Oranges are not the only fruit

I, for one, welcome our Ant overlords.

*waves*

Back again. I do prefer it here. Your words don't get lost in time, obscured by photos of someone's cat or dinner or cat's dinner.

A busy week looms ahead at work followed by a trip to that there London to celebrate the birthday of that there Alex. Excite.

I've just spent the last 2 days mostly in bed a bit feverish, faint and immensely nauseous. Thankfully I wasn't sick. I'm never sick. If I'm sick I'm much iller than necessary - even norovirus only illicited the merest passing vom from me. But I had the other symptoms in such abundance that I was beginning to wish I could be sick to rid myself of all the acid that was building up. Think is was some sort of stomach 'flu passed on from Al to Mike, Helen and then me. By Sunday evening even my hands were aching. Sorry to anyone I've managed to pass it on to!

After a day without food a dry piece of toasted fluffy bread was amazingly tasty. When I finally ate properly last night, 48 hours after it my last proper food, it was spot on - the salt on the fries was like ambrosia from the gods. I like salt at the best of times but having expelled all my body salts over the previous 2 days I could feel my loops of Henle* cheering.

On the plus side I may have lost the xmas weight. On the negative side I'm super aware of every blupblupblup and twinge in my entire digestive system today and have a tendancy to get quite swimmy occasionally.

Watched the A-team on Sunday night - utterly ludicrous but quite enjoyable - next on the pile is the expendables. Also this weekend has consisted of a bit of retro gaming with me replaying Heroes of Might and Magic V - spiffy - I got a box set of the first 5 games so may replay them all (apart from 1 - that'd be a play not a replay) - I miss the ('Heroes of' + 1)('Might and Magic') series - I've spent a lot of my life playing the strategy game and the rpgs they made. I really love old skool RPGs *sigh*

* they're in your nephrons if I remember A-level biology correctly.

I ain't dead.

Hullo!
Another hectic weekend has passed. And it started out so sedately - I'd not been able to log on to WoW from Wednesday due to some perculiar virgin media error so Daevid and I had dinner at FujiHiro and then watched Payback on DVD instead. Lovely dinner and an enjoyably silly movie.

Saturday was Mof's post-wedding hen do. We met up at Leeds station and headed over to York. The lady Mof was very excitable and kept trying to guess what we'd be doing. We had a very lovely afternoon tea and cakes at Betty's before heading off in a hired boat. (I'm in a BOAT!) to cruise the Ouze. We decided to head back to Leeds via a pint so set off for the Maltings pub when we found ourselves in the midst of a bunch of naked cyclists. Amusingly one of the girls had encountered them the day before in Manchester and had the uneasy feeling they might be following her.

Beer-> train+Beer-> Curry+Beer. Went to the Shabab under the station, it's a more modern version of the one on Eastgate, lacking charm, but the food was lovely nevertheless. the MofMa and I had the nehari - very tasty :) We then headed off to the SkyBar which was utterly soulless and over priced. The other clientelle were either irritating posh students/city types or extremely common people shovelled into posh dresses, paying £4.75 for a bottle of Timothy Tailor's Landlord. for the life of me I don't understand the concept of going somewhere expensive just cos it's expensive. it was drizzling so no one was on the balcony, which inexplicably looked out over the bit of leeds south of the city centre - so beeston and hunslet... and was only 13 floors up - hardly the sky. *sigh*

Anyhoo we hearded the gang to ok Karaoke where every other hen do in Leeds was - it was way too heaving for my delicate sensibilities - I just don't blend well ;) Mof entertained the entire place with a superb rendition of Rollin' by Limp Bizkit - marvellous. I then bid them fairwell and headed up to flock. which was also heaving but in a good way ;) forced shaggy to stay on our sofa rather than letting him walk home about 8 miles.

so hen do good - spending quality time with Mof is always fun and it was lovely to meet her Ma and Auntie Gwen.

Sunday was spent tending to Shaggy (thought he might die of his hangover), shopping at morrisons (My hangover finally caught me up in the petfood aisle), cooking Chilli flans and watching the Scorpian King and Dr Who. I also played guitar a bit as Daevid had restrung it for me - this required me to chop my nails on my left hand but hey, having recently taken my labret out so I could play the flute more, it was but a minor sacrifice.

