I play a stupid game on Facebook called Pet Society. I think KG got me into it initially. It's a bit more satisfyingly complex than all the farm variants which I lost interest in long ago. Anyway, they've just introduced a new option - your pet can buy its own pet, and has to feed it every day. It bounces about the room it's in like a ping pong ball, jumping high in the air from the floor to the top of the television, to the window sill, to the chair, and every time it lands it makes a little popping sound. Yesterday I was imagining to myself that that's what Jason's baby would do when it's born. I guess really it won't.

I've searched for information, but can't find dates for Caption 2010 on the Internet. I'm looking at finally getting to The Big Chill this year (with my sis) and therefore hoping very much that it isn't any time around August 5th-8th. Does anyone have any inside info?

There was a word that might have begun with a (or maybe not) that was three or four syllables and was what the ice resurfacer was called at the ice rink in Auckland. I saw a film on the television this evening where there was ice skating, and the thing was called a Zamboni. But the one in Auckland wasn't a Zamboni. Every now and then I try to remember the word and I just can't.

Last night I dreamt I was reading a book someone had written about Tim. It wasn't even a new book, it was fairly well worn. I was reading it for a while before it dawned on me it was about him and I looked at the front again just to be sure.

...that I now have a feng sui barrier to bathroom design based entirely on my imagination, I'm reminded of something I was listening to on R4 some time this week about how there's a link between people with a hefty dose of imagination and suffering with anxiety. Of course it makes perfect sense. If you can't imagine weird scary improbable shit happening, you won't be able to worry about it. Actually they were talking about the high rate of anxiety problems amongst authors. If I also had less of a concentration deficit, I might actually be able to make it all worthwhile by doing a bit of authoring.

Something I think about from time to time -- there ought to be a method of googling tunes. You can search for a song if there are lyrics, but not a piece of music that has no lyrics if all you have in your head is a few bars. Someone must be able to design something where you could enter in some notes via your keyboard and search for likely tunes.

I'm now on day four of a cold. Shouldn't it have gone by now? I came home from the office around the middle of the day because it started to snow. It's cold in there and I've decided I'm not doing myself any favours by hanging about, so I've packed up some work and I'm planning on staying home with it tomorrow too unless the weather is reasonable and I'm feeling better. I stopped off at Morrison's pharmacy for more Night Nurse, but was told I shouldn't be using Night Nurse with a productive cough so they sold me something else instead. I've never really fully understood this varied cough business - it's not always clear cut. The pharmacist thinks it's clear cut.

I found out at the weekend that I won't need to be travelling to New Zealand this year afterall. I was worried about the long flight, because I don't like them at all. It's funny that this time last year I was in America (to which I took a long flight). It was a wonderful trip, but set off something that it took me half a year to recover from. First I thought it was an exceptionally bad case of jetlag, but it turned out to be a bit more brain-oriented (and took me a large chunk of the year to get to grips with). Still, it was a useful diversion overall and I might write a bit more about that another time.

However, with the need for the long haul flight removed, I'm going to try to make 2010 a no flight year in the interests of reducing my energy consumption. Last year I bought the tent, so I hope to use it more this year. I'd like to do something along the draft exclusion lines, because I can definitely feel a strong cold draft in the hallway when the weather is cold. I suppose I should probably have another go at trying to use the car less too, although there ought to be some trade off for continuing to not produce any additional consumers.

My sister and I moved into a flat that was shabby, old with threadbare carpets and so on, but kind of nice. I liked it. The good thing was we kept discovering additional rooms. There was one particularly empty room that could have been a large bedroom and I suggested we could let it to someone for the additional income. My sister said she needed it for four weeks as a seminar room, but after that we could let it.

Then I was in the front passenger seat of a car, and in the back was someone with a small cheerful child aged maybe five or so, and they were looking for a new home for her. I suggested I could keep her, but no one paid any attention.

