Iesus Non Amat Me

I got my booster shot today and followed it up with an eggnog latte from Starbucks. I then went a bit overboard buying festive food from Waitrose cos it's Christmas and I want to try as many things as possible! I also bought a candle that smells like Nordic Fir cos I miss the smell of a real Christmas tree. It's pretty good.

Tormund seems to be getting better. He's still a bit wary, but nowhere near as bad as he was last week, which I am very grateful for. I was so worried about him I didn't really know what to do. He's currently lying on the floor near my feet and he eagerly took his Advent calendar treat a few minutes ago so I'm happy about that.

I think I'm pretty much done with my Christmas shopping presents-wise, although I still have the food to buy. I plan to do that gradually over the next few days as I leave work. It really doesn't feel like Christmas is five days away though!

Every year I like to go up to London and have a fun festive weekend with Paul. We didn't do it last year for obvious reasons, so I was really glad we got to do it now. It was a bit earlier than usual, but that's fine. I've embraced the Christmassyness in November!



( Festive Fun )

I'm embracing the seasonal food again this year, both autumnal and Christmassy. Yesterday I had a pumpkin spice latte (from Gregg's instead of Starbucks, which felt kinda sacrilegious) and today I had a pigs under blankets sandwich. Christmas is coming and I'm not going to fight it. Bring on the festive fun!

So, another month has passed by at lightning speed. Wasn't it July just yesterday? How are we at the tail end of August already? Have we fallen into some trans-dimensional time warp where the laws of physics no longer apply and nothing means anything any more? Quite possibly, yes.

The weather has been fun too. First off we had a couple of weeks of that hideous heatwave which made sleeping pretty much impossible even with a fan pointed directly at me all night. Then last week we had so much rain that it came in through the conservatory roof and ruined a box of old pictures. Fortunately they were mostly just decorative pictures that had come from my grandparents' home and didn't have any sentimental value, but the fact that the conservatory leaks at all is worrying.

We're also coming to the end of season for my blackberry bushes, which is weird cos I'm sure I remember getting loads in September when I was younger, but I suppose that's due to the climate getting hotter as the years have gone on. I managed to make two crumbles with what I picked and they were both very nice, so I feel like I made the most of the fruit that was there. Now I need to cut the bushes back, which is going to be a bit of a job cos I let them get rather more out of hand than I should have done. Ah well, something to do on my upcoming week off I suppose, since it's not like I'll be going anywhere!

And finally, I got to go see my dentist a couple of weeks ago cos I had a hole in my tooth. I thought maybe a filling had come out, but turns out I'd managed to break off a piece of tooth instead. So I got a new filling yesterday, which meant I had the fun of a half-numb mouth for a few hours, and now I have the constant worry that it's going to come loose at any moment. Hopefully I'll get over that soon!

Hey! Sorry, it's been a while since I've been here but then with lockdown still going on not much has been happening. I had a week off work near the end of June during which the original plan had been to go to Denmark, but obviously that didn't happen, so I just sat at home and melted in the heatwave. I also made pizzas from scratch which turned out pretty well, although the bases rose a bit more than I'd have liked (a combination of making them too early and the weather being so hot, I think.)

I've been doing a few online escape rooms with friends over Zoom and that's been fun. A lot of the puzzles are the type that I love doing anyway and have a lot of experience with, so I'm usually able to solve quite a few of them. I like that. It makes me feel like I'm actually of some use to the team!

Also, the LJDQ is back as the DWDQ so I've been playing that every week and basking in the quotage. I got a full house not long ago, which I was very proud of! It's a lot of fun so I would highly recommend people come along and join in. (And if you're European you can become a member of the DWDQEU. All are welcome. Even the English!)

I've started a rewatch of Once Upon a Time and am very much enjoying season one so far. I'm a bit worried about what's going to happen once I get to the seasons where things started going off the rails, but maybe knowing where it all ends up will allow me to enjoy it more. And if not, there's always fanfiction to turn to when it gets bad.

Something I had been particularly looking forward to was the Hamilton film coming to Disney+. Originally it wasn't supposed to be released until October next year, but I suppose that since no one can see it in the theatres now anyway there was no point holding it back. Part of me was worried that it wouldn't live up to my high hopes, but I shouldn't have doubted. It was brilliant. I loved seeing the original cast in the roles after hearing them on the soundtrack so often. And it was great to see close up shots and catch all the little details that I hadn't been able to see when I saw it live cos I was too far away or focusing on something else at the time. Also all the things I did see but forgot about!

And finally, I think we have bees living in the roof of the side passage. Looking online seems to indicate that they're just using the space that's already there and not doing any damage, so I'm inclined to just leave them bee. (Sorry, I'm no good at puns...)

