Lathany

- Sunday 30th I met Liz at Kew, seeing her in person for the first time in two years.
- Errant ran yesterday and it now occurs to me that we should really check back in with the dig site.
- I've been playing a lot of Phoenix Point but, wuss that I am, on a nice safe difficulty level.
- I'm now on Spotify and was delighted to find the Secret World soundtrack on it.

On Thursday night I accompanied venta, Martin, Frances, Chris and another (whose name I have forgotten) to a gig/play called All We Ever Wanted Was Everything. It was eighty minutes of rock music and story about two children growing up from birth to 31. It explored parent/child interactions, promises, hopes and dreams and consumerism in a rather dark way (and there was an asteroid heading to wipe out life on the planet). I enjoyed it, it was well-done, interesting and different. I'm not sure I took any greater meaning from it, but that was fine too.

Our television watching has recently been the first season of Marvel's Agents of Shield. This was fun, interesting, had some nice dialogue and decent plot. It's all about not-quite-superheroes, although some of the main Marvel stars make a brief appearance (or, much more often, are name-checked). It's both story-of-the-week and also ongoing plot and development. I particularly liked Sky and Coulson (and I think you're supposed to) and some of the weirder things they investigated.

Finally, much to my satisfaction, the holly bush has produced berries this year. It did two years ago, but not last year. So I've taken some leaves and berries and brought them inside.

Last Monday I joined colleagues from work at HintHunt near Euston station for an hour long escape room. They have two rooms and the premise of my one was: "A crime scene investigation where a private detective (JM) has found a dead body in his office and he has been wrongly accused of murder. The police have sealed off the office and you have managed to gain access to the crime scene. You only have one hour to find the evidence and clues to wind up with case, prove JM’s innocence and find your way out of the locked room!"

I thought that the game was an excellent way to spend an hour. We did manage to escape with 1 minute and 37 seconds to go, although we needed hints galore (although, apparently, so does everyone else). Thoroughly recommended and, one day, I'll try the other room.

It being half-term, I took a couple of days off - Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesday I mainly used it to relax and enjoy not having to commute or work. On Friday I took the family off to Kew for the day.

We saw this year's Orchid display which, despite this photo not showing people, was very crowded.



The weather was lovely and sunny and the gardens looked beautiful.



We also saw some peacocks on our travels.



On Friday evening, we did pancakes (bateleur was out on Tuesday evening). Savoury ones with bolognese sauce and then sweet ones. My favourite was my last which I did with chocolate-and-caramel spread, a touch of maple syrup and some brandy.

Also on Friday, I started playing Goetia, a ghost game that I finished today.



It's an interesting puzzle game, although with a somewhat gloomy atmosphere. If and when my GameFAQs review is published, I'll link to that from here.

Yesterday was the fourth (I think) 100 Secrets game of the second season. We had reached the Capital of Evil Gobal Palace, so were ready to go in and try and find out why everyone had warned us against coming here.

The actual population, at first, seemed quite small and somewhat childless. However, we quickly learned (or at least Rat (leathellin) did) that this was because the majority of the population worked (and lived?) underground. The typical day began at sunrise, and within half a hour was peak time at the market with many goods going underground. Then it eased off quickly, but remained somewhat open across the course of the day. Other elements of the city were:

• The palace proper - The old Palace itself seemed somewhat abandoned (apart from the guard orgies), but there was a new palace building that I don't think we got into. It also had a garden we didn't get into.
• The Divine Court - We learned that the ruler of the city was here, a certain Judge Porogan, the latest of a long line of judges (and he worked for the previous judge). Apparently it had been this way since the gods had given advice to the King and the Queen resulting in the King going after the Sun and the Queen going after the Moon (Neddra immediately had ideas that she had met both around Eyestone Hill). Apparently, both King and Queen are supposed to come back when the world ends (... a bit late to do anything really). This place was heavily guarded and we never went in.
• Chambers of Devotion - This was Priest Central. Apparently people (Supplicants) would come here to send messages to the gods and answers (or not) would arrive in the morning. If there was no answer then the supplicant in question would be sent to meet the gods. (We had nasty ideas about what happened next - we think they were turned into the general population.) Whilst in the city, we discovered there was some sort of twenty second pause that happened at sunrise and sunset (discovered because anyone holding the Dashi amulet was immune) which was probably to do with the messages. We later learned that the priests never left or went underground.
• Old Tower - Some sort of former town hall, I think. Certainly a place which had the remains of furniture, cooking facilities, records and writing equipment. This place had been gutted with fire.
• Underground - Dark and with worm guards at the bottom of the stairs (I think they are called Dashi).
• The West Gate - This had existed but was now bricked up, we're not sure why (but have theories).

