lathany, posts by tag: 2008 - LiveJournal

I've been back at work for a week and, whilst busy, I'm surviving. January's been good so far outside of work - I've played games, read books and seen old friends.

• The N family and Hippoing with huge stone blocks - At the weekend we climbed into the car and headed for Somerset. We were visiting kirian, P and D at their new(ish) place out West. The drive there contained a special treat - Stonehenge. I've never seen it before, and neither had bateleur or the duo (Ryan now wants to play with big stone blocks too). I'd no idea how close it was to a main road until now. We were welcomed by the N family on arrival, given tea and fed lunch. I admired all the pictures (fairies! Weird local artist!) whilst D, Bea and Ryan exchanged cautious glances and greetings. We talked roleplaying, cons and other stuff across the afternoon, and then went for a walk not to feed the ducks. The evening involved a trip to the rather fine local chippy, more chat and then a somewhat late departure to our nearby Travelodge hotel. The duo had never stayed in a hotel before and loved it - possibly because we were all sharing a room so they got to stay up late and wake us early. On departure, Bea declared it her best Saturday ever and Ryan didn't want to leave.
• Ghost Busting - For anyone wanting a ghost-hunting adventure, then The Lost Crown PC game is for you. It's set in Anglia and involved hunting for the crown of one of the last kings. Having quickly developed an obsession with it between Christmas and New Year, I finished it yesterday and I think it's awesome. And scary. I plan to post a longer write-up soon.
• Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks - Brookmyre, and possibly my favourite Jack adventure to date. It's about mediums and, despite a slow start, is wonderfully gripping.
• Of Gibbons and Authors - It seems like an age ago now, but chrestomancy and TheHattedOne came over for dinner the day after New Year (the day she got published as I was to discover). We ate curry, drank wine, talked roleplaying and made vague future Arkham and Diablo plans. 'Twas great.

The Christmas decorations in Ashford are finally down, but several houses near us missed Twelfth Night (and the official Ashford lights people - whoever they are). The warmer weather is wonderful, even if Easter is still rather distant.

Since the duo left on Sunday I have:

• Given blood - given the timing (post that monthly thing) I was very surprised to have no problems with iron levels and was whisked off to a bed... well, fairly slowly. They were extremely busy, apparently it's one of their busiest locations (plus being a Sunday thing makes it busy). The blood giving went well, but afterwards I discovered a large bruise. I usually have a small one where the needle goes in but this was much bigger, much darker and triangular. I think it surrounds the needle area. It's an equilateral triangle with sides of about an inch long. How the hell did I get a triangular bruise? It doesn't hurt though.
• Tidied and cooked - On Monday we finally tackled the lounge and removed all the wrapping bits and relocated all the presents before vacuuming it so it looked presentable. Because we had a quisalan on Monday evening. Food was small turkey pittas with pots of things (cashew nuts, cheese chunks, olives, etc), king prawn pasta and chocolate pots. We started with gin and tonics, moved on to Orvietto and finished with coffee. We talked into the early hours of Tuesday and quisalan stayed over.
• Been a fairy - Yesterday we watched bateleur design levels and then played Little Big Planet. I started with my usual sack-outfits (the red-haired bride and the Spanish outfit 'cos they both have trains) then quisalan and I redesigned... as can be seen on bateleur's journal.
• Played The Lost Crown - The other thing I've been doing over the last few days is playing this. Turns out that it's not just by the Dark Fall creator, it's also a sort of sequel. A ghost hunter who is also looking for the crown of Anglia (hey, I come from there!). It's early days, but so far, so spooky. I dreamed about it last night.
• Started planning new book - Having not written anything pretty much all year, I'm finally getting some ideas together for a new book. Hopefully the lack of OU next year will mean I'll get on and write it too.

This year my parents and chrestomancy came to us for Christmas. The result was a relaxing family holiday:

• Christmas Eve - My parents arrived in the morning, whilst chrestomancy didn't appear until after dinner. We exchanged news, took the duo to the little park (which they are fast getting too old for) and ate (I made pizza, fruit salad and chocolate mousse). In the evening we all watched Entrapment which I've seen before and is good fun if you're not expecting too much.
• Christmas Day - Stockings for the duo whilst the rest of us took our time getting up, breakfast, tree presents, wrapping paper clear-up and then Christmas Dinner. This year bateleur and I did it between us and, whilst we were in the kitchen for the last couple of hours, it was pretty relaxed compared to previous years. The food had all cooked to schedule - the turkey which bateleur had prepared was lovely - the champagne which my parents had brought was good and the pudding from the local bakers was great. The afternoon was lazing around with books and, in the duo's case, toys and then the evening was another film - this time Stardust which I saw a few weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed (although it's somewhat different to the graphic novel).
• Boxing Day - The following day chrestomancy went home whilst we went to Kew and had the usual coffee and cake along with the usual walk. It was beautiful, but very cold and we spent a fair amount of time in the various indoor bits. It also gave me my first bit of exercise in a while. In the evening bateleur made curry and then the film of the night was LA Confidential.
• Saturday - Yesterday my parents departed, taking the duo with them. I was sorry to see them go, but it means we have an extremely quiet house. I've found I desperately missed the Ems again as this used to be her time for coming out and taking over the noise vacancy.

