Deptford, fine, new drum, steak and a Rangers win

Managed to stay in bed until ten today! WOOHOO that was a novelty!

With Gemima in charge of Pam sitting (and Sam being the backup), Toni, mum and I headed to Deptford for a mighty meat shop. Pork, lots of pork variants and a massive piece of beef. We did get a few other things too but they are irrelevant  compared to the meat.

The only downside of our nice little trip was coming back to the car and finding that the place we had parked was residents parking on a Saturday (as well as the usual Monday to Friday) and as we'd arrived 30 mins before the time ran out we ended up with a £65 fine. It was actually £130 but if we pay within 14 days there is a generous 50% discount. Grrrrrr. It wasn't clear due to badly placed signs but it was our fault so hey ho :o(

I've been reading a couple of very good books of late. One is on Native American spirituality and the other on shamanic journeying:

These books are a lead up to a purchase I have just made which arrived in the post today. A brand new hand made drum. It has a really nice sound and I look forward to breaking it for future rituals:

Some of our slab of beef was carved into steaks and I knocked up steak and chips (with a lovely garlic marinade provided by Toni). Had to be done really and it was delicious!

The day rounded off nicely with New York Rangers v Vancouver Canucks in a battle of the ex coaches. (both coaches were with the other team last season). This one was a a delight to watch. Chris Kreider scored a hat trick and two additional goals from Rick Nash and Michael Del Zotto ended the game with a very comfortable 5 - 2 victory. The look on John Torterella's face when Kreider scored the first goal was priceless!

Debugging fun, a visit from mum, Black Friday and Rangers lose

Very productive day at work today. Nick and I were back and forth with some of our new stuff with me finding bugs, him fixing them and then me verifying the fixes or finding further issues. It was actually great fun to be totally focussed and move things on. More of this please!

Rushed back home as mum is staying for a few days. It's lovely to see her again and have her around for a short while.

I am going to take a moment to grumble about Black Friday in the UK. People, it doesn't exist! This is NOT the USA. Black Friday is an American event tied into Thanksgiving that is kind of like our old Boxing Day sales. We don't celebrate Thanksgiving here and this we don't have Black Friday! Regardless of this it didn't stop UK website offering Black Friday deals and the UK media talking about Black Friday events in the UK. NO, just NO! It's bad enough that Halloween is taking off over here, we really don't need to complete our sign up to be the 51st State by taking on Black Friday as well thank you very much!
....and relax!

The day ended with a little disappointment as we watched New York Rangers v Boston Bruins in a grudge match. This was also a family grudge match as Toni is a Boston fan and as you might have gathered I am an NYR fan! I feared the worst when Boston took the lead but the Rangers upped the ante and a couple of quick goals left the first period ending with New York 2 - 1 ahead. The Rangers held firm for the second period and that ended with New York still leading 2 - 1. Sadly it all went wrong in the third period. An unlucky bounce allowed Boston to make it 2 - 2 but for the rest of the period the Rangers were all over the place, unable to score and shoddy defence. It was no real surprise when Boston made it 3 - 2. It could have been so much worse but Rangers still ended the game on the wrong end of  a 3 - 2 scoreline. Ho hum! Roll on Sunday night and Vancouver!

The Truth About Thanksgiving

Lest We Forget: The Genocidal Roots of Thanksgiving
I know it's not a UK thing but I had to make a comment on this following on from all my recent, and ongoing, studies into Native American history and spirituality.

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

Seven years and no itch

Despite all my grumbles on here I have now actually passed seven years in my current employment. I guess to have done seven years and not really had an itch is pretty good going. It's actually the longest I've ever worked for one company. Yes there have have been some short dark times but it's always turned out OK.

It's quite scary to think that I am still quite settled and happy overall with everything (despite the odd rant due to certain circus members).

Oh well, perhaps I'll grumble a little less in future. As if....................

Thor: The Dark World

We might have been late to the party but Toni and I headed off to Cineworld in Bexleyheath tonight to go and see Thor: The Dark World.

As you've probably already guessed we are Marvel fan girls so we were looking forward to this and it didn't disappoint. The story was very well crafted and I was delighted that they used Dark Elves and Malekith in there. For cross reference, I play Dark Elves in Warhammer Fantasy and Malekith The Witch King is a character in that.

Here's the plot: "The adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, continue as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself. In the aftermath of Marvel's "Thor" and "Marvel's The Avengers," Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos...but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all."

We both enjoyed the film and I actually thought it was better than the first one. As is expected with Avengers related films these days there is lots of cross referencing to previous (and future) films. Really glad we went to see this

Dolmen Grove Essex Moot

Today was a very special day as Toni and I headed over to Stanford-le-Hope to attend the very first Dolmen Grove Essex Moot.

