although with Kai saying he's feeling dreadful again I don't know how much of a celebration we're going to have. Still, we'll see 2016 in with the usual glass of Buck's Fizz and see how we feel tomorrow.

Labels: Happy New Year

Kai's had his penicillin and it'll be half an hour before he can eat, so catching up quickly before I cook.

That was a really, really nice day... Quiet, as planned, but the gifts all went down well, and the dinner was fine!

Apparently, prawn cocktail is now a retro starter! We don't care, we lubs it.

Stealth bomber Megatron with rail gun! Gorgeous design.

Windblade. Love the heels!

My bee. It's beautiful, and comfortingly heavy and chunky. Feels great to wear.

I now also have the Complete Allspark Almanac, courtesy of GoodTwin! That's my next two weeks reading sorted... Looking forward to watching Undermind (thanks, Sue!)

Today's buffet. Was delicious!

and I found these little darlings in the Wells ironmongers - adorable serviettes.

Dinner is the usual cold meats with creamed spuds and salad, and a salted caramel cheesecake to follow. Never had that before, but we really like salted caramel ice cream, so hopefully this will prove as nice!

Then it's The Phantom Menace with bacon and maple syrups crisps and popcorn...

Labels: food porn for Lutra, presents, Transformers, Yule

The solstice was our 26th anniversary. Ken met me after work at the Lowdekka and we had steak and chips - not the most exciting of meals but I've been really fancying steak just recently and I'm not that good at cooking it properly (well, mine is OK, I just throw it under the grill for 90 seconds each side, but Kai prefers his fried near well-done and Ken medium, and I just can't get it right...)

And Ken found the most gorgeous card...

Kai's BMT clinic went well yesterday: his blood counts are fine, his haemoglobin 'robust' (so he's starting venesection at the end of Feb next year), and his vitamin D levels acceptable, which is all great. Afterwards we dropped into St Nick's market, then to the hidden church on Castle Green, then bussed up to Broadwalk to get chicken tikka pieces for the Boxing Day buffet. We stopped half way home to watch the ISS fly over - all wonderfully satisfying.

Today we planned to go see The Force Awakens, but we both had miserable, broken nights and he felt really quite ill, so we're going to try for next week instead. I shopped, then Ken and I watched It's A Wonderful Life while Kai went back to bed. He's still asleep - best thing for him right now - and I'll make dinner for about 8.30 (Scottish venison meatballs: I'll make a light wine sauce and serve them with tagliatelle.) Just hope it's nothing serious: his temperature was OK, and Prof Marks was happy with him yesterday. It would be really nice to have a worry-reduced Yule.

Oh yes - meant to say that we've watched all of the first season of Robots in Disguise now (courtesy of Lutra) and while Kai really enjoyed it and wants to see more, I found it a little disappointing. Except for Grimlock. It had the best and funniest Grimlock ever. Fingers crossed season 2 comes out in a boxed set too.

All my IMDb eps now done and posted. Taking a wee break before starting the next batch in the new year.

I really like breaded garlic mushrooms with garlic mayo, and usually treat myself to some at Yule. However, this year everywhere I tried has been sold out. No garlic 'shrumps anywhere! Very annoying. Mind you, it seems to be a global mushroom problem...

Lutra: Oh I am srsly going to pout now. [pout] Got a kilo of mushrooms today but it looks like they didn't make it home from the supermarket [pout]
Flare: You mean they escaped??
I know! They really are the most troublesome vegetables.
Oh dear... can you get the cat to go round them up?
Not if they're not on the property. Besides, he'd be more likely to bat them even further away...

So not just me then.

But as it happened, Sains had some when I got there today, so I now have two bags in the freezer!

Labels: anniversaries, films, IMDb, Kai, medical matters, shopping, Yule

Aaaaand another catch-up...

Most of the Yule shopping is now done, although it did take three trips yesterday.

Kai has finally recovered from that particularly nasty bug (it even hit Ken, and he is usually resistant to them!) and is feeling much better - although the knowledge that he now has a month off is probably helping! He's done incredibly well this year, and with his blood counts still stable we're being cautiously optimistic that the worst is now in the past. He has a BMT clinic on Wed, so we'll see how he's doing then.

