The Trouble with Birthdays
Aug. 18th, 2011 12:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wishusAh - late summer! Cardigan weather. You can taste the sense of change in the air... the riots are over and things are unlikely to get as heated again, apart from the odd freaky day in September or October, and if you're lucky, the bank holiday.
Speaking of which, the bank holiday is always around my birthday, which means that I don't usually get hold of many friends to celebrate my birthday with. Last year was the first year I can remember in ages where I actually celebrated with people and it was ace! Normally, everyone's on holiday, or comatose in a pub garden, or suffering from post-BBQ 'food poisoning'. Since moving to Northampton, though, I seem to have moved into a bank-holiday-birthday-cluster -a strange phenomenon that has four of us all celebrating their birthday at the same time. This year, Clare has been the star and arranged for us to do stuff. It's all very exciting! More details after the event...
But next week I still want to do stuff for me, and this will involve:
*Going to London to see m'friend Paul Skevington interview m'friend Kim Lakin-Smith (fab writer of wondrous things!) - and that's the BSFA meeting from 7ish on 24th August at The Antelope in Belgravia (nearest tube Sloane Square). I will be drinkin' zoider! Or wine. Or both. No, probably not both... not good on the train, that.
*Eating Italian food - to make sure of which I have printed a voucher for Bella Italia. (Italian-ish, it'll do! And then it will just be a tenner for 2.Bargain!)
*Watching One Day... although, I am properly dreading it. I so loved David Nicholls' book, and the film only got 2 stars in yesterday's Metro. I won't be happy unless I'm bawling my head off. N loves it if a film requires lots of tissues. Oi! No... he pisses himself watching me watch that episode of Doctor Who where Madame Pompadour dies. I'm a sap, but I love it.
Still, it seems a bit of a shame to miss a film I've been dying to see all year just on the basis it might be a bit crap. Maybe I should just suck it and see?
*Going to see my mom.
But all this doing stuff is going to involve a bit of spending, and it's more important to try to get to Fantasycon if I can - which I haven't been able to book yet, hence I've not put myself forward for panels yet. Will do, though!
One thing that has fallen foul of the old budgetary constraints thingammybob is our wedding... would have been nice to tie the knot exactly 4 years after I proposed to N, but we just can't do what we want when we want, even cutting back - and yes, I know we could cut back to just acquiring the piece of paper if we really wanted, but it's not what we had in mind. We've pushed back the dates a bit instead.
It was in the news this week about the hike in train fares that's coming. Well, that made a decision a bit easier. The beauty of the train is I can walk to the station for 8.25 and arrive at work just in time. They're every half hour or so, and very handy for popping to London after work for gigs and stuff. Journey time is only 20 minutes from Northampton to MK, much quicker than the car. Now, the bus leaves at 7.25 and is a bit further to walk to. I get to work 55 minutes early, and have to stay back another 55 minutes to get the bus home. Journey time 40 minutes. I would probably have to go to my Vic gigs straight from work, or make the odd exception to travel by train, but the buses are comfortable, clean, I have reading time, and I just worked out today that I'm saving £61 a month!!
It does make gigging slightly more complicated, but it's the best option. I just have to make sure I don't have too many late nights now! Again... with the gigging. Oh well, not too many gigs in the diary, anyway.
And there's so much good stuff to do for free. I haven't been on one of our huge, long walks for a few weeks, so am looking forward to taking a picnic somewhere nice pretty soon. Last weekend it was the Umbrella Fair on the Racecourse - I went for one day to perform some poetry as part of the Bardic Showcase. It was on all weekend, but I wanted to see my mom on Sunday, and she's out of hospital now and on the mend, thank goodness! Besides, editing is keeping me busy... oh, will soon have news on the return of Visionary Tongue, which is a bit fabulous!
So, yes, I feel a change coming, but I'll be older and wiser, and a little bit brighter for it.
Speaking of which, the bank holiday is always around my birthday, which means that I don't usually get hold of many friends to celebrate my birthday with. Last year was the first year I can remember in ages where I actually celebrated with people and it was ace! Normally, everyone's on holiday, or comatose in a pub garden, or suffering from post-BBQ 'food poisoning'. Since moving to Northampton, though, I seem to have moved into a bank-holiday-birthday-cluster -a strange phenomenon that has four of us all celebrating their birthday at the same time. This year, Clare has been the star and arranged for us to do stuff. It's all very exciting! More details after the event...
But next week I still want to do stuff for me, and this will involve:
*Going to London to see m'friend Paul Skevington interview m'friend Kim Lakin-Smith (fab writer of wondrous things!) - and that's the BSFA meeting from 7ish on 24th August at The Antelope in Belgravia (nearest tube Sloane Square). I will be drinkin' zoider! Or wine. Or both. No, probably not both... not good on the train, that.
*Eating Italian food - to make sure of which I have printed a voucher for Bella Italia. (Italian-ish, it'll do! And then it will just be a tenner for 2.Bargain!)
*Watching One Day... although, I am properly dreading it. I so loved David Nicholls' book, and the film only got 2 stars in yesterday's Metro. I won't be happy unless I'm bawling my head off. N loves it if a film requires lots of tissues. Oi! No... he pisses himself watching me watch that episode of Doctor Who where Madame Pompadour dies. I'm a sap, but I love it.
Still, it seems a bit of a shame to miss a film I've been dying to see all year just on the basis it might be a bit crap. Maybe I should just suck it and see?
*Going to see my mom.
But all this doing stuff is going to involve a bit of spending, and it's more important to try to get to Fantasycon if I can - which I haven't been able to book yet, hence I've not put myself forward for panels yet. Will do, though!
One thing that has fallen foul of the old budgetary constraints thingammybob is our wedding... would have been nice to tie the knot exactly 4 years after I proposed to N, but we just can't do what we want when we want, even cutting back - and yes, I know we could cut back to just acquiring the piece of paper if we really wanted, but it's not what we had in mind. We've pushed back the dates a bit instead.
It was in the news this week about the hike in train fares that's coming. Well, that made a decision a bit easier. The beauty of the train is I can walk to the station for 8.25 and arrive at work just in time. They're every half hour or so, and very handy for popping to London after work for gigs and stuff. Journey time is only 20 minutes from Northampton to MK, much quicker than the car. Now, the bus leaves at 7.25 and is a bit further to walk to. I get to work 55 minutes early, and have to stay back another 55 minutes to get the bus home. Journey time 40 minutes. I would probably have to go to my Vic gigs straight from work, or make the odd exception to travel by train, but the buses are comfortable, clean, I have reading time, and I just worked out today that I'm saving £61 a month!!
It does make gigging slightly more complicated, but it's the best option. I just have to make sure I don't have too many late nights now! Again... with the gigging. Oh well, not too many gigs in the diary, anyway.
And there's so much good stuff to do for free. I haven't been on one of our huge, long walks for a few weeks, so am looking forward to taking a picnic somewhere nice pretty soon. Last weekend it was the Umbrella Fair on the Racecourse - I went for one day to perform some poetry as part of the Bardic Showcase. It was on all weekend, but I wanted to see my mom on Sunday, and she's out of hospital now and on the mend, thank goodness! Besides, editing is keeping me busy... oh, will soon have news on the return of Visionary Tongue, which is a bit fabulous!
So, yes, I feel a change coming, but I'll be older and wiser, and a little bit brighter for it.
