Last time I travelled abroad: mid-January, to Denmark to speak at a conference on public space in Roman Britain ( LJ / DW).

Last time I slept in a hotel: on the same trip to Denmark. It was the Scandic Aarhus City and it was very nice.

Last time I flew in a plane: same trip again! I flew with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) from Manchester to Aarhus, ( Read more... )

The Year of Augustus is officially over at last, and it's time to wish you all a happy and healthy 2015! May it be full of goodness and satisfaction for you all.

I spent my New Year's Eve this year seeing Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960) at the Hyde Park cinema with ms_siobhan (both of which I shall write up separately), before returning to ( Read more... )

Mine has certainly started out well. I decided, rather late in the day, to host a New Year's gathering at my house - nothing epic, as I knew most people would already have plans by the time I announced it, but just a convivial little get-together with canapés and champagne. And so it transpired. My neighbours and their friends popped round to kick ( Read more... )

Three years ago, I had just moved into my current house, and jointly celebrated that event and my 31st birthday with a 1920s and '30s-themed housewarming party. Lots of my friends and colleagues came along, as did some of the cheekier neighbourhood cats, and a marvellous time indeed was had ( Read more... )

I queued for The Book last night, as planned, and all was good - despite both the rain and Waterstone's bizarre attempts to turn the world's simplest and most effective system for ensuring that everyone is served in a fair order (viz., The Queue) into a confused mess by super-imposing a numbered ticketing system onto it without offering any clear ( Read more... )

Hmm - OK. I just Googled "bournville + carols + green" to find the starting time for the Christmas Eve lantern-lit carol event we've been going to for the last couple of years, only to find that my own journal is Google's number three hit for that query - above the parish church's official page which actually answered the question. Doesn't anyone ( Read more... )

Tonight is the final night of the Saturnalia, the Solstice has been accomplished successfully, and tomorrow is Christmas Eve. What could be better?

I'm up in Brum at my parents' house, and, as in some previous years, we are holding a Christmas party tonight. We've spent the day preparing, and now we've entered that lull where it's not yet worth ( Read more... )

Ah, it's the one weekend of the year when you can go out Gothed up to the nines and not attract the usual sneers and jeers. In particular, the old classic "Halloween was last month" is not valid this weekend. Ha-ha ( Read more... )

So, what about this party we had on Sunday, then ( Read more... )

Whew! Fabulous party. Absolutely FABULOUS! And I am so grateful to and touched by all the people who travelled from Oxford, Brighton, Reading, London, Winchester, Cambridge, Bristol and similar to be here and make it so enjoyable: thank you all!

Proper report when I'm not amazingly tired and ever so slightly drunk, I think...

( Read more... )