Back from up north

[lnr]

First a meme, though without the vile colour:

lnr is happy.
You're a rosy-cheeked ray of f'ing sunshine 24/7. I bet you smile a lot and little things don't get you down. Must be nice. Fuchsia's definitely your color.

Mostly nice weekend. Bad moments due to rjk being too tired to do anything, and being asked if I'd sent my mum a birthday present, because they were surprised I hadn't. When in fact I'd sent the flowers my sisters asked me to arrange as a joint present from all of us, and then didn't mention they were also intending to buy her other presents too. And apparently they were really crap flowers too. Next time they ask me to organise a joint present I think I shall decline and make my own plans instead. And I give up on sending flowers from online places: they're either ridiculously overpriced if they're nice, or utterly shit if they're cheap.

Weekend mostly characterised by trains, films and food. Trains slow (why oh why the bank holiday weekend for track maintenance?) food lovely. Feeling just tired and irritable now though. Nice to see Steph in the month she's back in the country. Spain next. Sounds nice. Emily and John staying too, so it was a bit of a houseful. Saturday afternoon spent watching the Two Towers on Em's shiny new DVD player. Various others over on Sunday for a family party. Jon and Caroline with 2.5 year old Jacob and 2.5 month old Anna, both remarkably well behaved. Tom and new wife Diana who I hadn't met before and who seemed very nice. Grandma and Grandad and cousin Alistair in geek tshirt. And next door neighbour Alma. Alistair stayed the night and we watched Training Day on DVD before bed, which was really an excellent film, if not terribly cheery. And a lovely Sunday-roast style meal today before heading home again: yorkshire puddings and all.

Briefly explained to my mum the reason I was so unhappy a couple of weeks back (the breakup with August, she already knew about Jan becuase I'd found that more possible to talk about on the phone). She's mostly just glad to see me a bit better than I sounded then. Thinks we should just go back to being a "normal couple" though, and by intent rather than just by happenstance. I don't think she ever really understood. Not that Richard seems at all interested in anyone else at the moment anyway.

Found time to read the first third of The Handmaids Tale while I was there too, having finshed the Scar on the train on the way up. Was disconcerting slightly since it was my sister's A-level English copy, and rather scribbled on. Forget to bring it with me when we left, so will have to go buy my own.

No chiark now we're back of course, due to upgrades being done. And the chinese place we're trying to order dinner from seems permanently engaged. I do just feel like I really can't be arsed though. *shrug*. Not so perky as that meme would suggest. But I'll do. Kind of have to.

Comments

[mtbc100.livejournal.com]

FWIW we've always had good, affordable flower results from Flying Flowers (http://www.flyingflowers.com/). Bit late now though. ):

[j4.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Glad the weekend was mostly nice at any rate.

BTW I know it's too late now but re online flowers I've had good experiences with Bunches (http://www.bunches.co.uk/) and Flowers Direct (http://www.flowersdirect.co.uk). And Thorntons are excellent too judging by that huuuuuge bunch of flowers you sent me a while back (and they lasted *ages* -- thank you again!). :-)

[lnr]

Thornton's are in the "excellent but slightly expensive" category: I mean they're reasonable for online flowers, but you could buy just as lovely for half the price in a real shop, and nearly as nice and a quarter of the price on the market. And I feel daft buying flowers from them when not at least also buying chocs, which I'd been specifically asked not to get.

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

I got that icon-mood result too. I imagined they did it based on proportion of particular colours in the image. So I wasn't really surprised. I think doing the same thing with my non-default spiky abstract icon would produce quite different results.

It's annoying when parents just don't get something, isn't it? My parents still don't, I think, understand why I'm with G (though they are at least polite about it these days). There are so many things I'd like to debate with them, concerning this issue, but it's impossible when they've never actually stated any specific objections: just the fact of dissatisfaction. Maybe that's why they aren't more specific - they don't want an argument.

Best wishes anyway.

[mhk.livejournal.com]

The Handmaids Tale

Did you really like this one? I found it very far-fetched, not nearly as good as her other books.

[lnr]

Still only 1/3 of the way in hard to tell. I am enjoying it though. Despite the pencilled notes being a bit distracting.

Far-fetched doesn't bother me though so perhaps I'll enjoy the rets more than you did.

[ceb.livejournal.com]

If you're after a copy of The Handmaid's Tale, I've seen it in Galloway and Porter for cheap quite often recently...

[lnr]

Cool, in that case I shall pop in there at lunchtime today and see.

[lnr]

No sign of it (could well have been there but just not spotted it of course) so I gave in and bought it for expensive from Waterstones instead.