I was mystified at the time about some of the characters, and many of the statistics seemed to have been randomly generated.
There were many questions – who is “The Zetan Warlord” (not to mention “The Zetan Priest”)? What is a “Venusian Death Cell” – and why does it score so highly in Horror Rating? And what hack drew scribbled the picture of the Werewolf?
But most perplexing of all: why is Godzilla wearing a bow tie?
I wasn’t prepared for this when the Lovely Melanie forwarded it to me, consequently I snorted Diet Coke up my nose from laughing!
But on second look (and after blowing my nose) it’s a lovely photo.
They’re back home tonight, and I’m taking them trick-or-treating as soon as I get in from work. As always, it’s been a therapeutic couple of days, and we’re jolly grateful to the grandparents for looking after them; hell, we even got to go to the cinema last night, to watch Skyfall – together!
Thanks are due all over the place for a wonderful weekend. 🙂
First to our friends the Mays, who came to stay with Jack and Lily, their two children who are almost the same age as Millie and Amber. Lovely to see you all, and I hope you had a great time – I know we all did.
Secondly, to the Lovely Melanie, who cooked and prepared delicious food for everyone all weekend, making me proud to be her husband. 🙂
Finally, to all the children. I’m now completely deaf in all the higher frequencies due to all of the screaming, but they were all really well-behaved and a joy watch – often from afar, as they’re all old enough now to get on with playing together on their own a lot of the time. Once they were in bed we ate a delicious dinner cooked by the Lovely Melanie, drank some wine and some rum and just chatted until we were surprised to note it was past 11!
Next day the kids were up outrageously early, not realising that the clocks had gone back. But because they were being so cute and playing together so nicely we forgave them, eventually heading out for a walk in the beautiful autumn woods, and coming back (with the traditional waterlogged wellies) for another delicious meal, courtesy of my wonderful wife.
We sat down quietly after that and watched some Horrible Histories on TV, before sadly waving goodbye to the Mays. Hopefully they can come again in the new year.
And soon after that we waved goodbye to the Mays we waved goodbye to the girls!
It’s half-term at school so they’ve gone to stay with Grandma and Granddad in Hatfield for three days. As always, for the first day or so it’s an amazing sense of freedom from responsibility, and I took full advantage of this last night by paring down a set-list for my DJ set in Swindon next Saturday.
Which sounds cool, but mostly means playing music very loudly in the bedroom, like an overgrown teenager. 🙂
I also got a chance to get to grips with Windows 8, which I installed on Friday; and I’ve come to the conclusion that I like it. Much like Windows 7 it just works, but it does so faster and more efficiently than Win7, plus, the new Metro interface (designed for touchscreens, much like a tablet, but which works well on a non-touch desktop like ours) is growing on me, too.
Modern UI on Windows 8
Because you can also access the traditional Windows desktop I initially assumed I wouldn’t bother with the Metro Modern UI side of things. Metro Modern UI is simple and intuitive to use, however once you overcome the hurdle that it’s different to traditional Windows (Shock! Horror!) then it’s rather nice. Not perfect and not likely to replace my normal Windows desktop entirely, but it has real potential for the future.
Still n ne keybard, unfrtunately (hence the challenging lack f the-letters-that-cme-after-N-and-V in this pst).
I have n idea hy it’s taking s lng – my ne phne arrived frm Hng Kng in just 48 hurs: a “Titan Grey” Galaxy Nte II. It’s huge, but brilliant. The girls, in particular, lve the S-Pen that cmes ith it, tucked int a little hle, because they can use it t dra things.
It’s very impressive t see (and genuinely quite useful) but still nt quite as gd as paper.
And the funniest thing of the weekend was probably Millie and Amber shouting “Aceeeeeid!” on the train home, in the style of D-Mob’sWe Call It Acieed, an acid house track from the late ’80s. Not because they’re big acid house fans but because when playing the computer game Orcs Must Die 2 there’s a wall trap that sprays acid over attacking orcs, and I started saying “Aceeeeid!” when we were playing that.
The girls, of course, have copied me, and think it’s hilarious to shout “Aceeeeid!”
No entries for a few days – not because of lack of things to say, rather, a lack of things to say them with.
I got home Friday night, shook off my umbrella and was dismayed to see my expensive mobile phone fly across the front garden as the the headphone cord snagged in the umbrella handle.
It landed on the concrete steps; phone, back and battery all flew in different directions.
And the screen was smashed. 😦
I went in, swore at the guilty umbrella, threw it on the floor, and then went upstairs to check my insurance details on the computer.
The computer keyboard was broken – no “O” and no “W”.
I got the spare keyboard out, blew the dust off and tried again.
That was out of action, too – although it worked fine for about a minute, it then went crazy.
The Lovely Melanie came in and showed me her broken Kindle.
By copying and pasting Os and Ws I managed to log into my special mobile ‘phone insurance.
Which wasn’t valid because I hadn’t updated the policy last time I got a new ‘phone.
By this time, I wasn’t even angry or annoyed, I was just resigned to it.
“Don’t touch anything else in the house,” said the Lovely Melanie, and I agreed.
Fortunately, we had a busy but surprisingly relaxing weekend in Swindon at the 2nd birthday party of Izzy, my niece. We saw some friends, met some new babies, went to see Trev’s grave (as usual) and had a Sunday lunch at, er, Burger King, courtesy of my parents. Which was a bit…unusual.
So that’s why I haven’t written much – I had to come into work to do it, where they still have the technology to write with. Although my phone is still working, the shattered screen makes it difficult to see stuff and tiny splinters of glass keep embedding themselves in my fingers.
Millie thought it was great – every time we saw someone over the weekend she’d ask for my phone so she could show them it!
