lathany

Ryan is ill. This involves no fuss whatsoever. It means that halfway through the morning I found him wandering about in his dressing gown. After careful questioning he said he had a pain in his head. However, it had disappeared at lunchtime and he wanted lunch, so we hoped it was a short, passing headache. Sadly not; this afternoon he disappeared. It turned out he had put himself to bed. He's looking white and tired. Again he has a headache. I've fed him some Calpol in the hopes it helps him recover quickly.

In slightly better news,

bateleur did the final food shopping this morning, having got up early to avoid the crowds. So we are all ready for Xmas.

Current Mood: thoughtful

I've met the Eye of Cthulhu in Terraria (it's the first boss monster). After having my a*se kicked once, then a no-score draw, Ryan suggested fire arrows. This expert Hippo advice worked. So I am now the proud owner of some demonite ore. And some corruption.

In other news, my cough/cold is still very much present and I've had enough of it.

Current Mood: sick

Today I have been trying to do as little as possible as I recover from my latest cold. This has meant a bit of Terraria with Ryan and a bit of Awakenings with Bea. And I cleaned the shower, but it needed it.

We've also started wrapping the twins presents and have planned food over Christmas.

Tired now.

Current Mood: sick

glittertigger and

zandev stayed over last night following the birthday pig. This morning we all rose rather late (except

bateleur who was on duo duty). At a suitably civilised hour we settled down to coffee and pastries and chat.

This afternoon, Bea and I redid the tree. The old lights had broken and so

bateleur had bought a new string of a hundred lights. The tree now has lots of little lights instead of fewer big ones. It still looks satisfyingly Xmassy though.

Current Mood: sick

Today was the rare occasion when

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.

Current Mood: sick

Today, I was supposed to be in North Oxford doing Xmassy things. Instead I'm sitting in Ashford, staying close to the radiator and feeling ill. I thought I was still getting over the cold I've had for the last two weeks. However,

bateleur is also coming down with something, so I suspect I've picked up something brand new and also cold-like. Ah well.

Last night we watched Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Fun, ridiculous action sequences and generally as expected. It made for good, undemanding viewing. However, Reeve didn't like it much. He say hunched on a beanbag with his ears tilted back. We think he didn't like the volume level.

Current Mood: sick

I still have a cold. It's the same cold as the one

chrestomancy has, we both started a week ago, and I want it gone right now.

I made some more progress on the Christmas shopping this lunchtime, I'm aware that it's December and I've got more left than usual. I've also started my Christmas cards. I like this time of year - even when I'm panicking about getting it all done in time.

Current Mood: sick

I'm on holiday for slightly over two weeks, so this seems an excellent time to catch up on my LJ stuff.

First the roleplaying that's been happening.

Revolution - bateleur finished his mini-campaign on Saturday. This was his "local group" game (chrestomancy, floralaetifica, wildrogue, shadowjon and me) and involved weird character sheets that looked rather like children's "pretty pattern" colouring sheets. Our characters (or at least some of them) had magic powers gained by channelling aspects of powerful historical people and the background was multiple "worlds" (various NPCs kept telling us there was one world). We completed the game by meeting our aims - sealing off our little "oubliette" of the world, gaining control of the (sealed) portal, staying alive and we Evelyn also saved Piers from his controlling aspect.
Meteor - I finally held the double party session - the seven characters finally met. After hearing descriptions of What Had Gone Wrong, they then helped a number of Gods take on and beat two of the eight Corrupted Ones. This was followed by an email chat session of sharing plot, angst and cat feeding. I enjoyed it - and it went pretty much as I hoped.

There have also been three films.

Notes on a Scandal - I enjoyed this, even though the story is rather grim. Both Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett make for good viewing and I thought it was the right length for the concept (about an hour and a half).
The Ghost - A Polanski starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan. It was a atmospheric, intelligent, well-constructed film (a thriller without action sequences) with a disappointing ending. We debated alternative endings for some time and while we could improve on the one in the film, we failed to find a satisfying one that didn't require at least another hour to carry out.
Closer - A four person film about swapping relationships which I found watchable, but didn't like very much. My chief criticism is one I feel about many "relationship" films - I failed to like any of the characters (although I had some mild sympathy for Natalie Portman's Alice). And I don't understand why Clive Owen was nominated for all sorts of awards, I didn't think it was that good a performance.

We've also been meeting up with people.