The population was mostly wrong. By which I mean that they moved according to the same pattern, as though they were pre-programmed. Not everyone was like this - our barwoman was not and the boy that Rat found, Guwit, was not. Aryn (quisalan) managed to get one of them to talk to her and she was able to help her out of that state (a woman at the market) and she apparently had come here from the north when she was very young.

(Note: I remember that one of the buildings has "something on top" that Aryn had seen, but I don't know which one.)

Once we felt we had seen enough - and did not fancy waiting for someone to attack us or take us underground - we left with Guwit. We travelled north along the road and back to the north east fort. We were followed by a mercenary sent by the priests that Aryn caught and Carlos (shadowjon) sent away. Then we travelled north again and found a burned village. There, at night, Carlos observed Guwit perform a ritual that was supposed to stop him being summoned underground. We are trying to learn this. Also, I saw an animal with a diamond that Aryn befriended to briefly see a creature in a cavern also with a diamond. It led her to the murdered villagers. There were no children and we think those were taken to the capital.

We travelled north again and arrived at Relgen Tower. From there we learned that Gods Passage is a bridge over the Mezzochaine to Pharenis. Relgen Tower seems normal, although fortified against attacks (and they'd heard children were taken). We plan to go north again.

(bateleur - spelling corrections?)

I finished another of my Christmas books this week - Day Watch by Sergey Lukyanenko and Vladimir Vasilyev. This is the second in the Night Watch series (which was a trilogy, but apparently there are now two more). I liked Day Watch, although perhaps not as much as the first one (which was called Night Watch). The series is about two sides which are sort of "good" and "evil" having a battle of magic and wits around a set of rules established to try and prevent complete war. The style is characterised by the protagonists not being the most powerful of their factions and forever trying to figure out what their bosses are actually scheming to do.

I've also replayed Recettear back up to the end of the debt (sort of official game end).

Finally, there was snow this morning.



I like snow. Particularly when I don't have to walk to work in it.

It's been nearly two months since I wrote an update, so this is long overdue.

My train reading has mostly been re-reading, in part because I find it relaxing. However, there have been a couple of new things on my list, remarkably similar to each other:

• Halting State by Charles Stross - This is my first Stross book and I enjoyed it. It's geeky, about a robbery in a computer game, has surveillance conspiracy theory stuff coming out of its ears and it nicely ties all the threads together.
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow - This is geeky, has surveillance conspiracy theory stuff coming out of its ears and has a computer game involved (although that doesn't get robbed). I found it a heavier read than the Stross because I felt so constantly on edge on behalf of the protagonist. However, overall I think it's the better story of the two (if not by much).

On the TV front, I've mostly been watching the second series of Twin Peaks for the first time. I appreciate that everyone on my f-list saw it years ago, but I'm going to review it anyway. I enjoyed it in general, but definitely preferred some storylines to others. The Laura Palmer stuff was always gripping, and the W-E follow-up on the grand plot almost as much, but many of the minor plots fell flat. I could have done without pretty much everything involving James, whose only saving grace appeared to be that he wasn't in the Nadine-thinks-she's-in-high-school plot. I liked Shelley and wished she had some better plots to work in, liked Catherine and Josie, liked Audrey, but didn't like Annie (or her plot). I enjoyed all the Lodge stuff and would have liked to see more. Finally, parts seemed very slow - it reminded me a bit of undyingking's comments about Soap, that it probably didn't feel slow to the people who watched it at the time and it's part of TV generally speeding up its stories. I now want to see the movie and know it's a prequel. As an aside, I noticed that bits of Claire's theme from Heroes sound suspiciously like the Laura Palmer theme (I own both soundtracks).

I've continued to watch offerings from LOVEFiLM, it's been quite a while since I saw the inside of a cinema.

