Dark Knight
Jul. 26th, 2012 03:19 pmI think I'm not going away this weekend. Would anyone like to go to the cinema, most probably to see the new Dark Knight film on Sat evening?
Saturday: Jogging and Poohsoc and Ceilidh
Feb. 18th, 2008 02:43 pmSaturday morning Tim and I went jogging in Milton Country Park again. Jogging there, or on the tow-path is definitely correct, it's very pleasant.
Contrariwise, jogging ought to work, but seems very problematic, not simply because of the rep it's acquired as what people do gratuitously. The bottleneck often seems to not be tired, but in being able to breathe, I'm flattened by that almost instantly, whereas later on, I would ceilidh for three hours, and feel fairly exercised afterwards.
Afterwards, we went to Tesco's coffee shop, talked about linguistics, programming, and romance.
I spent the afternoon answering some emails and so on, and then went to poohsoc, which was very entertaining. I would say more, but really, indescribable is most appropriate.
Finally, I went on to the ceilidh, which was very fun. Everything just clicked, all of the dances were easy, there were lots of nice people there (fivemack, atreic, sonic, Jenny S. T., Poohsoc Ed, hmmm_tea and thethirdvoice) to dance with.
There were several pleasing dances I remembered but hadn't seen for ages, the basket dance, and the flirtation dance. And there was a waltz-like dance, which for once I did in the nick of time manage to adapt my old waltz reflexes to (otherwise it makes me even worse than a beginner).
The callers were good and amusing (and I think new?), although I think unpractised at calling for beginners, I maybe ought to know by now what all the terms mean, and which way round the hall one waltzes at country dancing, but it's something that, even if you don't want to walk through in detail, is helpful to just mention so anyone lost can get the idea and be guided into the specific steps by watching people near them.
Contrariwise, jogging ought to work, but seems very problematic, not simply because of the rep it's acquired as what people do gratuitously. The bottleneck often seems to not be tired, but in being able to breathe, I'm flattened by that almost instantly, whereas later on, I would ceilidh for three hours, and feel fairly exercised afterwards.
Afterwards, we went to Tesco's coffee shop, talked about linguistics, programming, and romance.
I spent the afternoon answering some emails and so on, and then went to poohsoc, which was very entertaining. I would say more, but really, indescribable is most appropriate.
Finally, I went on to the ceilidh, which was very fun. Everything just clicked, all of the dances were easy, there were lots of nice people there (fivemack, atreic, sonic, Jenny S. T., Poohsoc Ed, hmmm_tea and thethirdvoice) to dance with.
There were several pleasing dances I remembered but hadn't seen for ages, the basket dance, and the flirtation dance. And there was a waltz-like dance, which for once I did in the nick of time manage to adapt my old waltz reflexes to (otherwise it makes me even worse than a beginner).
The callers were good and amusing (and I think new?), although I think unpractised at calling for beginners, I maybe ought to know by now what all the terms mean, and which way round the hall one waltzes at country dancing, but it's something that, even if you don't want to walk through in detail, is helpful to just mention so anyone lost can get the idea and be guided into the specific steps by watching people near them.
Friday dinner and games
Feb. 18th, 2008 10:46 amI had a really good weekend. On Friday, I was productive enough at work to be able to leave a little early and do shopping for Meggie, Mobbsy, Sonic and Martin coming round for dinner and games.
Food
I made a pasta and veg bake, heavier on the vegetables than normal, and with some "beef" quorn, coated in a little flavour and friend. With sides garlic bread, salad and sweetcorn, which felt very nice. As always, I made a large bake and saved the rest for the weekend, but I think I should start learning to cover half of the tin when I bring it out so no-one expects to eat 1/6 of it :)
As always, my cooking is a little uninspired, compared to people who are practised. But the presentation is certainly quite nice, with tablecloths, dishes for every dish, jugs of squash, trays to bring out glasses or plates from the kitchen. Ideally I'd practise more on my own and then invite people round, but until then, if I'm inviting people round, cooking is probably more interesting than take-away, so I invite without apology.
