(no subject)
Hello, 2016.
The day before New Year's Eve, I got up, got ready, donned an apron and prepared to cook for the day. It was the longest prep for a party I've ever done, to be honest, and I had a long list of stuff to prep. I really enjoyed it, though, although I did feel like a 1950s housewife when at one point I stopped to put on some lipstick and then basted a chicken. Fiona turned up early for the first time ever ("You said the start time was 4pm!" "I just said that to you so that you'd turn up on time for 5pm!") and Chloe arrived before too long. I haven't seen Chloe since she left London, moved to China and then moved to St Andrews so it was wonderful to catch up. I put out Nibbles and stopped Richie from eating the bigger stuff when he got home from work ("eat the nibbles!") and not too long after that littlered2 and Rob turned up.
The plan was to eat, chat and play games but in the end the eating and the chatting rather took precedence. It was marvellous. It's always a little nervewracking putting new people together put it worked really well; lots of laughter, slightly too much wine (me: failed to actually eat when cooking) and overall a lovely evening.
Oh god the next day though. Oh god my HEAD and the HORROR of returning to work. It was awful. Bad timings all around, although I did enjoy having a day of floating about the office in jeans, Converse and an ashen expression of a hangover. As it was New Year's Eve and the office would be closed the day afterwards, I took up the leftover fruit and gave it to the homeless people outside of Blackfriars. God knows if it's even a slightly useful thing to do but at least it was eaten.
I went to bed at 10.30pm. I don't regret this.
On New Year's Day I went for a long run in the chilly morning and then we went to see Star Wars! I would advise you read loneraven's viewpoint on it as it sort of matches mine in terms of the Dark Side and the wonder that is Rey. I have to add in a little more about the wonderfulness of Finn. Finn! I thought he was brilliant. Star Wars is normally 'great action, the kind of handwavey random fantasy stuff I like, terrible characters' so I was surprised by The Force Awakens reversing that a little. I mean, I'm not bonkers on Star Wars, but I really did love Finn and Rey. And BB-8, because I'm a child.
But Finn's slight overenthusiasm and failing to understand entirely what's happening and OH GOD THE SLASH, even Richie leaned over to me halfway through to ask if Finn an Poe were at it and that is not normally something he picks up on.
ALSO: I loved that Bill Weasley played an evil general who had a sole purpose of CHEWING THE SCENERY and from what I can, little else.
Now it's back to work and getting stuck into 2016. Total achievements so far have not been killing anyone when they ask me YET AGAIN about holiday allowances (changes the timings of the year are causing insane chaos), running nearly 7km on Sunday as I get stuck into Proper 10km training, starting listening to The Thrilling Adventure Hour and taking the Christmas tree down. We are not doing a real one again next year as we are going to be picking pine needles out the stairway carpet for the next six months. Phew. Busy busy.
The day before New Year's Eve, I got up, got ready, donned an apron and prepared to cook for the day. It was the longest prep for a party I've ever done, to be honest, and I had a long list of stuff to prep. I really enjoyed it, though, although I did feel like a 1950s housewife when at one point I stopped to put on some lipstick and then basted a chicken. Fiona turned up early for the first time ever ("You said the start time was 4pm!" "I just said that to you so that you'd turn up on time for 5pm!") and Chloe arrived before too long. I haven't seen Chloe since she left London, moved to China and then moved to St Andrews so it was wonderful to catch up. I put out Nibbles and stopped Richie from eating the bigger stuff when he got home from work ("eat the nibbles!") and not too long after that littlered2 and Rob turned up.
The plan was to eat, chat and play games but in the end the eating and the chatting rather took precedence. It was marvellous. It's always a little nervewracking putting new people together put it worked really well; lots of laughter, slightly too much wine (me: failed to actually eat when cooking) and overall a lovely evening.
Oh god the next day though. Oh god my HEAD and the HORROR of returning to work. It was awful. Bad timings all around, although I did enjoy having a day of floating about the office in jeans, Converse and an ashen expression of a hangover. As it was New Year's Eve and the office would be closed the day afterwards, I took up the leftover fruit and gave it to the homeless people outside of Blackfriars. God knows if it's even a slightly useful thing to do but at least it was eaten.
I went to bed at 10.30pm. I don't regret this.
On New Year's Day I went for a long run in the chilly morning and then we went to see Star Wars! I would advise you read loneraven's viewpoint on it as it sort of matches mine in terms of the Dark Side and the wonder that is Rey. I have to add in a little more about the wonderfulness of Finn. Finn! I thought he was brilliant. Star Wars is normally 'great action, the kind of handwavey random fantasy stuff I like, terrible characters' so I was surprised by The Force Awakens reversing that a little. I mean, I'm not bonkers on Star Wars, but I really did love Finn and Rey. And BB-8, because I'm a child.
But Finn's slight overenthusiasm and failing to understand entirely what's happening and OH GOD THE SLASH, even Richie leaned over to me halfway through to ask if Finn an Poe were at it and that is not normally something he picks up on.
ALSO: I loved that Bill Weasley played an evil general who had a sole purpose of CHEWING THE SCENERY and from what I can, little else.
Now it's back to work and getting stuck into 2016. Total achievements so far have not been killing anyone when they ask me YET AGAIN about holiday allowances (changes the timings of the year are causing insane chaos), running nearly 7km on Sunday as I get stuck into Proper 10km training, starting listening to The Thrilling Adventure Hour and taking the Christmas tree down. We are not doing a real one again next year as we are going to be picking pine needles out the stairway carpet for the next six months. Phew. Busy busy.