Christmas Day went really well, our cooking was perfect. The meal is legendary - the whole family has been asking us about it, knowing the details already.
We went to Blackpool on Boxing Day. We opened presents at Raine's mum's house. I'm excited about my bean in a tin, which I grow over a few months to reveal a secret message. We're trying to decide where to position it. Our house is worryingly damp. We have some plants which never need watering. Although the bean shouldn't go dry it'll probably need a lot of light, so I think it'll have to go near a rear window.
After present opening we cooked a new meal for Raine's family - kind of shepherds pie, but instead of gravy it has chicken stock, tomato puree, worcestershire sauce, onions, garlic, and flour to thicken it; mash on top. It was really tasty. Raine said it tasted like fajita pie, which is a fairly accurate description.
We had a family meal round at my Grandparent's place on Friday. It went pretty well. Almost everyone is happy with us now - it's strange to think that they have a problem with us because we're two girls, but they're starting to see we're not two headed, childeaters, just two people in love. There's just John that has a problem, but he's becoming really isolated. For the past couple of Christmas he's given me socks with 3D Reindeer on, these are hideous, and £1 from Primark. When I got to my Grandparent's John's youngest child, Ali, presented me with a present. It felt suspicously sock like. I opened it in the car as we were leaving, it wasn't raindeer socks, it was 3D cat socks, with bells on. My mum liked them, so her's they became.
Whilst in Blackpool I got a new computer. I've had my old one for nearly 5 years, which you can't complain about for a laptop. It's had a few problems over the past few months, the final straw being a faulty space bar - you have to hit it 3 times, hard, to get a single space. Not great for my train of thought.
I spent yesterday evening putting music on the new laptop. I've got nearly 3 days - 65 hours - worth. I'm so happy:-) It's one of the joys of having 120GB of space rather than 18!
Hope everyone has a good new year. We'll be spending it at home, with a good meal and wine.
Sunday, 30 December 2007
Monday, 24 December 2007
Merry Christmas!
So, Christmas is here. We got through the Christmas shopping. It's been really harsh this year. We haven't a lot of spare cash, so it's not really been fun. We did manage to get some good gifts, though - I think everyone's going to be happy. I do love giving presents. I want to give a mention is Oxfam's latest scheme: Oxfam Unwrapped (http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/). Instead of buying people crap you can buy them a goat, or some condoms...imagine buying your Grandma condoms...it doesn't go to them, of course. Raine and I were pondering the logistics, if everyone buys a goat does Oxfam have to put that money towards goats?...Next year will there be a rehouse an abandoned goat present?
Tomorrow we're having my parents round. They have a dog (it was my aunt and uncle's, but they had to go into a nursing home, so my parents have taken him in), which they'll be leaving at home, so they can't stay for ages. It'll be nice, though, they'll have a decent amount of time here, then Raine and I will have the evening alone. We'll probably crack open a bottle of wine (or Spankers...we still haven't dared open that stuff, lest the house become a den of debauchery) and ponder the infinite...or play board games...or watch the Soaps, which always have hilarious, redicuously improbable disasters on Christmas Day - plane crashes, murders, outed affairs with ex-Oxfam goats.
We saw a couple of films last week, both worth mentioning. "The Darjeeling Limited" is excellent. A lot of fun, and very original - it's directed by Wes Anderson (of 'The Royal Tenenbaums' fame). The other: "The Golden Compass" is beautiful to watch.
I got an early Christmas present yesterday: a letter saying I'm through to the final, assessment centre, stage of a job I applied for. I really thought I'd messed up the telephone interview. I spent the whole day with a smile on my face. It was a lovely, confidence boosting, surprise!
Merry Christmas to you all - take care and have fun.
Tomorrow we're having my parents round. They have a dog (it was my aunt and uncle's, but they had to go into a nursing home, so my parents have taken him in), which they'll be leaving at home, so they can't stay for ages. It'll be nice, though, they'll have a decent amount of time here, then Raine and I will have the evening alone. We'll probably crack open a bottle of wine (or Spankers...we still haven't dared open that stuff, lest the house become a den of debauchery) and ponder the infinite...or play board games...or watch the Soaps, which always have hilarious, redicuously improbable disasters on Christmas Day - plane crashes, murders, outed affairs with ex-Oxfam goats.
We saw a couple of films last week, both worth mentioning. "The Darjeeling Limited" is excellent. A lot of fun, and very original - it's directed by Wes Anderson (of 'The Royal Tenenbaums' fame). The other: "The Golden Compass" is beautiful to watch.