• The History Boys - very "English" - in the way I identify with England dramatics but not my own life, quite fun, easy to watch and apparently has the same cast as the stage version. It's possibly a shame that we saw it just after Closer because you can tell in both cases that they were plays.
• Source Code - A sort of serious version of Groundhog Day which is still watchable despite the continuity errors (and we're not talking about the science). Fast and thriller, very watchable. My main complaint is that they did the most vanilla thing possible with the concept.
• Push - I loved Push. A lot. Kind of a cross between Heroes and The Butterfly Effect (with just a touch of Blade Runner). It isn't time-travel, but it's got all the elements for time travel. Vastly under-rated.

Taking up rather more of my time than the films are the computer games.

• The Void - This took me six months and several re-starts to finish. It's from the people who did Pathologic. It's weird, bleak, beautiful and really hard. It's about drawing glyphs, building up resources and fights. It's sadly also about nude women, but the game part was good enough that I managed to mostly ignore that aspect. Recommended if you liked Pathologic (although I think that was just me...)
• Portal Co-Op - This was great; we used the PC and the PS3 and really enjoyed it. The puzzles are mostly interesting and it has a tiny bit of plot. Recommended if you haven't tried it and like co-op games (particularly if the price comes down).

Of course, my main occupation has been roleplaying.

• 7th Sea - I've never met 7th Sea before, but now I'm in a game, I'm enjoying it. It seems like a good system and I was rather sorry to hear it was out of print. The plot's fun and I've now met an intelligent crow and the King of Cats. Plus swam in a lake that's really, really cursed.
• Meteor - The two parties finally met and kind-of got along. Now they-re separate again and trying to figure out what to do while a bunch of gods fight each other. I'm enjoying running this, but will have to put it down when I plan my Con game for next year.

What else have I done? Well, bateleur and I had a meal at the Turkish restaurant near Waterloo called Tas, which was really, really nice (and whose website appears to be down). I had prawns for a starter, then moussaka and then a liqueur coffee. We want to go back and try some of the other dishes. It's good food, good value and I recommend it to anyone who goes near Waterloo station.

And I think that's my lot. I'll try not to leave as long next time.

Today is the last day of my fortnight holiday as I'm back in the office tomorrow. It's been an excellent two weeks as I've managed to do pretty much everything I wanted, both in terms of household chores and in terms of Enjoyable Stuff. I started the fortnight feeling sleepy and wanting a rest; although I was also keen to get out and do the things that are difficult to arrange with the duo around. The days went like this:

( Days )

It's going to be odd to be back at work tomorrow (not to mention tiring - I haven't been up before nine lately). However, I really feel that I've had a great fortnight and have managed to do everything I felt I should do along with lots of things I wanted to do. Ah well, next big stop will be Xmas! At least I still have much Farscape (I'm about a quarter of the way through season two) and Star Ocean (I'm mining copper) to keep me happy.

Over the last couple of weeks, work has taken over my life and I'm desperate for the half-term week to arrive so that I can catch up on my sleep. I've been playing a bit of Final Fantasy XIII and a bit of Dragon Age along with doing some roleplaying prep in between work and sleep.

• Blood - I made my appointment last Sunday expecting to be turned away again, but this time my iron count was fine. So I was able to donate and felt all virtuous because of it. However, the duo were not present as I was that convinced beforehand I wouldn't be able to.
• Ghost in the Shell - I saw this anime film for the first time last weekend and enjoyed it. It felt short, but otherwise not too badly dated.
• Eisenhorn - I purchased this Warhammer 40K Omnibus (three novels and two short stories) for some light reading on the train and thoroughly enjoyed it. The plot is interesting and the central character is good. It suffers a little from having too many characters and the women are a touch too minor for my liking, but otherwise it's enjoyable.
• The Lost Crown soundtrack - I purchased this in the hopes that it might make a good soundtrack for my new game, Meteor and, as it does, the players will get to hear it soon.

Time for another update, I think.

