Thoughts from the front of the back of my mind

Saturday
This weekend was very enjoyable. A bit of a late start, I met miss_amaranth in Oxford about 4pm. It was a lovely, sunny Saturday and Oxford was absolutely heaving. Not good. We decided eating in City Centre was a bad idea so went out a bit too the Subway near the Pink Giraffe. Then, remembering the free refills we went into G&D's mode and spent over an hour there chatting and relaxing. Was very pleasant and something I'll probably remember for the next time I want to spend a long time talking to people when outside isn't an option.

We then headed off up to cheshcat's for a very nice evening of talk and Dominion and Pizza. It was great to see Chesh, something I don't get to do nearly enough. We all had lots to talk about and it was nice to share some recent revelations of my own and listen to her and miss_amaranth and just connect as a tribe.

At 11:30 we said our goodnight's and headed over to amuletts' to spend a very lovely night catching up with her and feanorfinwe. Finally fell over about 4am after an excellent night.

Sunday
Woke up about 11:30 and headed off back to cheshcat's. We decided was nice enough to risk it, met up with wolfpeach and his 2 (adorable) smalls and headed to Bury Knoll for a picnic breakfast. It was excellent to see wolfpeach again, especially since I've only met him at parties so struggled to find the time to have a dedicated conversation.

We then headed back to The Flat With No Name for a game of The Shinnin' where I was promptly wiped out as the traitor after 2 turns without even killing anyone. Bad rolls + items already in play = anti-climax. Was a very funny moment though when one of the characters fell through a continuity hole (wall switch + moving room = what?)

Then wolfpeach headed home and I had a much needed nap as miss_amaranth and cheshcat spent an hour or so chatting with anarchist_nomad on the phone. Then me and miss_amaranth said our goodbyes and headed home for nachos, an episode of Secret Diary of a Call Girl, cuddles and bed.

A good weekend (TM).

I have updated my Anonymous Comments Box to now be a link to FormSpring.

In actual news - things are going from strength to strength. I got bored and started eyeing up some affordable housing in Oxford. Certainly some nice options, but sadly the wrong end of it for Eynsham. I remain hopeful something will appear sooner rather than later, however.

My relationships with D and L are both growing and developing very nicely and miss_amaranth seems to be on the road to recovery which is great news on it's own.

The surprise party for anarchist_nomad was a complete success. The only wobbles on my part were a couple of near misses (nearly saying I'll be seeing miss_amaranth sooner than next week) and in hindsight I took a massive risk saying I'd gotten the same text as Nomad when I hadn't. Still, he seemed genuinely shocked when he went in to "get me a drink" (read: Get in the lounge you bloody fool, there's a party waiting for you!) so I consider that mission accomplished. I'm very glad I have a policy of only lying to surprise someone, sometimes...

My current project is to kick my video-game habit. I have now reached the point of annoying myself with my inability to keep the flat clean or work on any of my projects, because I keep playing games instead. I have already removed my games off the PC (except OpenTTD (for no man should be without his train set) so hopefully I will be able to get my flat ship-shape and my projects back on track.

In more pleasant news, and as I'm sure you've all noticed, Spring has very much sprung. It's approaching warm in the sun. Want some really good news? Tomorrow, Florence (the one in Italy) will have snow and be colder than Oxford. That makes me very happy.

Last weekend was very fun.

Friday
We (miss_amaranth and me) went to see the Christmas lights in Oxford with anarchist_nomad, uberredfraggle, pinkoi, amuletts, bunnypip and the 3 smallest Leverets.

Was very fun, even if I did miss the main parade. The castle was all Christmas-y, complete with Edward Snippy-Mitts effect snow machine, ice sculptures and a happy atmosphere. After a wander round (and a sit in the café for warmth and/or food) we went on the the Ashmolean. On the way we ended up all holding hands in one very long line, taking up most of the street, which was very fun to be a part of. Outside the museum, there was a band playing songs. The only one I recognised was YMCA but a couple of the numbers brought out the dancer in anarchist_nomad and uberredfraggle and the Leverets.

Afterwards we went around the museum, but bunnypip, the leverets and uberredfraggle had to leave due to either tiredness, work or horror at how old things in the museum were. The rest of us continued round the museum and got to see a bit of it before the place closed. It has been pencilled in for a future visit sometime in the new year.

After this it was off to the pub for warmth, drinks and conversation. It was nice to get to know pinkoi more.

The group then all went their separate ways, except for miss_amaranth, amuletts and myself who grabbed a taxi (after finding the buses stop before midnight) and spent the night at amuletts.

