I've lost track of time this last week...

Let's see. On Wed we went down to Babbacombe to visit mum Taylor - lovely train trip down, nice lunch in a cafe that allows dogs (mum has two Pomeranians, Poppy and her son Misty) then a saunter along all the Marychurch charity shops. (Kai did quite well: I didn't find anything except another flamingo for Lutra.) She's looking well, and seems to be fine. It was great to see her again.

Looking back at Torquay from Corbyn Head.

We had coffee and cake at the Grand Hotel as we were a little early for the train - very nice place! - and then the train was half an hour late... Still, glorious sunset on the way back.

Tyjer decided he wanted to sleep in the corner of my desk when we got back...

I forgot to say... Kai has had bad seborrhoeic dermatitis of his scalp since the transplant, and over the last three weeks has made a determined attempt to get rid of it - by shaving his head and using the prescribed wash every day. Took a bit of getting used to but he's lucky: it doesn't matter what he does with his hair it always suits him. He prefers it long though, so is now letting it grow back out.

He's also been working on scraping all the old layers of paint off the handrail of the stairs (we've decided to go for a more natural look throughout the house, since the windowsill tiles are so nice). I'd hoped it might be pine, but the house is 1950's, before pine became usual: it's a dark oak, which will look good when cleaned and polished.

Thursday we rested a bit. Ken had Wed/Thurs/Fri annual leave, and with the bank holiday that was almost a week off.

Friday Kai had the dentist: I went with him and picked up the curtain poles I was looking for at Wilko... The photos haven't come out that well - it's not easy taking them in that room, the light is very bright even on a dull day and wrecks the auto-thingie. However - the first two are the old wooden window poles and dull golden curtains.

The next three are the new ones - along with the curtains I found at the Age UK charity shop. Lovely colour, lovely design, great quality - and too small. [headdesk] Going to have to make them, which means a trip into town to Fabricland. Which is fine: have to get there anyway for the peacock fabric for the curtains in this room (second display case is now ordered, and table disassembled and stored in shed). I've decided on the colours too, so will pick paint up at Wilko in the same trip. Next few weeks are going to be even busier than usual.

Outside: more beans. Lots more beans. And my sweetcorn have now actually finished! One large bag and a bit more in the freezer - not too bad. We have pears and apples galore, which is great!

Media: we finished Crusade ([sigh] Oh, if only it had gone to a proper series...) and have moved on to Legends of Tomorrow season 2, which is looking to be as much fun (and as confusing) as season 1. We relaxed with 4 Weddings and a Funeral, which Kai had never seen and which I've had in the pile for years. And we watched Baahubali.

WOW. It's fabulous! A kind of psuedo-historical mythological Bollywood extravaganza of the finest kind. Absolutely glorious - and music is terrific too! We loved it so much I leapt onto amazon as soon as it finished and ordered the sequel. Which is now on its way. Hopefully be here for Friday!

Labels: busyness, Crusade, days out, decorating, films

As threatened promised yesterday...

Sunday July 10th 1983. Marchmont, Edinburgh. Worst mistake I ever made. Groom's face scrubbed to protect the guilty.

Yes, that is me. Do they make jokey photos like this any more? It's designed to show off the dress.

Scottish wedding.

Hennaed hair, styled by Agnes, a friend at the time. Looks quite nice I think.

So there you go!

Labels: first wedding

Quick catch up this time. Busy week ahead...

Media... We're watching Crusade in the JMS-stated chronological order, which differs substantially from the order on the DVD boxed set, but which makes more sense overall. Still enjoying it (though the eps with Galen are my favourites).

Bhoot was a surprise: nothing actually new in the film, but it's gripping and very good indeed - had me jumping all the way through and there's precious little that can do that these days!

Icarus XB-1 is also extremely good. Quite how an old black and white, subtitled Czech film can be simultaneously cosy, low-key, exciting and hope-inspiring is beyond me, but this film manages it. Planning to watch it again (by myself) at some point as I think I missed a few things...

Sat evening Ken and I watched The Beastmaster, which I picked up dirt cheap just for fun. Saw it back when I was a younger dinosaur and enjoyed it then: it was just as much fun now!

Stacked up still to watch: Warlords of Atlantis. One of the few 70's fantasy films I haven't managed to catch. It was on the horror channel last week but I didn't have time to sit and watch, so picked it up (cheap, of course). Michael Gothard is an added bonus.

Transporter 3 - just to complete the series. We've already seen it, ages ago, but I have no objection to watching Jason Statham again!

