Blog Archive — Page 34
This is part of my blog, which I have long since stopped maintaining. The page has been preserved in case its content is of any interest. Please go back to the homepage to see the current contents of this site.
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The End of an Endless Dream
In my dream I was myself, mostly, although there was undeniably the nature of Oisin mac Cumhaill about me. I was so besotted with the ladies of one family that every generation I would return for a night, from fairyland to the human world, in order to spend a night with the youngest lady of the family.
One such night, I rode up to the house where the youngest still lived with her mother. Upon seeing her I immediately fell in love, but after having been invited into the house and spending some time with her, I somehow upset her enough that she went crying to her mother.
I stood in the corridor, not knowing what to do, until the yonug lady’s grandparents - who also lived there - appeared. They gave me a knowing look, and that was enough to convince me to push open the door to the mother’s room.
Inside I found the young lady whom I had upset, who was Eric, and her mother, who was also Eric but about fifty years of age, sitting together on the bed.
I was stunned to see the older Eric, with whom I had fallen in love on my previous return to the world, and I think she was equally so to see me. Seeing the two women with whom I was in love together, I knew I could not comfort one at the expense of the other - they were both equally dear to me. So I held them both tightly to me until their tears and mine both dried.
So long did I hold them that the sun rose high over the hills. The women had both fallen asleep, leaving me standing over them. I cried again, then, knowing I would not see them again.
Then the sun caught on the windows of the room, flooding the room with light, and I was no more.
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The Time Approaches...
That time’s approaching ever faster now. I’ve started thinking about it in terms of days rather than weeks or months, which just adds an extra bit of scariness to it.
It’s odd, now that summer’s finally here for a while and the sun shines brightly, the days seem to pass much more quickly. Yesterday I got to work late, came home early, and played frisbee at lunctime. It’s summer, at last, and I hope it stays that way…
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Jumping on the Bandwaggle
Fear my INFPishness!
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Bournemouth Meet: Finality
Thank you to everyone who turned up and made the Bournemouth Meet shiny and awesome, even though we didn’t manage to get much sunshine or barbecueing done! It was awesome to see you all again. Hopefully there’ll be another one again next year, and maybe it might actually feel like July then too!
It feels really odd, suddenly being in an empty house though. And work tomorrow will be weird…
Question for the Soton kiddies: What’s next? August has birthdays for Claire and Rhiannon; is there anything big planned for us lot?
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Cleaning Frenzy!
That… was a lot of cleaning! The flat is almost spotless now, ready for a dozen people to descend upon it this weekend! Whole rooms have been reorganised, it’s quite scary. There’s now even some sense of order in the kitchen! And my recipe books are accessible!
On which note, I have a day off today. (Kind of figured.) By my reckoning I deserve it:
Did I mention in a previous post a vast horrible mess of code, under no version control and with an entirely paper-based bug tracker? Well, guess who’s in charge of that now? Yep. The other developer has other things he needs to work on, so I inherited it. On Wednesday lunchtime. By yesterday afternoon, the number of open bugs had reduced from 8 to a shiny zero, it was all in SVN and I’d tidied the whole repository. Victory!
Oh yes, but all the new bugs aren’t properly in the bug tracker yet. Because somebody stole the hole-punch.
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Bournemouth Meet Re-Announcement
The Bournemouth Meet is only two days away! This is my final warning to anyone who wants to come and hasn’t signed up yet!
The organisation thread is here. It’s been updated with maps for those who haven’t come here before.
If you’re not yet signed up and want to, please post in that thread.
And finally, the forecast is icky, but if we get rid of all the neo-pagans we stand a chance. Get burninating!
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ZOMG
They’re playing the Dragon Half ending on the Proms right now! </Cultural_heathen>
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Hurrah for Dreams
There were lots of us - over a dozen, at least - walking in the woods, when we chanced across a clearing where a lady was brushing leaves away in a big circle. She told us not to step in the circle, so we didn’t, but we waited to see what she was doing. It looked like she was clearing up after something, and when she’d finished she came to talk to us. Eric and I told her about being expectant parents, and she gave us some kind of blessing, then we chatted some more and all went home together.