I've finished the Jupiter Moon IMDb ep summaries (all 150 of 'em, yay!). Just have five more Beast Machines and three more Vampire Princess Miyu eps left to do (aiming to finish those before the 25th). In the new year I shall start writing the ep summaries for Starhyke, Night Walker, the BBC version of the Narnia Chronicles, which I picked up from St Pete's Hospice as a boxed set, and The 12 Kingdoms (we have the first ten eps: I've bought the rest of the series on ebay. 45 eps in total, so a bit of a commitment again).

We're currently re-watching the original Star Wars films, as Kai fancies seeing the new one in 3D at the cinema. We're hoping to go at lunchtime on xmas eve, in the hopes that most fans will have already seen it, and everyone else will be in town frantically doing last minute shopping. The place won't be empty, but at least it may not be packed!

... I'm sure there were several more things I wanted to say, but the brain is lagging atm. I'll add a later edit if needed!

Labels: anime, catch-up, films, IMDb, Yule

Just quickly...

Kai and I watched the lift off before he headed off to uni this am. Was brilliant!

Kai bought one of these (not from this seller) with some of his Yule present money when he got back this evening. He's going to see if it will hang from the ceiling: if so, we'll paint the alcove at the foot of his bed as a spacescape and see about organising lighting...

It fits in with his advent calender theme - badges, pins and patches of keynote space programmes. I'm going to have some sewing to do over Yule.

And I've just joined the Bumblebee Conservation Trust with the last of my Yule cash!

Tripped is on at 10. Kai and I watched the first ep last week and were most intrigued. Looking forward to seeing where it goes!

Labels: bees, British drama, ISS, science, space, Yule

The trip out with Kim was great! Almondsbury have started their expansion, and their café is now terrific, bigger, much more luxurious, with a greatly expanded menu but the prices still extremely reasonable. It was really most enjoyable.

However, they no longer sell greenhouse glass separately: it works out too expensive. Luckily we have SOS Glass and Glazing up Sandy Park Rd, so I had the panes cut there (£4.70 a pane, not too expensive). Ken and I put the new glass in yesterday, so my greenhouse is now fine for the winter.

The rest of the week has been shopping, cleaning and housekeeping my C-drive. Photos and emails now archived, and my pop email account sorted (imap was driving me nuts)

On Sat Ken and I went to Street and Wells, looking for a new wok and a new bodywarmer for me (mine is now about 15 years old and distinctly tatty!) Found a lovely retro gilet in leather instead, with pockets. Lots and lots of pockets. It's the pockets that are most important for me, and this has loads. It's waterproof and windproof, of course, but only has minimal quilting, so won't be all that warm - solved that by finding an assortment of warm tops and jumpers in a variety of charity shops! (And I'm still on the lookout for a bodywarmer, but it's not so important now.)

Also found a good wok in our favourite ironmonger in Wells, so altogether it was a very successful day.

Yesterday after dinner we wrote, enveloped and addressed the Yule cards, and I got them all in the post this morning. Ye gods I'm organised!

It's Kai's last week of term, and he is heartily relieved. It's been hard for him, but he's done incredibly well, and we're very proud of him. I've told him next weekend he can sleep as much as he wants and I'll just wake him for dinners!

Linkedin have found another selection of choice jobs for me...

(... nuclear decommissioning!??)

Labels: busyness, clothes, days out, Street, Wells, Yule

Right, what have we been up to?

Actually, quite a lot of clearing up. I generally like to have the house properly clean for the new year, so have started early...

But on a more interesting note, GoodTwin and Sue came over to visit on Saturday, and enormous fun was had! And it's now confirmed that when it comes to quizzes, I'm rubbish at Sport and General Knowledge, but surprisingly good at Geography. And it wasn't even lunar or Martian geography!

[GLOMPS] to you both, I had a wonderful day.

Sunday was the usual manicness. Yesterday I had my appt for my arm, and the physio confirmed that yes, it's bursitis (colloquially, 'tennis elbow') and gave me a steroid injection (ow, but only for a few seconds) and told me to stretch and exercise. Exercise and stretch the arm every hour when I take the break from the computer that the other physio told me I must do to make sure I keep my hip more or less problem free. And I'm to go swimming as often as I can, and use back and front crawl as much as I can. So it's doctor's orders!

