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| Saturday, December 26th, 2009 |
the_hatstand
|
1:05a |
So this wasn't Christmas
I've had a quiet Xmas day with the parents, but this is because my brother was celebrating Xmas with the in-laws so our side of the family are doing Xmas on Boxing Day. Still, I did get fed a preliminary Xmas roast lunch (Orange á la Duck). And during the day I was informed that Divine, makers of Fair Trade Chocolate, do an after-dinner mint which is like After Eights, but far superior. This is bad news, because now I'll have to buy both and do a side-by-side comparison. Woe. |
| Friday, December 25th, 2009 |
saintmaryuk
|
10:21a |
However you are spending today, I hope you all have a good one. Happy Christmas! Hugs to all that want them, Mary x X x |
| Thursday, December 24th, 2009 |
supermouse
|
9:06p |
|
| Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 |
sessifet25
|
10:33p |
Whoohoo!
I am once again connected to the world. |
| Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 |
saintmaryuk
|
2:13p |
Snow Dalek!
Tim, Adrian and Kevin just built me a full-size, scale, snow Dalek! How amazing are they?! I have posted pictures on Facebook and on Flickr, if you are interested... :) |
supermouse
|
10:02a |
Solstice
The solstice was yesterday. I woke up feeling very bleh and not remotely celebratory. I had a duck to roast (actually, two) but not much to go with it and I wasn't sure I could be bothered to go out into the cold and snow to get more. So Pol took me and Radnom to Bolton Market, where we all picked delicious noms for the next three days or so. Then Pol asked if he should/could invite people over, and I said yes, as long as he was prepared to do the host thing. After that, I got cooking the duck, pausing now and then to attend to my bonfire-in-a-pot outside. Pol led the solstice service, despite being irreligious, because he'd just been to a celebration and could remember how the toasts worked. I toasted the sun, and Pol toasted the sun, and Random toasted the sun. The pot looked pretty good - a black iron cauldron on a white snowy wall, carrying warm yellow flames into the cold blue dusk, spreading wood smoke and sweet fumes of burnt mead and rosemary. So I had a big roast duck dinner, with Random, then a buffet with Simon and ChrisC, Random, Pol and ppx. I hadn't met ppx before. She turned out to be lovely, although I think slightly overwhelmed. I went with Pol to drop ppx off after the evening and defrosted in a hot bath before going to sleep at about 2am. I have woken up hungover but happy. Thank you, Pol, Random, Simon, ChrisC and ppx for making winter solstice 2009 a special day. Current Mood:  gratefulCurrent Music: Purr, purr, purr. |
saintmaryuk
|
9:57a |
update
The prettiness of the world is very evident in the snow. I am saddened by people's never-ending capacity for moaning about it, but, that is often the British way it seems. The cold brings challenges for me. My illness is severely draining me this week. But the Christmas-card-views around me are a welcome distraction, and a reminder of how lovely our planet is. And also how lucky I am to have a warm roof over my head this winter. I'm rather behind with Christmas this year. Most of my cards will arrive late I think. But never mind. Presents are smaller this year too, since the recession still impacts significantly on my tutoring business - my income being half what it was 2 years ago. But I can still pay the bills, just, and I am close to qualifying with my first proper coaching qualification: the Personal Performance Coaching Diploma. So in a couple of months I can start charging for the coaching I am doing... *bounce* I am feeling very good about the coaching. Studying again has been brilliant. I have been studying properly and working with pro bono clients since July, and I love it! The effects that my illness has on my brain seem less and less. So studying is becoming easier. And I get a real buzz out of learning again. And I can't tell you how good the work itself is - how amazing it feels when yet another client tells me I've changed their life! I haven't of course. I'm just the catalyst, giving them tools to drive their life (or business) forward. But still. It is tremendously rewarding. Meanwhile our Christmas gathering at the weekend was lovely. A smaller turnout than some years because of the weather - maybe 20 people or so? But it was a happy and relaxed evening. The highlight for me of course was singing carols round the piano. That and being surrounded by lovely people. Off to prep for a lesson now. Then more present-wrapping, lunch with Kevin, teaching, Darren here this evening, and we have the pleasure of Adrian's company til Wednesday morning. All good. Happy Mary. |
sessifet25
|
8:06a |
Cooooold
*huddles* It's freezing. The parking lot outside my house is like milky glass and slippery as hell. The sidewalks aren't any better so I've been taking my car into work, because while walking in the cold is nice and refreshing, I like my limbs in roughly the same shape, size and position at the end of the day. And it just started snowing again. This is going to be so much fun. Current Mood:  cold |
| Sunday, December 20th, 2009 |
supermouse
|
5:15p |
Brief catch up post.