Saturday
After waking up at 11, me and miss_amaranth set off into Oxford to do some (emergency) dress shopping. miss_amaranth thankfully found a gorgeous little number for the ball so all was right with the world. A quick pub-breakfast at 'spoons and it was on to the station to grab the train to Newport, South Wales (or Gwent, depending on which machine you ask) in the company of uberredfraggle.

There was a brief moment of crappy-ness when I received a message of G that our plans for the 5^th had to be cancelled.

One long-ass train journey later and we were in Newport where the fabulous just_becky collected us and took us to her house for her 35^th. There we met all kinds of new and interesting people, including a long overdue reunion with the wonderful rosemary_sweet. The only LJ name I picked up was sweetcyanide but I'm sure there were more.

Good food, good drinks and excellent company. All you need for a wonderful party. just_becky's lovely speech added to the fabby-ness of the whole event.

Sunday
Another late start (and a breakfast of toffee and pecan ice-cream and Spongebob birthday cake) and it wasn't long until we were back on the train towards Oxford. We joined uberredfraggle at a Random Roast - a gothy get-together at a pub in Didcot for food. It was nice to meet new people and get some proper food down us at last.

We then ended up at someone's house which, although nicer than the train station, was probably not the best idea. Not knowing anyone and being far too late to the party meant that there was little conversation coming our way and not enough energy in either mine or miss_amaranth's reserves to force ourselves into the conversation. A bit like Whitby, I could see there was much enjoyment to be had but then was not the time.

There me and miss_amaranth had to go our own ways, as she had a party to get to in Winchester. Back in Oxford, I went to catch my bus back home only to encounter a new person. A fellow weekend traveller, it turns out he had been the fellow who had commented to me after I had smashed a wine bottle accidentally a few weeks ago. We got chatting and it turns out he lived with one of my work-mates and his landlord works below my flat. Sadly, his placement finishes in 3 weeks then he's leaving Eynsham, but it made nice company on the way home.

Monday
Now I'm at work, after nearly oversleeping and very happy about the weekend. It was very fun, not overly expensive and provided some great opportunities to reconnect with old friends and make some new ones.

hmmm. What to write about?

It's friday at least, that's always nice. Looking forward to the extra day to sleep through - should finally top me back up to pre-BiCon levels of awakeness.

Me and miss_amaranth went out for an unexpected meal. We normally have Friday Chips & Burger but apparently she had cravings for a curry and when we got to the restaurant, intending to order a take out, she decided she'd rather stay. So we did. It was really nice and she even offered to pay, which I happily accepted.

Other than that today has been lovely and quiet. Having stuff to want to tell people about is all well and good but one of the perks of having nothing to write about is that it means there's no drama, and a break from that is always welcome.

It's just a little habit I'd like to get into. Wrapping up the end of a day with an entry in the journal. I used to keep a blog, but that was to deal with my depression. If you can call it that. Mopeyness is probably more accurate.

I had a cool idea last night. I've just bought my first Warhammer 40,000 minatures - well, I say just I mean about a week ago - and I've been wondering what colours to paint them. I had the idea of doing them reddish/pink across the top (the carapace), purple across their bodies and their weapons blue. It's a great colour scheme on its own but with the added meanings it'll mean I can crack a smile as my violent, bloodthirsty creatures run across the battlefield, desperate to sink their teeth and claws into the enemy, are also bi and proud :)

I didn't get much done at work. I blame my new found LJ addiction entirely. Got to pull a long shift tomorrow, firstly to get the project finished in time and secondly because the in-laws are round and I can not be fucked with them right now. Having to keep the story straight about London is a lot more work than just staying at work a few extra hours.

The comment box idea has been a little infectious and I can see why now. I've had some really lovely comments made there that really made me smile. I left a few myself for other people. It's nice to be able to tell people things without the worry (or at least only marginal worry) that they won't know it's you and get all weird.

I'm looking forward to Thursday, should be nice to see all the BiCon crowd and remind myself it wasn't just an awesome dream sequence. Sucks about Nomad's kidney stones, crappy things always seem to happen to the best of people. Ah well, he seems to be doing better so hopefully he'll be able to make it and I can work out a drink I can buy him.

And finally it's looking like I might be going to Whitby with some pretty awesome people. This is a double whammy of feel-goodness as myself and miss_amaranth recently got utterly fucked over by a group of people we used to think were our friends who went to Whitby on a day trip and deliberately didn't tell us. Sounds like there's a bit of drama kicking off in regards to the organising of the weekend itself but, frankly, as long as I can sit in a coffee shop and people watch with a few of the BiCon peeps I'll be happy.