October 9th, 2006


WIDTW, part I -- Housewarming

On Saturday, I went to a party hosted by jamesb and Simoné, to celebrate a housewarming and an engagement. There was lots of cider, lots of RSA-ian snacks, and a surprisingly large barbecue with sausage, chicken and beef. It was good.
Did I mention that there was a lot of cider? There was also a lot of stupid conversation, a fair bit of serious conversation, and some that could reasonably be placed in either category. One or two people may have had a bit too much of one or more of these things.
My last train home disappeared into the æther while all this too-much-ness was going on, and I ended up staying the night -- curled up on some cushions half-way up the stairs. I got to "bed" very late, about 5am, and was up again around 9am, for a train out of East Croydon at 10:10 followed by a frustrating 55-minute wait for a connection at Clapham Junction, thanks to the poor provision of trains on my home line on Sunday mornings, and I got home at about 12:30.

WIDTW, part II -- Thanksgiving

After doing some vital and inescapable admin at home, I set out for London once again, for a Thanksgiving dinner with Canadian sparktastic and nine or ten of her friends and housemates. There was turkey and ham, there was mash, carrots, sprouts and beetroot. Oh, and pizza. And apple pie, and strudel. And cocktails, and wine, and more wine, and sending a couple of the young people out to buy even more wine.
There was lots of talk: Some of it about the current popular music scene, a subject of which I'm largely ignorant; some of it about fanfic, during which I was prevailed upon to recite some poetry, which was received rather well.

A very happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers, particularly Sparky, our host today, who deserves my warmest thanks for an excellent evening, and Cerra, who has much to be thankful for at the moment.


Of no consequence in comparison to some of the things other people on my friends list are dealing with, but I thought I'd write about it anyway.

I have a pain. A very small area of pain, two or three inches to the right of my spine, and about half-way up my ribcage. The way the pain varies as I move suggests that it's a torn muscle, but I can't imagine how I've managed to damage a muscle in such a small and specific area when it's surrounded by so much other structure.

I don't recall any occasion recently when I lifted anything unwise, or moved suddenly in an ill-advised manner. It's not tender to the touch, and doesn't feel any different to the same area on the opposite side. There's no visible discolouration. The pain first presented itself when I awoke this morning.

It's not disabling and it's not distressing, it's just... odd. All the other usual pains -- knees, shoulder, etc etc, are behaving "normally". I think I'll just ignore it and assume it'll get better by itself in a day or two.


I lost my camera sometime on Saturday evening. If anyone finds themself with an unexpected camera, it might possibly be mine.

In other news, does anyone happen to know whether the camera shops in the LHR T1 departure lounge are any good?