The reason I have not been posting much of late is because I have been busy. By the evening I am half asleep and by the next morning I've forgotten everything. So, a brief synopsis: Drop in centre on Mondays. I am still going as often as I can and loving it. I sometimes stop for lunch and always end up having at least one nice conversation. Community allotment, on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Monday clashes with the drop-in and Saturdays with Pol, but I will be going when I can. I had one two-hour session there on Thursday, with freezing wind and snow hitting me in the teeth while I cut dead wood out of a living willow trellis and arch. And I loved it. It turned out that both the main workers there are Pratchett fans, which was rather a shock to all of us. :0) Moth is looking quite sprightly again and is being a Herd of Cat up and down the stairs. She loves the place I've set up her heating pad - although it now looks as though she'll need a new one. I am just glad she's living long enough to need a new one! She is addicted to hard green catnip past squares, which she gets at my bedtime. So now she comes and gets me when it's my bedtime. We have had snow! It was very pretty and very cold. Pol had an exciting drive home trying to miss the worst of it. I took a picture of our local landmark In Snow and sent it to my sister who showed it to my mum. Today, we started with graupel, then snow, then hail, then sleet, then thunder, lightning and rain. Now there's goodness knows, since it's too dark to tell. We also had Lack of Heating. The boiler broke down while I was in the middle of a shower. It fixed itself briefly, or Pol fixed it, but then it broke down again while I was attempting shower mark two. It then stayed broken all weekend until shortly after I got home. Now the house is warm. Socially, I met Simon and agreed to go to his game. He came over to do the chargen with me, and we had a nice evening, or I thought so. Random did appropriate background music, bless. I am looking forward to playing my new character. Saintmary agreed to put me up on Friday night after arrangements for my lift to Peterscroft in the morning fell through. Not only that, but she and Stuart and Tim gave me Women in Egypt, a book I absolutely would have bought for myself. I love it. I had a nice time and Kevin's game nearly finished, but not quite. Then there was Party. I had a good chat with Diane about gardening and with ccooke about the Tom and Jerry Suicide cartoon. Just as I was wilting and feeling as though I'd really like to crawl home and nurse my headache, Random showed up, begging a shower. I went home with her, then sat up fretting about Pol. I was shown Sims of Geekhouse. There's a Sim Random, and a Sim me, and a Sim Pol, and a Sim Moth the cat, in a Sim Geekhouse. It was disturbing, but cool. Current Mood: pleased |
pteppic
|
5:22p |
Billed Under Client Code "Frosty"
[Reposted from the proper blog...] Dear client, my apologies for not being diligently working as I probably should have been today. If you were not aware, it’s been snowing the past few days and being the rather large kid that I am, I decided that we were unable to get to the office (despite it being eight steps from my bedroom). To compensate for this, I did something much more productive. It’s a prototype implementation of a Briggs inspired solution to the classic winter design problem:  Yep, I engineered a freakin’ snowman. He’s 5ft 8in tall, a few feet across the shoulders and should hopefully last at least a few days. Normal service will resume tomorrow. |
| Saturday, December 19th, 2009 |
sessifet25
|
4:28p |
Mum left yesterday, after having been here since Monday. She brought the rest of my things and helped me settle in a bit more in a way only mums are capable of. :) She also brought something a bit...scary. It is a half-finished knotted tapestry. Dad knotted one half of it when he was recovering from his hernia. He got better before finishing it and never got 'round to finishing the whole thing. It's been tidied away for nearly eight years and neither mum or sis felt it was right for them to try to finish it. For reasons I'm not quite sure about, they feel I am and therefore I've inherited it. So, I've got a tapestry to finish. I figured out how the knots works (yay reverse engineering!) and I've finished several rows already. It's been a while since I've done needlepoint or tapestry, but I find myself disappearing into the task and being soothed by the repetitive nature of it. As I work on it, I'm aware that this is something dad started and I get to finish it. It feels a lot like helping him putting in the electrics and ceiling of the house in Nieuw Scheemda, or building a wall, or putting in the concrete foundation for the conservatory. Making something with your own hands is wonderful. Making something with one of my family members, even years apart, is far beyond that. And being able to do that in my own home just adds a whole new level. I have a happy. |