It's December! Which means it's Christmas time! We're allowed to wear Christmas jumpers at work now and you better believe I'm rocking mine every day. I've amassed quite a collection over the years so I'm trying to wear them strategically, starting with the more generic snowflakes and penguins at the beginning of the month and moving up to the really Christmassy ones as we get closer to the big day itself.

December also means Advent Calendars and once again we're not skimping on our selection. This year we have Cadbury's, Lindt, Lego Harry Potter, Playmobil, Dogs Trust, Gin, Wine, Tea, and the reusable one that I've filled up again for Mum. This time it contains pieces of a jigsaw puzzle which she'll have to assemble in order to make a picture which is a clue to the code needed to open the combination lock that I'm going to secure her main present with. Obviously. =D

Of course December also means work gets extremely busy and stressful. I hope I can keep my good cheer going all month but I think it's going to be difficult at times.

This weekend I'm going to London to do Christmassy things with Paul. One of which is the now traditional sing-along screening of Muppet Christmas Carol. We're also hoping to get the train to Canterbury to check out their Christmas market, as well as riding the Mail Rail at the Postal Museum and checking out the Museum of Architecture's Gingerbread City at Somerset House.

I know I still have a couple of Wales photo posts to make, but they're probably not going to get done until next year now. I've also paused in writing the fic I was working on, but I am hoping to keep going with that as well when I have more time. Also, as at least one person knows, I'm planning to do a Ships of the 2010s list as a follow up to my Ships of the Noughties list and my Ships of the Twentieth Century list. So I am rapidly filling up my time after Christmas as well!

As someone who very much enjoys climbing up towers and other high buildings, I've been wanting to climb the O2 Arena for quite a while now and a week and a half ago I finally did it. I expected the route to involve steps, but it turned out to be a walkway made of a thin trampoline-type material, which started at a very steep angle. I also thought there would be barriers at the side but nope, it's completely open. Obviously you're attached with a safety harness so there's no danger of falling off, but still.

Once you reach the top there's a viewing area which does have barriers so you can have a walk around and take pictures. And, if you want, have a glass of champagne...



A toast! To conquering the O2!

The walk down is much the same, but the very last part is even steeper than the steepest bit at the beginning.  Fortunately nobody fell over, although it did feel like a very real possibility!

As you can see, the weather was a bit overcast and windy but at least it wasn't raining. It also wasn't the intense heatwave that had gripped the UK just a couple of weeks before, which I'm very glad about.

I bought a teddy bear in the gift shop because of course I did. Then we took a ride on the Emirates Air Line cos that's always a fun thing to do. And after that we investigated the Wine Car Boot in St James Market which has absolutely nothing to do with car boots but was still a fun wine tasting and, to be honest, if only one part of the name Wine Car Boot is going to be accurate then I think we can all agree that they made the right choice.

We queued for dinner at Padella, which totally lived up to the hype. I would definitely be willing to queue again for their pasta!

~*~

Also, I've spent the past week very productively and have built the Lego Disney Castle...





When building a Disney Castle the choice of background entertainment is obvious and I built along to Beauty and the Beast (2017), Aladdin, Tangled, Brave, and Ella Enchanted which I know isn't actually Disney but it fits the overall theme and was so charmingly entertaining that I'm letting it in.

I also sat down and properly watched Moana. I don't know why it took me so long to get around to actually watching this film cos it was brilliant and I keep getting the songs stuck in my head, which is always a good sign.

~*~

And, finally, I don't know if it's because of the prolonged heatwave we had earlier this year or what, but our grapevine is looking better than it has in years...



Looking forward to eating some lovely home-grown grapes soon!

It's FRIDAY! And it's AUTUMN!

I decided to celebrate the first day of autumn by getting a Pumpkin Spice Latte on my way to work this morning. And I'm currently wearing some of the new clothes that I bought last week. I probably spent too much money but I can't bring myself to mind cos I love them so much! They're so pretty and autumnal!

I'm feeling a bit autumn-obsessed at the moment and currently trying to see if there's anything fun and seasonal to do in London. It'd be nice to have the chance to wear my new clothes out and about, but if not I'll just have to have fun at home. Strictly does start tomorrow, which I'm very excited about!

The heating at work is still broken and it's fucking freezing. We have portable heaters, but they only warm up the area immediately around them and that leaves far too much of the place far too cold.

Possibly related to the cold, my knees are aching quite badly again. That's not much fun. Also, I banged my foot the other day and managed to vertically split the nail on my middle toe, which was more painful than I expected such a small thing to be.

But on the flip side to all this I got an email from Papa Johns earlier telling me that some of my points were going to expire at the end of today. I couldn't let them go to waste, so I now have a free pizza coming my way this evening. Yay free pizza.