We had an amazing time. There was some drumming as things were set up ready for the opening ritual. The short ritual generated some incredible energy and such a positive vibe among everyone that was there.

Here's the altar that we set up for the ritual

Following the ritual there was an excellent talk on psychometry by Oaken that was practical and hands on with everyone getting involved and getting results. It was a real eye opener and confirmed a view that I had held for a long time but also making it accessible to me too!

It was great that so many people turned up for this first moot and hopefully the positive vibe and sense of unity that was created today will allow the group to grow over time. We are in no rush but expect some great things to happen!

Sadly the time ran out on us pretty quickly but we did get a chance to pose for a quick snapshot before we packed up and headed off home again

Some of us will be meeting up again for the Yule Ball in Weymouth  with our next planned moot the following weekend.

Bright Blessings!

They're screwdrivers.....

.........what are you going to do? Assemble a cabinet at them?

That's my quote of the week from the quite excellent Day Of The Doctor episode of Dr. Who but more of that later!

After a nice bit of extra sleep this morning we got up at 11, washed her and dressed before heading out to Selmo Mansion for an afternoon/evening of haircuts, food and Dr. Who.

Haircuts were first and as usual Sara did us both proud!
Toni looking lush:

Little old me!

So, Dr. Who! WOW is all I have to say to that. Such a well written episode that really upped the ante on things to come. I am not going to discuss it in detail just in case any of you haven't had a chance to catch up with it yet but is certainly worth watching. Despite there being one VERY minor niggle that irks me somewhat I have nothing but praise for what they did tonight. The future of Dr. Who is now secure for a very long time.

Dinner was Finnbiff, a reindeer casserole that was absolutely lush. Rudolph in a pot, LOVELY! 

It was an amazing day spent with great friends (Sara, Christian and Darren)

Iron Sky The Coming Race

I decided to become a backer of the Iron Sky sequel, Iron Sky The Coming Race. This was a campaign run on IndieGoGo and met it's first set of goals with some nice little rewards.

First up I was added to the Wall Of Heroes on their website: http://www.ironsky.net/wallofheroes/

Waiting for me when I got home were delightful things. Mail From The Dark Side Of The Moon:

First up was the Iron Sky The Coming Race t-shirt.

Front:

Back:

The piece de resistance though was the pledger exclusive Iron Sky Moon Trooper! How cool is this baby?

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

Exhausted & flat

Exhausted is how I feel at the moment. I am getting really tired so early in the evenings and I don't really like it! I'm also feeling a little flat. I suspect it's down to my lack of activity and sedentary existence. Time to make some changes methinks and kickstart myself back into being sparky and glitzy once again!

Happy Anniversary

It's our anniversary today! Toni is the tick to my tock!

One year of marriage.

Six years of being together.

An eternity ahead of us.......

This is our song, was played at our hand fasting!

Pam sitting, Assassin's Creed, Hunger Games and New York Rangers

Toni was on a Reiki course with Jade today, Sam was working, Aaron stayed over at Michaela's last night and Gemima was with her dad so I was on Pam sitting duty. Apart from doing her eye drops and making tea and toast she is no trouble at all. She decided she was having a PJ day today (which is happening more often) LOL. Despite her having some memory problems I am delighted that her sense of humour remains fully intact!

When I wasn't tending to Pam I spent my free time having a massive Assassin's Creed 2 session. It was a novelty to have a massive amount of time to play games so I took full advantage. Once I had cracked a particularly troublesome mission I was cooking with gas and made great progress. I think I might have another bash tomorrow morning! :o)

Once everyone had returned home we ate and watched The Hunger Games. It was a little slow to start with but they needed to put everything in place to set the scene before heading into the main action. It has sparked enough interest for me to want to go and see the sequel now. I just hope they have enough gas left in the tank to keep this one going without repetition.  The Hunger Games is definitely worth a watch.


Toni crashed out on the sofa as I settled down to watch New York Rangers v Montreal Canadiens.

Boo to getting up, kebabs and hockey

It was a day for not wanting to get up. Cold outside and warm and snuggly inside the covers. Boo to having to get up for work! To make it worse the train was really packed on the way in which is always less than pleasant.

Work was work. There was stuff to be done, madness to be dealt with and enough enormous shoes to keep Ronald McDonald going for a while. Why do I stay there again? LOL

It was lovely to get home and just be able to relax.

Big Bang Theory and World's End was accompanied by kebab goodness. We then managed a couple of periods of New Jersey Devils v LA Kings before crashing out.

