Northern Adventure

I felt like something to eat the other evening, and usually I'd have a bowl of krispies. But we'd run out and I didn't feel like going to the shop to get more. So instead I made rice pudding from scratch. It turned out exactly like rice pudding from a can even down to the lack of a certain flavour that I can't quite put my finger on. I always feel like it's just not good enough. Or maybe there's some flavour in the pudding itself that I want to tone down or something. Anyway, it satisfied my desire for krispies.

A small group of us went to Flagstaff last weekend. While the others went to the Grand Canyon on Saturday, we headed south to Sedona and Jerome. Sedona is the same amazing as always. I think I could live there and the red rocks would never get old. Storm clouds were building on every part of the horizon as we wandered around, so we didn't dally.

Onwards to Jerome and while wandering Main St, I felt an awful sense of familiarity. I'd seen this before, and I knew exactly where. Google streetview. When we first moved to Arizona I'd looked up Jerome because that's where Maynard James Keenan (of Tool) set up his wine shop. But I'd completely forgotten that and when I saw this street again, I was like: we have to find Caduceus Cellars. We did find it and stopped in to sample wine made by a rock star. It was pretty good. It didn't taste "winey" if that makes any sense. There wasn't that horrible bitter taste that any wine I've ever had before has had. Some did, but we ended up buying two bottles that didn't. The rain came in then, so we grabbed a quick lunch and headed back to Flagstaff. We fit Lowell Observatory in that evening with the rest of the group, and weren't up for much else but food and bed afterwards.

Sunday, we strolled down to Flagstaff Extreme (and when I say strolled I mean we drove the few miles but didn't do it with any kind of urgency). It's an adventure course up in the trees and we had great fun balancing across logs and swinging from zip lines. Not fun was the rope swing. I was clinging on so hard I hurt my back and even with that I barely made it to the other side before my grip gave out entirely. My fingers were still sore an hour later. We were just under half way through the course when thunder rolled in and spoiled our fun. But they gave us a full refund, which is pretty amazing considering that thunder rolls in every afternoon this time of year.

The others headed to Meteor Crater, but we've also been there before, so we just headed home. I love Flagstaff, though. It's such a cool town, with an amazing vibe. And the people who live there are so cool. Chandler is so dull and homogenized in comparison. But at least we've been getting away most weekends recently, which is great.

We finally went camping

Packing is a bad idea when the more responsible member of the team (i.e. the one who usually remembers all the things I'd forget) has had a few drinks. We forgot chairs, blankets, utensils, cleaning things, food... But no great worry - this is America, land of capitalism so we bought most of the things we needed. I drove us to the lakeside campsite, around the campsite and back out of the campsite again. Who would have thought the place would be full on a Thursday night. We raced darkness as we drove back down the road towards another campsite I'd seen (11 miles from the lake). This one was about half-full, and with night closing in too fast, we picked a spot and put our tent up. Adventure 1 complete.

Adventure 2. I hadn't eaten much all day and I was starving, so we drove back to Payson (half an hour) to get food. We got tacos from one of the few places open that late (10pm-ish) and ate them while watching the lightning across the hill. It was pretty spectacular - all the lights around us went off about half way through the meal. That should have pinged something in my brain, but no. We clambered back in the car as the first drops of rain hit. I was still fine with this - it was probably just a shower. Heh. About a quarter of the way back to the campsite I was driving through rain so heavy I couldn't see 10 meters ahead of me. It was pitch black, and my headlights barely lit the road for all the rain. With each flash of lightning I fixed the curves of the road ahead in my mind. We got there in one piece, our tent had held up masterfully, and we crawled into bed.

I should mention that there was poo around our campsite and all the signs around warned of bears. The outcome of this is that I didn't sleep a wink the first night. I woke up to every little noise. In the morning we woke up to cows in the next campsite over. Who knew cow poo could look so solid. Anyway, I slept well the next two nights.

(Mis)Adventure 3. On Friday night we got a campfire going and cooked burgers. But a thunderstorm as big as the one on Thursday night rolled in as we were cooking. So we had slightly pink-in-the-middle burgers. But that was okay. It was practice for Saturday.
Saturday night's dinner was steak and fish (guess who had what) and Friday had thought us how to get the fire going and how to cook well over an open fire. So we did fried spuds on the pan and everything was delicious. Except that we cooked the steak and fish separately and when Liam got up to help me get the fish onto my plate, River snuck over to his and scoffed half his dinner. I felt so bad that I couldn't hardly eat. I ended up giving half my dinner to Liam. But I'd had enough. Needless to say River was locked in her crate while we finished eating.
And we had toasted (roasted?) marshmallows. They were divine.

