Happy Mondays: Festivities
Dec. 20th, 2010 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizzie_and_ariHey kids,
1. Christmas is cancelled! Well, not that's not true. But we are not going down south. Weather here is pretty crappy, the weather down south is apparently worse and is moving upwards. Although it seems like it might have cleared a bit by Christmas Eve:
Hope the next week or two is shiny and brilliant for you all, wherever you are and whatever you believe
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
1. Christmas is cancelled! Well, not that's not true. But we are not going down south. Weather here is pretty crappy, the weather down south is apparently worse and is moving upwards. Although it seems like it might have cleared a bit by Christmas Eve:
a) it may well not have done, and it's mighty late to be making the call (especially for Tristan who was supposed to be coming across to Stratford from Norwich)
b) everyone and their mother will be on the roads then, roads which will still be icy and treacherous, making the journey still pretty darned dangerous.
b) everyone and their mother will be on the roads then, roads which will still be icy and treacherous, making the journey still pretty darned dangerous.
We're both very sad not to be seeing family; Ari had a bit of a teary day today and I was a bit emotional this morning. Presents have been sent via DHL, who don't guarantee Christmas delivery but is a better bet than Royal Mail. We will Skype folk and be in good contact. I feel bad for my Ma, who was going to have a house full of people, and for Tristan, who is now going to be in Norwich by himself. Obviously not by himself, he of course has friends, and apparently some replacement homosexuals with whom to spend Christmas, but you know what I mean.
If we'd have gone, we could well have spent hours/days on the road, crying (the M42 was described yesterday as being 'like a car park'), eventually arrived, exhausted and grumpy, tried to spend quality time, ended up having the family rows that are 95% likely to happen at Christmas, frozen our bollocks off, spent all our money on petrol, breakdown cover, and coffee on the road, and got stranded in Stratford. I am trying to focus on escaping from that scenario and not thinking about fluffy nosed mornings and family games and hugging my Ma. We will get down south soon to Stratford and Norwich and make up for it.
We seem to have had a bit of a theme in our lives this year of sometimes the right thing to do being not to do something - like our decision not to convert the house, so it feels sort of right that we've made this decision. And at least it's been made, after a week of dithering and hoping and frustrating everyone (particularly Tristan (in that that's where most of my Bad Feeling lies)).
We don't know exactly what we're doing yet, but we are just going to revel in having our first Christmas alone, and being able to do Whatever We Want. Also we have bought sausages and bacon from Crombies. We have been invited to a couple of potential things, but please do let us know if you are also in Edinburgh and want to meet up at any point.
2. Next year I want to try our very damnedest to go to New Zealand for Christmas (even though it would be my third Christmas in a row without my Ma.) Ari is so homesick and I feel like she is my silkie. She needs mango trees and the Pacific and I am going to do everything I can to get her these things. If it's not doable for Christmas (I know prices are much higher) it will be done soon. My this time next year I want to at least have something booked.
3. Went tonight and going tomorrow to the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year competition. It's been a shame for them as a lot of acts had to pull out and there was basically no audience, which makes comedy really really hard. It's on again tonight for anyone who fancies it - 7pm and 9:30pm at the Meadows Bar.
4. Went to Oxgangs on Saturday, where I have never been before. It was an epic and scary bus journey but well worth it for the company of Cat and Karen and a long protracted 'guess the Dr Who advent calendar' game with Ollie. Kids at Christmas are particularly cheer-making.
5. Went to the Publishing Scotland Christmas party on Wednesday. I was very scared that I would be stuck in the corner, clutching my wine and not knowing anyone and then finally getting into a conversation that goes nowhere and end up being the third person in a two person conversation and standing for twenty minutes before going 'Er.. do you know where to loos are?' and spending ten minutes in there texting Ariadne and checking Facebook.
In fact, it was lovely. I walked in and immediately saw a guy I sort of knew, had a brief chat with him, and just as the conversation reached the 'oh shit, we don't really have anything else to say to each other' point, I saw a woman I used to work with at the Arts Council, and just as that conversation was drying up, I saw some folk I know from the SYP, which segued into meeting a whole load of folk, mostly the young contingent, but also a fabulous 60-year old editor who announced she was fed up with publishing and wanted to be a secretary in a criminal law firm (which she had briefly done recently). I made a couple of actual advantageous network-y type contacts without Trying to Network and we were amongst the last to leave, and it was only then that I finally went to the loo, and 'cause I had to, not 'cause I was hiding. Cool.
6. Saw The Secret Garden on Saturday, thanks to Hearts & Minds - they are one of their official charities and they were having a big event associated with it. Much kudos to Sarah who works there and has set up these kind of things. I think Sarah is amazing.
