rich_jacko

...has been a busy month, in a good way :o)

I kicked it off on holiday in Flamborough. Since getting back I've been to the First Friday Social, Evie's party, Lard Club at I-can't-believe-it's-not-Roberto's Bella Roma, my own 33 1/3 party, the twins' naming party, the Third Friday Social, and Toby's Thanksgiving party (where I officially became a godfather - Yay!).

Just neil_h's pirate party (this Sat) and the Steel City Beer Festival (next Thurs) to go...

Oh, and my parents and my sister have significant wedding anniversaries this month as well!

I had fun at caraj316 and drspiros's 60th joint 30th party on Saturday. I've not done ceilidh dancing for several years, and I'd forgotten how much fun (and how exhausting!) it can be.

Mind you, I think it's best if these sorts of things aren't done too often, or I might get vaguely competent... I'm not sure the CelidhSoc folk approved, but half the fun was in the dances going horribly wrong all the time! You wouldn't have thought following instructions as they're shouted out would be too difficult, but when you factor in a general lack of co-ordination (not least of all from me) and beer, it all gets a bit random :o)

Other than that, there was lots of cake (I'm fairly sure there was no death), subversive breaking up of clique circles, and just generally a good evening all round. Thanks to the birthday couple for organising it all!

Pinched from farrel by means of being a quick way of doing an update:

( Actually not all that quick )

Okay, Monday wasn't that busy - what with the sleeping in after getting back from the Lordi gig at 4 in the morning, followed by meeting soul_rider and Evie for lunch, catching up with Torchwood and very little else, but the rest of the week was kinda hectic.

It's been my first week on temporary promotion (see here), and Tuesday was spent frantically preparing for meetings in London, Wednesday and Thursday were spent in meetings in London, and Friday was spent catching up and actually sorting stuff out with the three EOs I've suddenly got working for me.

I have, however, eaten well. After a fruitless search for restaurants around Westminster on Wednesday evening (They don't exist), we decided, "Stuff this! We're going to Planet Hollywood!" which was as fab as ever. I also managed to get back to Sheffield on Thursday evening just in time for Chinese food :o)

Friday evening was an ex-colleague's 30th do, so I swapped a night's drinking down the NBT for a night's drinking down the Frog & Parrot. Saturday was a day for catching up on rest, and also carrying on with the German course I borrowed from work. (I'm understanding it all as I go through, but not much seems to be actually sinking in - I'm never going to learn it in time for the Christmas markets trip at the end of the month!) But apart from that, and discovering that Magical Trevor seems to have gone a bit HP Lovecraft, not much else.

Today is again going to be busy. Well, perhaps "busy" is the wrong word, since my plans involve going to Baan Thai for andymariachi's birthday meal, and then sitting in the Fat Cat for the rest of the afternoon while waiting for the fireworks to start :o)

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Finally, has anyone seen goth_pooh_bear? He went to Whitby as he does every year, and has gone missing. Either some nasty heffalump (or woozel) has bearnapped him, or he's gone adventuring and got himself stuck in a rabbit hole again. He may be a bear of little brain, but he is deeply loved and the party scene just isn't the same without him.

Any info on his whereabouts to thegreatgonzo or thedarkfairy

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Went to ju_bear's birthday meal on Friday at Mama Mia Pepe's, which was as fantastic as ever. Lots of people there and almost as many courses! (still feeling full)

Yesterday was mainly a day for silly entertainment:
( Pirates - generally devoid of spoilers, but you might want to skip the IMDB links )
( Doctor Who - generally NOT devoid of spoilers )

Also went to lilith_k's birthday party parley in the evening, which was good fun.

Today, it's off to gothicgoverness and talma's place for their housewarming, then straight on to roleplaying this evening. (I'll be knackered come Monday morning!)

Unfortunately, yesterday's picnic ended up being rained off, but much cake was had at soul_rider and longhairedhippy's anyway. Thanks to everyone who braved the weather and showed up. Thanks also to the Beeb for providing an entire night of sci-fi geekery viewing pleasure :o) Once it eventually got started...

