All these things that I have done

Went to my first flower show yesterday, with cleanskies and my mum. Lots of beautiful gardens, and I enjoyed looking around the conceptual gardens much more than I expected to - it was like visiting a really accessible exhibition at the Tate Modern. Managed to survive without getting dehydrated but it was a close thing in those temperatures - the organisers really didn't put enough thought into providing shade and drinking water. Festivals do it much better in my experience, with stands pipes and so on. Bought some lovely plants, now planted out in the garden but failed to take any photos. Have realised that I'm really not much of a photo taker, generally - it just doesn't occur to me most of the time. Ah well, that's one of the benefits of going with cleanskies :)

Just entering that tag I notice loafs of word stuff on my symbols keyboard. What's this for, for example: ₩

Finally managed to find the link to the ticket shop for this after a lot of hunting! If you fancy some lovely carols from a great singer and folk band come to the Oxford Town Hall for Maddy Prior and her Carnival Band on Saturday at 8pm. I've got MP3s of the Radio 2 broadcast they did years ago of carols and I love it - it's one of the major parts of Christmas to me getting it out again. I'll upload God Rest Ye Merry for people to sample.

Also, saw this XKCD and had to iconise it. I do this sometimes and the intonation is all. Today it's bouncy and enthusiastic, tomorrow it might be disappointed...

I see that in my posting fit on Friday, I failed to mention the fact that I did my history exam on Thursday! Yes, it is finally all over and I think I did pretty well. I got lucky with question selection and think I produced a pretty creditable pair of essays and source questions at least up to my usual standard. I didn't end up feeling I should have worked harder or anything so I think even if I only get a grade 2 pass (I definitely didn't bomb it) I'll be happy that I did my best and gave myself the best chance of a distinction I could.

After the exam was over, Alex and I decided to have curry for dinner (well that was mostly me, but he agreed :)). We ordered and I watched some Location, Location, Location while we waited. The doorbell rang, I paused the computer and got the curry and then sat down to a blank screen! Our first instinct was to blame the computer. We fiddled with the connection, changed the wire & rebooted with no joy. Eventually we decided we must have somehow shafted the graphics card and decided to watch a video. I connected that to the scart and we then discovered that it wasn't the computer, it was the scart socket on the TV :( We managed to watch a video over the old fashioned aerial connection but now we need a new TV as all our other tech will only communicate via SCART, unfortunately. TVs have got a lot more complicated since I last bought one as well. Any recommendations? Brands to avoid?

Saturday was Jeremy and Jo Go To Ikea day! It was fun, and productive but extremely exhausting. I came back with a car literally completely packed with stuff, 2 items I hadn't managed to collect (sofa and TV table - the original items I was looking for :)) and a vision of the living room and how it's actually going to work and be transformed into a really nice room (Alex looks at me like I'm odd when I start squeaking about my rocking chair :)). Also, complete crockery set so that all our stuff will match and other miscellaneous bits and bobs which are of win. Of course my living room currently looks like a bomb has hit it because it's full of flat packs but I'll work on that tonight.

Sunday we went over for lunch with Sadie & Tim and managed to get onto the "shocking people with films I have never seen" game :) They were particularly shocked by Casablanca so after we'd eaten and drunk we repaired to the living room for a double bill - Airplane followed by Casablanca. Airplane was kind of fun in a silly way (and funnier by recognising bits from a House ep where he has to treat people on a flight). Casablanca was awesome. I had somehow managed to not know the story at all, just the famous quotes so I came to it completely fresh and had to have a little cry at the end, it was so sad. I was fascinated by the fact that it was made during the war, which to me made it more poignant because no-one writing or seeing it knew how the world situation would turn out - they really could have been stuck in Casablanca forever. Also, there's presumably a propaganda motive in there too - showing an American in the centre of the action, making a heroic sacrifice for the good of the war effort must have been a popular message.

Saturday
+ Fantastic Saturday morning with Alex
-- Discover once have arrived at Ballroom that have left keys on table in garden while dealing with latest mouse.
- Nothing I like at Ballroom
- Roadworks of doom on the Plain
++ Find beautiful dress in Monsoon for party.
- Fail to find bra in M&S to go with
+ Resist buying beautiful sundress that I don't need.
+ Resist buying perfect handbag that I don't really need.
+ Find that alice bands are back in fashion and buy several.
+ No-one steals bike while out despite inability to lock it up
++ No-one steals keys from back garden while out. And they are where I thought they were.
- Decide should have bought shrug to go with dress after all when already back home.
+ Relax with Earthly Joys in garden
- Unconvinced by historical accuracy of Tradescant having sex with the Duke of Buckingham
+ BBQ in garden with Alex
+ Lounging around all evening

Sunday
+ Just enough cream cheese for Sunday lunch recipie!
+ Remember about making rhubarb crumble in time to actually make some
- Turns out topicaltim isn't a rhubarb fan.
+ But is OK with icecream
+ But white_hart is.
- Have made some mistakes in Brownie accounts
+ Only small ones. Am pronounced not an embezzler.
+++ Lunch, wine and conversation.
+ Port & more conversation.
+ more conversation.
- more wine. (Note that this is only a - in retrospect)
+ Yes Minister episodes
- Pizza and garlic bread for dinner
+ Veronica Mars episodes

+: 24. -: 11.

Had a good day yesterday. Woke up before alarm and stayed awake reading which was a nice mix of tiredness avoidance tactics and weekend relaxing. Alex was in really quite a ropey state with his cold so I encouraged him to stay in bed and sleep it off while I got up and put my day's energy to work on a cleaning blitz. I decided to get the last of the mud out of the house by washing all the downstairs floors. The conservatory never stays nice for long, what with kittie footprints but for now everything looks great. I always get such a sense of wellbeing from sitting down in the newly tidy house as well - I love it.