I certainly don't expect people to come round for my cooking :) But on the other hand, it's sufficiently competent than maybe it's as nice as we'd eat elsewhere -- I certainly like it. But I can't decide if my habitual apology for not having something more exciting is a nervous reflex (I think not, I do do that sometimes, but am fairly clear that I don't feel bad about anything here) or just acknowledging that it's acceptable, (but I won't pretend it's superb).
Games
We had to nurse the conversation along politely a bit, but it was very pleasant, they are very nice people. We played Mobbsy's birthday Caylusthe Unforgettable.
This is a resource-collecting-building-german-like game. The rules are a little intimidating, but it's pretty well designed, once we started, the rules were entirely intuitive. It was pretty late, we didn't have time for a whole game, though I don't know how quick it might be if everyone knows what they're doing from the start and has got used to the various different strategies of a turn. But it seemed a pretty good game.
One suggestion for how to speed up getting into a game is to give everyone arbitrary unrelated goals, instead of playing for points -- try to build this building, try to accumulate money. This game (or similar) are sufficiently open-ended that those are probably not a completely bust strategy, but means you can play the first turn without seizing if you can't play it with a perfect strategy. *Martin* has the right idea here, his personal aim is "evil" :)
On the other hand, my head is too full of games, I don't have enough board game generalising skill to play without thought (which is lamentably sometimes not instant), and feel it'd be more fun when you're familiar with it. So it's a good post-dinner game, but I may never get round to playing it (or other board games) for years, if silly games and emergent games take precedence in my head.
Food
I made a pasta and veg bake, heavier on the vegetables than normal, and with some "beef" quorn, coated in a little flavour and frie
As always, my cooking is a little uninspired, compared to people who are practised. But the presentation is certainly quite nice, with tablecloths, dishes for every dish, jugs of squash, trays to bring out glasses or plates from the kitchen. Ideally I'd practise more on my own and then invite people round, but until then, if I'm inviting people round, cooking is probably more interesting than take-away, so I invite without apology.
I certainly don't expect people to come round for my cooking :) But on the other hand, it's sufficiently competent than maybe it's as nice as we'd eat elsewhere -- I certainly like it. But I can't decide if my habitual apology for not having something more exciting is a nervous reflex (I think not, I do do that sometimes, but am fairly clear that I don't feel bad about anything here) or just acknowledging that it's acceptable, (but I won't pretend it's superb).
Games
We had to nurse the conversation along politely a bit, but it was very pleasant, they are very nice people. We played Mobbsy's birthday Caylus
This is a resource-collecting-building-german-like game. The rules are a little intimidating, but it's pretty well designed, once we started, the rules were entirely intuitive. It was pretty late, we didn't have time for a whole game, though I don't know how quick it might be if everyone knows what they're doing from the start and has got used to the various different strategies of a turn. But it seemed a pretty good game.
One suggestion for how to speed up getting into a game is to give everyone arbitrary unrelated goals, instead of playing for points -- try to build this building, try to accumulate money. This game (or similar) are sufficiently open-ended that those are probably not a completely bust strategy, but means you can play the first turn without seizing if you can't play it with a perfect strategy. *Martin* has the right idea here, his personal aim is "evil" :)
On the other hand, my head is too full of games, I don't have enough board game generalising skill to play without thought (which is lamentably sometimes not instant), and feel it'd be more fun when you're familiar with it. So it's a good post-dinner game, but I may never get round to playing it (or other board games) for years, if silly games and emergent games take precedence in my head.
The LJ tends to do three things. (1) Record what I've done. Basically a diary, it's actually quite convenient to have that, though I never kept a diary before. (2) Be interesting reading. I try. (3) Rant. I try not to do this, except insofar (2), but still do.
So, a brief trip into the weekend, with Herr Doktor Professor Vickeridge[1] ensues. I did a lot of things, though with little to say about anything.
