lathany, posts by tag: 2017 - LiveJournal

This popped up today, so I thought I'd post it. My end of year post to follow later when I've finished it.

I saw a couple of films over Xmas - one at the cinema and one on DVD.

The Last Jedi was interesting, but a little disappointing. It's quite a nice character piece and a sci fi where the women have decent roles, but I felt that the plot was rather lacking and that the background had not been developed any further. Very pretty though.

Hidden Figures was based on the true life roles of three black women in NASA. It was a pretty good film, but I was aware that they had to fiddle with the relationships between the women and the timeline quite a bit (eg. the women were not close friends and their successes were not within a few months of each other). So, worth a look and based on true stuff (but check out Wikipedia afterwards).

So, nearly there. 2017 is almost over and 2018 is just on the other side of the weekend. I'll write in more detail about the past 12 months in my usual end-of-year post, but I think it's fair to say this hasn't been one of my better years and I'll be glad to see it gone.

A couple of evenings back the question arose of which the good years had been. This was a bit of a tricky one for me. I discounted the pre-twin years as I've tended to become happier as I've become older and also for the slightly cheaty reason that I don't have pre-twin LJ entries so it's all a bit difficult to judge. However, the duo's early years were fraught with stress and worries about their health, so nothing before about 2006 is a winner either. Looking back over my LJ, I think that 2012 was the best year with 2014 and 2007 as runners-up (2014 would have taken it, had it not also been the year with the deaths of two friends).

The years could be summarised as this:
2012: Meteor, KrysCon, our twenty year anniversary and bateleur’s 40th birthday.
2014: This year seemed to concentrate into small gatherings around shared interest and madness. Roleplaying, Writers' Triangle and Secret World.
2007: Things transformed considerably for me between the start of the year and the end, particularly work-wise. However, it has also been a good year for seeing people I haven't been in touch with for what seems like an age and, above all, I'll remember 2007 for being a fantastic roleplaying year.

Hmm. Not too bad, I feel!

The Xmas presents I received were:
- Three Legions by Rosemary Sutcliff
- Goldenhand by Garth Nix
- The New Watch: (Night Watch 5) by Sergei Lukyanenko
- Will Save the Galaxy for Food by Yahtzee Croshaw
- A Body Shop collection (Moringa)
- Hyacinths
- And a board game.



I've started Three Legions and feel I'll soon be into all the rest before much of 2018 has passed.

I woke up this morning to discover that the journey back from Royston to Ashford was not looking as straightforward as last night's weather forecast has suggested. The BBC weather forecast was having a little wibble between sleet and rain. However, that's not what I call this.



It's snow, BBC Weather. Really it is.

We got home OK in the end. There was a bad delay on the M25 (apparently a crash at 2am caused it) but it only added about half-an-hour for us.

I've done the wrapping, all the cards were posted earlier and I've thought about packing for tomorrow. I guess this counts as ready for the season.

We're off to parents-in-law and parents. I'm mostly looking forward to it, but I'm also a bit stressed about it. Long gone are the days when it felt like I was going home and not just because my parents moved and this isn't the house I grew up in. Maybe I'll write a longer post about it sometime.

I'm cooking Christmas dinner on Monday as I know my mother hates doing it (and I don't mind). I've given her a shopping list to help things along, although nothing on it is crucial.

Today bateleur became 45. There were cat cards, presents and I made chocolate cake from a new recipe (it worked out OK, although some of the chocolate didn't melt).

Also, I finished Syberia II again.



Still an emotional ending. With mammoths.

I'm now on my second day of leave, enjoying the freedom and doing various Xmas-related jobs. I was out shopping today for various bits and pieces. Plus I'm still playing my way through computer games. When I finish Syberia II I'll be able to start Syberia III which is a new game for me.

I could definitely get used to this Not Going Into Work lark.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I've caught one of the lurgies going around. I've felt a little too cold all day, somewhat depressed and a bit fragile.

However, I have finally finished the Christmas cards (I think) and done the last load of school washing this year (I hope).

Also, I've played a fair amount of Steamworld Heist and briefly popped in to the season event of Secret World Legends. I picked up a pet in the latter - it's not very cute.



It was a rare in the original game.

Being on holiday, I decided to put on two glitter tattoos.

One was a new colour scheme peacock because that worked well when lanfykins did it. This is not quite as good in application or colour, but I think it still works.



And this was my attempt at a cat.



Not sure how long they'll last, but I like them right now.