It's rather full on at my parents. Sometimes, I feel that I need a UN Blue Beret: the volume escalates, people start looking a bit hurt or angry. Or, they just want attention. Time. To be with me: which is perfectly understandable, but after a few days, I crave my own space. Still, Dad and I fairly enjoyed Last of the Summer Wine and Great Expectations. Mum remembered how to work the video player, and giggled over As Time Goes By (which put her in a much better mood than watching BBC News 24). I had lovely presents, and have a dressing table set which is about to adorn the sitting room. I will take pictures of that - it's utterly beautiful, and was lurking in a charity shop window. I also have books (Christmas means books), DVDs, and an almost completed fair isle slipover - I've got to the neck steek - not cutting yet, just knitting it. This is rather exciting.
Of course, once I get my own space, I start missing N, which rather defeats the purpose of having my own space. So, I'm being proactive this morning. I've cleared out the wardrobe. The next thing to be cleared out will be the shoe collection. Then the drawers under the bed, and the chest of drawers. Then the knitting magazines, the knitting books (anyone want any back issues of Interweave, or The Knitter? I'm not keeping them as if I were going to knit the patterns, I would have acquired the yarn by now! Yes, I will post overseas, but surface mail).
I need a list
collect prescription
collect parcels from sorting office
collect sales undies from John Lewis (bought online. Thought this would be less stressful than actually going in to John Lewis proper).
clear out drawers, shelves, bookcases, DVDs/Videos/CDs
thank you letters
sort out Brownie sixes
plant cyclamen in garden (it might yet live) the lovely N is doing this for me, as I have succumbed to some sort of random virus
get rid of dead plants in kitchen
clear the garden leaves (If I don't do it, no-one will) the lovely N is also doing this, due to aforementioned virus wreaking merry havoc with my sinuses.
get rid of huge pile of wrapping paper and cardboard boxes
Put new acquisitions away: specifically, the new kitchen knives, as well as face flannels, towels, and new entertainments from my friends.
One of the things about Christmas is that it reduces blogging time. Since I stopped blogging from my desk (except via email in times of dire necessity), this poor blog has become somewhat ignored. Twitter and Facebook don't help matters. Nor does having a legitimate SQL blog for worky sort of purposes - revenue generated by Google AdSense, thruppence ha'penny.
And I've been doing THINGS people. Going out, having fun, enjoying stuff. Taking the Brownies ice skating.
Firstly, we went to Copenhagen, N and I. It was COLD. I cannot emphasise how cold it was. We naively thought that it was merely 'a couple of degrees' colder than London. We did not factor in the wind, nor the fact that there's vastly more traffic in London, and it's much warmer on the bus than it is wandering round. Still, we had fun. On the first day we ate lunch and went to Tivoli Gardens, which was still just as magical as it was when I was seven or eight years old, and we visited. Forgot the camera for that, so no pictures of us huddling round the braziers (yes, they had braziers of hot coals to huddle round. Vital), nor of the beautiful lights. We tried and failed to eat there, and ended up in a back street Indian Restaurant.
Sunday was brighter, and we did a little better on the photos front (not hard, really), saw Occupy Copenhagen (mostly, a blanket) and visited the Round Tower (you know, from the Hans Andersen story), and the National Museum (we had about an hour there, and the Design Centre (and considered emigrating to Denmark based on the Danish Design Asthetic alone), and went out to see the Little Mermaid. We walked all the way from the centre of Copenhagen to the Mermaid, and back, and then ate and ate and ate. And N had beer. Just a small one.
Oh. And we found a singing, dancing goat. He's waving around a bra, so only suitable for work this week, really.
Monday we managed a yarn shop, and then went to Christiania, via a rather impressive church with a swirly steeple. Christiania is looking a little sad, a little neglected, and still reeks of cannabis. We had soup and Glogg, and rather wished that we'd discovered Glogg earlier in the weekend (it was warm, sweet, and better than mulled wine). I failed on the photo front.