My present hoard:

• Not in the Flesh - Ruth Rendell - I've also read this now. Sadly, I think it's her worst Wexford to date. The second plot line never ties in with the first and, for once, it's obvious to the reader what the twist is as the way that Wexford first sees things just seems so wrong. However, still Rendell and still enjoyable.
• House of Many Ways - Diana Wynne Jones - I've heard brief non-spoilerish reviews of this - that it isn't her best - but I'll soon get to find out for myself.
• Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks - Christopher Brookmyre - I've heard no reviews, so I'm hoping this is up to his usual standard.
• The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure (PC) - This is by the Darkfall writer (Jonathan Boakes) and, having thoroughly enjoyed the Darkfall games, I have high hopes for this as it scores better reviews.
• Another Code: Two Memories (DS) - This is from the Hotel Dusk team and, again, it's supposed to be a good game (although in a different style).
• Valkyria Chronicles (PS3) - I'm looking forward to this, it's had excellent reviews.
• Jigsaw Map - Of where I live. It doesn't look too difficult and it's been ages since I did a jigsaw (and even longer since I did my own jigsaw).
• A framed picture of the Swinside Stone Circle - This was close to Brockwood Hall for those who went to BadgerCon, but I don't think anyone visited it that week. It was a regular feature of my Xmases as a child and it's lovely to have a framed picture for the lounge.
• Chocolates - Of course, it's Christmas.

All in all, an excellent holiday was had by all.

I finally missed a day - by accident.

We're now pretty much ready for the festivities and my parents are due to arrive this morning. Ryan has been expecting them for days whilst both twins have been talking about presents. I gave them their stockings to hang up this morning at Bea's request.

Now I have some chocolate mousse and fruit salad to make.

It seems that the Tesco survival strategy is to go early. I shudder to think what it'll be like on Xmas Eve.

I've tidied up my desk today and so I'm getting closer to actually doing some writing. Although the desk now looks weird, I've had papers over it for too long.

I've also started tagging all my LJ entries from the beginning when I started keeping one. It's been an odd, but fun trip down memory lane. It's been just as duo-dominated as you might expect in the first few months, but with a load of roleplaying and computer game reviews as well.

I found this on the BBC website and thought it was a superb story.

Today Bea ran her first RPG for me (she did one for bateleur yesterday). Given that she's seven, it wasn't too bad and had a character system (d6 based - although she seemed to think anything that wasn't a six counted as a fail) and a bunch of disappearing robots. However I'm not so convinced by the prospect of taking my elderly parents to Jupiter with me to fight some evil Robot King. We'll see if part 2 ever happens.

I re-read Mourn's Gift yesterday and today, finishing at lunchtime. (My first novel written some years ago - for anyone I haven't told.) I discovered one really nice thing about it - I love it; despite being far more aware of its flaws than I was at the time. Much as I want to be published, I realised that it's a really great thing to enjoy my own work and I'd rather never be published than turn out stuff that I don't really like. Not a surprising epitaph, I guess, but still a welcome one.

Finally, with my parents due in a few days, bateleur and I started the cleaning with a blitz on both bathrooms. I love a clean house, but such a thing involves a constant battle against entropy and hippos.

Today Bea and I cooked a chocolate fudge cake to celebrate bateleur's birthday. Bea has decorated it with silver and gold candles making a face. I'm also cooking risotto for tea, as requested.

I'm glad that the weather has warmed up, even though it means there's unlikely to be snow for Christmas. It was just too frosty for too long.

Ryan announced yesterday's window as a swimming costume, which was much more interesting than the dull container it looked to be to us.

That was my last day in work. I felt that I got an awful lot of emails today from people after one thing or another and was totally mystified that the last Friday before Christmas should be so popular. Then I realised that it was really down to everyone wanting to clear their "to do" list before Xmas.

Emily Marle died this morning, she was put to sleep by the vet.

without a pear tree.