Brockwood Hall - Many years ago there was BadgerCon and the venue was the place that my parents used to take chrestomancy and me for Christmas back when we both lived at home. We went back with both sets of the duo's grandparents last week. I don't propose to write a long review as bateleur already has. However, I enjoyed it greatly - particularly the meal at the hall and the train/waterfall day - and will probably return in another nine or so years.
_alanna and al_fruitbat - Yesterday evening featured an enjoyable meal (goats cheese, tomato and spinach and asparagus starters, Coq au vin and cheesecakes in cocktail glasses), lovely wine and an entertaining conversation of films, books and computer games. I also got to admire _alanna's bump which I hadn't seen before (and won't remain a bump for much longer).
Fryer's Delight - Just before I went on holiday, I met up with some former work colleagues for drinks and food. One of the them recommended the Fryer's Delight as the best fish and chip shop in London. On the plus side - the meal was cheap and I enjoyed it. On the minus side, the business has changed hands and it isn't nearly as good as it once was (or so he and various on-line reviewers say). Perhaps still worth a visit - although be warned there are no toilets on the premises.

Finally, an update on my hearing. I went back to the doctor, he looked at both ears and we talked through the options. On the good ear, the wax is softening and generally responding to the oil. However, the bad ear still has a huge build up of wax (we've treated both the same with oil so somewhat surprising). He agreed that there was a small chance that syringing would be dangerous, but said that was also true of micro-suction (he used to work in ENT). He also agreed that the hole in the drum should have cleared up, but it was impossible to tell with the wax there and if there was a chance it was still there then neither syringing or suction were suitable anyway. What I agreed with him, given the progress the oil managed on the good ear, was to carry on with the oil, but if there was no further improvement I'd go back and he'd book me into ENT.

Current Mood: thoughtful

The GameFAQs "game of the decade" finished today (early this morning); you may remember me blogging about it back in September. The winner was Zelda: Majora's Mask which I've never played. I had a smallish sulk that Final Fantasy X didn't win, but was very pleased with my ability to predict winners otherwise - I came in the 93 percentile of the contest. In terms of the games I nominated, FFX was knocked out in the semis (by Z:MM), Portal made it to the last 16 (knocked out by Resident Evil 4) and nothing else made much of a showing.

We're almost ready for Xmas and the twins are more than ready. Bea even tidied the lounge the moment I suggested it needed doing (although Ryan hasn't done his bit yet). It helps that she's mostly recovered from yesterday's plague (although

bateleur is still under the weather and I have a headache).

Current Mood: headachey
Current Music: Classical - The Christmas Collection

The past couple of weeks have been rather warlike, now that I come to write it up.

Heroes - I've now seen up to episode 15, so I may write a few more reviews. In general, I like the series. It's got reasonable pace and the plots and interactions are interesting. However, I think there should probably be more Bads than they've currently got. Also, I have a nagging feeling that they simply aren't going to explain some of the leaps they've made. However, it's still the best new thing I've seen since The Lost Room.
Supernatural - Slightly over half-way through season one and, it's improved, but not by that much. I suspect we won't reach the second season before deciding that there are better things to do with the time.
From the Cellars of Xanadu - The party are now in orbit around the key planet in the Eden system. The last couple of sessions have seen them battle enemy marines on a space ship and then deal with the creepy taken-over space station. We're approaching the end of Part 1 now and I think it's going OK. I appear to have taken on the problems of the Warhammer 40K system but have managed (because? In spite of?) to keep the general feel of it, which is what I wanted.
Valkyria Chronicles - This is a strategy game on the PS3 with a rather lovely background (including literally) and a decent enough story. It's loosely based on the World Wars; although I'm not enough of a 20th century historian to say how loosely. The missions have been mixed; I really loved the first few (it starts very well), then found the next section something of a slog. It suffers from the usual problem of hidden information - you need to play the mission to figure out what you need for the mission. Also, there is some requirement for level grinding (ie. redo various "skirmishes"). That said, the designers did mix and match the missions so that they don't all feel more of the same. More on this when I finish it, or reach the rumoured Too Hard bit.
Ill - I appear to have done my usual February thing and become ill. Fortunately, I got an appointment quickly this morning and will be going to work with my antibiotics and painkillers tomorrow as most of the symptoms have gone.
Diablo 2 - Whilst waiting for Diablo 3 to become available, bateleur and I took on the last release again, on-line. His assassin and my sorceress proved a good combination (except against that end of level 2 bad) and took down Baal about an hour ago.
Valentine's Day - We celebrated in the usual way, food and alcohol. For once I cooked the main course - a pea and prawn risotto whilst bateleur baked garlic mushrooms for a starter and a ginger, rum and raisin cake for dessert. There was also a yummy red wine that, sadly, Tesco are discontinuing. For the duo there were chocolate hearts (with carmel centres) from Marks, so they were well-pleased with the occasion.

Current Mood: sick

OK - these last few windows are more on the Xmassy track.

