flickums

Very busy few weeks back to back, as tends to be the case at this time of year. Spent a week up in Scotland visiting the parentals. Saw the Falkirk Wheel (which didn't seem to overly impress me, though I did get a bottle of 'Wheel Ale' for The Boy there), visited the (possible) site of the Battle of Bannockburn (which did overly impress me - plus I got ambushed and cuddled by a pair of Northern Inuit doggies who were super lovely!), went on a ghost tour as part of Tamfest (Halloween) and visited a museum full of old toys (including pregnancy Barbie which is just as messed up as it sounds).

Also started reading The Talon of Horus, which I'm enjoying but it very much seems to suffer from 'origin story syndrome'. Hoping it will pick up or the next book will be a bit more meaty.

Spent this weekend in Leicester visiting luckykaa for one of our semi-regular meetups and for me to hand over the food/booze I picked up in Scotland.

Concluded our Disney movie/Cult movie Cultural Exchange Programme by watching Moon (which was awesome, and I am utterly in love with the soundtrack. Clint Mansell is very underrated!) and Tangled (Flynn Rider...I would).

Had haggis for lunch. Haven't had haggis since Burns Night in 2013 so it was nice to revisit it. Suggested that we serve it with cheesy mashed potatoes, which tasted awesome and went really well with the haggis.

Next up was the Leicester firework display!

Met up with Alex & Sarah there - was awesome to see them again. There was a stage with lots of random performances (including a giant dancing hamster) and some good choice of tunes during the firework display itself (War of the Worlds, Blade Runner, Star Wars and...The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). Instead of Guy Fawkes, they burned an effigy of Darth Vader. Not sure how I feel about that. Bonfire generated a LOT of smoke so we found a small hill that meant we didn't get assaulted by the smoke and gave us a good view of both the bonfire and the firework display.

Spent an unusually long time queuing up for candy floss. But it was freshly made (so still warm) and most people had left by the time we had our candy floss. So the four of us had a nice walk back into town sharing candy floss and lighting sparklers. That was a really nice end to the day :)

Today Neil and I saw Spectre. It was...pretty bad, if I'm honest. Further thoughts are under the cut, spoilers aplenty.

( Spectre: Spoilers Abound )

tl;dr: Two of my loveliest friends got married and there was a lot of feasting.

Friday

luckykaa drove up and met me after work in Derby. Still on temporary secondment there. I don't mind the commute too much (it's a lot less of a pain in the arse than when I was travelling to Leeds every day) as it gives me a chance to do more reading (two more Gaunt's Ghost novels and then I'm fully up to date!) but...the office is on an industrial estate in the arse end of nowhere. So my bank account has taken quite a battering the past couple of weeks. Hoping I'll be back in Sheffield soon. But my job continues to be pretty good, my team are all lovely and it still feels nice to be doing something that isn't temp work.

Drove home and I cooked gammon in honey and mustard sauce. Tweaked the recipe slightly and was very happy with how it came out. We watched 'Enchanted' which I haven't seen in years. Considering how few Disney Princess films Neil has seen, I think some of the humour may have been lost on him. But I still love that film.

Saturday

Kat and Frodo's wedding! Despite getting a bit confused and ending up at the reception venue when we should have been at the ceremony venue, we still got there in time (and were the first two to arrive) - felt a bit nervous about being there as I've not been to a wedding ceremony since Ant and I split up. So was very grateful to have Neil there holding my hand in case of spontaneous feels. As it happened, there were none. The ceremony was lovely. Kat looked gorgeous, the poems were all very moving and they both seemed so genuinely happy to be married to each other. Welling up may have occurred. Took a pause after photos at the ceremony to sit in a little green in Harrogate and enjoyed a drink together before heading off to the reception.

There was a bouncy castle. Bouncing happened.

There was delicious hog roast. Feasting happened.

The people we were sat with were all awesome. Got to geek out. Put forward a pretty convincing argument about 4th ed D&D. Made me realise how much I miss playing D&D.

Drove down to Leicester. Got rained on. Got hailed on.

Watched The Karate Kid (the original) which I'd never seen before. So. Much. 80s! But Hercules and a few episodes of Family Guy now make a lot more sense to me.

Sunday

Got shown how to make an omelette. Mine always end up burnt on the outside and undercooked on the inside. Turns out bacon and goat's cheese are awesome omelette fillings. Must make another attempt at one.

Went to Ikea. Ikea was ridiculously busy. Was very lucky to escape with Neil without us beating each other to death with flat packed furniture. That would have ended the weekend on a bit of a downer.

Unwound from that experience with deep fried camenbert in front of Beauty and the Beast (part of my five film course on educating Neil on Disney films). Still my favourite Disney film. Next I'm showing him The Little Mermaid :)

Read some more of Blood Pact on my way home. Once I'm caught up with Gaunt's Ghosts, I'm starting on Discworld (again) and then at some point I should probably make a start on the Horus Heresy. But apparently there are some pretty hefty feels involved :(