So that was all the mad adventures. We went kayaking on the lake on Saturday. That was good fun too. We only rented the kayak (a sit on) for an hour, but more thunder came in after 40 minutes. We'd had enough fun anyway. I'd forgotten to put on suncream and I was paranoid. (I didn't get burned, though.)

We packed up Sunday. I didn't want to go home. Sitting around a campsite surrounded by pine, oak and juniper is the best thing ever. But we've booked another trip for two weeks from now. Can't wait.

Disneyland

Ahhh, I don't even know what to write, we did so much. We spent about 10 hours in the park on Friday and about 9 on Saturday, and I'm pretty certain we missed out on loads of stuff. You could spend one whole day just watching performances. The good thing is that we got to go on all the rides we wanted. California Screamin' (the rollercoaster) is the most fun ever. I wanted to go on it 5 times, but we only made it 3. I get the impression that lordkilljoy wasn't such a raving fan as I was. We ate a bunch of wonderful food and didn't get fat because we walked so much. We'd get back to the hotel each evening and not be able to move for the soreness of our feet.

So California Screamin'... I was a bit intimidated at first, because lordkilljoy had said it was a bit daunting. And I'd not been on a rollercoaster in years and didn't remember how cool they are. So we get into the car and I'm all "ooohhhhh, scary" and we get launched (0 to 55mph in 4 seconds) upwards and then - it's the most amazing thing ever. We're coming around the top, ready to take the first big drop and all I can think of is "I'm flying." And that's it. I can't think of anything else except being a bird and looping across the sky and it's the most amazing feeling ever. And I don't want it to end, but it does all too soon. We queued up again straight away :P

I've had disney songs in my head since Thursday night when we caught a duelling pianos show (not so much dwelling as two guys singing along with each other and getting the crowd singing). Actually, Thursday night kicked off the whole weekend really well. We got in after 7 and went for dinner. We didn't even know there was a show on in the restaurant, and happened to be sitting right by the stage. That fun led into Friday for all the rides, and Saturday for more rides and the parade, and Sunday for shopping and the swinging ferris wheel and serious disappointment that California Screamin was closed and we couldn't go on it one last time.

And then we had to go home. Which was sad. But a bit of an adventure. We had a rather elemental journey back here. Wind, earth, fire and water in the form of a duststorm with lightning and rain. That was pretty spectacular. I'd been taking pictures of the clouds and waiting to see a rainbow (which I didn't - note to self: If I find myself thinking the weather is fit for rainbows, I should look out for duststorms instead) when I noticed this dark line of cloud in front of us. I sort of wondered if it could be an oncoming duststorm of if it was just thick clouds on the horizon. But as we drove closer we saw the road kind of vanish into the sand. And it got closer and closer, and all of a sudden we crossed the divide from clean air to wall of sand and we couldn't see more than 3 or 4 meters ahead. It was deadly (meaning cool). We pulled over and marvelled at this freak of weather and I got really excited to have gotten the chance to experience a real live haboob up close. And it did not disappoint. We were amazed at cars and trucks that didn't pull over, and it was kind of freaky seeing their lights disappear just a few moments after they passed by.

I wish I could think of all the cool little things we did and saw. Maybe I'll write them down as they come to me and make a post of them.

Dress Part 2

Today I got half the material for the mock-up cut out. Cutting material takes ages. From laying out the pattern pieces properly, to pinning them to the material to actually cutting. I'm starving right now and my back is sore from leaning over the whole afternoon. And after it was all cut I had to mark the places where stitching starts and ends. I'm really hoping this stitching becomes clear when I get to the instructions, because right now I have no idea what it's about.

So yea. I get to do it all again tomorrow. But I should be faster because I found the best way for me to cut the fabric while staying within the lines of the pattern.

Other news of note: we pushed Disneyland out by a week. We hadn't realised it was a bank holiday when we booked, and I imagine the park will be packed. So that's a bit sad, but let's hope it means our trip will be even better because the queues won't be so long.

I need to get myself a dress icon.

Randomy Random Post

We got to see fireworks last night. They were cool. And we had a perfect view - about as close as you could get, without even realising it when we chose our spot. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I felt kinda bad as we headed out to the fireworks - even though I'd been for a 5 mile walk with River, but I guess I just felt we should have met up with some people. It didn't help that the day was muggy and overcast.

My crackers got finished off today. I'm going to make more, along with some digestive biscuits. I've set myself a challenge to make digestives exactly like McVities, so I started by getting the packet ingredients list and a random recipe for digestives and merging them. My only one bafflement is wholemeal. Is this wheat? Oat? Some other kind of grain? I'm afraid that oats will bake the biscuits turn out more like HobNobs. And while HobNobs are good, they are no McVities digestive. My caramel squares are almost gone too. The last few are in the freezer.