Then we'd (people in the car) gone to some dreadful place for lunch, somewhere a bit like a motorway services with various unpalatable greasy options. I found a counter which was allegedly Indian food that didn't look very much like a franchise, but there was no menu. I asked a man at the counter what there was, and he handed me a pale purple laminated menu that had about four things on it. I asked for dhal and rice, and he said he didn't have that. I asked what he had, and he kind of fobbed me off and said they'd only been open a couple of days. I was puzzled. But it was clear I wouldn't be getting any lunch.

I was all gearing up to do a proper summary and all, but I've been struck cotton-woolish by some sort of winter ailment. I hope it will be mild and short-lived, and so far it's just a chesty cough, runny nose, hot face and slow brain.

So... Doctor Who, eh? I didn't much like the episode on Xmas - that business with the Master eating stuff was yucky, and I wasn't convinced by John Simm as The Master. Today's was predictably soppy, but I've decided I was amused by all the Star Wars references. I make no judgment yet about Matt Smith, other than regular grumbling about why haven't we got a girl Doctor Who yet.

In other media consumption news, they've been advertising over and over on my car radio (Classic FM as those who know me well will know) some really naff sounding American romantic comedy about someone who becomes the mistress of her ex-husband called It's Complicated - did they get the title from Facebook's relationship status options? I'm definitely not interested in seeing that film, so what should I go and see?

I keep getting profoundly irritated by the radio news items about the cancelled British Airways strike; the representatives of BA keep talking ruefully about how many families would've been disappointed by problems with their travel plans (in order to guilt trip the workers they're presumably ripping off). Why do they keep saying 'families'? Presumably all kinds of people have travel plans, so why don't they just say people? Is it to make it sound badder of striking workers to be disappointing families as opposed to people? Because families are somehow better? It just sounds like corporate emotional blackmail to me.

And another thing - why are they putting caffeine in my paracetamol? I don't need it and I don't want it, but that's all the petrol station had. Losers.

Also, my computer is running so bloody slowly I want to throw it out of a window.

Also, the other night I watched Hugh Furry-Whippingstool making xmas things, but he disappointed me by making jokes about farting. Grow up Hugh for goodness sake.

There was a truism in our family when I was a child that my sister was the 'finder', meaning that she seemed to know where stuff was. No doubt she was observant, had a good memory and could recall the location of things. Conversely, I was a loser. I couldn't even keep track of my own possessions, let alone anyone else's.

I think I've grown up with an expectation that other people will know better than I do where things are. I have cringeworthy memories of making a nuisance of myself getting in a flap because I couldn't find things, and crossly demanding that other people tell me where they are. So that's the background...

Last week, I had quite a bloody job finding Kirsch for my Friday night fondue (which was bloody awesome btw - thank you Jeremy for FB fondue burner advice). No one in Morrisons had ever heard of it. The man in Sainsbury's booze section said they'd stopped ordering (WTF?). In vain I tried the Co-op where no one had heard of it. In the end I got it at LIDL on Thursday evening. I already said all this on Facebook, didn't I. Oh well.

Anyway I went to look for the Kirsch on Friday while preparing for the fondue, couldn't find it ANYWHERE, got in a flap, posted on Facebook and other Internet fora, and also stupidly sent an email to L the cleaner thinking maybe she'd seen it around somewhere. As soon as I'd done that I started panicking, wondering if she might imagine I was accusing her of something. As it was, the (people on the) Internet helped me find it (in the car boot, where I'd already looked but not well enough). I'm crossing my fingers L the C will not think I am suspicious/deranged and disappear, because I think my life has improved markedly since she has started.

What I have learnt:
It's okay to make a vague request for help to find something from the Internet. People won't feel obliged, because it's a general request. And actually it seems to work.

Never ever again email to ask the cleaner if she knows where where stuff is, because she's not on call, and it's probably very annoying.

Yet another one has now been and gone - the 6th one, and the fifth in the same house in Wickwar. It was lots of fun and this time I got a bit more drawing done than in previous years, although so much time passes between occasions upon which I draw these days that I feel I must have regressed.