* Thursday I had a night in. And found several books I forgot I bought and read some of them.
* Friday, I went to Pippa's party with strawberry wine, kinky classicists, hugging, good conversation, beautiful people, and my bear.
* Also on friday, I went to KRRR's house party, spread the Jonathon Strange love, and drank mulled wine.
* On saturday I went to london to see Justin, and to see Angel, and to watch Narnia (review pending). There was also a wonderful all-you-can-eat vegan restaurant, that made some of the best food I've eaten out anywhere.
* There were lots of transport issues. The bike puncture-died on mill road, and was left at Ida Cottage until sunday. The bus to the station took an hour, and missed the train by thirty sec, and I had been hung over, so was in london a bit late in the afternoon. The trains were busy but otherwise fine. On coming back, there was a blessed Citi 1 pulling up right outside.
* Which was great until of a gang of 15 year olds on the back seat who were taking the piss, one had only paid half way and messed about wondering whether to pay more or get off, the driver got fed up and ordered him off, he refused, the driver threatened and then called the police. We waited 15 min on mil road, then the driver gave up and drove on. I might try to write this out in more detail just in case something comes of it.
* On sunday, I missed Dave's Carlton, went to Ida Cottage where I was force fed tea and mince pies, and fixed my bike.
* I met Tom H. and Justin and friend for juice.
* I stopped at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
numberland's to hug her, help wash up, and be given a calender-shaped christmas present. (Pretty pictures. Squee!)
* I went tosonicdrift's Crime Traveller night, had nice vegetable[2] meal, and very very nice christmas pudding (thanks, sonic and emperor), argued about physics a lot, and was given a book shaped christmas present
[1] Cookie and massage to anyone who gets the reference.
[2] Literally. I mean, bar mushrooms and grains, most food is, but this was obviously so, but this was very well done, and she had no call to feel guilty for the sweetcorn at all.
So, a brief trip into the weekend, with Herr Doktor Professor Vickeridge[1] ensues. I did a lot of things, though with little to say about anything.
* Thursday I had a night in. And found several books I forgot I bought and read some of them.
* Friday, I went to Pippa's party with strawberry wine, kinky classicists, hugging, good conversation, beautiful people, and my bear.
* Also on friday, I went to KRRR's house party, spread the Jonathon Strange love, and drank mulled wine.
* On saturday I went to london to see Justin, and to see Angel, and to watch Narnia (review pending). There was also a wonderful all-you-can-eat vegan restaurant, that made some of the best food I've eaten out anywhere.
* There were lots of transport issues. The bike puncture-died on mill road, and was left at Ida Cottage until sunday. The bus to the station took an hour, and missed the train by thirty sec, and I had been hung over, so was in london a bit late in the afternoon. The trains were busy but otherwise fine. On coming back, there was a blessed Citi 1 pulling up right outside.
* Which was great until of a gang of 15 year olds on the back seat who were taking the piss, one had only paid half way and messed about wondering whether to pay more or get off, the driver got fed up and ordered him off, he refused, the driver threatened and then called the police. We waited 15 min on mil road, then the driver gave up and drove on. I might try to write this out in more detail just in case something comes of it.
* On sunday, I missed Dave's Carlton, went to Ida Cottage where I was force fed tea and mince pies, and fixed my bike.
* I met Tom H. and Justin and friend for juice.
* I stopped at
numberland's to hug her, help wash up, and be given a calender-shaped christmas present. (Pretty pictures. Squee!)* I went to
sonicdrift's Crime Traveller night, had nice vegetable[2] meal, and very very nice christmas pudding (thanks, sonic and emperor), argued about physics a lot, and was given a book shaped christmas present[1] Cookie and massage to anyone who gets the reference.
[2] Literally. I mean, bar mushrooms and grains, most food is, but this was obviously so, but this was very well done, and she had no call to feel guilty for the sweetcorn at all.