Happy Birthday Gemima

Gemima officially became a teenager today as we celebrated the growing up of another ginger monster!

Indian was Gemima's birthday food of choice (and a great choice it was too). As you would expect on these occasions there were cards, presents and a badge.

To cap things off nicely there was a Batman cake and candles.



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Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

WFH and technical gremlins

I was working from home today as Toni had meetings all morning and I had to be there just in case Pam needed anything. It was a slow but steady day which was a relief and Pam spent a lot of time sleeping so I wasn't interrupted much. When Toni got back we took Pam out for a late lunch as we thought she was in need of fresh air and a little exercise.

I was hit with a lot of technical gremlins today. It started off with Bitcasa which insisted on re-uploading my mirrored folders after every reboot despite the previous jobs having completed with nothing outstanding. These are huge folders and now I have at least three in the cloud. Tickets have been raised with the developers!

Next up was my laptop which failed to do a Linux upgrade successfully resulting in a blank screen on startup that did nothing. Despite trying numerous trouble shooting tips I couldn't get it working. I then tried to do a recovery install but something crapped out on that which managed to wipe out the failed Linux partition AND my dual boot Windows partition too! Aaaarrggghhhhh!

The evening was spent rebuilding both the Windows and Linux partitions. Thankfully this was pretty painless and I was soon up and running again and also at the upgraded level of Ubuntu too. Phew! It was pain but at least I have a working dual boot system again now. It could have been much worse! Bloody technology!



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Late start, moving furniture and early night

Today started off relatively slowly so a little extra sleep was had which was nice! We don't often seem to have late starts these days so I really appreciate them when they do come along.

Toni went to pick up Jade while I looked after Pam (which isn't a great hardship). I just chilled out and relaxed while making sure Pam had everything that she needed. On their return Toni and Jade prepared a massive roast dinner.

In the afternoon Toni, Sam and I went over to Nick's tp pick up a wardrobe of Gemima's and a wooden bed frame. I hadn't plan on doing any heavy lifting this weekend but sometimes the world just conspires against you! LOL Getting the wardrobe up the stairs to Gemima's room was a bit of a pain but Sam and I managed it eventually. The bed is staying in The Beast until Aaron sorts out his bedroom so we can swap some stuff around.

Finished the day off just relaxing and watching some TV before having an early night.

Witchfest 2013

Changing plans seem to be par for the course these days! Sometimes though it is possible to adapt and still have a good result. Late in the afternoon Toni and I headed to Fairfield Halls in Croydon to attend Witchfest 2013.

We barely made it in time for any of the things we had wanted to see but we did make the last two planned sessions of the day.

Jim Bennet did an awesome talk on The Cult Of Sacred Prostitutes which gave me some pointers towards transgendered Goddesses (Ishtar in particular). I now have load of research to do on the back of this talk which will keep me occupied for some time.

Kevin Groves then followed with a session on Amulets but focussing on visualisation more than physical objects. I always enjoy his talks and this one was no exception.

After this we had a very enjoyable time catching up with some friends. They just started popping up all over the place. Next up were the bands.

SPRIGGAN MIST
The Sprigs put on an enjoyable set of new and old numbers and had a really good crowd watching them.

DAMH THE BARD

This man knows how to put on a show. Not only are his one man acoustic songs thought provoking, magickal and uplifting but his between song banter is witty and inspiring. He did manage to get an encore though which was great!


THE DOLMEN
Yes we were back to see these scallywags once again. As usual they put on a whirlwind show that had people dancing from start to finish. It was wonderful to see so many people there from the last Dolmen camp. The spirit of camaraderie of all those involved with The Dolmen Grove is just amazing. Sadly it all came to an end way too soon and the strict curfew had to be adhered too *boo hiss*

We did try and catch up with some people afterwards and everything got a bit hectic trying to talk while being ushered out of the hall and at the same time having more and more people appearing for a chat.

We had a brilliant time, can't wait til the next camps and Witchfest 2014.

It was one of those days today.............

....something like this:


and maybe a little bit of this thrown in for good measure:

Happy Birthday Aaron

Happy Birthday Aaron, eighteen today and a big wide world awaits you!

Pizza was supplied, presents were unwrapped, first legal booze was bought! Callum stayed over.....

Slow day, change of plans for Aaron and Rangers stuff Penguins

It was a slow day at work today. Started off with our planning meeting which for the first time ever was quick and smooth! More like that please! Despite the fact that things aren't busy at the moment it does feel as though we are finally getting things nailed down and I'm feeling a lot more positive and less stressed.