| Friday, December 18th, 2009 |
sessifet25
|
5:00p |
Note to Neighbours
Now, I don't mind music. In fact, I love music. And I don't mind loud music so much. Some music is best listened to with the stereo cranked up. So, all in all I will not complain when I can occasionally hear my neighbours' music. It's just... Out of all the music in the world you chose to foul your ears with 2 Unlimited? Really? Loud enough that my goth Christmas tree is jingling its ornaments? 2 Unlimited? Seriously? 2 Unfuckinglimited...there is no hope for you... |
sessifet25
|
12:05p |
We so organised...
Mum came to pick up the last papers I'd prepared at work before she headed off to Hull for the 21:00 ferry to Rotterdam. All very smooth and organised and all those things. For once, the legendary family absent-mindedness did not reveal itself. Until about 35 minutes later, when I realised that while we had an exchange of papers and such, we both forgot that she still had my keys. Which were now on their way to Hull with her. D'oh. So she's on her way back to my work now to drop off my housekeys. Current Mood:  ditzy |
sessifet25
|
10:10a |
Ordered O2 broadband last night. I decided to go for that because I can a) get a discount because I've already got an O2 contract and b) the Pro package gets me a nifty wireless router which can do 802.11n (backwards compatible with b/g as well, so my iPhone can connect if it really doesn't want to have anything to do with n) and gets me a free static IP address, which will just be handy for networking and Stuff. Got a text earlier that the box is to be delivered on Monday and my go-live date is next Wednesday. Whee! Current Mood:  working |
sessifet25
|
9:04a |
Getting Stuff Sorted(TM)
Photocopied my passport today and noticed that it is due to expire on 11 January 2010. Which is in just over a month. Whups. Went straight to the Dutch Embassy website and booked the earliest appointment. Which is 19 January 2010 at 8:30. In London. Sodbunnies... There's a whole host of letters and proof that I will have to bring along. I think I have only two days ago torn up and thrown away my letter of de-registration from the Dutch municipality I lived in. Oh cock... And I will need a letter of de-registration from the original municipality that issued this passport as well. Arse... Fortunately, I was just told I can go to the Dutch consulate in Liverpool or Manchester for the passport application. Hurray. Both Liverpool and Manchester consulate are closed today. Fucksticks. And both municipalities want a signed letter with a copy of my passport. Argh! They do this on purpose, yes? Current Mood:  determined |
the_hatstand
|
12:28a |
Preparing for snow
Tomorrow my car goes in for an MOT. Once I collect it after work I am setting off to ChezMary. So tonight I would normally be packing. Tonight though, it's been a bit more complicated. You cannot get out of my road in any direction without first going up a hill. A fairly modest hill, to be sure, but a hill nonetheless. And tonight we have heavy snow forecast. This is not a good combination. Back in February I tried to drive out of my road and up that hill following heavy snow, and as a result of that attempt I am now driving a different car. I happen to think it's a better car, and I really don't want to be replacing it so soon. Especially not for the same reason as last time. So, how do I ensure that it will get up the hill despite the snow? Easy. I make sure it gets up the hill before the snow arrives. And make sure that once it's up the hill I have no reason to come back down. So, I have not only packed my bag, I have also taken it into work and locked it in the office. On the way back I have parked the car in front of the MOT centre (which happens to be just at the top of the hill) and walked home. Tomorrow I can trudge