Cube. Another classic I've never managed to see. Kai's intrigued.

The Crazies. I saw this late one night as a teen, and it gave me nightmares, so will be interesting to watch it again...

The Manchurian Candidate (the remake). I keep hearing the term used in relation to the current political climate and it's annoying not getting the reference, so when I saw it going (really) cheap I grabbed it. Will make time to watch it soon.

Found the newly-released Legends of Tomorrow season 2 at Sains last week. We've been eagerly awaiting this, so will probably start it as soon as we've finished Crusade.

In other news... I've had a letter from the BRI and am now waiting for my appt for another steroid injection. Apparently there is currently an 18 week waiting list, but as a registered carer I may be bumped up the queue. That would be a relief as it's now seriously impacting my ability to do anything that involves standing or walking (or even sitting for prolonged periods). Oh, and I must remember to ring the surgery for my X-ray results. I forgot last Friday.

Decorating... Oh what fun that's been! I found what I thought was the correct teal paint for our bedroom, and carefully painted around the window - only to find it was the teal paint in this room, which is silk instead of matt and darker. [headdesk] Luckily, I did still have the correct paint in the shed, so was able to put that right. Then I started on the pale blue walls... I thought the paint was the correct one for the side wall, which needed much more doing to it: decided to risk it on the front wall as much less was needed and I could put up with the difference in colour until we repaint the whole room. But no! It was the other way around and I ended up having to repaint the entire side wall. [headdeskHEADDESK] Two coats and a bit of touch up to end, over two days. There was enough paint, fortunately, with a little left over to cover where the old window poles will come down when we replace them, but ye gods my legs and back were killing me when I finished.

But it looks really nice, and we can happily live with it for a bit longer, so the bedroom redecorate is being put back until next year at the earliest.

OK, anything else..? I'm off to get my hair trimmed this afternoon. And I'll be scanning and archiving the photos from my first wedding later - may post a couple here for a laugh! (The album itself fell to pieces as I was taking the photos out. Says a lot, that!)

Later!

Labels: Crusade, decorating, films, medical matters

And this Saturday K&K have headed out to Shepton Mallet. It's a lovely little place, and I'm sure they'll find some charity and antique shops!

I'm going to be pottering. When Ken stripped the paint off the lounge and bedroom windowsills it took some of the wall paint off as well: while it's only a little, it looks a mess and is irritating me, so the walls need repainting. (Actually the whole house does but I'll be tackling it piecemeal. Don't have the energy to do it all at once any more. Lounge and our room first - Kai's is already done.) Kai took the ancient Amstrad speakers down from our walls yesterday: I plan to fill the holes ready for painting later today.

I also need to do a little gardening. There'll be more beans to freeze, and I swear some of my sweetcorn - and some of the Red Devil apples! - are already ready for harvesting (the weather has been most peculiar this year).

I rather like Ryan Reynolds. He's cute, funny, and doesn't take himself too seriously. On checking the IMDb I found he's in Blade: Trinity, which we have, so while K&K were out last Sat I watched it. It's nothing special, but he's good in it, and it meant I sat down for a couple of hours.

Sun was the usual shopping. Ken mowed, I weeded.

Monday I had my drs appt. He had no answer for why the pain is constant and worsening, so referred me to the BRI for a walk-in X-ray (which I had yesterday). Results should be with the surgery next Fri. Hopefully they won't show anything out of the ordinary - in that case I think I can request another steroid injection (or maybe two, my right hip is nearly as bad as the left now). While up at Broadwalk I did the usual check of the charity shops and found this!

(The owl umbrella came from Sainsbury's. The little dangly owl was a birthday present, from Sue I think?) It's adorable and capacious with 7 separate compartments, exactly what I was looking for!

On Tuesday the weather was pleasant: Kai and I bussed through to Wells to check the antique shops he found when he was there with Ken. There were a couple of clocks he'd taken a fancy to and was hoping they were still there. They were, and he bought them: one's a tiny thing in a well-made old box that will fit most of the tools he'd collected, the other a good anniversary clock (the chatty female store owner actually reduced it from £75 to £45 for him, as she thought her brother had overpriced it and then found there was no key! Although Kai already had one so that was OK).

Wed was wet an' 'orrible: both deliveries arrived OK then we took the rest of the day off with old and familiar DVDs.

Thurs Kai helped me take stuff around to the charity shops in Sandy Park Rd - he found a couple of the things he was looking for - then down to Sains for a quick shop. When we got back he decided he wanted to go for a ride, so took off for the Whitchurch Way (by himself). Got as far as Dundry View, then headed back, getting here just before the rain started.

