Lathany

This must be one of the warmest Januarys ever. Having spent the first half of December staying in the office at lunchtime, I'm finding this month's mild weather very weird as I'm so used to it being the coldest month (or second coldest after February). It's definitely nicer like this, though.

Over the month I have:

• Played Infinity - Yesterday saw the start of the second min-arc of the campaign and a new team in play. Our group of experienced Guardians spent ages choosing super-powers before Plus One (sense and nano-tech), Cam (hitting and sneaking), Regent (our version of Face), Stone (hitting and hitting) and Moth (summoner) headed out and promptly drove our land vehicle into a lightning force field. The rest of the session involved a hidden city, a few "gods" and a lot of worrying history that suggests we may not be retiring in a couple of months after all. I want session two already!
• Read Small Island and Gifted - The former won Whitbread Book of the Year and the Orange Prize for fiction and is set primarily during and after the Second World War. It focuses on the position (for want of a better word) that Jamaicans held; welcomed to fight in the UK army (although not above a certain rank), but then expected them to go home and not come back. I found that it suffered from a lack of plot; the author was really just describing the historical situation. Which is OK I guess, but I'd rather read a historical account on the subject than someone's fictional account if there's no further story to it. The latter was shortlisted for Best First Novel in the Costa Book Awards and is an account of a girl, Rumi, who was mathematically gifted and ended up at Oxford at fifteen due to the efforts of her father. It's an interesting account although, again is rather lacking in plot instead it is all about the author's set-up playing out. It did leave me wondering what experience the author had or had heard of an upbringing like this as it seemed very plausible.
• Watched three Amazon DVD films - The first of these was The Prestige from the makers of Memento, it is about stage illusions and is one of the creepiest films I've seen in recent years. Angier's final scene in the film is plain disturbing and for an hour afterwards bateleur and I were talking about what had happened and why. The second film was Pitch Black and creepy in a very different way. It's a horror movie where the characters get picked off one by one on a strange planet. It owes a lot to Aliens and the like and it suffered somewhat from loving one of the characters far too much. However, it's not bad if you want to see that sort of film. The final film was The Bourne Ultimatum which I wanted to see in order (having only seen the second film last month) and was a decent end to the trilogy. Much of the action and special effects were amazing, although the plot was simply OK - it's more or less what you expect it to be. Definitely recommended if you've liked the previous two, though.
• Cooking with Bea - We've made orange cheesecake, orange and chocolate battenburg (my person favourite because it actually worked), profiteroles and another vanilla sandwich cake. Ryan is coming to watch every time now; in a couple of years I might be able to cook with him too.

Plus there's been much work and a bit of OU Economics. The latter has started OK; but I'm still glad it's only a two year course.

My life ? Well, the absence of the babies (sorry, toddlers) meant I could run Athory in peace and quiet (well, without screaming anyway) and head off to Oxford for an outside and, amazingly, dry performance of Twelfth Night.

This time, it was bateleur's parents turn to have the twins first. We had decided to drive up on the Friday night when he got back from work, stay overnight then come back (twinless) on the Saturday morning. Sound easy ?

( The Trauma of Baby-dumping )

We enjoyed a peaceful Saturday evening on out return and started playing Watchmaker - my latest adventure game. Depending on how far we get, there may be a review later this week. Then we got a wonderful twinless night's sleep and I vacuumed the lounge floor in preparation for my Athory players.

( That Swordsmaster game )

After the session ended, chrestomancy stuck around, ate spaghetti carbonara and fruit sorbet and then we brought out the Settlers of the Stone Age board and got started on a game.

( Settlers of the Stone Age )

It was great to get up on Monday morning and not have to face the twins. Instead I cleaned the kitchen sink, enjoyed an otherwise leisurely morning and then caught the train to Oxford.

( Twelfth Night or What You Will )

Returning back to the house I was treated to a wonderful sweet wine before going to bed (after shutting the cats out). I also contacted secretrebel and was invited over for lunch the following day.

( Gardening Centres, Writing Tips and Other Things )

This morning, at the half-way point (already ?!), I feel as though I have accomplished a great deal since I last saw Ryan and Bea. On the other hand, I still have lots more that I want to do before they return.

This weekend marked the start of a new era for the twins - they were expected to feed themselves.

( But Mummy, that's hard ! )

In the meantime I have been counting down the days to the week with the grannies (eight to go) and planning a few other offspring-free trips.

( Shakespeare and Nottingham )

Apart from dreaming of future events and mopping up baby food I have mostly been planning a couple of one-off games for the approaching holiday and replaying various computer games (including MOO-2-BAA and Boddler's Gate). The writing is on hold until after I get back from the Lakes.