• Law Society - Last week I had a first-thing meeting at the Law Society. It was scheduled for "The Reading Room" which I discovered was a coffee shop with decent coffee and in rather lovely surroundings. The tables of choice appeared to be against the two side walls in the more alcovey parts and above them there were stacks of books. It had something of an "old college" feel to it. Next time I have a meeting there, I might try to arrive earlier still and take a book or game notes along to have with my coffee before the others arrive. It really was a room in which to appreciate life and plan roleplaying.
• February films - Insomnia was a rather good thriller with three main cast members, played by Pacino, Williams and Swank. The main story was very interesting; but it was rather spoiled by a set-up scene with too much visibility at certain points and a rather unrealistic ending. Still worth a look though for the three main performances. The other half of the months's offering was The Aviator in which I thought DiCaprio and Blanchett also did a good job (as did Beckinsdate - who I didn't recognise). I really enjoyed the story, but felt the length (about 3 hours, I think) and also would agree with bateleur - that I prefer made-up stories in general as they tend to have more in them.
• Pellinor - A while back I wrote a short review of The Gift. I've now finished the series - four books long. I can confirm that it keeps the same style and the same quality. I don't think it's going to be hailed as the greatest fantasy of the decade (not least because it'd be up against Curse of Chalion / Paladin of Souls), but it's worth looking at (and, unlike certain series', it finishes).
• The Bea's first competition - OK, bateleur has already written about this. However, as I managed a rare attendance (I took a day of leave from work) being the second parent, I thought I'd comment too. I was nervous at the start as I was worried that Bea would develop high expectations (she didn't) or mess up completely (again, she didn't). However, once it was over I felt it was fun to watch, and fairly fun to watch the other dancers. I had more scope for looking around than bateleur as I could go into the changing rooms and the overall feel was of a production line of preparation along with a central area for last minute practice. It's amazing how polished the various children were - I could totally see that this was the training ground for the stars and cast of musicals, etc, of the stage. Incidentally, if anyone wants to see the every-two-year show this time around (bateleur wrote about the last one); it's going to be at the end of Whitsun half-term week (the one beginning 31 May).

It's been a while since I updated.

• Walking with Dinosaurs - Uncle chrestomancy and Auntie TheHattedOne treated Ryan and Bea (plus bateleur and I) to the Walking with Dinosaurs show at Wembley. After some enthusiastic planning, this become an all-day event starting with a rather fine Italian lunch in Richmond, then training up to north-west London before the show itself. The actual performance was awesome - moving continents, growing and dying plants, cracking eggs, plus, of course, life-sized dinosaurs with (I think) accurate history (they finished with a full-sized T-Rex). The music was great and the duo were more impressed than frightened. Sadly, I think it's over now, but recommend if it ever comes back.
• Devon. Or maybe Somerset. - Following up the dinosaurs on the bank holiday weekend, chrestomancy organised a weekend break at a cottage on the Devon-Somerset border. This involved al_fruitbat, _alanna, TheHattedOne, myself and, of course, chrestomancy. It also involved Arkham (we won the third second game), Porlock Hill (1 in 4 and steeper which chrestomancy's car Buzz dealt with better than its gibbering passengers), Dunstan Castle (beautiful, well-preserved with ghosts and bats, well possibly just bats), The Bear Shop at Taunton (impressive stuffed toys including meercats, dragons, lemmings and a lovely swan), cream tea (well-earned retrospectively) and The Walk of Doom. chrestomancy had said from the start that the plan was to eat well (we did - the local pub food was great and al_fruitbat cooked a gorgeous mushroom stroganoff - or, more accurately, the closest approximation that the shopping provided), drink well (the number of empty bottles for two days was impressive) and then walk it off. Great plan, right? Well, on the Saturday afternoon, everything went well. We walked to the county gate and then on to the site of an old Roman Fort and it was about an hour and a half; no problem. However, come Sunday afternoon, we decided we should do the walk down to the sea which the book said "allow two hours" for. I joked about it being fifteen minutes down and an hour and three-quarters up. Sadly, I wasn't far wrong. Down wasn't too bad, once al_fruitbat and chrestomancy got to grips with the awful directions ("OK, so when it says right, it means right after you've turned and started heading back" - yes, it really did). We saw a Pinetum (we all wondered what that was, it was a bit of an anti-climax when we found out) and a Victorian Ice House (dark, but impressively still present) on the way down. The shore line was pebbly, but chrestomancy happily skimmed stones. The way back was complete and utter murder. Up, up, wheeze, stop, wheeze, recover, up, up, etc. The stops became more and more frequent and the hill became steeper and steeper (or it seemed like it). Eventually chrestomancy, in somewhat better shape than some of us, went ahead to get the car. Yet again, Buzz handled the hill better than its passengers. Although in our defence, we'd pretty much hit the top by the time it arrived. The post-walk collapse involved crisps, showers and alcohol.
• Cooking with the Hippo - Having spent a couple of years cooking with Bea, I finally got around to my first session of cooking with Ryan. The agenda was chocolate button biscuits and he coped rather well. He was less keen on the resulting biscuits, but then he's never been a big fan of biscuits with "bits" in them. Bea, however, voted them excellent.
• Eagle Eye - On floralaetifica's recommendation, we added this film to our list. I really enjoyed it, I loved the pace and I loved the leads. OK, the story is not dissimilar to several other films, but it's well worth watching if you're after an action flick.
• Shade's Children - Being a fan of the Sabriel trilogy, I bought this and read it eagerly. I found it hard to put down once the story got going and, in general, enjoyed the story. The but? I felt it never really explained how the situation had come into being, or why it wouldn't happen again. Overall, cautiously recommended.

