Lathany

Roughly every other year, 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 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.

Last night, leathellin and metame came over for food and gameage. bateleur cooked - stuffed mushrooms, salmon and olives followed by duck tortillas and then fruit crumble. We drank wine and finished with coffee and very nice fudge brought by our visitors.

Today has been bateleur's birthday - I got him a new elephant for the occasion.

This morning only half my train turned up. And the inside was still full of the rubbish from the night before. The reason?

"We apologise for this being a short train. This is because a tree hit it at 3am and we were unable to use the other four carriages. This is also why the train has rubbish in it."

Apparently trees use McDonalds.

Another busy day with slightly more cake in it. I spent some of the evening making chocolate rice crispy cakes for the work party tomorrow. I then spent the rest of it Diablo IIing with bateleur, chrestomancy and Alistair.

I'm exhausted and it's only Tuesday. At least I'm off next week.

Yep, the five question sheep is back!

( Resistance Is Futile from Majory )

The train always seems busiest on a Wednesday. I guess because it's the day people are most likely to be in if they work part-time (I think every part-timer I knew, except bateleur worked Wednesday). There were carols at both stations today, which tend to sound more Christmassy to me than the eighties pop - although that's seasonal too.

My present buying is almost over, although I have some way to go with the cards yet. One of the other people in my office claimed to be a fan of shopping on Christmas Eve - I really couldn't handle that at all.

It's been a good weekend. Yesterday morning chrestomancy took the duo birthday shopping and I tagged along. Ryan got a toy puppy on a lead and a plastic snake. Bea got a Rubic Cube, a Magic 8 ball and a pokemon game.

The day then become bateleur's horror game (gaining Alistair and TheHattedOne for the party) where we were jurors on a murder trial also involving black magic, a demon from the mines, some very weird house moving (literally) and identity swapping. The game rocked as it combined the murder trial and the horror plot feasibly, whilst giving the players plenty to do. Plus a bunch of rock-hard monk types turned up to rescue the situation when called. chrestomancy helped blow up the demon with explosives and TheHattedOne killed the sorcerer by running him over.

Today included putting up the tree and watching Blade II (although the film mostly sucked). I almost feel ready to face tomorrow's meeting.

Apparently Starbucks are serving Egg Nog latte. I'm wondering if it's any good.

In other news, I think my new advent calendar is lovely - it's a picture where every window has something relevant to the scene behind it. Plus there are a whole load of sheep lined up to charge at window 24, which looks more comic than I believe the artist intended.

Things other than Heroes:

• zandev and glittertigger's wedding - I really enjoyed this. Not as much as Beatrice did perhaps, but it was a great day and I got to see various people I hadn't seen for ages. It was a very relaxed set-up, which I liked a lot. There was a church ceremony with two hymns and we sat far enough forward to hear everything. After that there was champagne, tea and cakes, then mulled wine at the hotel followed by the meal (yummy mushroom started, chicken with parma ham and then chocolate torte). I got to talk to all sorts of people; quisalan (we've a plan to schedule to meet up) plus I met her bloke for the first time, jezzidue (ditto) - and I got to meet his partner for the first time, mrlloyd and M, leathellin, alanna, ao_lai, triskellian and smiorgan, secretrebel and many others. I was somewhat sorry not to catch-up with ar_gemlad and T; they'd departed before I'd reached them (or possibly I'm just not good at finding people in large crowds). Bea enjoyed the whole event thoroughly, but Ryan was rather overawed by it and spent most of the afternoon clinging to me. It was a beautiful day, zandev and glittertigger had lucked-out with the weather. I have some photos of the old fashioned kind - just as soon as they arrive back from the lab anyhow.
• Battlestar Galactica (final season) - We're about four episodes in and it's been pretty fast moving and exciting so far. I'll write a full review when we reach the end of the season/series.
• Cooking with Hippo - Ryan and I have now managed pea and parmesan risotto, pink fairy cakes and pink dolly pasta among other things. He's really enjoying it and quite vocal about having his cooking time.
• Portabello - This is one of the few Ruth Rendell books I've read that isn't Wexford. I picked it up at the work charity coffee morning along with The Client and it was my train reading early in October. I enjoyed it, but didn't find it stunning. It's was a little too light on plot. But then, I've been less keen on Rendell's recent Wexford books as well.
• a-ha - chrestomancy and I went to see a-ha in concert earlier this week. It was a really great evening, we started with Thai food and red wine along with lots and lots of chat. As for the concert itself, the album was Foot of the Mountain which I've really enjoyed. However, the band had the sense to mix it up with all their old stuff to keep the fans happy. I got both Stay On These Roads and The Living Daylights, so I was very, very pleased. Plus the light show was great.
• Training Day - I have to say, I love Ethan Hawke in films. And Training Day was no exception. It was a great movie and won Denzel Washington a well-earned Oscar. I liked the way that it's all set in one day, but gradually unfolds from a interesting situation to actual plot.

Three more.

( Into Asylum, Turn and Face the Strange and 1961 - Spoilers )

Just two more to go.