lathany: (Default)
Today is the last day without guests in the house before New Year. Tomorrow my parents arrive for a couple of days. As they leave, [livejournal.com profile] bateleur's friend Gavin arrives. Then, as he departs New Year's Eve itself happens and we have people over for roleplaying.

Not a bad combination, but certainly the busiest end of year I've had in... well, years.
lathany: (Default)
We finished off Xmas Day by watching Avengers Assemble. It's wonderfully made with some great one-liners. The plot isn't complicated but this is comic book stuff.

Tired now.
lathany: (Default)
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, [livejournal.com profile] bateleur did the final food shopping this morning, having got up early to avoid the crowds. So we are all ready for Xmas.
lathany: (Default)
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.
lathany: (Default)
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.
lathany: (Ill)
[livejournal.com profile] glittertigger and [livejournal.com profile] zandev stayed over last night following the birthday pig. This morning we all rose rather late (except [livejournal.com profile] 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 [livejournal.com profile] 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.
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: (Rum and Coke)
Today I met up for a drink after work with two friends who are former work colleagues. One of them spent some of the evening telling us about having been given tickets by his nephew to go and watch chess boxing. We couldn't quite believe that the Royal Albert Hall would run such a thing in its loading bay, but apparently chess boxing is real ('cos Wikipedia says so). My friend said the audience were more interested in the chess rounds than the boxing. He also said that the competitors all seemed to be bankers and were cracking in-jokes.

I retaliated by telling them all about watching The Final Fantasy Concert which was also at the Royal Albert Hall. Usually this wins me the "attended weirdest event" award. Not this time.
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: (Invading)
Today I baked the Christmas Cake. This was phase two, having soaked the fruit in whiskey for a week. So far, so good.

This afternoon [livejournal.com profile] bateleur and Bea went to see [livejournal.com profile] jezzidue and C while I stayed home with Ryan. He played Terriaria (we failed at launching our joint game) and I did a bit of housework.
lathany: (Default)
I'll pretend I posted this yesterday.

Another week over - my last full week this year. The journey to the station is becoming more festive with each passing day as more houses put up their decoration.

I'm glad it's warmed up - it merely feels cold out there.
lathany: (Default)
On the train today I finished reading All Clear by Connie Willis which [livejournal.com profile] bateleur had lent to me. It's science fiction and World War II. My verdict on completing it was that this was a good book but not a great one. It was too confusing to start with, the characters didn't have quite enough character for the story being told, at least one of the deaths was of the "World War II is really dangerous" variety rather than because there was any other need/point to it and that the plot was a bit too simple. However, nice concept, inventive execution and at least the author got right into the action.

However, having finished it, I looked it up (as you do) and it's apparently part two of Blackout. Not merely "written by the same author" but the second half of one book. Had I known that, I'd have read Blackout first - but now I know the ending, I don't want to go back to the beginning. It may be a lot better if you start off in the right place.
lathany: (Default)
There is now a huge Xmas tree in the reception area of the building I work in. Our building has some private sector occupants and I reckon one of them is responsible for the purchase of said tree. The tree has lights and is tastefully decorated (unusual, I know) and if I ever get around to taking my camera in I will post a picture of it.

But most of all - it's lovely to see it.
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: (Default)
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, [livejournal.com profile] 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.
lathany: (Default)
It's hard to get out of bed in the cold and dark. I'm glad that it's Friday and I can sleep in tomorrow.

Last night some idiot failed to run me over, despite a good try. I got to Isleworth station to see a car inching forward, on the road at the entrance. Then the reverse lights came on and it reversed a little. Then it moved back into first gear. I cross the road some distance behind it, quickly. Fortunately speedily enough that its quick throw back into reverse gear followed by a fast and long move backwards did not hit me. Things like looking around, or indeed not ****ing about by the entrance to a station where a lot of people walk in and out didn't seem to occur to the driver. However, they stopped then and looked out at me for a long time. (And probably heard me say "pillock"). Maybe they'll be more careful another time.
lathany: (Default)
I've spent my evening watching Tim Harford do radio. Very interesting. I may say more tomorrow when I'm not about to fall asleep.
lathany: (Ill)
I still have a cold. It's the same cold as the one [livejournal.com profile] 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.
lathany: (Housework)
Today I had two big jobs. To make Bea's birthday cake and to clean the lounge.

A coffee cake was made and it turned out beautifully. The lounge is not completed, but so far I have cleaned the windows (inside only - it's too cold out there), defurred the curtains, washed and mended the net curtains and cleaned about half the remaining room. It already looks much better.

Tired now.

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