Just a quick post. I've been stupidly busy since the last journal entry and now will be unable to post until sometime in 2010. I'd wanted to say lots but by the time I got free-time and access to a computer I forgot what it was I was going to say.

I suppose in simple terms: I wish everyone who reads this the best of all things over the next few weeks. May Santa bring you everything you need and a good chunk of what you want.

Some stupid details...

I finished C.S.Forester's 'The Gun'. I was going to read it over Christmas but it turned out to be a quick and engrossing read and I devoured it in a week. I'd previously read my third Sharpe book and this was set in a similar period but was about the Spanish Guerrillas rather than regular armies. But this is definitely something different. Sharpe is a romance (not necessarily a soppy one but I mean it has a format and a hero who fights for good against all the odds). The Gun however is nasty and as real and brutal as a Goya sketch of the war. It also has something to say beyond history and romance. It says 'man is small and ephemeral'. My only problem with it is that it every so often reveals itself as written in retrospect. For instance I would prefer it if it didn't say things like '...they hunted them on horseback like the nobles hunted bulls. It was decades before Spain would fight bulls on foot' or calling Wellesley 'Wellington' when he was not yet awarded that title.

My house smells of cat wee... I have yet to figure out why... it worries me.

A stupid question...

When did the myth about not doing the bottom button on your waistcoat emerge? It's definitely a well known fashion 'rule' and most of my parent's generation know of it but I cannot find any good references to it's origin. Lots of websites suggest it was due to following a mistake by the portly Edward VII who couldn't do up his bottom button but if this was at a particular event then it is surprising that there is no documentation about it (it's only a hundred years old and about a British monarch who we can find details of his whole life). If it was a slow sartorial decision of his it's also surprising that there are no portraits or photos of this much pictured character with an unbottoned waistcoat. So if this is a myth, when did the button-thing start. It must be at least the 1950's but again I have seen no real evidence of this 'rule' in photos of the period. Can you help? A beer for anyone who has the earliest photographic or published proof.

Tomorrow I see Laibach and then I'm off to Cecile's family for Christmas. I hope Eurostar works by then and that my lack of French is taken as endearingly ignorant rather than rude.

Be well and be good. S.

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Well, the last 24 hours were quite exciting.

Went to London after work last night to visit Urban Golf with work collegues for our project team Xmas doo.

Had fun, but was absolutely rubbish, despite being actually into golf :)

Got a frantic taxi to Kings Cross to get the last train back to Ely.
I neednt have rushed. Turned up at Kings Cross to find all trains delayed or cancelled. Joy.
After an hour of standing around, sometime after midnight there was a train to Cambridge. Of course, a few Cambridge trains should have gone by this point so the train was rather.....snug.

Bumped into wondergnome and his friends though, so managed to blag a lift from Cambridge to Ely. Roads were trecherous and the journey worrying, but we made it. Got dropped off on the North side of Ely around 2.30 i think, and could have gone and let myself into my parents house and kipped there.
However, it wasnt snowing and the air was still, so i decided to walk. To Littleport. In the dark.
Well, it was an adventure.
Made it home for about 04:00. It felt like a looooong walk but turned out to be just over 4 miles.

Today i was okay, aside from the headache and the annoyance of not having electricity until midday but everything is cool now.

Chilli for tea tonight. Win!

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( Festive season planning )

Current Mood: curious

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Loads to catch up on (a Rome Burns gig, hanging out with Chaps, seeing Marilyn Manson, catching a horrible cold, working out a way to say things on facebook) so I ought to put this behind a cut...( Read more... )( Read more... )

Good job I'll be showing Gremlins at 8:00 for 8:30 then, Wednesday. My place - Bug me for address/directions etc if needed !

Current Mood: bouncy

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Last night was a complete success - Sprooce and Ulf made great headroads with man called James and Man called Lee in attaching additional metalwork to the base of the car.
This morning was going well - got up early and went out to source rear springs for the Uno - found many next day delivery type options that seemed reasonable.

then the whammy.

The rally was temporarily postponed/off whilst they looked into the issues politically regarding the recent horrendous kidnap and murder of a man in Mauritania. Government says no go - insurance invalid.

Much cursing swearing, running around - map hunting to find a way around the now impassable block of terrorist ridden bad lands where the mission of charity means nothing at all.
Other drivers in the rally where hunting different routes - most of which are a lot further - fraught with even more danger etc etc.

The team were distraught until mid afternoon when the organisers pulled a possible out of the bag - a ferry for the cars down to just below the out of bounds bit. The team would have to fly down and meet her there. Problems are - what stuff the team can carry on the aeroplane (20 kg limit) along with how much of any kit stored in the car would remain in the car when unguarded.

This is the current pos. plan of which I am aware unless someone on the rally forum comes up with a.n.other idea.

Fingers crossed that the dice will fall in the right way for these guys. Exhausted.

Current Mood: anxious

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Well, for those of you to whom I have not already explained , our dear friend Sprooce is.

Firstly - Insane
Secondly - driving from Guildford to Cameroon in a 1 Litre 1990 Fiat Uno with his friend Ulf.

He leaves on Saturday. This is the last few days of running around.
I have spent a large proportion of today trying to find someone / anyone that could add some extra protection to the underside of the car to protect fuel lines, tank, sump etc.

I have received lots of useful advice, should I ever know anyone who wants to do this again - about leaving plenty of time and how it would be done if only anyone had the time. Also a lot of people laughed. Helpful.

Then - with many thanks due to Ulfilias - I was given the number of someone called James who works in a unit just over the road that May be able to do it. Gods my fingers are crossed.

There is then the question of cost for our intrepid travellers. Bearing in mind it has to be done by Friday night at the latest. It is, of course, Wednesday evening now - and Sprooce and Ulf are not here yet. James has said he will wait at the unit until about 8pm. He seems decent. It is now 18:54. They are also not made of money and, at the moment, neither am I :-(

So I sit with a cup of tea and a cat on my lap. Waiting.

The lovely Toripink is my angel and says she will come over a bit later and will, as usual, ease my worries.

This last minute stuff is really not me. I have only been sick once with worry this evening.....

Having left off planning anything this year due to people mocking my desire to plan for all eventualities, I am planning Everything next year and on. The general confusion that is how everyone else seems to live is too tiring for me.

And breathe.

Current Mood: anxious

( Silly....But definately amusing )

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Apparently using clever techy-magic, whenever I put something in LJ now it will put something in Facebook to encourage people back to good ol' LJ from that silly new un-user-friendly face-thingy.

As you may have noticed from the Twitter posts here, i've been unwell.
Thursday at work, my first day back after the All Living Fear tour, i spent the whole day sneezing and feeling crappy. From Friday until Sunday i pretty much lived on the couch, in a sleeping bag wrapped in a duvet.
Its morphed from a cold, to a head cold and blocked nose, to a temperature complete with spaceyness, to a wheezy chest infection and is now finally a rattling cough with headaches and ear trouble.
Yesterday i managed to do a morning working on my laptop from home.
Today i seem to be doing a bit better but i'm starting to lose it a bit now.

The All Living Fear tour was good, a real life experience. Venues were mixed, as were the crowd numbers unfortunately, but considering the numbers that turned out for the last gig supporting the Cruxshadows i think it really shows just how lazy the people in the goth scene have become. Living in Travellodges was hellish, but the company was good, there were many laughs in the van between gigs and i returned home intact and with all my equipment. Result!

I suspect its nearly time for a cup of tea.

Current Mood: sick