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prunesquallormdWell, it's been an awfully long time since the opportunity and the inclination to update have coincided, but as I have a couple of days of my two and a half week holiday left (it's flown by, unsurprisingly) and a whole bunch of new CDs to listen to, this is probably the perfect time to at least write something. Also, I have a couple of other things that I really should be doing, and this makes a pretty good displacement activity.
Christmas and New Year were pleasant and mostly stress free, although I find myself disliking my sister-in-law more and more. The presence of the children at least makes serious adult conversation a secondary concern - always a good thing amongst people who have a tendency to greatly irritate each other. Also, mum's other half was there for most of the time and he's recent enough that people are still on their best behaviour, which helps no end.
After Christmas there was a frenzied few days of trying to catch up with as many people as possible. I didn't see all the people I would have liked to, or, for the ones that I did catch, for as long as I would have liked, but four people (plus the other halves and children of two of them) in three days is pretty good going I'd say.
And, while there was very little alcohol and refreshingly little nicotine, there was more chocolate than is technically healthy (always a good thing) and some rather nice presents, including the complete poems of Mervyn Peake (a recent publication that I'd managed to miss and, as far as I know, his first complete collection, so fairly squee-worthy ;) ) and an addition to my small but growing New Model Army collection, both from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
corone and lareinemisere (thanks guys :)), and an adorable little Kipling bag from Cath (because, as I'm sure has been scientifically proven somewhere, you can never have too many bags or too many shoes ...).
All in all, an unexpectedly pleasant couple of weeks.
Happy New Year, all. I hope that 2009 is in every possible way better for everybody than 2008 has been.
XXX
Christmas and New Year were pleasant and mostly stress free, although I find myself disliking my sister-in-law more and more. The presence of the children at least makes serious adult conversation a secondary concern - always a good thing amongst people who have a tendency to greatly irritate each other. Also, mum's other half was there for most of the time and he's recent enough that people are still on their best behaviour, which helps no end.
After Christmas there was a frenzied few days of trying to catch up with as many people as possible. I didn't see all the people I would have liked to, or, for the ones that I did catch, for as long as I would have liked, but four people (plus the other halves and children of two of them) in three days is pretty good going I'd say.
And, while there was very little alcohol and refreshingly little nicotine, there was more chocolate than is technically healthy (always a good thing) and some rather nice presents, including the complete poems of Mervyn Peake (a recent publication that I'd managed to miss and, as far as I know, his first complete collection, so fairly squee-worthy ;) ) and an addition to my small but growing New Model Army collection, both from
corone and lareinemisere (thanks guys :)), and an adorable little Kipling bag from Cath (because, as I'm sure has been scientifically proven somewhere, you can never have too many bags or too many shoes ...).All in all, an unexpectedly pleasant couple of weeks.
Happy New Year, all. I hope that 2009 is in every possible way better for everybody than 2008 has been.
XXX
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-03 02:56 am (UTC)Work and family running about has made it tricky to find a day!
Shame I missed you when you passed by too.
So many thanks for the pressie, excellent work as always! :-)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-04 10:26 pm (UTC)Twas a shame we didn't catch up, but hopefully I'll be down again some time in January :)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-03 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-04 10:30 pm (UTC)I hope you had a fab birthday, and that you're feeling much better.