through the show and drop the keys off on the way to work. (Although as the centre is at the wrong end of my road it'll double my walk time.) Then at the end of the day I can collect the car, come back to the office to collect the bag, then head straight up north without returning to the house. I'm now worrying in case I've forgotten anything, especially if it's something large. And now that I've made all those preparations, the Met Office site is now showing we're going to get light snow rather than heavy. Typical. Tomorrow is also the day of the Support Group Xmas dinner. I've had an Indian with Mary on Sunday, and again on Wednesday with Run Like Hell at the same restaurant, today was the School meeting for which they provided a buffet lunch... I'm going to have to eat lightly for the next few days in case I explode before Xmas. |
| Thursday, December 17th, 2009 |
saintmaryuk
|
8:22a |
|
the_hunter
|
6:40a |
An open letter, and The Hunter
To Pudi. Dear Paul, I can't be with you today. People tell me you would have understood, and I believe you would, and do. I'm going to be thinking about you and of you, quite a lot today. Your laughter. Your sadness. Your sense of fun, and of fair play. Your dislike of people's pain. Really, you were a top bloke. In my head, and in the heads of all your friends you will remain a top bloke. So what you've gained is a kind of immortality. What we've lost is a friend. so today I'm going to think about you a lot. I'm going to offer prayers, best wishes, positive thoughts, good vibes, call them what you will, in the hopes than my belief system is wrong and somewhere you are having an absolute ball, and you are realising that you had, and have, friends. I'm gonna miss you, Paul. I'm only just coming to realise how much. But it was a privilege to have known you, even briefly. To my friends at Pudi's celebrationMy friends, I ask one thing, one favour, today. For me. Raise the darned roof! Let everyone know how Paul affected you. Let the whole damned world realise that a Top Bloke is being missed by a lot of Top People. And me. And please, each of you, raise it just a little bit more for me too? To TrevorOi, fat bloke (look, he's a workmate...can't be showing affection, he'll get the wrong idea!) Frazer's first school play. I'm...usually quite good at words. So I'm told. But I can't find the words in my head to tell you how I envy you. If I could give you a glimpse of the hurt in my heart, the hole, the emptiness...well. Anyway, you go and enjoy. You go and watch him, and be proud, old son. Be really proud, 'cos that is your son stood there. No matter what he does, be proud. Just don't tell me about it tomorrow, okay. Because I may just break. |
| Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 |
saintmaryuk
|
8:45p |
Christmas gathering this Saturday
All welcome to our house from 7pm this Saturday for drinks, mince pies, and maybe a few carols. Please bring a bottle and, if you wish to sleepover, a sleeping bag etc. RSVP here, on facebook, on twitter, or via text to 07751 696 055. Feel free to bring partners, family, and close friends. But please tell me how many you are bringing so I buy enough nibbles. Seasons best wishes to you all, Mary x x x |
the_hatstand
|
7:37p |
A good weekend's gigging
Made my live debut with Swallow on Friday. The venue could have been better; it's a pub which has a supporting chimney in the middle of the room, meaning we set up on one side of it and the audience are mostly on the other, so we were mostly playing to a fireplace. But we played pretty well, I made it through Black Betty with no problems, and we even took a request and jammed a pretty wild version of Pink Floyd's Money, which we'd never rehearsed. Run Like Hell had a slightly more problematic gig the following night. Both the guitarist and bassist had problems with their amps (the guitar amp let the magic smoke out), and after trips home for spares (thankfully it was a very local gig) we were short of time and had to cut a few songs. On the plus side the pub's widescreen TV was in an alcove just above and behind the drums, so instead of setting up our projector and screen (for our very low budget Floydian back-projection made from Powerpoint slideshows) I suggested we plug the laptop straight into the TV. Much easier to run and it didn't look bad either. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) saintmaryuk was down south for a training course, so on Sunday night she stayed over with me. We had dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant, then came came home and would've watched a film, but my DVD player seems to have suddenly decided not to play sound. So we watched the snooker instead. Am now feeling somewhat shattered; I think the Meh from last week hasn't fully gone away and would probably have preferred a less crowded weekend. But it's been good. And I still have an Xmas meal with Run Like Hell (at the same restaurant!) and another with work before this week is out. |
