Moving News and the Weekend
So finally, finally, the house has officially sold! We're going to be moving out by the 11th of August into some rented accommodation in Hemel Hempstead. For those of you who don't know where Hemel Hempstead is, it's where this happened:
I still haven't seen the flat, but Phil assures me it's far from the blast zone :). All joking aside, he managed to find a rather nice new flat near the town centre for us to rent for 6 months (apparently the shortest time you can rent there). It's costing a lot more than we hoped to spend and is for longer than we intended, but at least it'll give us plenty of time to find somewhere nice and we'll be a bit more comfortable, with plenty of space. I think we might have to refrain from having a party there though as the rental agent told us of someone losing a > £1000 deposit when they spilled something on a carpet in a similar property. I'll let you all know when I have the new address.
Easter weekend was pretty busy. Our car managed to die with spectacular timing just before the weekend. Phil had to rush out and look for an old banger to tide us over. With the moving and the wedding next year, we thought it best not to spend the money on a decent car. It's kind of sad. I'm not really a car person, but our car was pretty and it kind of lended us an edge of cool. Oh well, maybe in a couple of years time we'll be able to get something a bit prettier and cooler.
Since Phil was able to procure a car, we drove over to Phil's parents on Friday afternoon so we didn't have so far to go to Wembley arena that night. The Xfactor show was undoubtedly cheesy, but a hell of a lot of fun. Pretty much all the less-than-great acts had improved considerably since the TV show. Still, couldn't sit through Futureproof without cringing considerably. Hope seemed to have forgotten their clothes, though they weren't all together dire. Same Difference were amusing to watch, though I still can't help being mildly disturbed when they sang love songs together! For anyone who doesn't know, they're brother and sister. The stars of the show were undoubtedly Nikki and Rhydian. Nikki's definitely gained confidence since the tv show. It was amazing to hear her sing "My Heart Will Go On" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart". Rhydian was, well Rhydian. I don't think they chose the best songs for him to sing. I was disappointed he didn't do "The Phantom of the Opera" or "Somebody to Love", but he was still amazing. Yes I was disappointed that Leon won in the end, but he was really good on stage. The only real gripe I'd have about the whole night was the sound engineers' total lack in ability to get the music levels right. In most cases the music was just too loud and the locals got drowned out. It was most noticeable in the finale where they all sang. Even the strongest voices, Nikki and Rhydian, were being drowned out. Despite that it was a thoroughly enjoyable night.
On Saturday and Sunday Phil and I geeked it out at Eastercon. After years of going to Stafury conventions it was kind of disconcerting going to a con where I knew hardly anyone. I think having CFS makes these social situations about 10x worse. There's the inevitable difficult 'What do you do?' question and generally keeping track of conversations, when your concentration is comparable to that of a goldfish, is challenging. I did manage to meet up with some old friends though, which was great, and even bumped into a girl I'd met at of the BSFA meetups. Ok so it did take me a good few seconds of staring at her for me to remember where I'd seen her before (damn CFS), but she didn't run away so I don't think she thinks I'm a total freak. I did in the end manage to chat to some new people. Thankfully all being SCIFI geeks, there's always common ground. I even managed to find some Rodney McKay fans, much to Phil's surprise (grrrr!).
The talks, panels and other events were generally entertaining. I just managed to avoid being lynched by a group of Torchwood fans over my unpopular views on the show. I have been told that most of the problems I have with the show have been solved in season 2 so I might just give it another go. Phil and some other Astronomers took part in a panel on "The Death of UK Astronomy". Quite a few people agreed to write to their MPs. God knows if it'll make any difference, but I guess generally raising awareness about the problem has got to be a good thing.
I used to think my amazing ability to pick up a cold every time I went to a con, was the fault of one Jonathan M. Woodward and his whisky communions, but alas not. Grrrrr I hate colds! Going to snuggle up in front of the TV now and drool over watch some Stargate Atlantis.
Hope are all well, and I didn't just bore you all shitless!
K x
I still haven't seen the flat, but Phil assures me it's far from the blast zone :). All joking aside, he managed to find a rather nice new flat near the town centre for us to rent for 6 months (apparently the shortest time you can rent there). It's costing a lot more than we hoped to spend and is for longer than we intended, but at least it'll give us plenty of time to find somewhere nice and we'll be a bit more comfortable, with plenty of space. I think we might have to refrain from having a party there though as the rental agent told us of someone losing a > £1000 deposit when they spilled something on a carpet in a similar property. I'll let you all know when I have the new address.
Easter weekend was pretty busy. Our car managed to die with spectacular timing just before the weekend. Phil had to rush out and look for an old banger to tide us over. With the moving and the wedding next year, we thought it best not to spend the money on a decent car. It's kind of sad. I'm not really a car person, but our car was pretty and it kind of lended us an edge of cool. Oh well, maybe in a couple of years time we'll be able to get something a bit prettier and cooler.
Since Phil was able to procure a car, we drove over to Phil's parents on Friday afternoon so we didn't have so far to go to Wembley arena that night. The Xfactor show was undoubtedly cheesy, but a hell of a lot of fun. Pretty much all the less-than-great acts had improved considerably since the TV show. Still, couldn't sit through Futureproof without cringing considerably. Hope seemed to have forgotten their clothes, though they weren't all together dire. Same Difference were amusing to watch, though I still can't help being mildly disturbed when they sang love songs together! For anyone who doesn't know, they're brother and sister. The stars of the show were undoubtedly Nikki and Rhydian. Nikki's definitely gained confidence since the tv show. It was amazing to hear her sing "My Heart Will Go On" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart". Rhydian was, well Rhydian. I don't think they chose the best songs for him to sing. I was disappointed he didn't do "The Phantom of the Opera" or "Somebody to Love", but he was still amazing. Yes I was disappointed that Leon won in the end, but he was really good on stage. The only real gripe I'd have about the whole night was the sound engineers' total lack in ability to get the music levels right. In most cases the music was just too loud and the locals got drowned out. It was most noticeable in the finale where they all sang. Even the strongest voices, Nikki and Rhydian, were being drowned out. Despite that it was a thoroughly enjoyable night.
On Saturday and Sunday Phil and I geeked it out at Eastercon. After years of going to Stafury conventions it was kind of disconcerting going to a con where I knew hardly anyone. I think having CFS makes these social situations about 10x worse. There's the inevitable difficult 'What do you do?' question and generally keeping track of conversations, when your concentration is comparable to that of a goldfish, is challenging. I did manage to meet up with some old friends though, which was great, and even bumped into a girl I'd met at of the BSFA meetups. Ok so it did take me a good few seconds of staring at her for me to remember where I'd seen her before (damn CFS), but she didn't run away so I don't think she thinks I'm a total freak. I did in the end manage to chat to some new people. Thankfully all being SCIFI geeks, there's always common ground. I even managed to find some Rodney McKay fans, much to Phil's surprise (grrrr!).
The talks, panels and other events were generally entertaining. I just managed to avoid being lynched by a group of Torchwood fans over my unpopular views on the show. I have been told that most of the problems I have with the show have been solved in season 2 so I might just give it another go. Phil and some other Astronomers took part in a panel on "The Death of UK Astronomy". Quite a few people agreed to write to their MPs. God knows if it'll make any difference, but I guess generally raising awareness about the problem has got to be a good thing.
I used to think my amazing ability to pick up a cold every time I went to a con, was the fault of one Jonathan M. Woodward and his whisky communions, but alas not. Grrrrr I hate colds! Going to snuggle up in front of the TV now and drool over watch some Stargate Atlantis.
Hope are all well, and I didn't just bore you all shitless!
K x