New Year etc.
Jan. 2nd, 2011 06:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyofastolatI seem to be Facebooking rather more than LJ-ing at the moment, probably as a result of getting my new phone. It lends itself to a quick "I am doing X" Facebook style update, rather than the lengthier LJ stuff.
Let's see. Pellinor and I both had the days between Christmas and New Year off, and we spent them doing nothing remotely productive. As well as catching up on some Christmas TV (Doctor Who, QI and Top Gear, mostly) we played a variety of games - console, computer and board. Wednesday afternoon was spent fighting the Battle of Crecy, in a game that always looms in my mind as one that takes Foreeeevvver, and thus one that should only be done when you have days to spare, but which actually took barely 4 or 5 hours.
God is apparently an Englishman, but God doesn't play dice with the universe, so the Devil stepped in to the power vacuum and gave the French all the good die rolls, especially in the early stages. My English forces failed to win any activation rolls for a good hour, so the entire English army stood there like frozen rabbits while hordes of French knights carefully positioned themselves, charged, circled them, and proceeded to mash up their pikemen. Fortunately the English did eventually manage to work out that the big bits of wood in their hand were for shooting with, not for stirring porridge with, and began to turn the flower of French chivalry into a confused mass of embarrassed, dismounted idiots prone to stumbling into ditches. So that was good, and saved us from the terrible fate of Alternative History.
On Friday, we went to London to see Bellowhead and assorted others in the Royal Festival Hall. The involved the much-feared process that is called Driving In London, something rather daunting for timid provincials like me, who think that a road with more than one lane in each direction is terribly daring. However, driving to the hotel proved far easier than walking to the venue, since Central London had been taken over by about a million security guards who kept randomly closing off bits of road for no apparent reason. They kept allowing us to get onto bits of embankment, then refusing to let us out again at the other end, in case fireworks landed on our heads 5 hours before they were due to be set off, or something like that.
The Bellowhead event was as exhausting as ever, especially since they played all their most lively dancing tunes. The other stuff going on in between the Bellowhead sets was probably rather duller and quieter than last year, but the Bellowhead parts were even better. They did two sets of their usual stuff, but also did a set "cheesy covers," which included Mack the Knife and Take on Me, both of which made me very happy. The fireworks on the Thames were pretty great, too.
We left at about 1.30, emerging into a post-apocalyptic London, scattered with litter, broken glass, security guards, police and staggering people veering into fences. Not that the police seemed to be doing much; at one point, we stood at a window at the top of the Royal Festival Hall and looked down on about 20 policemen milling around their van. Pellinor waved at them and did a happy dance, until I dragged him away. It was after 2 before we reached out hotel, but there were still enormous crowds queuing to get in to various night clubs. All I wanted to do was sleep by then.
Yesterday we drove right through Central London without mishap, and went to join an assembled multitude chez![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
skordh and jane_somebody. Various games were played, including some epic achievements in Not-Jenga (I watched. It was very exciting) and loads of dramatic doomy plunges in various console games. Last night involved various online quizzes, in which parrot_knight displayed incredible knowledge of TV theme tunes. This morning, some of us played Settlers of Catan, which I won, but really shouldn't have, except that probability decided to be on my side and decree that 10 would come up on 2d6 at least four times as often as 8.
Tonight I intend to have a Very Early Night Indeed. *yawn*
Let's see. Pellinor and I both had the days between Christmas and New Year off, and we spent them doing nothing remotely productive. As well as catching up on some Christmas TV (Doctor Who, QI and Top Gear, mostly) we played a variety of games - console, computer and board. Wednesday afternoon was spent fighting the Battle of Crecy, in a game that always looms in my mind as one that takes Foreeeevvver, and thus one that should only be done when you have days to spare, but which actually took barely 4 or 5 hours.
God is apparently an Englishman, but God doesn't play dice with the universe, so the Devil stepped in to the power vacuum and gave the French all the good die rolls, especially in the early stages. My English forces failed to win any activation rolls for a good hour, so the entire English army stood there like frozen rabbits while hordes of French knights carefully positioned themselves, charged, circled them, and proceeded to mash up their pikemen. Fortunately the English did eventually manage to work out that the big bits of wood in their hand were for shooting with, not for stirring porridge with, and began to turn the flower of French chivalry into a confused mass of embarrassed, dismounted idiots prone to stumbling into ditches. So that was good, and saved us from the terrible fate of Alternative History.
On Friday, we went to London to see Bellowhead and assorted others in the Royal Festival Hall. The involved the much-feared process that is called Driving In London, something rather daunting for timid provincials like me, who think that a road with more than one lane in each direction is terribly daring. However, driving to the hotel proved far easier than walking to the venue, since Central London had been taken over by about a million security guards who kept randomly closing off bits of road for no apparent reason. They kept allowing us to get onto bits of embankment, then refusing to let us out again at the other end, in case fireworks landed on our heads 5 hours before they were due to be set off, or something like that.
The Bellowhead event was as exhausting as ever, especially since they played all their most lively dancing tunes. The other stuff going on in between the Bellowhead sets was probably rather duller and quieter than last year, but the Bellowhead parts were even better. They did two sets of their usual stuff, but also did a set "cheesy covers," which included Mack the Knife and Take on Me, both of which made me very happy. The fireworks on the Thames were pretty great, too.
We left at about 1.30, emerging into a post-apocalyptic London, scattered with litter, broken glass, security guards, police and staggering people veering into fences. Not that the police seemed to be doing much; at one point, we stood at a window at the top of the Royal Festival Hall and looked down on about 20 policemen milling around their van. Pellinor waved at them and did a happy dance, until I dragged him away. It was after 2 before we reached out hotel, but there were still enormous crowds queuing to get in to various night clubs. All I wanted to do was sleep by then.
Yesterday we drove right through Central London without mishap, and went to join an assembled multitude chez
skordh and jane_somebody. Various games were played, including some epic achievements in Not-Jenga (I watched. It was very exciting) and loads of dramatic doomy plunges in various console games. Last night involved various online quizzes, in which parrot_knight displayed incredible knowledge of TV theme tunes. This morning, some of us played Settlers of Catan, which I won, but really shouldn't have, except that probability decided to be on my side and decree that 10 would come up on 2d6 at least four times as often as 8. Tonight I intend to have a Very Early Night Indeed. *yawn*
