luckykaa

Another trip to Sheffield to see Flickums. Was so excited I forgot my trousers!

And my washbag.

I did notice my bag felt a little light.

This was a pre-christmas weekend for myself and flickums. Spent the weekend watching Christmas tat and Star Wars related tat. And eating turkey.

I drove down to Sheffield. Holly (My satnav) did particularly well, having told me there was a 108 minute delay on the main route, and suggested I took a slightly different route that would only add about 20 minutes (and much less sitting in traffic). Flickums was held up by evil traffic of doom in the city centre, which gave me a chance to pick up needed toiletries. Started off with the exchange of gifts. I received a Raspbery Pi, The Last Of Us, An Orphan Cat T-shirt, and a Jurassic Tea mug. Made a promise to myself not to play with any of them until Christmas. I also received a mystery gift from Nova, but will keep that one until Christmas day. Gifts I gave flickums seemed to go down well despite my taking up more and more of her wall and shelf space. Flickums made stew. A somewhat soupy stew, which we declared was stewp!

Fridays movies: It's A Trap (Family Guy Return of the Jedi). The "Pie Fighters" joke sort of broke me.

Saturday, we watched movies. I played Mass Effect to see what it was like. Looks cool but don't know if I'd get into it. Flickums cooked a Sunday roast (except for the spuds. I did the spuds). Day was mostly spent watchingmovies and snuggling. We didn't leave the house once.

Saturdays Movies:
The Nightmare Before Christmas. The best Hallowe'en/Christmas crossover movie ever! And the songs are still great. I love animation, and this looks absolutely glorious in HD!
Bernard and The Genie. Time has not been that kind to this, to be honest. Still a really sweet funny Christmas special.
Supernatural Christmas special. Yes, where they get fudging tied to the chairs! Oh Fudge!
Die Hard: One of my favourite stealth Christmas movies. Actually there were a few bits i hadn't noticed before. Like weasel-guy was actually cokehead weasel-guy. I have only ever seen it on TV, so I imagine the BBC snipped that bit.

Sunday was more snuggling and movie watching. Fanboys - because it's mandatory viewing. Oh god it's so funny!!! And so many cameos. Also saw some of the Nostalgia Critic Star Wars reviews.

Then we saw Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens! In Imax! I was doubly delighted that they used Dolby 3D rather than the now rather old-fashioned horizontal/vertical polarisation. Dichroic filters FTW! Yes I am a nerd!  Really rather enjoyed it. Still need to ponder views, but I thought it was a lot of fun.

We then had tasty foods at a nearby restaurant, and frothed about Star Wars. And ate more tasty foods. Wanted to watch Free Enterprise to complement Fanboys, although that is really much more a Trekkie show than a Star Wars show. Still, ran out of time. Maybe next time.

Then I had to go home. Booo :(

Why do I always have to go home after seeing flickums?

Huzzah! Exciting wekend with flickums, fireworks and other things beginning with f.

Shame the weathers so grotty. Feeling much of the weekend may involve snuggling in the warm.

Fireworks tonight. Hope it dries up a bit by then,

My initial plan for this weekend was to do nothing except watch telly and play video games.

But flickums was going to her friends' wedding, and while I had the option of not going, there was hog-roast, and I had a desire to offer her a lift, and keep her company at an event where she knew nobody. Event was a success, an the hog roast was delicious!

Then I developed a plan to visit Ikea and eat meatballs. I wanted some bookshelves. Bookshelves would fit in a teeny tiny car. But then I realised that I also want a chest of drawers, which don't fit. So I rented a van. In hindsight I made mistakes here.

A £26 rental for a van isn't that cheap. Not if you want peace of mind. The excess is £1150. It costs and extra £20 to reduce that. Since the only reason I needed the van was for the chest of drawers, I feel I overpaid a bit.

Ikea was unusually packed. Not sure why. Took ages to find somewhere to park. And idiots in other cars seemed to have no idea where they were going. Found parking spot hunting stressful.

Ikea was also packed. No idea why. Maybe people picking stuff up for university or something. Crowds also cause me stress.

Took a bit long shopping. And Enterprise van rental closes at 4pm on a Saturday. Getting to Ikea, eating, shopping loading, unloading, and refueling meant time was a bit tight. And when we got to the petrol station I couldn't get the bloody cap off. Turned out that I was unlocking it the wrong way. And also I was turning it the wrong way. Managed to get the van back just in time, but was a little anxious.

Flickums solved stress with snuggles and tea, because she's awesome.

Hired a van at the weekend. It was really nice. Brand new, with aircon and a handy reversing indicator. Paid extra for a full tank of fuel, before realising that it was only really worth it if I brought it back almost empty. Surprisingly nice to drive, although I felt I was about to tip over every time I went round a corner. Am actually tempted to get a practical car when I replace Megatroff. Fun though a sports car is, a 10 year old MG is a little shaky.

Went to the storage locker. Loaded what I could into the van. Decided that I didn't absolutely need my DVD collection, especially because I lacked storage for it.

