine and food. [livejournal.com profile] bateleur had bought salmon and cream cheese starters and made yummy pasties for the main course. However, the best part of the meal was the dessert he constructed - a little like tiramisu with a base of raisins and bananas cooked in alcohol and a top layer of mascarpone flavoured with spice. It was awesome.

The other main event of last weekend was the photo session at Ryan's school. His school photographs showed up a while back and were rather good (as opposed to Bea's school's more standard - dull - offering. So when the photographer offered family photo sessions this seemed a good opportunity to finally get some decent family photos done. I liked what came out when I saw it on screen, and we expect to get them in a few weeks time. There's three photos of the family (we'll keep one and grandparent the other two), a shot of [livejournal.com profile] bateleur and me and both separate and a joint picture of the duo. Most of it was in the studio (school hall!) but some were outside shots.

On a more predictable note, I've also continued to rewatch Heroes - both Once Upon A Time in Texas and Brother's Keeper were still awesome - probably the best of season 4. However, Strange Attractors was still dire and even as a devout Heroes fan I had trouble sitting it through on a rewatch. I haven't fully gone through the deleted scenes from that trio of episodes, but might say more when I do. Also I think both the good episodes include audio commentary which I plan on listening to.
  • District 9 - We saw this last night and I knew little about it beforehand. It starts off like a documentary and is gory and disturbing. Having read about it afterwards, I can see why the Nigerians were mightily p*ssed about the way they were portrayed. But an excellent film - good to see one set in South Africa - but not an easy watch.
  • Ravenor (Warhammer 40K fiction) - I read this trilogy (with two short stories) and felt it was good, but not as good as Eisenhorn. However, and for the benefit of [livejournal.com profile] quisalan, he's a much less smug and irritating protagonist.
  • Recettear - I'm well into the eternity mode, but it's still moderately entertaining. The new heroes are interesting and I like upping the number of items and redecorating my store (the equivalent of "raising sheep", I'm sure).
Next week I have a day off work to go to Kew and it should generally be quiet because we're duo-less. Well, apart from the two roleplaying sessions of course (a one-off from [livejournal.com profile] bateleur this weekend and a Meteor next).
lathany: (Celebration)
The duo got up at 5am to open the presents in their stockings. This consisted of four edibles (always appreciated!) and six non-edibles each of which Bea's charm bracelet (metal/plastic mix) and Ryan's car were a huge hit. However, I need to get them bigger stockings next year.

[livejournal.com profile] bateleur and I got up at the more sensible time of 9:30am and we all had fruit salad and yoghurt for breakfast. Then a phone call from an old friend and some necessary caffeine, followed by the eagerly anticipated tree presents. My own hoard was:
  • A 3D puzzle of Tower Bridge from my parents-in-law
  • Last Window: the sequel to Hotel Dusk which I loved from [livejournal.com profile] chrestomancy
  • Fire Emblem from [livejournal.com profile] bateleur which I have heard good things about
  • The Fall by Nora Jones also from [livejournal.com profile] bateleur
  • Dark Heresy from [livejournal.com profile] quisalan
And, on the subject of the last - anyone interested in a 40K roleplaying one-off, if I get around to running one next year? I haven't read through it yet, but the rule book looks detailed and beautiful. I also got a (half share with [livejournal.com profile] bateleur in a) grumpy sack boy (LittleBigPlanet) courtesy of [livejournal.com profile] chrisvenus earlier in the month.

Christmas dinner was awesome. Everything cooked just right (chicken, bacon, sausage, roast potatoes, roast parsnip, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, stuffing and gravy). It helped that we were only cooking for the four of us. We set the table fully for once (napkins, deep red candles, wine glasses all round and crackers) which the duo loved. However, there will be a longish short pause before we worry about the pudding.

In other news - our cat may be a fake feline - he didn't spend the end of the cooking time trying to run off with the chicken.
lathany: (Cake)
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 [livejournal.com profile] 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 [livejournal.com profile] 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.
lathany: (Celebration)
Roughly every other year, [livejournal.com profile] bateleur and I tend to go to the parents and parents-in-law for Xmas. This was one of those years.

Royston
There was a lot of snow ice around still when we got to Royston, so we did a lot less walking than we have done in previous years. Memorable moments of those three(ish) days are:
  • Taking the duo (and my mum) to Letchworth to swim.
  • Going to the nearby Thai for dinner one evening (minus [livejournal.com profile] bateleur who was sadly ill). Bea discovered how much she liked sweet and sour Thai style.
  • The one walk we did go on we passed the Royston Museum - which I'd like to look round when it's open (sadly, it had been open the day before, but we hadn't known that). From the outside it reminded me of the (fictional) Saxton Museum in The Lost Crown.
  • Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve - in the main because I love my mum's roasts.

Cambridge
By the time we'd reached Cambridge, the worst of the icy stuff had gone; although there was still a fair amount of sliding on the pavements for the first couple of days. Memorable moments of those three(ish) days are:
  • the post-Christmas meal walk; dark, pretty and slippery.
  • Meeting up with Luke and family for a walk one morning - he hasn't changed.
  • Dick Whittington and his Cat pantomime. This was OK, and I liked watching King Rat and his rattlings do Thriller, but I don't expect to volunteer again next year, not least because of the number of people who wanted to push past even in the middle of the performance. That said, I suspect the duo will be too old to see another by the next time we're back in Cambridge.
  • Going to the Fitzwilliam Museum where my sister-in-law works. It's a lovely place for roleplaying game inspiration.

Present-wise I received:
  • Dragon Age,
  • Dark Fall: Lost Souls,
  • two lots of chocs,
  • Books - A Snowball in Hell, Lady Oracle and The Gift,
  • and a map puzzle.

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