Thank you to everyone who came, and especially thank you to Jenni, Selina and Jason for lots of help in the kitchen - Jason also did a great job on pudding duty, Richard for doing the frustrating job of untangling the fairy lights and also for hunting down retro pop culture reference material, and Jay for organising the comic arrangement.

Not long now.

Please send me a text to my mobile phone your ETA on Friday, and update me if it looks like changing.

REMEMBER TO BRING A TOWEL!

See you soon.

I feel I've got out of the habit of livejournal recently. I think part of it is Facebook, which has more people I know on it and is also far more suitable than an actual 'blog for daily drivelly trivia exchanges. So I'm less likely to leave daily drivelly trivia lying around here, which is probably no bad thing.

The other thing is I'm doing a lot more real live social interaction than I used to, and I expect that's a function of having stayed in one place long enough to give myself a chance to get to know a critical mass of people. Add in to that it's a busy time of year for work. Maybe some time I will have a lot less need for talking constantly to the Internet.

The new house cleaner has visited twice so far and seems to be getting established. She has prompted me to get a new vacuum cleaner, which is waiting here for her. I am very happy so far - just the routine of it is helping me be a little more organised.

The MCR happens at the end of this week, somewhat smaller this year. I think most of all I'm looking forward to seeing some of my friends who I've not seen since the summer, which seems like ages ago but really it isn't that long ago. Today I intended to come home early and make fudge for the MCR, but instead I stayed at work late, because I was on a roll, and finished off sorting out my presentation slides for the conference next week. It's all hectic - back from the MCR, conference straight after, and then I have to return early from it to assess student presentations next Thurs. I'm having a fondue do here on Friday 11th. A visit from SSG&T for a few days from the 20th. Various parties and things before it's xmas, which I will be spending in Wiltshire. Must remember to order the brace of ducks.

Food - I believe there will be no vegetarians this year, unless anyone has had a lifestyle change I'm unaware of.

Things I know I need to avoid from past experience - beef, celery, members of the brassica family - anything I've forgotten?

For some reason, my work was having a special entertainment and everyone was filling a theatre or auditorium, but I wanted to hang out quietly with my father and my niece who were visiting. We were all staying in a flat that was somewhere above and behind the stage. Just as the show was starting, I think a woman with long red hair and glasses and wearing a pink ruffly dress a bit like this one:
was about to sing. I lead my relatives to clamber over the rows of seats trying to disturb people as little as possible (difficult) and then up a ladder on the right hand side of the stage, through some curtains and up lots of stairs. When we reached the flat I was exhausted and sat down to regain my strength. I knew that next I had to find some olives and salted cashew nuts and red wine. And that's it.

I had vivid dreams for the past two nights. Vivid, but rather run of the mill. The night before last, I dreamt my colleague was very despondent, sitting on the floor arms around her knees and sulking, because she couldn't get a plumber to fix her plumbing. I tried to help fix it, but succeeded in breaking it a bit more. So I felt kind of incompetent and useless.

Last night's dream I'd gone somewhere, maybe London, and checked into a hotel. I was there to meet my friend at 4pm to go to the cinema, but in the hotel lobby a class was about to start on making icing decorations for the tops of cakes. There were beautiful little coloured discs of something, and tiny pots of shiny stuff laid out on a table. I wrestled with myself - I don't often have a need to decorate cakes. But it looked like fun. But I was meant to meet my friend. But I knew I was going to stay for the icing class because I wanted to. Selfish and unreliable.

It's booked, as I said previously. As far as I know, people who are coming are:

Selina
Jay
Jenni
Richard
Jason
Moto
Terry
Percyprune
Damian
Me

That's ten which is down on previous years. To try to make up for the shortfall I think we should make this one BYO booze. I think if I do that and budget very carefully we should be able to manage without increasing the per person cost, but it's going to be rather tight on the food budget. Would anyone be devastated if it went up by a fiver (to £65)?

If anyone knows anyone else who is planning to come, please let me know very soon!