Friday a.m. was my X-ray: in the afternoon it was general tidying and getting walls ready for painting.

Media... finished watching the Babylon 5 films, The Lost Tales which actually chronologically comes some time during the Crusade series, which was annoying, River of Souls, Thirdspace, and A Call to Arms, which were all OK but not as good as the series, and started Crusade. We also watched Life... It's good, beautifully made and realistic (for the most part). For me, it was nothing very new though, and I saw the end coming a good half an hour before it arrived. It's enjoyable though, in a grim sort of way...

Kai found this

It's not that clear in the photo, but it's where a fox has been digging down to make a den! (The earth that's been dug out has filled the hole where Kai was going to have his pond...) While I love the idea of foxes living in the garden, this isn't exactly the ideal location. Going to have to think about it...

And that's about it for now. Tonight's the best night for viewing the Perseid meteor shower here, so as long as it stays relatively clear we shall be out watching it.

Labels: Babylon 5, days out, decorating, films, garden, medical matters

Catch up!

K&K are off exploring the hillfort at Congresbury with a friend today, so I have the house to myself for a few hours (quite a luxury these days!) They're planning on walking part of the Strawberry Line while they're out, too.

So, what have we been up to? Well, I appreciated the Tesco delivery service so much I'm now doing the same with Sainsbury's: it's fantastic not having to go shopping every day (and sometimes twice), frees up so much of my time. Should have done it years ago... Planning to get back into regular writing again asap.

Outside... The veg garden continues apace. The first onions are now ready: variety Ailsa Craig and they are rather large -

I need to find a red variety for next year's planting: I like having the choice.

I need to reorganise the low bed a little - and remember to only plant at most four runner bean plants. They're incredibly vigorous and will take over if permitted, which is OK as long as I have room in the freezer for them. Ditto pumpkins: only ONE plant and keep it under control. In the greenhouse, this year's peppers are doing really well and are only a little smaller than the bought ones. The sweet peppers are quite a bit smaller, but it's the first time I've had any success with them, and they're perfectly usable (they're going in tonight's stir-fry, in fact). Will plant them in larger pots next year!

Inside... I've finished sewing. It's all worked rather well.

Radiator cover in this room. Hides the flaking black paint!

Kai's wardrobe curtain. Looks rather nice, I think.

Films... Hunk. Better than Galaxina. A bit. Not much more to be said...

Lutra mentioned in passing that she'd seen Pompeii, commenting that the film was only so-so but Keifer Sutherland was quite good in it. Being a Keifer fan I looked it up, and found a copy for 52p on amazon, from my go-to seller musicMagpie (seriously, this seller is amazing, fantastic prices and the fastest delivery ever, not to mention the quality of the DVDs). Ordered it - and Moonlight for £3: I caught some of this on TV many years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it - and we watched Pompeii together. Hm. Lutra's right, it's OK but nothing special, and consists of just about every cinematic trope ever devised. But Keifer's fun in it, so that's OK.

Kai and I finished Babylon 5 on Wed. Wow. So good... We've started on the films, kicking off with Legend of the Rangers - To Live and Die in Starlight (a subtitle that always makes me shiver). An awful lot of people don't like this one, but I've always enjoyed it, and was very disappointed it never went to a series. I loved the characters and the chemistry between them: there was a lot of potential there. Ah well...

Next up was Babylon 5: In the Beginning - always fun, although the picture quality made me hope for a digitally remastered DVD at some point.

Kai mentioned some time ago he wanted to watch Ground Control, which is a most enjoyable Keifer Sutherland redemption film, so he sprawled and watched while I pottered. Then he thought an action film might be fun, and ended up with xXx. (Not my favourite Vin Diesel film but I was busy during most of it). A workmate of Ken's mentioned that he'd enjoyed Bhoot, so I found a cheap copy which we'll probably watch tonight or tomorrow, as the case was damaged and the disc loose. Need to check it plays.

And Life was released to buy, so picked that up as well. Kai and I were planning to see this at the cinema, but didn't manage to make it in time. This may be one for tonight...

Right. Time for lunch. Then I should lie down for half an hour (I've been amazed at how much better I feel when I do this) then it's an hour or so of repotting the cacti. Bit by bit I'm trying to repot all the houseplants into much nicer containers - terra cotta mostly: looks far more attractive than plastic. Later!

Labels: Babylon 5, days out, decorating, films, garden