Request for the League...

My colleague Julie Farrar is running the London Marathon on Sunday, sponsorship money to go 50/50 to the League Against Cruel Sports & the Vegan Society (since it's our 80th birthday & their 60th birthday). Julie's lovely, & obviously entirely mad to wish to run 26.2 miles even for such sterling causes. She's still looking for sponsorship - you can donate online from there, or directly from this link. Go on go on, it won't even be my wages you're paying any more!

Since the race goes past the end of my road (see http://www.london-marathon.co.uk/ for map etc), I'm intending to go up there to wave at Julie as she passes. Plus I've never gone up to watch the Marathon before, which seems a bit odd as I've lived in London all my life & Dad used to watch it religiously every year on TV (he wanted to take part, but didn't manage to get a number before his asthma got too bad). Apparently there will be a band on George Row, about 5min walk west of Bermondsey tube. It looks like the mass field start at 0945, & Bermondsey is between mile 11 and mile 12, so I'm guessing Julie will make it after a couple of hours, though I'm going to check with her. So anyone wishing to join me to wave at lots of *entirely barking* people, at around midday, do let me know.

Request for the League...

My colleague Julie Farrar is running the London Marathon on Sunday, sponsorship money to go 50/50 to the League Against Cruel Sports & the Vegan Society (since it's our 80th birthday & their 60th birthday). Julie's lovely, & obviously entirely mad to wish to run 26.2 miles even for such sterling causes. She's still looking for sponsorship - you can donate online from there, or directly from this link. Go on go on, it won't even be my wages you're paying any more!

Since the race goes past the end of my road (see http://www.london-marathon.co.uk/ for map etc), I'm intending to go up there to wave at Julie as she passes. Plus I've never gone up to watch the Marathon before, which seems a bit odd as I've lived in London all my life & Dad used to watch it religiously every year on TV (he wanted to take part, but didn't manage to get a number before his asthma got too bad). Apparently there will be a band on George Row, about 5min walk west of Bermondsey tube. It looks like the mass field start at 0945, & Bermondsey is between mile 11 and mile 12, so I'm guessing Julie will make it after a couple of hours, though I'm going to check with her. So anyone wishing to join me to wave at lots of *entirely barking* people, at around midday, do let me know.

Once upon a time...

Pinched from nou (on a mailing list elsewhere):
a grammatical fairytale.

Once upon a time...

Pinched from nou (on a mailing list elsewhere):
a grammatical fairytale.

Long weekend

The main non-fun feature of the weekend was Pete & I successfully tidying, not to mention cleaning, the entire house (well, the kitchen floor still needs doing: this is Pete's job). It looks much *bigger* now, particularly the study (we put vast quantities of stuff either in the bin or the attic, & now you can see the floor). I approve.

But! there was also much fun. Friday night was martling's birthday, which he helpfully celebrated at the George - most convenient. There was beer, & pizza at Pizza Express (in shifts), then the discovery on return to the George that it was a virtual Sunday & thus no more beer. So we returned to Pizza Express where they gave us more wine. Nice to see many assorted people, including j4 whom I didn't know was in London & haven't seen in ages. After Pizza Express we returned to marnameow & sbp's house, & stayed up until an utterly ridiculous time in the morning. Whoops. Much fun though :-)

Saturday was much less pleasant - I had a sick headache (don't *think* it was alcohol-related, as I didn't drink that much; I do get them occasionally). Slept most of the afternoon, then managed to do a little more Useful Stuff before watching Faust.

Sunday was mostly the london.crafts meet at marnameow's. During which I realised that I was *very nearly* finished kitty_goth's jumper, and therefore knitted for about 10 hours straight (I get a bit obsessive towards the end of any given project). As ever as l.crafts, splendid company, & then later there was cheap Chinese, & booze, & suchlike. And the plotting of picnic! Which duly occurred the next day, & was fun. Decent turnout - I have pictures, but haven't yet snarfed them off the camera - & we successfully avoided getting rained on (by adjourning to the pub at *just* the right moment before it started spitting). And Pete & I went to visit the graves of Shana, Kali, & Holly, rats of ours all of whom are buried (illicitly) in Hyde Park.

kitty_goth got back from Brussels late that evening, so I went to meet him at Waterloo, & was able to give him the Shiny New Jumper. Which fits him, & everything. I think the sleeves are slightly too long, but he insists that they're fine & he doesn't want me to shorten them, so there we go. Long sleeves are nice, anyway, they're useful for hiding your hands when it's cold.

Back to work yesterday & today, though I now have only 8 working days left at the League... gosh. Was intending to go to the Bisexual Underground last night, but due to pub-refurbishment complications it got cancelled, bah. However! The lovely kitty_goth & I successfully recruited djm, valkyriekaren, d_floorlandmine, & katstevens to the Blue Posts, so fun was had anyway.

It is good cycling weather again - cycled home from the pub in my shirt sleeves, and it's just the right temperature. Pleasantly cool. I like spring.

Long weekend

The main non-fun feature of the weekend was Pete & I successfully tidying, not to mention cleaning, the entire house (well, the kitchen floor still needs doing: this is Pete's job). It looks much *bigger* now, particularly the study (we put vast quantities of stuff either in the bin or the attic, & now you can see the floor). I approve.

But! there was also much fun. Friday night was martling's birthday, which he helpfully celebrated at the George - most convenient. There was beer, & pizza at Pizza Express (in shifts), then the discovery on return to the George that it was a virtual Sunday & thus no more beer. So we returned to Pizza Express where they gave us more wine. Nice to see many assorted people, including j4 whom I didn't know was in London & haven't seen in ages. After Pizza Express we returned to marnameow & sbp's house, & stayed up until an utterly ridiculous time in the morning. Whoops. Much fun though :-)

Saturday was much less pleasant - I had a sick headache (don't *think* it was alcohol-related, as I didn't drink that much; I do get them occasionally). Slept most of the afternoon, then managed to do a little more Useful Stuff before watching Faust.

Sunday was mostly the london.crafts meet at marnameow's. During which I realised that I was *very nearly* finished kitty_goth's jumper, and therefore knitted for about 10 hours straight (I get a bit obsessive towards the end of any given project). As ever as l.crafts, splendid company, & then later there was cheap Chinese, & booze, & suchlike. And the plotting of picnic! Which duly occurred the next day, & was fun. Decent turnout - I have pictures, but haven't yet snarfed them off the camera - & we successfully avoided getting rained on (by adjourning to the pub at *just* the right moment before it started spitting). And Pete & I went to visit the graves of Shana, Kali, & Holly, rats of ours all of whom are buried (illicitly) in Hyde Park.

kitty_goth got back from Brussels late that evening, so I went to meet him at Waterloo, & was able to give him the Shiny New Jumper. Which fits him, & everything. I think the sleeves are slightly too long, but he insists that they're fine & he doesn't want me to shorten them, so there we go. Long sleeves are nice, anyway, they're useful for hiding your hands when it's cold.

Back to work yesterday & today, though I now have only 8 working days left at the League... gosh. Was intending to go to the Bisexual Underground last night, but due to pub-refurbishment complications it got cancelled, bah. However! The lovely kitty_goth & I successfully recruited djm, valkyriekaren, d_floorlandmine, & katstevens to the Blue Posts, so fun was had anyway.

It is good cycling weather again - cycled home from the pub in my shirt sleeves, and it's just the right temperature. Pleasantly cool. I like spring.