Part of the evening was spent discussing Aaron's future study/career options. He had been to Avery Hill Campus for an Open Day on Health & Social Care university courses. It was all very positive and, like Sam, it's a change of direction to study something different but will hopefully yield good results and a bright future.

We finished things off with New York Rangers v Pittsburgh Penguins. This wasn't a game I was looking forward to as the Penguins are hot at the money so I was delighted that the Rangers were 2 - 0 up at the end of the first thanks to sterling efforts by Lundqvist. A 3 - 0 lead was great until a stupid mistake on the penalty kill made it 3 - 1. Fortunately Rangers grabbed one back and made it 4 - 1 at the end of the second and headed into the third with 01:20 odd on the power play. Ten minutes left and it was 5 - 1! Despite the Penguins upping the ante Lundqvist held firm and the Rangers won 5 - 1! Oh yes!


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Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

Back at work, iPhone 5S and Rangers lose

It was back to work today. It was a struggle to get up, it was a struggle to get motivated. Then I checked my work email and things just got worse! On the plus side I had Sam to keep me company on the way in so I wasn't a complete basket case by the time I got to the office.

The day didn't really get any better to be honest although Stuart's large supply of Krispy Kreme donuts did help a little bit LOL. There might be light at the end of the tunnel (or maybe it's just an oncoming train) but if a few of us pull together we can make work fun once again! Fingers crossed!

It was a delight to get home for a cuddle and to eat a lovely lamb casserole. The icing on the cake was that my new iPhone 5S had arrived. A quick set up and restore and I was cooking with gas. Having now got used to iOS7 I have to say I am living the new phone. It's a good upgrade from my humble 4S. TouchID is great fun and makes life so much easier too!

We had a bit of a TV catch up tonight taking in episodes of Downton Abbey, Misfits and Haven. All good episodes and another set of nice distractions from a bad day.

In really good news Pam went to Moorfields today with Toni and her eye is healing very very well. She doesn't have to go back for another five weeks which is great as we had thought that she might have to go back weekly.

We finished our night with New York Rangers v Anaheim Ducks. A disappointing first period ended with Rangers trailing 2 - 0 but it wasn't for lack of trying. Second period was looking bleak until Del Zotto made it 2 - 1 with 1:24 left in the second. Third period was good with plenty of shots on goal but the Ducks netminder was shot hot! 4 on 4 with 01:45 left and then Anaheim went in the power play for the last 01:22. 50 seconds left and Rangers take another penalty and end up the wrong end of a 5 on 3. Ducks couldn't convert bit they still won 2 - 1. Good game though!






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.....and relax!

Well the week off didn't go quite as planned due to us taking in Pam and then getting her sorted out to live with us. Not that this is a problem of course, it just wasn't what we had been expecting LOL.

There has been lots of running of around, moving stuff plus some stress but today was a day where we finally got to come up for air and relax. Everything has settled down nicely, we have a good routine going with Pam and she is all set up nicely in her room and is happy with her chair and TV. The only real work I have done today was to contact some Estate Agents in Bexhill to get a valuation on Pam's flat. This wasn't exactly a hardship as it was all done online from one website :o)

After an amazing lamb roast dinner Toni got back to doing some sewing and making stuff and I just had a nice chilled evening watching the Elite League hockey results come in plus a little surfing and online shopping. Sam came back later in the evening and Toni picked him up from the station. Sounds like he had a really good break down in Bournemouth with Tristan.

Back to normality tomorrow as I head back to work............. :o(

Coffee Town, hair colour and hockey night

It was a Polo full today as Toni, Pam, Aaron, Michaela and I headed into Eltham to meet Jade for brunch at Coffee Town. Good food was had and then it was back to ours for some relaxation time.

My evening was spent redoing Toni's hair colour. We've been trying to do this for weeks but for one reason or another it never happened so we made a point of getting the job done tonight.

Before we started:

Colour on and Kit Kat wrappers safely applied:

Kit Kat wrappers removed for the pre-shower reveal:

...and now....BIG DRUM ROLL....

...the finished product and wife looking totally gorgeous!

The night was spend having an NHL hockey fest. We started off watching Winnipeg Jets choke 5 - 1 to Chicago Blackhawks before watching the New York Rangers take on Carolina Hurricanes. The New York Rangers game was most pleasing to watch. It went 3 - 0 in favour of the Rangers before Carolina pulled one back but the game ended 5 - 1 with Derek Stepan scoring for the first time this season and getting a hat trick to boot! Finally the scoring drought appears to be over. I really hope these last few wins are a sign of the future. With good goal scoring chances and Henrik Lundqvist back on form this could well be a most enjoyable season!