It's been just over a month since I posted a general update on stuff. A fair few things have happened:

• Afternoon tea - Having consistently failed any sort of meet-up for several months, I finally got in touch with venta and Chris C and we arranged to meet for afternoon tea one Sunday at Bake-A-Boo. This seemed like a solid plan, but I failed to take into account the London transport system which tries to pretend that North West London doesn't exist on a Sunday. Consequently, instead of the Jubilee line, I got to experience the Bakerloo line and the replacement bus service for the overground. I was nearly an hour late for venta and Chris, which I think is a personal best (but not in a good way). It was also, of course, the time at which I discovered that I didn't have venta's mobile number (and she doesn't have mine). However, tea was there when I arrived and was still very fine. There were crustless sandwiches (tuna and cucumber plus egg mayonnaise), scones with cream and jam, little pink fairy cakes with hearts in the middle, banana cake, white chocolate shapes, thin biscuits shaped like teapots and chocolate-dipped strawberries. I went for the slightly boringly-named (but lovely) "Afternoon tea" (after being offered a long and exciting tea list) and drank my way through the teapot-full (about five cupfuls). I had my tea bought for me, so I don't know how much it was, but I'd fully recommend the venue. Afterwards we went to a nearby pub (which I can't remember the name of) and I came home via the Northern line (which was working).
• The Godfather, Catch Me If You Can and X-Men 2 - LoveFilms has made three offerings since I last posted and I enjoyed all three. I've not see The Godfather before and I got slightly lost amongst some of the more minor characters, but I enjoyed it and have had the second one recommended. Catch Me If You Can was something I'd seem adverts for at the cinema and wondered whether it would live up to its trailer (Stargate didn't); fortunately it did. I thought both leads were excellent, as was the storyline (although bateleur was more taken with the intro sequence). Finally, X-Men 2 was blockbusterish and looked suspiciously post-Halle-Berry-Oscar-win due to her much expanded role on the first one. Again, enjoyable and we thought it was better than the first X-Men.
• Solitaire Mystery - Having read Sophie's World some years ago, I thought I would try this offering also from Jostein Gaarder. It's similar to Sophie's World in many ways - philosophy with a toe in the weird but, sadly, I found it was also similar by having a somewhat inconclusive ending. I think it's worth a look for anyone who likes the author and it has some nice concepts which it bases around a pack of playing cards, but ultimately was unsatisfying.
• Cardiff - We (as in work) had a visit planned to Cardiff Civil Justice Centre. However, it was a nine-thirty start, so I stayed overnight beforehand. Due to the offers available through the civil service booking system I ended up at the Radisson Blu which had opened last month and was walking distance from the station. The hotel was decent, attractive and the room was lovely (the view from the eighth floor was very good). The restaurant wasn't really open, but the bar menu was available and good (I had Welsh dragon sausages on a bed of mash followed by cheesecake). The following day was very interesting but, sadly, I can't talk about it as it was confidential. As the court would not usually have observers, I can't talk about the cases I saw either (heard by a District Judge). All I can say is, I always find the judiciary visits fascinating and I'm gradually learning more about how it works.

Work has been comparatively quiet, although I have a lot to clear next week. I'm looking forward to my summer leave now and have a number of computer games lined up for the occasion (such as Glass Rose) and also a Kew visit.