This is all great, and if I follow instructions and don't try to carry too much it should sort itself out.

Today Kim and I are heading off to the local tip to finally dump the extinct printer and scanner in the office equipment recycling bin, and then on to Almondsbury garden centre (fingers crossed for greenhouse glass). Kai is taking today off - he's still exhausted, poor Childe, his tutor isn't in today, and he's better off working the labs at home when he's tired, as he then isn't distracted by other people asking him for help. But term ends on the 18th, the day of his second and last MMR injection, and he then has a month off (well, he has three exams in Jan but they're quite widely spaced) so will be able to rest as much as he can and recuperate ready for the spring term. He's doing fantastically well, given that it takes two years to fully recover from a stem cell transplant and he's only had one.

On a final note, the last two eps of this season's Dr Who... sublime. Gobsmacking. I've not been too impressed with the rest of the season, but these two eps left me speechless. I'm hoping the DVDs come out with three eps at a time on them, but if we have to buy the complete series, so be it. It'll be worth it to have the finale.

Labels: Almondsbury Garden Centre, busyness, domesticity, Dr Who, friends

Later edit: I can't see a way to embed Youtube videos any more, but this has a sublime selection of Vulcan howls.

... I have goosebumps...

Yesterday proved to be very successful, despite getting off to a bit of an awkward start. But I found my Vulcan in Hawkin's Bazaar -

- and bought it for Yule from in-laws. I fell in love with this plane when I was about 5 and first saw - and heard! ye gods, you never, ever forget that howl - one at an airshow. Waaay back in college I bought and made one of these (painted it black covered with silver stars and hung it from my bedroom ceiling), took it to uni with me, but sometime in the last few decades it got lost or vanished or something. I always meant to replace it... And yes, it's XH558, the Spirit of Great Britain.

Watched The Last Flight of the Vulcan Bomber on 4 earlier in the week. Fingers crossed someone puts it out on DVD. Made me cry...

Also found a couple of bandanas for Kai. His hair's so long now the curls get in his eyes, and he thought this might be a good way to solve the problem. They really suit him, give him a thoroughly rockstar look!

And Dr Lowry is happy with progress. She's OKed him to take proprietary cold meds, had his chest x-rayed to check the slight squeak is just mucus from the bug and nothing worse (very unlikely in her opinion), and confirmed that with his weakened immune system these things take longer to clear than with other people. That will improve as his health does.

So, all good then! And today I've initiated the transfer of the WaveWrights domain to 123-reg - it seems like it's the only way we're going to be able to get email working properly - and so far it's going well.

Oh, and I spent a little more Yule cash on this -

- gorgeous dichroic glass pendant from Fused Elegance on Etsy. Absolutely beautiful jewellery! Most people know I don't wear a lot, and don't often find anything I really like, but I fell in love with this!

Annoyingly, three panes of glass in my greenhouse have smashed - from the inside out. Only thing I can think of is the hoe fell from where it was (I thought securely balanced) and hit the glass. Very annoying, but at least it's winter, there's nothing vital in there, and I should be able to replace the panes fairly easily, either ready-cut at Almondsbury Garden Centre's greenhouse dept or at the glass place just off Sandy Park Rd.

Oh, and T&M replaced the failed peach tree with an absolutely beautiful specimen. Ken and I planted it this evening - looks good! Excellent customer service - must email and thank them.

Labels: Etsy, Fused Elegance, garden, greenhouse, jewellery, Kai, medical matters, T&M, Vulcan

... wow... I have an afternoon with nothing planned!

What on earth shall I do with it?

Remember my orchid, the one that produced a second flower spike?

It's still flowering, and it looks like it's produced a third flowerspike!

And we put the decorations up on Sunday, as planned...

Kai is fascinated by deer at the moment, especially stags, so that's been the focus this year!

I've started picking up dvds to watch over the season - Ant-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (now that it's really cheap), Scrooged (traditional Yule fare which I thought we had but can't find anywhere...) and Arthur Christmas (because it looks fun!). We're really hoping The Martian will be out by then too...

Off to potter a bit. The rest of the week will be busy as usual.

Labels: busyness, decorating, orchids, Yule