lathany, posts by tag: personal - LiveJournal

With Christmas trees popping up in shops even before Remembrance Sunday, it feels as though the charge to Christmas has begun. However, we're not even half way through November and winter weather seems a long way off. So far autumn has been mild, pretty but with a few train issues.

Work has become rather more challenging as I have picked up an area of work considered the worst in the team which has generally resulted in postholders moving on rapidly. However, my boss knows this and I have instructions not to work more than my hours. So, we'll see. As it is, there are various bits and pieces between here and the end of the year that should make it interesting including a team day and a full directorate day before the end of the month. Neither of my usual Xmas work events are in December this year, one is in the last week of this month and the other at the end of January – which will be something to look forward to as it often feels rather flat after the Christmas decorations come down.

Bea and I have just had a weekend on our own. Ryan was away with his girlfriend and her parents and Dom was crewing for a LARP in East London. We watched The Cat Returns, which I really loved (excellent Studio Ghibli), and ate macaroni cheese.

The weather has been decent and mostly not too hot, although I've avoided commuting when it gets too warm. Reeve spends much of the days outside.

There's been a bunch of small outings. We celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary at Trinity. Dom led the GMing team for Sulphur and Quicksilver (loosely based on Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood) which including Bea, Tricia, Elle and myself. I've been to Kew a couple of times including going up the Pagoda.

Multiplayer computer gaming is mainly Dune Awakening. Solo is Tiny Bookshop (you run a mobile bookshop and recommend books – excellent!) and was previously Song of Farca (hacking). It's been a good year for computer gaming with Strange Antiquities (running an Antiques shop) coming out next month.

As ever, the household is busy and crowded; but, with some pussly exceptions, fairly harmonious. We still have plenty of house projects to do (dining room floor, bathroom floor, garden, etc) though we're currently taking a post-kitchen break.

Work itself is busy (as always) – August is rather heavy on trying to cover things for other people who are on holiday.

A good year, I think, although I would have given a different review back in September or October when we were down a bathroom as well as a kitchen! After all, the second half of the year was somewhat dominated by the building work, but we do now have a shiny new kitchen to show for it. I wouldn't want to do it again any time soon – but also don't have to.

Time-off this year for me went well: I had a couple of relaxing holidays in the South Downs and Long Melford. I also had a number of interesting and entertaining work events. Many of my friend-colleagues are either taking time out or moving on next year and I'm going to very much miss them.

We finished Heresy, She Wrote which I thoroughly enjoyed. There is now Heresy in Paradise scheduled for next year. My 2024 also involved, much Darktide, plenty of SteamWorld Heist II and a bit of Return to Moria as well.

In general terms – overall I enjoyed the year and ended in a good place.

In detail
As per usual, a month-by-month breakdown.