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.
• laundry
• File tax return

Oh, and this is useful:

http://gizmodo.com/5871553/how-to-peel-a-whole-head-of-garlic-in-less-than-ten-seconds

Whereas this is just silly….

xxx

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.

xxx

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 Santa started another Nakiska. Remember the year I made them for *everyone*?
• Sew up N’s stocking, sew up my jeans.
• Something else when I remember it
• Record C’s book

xxx

is that the weekend list is then in the work notebook. Not Helpful.

However, in a sort of post-rugby haze (one cracked rib plus one elastoplast – and last week’s concussion showing up in a reindeer suit, which does make me wonder whether he has recovered properly or no).

• Dinner
• Laundry
• Supermarket
• Brownie Admin
• De-mould bathroom
• Get Christmas decorations down from attic, place Advent Candle in holder
• Rugby Sunday (as well as Saturday)
• Morris Sunday
• Doc Martens
• Work out N’s Christmas Present  
• Measure N’s feet for socks
• Upload pictures from wedding (it was lovely. Sweet, beautiful, simple and they looked so happy).
• Email S re DC
• Get G’s address
• Christmas Cards
• Wrap Christmas Presents

xxxx

Sir’s fair isle is now 97cm round. His favourite sweater is 93cm round – but, heck, the fair isle is thicker yarn, and he’s put on a *little* bit of weight recently, so, I think this will do the trick. Hurrah. The problem is that quite a bit of knitting needs to be done before it’s actually long enough to measure round without distorting the measurements.

You want a photo?

Hopefully that’ll work. I’m feeling lazy with the mobile phone camera in an effort to get something out here for y’all.

Last night’s Brownies was frenetically brilliant – and exhausting. I had a gin and tonic, and an awful lot of food, afterwards, and crashed into bed somewhere around 11pm. Snowy Owl had done this awesome shadow puppet activity. They made puppets and then put on a show. A lot of mermaids were attacked by dragons, various fish floated about the place, and there was an underwater bunny rabbit, who wasn’t very good at running under water (yes, that was the journalist’s daughter who came out with that one. She has a knack for this sort of thing).

I also have a list.

• Bank accounts
• Rugby (two matches, one after the other – I hope we don’t get delayed at the bank, but KO isn’t until 1pm)
• Buy Nancy’s 18th Birthday present
• Nancy’s party
• Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the National History Museum with added disused tube station spotting
• More knitting – hopefully finish G’s hat so I can move onto N’s socks for travel knitting
• Sort out Dad’s sock heels (afterthought heel has apparently been chewed by mice, so no big fuss to sort out, as long as I can locate the yarn).
• Laundry (including sheets)
• Start writing Christmas cards and cocooning presents
• Various guiding related emails (what to do next week, Division Stuff)
• Pay cash in for DivC present
• Wish it were pay day a little sooner – I did most of my Christmas Shopping this month
• Read gas meter and electricity meter (that took some remembering)

OK. If I don’t shower now, I will not be at the bank in half an hour.

xxx

Sneeze. Snuffle. Wheeze. Humph.

Better today. This NaBloPoMo thing is getting very behind itself,
though. I seem to be ridiculously busy and running around like the
proverbial fly.

Buzzz

xxx

Didn’t want yesterday’s asthma attack either. Certainly could have done without the First Aider type person not bothering to help and just continuing to witter on about diskspace.  That was weird: I don’t think she knew what to do….

So now, I am working from home, feeling bunged up, with an emergent sore throat and rather sorry for myself.  It’s cold outside (temperature dropped from about 16 degrees to about 8 degrees in the last two days, and I finally caved and put the heating on), I have no appetite and LOTS of tea.

I might get behind the concept of a biscuit in a bit. And, at least I have the opportunity to work from home and, hopefully, avoid bronchitis again.

xxxx

Actually. The whole day did. Suckage during the day. Suckage that whereas last year it cost £20 to get my asthma covered on travel insurance, this year it’s £70 (because, you know, American healthcare is expensive…three times more expensive than last year, apparently). Then FIM refused to create a proper mailbox in Exchange 2007 (Legacy mailbox, fine…), then I had to wave goodbye to N, and just felt entirely woebegone.

Which is silly, ‘cos I get to see him at work tomorrow.

Then I got a flu vaccination. The GP was super speedy, I was in and out within 5 minutes. Plus there was none of this “stay put in case you have an allergic reaction” malarkey. I’ve had enough flu vaccinations in the past 20 years that I’m not going to start reacting now.

Then I went up to one Brownie pack to get them to sign our outgoing Div Comm’s cards, then down to another Brownies and Guides (with a strategic taxi en route), dropping off someone else’s Camping Qualification book while I was at it (well, you know, I was round the corner).

After that, I went to Waitrose (be still my beating heart), stocked up on decent gluten-free pasta and rice milk (neither of which Morrison’s seems to deal with), and some apples, and bread for N so he doesn’t eat mine, and accidentally bought a rather nice candle while I was at it.

And, it was all totally exhausting, and there were still emails to be dealt with on my return home, and I really hope I’m not about to get a cold, as I went on the Victoria line this morning. It was a bit necessary. I locked myself out, and only realised this when I remembered I’d not used my inhaler. “No matter,” thinks I, “Jo’s boyfriend is still in.” So I rang the doorbell. And again.  And waited a bit. And then again. Then I leaned on it.  Then I paused a bit. Then I decided that the way forward was to perform a violent fantasia to the tune of ‘Come to the cookhouse door, boys!” and he finally deigned to come down. Men!

xxxx

Goodness, but it is hidjously misty outside. Horribly, hidjously
misty. Not quite a fog, but the visibility is worsening all the time.
It makes me worry that I’m heading into smog territory, and then
breathing gets, well, interesting. Challenging. Not the basic facility
that one would usually expect.

I had a lovely weekend. Mostly, it
was the company.

This morning, less of a good start. I managed to
depart without taking my inhaler *and* without my keys, which were
hanging, in unlikely manner, on the hook in the kitchen. No, I didn’t
look there. I never put them there. Thirty seconds down the road I
realise my error. And go back. And ring the doorbell, since Jo’s
boyfriend is still in. And ring it again. And again. And then lean on
it. Then ring it again. Then lose all patience and start playing “come
to the cookhouse door boys” on it. He finally makes it down the stairs
- he thought I was the postman (really? And, even so, shouldn’t you be
opening the door, or at least sticking your head out a window to
ascertain who is playing this fortissimo fantasia with an F#?). Grrr.
Am tempted to revoke his key permissions.

xxx

At the crucial moment, I was remembering. Work actually stopped at 11am for two minutes, a distinct improvement on last year, when someone was blethering on through it. It helped that it was fire alarm day, and thus they felt able to re-schedule the fire alarm test for 11 am and 11.02am.

Meanwhile, I’ve been out to watch the rapper dancing, and out to rugby. And I’ve had N visiting post-NY Marathon. He’s in remarkably good shape for someone who ran 26 miles a week ago, and who is also jetlagged. And he bought me something beautiful in a little green box. I don’t want to take it off (it’s a heart shaped pendant, decorated with red enamel. it looks a little like candy canes, but it supposed to resemble the gondoliers’ poles in Venice).

xxx