I got an early Christmas present yesterday: a letter saying I'm through to the final, assessment centre, stage of a job I applied for. I really thought I'd messed up the telephone interview. I spent the whole day with a smile on my face. It was a lovely, confidence boosting, surprise!
Merry Christmas to you all - take care and have fun.
Monday, 10 December 2007
Last week of term. Lots of work to do. Raine has deadlines this week. I don't have any, my work's just about keeping the momentum going. I'll kick myself if I don't keep working through the holidays. I really feel like I'm getting somewhere, and I'm getting a lot of positive feed back from my mentor. I thought I was ready to leave uni (at the end of this academic year, when I get my degree), but I'm being encouraged to stay on, and I would be upset if I had to finish after this year. It's where to get the money from, though.
Beer festival was good, if a little bit crazy. We managed to stake out a great spot - in one of the little alcoves. We displayed our souvenir pint glass trophies on a ledge around the alcove. Furness is the best bar on campus, it is the self-proclaimed "hotbed of socialism." The beer was good - lots of random flavours, from the novelty ginger nut, and lipbalm tasting cherry, to the serious ale lovers' dark, hoppy flavours.
My Plain Lazy tops have been coming in handy this week. Have had a lot of comments about my "Make Tea Not War" top. My dad came up last Friday, we went out for coffee, the manager of the shop chatted with me solely because of my top, and gave us both our coffees for £2 - individually they cost more than that. This is a good situation, we're not greatly well off at the moment. The holiday's had to be cancelled, because we're owed money - Chris couldn't find a job for ages, and we've had to support him. It's getting cold, and people keep telling me to wear a coat - if I could afford a coat I'd buy a pair of shoes! My favourite shoes, which I wear all the time have worn through at the back, so they rub my feet...I swapped to my other shoes, and the shoelace snapped. This is a point against remaining a student.
We're having my parents here for Christmas dinner. We're planning what to make already - very domesticated. We're going traditional, with turkey, but we're going to do our favourite mash: potato, sweet potato and carrot (it's excellent!), and honey roasted vegetables.
The car's being picked up tomorrow evening. As ever, we hope the work won't be extortionate. Her engine's been rattling around, the engine brace seems to have gone. Walking's been nice - good for us, and theraputic, but it gets a bit much in the rain. Have started to break the distance into songs...you can get to the uni entrance by the end of "Hey Little Rider"...
Beer festival was good, if a little bit crazy. We managed to stake out a great spot - in one of the little alcoves. We displayed our souvenir pint glass trophies on a ledge around the alcove. Furness is the best bar on campus, it is the self-proclaimed "hotbed of socialism." The beer was good - lots of random flavours, from the novelty ginger nut, and lipbalm tasting cherry, to the serious ale lovers' dark, hoppy flavours.
My Plain Lazy tops have been coming in handy this week. Have had a lot of comments about my "Make Tea Not War" top. My dad came up last Friday, we went out for coffee, the manager of the shop chatted with me solely because of my top, and gave us both our coffees for £2 - individually they cost more than that. This is a good situation, we're not greatly well off at the moment. The holiday's had to be cancelled, because we're owed money - Chris couldn't find a job for ages, and we've had to support him. It's getting cold, and people keep telling me to wear a coat - if I could afford a coat I'd buy a pair of shoes! My favourite shoes, which I wear all the time have worn through at the back, so they rub my feet...I swapped to my other shoes, and the shoelace snapped. This is a point against remaining a student.
We're having my parents here for Christmas dinner. We're planning what to make already - very domesticated. We're going traditional, with turkey, but we're going to do our favourite mash: potato, sweet potato and carrot (it's excellent!), and honey roasted vegetables.
The car's being picked up tomorrow evening. As ever, we hope the work won't be extortionate. Her engine's been rattling around, the engine brace seems to have gone. Walking's been nice - good for us, and theraputic, but it gets a bit much in the rain. Have started to break the distance into songs...you can get to the uni entrance by the end of "Hey Little Rider"...
Monday, 3 December 2007
Eggs and Tibet
My mind's kind of swimming in work at the moment. Getting down to it at the moment - really getting stuck into it. I think I've had a break through. I'm kind of in that state, though. When you get really stuck on something creative, and you just float along in it. Whatever you do your essence doesn't change, you leave it behind in that you are creating.