the_hunter
|
7:07a |
Seasonal poetry, and The Hunter
Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse (Mentioning *mouse* may have been a mistake As the mouse, as we speak, is being nommed by a snake) Right. Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house Not a creature was stirring...ignoring the mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney, with care. In a flat? Why on earth would a chimney be there? Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the flat Not a creature was stirring, not even a rat. The stockings were hung...hang about, I'm a bloke And all of my socks have been put in to soak. Okay. Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the flat Not a creature was stirring, not even a rat I'm a bloke, I've no stockings, as we've already said So all of the presents were thrown on the bed Willow the dog, was all snug in the bed While visions of sugar-plums danced in her head. Wait! Sugar-plums? Dancing? While she takes a nap? What are sugar-plums anyway? Who writes this crap? When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter. Well, there would. I'm five stories up, that's the matter. A lawn? Oh get real, Where's a lawn going to be? The top of a cypress is all I can see... So...a ruckus occurs, somewhere vague, as we said. Which causes poor Willow to fall off my bed And Twit, the dumb lovebird takes up the refrain By squarking, and tweeting, and squarking again. Away to the window I flew like a flash. Having first made sure that I'd hidden my cash. Well, this is called Chav Central. It's best to be sure That anything moveable's nice and secure. Right. Twas the night before Chrismas, and all round the flat Not a creature was stirring. Not even a rat. Get down dog. Willow, get off my damned lap... Just go back to bed, dog, try having a nap. Twas the night before...pardon? You can't hear me speak? Oh, Twit is too noisy? Oi! Twit, shut your beak! No, really, that squarking is really quite loud. You even put WIllow's growls under a cloud. Twas the night before...Willow, please stop with the noise! I've not even got to the bit about toys. And Twit, I didn't ask you to join in This really is a most god-awful din. TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING. NOT EVEN A MOUSE. OH, SOD THIS FOR A LARK. I'M LOSING THE FIGHT! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL. AND TO EACH, A GOOD NIGHT. Come on Willow. Here's a Good Girl Bikkit! Twit, have some sunflowers. Just don't throw them at Willow. Barley? Have a mousicle. Merry christmas my friends. Now, shut the hell up? |
| Monday, December 14th, 2009 |
pteppic
|
1:16p |
Decorations and OpenVPN
Decorations are up - house is a tip. One appears to go hand in hand with the other, at least for a few days. Tree looks cool, decorations look good. Having fun with OpenVPN today. It comes built into DD-WRT, and I can get the basics up and running. What I can't seem to get it to do is direct all the traffic over the VPN. There is currently much angst and gnashing of teeth. Need to get this up and working so I can do some work *away* from home. |
the_hunter
|
6:57a |
Change, and such, and The Hunter
Due to the poorly tum, Willow's routine was upset. 