debxena

Looks like I'm getting back in the swing of regular, albeit weekly, posting. This is a good thing!

This past week has been full of nice stuff - all weeks should be this pleasant, I think.

When I went with Alex to the hospice social day (Opening Doors) on Tuesday, I received a lovely facial and hand-massage - the trainees from International College of Camille were present, doing make-overs and massages and pedicures and the like. I feel a bit guilty sometimes receiving these relaxing things (when a patient could be in my place), but I have to remind myself that a) they're there for a few hours, and everyone who wants attention gets it, and b) as a caregiver I deserve pampering too! A very good pampering it was, and I glowed all day.

I also attended a very successful job interview mid-week (reminding myself all the way there that 'I am made of awesome' obviously did the trick), and I now have additional part-time work, a few evenings a week, to supplement my income. I have some more from-home admin-type work as well. This is all very, very good, and will make the household finances a lot happier :) Working part-time in a few different roles really suits me, as it keeps the hours flexible, and my interest high. Some of it is extroverted people stuff, and some is time-alone focus stuff, and the balance will work well for me.

Saturday we helped ekmahal and Tobermorey to move house. This involved bed-assembly, duct-tape, filthy jokes, sally lunn, and (eep) me accidentally backing into their new letterbox. No major damage, however! Their new place is HUGE, and *nods* definitely going to move Waifs and Strays to there this year (at their suggestion).

Saturday evening Ben and I joined the Wolverines having dinner at neongraal's place. It was a real pleasure to not have to cook, and the food - dinner and dessert - was delicious! We were completely bushed by the time we got home, though.

Thursday and Sunday were complete relaxation days, where I spent a lot of time in bed, some time on the computer, painted, watched more Buffy S2, and stayed in my nightie all day. Luxury!

TV
~ Ben and I watched the third ep of Fringe. It continues to be creepy, cool, and compelling - Ben and I are both enjoying it, although for completely different reasons. Interestingly, neither of us is that enamoured of the main character (but we both like Astrid a lot)! Took me a while to click that Broyles is also Abbadon from Lost, though.

You know you can see Walter's lab notes every week, right? His banana cake recipe after Ep 1 was hilarious.

~ Heroes eps 1 and 2 of S3 (were they played together?). Interesting twists, specifically ( cut for spoilers )

~ Wipe-out. I blame bigtaz for making me watching this, and it happened to be the 'Wipies' episode, so we got to see the worst of it all. Granted, I laughed (a lot), but I felt like a worse human being afterwards. I miss The Krypton Factor and L&P Top Town.

Books
I plowed through a lot of books this week, nearly all of them re-reads, and for good reason.

~ Lady Slings the Booze, by Spider Robinson. Can't go wrong with punsters, sexual openness, crime and time travel now, can you?

~ The Curse of Chalion, and Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold. I really like this fantasy series, as much for the world it's set it and for the characters within it. Definitely has the Bujold touch though, making characters memorable and the protagonists loveable despite their faults.

~ Richard Adams' Favourite Animal Stories. Many familiar, many not. Most interesting discovery is that I can't read the Br'er Rabbit stories in the original argot Joel Chandler Harris wrote them in. What happened to the children's book with great coloured illustrations where I could actually understand what was going on?

Movies
Whilst eating Deb's delicious dessert on Saturday evening, we poured animation into our brains, via The Animation Show Volume 1. (Mixing Don Hertzfeld and Mike Judge is creeeeeeepy.) There were some amazing animation styles and stories, and most of them held us spellbound. According to the wonderful interwebs, there are more volumes, which I think we may have to track down ...

These are what Ben and I decided later were out favourites from the disc (with youtube links):
~ Aria by Pjotr Sapegin
~ Das Rad by Heidi Wittlinger
~ Brother, Cousin, and Uncle by Adam Elliot
~ Bathtime in Clerkenwell by Alex Budovsky (below, and my personal favourite, for the music as much as the animation)
~ and, of course, Billy's Balloon by Don Hertzfeldt



And tonight! Tonight I'm off to see the new documentary about Tim Minchin, Rock n' Roll Nerd (I won tickets, and am delighted)! I'll let you know how it turns out.

And if you haven't heard of Tim Minchin? Oh dear ... go and watch this - the first thing of his I ever saw :)

This week's post is brought to you by the image of me dancing across the living room to 'They Might Be Giant's (Flood), in order to kiss Ben on the nose.

The media thing worked well last week, so here's something sort-of similar. My week was a lot more social and a lot less media-full, though.

So:

Media of the week
~ BOOK: The Queen of Air and Darkness by Poul Anderson (not to be confused with Frederick Pohl).
I generally like Anderson's writing, but ultimately I only liked about half of these stories. Still, that's what you get when you purchase second-hand based entirely on the author's name. 'Time Lag', the final story, is the one which impressed me the most. Bittersweet yet compelling.