The play was brilliant in many ways, with some wonderful performances. I liked a couple of the conventions in it, and the guy playing Archie was very good. But overall I thought they got the focus and the pacing wrong - it was all about the love story between Mary's parent's and Colin's parents, (most of whom were dead), rather than the story of Mary and Colin themselves. It was supposed to be a children's show but wasn't at all written for a child's perspective. If I was a child I think I'd have been quite confused (some things were a bit too subtle and complex) and maybe a bit bored.
Cried at the end anyway, of course, and I'm glad I went (and very grateful for the free tickets). Haven't really seen any theatre in too long.
7. Oh dear is that the time? I'd better run.
8. Oh I do briefly have to say that I had the loveliest of days with Ariadne today. We wandered through town and then down to Tesco where we bought coffee in Costa and read Cosmo. I felt much better after this. She rocks.
If we'd have gone, we could well have spent hours/days on the road, crying (the M42 was described yesterday as being 'like a car park'), eventually arrived, exhausted and grumpy, tried to spend quality time, ended up having the family rows that are 95% likely to happen at Christmas, frozen our bollocks off, spent all our money on petrol, breakdown cover, and coffee on the road, and got stranded in Stratford. I am trying to focus on escaping from that scenario and not thinking about fluffy nosed mornings and family games and hugging my Ma. We will get down south soon to Stratford and Norwich and make up for it.
We seem to have had a bit of a theme in our lives this year of sometimes the right thing to do being not to do something - like our decision not to convert the house, so it feels sort of right that we've made this decision. And at least it's been made, after a week of dithering and hoping and frustrating everyone (particularly Tristan (in that that's where most of my Bad Feeling lies)).
We don't know exactly what we're doing yet, but we are just going to revel in having our first Christmas alone, and being able to do Whatever We Want. Also we have bought sausages and bacon from Crombies. We have been invited to a couple of potential things, but please do let us know if you are also in Edinburgh and want to meet up at any point.
2. Next year I want to try our very damnedest to go to New Zealand for Christmas (even though it would be my third Christmas in a row without my Ma.) Ari is so homesick and I feel like she is my silkie. She needs mango trees and the Pacific and I am going to do everything I can to get her these things. If it's not doable for Christmas (I know prices are much higher) it will be done soon. My this time next year I want to at least have something booked.
3. Went tonight and going tomorrow to the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year competition. It's been a shame for them as a lot of acts had to pull out and there was basically no audience, which makes comedy really really hard. It's on again tonight for anyone who fancies it - 7pm and 9:30pm at the Meadows Bar.
4. Went to Oxgangs on Saturday, where I have never been before. It was an epic and scary bus journey but well worth it for the company of Cat and Karen and a long protracted 'guess the Dr Who advent calendar' game with Ollie. Kids at Christmas are particularly cheer-making.
5. Went to the Publishing Scotland Christmas party on Wednesday. I was very scared that I would be stuck in the corner, clutching my wine and not knowing anyone and then finally getting into a conversation that goes nowhere and end up being the third person in a two person conversation and standing for twenty minutes before going 'Er.. do you know where to loos are?' and spending ten minutes in there texting Ariadne and checking Facebook.
In fact, it was lovely. I walked in and immediately saw a guy I sort of knew, had a brief chat with him, and just as the conversation reached the 'oh shit, we don't really have anything else to say to each other' point, I saw a woman I used to work with at the Arts Council, and just as that conversation was drying up, I saw some folk I know from the SYP, which segued into meeting a whole load of folk, mostly the young contingent, but also a fabulous 60-year old editor who announced she was fed up with publishing and wanted to be a secretary in a criminal law firm (which she had briefly done recently). I made a couple of actual advantageous network-y type contacts without Trying to Network and we were amongst the last to leave, and it was only then that I finally went to the loo, and 'cause I had to, not 'cause I was hiding. Cool.
6. Saw The Secret Garden on Saturday, thanks to Hearts & Minds - they are one of their official charities and they were having a big event associated with it. Much kudos to Sarah who works there and has set up these kind of things. I think Sarah is amazing.
The play was brilliant in many ways, with some wonderful performances. I liked a couple of the conventions in it, and the guy playing Archie was very good. But overall I thought they got the focus and the pacing wrong - it was all about the love story between Mary's parent's and Colin's parents, (most of whom were dead), rather than the story of Mary and Colin themselves. It was supposed to be a children's show but wasn't at all written for a child's perspective. If I was a child I think I'd have been quite confused (some things were a bit too subtle and complex) and maybe a bit bored.
Cried at the end anyway, of course, and I'm glad I went (and very grateful for the free tickets). Haven't really seen any theatre in too long.
7. Oh dear is that the time? I'd better run.
8. Oh I do briefly have to say that I had the loveliest of days with Ariadne today. We wandered through town and then down to Tesco where we bought coffee in Costa and read Cosmo. I felt much better after this. She rocks.
Hope the next week or two is shiny and brilliant for you all, wherever you are and whatever you believe
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
