(no subject)
Dec. 24th, 2003 11:51 amIt's Christmas Eve, people. Things are... strange... here in Chez Cheetham, but since we're currently going through a strange quiet period, I thought I'd take advantage and post. And I shall do so in chronological order.
Two days ago, I left the house and wandered off to Birkenhead. You have to understand that this is something of an adventure for me. I live in Ormskirk, which generally means I'm constricted to this side of the Wirral. But I made it, and met
cucharita (to be known as Enid) and
loveraven (to be known as Iona) at Central, which is probably one of the main reasons I didn't end up in Wales.
We met the lovely
osiris13 (Clare) at Conway Park, who guided us onto a bus. Thank god. At least trains are relatively easy to understand. I've never, ever, been able to navigate the bus system. I can just about cope with the college bus, and that's one way there and one way back, and I get on and off at the very end of the line. The bus was a little odd. For us, we have quite normal conversations- politics and music were prevalent at least in my memory. The bloke opposite us still told us to try living in the real world. I wasn't alone in wanting to smack him, right?
Anyway, we trudged along to
shipperkitten's (Emily's) house. She opened to door to a rousing chorus of "We Wish You A Slashy Christmas." She slammed the foor on us, but eventually let us into her humble abode, which I would like to be the first to stand up with a flag and say it's lovely. And huge. On an expedition to try and find a loo, I should have taken breadcrumbs. But on the other hand, her cats are absolutely bloody lovely, as are the big fluffy dogs.
purplerainbow (Hannah) was at a Family Thing, so we had to wait for her to turn up before we opened presnts. As such, we went downstairs and ate lasagne. Emily didn't like it, but I did, and ate two portions, since I'm in training for Christmas. It seems to be working, and I will have to put it into practice starting tonight. So, we ate lasagne, and also made up The Twelve Days Of Fandom. Iona suspects that it was my suggestion. I'm tempted to believe this. Anyway- guess the fandoms!
( Twelve Days Of Fandom )
We sat around watching Red Dwarf, all of series three in the end. Most amusing! We phoned up Hannah and shouted abuse down the phone at her so she'd hurry up, and she did. In the meanwhile, we made a small present mountain which Enid put sparkly lights over, and also many candles and whatnot. Apart from obvious worries along the lines of "FIRE!" it looked really pretty.
Hannah finally turned up as Iona was rolling on the floor snickering at the line: "I'm suddenly feeling the urge to strut my finky stuff." Personally, I'm still amused by "Where would all the calculaters go?"
When Hannah turned up, we all shrieked, made her put her presents into the pile and turned into the Grabby Monsters Of Doom. I won't say what everyone got, but I was lucky enough to get two chocolate oranges (Clemily and Enid), a pencil case with (Space)Monkeys on the front and (Not)Monkeys on the back. Laughed uproariously. Hannah got me a chocolate reinder saying "Hathor" (it originally said "Hathon" so Hannah chipped bits away) and Iona recognised my inner geek- she got me a mug with the Bayeux Tapestry on it, the bit where Harold gets the arrow in the eye, with the caption of "I spy with my little eye something beginning with A..."
I felt generally extremely loved, and felt horrifically guilty since I left Enid's at home. I gave her the lion's share of the Maltesers. (No, Andrew, NOT the ones I stole off you, the ones I actually went out to buy.)
After presentness, we all felt a little bit deflated, but happy. Because we're allpathetic older and wiser, but about 11 we were knackered and tried to sleep. At 1am, we actually achieved this. *grins* We talked about all kinds of crap- fandom, politics, religion (that was me- resident cure for insomnia) but I remember that the last thing I saw was the blue light on.
I woke up quite bit during the night. The first time, I sat up and said quite loudly: "Where am I?" I also remember waking up with Iona's hand in my hair. The time after that, I stole Em's pillow. It had fallen on the floor, and I just thought 'yoink!'
Woke up at about 10.00, and we lolled about and ate toast and eventually left in the pouring rain. Noah had nothing on us! I got on the train by myself, feeling generally quite happy, when Mum rang me. She sounded like crap. Obviously, my warning bells started to ring- Mum rarely sounds that bad. So, I start doing the "What's wrong?" thing, whilst mentally filing through all the illnesses the family have, or who could have died, or just what the dog could do. Mum sighs, and says it not important. Warning bells turn into Defcon 3, and I basically refuse to go away until she tells me. Bear in mind I hadn't seen her for two days (she was at work when I left) I was worried.
Mum's back was playing up. This isn't a rare thing- Mum was one of the lower grade nurses from the days before they have proper lifts. She always had a bad back, and was recently diagnosed with arthritis. But this was bad the extent of "can't get out of house, have phoned doctor to come around". So, I come home, and Mum was really not well. And panicking. Grandad and Nan were on the way. They won't care about how the house looks, but Mum does. As such, Dad and Megan were running around with hoovers and dusters and I felt rather out of place with my bag of chips. (I was hungry.)
