Lathany

Saturday was the day that bateleur and I attempted a three course meal for my parents and chrestomancy (who arrived on Saturday evening to join us for Xmas). It was also the day that we finished the Christmas food shopping in Tesco. Despite a fairly early start (09:30) the place was still packed out when we arrived (no parking spaces, no trolleys) and complete murder to tackle. I got bateleur to leave his cooking ingredients for the evening meal until the end and then park me with the trolley in one of the huge queues whilst he went to get those final things. Twenty minutes later he was back - and I had barely moved (although the queue shifted fairly promptly after that). However, we got it done and got out again with still some morning left.

The afternoon involved Granny Iris and the duo playing railway in the playroom whilst my dad read the paper and I finished wrapping presents. Come evening we fed the duo their tea and then packed them off safely to bed before laying the dinner table for The Meal. The first course was giant-sized vol-au-vents, in this case salmon and cream cheese in puff pastry. The second course was a meat and vegetable stew with rice (which was much nicer than it sounds) and the dessert was chocolate pots, partly because they taste wonderful and partly because they can be easily prepared earlier in the day. White wine was Sancerre - which I'd tracked down in Fortnum and Mason after we'd been given a wonderful bottle of it and red wine was a fine Rioja from chrestomancy with gold wire netting (for some reason).

Sunday lunchtime, my parents took us all out for a meal and so we got to watch Bea tackle adult-sized portions of pizza and ice cream. The afternoon then proceeded with the Hornsey part of the family heading off to the park with Ryan, whilst bateleur stayed in with Bea. My small son seemed very pleased to have four adults to himself! The evening involved the rest of my family disappearing off to Feltham cineworld to watch Casino Royale. Back at the house, bateleur and I bathed the duo, put them to bed and then I broke out Shadow Hearts II (a birthday present that I was meaning to get into right after I finished Final Fantasy X again - and I finally did that on Thursday evening) whilst bateleur watched. Then the cinema crew returned for mulled wine and bread maker bread before we headed bedwards, with a brief pause to sort out Bea and Ryan's stockings.

It appears that today may be the day that I learn to make mulled wine from the spices rather than from convenient little "mulled wine" packets.

In other words, we had problems with our last Tesco on-line order.

Yesterday began with presents and cards to mark bateleur's thirty-fourth.

It also included:
* Cakes from the local bakers - a cherry cookie for bateleur and a chocolate truffle log for me (complete with tiny sugar holly - three leaves and a berry).
* More house stuff - The end of Diablo II (killing Baal with the weapons I used to kill Diablo - 'cos I didn't pick up anything better - took ages), more washing up and the continuation of The Playroom Tidy Up.
* Internet usage - Because it was back.
* Patchworking - Over in the Museum, everyone is on the stairs.
* Absolutely no deliveries - because we were mistaken about the two we were expecting.
* Annual Xmas card news - From some old and dear friends. I used to loath the "newsletter" things that came round, but I now grudgingly admit that they are useful (although I still can't bring myself to produce my own).

Saturday saw the arrival of Granny Jo and J-J and the departure of three generations of Camuses to a wedding in Vauxhall.

The bride was my cousin-in-law Ellie (take two) and it involved a lovely, old church (St Peters), a large red wedding dress (I'd have hated to stand through my own wedding service at seven months pregnant) and a collection of little bridesmaids and page boys (of which half were children of the bride). The little people coped remarkably well with the service - it was over an hour and they were all primary school age (Jess, the little manga girl, was the youngest - approaching her fifth birthday).

Once the service was over, photographs were taken in the church (no confetti please!), mostly around the high altar. I personally felt that I was committing sacrilege by standing there, but it certainly made excellent pictures.

The reception was held in the Quality Hotel at Victoria involving what was billed as champagne on arrival (I'm no authority on champagne, but various other people opined that it was more likely to be sparkling wine) which was very nice (and orange juice for those not drinking). However, by this stage, it was five pm and the duo had missed their afternoon snack - so the half-hour waiting for the rest of the guests was punctuated with "Is it dinner time yet?" and "I'm hun-gry."

