contemplativeLast Sat was Clive's wedding. Well, his and Viki's, but it must have been obvious to most that at least one other person would be involved - even ignoring the family, friends and drunken LARPers. But more of Elle later perhaps...
What is there to say? The vicar was obviously regretting not having become a stand-up comic, and the photographer was the one who seemed to be most in control, and it rained.
Also reminded me of a pet vegetarian peeve - "Meat Sir? No thanks. Chicken? Not for me. Vegetables? Lovely, but can I have perhaps a little more of them as that's all I'm eating rather than the amount that would perfectly compliment half-a-cow?!"
There was a lovely little pub around the corner from the church with a pretty C.13th roof. And Elle got drunk and left me a present of her mobile phone in the back of the car. It was PIN-locked so I couldn't abuse it but still better than a pile of vomit.
The last half of the week was in Durham as the guests of the Northern Grid for Learning. Conference was ok, but good old Virgin Trains were on usual form. But I've written about that already.
Harry Potter was much as expected - jolly good entertainment. My accomplice for the evening and I were debating why Rowling writes with a male rather than female protagonist - but looking at Hermoine in the film I can only assume JK herself is happy being the brains of the outfit and is happy letting the boys have all the scrapes before they all get together for lashings of ginger beer.
Had a jolly good Chinese too, but was a bit confused when after I gave them a card for the bill they gave me £13.55 in change. And no card. It was quickly rectified but a moment of amusement in any case.
Saturday was an active day, before heading to the M6 with sjh, Gordon and Jon, I decided to prepare for Operation Gerbil Introduction by buying some mesh and wood and bodging together a partition. For those who think this is some kind of odd rodent dating programme, let me explain...
The-lounge-in-which-I-reside has become the home to two gerbils. They are sisters but don't get on, so this means two tanks which is right pain. There are some guides on the net (so they must be true!) about how to reintroduce them. This involves them starting to share a tank which is partitioned to avoide them starting by killing each other. I'll keep people updated on progress...
So, four went to Preston. M6 was pretty good, though even with a coffee stop (and it was better coffee than the dishwater we'd been served in Durham) we were early so got to help build the bonfire. I suggested it would go better with a Protestant on it but there weren't any volunteers. Party was much like any other with LARPers present and frot(t/h)ing. Was fun, but I've learnt that Frechetta pizzas need a baking tray...
Nice to catch up with people like H after a long time, and he might even have issued an invite to come and visit him in Norwich which might be worth getting around to in the future. And again Ian expressed his amusement at my NWO debrief (more on that later...)
We had lots of fireworks, some of which were aimed at the guests and the house for further amusement value - I recall turning round at one point and finding
ephraim hiding behind me..As expected didn't get a lot of sleep - but it wasn't a bad sofa. Then finally we shot off down the M6 again with an additional H in the car.
Despite the very real possibility I was going to fall asleep during it, I took up
boglin's offer of a lift to Justin Sullivan in Birmingham. Gig was great as usual but the venue was awful. At least getting in was. Despite boglin having checked there were plenty of tickets, we were forced to take waiting tickets and miss half of the support. And no-one explained the system when we arrived. Not good, but all was forgotten by the time the man himself started.It was also amusing to play "small world" with
dreamfire, boglin, sjh and Mr.Shockley and find out how people know people who know people who... and so on. I believe sciamachy was there too, but in my usual anti-social style we didn't talk. Plans are afoot for Bradford and Manchester NMA, but I think one clashes with Two Towers so I'll see soon. Talked about Whitby too... but thats ages away still.
Oh, and Kat asked about kneeshooter - very much thanks to
cutietrol and his teasing of my well-honed SWAT3 skills :-)Thats far too much warbling for now. And I must try and do some work today - at least when the RAID array has finished building itself, and maybe I'll try and find out where these cables/switch have got to...