Then it was back to work. There have been a lot of late nights at work recently, interfering with everything. I have a largeish project on top of my normal work, and it's fine, but the only time I seem to get to work on it without interruption is after everyone's gone home at 5pm. The office is much quieter (it's a large, open plan, with about 60 people in it, and the meeting rooms are nearby too). So. Morris, the office Christmas lunch (it got messy after we left - one chap broke his arm, but thought he'd dislocated it, so sort of slammed it into the wall a few times to relocate it, another person whacked someone else in the face by accident, and so forth), ceilidhing, dinner with the girls, the Club Christmas Lunch (at which it was revealed that the occupants of the Club had no clue why, exactly, Occupy London had decided to storm it the night before, so that was a waste of time on the parts of Occupy London), a trip over to meet N's family (they're lovely), a trip to the cinema to see Sherlock Holmes (we got cold noses: the aircon was a little fierce. Also, if you can't face the concept of Stephen Fry in the nude, don't - otherwise, do, but accept that it's SteamPunk Holmes and don't get het up about the location of Baker Street Tube Station nor where the Tube line was being dug, nor, indeed, when - the film is set in 1891, and the Metropolitan Line opened in 1863. It was being extended in 1891 - but at the top end past Amersham which is now part of British Rail. I shall stop geeking now), a few more late nights at work, a lunatic attempting to knock me off my stationary bike (lights on, bright jacket on, under a lamppost) as he ran down the pavement (the bruise is small, but potent - particularly considering I was wearing layers of clothing), the W.I. Christmas Party (alcohol. Pass the Parcel. Pin the Tail on the Donkey and a degree of nostalgia) and then a ball at a friend's Club. Yes, we have pictures of the ball. N & I did wonder about using the travelling wedding ring to confuse some of the (to be frank) idiots I've encountered at Club events, but, really? Nah.
The ball was, quite frankly, one of the nicest I've been to. Company. The company was excellent. It just gelled. The food was lovely, the champagne was fizzy, there were chocolates, my fruit salad actually had ice cream with it (this almost never happens - it's galling to be given, as an afterthought almost, a fruit salad when everyone else has a lovely patisserie thing, but this had ice cream on). Also, N does look stunning in a suit. He's got the build for it. He doesn't need to wear one, really, at all, but he does look stunning.
Oh yes. And the Military Wives. Such a lovely song. Buy it. The Chancellor has said that they don't have to pay VAT (or, rather, will refund the VAT already paid). Meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy my Day Off by making a list...
put laundry away
fray check jeans Fray check marooned under Christmas Tree. Drat. Taking jeans to take advantage of Mum's overlocker.
buy a new mooncup, cotton wool, light bulb for the hallway
change bulbs sitting room
Brownies Accounts from ice skating (I'm owed about £150, I think. Eek).
Tidy the sitting room Merely getting the laundry down has made a huge difference. Table is not clear, though, so not quite done.
Send @fotheringtonthomas the SQL disk (although he's no longer on Xanga)
I've forgotten (this is happening a lot, isn't it?). Pack.Need N's help to get the suitcase down, as Jo's boyfriend's foam mattress thing is sitting on top of it on top of the cupboard and I do not have enough arms.
Monday was the fantastic, fabulous, Macmillan Cancer Support 100th birthday party celebration gala at The London Palladium. I loves me a good variety show, I do, and this was a glorious one. With John Barrowman being his usual wondrous awesome self, and Graham Norton being nice and funny, and the Nolan Sisters wearing head to toe sequinned pants suits, and a very bizarre medley from Jimmy Osmond (I don't understand why his piano guitar shot fireworks out of the neck, but I'm probably the wrong generation).
Tuesday, another visit to GOSH Scouts and Guides with my Brownies. My Brownies were impeccably lovely, joined in, helped collect patients, played with patients and were generally Good Eggs. We loaned out the Brownie magic carpet for a special promise ceremony. It was teh awesome. We also made stockings, gluing shapes together. Mine has not stuck properly and needs sewing, which means the machine will come out, and then I can re-hem my jeans (attempt #1 rendering them entirely too long....)
Wednesday was working late, and morris.
Thursday was working late, and the County Celebration Evening. There was a quiz. One team got 17/20, one got 15, and the other 3 teams got 14/20, and thus no-one came last.
Friday was Brownies. The last one in the meeting place, run by our Young Leader (Yay!), and they made Christmas decorations. We had spares for the leaders to colour in at the end (9 spares does not make enough for another Brownie meeting).
Today has involved rushing over to Islington for last minute Christmas Present bits. I need to get my head down in the next two hours before N comes over after football, and do stuff.
Finish laundry (including rather icky looking coat left at Brownies - if it's got to have housespace, it's going to be cleaned)
Tidy sitting room
Put decorations up
Brownies Accounts
Pack up hat and jelly babies
Make Dr Who Scarf for Teddy Bear, trace shirt for prototype coat pattern Holy something, Dr Who scarves are much quicker when only 10 stitches wide, and 1/8th of the number of rows....I got half way while watching six episodes of Big Bang Theory.
Sort out ball ticket
Pay S, pay L
Transport Museum & Aldwych Tube Tour
Supermarket Shop
Prize the flapjacks out of their container
Try and get Pandora beads
Knit Secret Santastarted another Nakiska. Remember the year I made them for *everyone*?
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