Rock on.

weekend is nearly upon us. think this one will mostly involve cleaning as Michealo and Helena are hopefully coming to look round the house on Sunday. Alistair has been informed of this ;)

hopefully off for fish and chips at nash's tonight before heading to the Wrens to make sure natasha is properly seen off. other than that I plan to sleep. particularly after the cat went mental last night. she was scratching to come in to my room - which she never does. but wouldn't settle when she was in my room so I kicked her out and there was more scratching. so I got up (about 1.15 now) and locked her in the spare room with some food and water. given she voluntarily spends most of her time in there... got to sleep until about 2:20 when I was woken and could here her scratching at the door from over a floor away. thus a comedy chase ensued for about 10 minutes before I managed to chase her into the kitchen and shut the door behind her. peace. then I woke up at 5ish with horrid eye allergies due to stroking her and not washing my hands. bah. I had a swollen eyeball until midday and I feel soooooooooooooooooooooo zonked.

did my first 2 taekwondo lesson week since I went back. he's taking no prisoners and had me doing reverse turning kick, jump back kick and 360 degree turning kick. all of which I could mostly remember how to do. now to lose a gazillion stone so I can fit back in to my dobok trousers rather than training in running clothes.

Ladies and Gentlechaps, I turn 40 this year. On the 22nd of December to be precise. In honour of this most momentous of occurrances I've booked the Brudnell Social Club for some sort of shindig.
I'm hoping for 2 silly bands, undecided as yet, but fear not, normal people amongst you, for they will not be goth bands. I was hoping for some silly pole dancers but I think that has been scuppered unless I can find someone with a stage pole we can borrow (as the venue has a suspended ceiling so is not good for standard poles) There should also be some very silly dancing girls (and maybe boys...) and some silly music for dancing too.
I imagine the finger buffet will be quite serious but you can't have everything eh ;)

anyhoo - it's a kind of open invite thing - bring your friends - leave your drama - worship at the temple of decrepitude.

keep you eyes peeled for further details.

any questions?

What Ho OrangeChums! I hope all is well with you!

I'm getting sick to death of the inside of the subculture and finding paint on all my clothes (even the ones I change out of when I'm there... wtf!) I really need to get it finished in the next couple of weeks but this is rendered difficult by the fact I have no holiday left so can't do daytime stuff, I'm away over the bank holiday weekend (anniversary), there's a metric fucktonne left to do and co-ordinating people is like herding cats!

One thing I could do with is a reliable person to sort out the freecycling. there's a bunch of chairs and other bits and bobs that *someone* *somewhere* might like. In fact I'll shout out here in case anyone wants anything or knows of a home for it.

We have:
27 (I think) wooden chairs that stack - upholstered in various fabrics - used for burlesque nights in the past
one tall freezer in working order but not particularly pretty - handy for extra capacity in a cellar or garage or what have you
Assorted glasses - champagne flutes, wine glasses, stella pint glasses.
leatherette bucket chairs - ok condition and leatherette stools - less good.
some little round wooden ikea side tables
a couple of low square wooden tables.
a couple of 'phono' tables
a brown fabric 2 seater sofa - a bit dusty but fine

let me know if you want them cos I hate scrapping stuff. there may be a bean bag left but I'm trying to think of somewhere to keep it for myself ;) or if you feel like being in charge of freecycling them?

anyhoo tonight should be productive. Al, graeme (the mercian) and D should be helping me so some of the shifting should get done. the stripping of the walls of the gents hasn't progressed and I still really need a couple of people to get on with that so I can get it papered.

I'm having tomorrow off - unity day and Jim's post-apocalyptic party are calling and I need some new work shoes so shopping must occur. no heavy drinking for me this week though after I was a disgrace at Adam's wedding reception last week. I think stress+freeflowing wine=bad

before I tried to post it and realised that they've propper blocked LJ at work now :*(
very sad.
I forsee a lot more dwarf fortress to fill up the hours :P

I have a consultation about getting my varicose veins removed due to them being way out of hand now. but... but... they're my veins! eeeeeeek!

Hola Chumegos. The clean up on Saturday went quite well but I have to not lose momentum. Can any one help Weds and/or Thursday nights from 6:30. duties involve moving empty bottles around, scraping gunk off stuff, dismantling the dj booth and painting stuff white. the painting is fun but soul destroying due to the artwork. although there's plenty to paint before the artwork has to go I suppose... all help greatly appreciated!

oh and does anyone have healthy working stepladders we could borrow?

in other, far more exciting, news Dawnie and Kath are here this weekend :D