Yes, Let's!
Okay, had a couple of weeks that were definitely blog worthy so what the crikey. We start... in a small chinese restaurant that is hosting a charity dinner. It had been organised by a client of ours and was fundraising for a local hospice. I took Helen along and we were served huge amounts of food and chatted very amiably to the people around us. About halfway through they came round with raffle tickets and as my boss had paid for the meal, I thought I'd splash out and get a good number of strips, half to me, half to Helen. My firm had also donated a prize of a webcam/USB hub though that was outshone a bit by the bigger prizes including crates of champagne, signed football memorabilia and holiday accomodation in the Caribbean. Later on the draw occurs, with tickets being drawn then the winner drawing from a separate bowl to determine which prize they should get. Helen has had a lot of luck with raffles recently (despite previously protesting her absence of good fortune) and sure enough, one of her numbers came up. As I was nearer, I drew the choice of prize and it was... the webcam set. Boh! Cue much laughter and me retreating to my seat looking slightly sheepish.
A few more tickets are drawn and then once again Helen has a number called. This time she draws the prize and gets a crate of wine. Given that we'd already had a prize, we distributed the bottles among the others on the table (about a dozen or so) and remark on our good fortune. But then one of mine is pulled out and I once again make my way to the prize bowl. The ticket is number one and even before our hostess announced it, I'd guessed what it was - a week in Antigua at the St James's Club. All we need to pay for is the flight over and everything else from food to activities is bundled in. Helen didn't stop squeeing for hours and I must admit I spent quite a long time cooing over pictures of the sandy beaches and pools. Strangely an old friend of mine stayed in Antigua for a long time and I have a distant recollection that it was at the St James's Club he was docked. Or used for the internet. Antigua was (and I think still is) a major location for offshore servers so it was perfectly reasonable to go there for business purposes. *suddenly has doubts*
Also... it was my birthday and I received two rather marvellous gifts. First to come was from the wonderful Embers who got me some lovely bits from the Discworld, including a tea towel with prices for rat ("Ever tried a rat without ketchup?") and badges, as ever coming in an parcel expertly wrapped and decorated. Then I went out for a meal and discovered that Helen had carefully organised with all those who normally give me a present to chip in and get me ... the Widowmaker! Well, the iPad 2 to use its technical name but given that it was likely to replace any form of conversation with Helen, she thought she'd claim naming rights. It's not something I would have bought for myself but it's just so lovely and useful and fun and smooth and eye-catching... Very nice. Actually, it's one of the slightly selfish disappointments that a lot of the things that made me a techno-whizz have become boringly mainstream. I was downloading episodes of Buffy back in the last century but now you can't even claim any kudos for getting episodes from the US the following day uncut and in HD. The iPad 2 should be a device of infinite mystery that you're carrying around with you and yet it's now so commonplace. *sigh*
Next - my sister's wedding day. My sister has been going out with the same guy for oh so many years and last year, while on top of a very tall mountain, he popped the question (with the ring tab from a plastic bottle) and a mere six months later (with the barest minimum of run-up), they got married. Well, technically they got married twice - once at a civil ceremony at a local venue and the next time at our family home with loads of friends and family. It was a really beautiful day, the sun was shining, it was all rather marvellous. The other great thing was my brother, his wife and their two kids were there as well. I don't get to see them very often as they live in Sydney so any chance of bonding with them must be taken although it's not without its cost. I once ran the Great North Run, 13 miles of hills and the pain I felt after that was nothing compared to the creaking of my body after playing with James for the day. He also paid me the greatest compliment a child can - they were going off to Disneyland Paris then we'd meet them afterwards in Tours a few days later. When informed that he was leaving us behind to go to Disney, his face fell and he said "When will Disney be over?"
Still, they had a good time and before we met them again, so did we, taking the EuroStar into Paris and then walking around the city before taking a leisurely train down to Tours. We had a week in a small villa, spending huge amounts of time in the pool - James is quite the water baby and managed to tire out his parents, Helen and I, both sets of grandparents and the family in the villa next door. What did he want to do the next day? "Can we spend even longer in the pool tomorrow?" Sad to see them go of course but hopefully it helped remind them both that they had a bona fide aunt and uncle in the UK.
Finally we returned home, picked up Faran from the cattery (only moderately disgruntled with us) and then headed into London and the BFI to see a special preview of Let's Kill Hitler! The episode itself is terrific (at least I thought so at the time - it is possible to be swept away with an audience but yeah, I laughed a lot) and then afterwards they had a Q&A with Steven Moffat, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darville (who is a master at dead pan faux offence). If they did a cinema screening of each episode, I'd be up for that - there's always a bit more of an atmosphere when there's people around you.