Needed to dash back after a short time at home because Flickums was visiting. Got home late. Went straight to bed. Flickums arrived the next day and in order to prove she is the best girlfriend ever, helped me unload. Was considering moving the living rom to the spare bedroom and the spare bedroom into the living room but way too much hassle. And there was snuggling to do.

Realised I really need more storage. And a coffee table. Also needed food. Flickums suggested that since I had the van, we go to Ikea and get meatballs (thus confirming beyond any doubt that she's the best girlfriend ever!)! The ikea in Leicester turned out to be a figment of Google's imagination. But meatballs had been sugested so we had to get meatballs!

Meatballs were duly eaten. Furnishings were bought. I now have the potential joy of assembling a vast quantity of Ikea furniture.

Been a fun weekend.

We did completely fail to see Starlord and the Raptors. But that can wait.

Curious day.

It was ghostpaw and erestania's combined birthday bash.  I was rather keen to see octopus girl again since the last couple of times we got on rather well, but there was no way I wanted to miss the party.  Felt it was probably a bit too early to introduce her to my friends since she's still of unspecified relationship status. 

Texted suggesting we meet of Friday.  She replied that she was seeing a movie but we could do other plans on Saturday afternoon.  So I suggested plans hoping for a yes/no/how about... type response and heard nothing.  tried calling.  Phone was off.  Tried again later.  Phone rang.  No answer.  Wondering if I should take this as a hint (which seems a bit out of the blue) or to put it down to her general flakiness. 

Ah well.  Went to the party.  Had realised I was going to be a bit late and had arranged my day around that.  Picked up eglantinedreams almost got a parking ticket but didn't quite.  Stopped off at a village off-licence and bought a nice looking bottle of alcohol.  Drove to camp site and cars started flashing us and some pedestrians urged us to turn around.  So decided to approach campsite from the other side. Except wasn't able to explain the concept to satnav.  Eglantinedreams suggested atlas might be helpful  Forgot I had one of them.  They're great when tech fails.  So went round the other side and hit the same roadblock.  Turns out that was the entrance we needed. Actually we might have been able to sneak in but didn't quite know where everything was happening so waited fro the road block to be cleared.  Was quite pleased to hear no serious injuries although seemed one of the cars ended up on its side.

Was a little stressed  by the time I got there but soon chilled out. 

It was fun.  And the weather improved!  There was interesting drinks and roast lamb and a ceilidh and people and silliness and people I've not seen for far too long and I had a fantastic time and it was really awesome seeing everyone.  And then there was fire juggling!  And songs!  And it was awesome!

Edit to expand a bit because I'm not talking enough about the party.

The drink was fantastic!  I had some tasty rum drink and some damson wine. 

We were all really bad a ceilidh dancing.  This makes it a lot more entertaining since you have to work out where everyone else is and also there's the risk of serious injury.  Possibly. 

Lots of jugglers.  Fire jugglers!  Including some spooky green fire!  Really need to spend time practising that.

There was a full moon!  Howwwwwwlllllll!

We also had the awesome amount of space from the scholars tent. It's actually bigger than my house.  It's realyl a great tent.  Does require a certain amount of coordination to erect and dismantle but it has space and a  frame so there are no internal poles.

Yay! PARTIES!!!

One of the things on The Vote Now Show was the use of the terms "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" sounding kind of adolescent.  "Girlfriend" sounds like she's about 15½. 

So what else do we have? 

"Significant other"?  "Partner"? 

I quite like the term "beau".  A thesaurus gave me "swain" as well.  Don't seem to be appropriate female equivalents of these. 

So what do we have?  "Bird"?  "chick"?  Those will go down well.  "Paramour" has a nice sound to it but implies an illicit relationship.

Personally I like "inamorata" and "inamorato".   Shame nobody uses these enough. 

I'm trying to learn android development.  Finding it hard to get my mind in the game.  Also don't seem to have commitment to job seeking.  Layout stuff is nice XML at least. 

I think I've convinced myself that I'm actually okay with being single for a while.

That said, I have met another person online who seems highly cute.  Then again I've been there before.  Will we just meet up, hug and kiss a bit, and then she'll change her mind and never want to see me again?  Maybe I'm usually just too impatient and rush things. 

In hindsight...  Might have been a good idea to have told that girl I was leaving and ask for her number.

Edit: context.  was in a pub with Tink and feegle.  Started chatting to (family) group next to us because I thought 20-something daughter had a nice smile.  Tink started falling asleep so thought it would be polite not to force her to stay.  Didn't occur to me until this morning that asking for her number when I left would have made sense. 

My plans were cancelled.  Stayed at home.  Feeling a bit down as a result. 


Oh, and my dad rang a couple of times on my landline number to find out when he should be in for the telephone repairman.  It took him a while to realise why I wasn't answering.

Online. She lived in Bristol. So did I. Then I moved to London and she to Dover.

( gory details )