4am: Willow: yay! Walkies! Walkies! I can has walkie...what are you doing asleep? *Poke, prod, paw* Me: Wsfghrppppptttt! Get your paw out of my boll...groin! W: Yay! You're awake! Walkies! I can has walkies! And noms! Noms and walkies! Yay! M: Oh, you have to be ki W: *Prod* Walkies! it is your sworn duty! And noms! I has been good girl, I get Good Girl Bikkits. Yay Noms! M: Oh, for.... Turns off alarm clock, which sulks. All weekend, getting ready for the 5am performance, and pre-empted by a Mutt that wants ot be pee-emptied. W: Noms! Oi! GGBs! I can has good girl bikkit! M: Coffee first. Just this once? W: Okay. M: Ahhhhhhh W: Walkies! Walkies. And so, off we set. Light drizzle, high cloud...not too cold, better than I expected. We wandered, my best-loved animated idiot and me, to the park. She sat at the pavements, pee'd on the grass, and waited until we got to the parkland before she got down to serious crapping. I take bags. Lots of bags. And as usual we went through several *Stop, squat, go cross-eyed, look embarassed, wander off* scenes, where she actually did nothing, before we got to the extra-special dump. A two-bagger...Rotties, lovely dogs, but man, can they poo! In the distance, where last year I looked and was moved to write this the competing houses are now just rubble and fond memories. As we walked I watched the brook, so often a trickle, tinkling and giggling along the pebbles, now a full and torrenting river, putting its back into the bends, carving out a new ox-bow lake, and noticed that the ground upon which we walked, Willow and I, was where once the river flowed. Over time, hundreds of years, that tiny, persitant trickle had slowly, persistantly changed its own route. It made me think. M: Do you realise how, even at 5am we are confronted by so much change? The houses over there are now rubble, they exist only in the memory and photographs of the people who lived their. Their entire lives, possibly, from their very birth, centred in that collection of bricks, now just rubble. And the river. Who is to say where it will wind up? Change. No matter what we do, my old friend, time will erase us. W: Well, certainly. From a cosmological point of view the universe is infinite, and yet still expanding, at a massive but slowing rate. Can you imagine that? And in terms of chronology, we, all the living, breathing matter on the planet has been round, in planetary terms, for so little time as to be hardly nioticable. Change is so much greater than even you, in your semi-comatose coffee-draving way, tends to notice. M: What did you just say: W: Er...cheesburger? Noms? I can has a bukkit? Look, you just imagined it. I'm a dog. I'm not capable of deep, layered and structured thought. I want food, sleep and love. Okay? You're anthropomorphising your own inner thoughts again. This is either going to get you a padded room or another book deal... M: Er...okay... But I can't help wondering...when we're gone, what mark will we have left? Shakespeare, Beethovem, in a millenia, will even they be remembered? |
| Sunday, December 13th, 2009 |
countertony
|
6:56p |
Up for sale:
Before I put an ad in the local paper, if anyone is interested here... Hitachi DVD player and 5.1 speaker system (model HTDK170EUK), with remote. Plays all the usual things (DVDs, VCDs, Audio and JPEG CDs), as well as FM-RDS/AM radio. I don't know whether this plays Region 1 (American) DVDs, so best to assume that it doesn't. 5 satellite speakers and cables (20 Watts RMS.) Subwoofer (35 Watts RMS.) Collect from me here in Woking or I can bring it into London, but since posting it would cost a fair fraction of the asking price that's about it. I'll be advertising it at £50, but am open to reasonable offers. Edit: Comments will be screened. |
pteppic
|
9:42a |
Eugh.
Had a rather pained night. Had a great day yesterday, games during the daytime and Thai in the evening, in celebration of Mr Murphy's 30th. Thai was lovely, had a red curry with grapes, tomato and pineapple. Also came with chillis and green peppers. Since it was lightly cooked, I couldn't taste the peppers so all was well. Pulled out the peppers and enjoyed the meal. No puking, held out okay. And then a night of pain. Restless from 1am to 3am running to the loo every ten minuites. At 3am I had doubled in size around the middle (not far off an exaggeration) This was a novelty. Decided for some odd reason that a bath may help. It was either that or A&E. Jumped in the bath, felt relief for the first time during the night. Fell asleep. Woke up at 5, topped up the hot water, listened to the birds outside the window. Clambered out of the bath at 6, rather dizzy and decided I might as well do something with the day at that point. So far "doing something" is iPlayer and mock-ups for my next app. Toilet runs are now less frequent and I've managed to get my trousers on. We're supposed to be heading to Barton Grange this morning to get a new tree and then working this afternoon. Hopefully that plan still holds. |
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