Continuing my birthday tradition of spending my actual birthday going to random places I've never been to before, this year I'm going to Cleethorpes.

So, if any of you are free from the evils of work this Wednesday, 17th May, do you fancy a trip to the coast? soul_rider and Evie are already joining me, and anyone else who can read this is welcome.

There seems to be a fair amount of cheap interesting stuff to go to, and I always feel that I don't see the sea nearly as often as I would like to. The forecast is still drizzly, but we won't let that get us down, right?

Trains are every hour (at 11 minutes past going out, and leaving Cleethorpes at 27 minutes past the hour coming back). It's just less than a 2-hour journey each way, and a day return costs £14.30.

I'm planning on catching the 10:11 out (although I could be persuaded to make that the 11:11!) and the 18:27 back, which gets into Sheffield at 20:08. Let me know if you fancy tagging along, so we can arrange to meet up :o)

The Park was a rather pleasant discovery on Sunday - I met up with the Chivers for lunch there. Whilst large bits of the roast dinners had a rather conspicuous sense of having come straight from a packet, for the price I can't complain. I could quite happily keep going back there at weekends until I've worked my way down the entire menu. The mixed grill for a fiver, and the 16oz steak for £6.50 both look very tempting :o)

Also huzzah for GameStation on The Moor - 2 DVDs, 2 ancient MegaDrive games and a shiny new GameCube game for the grand total of 21 quid! I was good and resisted the SNES-plus-twenty-games-for-£120 option...

I now have a date for moving teams (22nd May), which means I now have to organise myself a leaving do. Following my slight whinge about pub crawls with work here, I'm going to try to persuade my colleagues into going to Marble Court. Wish me luck!

Note to soul_rider: I managed to book your birthday off! (On the flimsy excuse that I ought to get my flexi back down again before I leave) So I'll be able to meet up with you guys in Hope like we said.

Friday - Tiring but satisfying day at work. Various folks on leave/off sick, so I was in charge of the team. I'm pleased with my own l33t management SkillZ, as we cleared three times our normal workload, without stressing anyone out or pissing them off.

Big thumbs up for the NBT as the new venue for the Friday night social. Whilst space was a bit tight later on, the fact that they do food was a major bonus. As was the choice of good (and cheap!) beer.

Saturday - Somehow managed to sleep for nearly 12 hours, which made the morning rather short non-existant, but I guess I must have needed it.

Went to B's birthday party in the afternoon/evening (a bit later than intended!), which was fab! Great to see so many people there, many of whom I don't get to see very often. And the excuse to play with toys and watch Harry Potter DVDs was just an added bonus :o)

Sunday - Snow! I'd forgotten about the forecast. Went for a walk around the park in it at lunchtime (to burn off a bit more of the food from yesterday's party!). I'm now planning to spend the rest of the day being a lazy sci-fi geek, finishing reading my current Dune novel and watching Doctor Who DVDs.

Got the keys to my new pad on Thursday, then obviously I had to show the place off to soul_rider, longhairedhippy, gothicgoverness, talma and Anne (NOLJ), who seemed muchly impressed.

That means I've had a pretty busy weekend moving a few bits and bobs in, cleaning the place and buying tons of stuff to go in it (Hmmmm, maybe that last bit wasn't such a good idea....)

Anyhow, I just need to get to the end of my scarily-long "moving in checklist" (of which getting broadband set up is clearly an essential item!), and then I'll be moving properly. And looking pleadingly at anyone with a car who can help move the rest of my stuff :o)

Also this weekend, I went to the fabulous Zing Vaa for gothicgoverness's birthday, saw Sin City (Rather good. Bloody good actually. And also bloody. I was especially impressed by the unexpected dinosaurage.), and longhairedhippy and I booked next year's holiday to Turkey - then we both got accused by soul_rider of being too "giddy" for some reason. Can't think why.