I received my Open University course mark today. Turns out that the exam was much worse than I had thought, but that everyone else also did very poorly. So, despite receiving a (lowish) pass 2 mark for the exam, I have a distinction (something about grade boundaries changing at the discretion of the examiners, etc)!

I worked from home today, which was fine and I'll definitely be well enough to go in tomorrow (fingers crossed).

Current Mood: shocked

After my famous last words in my previous entry, I'm now recovering from the Sudden Plague. In fact, I'm doing rather better at the recovery thing than

bateleur, although mostly because he decided to replace his Sudden Plague with a headache.

I had a festive time yesterday - we put up the tree and the decorations and then I marzipanned the Christmas cake. Ryan is very pleased with the overall effect and Bea is particularly proud of the tree (which she helped with). I can tell that the Ems is now a rather elderly cat as she's shown absolutely no interested in knocking tree decorations down.

Current Mood: recovering

Infinity - Time travel take two: We spent the first third of the session deciding what had happened. We came to some conclusions (someone was trying to kill the space person - but we didn't know who was going to be responsible this time around or whether they would succeed), but weren't really sure what we should be doing next. So we followed this up with a stint of reconnoitering and found records of three different time paths that we might be on. The next third of the session was spent nailing a not-completely-hopeless one and then setting off on it. The last part of the session was brief elation at getting the scenario right, followed by the realisation that our presence was about to mess it up. We tried to think of ways around it, came up with one, which left me summoning the Giant Turtle of the Lake (which I'd been itching to do since it showed on the time sheets). The other Infinity group may be interested to hear that I'm playing out some of the other end of the story that we were in - namely the background to the bit that left us stranded in the first place.
Sixth Sense: Being about the only person left in the world (apparently) not to have been spoilered for Sixth Sense, I got to see it. It was fantastic. Just in case there's someone else out there unspoilered, I won't say any more.
Syberia 2 (mild spoilers): Many, many moons ago some kind Tao soul lent me Syberia via bateleur. This month I bought and played the sequel. The whole thing left me almost in tears. The main male character, Hans, had fallen as a child and hurt his head (whilst playing with a Mammoth doll that looked a little like Ems). Ever since that day he became obsessed with Mammoths and the legends of Syberia - an island where they once lived. He became childlike and gently single-minded and all his work on automatons was aimed at his dream. His father disowned him as a consequence of this. He was eighty-odd in the computer games, but reminded me so much of Ryan. I finished the first Syberia about five years ago and, at the time, it left me somewhat wanting to see the sequel. The second Syberia finishes the story and, in contrast, instantly prompted me to buy a copy of the first one for myself as well so I can play both through together. The whole story was rather lovely. But it has the most bizarre death of a bad ever. And I'm including LeChuck dying through root beer here.
Arkham: For once, instead of chrestomancy joining bateleur and I for some Norrething, I joined him and TheHattedOne for a game of his carefully reconstructed Arkham game (containing bits from the first three expansions). There was also lovely sausage pasta, apple pie and red wine. Plus - we won! I got to play the scientist and found the "no gate, no monster" power extraordinarily useful.
OU: Study continues, I still seem to be surviving. Summer School is approaching and it's looking like my project may be on game theory. I haven't studied the subject since my third year at university (the first one, I mean). It really takes me back.
Ill: Having spent almost the entire year not being off sick, I have been ill two weekends running. The first Monday I was off with muscle aches and lack of balance, then the second I developed an all-over rash which NHS Direct enthusiastically (and, fortunately, wrongly) diagnosed as measles. I think my body's trying to tell me to take a holiday.

Current Mood: recovering
Current Music: Battlestar Galactica (Season 1)

( Long details about the Camus illness )

Current Mood: recovering

Christmas Lily

Today's entry on

triskellian's calendar comments that it's possible that two snowflakes are the same, just exceeding unlikely. I've always liked the idea of catching snowflakes and examining them under a magnifying glass, although I've rarely got around to doing so.

In other news, I'm the only person in the house without a runny nose or a cough that can be heard a street away (except for the Ems - and her snore is disturbingly audible these days). I'm also learning fast that an ill child is a loud, stroppy, miserable child. Makes me wonder how bearable I am when I'm ill.

Current Mood: calm

Ryan was bought a train set for Xmas. This set included some little engines and carriages that had magnets on each end so that they could be stuck together in a long line. This seemed straightforward enough. Occasionally, when I had the energy, I would build a circle of track and encourage the duo to run little lines of train around it.

However, I got back into the kitchen yesterday afternoon to discover a line of engines and carriages all hanging from the metal child gate. They looked like a long, metal fringe. Ryan may not talk much, but he can dangle engines with the best of them.