Bah. Doctor didn't come. Mum fumed. Literally, I've never seen her smoke so much. Dad ranted down the phone, and them proceeded to storm down to the surgery and do the same there. Medical solidarity went out of the window with threats of "Where are your complaint forms?" and "What do you MEAN he's off ill if he can give Julie a prescription down the phone?"
Basically, I ran around like headless chicken trying to get stuff done and eventually went to work, which I won't describe for fear that I'll have to relive it. Awful. Went out of work, and there was Grandad in the car!
Must admit, I shrieked a fair bit. Like this set of grandparents far more than the other ones, and hugged, etc.
And that was last night. Woke up this morning by sister thundering up and down the stairs and honestly thought I might kill her. Instead, I made do with a shower and both her and grandparents have left the house, meaning that I can get my LJ post done.
So, now it's Christmas Eve. We have enough food to feed a small army, grandparents are here, tree is up, presents are dotted about...
And I don't feel Christmassy. At all. I think I may have had my Chrismas two nights ago. *sighs* But it was fun, so that makes up for it!
This post is far too long. I'll go now- I have beta-ing to do.
~Hathy_Col~
Two days ago, I left the house and wandered off to Birkenhead. You have to understand that this is something of an adventure for me. I live in Ormskirk, which generally means I'm constricted to this side of the Wirral. But I made it, and met
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
We met the lovely
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
Anyway, we trudged along to
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
We sat around watching Red Dwarf, all of series three in the end. Most amusing! We phoned up Hannah and shouted abuse down the phone at her so she'd hurry up, and she did. In the meanwhile, we made a small present mountain which Enid put sparkly lights over, and also many candles and whatnot. Apart from obvious worries along the lines of "FIRE!" it looked really pretty.
Hannah finally turned up as Iona was rolling on the floor snickering at the line: "I'm suddenly feeling the urge to strut my finky stuff." Personally, I'm still amused by "Where would all the calculaters go?"
When Hannah turned up, we all shrieked, made her put her presents into the pile and turned into the Grabby Monsters Of Doom. I won't say what everyone got, but I was lucky enough to get two chocolate oranges (Clemily and Enid), a pencil case with (Space)Monkeys on the front and (Not)Monkeys on the back. Laughed uproariously. Hannah got me a chocolate reinder saying "Hathor" (it originally said "Hathon" so Hannah chipped bits away) and Iona recognised my inner geek- she got me a mug with the Bayeux Tapestry on it, the bit where Harold gets the arrow in the eye, with the caption of "I spy with my little eye something beginning with A..."
I felt generally extremely loved, and felt horrifically guilty since I left Enid's at home. I gave her the lion's share of the Maltesers. (No, Andrew, NOT the ones I stole off you, the ones I actually went out to buy.)
After presentness, we all felt a little bit deflated, but happy. Because we're all
I woke up quite bit during the night. The first time, I sat up and said quite loudly: "Where am I?" I also remember waking up with Iona's hand in my hair. The time after that, I stole Em's pillow. It had fallen on the floor, and I just thought 'yoink!'
Woke up at about 10.00, and we lolled about and ate toast and eventually left in the pouring rain. Noah had nothing on us! I got on the train by myself, feeling generally quite happy, when Mum rang me. She sounded like crap. Obviously, my warning bells started to ring- Mum rarely sounds that bad. So, I start doing the "What's wrong?" thing, whilst mentally filing through all the illnesses the family have, or who could have died, or just what the dog could do. Mum sighs, and says it not important. Warning bells turn into Defcon 3, and I basically refuse to go away until she tells me. Bear in mind I hadn't seen her for two days (she was at work when I left) I was worried.
Mum's back was playing up. This isn't a rare thing- Mum was one of the lower grade nurses from the days before they have proper lifts. She always had a bad back, and was recently diagnosed with arthritis. But this was bad the extent of "can't get out of house, have phoned doctor to come around". So, I come home, and Mum was really not well. And panicking. Grandad and Nan were on the way. They won't care about how the house looks, but Mum does. As such, Dad and Megan were running around with hoovers and dusters and I felt rather out of place with my bag of chips. (I was hungry.)
Bah. Doctor didn't come. Mum fumed. Literally, I've never seen her smoke so much. Dad ranted down the phone, and them proceeded to storm down to the surgery and do the same there. Medical solidarity went out of the window with threats of "Where are your complaint forms?" and "What do you MEAN he's off ill if he can give Julie a prescription down the phone?"
Basically, I ran around like headless chicken trying to get stuff done and eventually went to work, which I won't describe for fear that I'll have to relive it. Awful. Went out of work, and there was Grandad in the car!
Must admit, I shrieked a fair bit. Like this set of grandparents far more than the other ones, and hugged, etc.
And that was last night. Woke up this morning by sister thundering up and down the stairs and honestly thought I might kill her. Instead, I made do with a shower and both her and grandparents have left the house, meaning that I can get my LJ post done.
So, now it's Christmas Eve. We have enough food to feed a small army, grandparents are here, tree is up, presents are dotted about...
And I don't feel Christmassy. At all. I think I may have had my Chrismas two nights ago. *sighs* But it was fun, so that makes up for it!
This post is far too long. I'll go now- I have beta-ing to do.
~Hathy_Col~