So yes, I've been busy the last month or so - I suspect things should calm down a bit now, bit of quiet time. Still, new Who from Saturday (or rather Saturday week in my case) plus the eternal hope that Torchwood will pick up and they're finally getting around to showing season 4 of Burn Notice in the UK. As the man said, be seeing you.
A few more tickets are drawn and then once again Helen has a number called. This time she draws the prize and gets a crate of wine. Given that we'd already had a prize, we distributed the bottles among the others on the table (about a dozen or so) and remark on our good fortune. But then one of mine is pulled out and I once again make my way to the prize bowl. The ticket is number one and even before our hostess announced it, I'd guessed what it was - a week in Antigua at the St James's Club. All we need to pay for is the flight over and everything else from food to activities is bundled in. Helen didn't stop squeeing for hours and I must admit I spent quite a long time cooing over pictures of the sandy beaches and pools. Strangely an old friend of mine stayed in Antigua for a long time and I have a distant recollection that it was at the St James's Club he was docked. Or used for the internet. Antigua was (and I think still is) a major location for offshore servers so it was perfectly reasonable to go there for business purposes. *suddenly has doubts*
Also... it was my birthday and I received two rather marvellous gifts. First to come was from the wonderful Embers who got me some lovely bits from the Discworld, including a tea towel with prices for rat ("Ever tried a rat without ketchup?") and badges, as ever coming in an parcel expertly wrapped and decorated. Then I went out for a meal and discovered that Helen had carefully organised with all those who normally give me a present to chip in and get me ... the Widowmaker! Well, the iPad 2 to use its technical name but given that it was likely to replace any form of conversation with Helen, she thought she'd claim naming rights. It's not something I would have bought for myself but it's just so lovely and useful and fun and smooth and eye-catching... Very nice. Actually, it's one of the slightly selfish disappointments that a lot of the things that made me a techno-whizz have become boringly mainstream. I was downloading episodes of Buffy back in the last century but now you can't even claim any kudos for getting episodes from the US the following day uncut and in HD. The iPad 2 should be a device of infinite mystery that you're carrying around with you and yet it's now so commonplace. *sigh*
Next - my sister's wedding day. My sister has been going out with the same guy for oh so many years and last year, while on top of a very tall mountain, he popped the question (with the ring tab from a plastic bottle) and a mere six months later (with the barest minimum of run-up), they got married. Well, technically they got married twice - once at a civil ceremony at a local venue and the next time at our family home with loads of friends and family. It was a really beautiful day, the sun was shining, it was all rather marvellous. The other great thing was my brother, his wife and their two kids were there as well. I don't get to see them very often as they live in Sydney so any chance of bonding with them must be taken although it's not without its cost. I once ran the Great North Run, 13 miles of hills and the pain I felt after that was nothing compared to the creaking of my body after playing with James for the day. He also paid me the greatest compliment a child can - they were going off to Disneyland Paris then we'd meet them afterwards in Tours a few days later. When informed that he was leaving us behind to go to Disney, his face fell and he said "When will Disney be over?"
Still, they had a good time and before we met them again, so did we, taking the EuroStar into Paris and then walking around the city before taking a leisurely train down to Tours. We had a week in a small villa, spending huge amounts of time in the pool - James is quite the water baby and managed to tire out his parents, Helen and I, both sets of grandparents and the family in the villa next door. What did he want to do the next day? "Can we spend even longer in the pool tomorrow?" Sad to see them go of course but hopefully it helped remind them both that they had a bona fide aunt and uncle in the UK.
Finally we returned home, picked up Faran from the cattery (only moderately disgruntled with us) and then headed into London and the BFI to see a special preview of Let's Kill Hitler! The episode itself is terrific (at least I thought so at the time - it is possible to be swept away with an audience but yeah, I laughed a lot) and then afterwards they had a Q&A with Steven Moffat, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darville (who is a master at dead pan faux offence). If they did a cinema screening of each episode, I'd be up for that - there's always a bit more of an atmosphere when there's people around you.
So yes, I've been busy the last month or so - I suspect things should calm down a bit now, bit of quiet time. Still, new Who from Saturday (or rather Saturday week in my case) plus the eternal hope that Torchwood will pick up and they're finally getting around to showing season 4 of Burn Notice in the UK. As the man said, be seeing you.