This week was also the first birthday party for the twins. The third they'd been invited to and the first they could actually make. There was a soft play area (with a slide!) and a bouncy castle (all indoors) and then a big birthday tea and little party bags to take home. The mother who held the party has something of a reputation for doing a good job of such things and certainly the whole event was slickly organised, timed and executed.

Health-wise, we're all ill. I'm fed up with being ill. I've got a sniff, a cough and a temperature. Worst still, I'm having to run around after two smaller, grumpier things also with sniffs, coughs and temperatures. Having kids can really suck.

Current Mood: sick

Last Friday, my cold still much in evidence, I started to feel sick. As the day went on, this feeling became stronger. By evening I was sitting on the bathroom floor next to the toilet feeling very sorry for myself. Actually throwing up was a real relief. By the following morning I was feeling much better and by lunchtime I was eating again. Sadly, the cold is still around.

Today, I'm cleaning sick off the lounge carpet. Yes, Beatrice - poor thing - has caught my bug. She was in tears when I got to her; partly because it was an upsetting experience and partly because she thought she'd done a Bad Thing. She's now tucked up in bed with Lion (he's Ryan's, but this isn't the time to say so!).

The weekend was a good one. Mostly because of

lanfykins and

verlaine who came over to play Bridge and put up with

bateleur and I being dealt all the points (already mentioned here and here). There was also Butterscotch and Cherry - both fine things. And as for this week... it's got a Pancake Day! Plus it's the start of the Birthday Season.

Current Mood: recovering

<sniff>

<cough>

<sneeze>

<rubs eyes>

Yes, we're all ill. And Ryan and Bea will missing this afternoon's birthday party. Never mind; there'll be others.

Current Mood: coldy

Last Friday, Ryan developed conjunctivitis (evidence suggests that he picked it up at playgroup). We picked up eye drops from the doctor and he's missing all his playgroup/toddler group stuff until next Friday. This meant Bea went on her own yesterday. However, last night, it was clear she had it too so I've collected a second prescription and she's going to miss everything until next Tuesday. They've both had red eyes (Ryan now doesn't - but still has to complete his course of eye drops) and I've felt sorry for them as much for missing their groups as for feeling poorly.

However, I've also felt sorry for me. I'm going to miss both my free mornings this week, 'cos one or other of them was/will be home. I've been up and down the cold high street to the doctor and the chemist. I've endured the twins in the doctor's waiting room for half an hour (stopping them from bothering other patients was a full time job) and I've had to fight to get every single dose of eye drops in (two twins, both eyes, four times a day). And I'm still not sure whether to take just Ryan to the birthday party at the weekend (Bea will still be infectious). Grrr.

Before the week of illness, I had a fun twin-free Saturday afternoon/evening which

secretrebel has already mentioned.

frax's Orange and Lemon Refrigerator cake was yummy and weird. Sort of a cross between mousse and cheesecake. I think it makes a very good citrus summer cake/pudding -

frax does the book suggest suitable occasions for its cakes?

Following this, my parents were over Monday. Quite apart from it being nice to see them, and nice to see toddler-walkers, they brought over Christmas presents from Uncle

chrestomancy. Both the twins now have long-sleeved t-shirts with glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs on them. Plus hooded tops. I got a wonderful, long, black, velvet skirt with a patterned white-and-black hem and a navy blue summer dress.

Current Mood: sleepy

I spent most of the morning on the bathroom floor feeling ill. Fortunately I seem to have more or less recovered, although I still want a walk in the fresh (cold) air. We considered dinner carefully (nope, it wasn't a hangover), but didn't identify an obvious culprit (although

bateleur blames the sausages and bacon).

This morning aside, it was a wonderful Christmas meal. I know turkey roast doesn't thrill many people but, hey, I've not exactly spent the month indulging in work Xmas dos and parties. Also the homemade Christmas cake was wonderful.

The panto in question is Oh Yes It Is (aka Cinderella) and is the same as last year. However, it doesn't exactly make the summer repeats, so I didn't feel too cheated by the fact I've seen it before.

Finally, I'm enjoying Monstrous Regiment.

Current Mood: recovering

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lathany

May 2025

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Dawn

Entries tagged with illness

An angel / Spreading plague

Person with bone feeding dog / Eye of Cthulhu

Person carrying ivy / Cough cough

Person with a pie / New lights

Jester / Colds and Christmas

Candle / Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Angel / sniff... sniff

Including the end of Revolution and an ear update

Father Christmas climbing down a chimney

Tanks, nukes and marines

Sheep

A (live) turkey

Woolly Mammoths, Cthulhu Horrors and a Giant Turtle

The Illness Stakes

Snowflakes

Chuff Chuff, Cough Cough

Illness in the family

A Family Thing

Conjunctivitis

Boxing Day means CBeebies Panto