Dinner (finally) arrived in the form of a buffet dinner. We started with melon and samosas and finished with tiramisu cake and fruit salad. There was, unusually, vegan options (sister of the bride was vegan) and plenty of white and red wine to go with (both good). Finally the speeches, more champagne and the toasts. Oh, and home-made wedding cake.

A disco was scheduled for the end of the evening, but it was late and the duo were already heading for three hours past their bedtime. So we said our goodbyes and caught the train back home (which, like the journey in, was an hour long due to engineering works at Barnes). But I was happy - I'd filched four helium balloons in pink and gold.

On my journey home from work I pass a garden with chimes (hanging from a tree, I assume). The wind has to be just right to ring them clearly, but tonight it was. It brought back memory of my sixth form days when I had a set hanging up in my room.

killalla paid us a visit today. Bringing star topped nests from Marks and Spencer for us and presents for the duo (a Hello Kitty DVD for Bea and a car kit for Ryan). Hence much Hello Kitty watching (this was the DVD of Snow White). Bea is very much a Hello Kitty fan and approved of the fairy tale choice.

This was also the second installment of Making The Christmas Cake. There is now a large square cake cooling in the kitchen with a sealed box waiting (note to self - cake only goes in upside down) to pack it away until I have a chance to marzipan it. I've also bought mincemeat for mince pies - but they'll have to wait for another day (and I must get stuff for mulled wine as well).

Whilst I've done quite a lot this weekend (corner shelf, Christmas decorations, Christmas cake) I'm still feeling that it shouldn't be Monday coming next - somehow I seem to have mislaid a whole bunch of spare time. Oh well, last week. For me and for the duo.

Let's just pretend that I posted this more than nine hours ago...

My new jacket (my Christmas present to myself) and has arrived and it is lovely. Possibly a picture at some point. Maybe. And I've just had my last full week at work.

I spent the morning travelling from one end of Ashford to the other and then back again. Meaning that I walked Ryan to the doctor's (he's getting over a virus), then took the bus to his school then finally returned (again by bus) to the station. I got in at 11:30 and, to my delight, discovered that they were putting up the Christmas tree in the foyer. It's a huge, expansive, glorious tree with red and gold decorations and white flashing fairy lights. The front desk now has a matching banner of green branch beneath it with similar gold and red decorations.

On my way home this evening (to get in for the duo and the shopping) I realised just much my walk home from the station reminds me of my walks home from school/bus stop to my parents house. Maybe it's because it feels so safe and middle class, maybe its because here too there are homes with a set of Christmas lights spread across the trees in the front garden. But maybe it's because there are yellow sodium street lights still.

Which plays are well enough known that the average¹ reader would:
(a) have heard of
(b) know one or more characters of (specifically the male lead).

I want a choice of plays for a piece of writing I'm doing.

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¹ No, I wouldn't like to define average. Take your best guess!

I want some recommendations for a PC game. I've plenty to keep me occupied on the Playstation for months and months, but with the duo often in there now I really need something to retreat to on the PC as well.

The PC games I enjoy are the Baldur's Gate saga (but Icewind Dale bored me to tears), all the Diablos, Chaos Gate (ie. Warhammer 40k) plus various point-and-click adventures (Black Mirror, All the Monkey Islands, Both Darkfalls, etc.) I've also played the earlier Warcrafts but I find, after half-way, the missions get too long. I don't want a on-line-based game, 'cos I don't have that much time or that much flexible time. Sound and graphics are really not a high priority I just want some decent game play, puzzles and/or plot.

What else? Oh, yeah. My PC is Windows 98 with the stuff that implies. I have absolutely no cravings for new games (which is as well given the system spec) just because they are new.

Any suggestions?