I haven't left the house today. When I was cooking eggs, showering, making curry, I was still really thinking about this group I'm studying: New Kadampa Tradition (a Western form of Buddhism, headed by a very controlling Tibetan lama). They talk a lot about meditation, perhaps that means they're getting me - they're accused of being a cult, if I don't blog for a while come and help Chris and Raine rescue me from the meditation centre, who will be taking all of my incoming cash...Actually, I'll be ok, they'll kick me out when they figure out how broke I am...no they won't, they get me sign up for benefits, as is their usual way. One member had legitimated this practice, they said that by building the movement up off the State they were giving the State good karma. Wa-hay for the State in the next life, maybe it'll have an improved version of Gordon Brown leading.
We didn't have much of a weekend. I was working at LUSU on Saturday. We went back up to uni in the evening, for a World Aids Day gig. We waited for Chris to get home from work, then he had to eat. We thought the gig went on til 12, it didn't. We got there a bit before 11 and it finished, so we walked home again (the car's broken, so we're on foot at the moment). Got stoned in the back garden, had a giggle and talked profoundly - as you always do when you're stoned, even if it's about soap operas, it's profound. On this occassion it was about books. I decided that Raine likes books which romanticise the super human, or the post human - it's beyond the normal human experience. I like books which examine the human experience, which examine the everyday, and illuminate that. In the middle you have Chuck Palahniuk, who romanticises the final moment of human experience. Everything he writes about leads up to a final moment.
We got our shopping delivered to us, because the car's broken down. That was quite fun! Ordering on the Internet then it arrives. It would have been more miraculous had there not been several problems, meaning we had to call them up. Calling ASDA up means speaking to someone in South Africa, that's strange. Firstly, because you're talking about your shopping which is coming from Morecambe; secondly, because no call centre is in South Africa!
The end of the week is a big occassion: Furness (college at the University) Real Ale and Cider Festival. Every year they hold it, and it appears in Real Ale guides. Close to 100 real ales, and stamp books to fill, and for every fourth pint you get a souvenir pint glass. Cunning - of course you're going to drink four pints for that. Really, you are. Well, last year we didn't, we stole one off a table, but...Mostly, I think the pint glasses are distributed because you wake up and don't know why the hell your head hurts so badly, then you see the glass and go down to Furness for the second day, to cure your head with more alcohol, and see what it is you've forgotten, and so on for the whole weekend. Anyway, it's down with tea for Friday night, will need it come Saturday, I fear.
I haven't left the house today. When I was cooking eggs, showering, making curry, I was still really thinking about this group I'm studying: New Kadampa Tradition (a Western form of Buddhism, headed by a very controlling Tibetan lama). They talk a lot about meditation, perhaps that means they're getting me - they're accused of being a cult, if I don't blog for a while come and help Chris and Raine rescue me from the meditation centre, who will be taking all of my incoming cash...Actually, I'll be ok, they'll kick me out when they figure out how broke I am...no they won't, they get me sign up for benefits, as is their usual way. One member had legitimated this practice, they said that by building the movement up off the State they were giving the State good karma. Wa-hay for the State in the next life, maybe it'll have an improved version of Gordon Brown leading.
We didn't have much of a weekend. I was working at LUSU on Saturday. We went back up to uni in the evening, for a World Aids Day gig. We waited for Chris to get home from work, then he had to eat. We thought the gig went on til 12, it didn't. We got there a bit before 11 and it finished, so we walked home again (the car's broken, so we're on foot at the moment). Got stoned in the back garden, had a giggle and talked profoundly - as you always do when you're stoned, even if it's about soap operas, it's profound. On this occassion it was about books. I decided that Raine likes books which romanticise the super human, or the post human - it's beyond the normal human experience. I like books which examine the human experience, which examine the everyday, and illuminate that. In the middle you have Chuck Palahniuk, who romanticises the final moment of human experience. Everything he writes about leads up to a final moment.
We got our shopping delivered to us, because the car's broken down. That was quite fun! Ordering on the Internet then it arrives. It would have been more miraculous had there not been several problems, meaning we had to call them up. Calling ASDA up means speaking to someone in South Africa, that's strange. Firstly, because you're talking about your shopping which is coming from Morecambe; secondly, because no call centre is in South Africa!
The end of the week is a big occassion: Furness (college at the University) Real Ale and Cider Festival. Every year they hold it, and it appears in Real Ale guides. Close to 100 real ales, and stamp books to fill, and for every fourth pint you get a souvenir pint glass. Cunning - of course you're going to drink four pints for that. Really, you are. Well, last year we didn't, we stole one off a table, but...Mostly, I think the pint glasses are distributed because you wake up and don't know why the hell your head hurts so badly, then you see the glass and go down to Furness for the second day, to cure your head with more alcohol, and see what it is you've forgotten, and so on for the whole weekend. Anyway, it's down with tea for Friday night, will need it come Saturday, I fear.
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