Back from AWOL

[choccoweeble]

First of all apologies for being majorly shit at updating lately. That is of course if you’ve noticed (I do like to think I have a plethora of avid readers desperate for the next instalment but I’m sure that’s not the case). Anyway…



We had the very great pleasure of a visit from lady_pyra which was wonderful. The agenda included taking her to our weekly WHFRP game on Friday night where she played an NPC and got herself well into the game. And also got to meet a couple of our roleplaying friends who will be coming to their first Maelstrom in 2 weeks time, so that was nice.
Saturday held an enjoyable trip to the zoo, where we also met up with cuthrose and jenna_elise. A fun day was had by all, encompassing much silliness (of course) including the “tiger conga”. Although as shazrasha pointed out, in very spoil-sport-esque fashion, only worked because we were heading in the direction of the tiger enclosure at the time. Then home and the evening was enjoyed by all with takeaway and a nice game of Carcassone.
Sunday was a lazy morning of late breakfast followed by my parents arriving with camera shaped goodies!!

Monday and Tuesday were as normal into the joyous Bank of America not made any less tediously dull by the knowledge it was my last couple of days. (Also with added revision). Wednesday was my first day at my new job, which seems to be going very well, but more on that later.
Thursday held my exam, so a little revision (cough, cough… photographing crocuses in the front garden) in the morning followed by an hour’s train journey to Manchester, grab some lunch then into the St James buildings to be traumatised by the lack of stairs therefore enforced lift usage (for those of you that don’t know I am extremely claustrophobic). A short wait and flick over notes later we were escorted to the exam room to start our computer based assessment.
Two hours later, I left grinning with my certificate. 2 down 3 to go, then I’m on to the managerial level. Joy.
An hour or so’s noodle around the city centre, then I was met by jenna_elise and off to Wagamama’s for Japanese yummyness then Ye Olde Pubbe for a few beverages which was indescribably lovely after what felt like a very long day. Train home and bed.
Friday dawned bright and early with my second day at new work.



So after such a challenging week I had a lovely quiet, restful weekend, right? Wrong. Left work on Friday at 5 and straight on the motorway, down to Birmingham for a flying catch-up with kneeshooter before he buggered off to foreign parts yet again! Chinese food and films enjoyed.
Left Birmingham mid Saturday afternoon to head up to Foreign Fields at Elsecar, in order to pick up areteus (with a brief pause for chat), then on Leeds to the abode of lucian_albrecht and midnightoak. Enjoyable evening of Torchwood followed by a mixture of Dead Ringers, Victoria Wood and the Two Ronnies sketches on You Tube amongst others.
Up reasonably early and back to Elsecar for the real money spending after showing considerable self restraint the day before. As always, lovely to catch up with ephrael, redhillian, trevor_davies and Lesley. Also far too much money was spent, especially after the buying of a full length leather jacket on ebay the week before. Hmm… At least everything I bought was for specific characters so I felt reasonably justified. Top buy had to be a suedesque hood with attached mink, who I have named Malcolm and who Riftworld players and crew will doubtless be meeting at the next event.
So then, back to Leeds for a brief pause then home, with surprisingly few near death falling asleep due to utter exhaustion on the motorway moments.
This shall be forever known as the weekend of nine motorways (can’t be bothered to list them all but feel free to guess if you’re really that bored).
Needless to say it took me until the following weekend to properly recover.

So work seems to be going pretty well, I’ve already received a reasonable amount of praise from both my boss and grandboss (boss’s boss). Plus am feeling confident about everything I’ve been asked to do so far. Monday will really be the test as it’s my first day without the girl I’m taking over from. Wish me luck!



Well for once it actually really was a quiet one. Rare occurrence these days but still I’d rather be knackered than bored.
Spent the entire weekend just me shazrasha which was lovely. Saturday was lazy in the morning followed by a trip to Abakhan near Holywell in the afternoon for shazrasha to replenish her material supplies in advance of Maelstrom crafting.
Mostly I stayed outside as it was rather picturesque. Also we noticed a parking area with lake nearby on the way home, and also managed to stop at Lidl and spend rather too much money on total junk, although it felt strangely satisfying J
So a stop at Blockbuster once back in Chester to rent some films, so the evening was DVDs and eating crap. Ended up feeling sick from rather too much Custard filled Brioche L
Sunday was our first National Trust visit of the year and a chance for me to renew my membership whilst I can still have it for the cheap under 26 price. Little Morton Hall was the property of choice, one I haven’t been too before which was nice. Wander around, snap some pictures, lunch in the restaurant, few more pics, tour of the house, few more pics, then home. Results will be on Flickr soon-ish.

So now it’s Friday again and another weekend upon us. Where is this year going? Obligatory round up of yearly goals to come now that it is March (bloody hell!), but in a separate post as my wrists are starting to hurt and I’m impressed I got this far.


Quote of the Day (with a little more context than normal):
“Why do the men in this room insist on dismantling the upholstery?”
“Dismantling? It’s a little more like ripping violently apart in blind anger. Dismantling makes it sound like flat pack furniture”
“Angry dismantling! “I was so pissed off I packed it back into the box””