Home was a massive place with a conservatory-like room maybe three times the size of our current flat. Everyone was milling around, chatting and eating, and people at one end of the room started talking about magic. More and more people drifted towards that conversation. Then we all spread out around the room, and the lady who had been sweeping leaves smiled, and then there were lots of faeries in the room, singing and dancing, so we joined in!
Also, there were a number of magpies significantly greater than seven.
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Bournemouth Meet Organisation Thread
Attention Soton Kiddies
and those generally close to Bournemouth!
This is the Ultimate
Bournemouth Meet Organisation Thread
of Ultimate Destiny!
Not affiliated with any orgies, destinial or otherwise.
WHAT?
Three days of sun, sea, sand, and suffering*, in the wondrous seaside destination that israinysunny Bournemouth! There'll be poi and staff fun, barbecues on the beach, fireworks, food, booze, and other good things!
* optional
WHERE?
Eric's and my flat in Bournemouth. This Google Map route should show you the way from the station, if you haven't been before, and this one should get you the last few hundred metres by car.
WHEN?
The last weekend in July, that's Friday 27th to Sunday 29th. Coming and going pretty much any time during those three days is fine!
Car parking could be an issue - technically, cars can't stay parked in the visitors section for the *entirety* of Saturday. I can redirect you to a nearby place to park for a while if you don't feel lucky. Also, we should only really take up one visitor's space, so if you can work it out so that only one car turns up that'd be awesome. We're only 15 minutes' walk from the station!
WHO?
Soton kiddies and anyone around the Bournemouth area. Overnight arrangements are going to be the trickiest - our flat can sleep maybe 5 in some degree of comfort (if you find the floor comfortable) or up to 12 if you're really friendly and don't mind sleeping in the bedroom or hallway. We have two sleeping bags and a duvet we can lend out, but after that you're on your own.
Please reserve your luxury 6-foot by 3-foot floor space in the comments!
CURRENT KNOWN ATTENDEES: Ian (All), Eric (All), Mark (Sat-Sun), Chantelle (Sat-Sun), Ali (Sat), Nick Irish (Sat), Rhiannon (Sat), Andy (Sat), Sam (Sat-Sun), Nick Hayes (Sat-Sun), Mikael (Sat-Sun), Gemma (Sat-Sun), Hugo (Sat-Sun), Donna (All), Racheet (All)
STAYING FRIDAY NIGHT: 2
STAYING SATURDAY NIGHT: 8
WHY?
Because I've been promising this for at least two years now. As we finally have our own (rented) place here, it seems like a good time!
WHAT TO BRING?
Beach stuff for swimming / sunbathing / hiding from the sun in, sun cream, clothes, money for food/booze. (Special considerations for the British seaside: Umbrella, waterproofs, longjohns, wetsuit, hazmat suit.)
ANYTHING ELSE?
I have no idea how many people are going to want to come, compared to the number of people we can host. So, to make sure I'm keeping tr ack of everyone, all the organisation is being done here. Please pass the link on to any of the Sotongrad lot who don't check here regularly!
If you want to come, please comment here!
Also fire away with any questions you have. Gogogogo! -
Pregnancy and Pork
Eric and I went swimming yesterday, and encountered another pregnant lady - cue half-hour impromptu womens’ meeting! I guess pregnancy is top of the list of “things that you can have in common with strangers that you can strike up conversations about”. Anyway, the end result of the meeting is that Eric now has detail for a antenatal fitness class, which might not be a bad idea.
Today, I failed to make brownies and instead played Disgaea 2. I am irredemably lazy. Tonight, roast pork! It’s cooking away now, and the potatoes are taking ages. (I suspect this may be a curse of mine; every roast dinner I cook in any oven, the potatoes always take longer than I expect…)