He'd had a wine tasting evening, and had bought a bottle for my Christmas present along with a large box of tasty food. I'm glad I spent as long as I did on a hat for him, he really liked it and fortunately for me it fit really well!
On Saturday night it snowed again, we got a couple of inches and started to have concerns about getting back to Lancaster. A stroll round the village showed it to be melting by the time we wanted to leave, so after being stalked by some sinister looking sheep we drove back to Lancaster. It was a shame to have to leave early but the snow melt froze solid as soon as the sun went down so we'd have been stuck if we'd left it any later.
On Wednesday Fear, Ollie and I went to see The King's Speech at the cinema. I wanted to see it but wasn't sure it was quite my cup of tea. Fortunately it was such a good film and there was a grand atmosphere in the cinema. It was full of "ladies of a certain age" who were clearly there for The Firth who definitely earned his Golden Globe as poor stammering Bertie/George VI. It was funnier than I'd expected and the whole audience was chuckling along. Helena Bonham-Carter played Helena Bonham-Carter doing Queen Mum impressions, I'm starting to find her a little bit tiresome to be honest. Geoffrey Rush was excellent, I'd be interested to read more about the actual King's speech therapist. It seems like it was quite an odd relationship they had.
On Friday Ollie and I piled too much stuff in the car and bombed down to The Big Smoke for a jolly to the Adelphi to see Love Never Dies, the sequel to the Phantom of the Opera. I've never see Phantom, but have read the Terry Pratchett interpretation which isn't too far off so had a bit of a clue what was going on. To be honest, it didn't matter if you'd seen it or not, it was made pretty clear who was who and who wanted what with whom from the start. I'd never really considered myself a fan of musicals but it was such a fun experience over all that I'd go again given the chance. The set design was awesome and there were some very clever visual tricks that were played on the audience. There were singing chandeliers and half-skeleton-half-showgirl waiters. A good night.
Saturday I was up early (too early!) to head London-wards to meet Tom at the British Museum. I had an hour puttering round the Egyptian and North American rooms then went for lunch and a pint with Mr. Knapp. We considered going to the Sloane museum but the queue was out the door so went to the Huntarian museum instead. This was no bad thing, for two science teachers the Huntarian was the best place to spend an hour or so. Lots of manky things in jars, skeletons and examples of freaks and weird things collected over the years.
I headed to Regent Street after that, and met Mindy outside H&M. We ended up in The Diner near Carnaby Street which does passable American diner-style food without the usual Route 66 crap on the walls and a jukebox which went further than the usual Elvis and Doris Day. We were just going to have a drink, but ended up staying for dinner and a couple more beers when Sarah joined us. Went to The Firestation beside Waterloo for another drink then got the train back to Mindy's where we polished off a very nice bottle of Rioja before sleepy-time. I was kipped on by one of Mindy's cats and woke up to a warm, purry weight on my chest and Abbi licking my chin.
Back into London to see Sheena for brunch-y type coffee. It was grand to see her, I'm a bit duff at keeping in touch with folk from Stanne's but I'm pleased I made the effort to catch up with her. She's doing all sorts of exciting things with bands and gigs, it made me want to change career paths!
Ollie regained consciousness and met me in London (next to Eros, queso!) for lunch. I'd recommended the Diner to him after he enthused about the pancakes he'd had in the States, he tucked into a Philly cheese steak sandwich and fries and I really enjoyed my eggs Florentine and hash browns. A bit of shopping (new jeans, t-shirt and vest from H&M and a new pair of Converse for me, new jeans from Uniqlo, t-shirts from H&M and jumper from Topman for Ollie) and coffee, then we headed back to Dan and Jen's for dinner. We set off from London about 9pm so didn't get back till 2am but it was a grand weekend.
The next big weekend is the first weekend in February when Ka, Sergio and Holly and possibly Katherine will be heading across the border for a jolly round the Lakes and a tour of Lancaster's pubs. Hopefully by then I'll have my jumper finished!
I'm loving knitting this. I can try it on as I go, so there's none of the terror I had when sewing my Bangalore cardi together and hoping it'll fit. It's fitting really well and the wool is really warm! It's only acrylic with 20% wool, so nothing fancy but I like the colour and the way it's chunky but not huge. I'm 8 yards short with my Giant Ball of Wool (seriously, 400g of Aran wool is twice the size of my head, I'm using a laptop bag instead of my knitting project bag) so might have to buy another one and make a tank-top out of it. It's £7 a ball, so two handknit jumpers for £14 isn't bad in these times of unemployment. Plus it stops me losing my marbles, I've hoovered the hell out of the house and given myself blisters from tramping the streets. I NEED A JOB, k thnx bye!
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