The evening was cocktails at Julian's, which turned out to be really fun. It was a nice chance to catch up with old workmates, although I fear I may have come across as too smug when describing my current position. Then settled in for a really fun chat with [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] and tortipede which was good - I think thats the first chance I've had to get to know him. It always surprises me when other proper geeks turn up from completely outside our circle - I wonder how many groups Oxford can/does support? The relative lack of snacks even meant that I stayed in calories for the day overall (assuming my cocktail recipe guesses are roughly right), which was a nice surprise. Of course, today is BBQ day so chances of repeating that success seem really low, but at least it's a start...

Since Alex fixed the roof of the conservatory I actually quite like sitting in here when it rains. The sound on the roof is really loud (because the roof is made of corrugated plastic, for those of you who haven't seen this) but I like that. I like the sense of being safe indoors while the elements rage. I guess the fact that it used to be so leaky exacerbates that even more. When we have the extension done, gone will be this simple pleasure, I guess, but to be replaced with a whole range of other pleasures :) We've asked the architect to make drawings and he's coming over tomorrow lunchtime to take measurements & photos of what's here already.

I'm just having a bit of a relax, having finished the mad hoover and clean-up of doom, for we have Alex's sister and her man staying over after Ben's gig this evening. And this requires a more than usually thorough job as Jo is allergic to cats (amongst lots of other things!) so I've been scouring the spare room (usually the province of Cassie) to within an inch of it's life. I suspect she's still going to need anti-histamines though.

Currently, both cats have joined me to watch me write. Cassie has bagged a spot that Charlie usually uses when I'm hanging out in here (the canvas bag that came with my OU opennings course - Charlie has a big thing for sitting on bags) and Charlie is wandering round sniffing at everything, trying to decide on a second choice for curling up.

Finally, I have managed to finish my Christmas shopping! I've done everyone, oh yes I have and Mum, your pile is no longer meagre :) Now I just have to wrap it all up. I ended up stashing it at Alex's office because I didn't think I'd be able to bike it home but in the end I could have kept hold of it as I ended up taxi-ing home with Ruth :) We were out celebrating the end of term and talking of Brownie stuff and everything else in the world. We always seem to have quality nights out - it was really good, although probably not fantastic for the diet :) Actually, I'm not going to worry too much about the diet until after Christmas - after all, I wouldn't want to spoil the gourmet feast Dad's preparing for us!

When I was at the gig on Sunday, the idea suddenly popped into my head that I would try to do a post every day next year. Could be fun, although it's unlikely I'd actually manage it. Still, I might give it a go. Something about the Pindrop Choir put me in a very aspirational mood - I was making plans to hand on the cello and start playing the violin again and join some kind of choir (again!) and all sorts :)

From somewhere I have managed to collect a rather unpleasant cold which blocks my sinuses and saps my energy. I spent most of Saturday lounging around on the couch and watching Veronica Mars, which was very enjoyable. I may even be enjoying this second series more - it certainly has less flashbacking, which is a relief.

Sunday was Rabbit Day. Alex had collected a rabbit from the covered market for me on Friday which I turned into stew, Ellen bought pumpkin pie (not rabbit related but very nice) and we watched Watership Down and Svenkmayers Alice. I quite enjoyed Watership down, although I wouldn't say I loved it. I missed the stories they tell each other in the book but at least they didn't make any substantial plot changes (although one or two of the instubstantial ones baffled me rather - like why did they kill Blackavar off? I'm sure that didn't happen in the book). Overall, it felt a little like a summary of the book but was fairly enjoyable.

Alice, on the other hand, I found so incredibly dull that I ended up reading a Dick Francis book while it was on. Very pretty and arty, yes, but no actual characters or interaction. Thumbs firmly down. I also made people watch, in the gaps between the action, as twere, the first episode of Dinnerladies, the first Yes Minister and the first Yes Prime Minister, which is about the nuclear deterent.

I got the impression that the others didn't think much of Dinnerladies, which is a shame. It's one of my absolute favourite shows. Not often belly laugh material but it makes you smile and puts you in a good mood, I find. It's a very gentle humour and it doesn't have a nasty character in it really. I just don't have a proper vicious streak :) The Yes Minsters were great fun, as expected. I think they should arrange a special showing of the Trident one in the House of Commons. I love the fact that it dates so little (apart from the costumes :) ).

By the end of the evening I was starting to flag rather, the cold and the warmth of the fire conspiring against me, but it was a very enjoyable weekend, I would say. I didn't get a lot of the stuff I'd planned done, like going to Halfords with bike and car, but that can wait. When I've got rid of this cold, then I'll get on it.

Hmmm. I have a dither. Alex has got a DJ session tomorrow night and I really want to go but he's not on til 1am. If I go, I'll be completely ruined for work tomorrow possibly to the extent of not even making it in although that seems unlikely. Basically, it's a very bad idea, but I really want to go.

And I want to play with my camera but I'm not going to until lunchtime. See. I can be a good minou. Sort of :)

Well, I was going to stay in, watch TV and get an early night, possibly doodling some website designs. In the event, Ian and Ruth's housemates hadn't done any washing up so they wandered over to see me and fortunately I hadn't yet started cooking so I fed all of us with pasta and salad and Ian bought wine and we just sat around and chatted which was pretty cool. Unfortunately, now I am slightly drunken and so don't want to take my lenses out until either I get a bit steadier or Alex gets home and can watch me do it. Still, I stayed in.