~ BOOK: Pronoia is the antidote for paranoia: how the whole world is conspiring to shower you with blessings, by Rob Brezsny (whose name you may recognise from his Freewill Astrology column, which has been running for many years).
I haven't finished this yet - I'm reading a few chapters every day, and savouring them. Nonetheless, I think I want to own this book myself - it makes me happy, I smile more, and I walk with a swing in my hips that isn't always there otherwise. Non-fiction often doesn't appeal to me as often as fiction does, but I am making a gleeful exception in this instance :)

~ MOVIE : Ben and I did mean to go and see Dark Knight returns, and didn't get around to it. Hopefully this week.  But we did sit down on our new couch and watch Thank You For Smoking. It took a while to get going, but we found the satirical take very amusing, and Aaron Eckhart an excellent actor. Rob Lowe's character eccentricities also amused us greatly. (And yay for William H. Macy! I've been a fan ever since ER.)

~ TV: You know, pretty much nothing. Other than the usual Buffy - two episodes (I'm rewatching S2 for the umpteenth time: mmm, Spike) meant I got all the ironing done on Tuesday afternoon.

Funniest Social Moment of the Week (just because I feel like sharing)

Saturday morning started with a bang - between 10:45 and 11am, the following cars/people arrived at our house (which, before the influx, contained four adults, two cats, and one small dog):
1: car + trailer, containing four adults, one couch, and one washing machine
2: car, containing one adult, one pre-teen, and one toddler
3: car, containing one adult and one HUGE dog

cue: chaos. Big dog and little dog played excitedly on the lawn; toddler was shood back in car after pre-teen was deposited, old washing machine was moved out of the way, new washing machine and couch were installed, old couch was carried onto trailer. Coffee and tea and V was distributed and drunk, the sun shone, and general madness ensued.

Also, I got LOTS of hugs, as pre-teen, all adults except pre-teens daughter, and both dogs wanted love and cuddles :)

And by 11:30? Everyone had buggered off - including me, as I went to help a friend move house. Leaving Ben to plumb the washing machine in, and enjoy the piece and quiet ...

Books I've read this week:
Sebastian, by Anne Bishop. I've enjoyed her writing for quite some time, and have read most of her books (while owning only a few). ( Characters are mentioned. Spoiler alert! )

Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman. I am very glad that I saw the BBC mini-series first (we own it on video and re-watch it occasionally), because Neil has added in so much more depth with the book. If I'd read the book first, I think the mini-series would have disappointed me deeply. ( Plot points and characters are discussed within )

Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson. I knew nothing about this book, other than it was very well-received, and had been made into a film. So it was an unexpected world which drew me in. While the story itself seemed somewhat unoriginal, Guterson's rich descriptions and depth of emotion really resonated with me. Not to mention I learned an awful lot about ( you might call this spoilery. If you try hard )

Movies I've seen this week:
The Alibi, from 2006. As often happens these days, another film about cheating and lies pretty much left me cold. ( Plot movement mentioned here ) That said, I was pleased to watch Steve Coogan for a couple of hours - I found him quite attractive (although that may have been the character he was playing).

Batman Begins, from 2005. steelphoenix thrust this upon me when I told her I'd never seen it, and Ben and I sat down to watch it earlier this week. And we thought it was great! I proceeded to watch through all of the extras on the second DVD as well. And we'll be going to catch Dark Knight Returns at IMAX this week. ( Drooling over the main character )

TV Shows I've seen this week:
On the old TV show front, Ben and I are working our way through Chef (which I used to watch with my mum, and still find brilliant. Lenny Henry's tirades are masterful), and Andromeda S3. It seems to have lost its way since S2.

Last night we watched the pilot episode of Fringe, which was ... interesting. And gross. We both agree that ( talking about characters could be considered spoilery )We'll watch a few more episodes, at the very least, to see where it goes.

We also checked out the first couple of episodes of True Blood. ( Character stuff and no mention of broody vamp comparisons )The reimagining of the vampire mythos and how they gradually explain how it works in this 'verse is, unsurprisingly, fascinating to me.

Yes, I know I haven't posted for two months. This is better than dear-air, right?

Number of schools driven past on my way to work this morning: six
Four primary schools, one high school, and one language school. Not including where I work, which is also a place of learning. I can drive different ways and skip some out, but often that just means I go past different ones!

Number of excellent kiwi films seen recently: one
If you get the opportunity, Eagle vs. Shark is an excellent film and well worth the watch. And, given the relationship awkwardness it depicts, extra-good as a first date movie! Lots of laughs, and opportunities for mirth.

Number of books purchased/received over the weekend: five
Sandman books #5, #9 and #10 purchased from Gotham Comics to complete the set; a Jasper Fforde book and a Sara Paretsky book received in the mail from SwapClub.

Number of beers drunk on Saturday night: three - Ben matched me drink for drink, which was nice
It was mugginsm and fishie's housewarming, and most fun. Lovely to see colitis and elyofborg and maab there as well.

Amount of walking done between Friday and Sunday: lots - my shins ache!
~ booting it up the hill to meet Sparky at the dentist, after I couldn't get a park close-by
~ ambling around town on Friday night (in between dinner and buying tickets to the movie, buying tickets and watching the movie, and after the movie up to the car)
~ walking to RPL's on Saturday
~ walking back from RPL's
~ walking to mugginsm and fishie's
~ running errands on Sunday (four stops, six shops)

Number of people who have donated to the BigTaz Internet-athon: 43!

Amount raised so far: an astonishing number. Thank you, everyone who's given so generously. You have helped immensely.


As always, donationsa are gratefully accepted! Full details on what and why are here.

Number of wonderful people in my life: far too many to count! And that's as it should be. *hugs you all*