I renewed my driver's licence today. Kind of spur of the moment thing when lordkilljoy reminded me. So, if you get to the office just after it opens, the wait is only a little over an hour, rather than 3 at every other time. So I shouldn't have to do that again because this time it's valid until a year after my visa runs out.

Remember ages ago, I wrote a post proclaiming how I was totally finished Artificer? I totally lied. I've been working on it somewhat constantly since then and am now almost done with it. I'm 3/4 of the way through the final read through and have some 200 notes on changes and corrections that need to be made (a lot of which are simple typos, but one or two are whole scene rewrites).

I restarted the front panel of my crochet robot. I wasn't happy with it and figured it would only take a little while to do again. It will be cool when it's stuffed and sewed up.

I don't think I have much other news. This post was mainly procrastination for not doing the dishes.

Camping

We went camping on Monday night to Fenton Lake State park. It was a success - mostly. On Sunday we ran around picking up the last few things we needed, and one of those things was an air mattress. Now, I was totally against the mattress, because all I could think of was that the battery-operated pump that came with it wouldn't work. But we got it anyway.

We headed out Monday morning (or noon) and spent an amazing 2 hours getting there. As soon as we got out of Albuquerque the scenery became canyon-y - all red rock and yellow sand. We followed the Jemez river most of the way, so there were trees and lots of greenery as well. It was beautiful. Then we hit the mountains. The rock formations became way more impressive, the trees (desert willows?) became pines and the river (more of a creek, really) turned into a rocky stream.

The lake itself was small. Man-made from a dam, and pretty green looking. There was no swimming allowed, and I don't know if I would have gone swimming anyway. Our site was a bit away from the lake, which was a good thing - less mosquitoes. So we got our tent set up with much excitement. It was dampened a little by me stubbing my toe on a big of branch (it's still sore - there's a cut). It's a huge tent - 4 man, and we had piles of room. It doesn't seem like the kind of tent you want to bring to somewhere that will have driving wind and rain 'cause most of the inner section is mesh, and the rain sheet only covers half way to the ground.

Then it came to setting up our bed. We pulled out the mattress and got it all set up. Put in the pump and nothing. We fiddled with the batteries, poked and prodded at the pump, and it still wasn't working. So we went to the nearby (like 15 miles away or something) shop and bought new batteries, and still it didn't work. We ended up sleeping on a deflated mattress covered with a picnic blanket, towels and one of the blankets we'd brought to keep warm. And it was comfortable enough.

We cooked dinner on our little gas barbecue (burgers and chips). It was nice, but the mosquitoes spoiled it a little. I had spray on, but they still flitted around and were very annoying. I did get a few bites, but they were from a walk around earlier.

Defeated by their sheer annoyance, we retreated into the tent and played a game of Dominion (a card resource game) by the light of our cool little torch (it was a little hard to read the text at times) and then fell asleep. It was freezing. It was so cold, I could feel each breath in my nose making it a little colder. I slept with a string top, t-shirt and fleece hoodie on. I was still cold, though, and pulled our last blanket over my sleeping bag. That helped a little, but each time I moved around, I had to warm a new patch of sleeping bag.

But we survived the night, and went for a short walk the next day, packed up and came home again. And now we want to go again. We're thinking the 4th of July, because it's a holiday, but I imagine everywhere will be busy. But if we can get somewhere we'll go.

Texas

Day 1: Houston
This wasn't really a day - we got in lateish, went for food (which involved stealing crab-eating implements from joe's crab shack - how could we not, it was plastic and said, "stolen from joe's crab shack" on it), and turned in for the night.

Day 2: Galveston
Johnson Space Centre sits right between Houston and Galveston :) We spent the whole day wandering around the exhibits, taking a tour through NASA mission control and training areas, looking at moon rocks, and marvelling at all the cool space stuff. I wish penelope_stone could have been there. You would have loved it.

Late in the afternoon, we moved on and headed for the beach. Apparently, Galveston island is a sink hole for sat navs, because Lady had the hardest time getting us to our hotel. Three wrong turns, four u-turns and eventually we spotted the place.
Galveston was nice... a bit odd, because rich, high class resorts sit right next to washed out, abandoned shacks. It's a bit weird to walk down the strip and see the difference. It's like going from rough area to up-market all in one block.

Day 3: Galveston
I got to swim in the sea today :) Woooo. And it was warm, and lovely. It reminded me of the sea in Wellington - it had that same kind of cold when you stepped in, but warm once you got used to it. It's the kind of water you can stay in all day. Wonderful.
Not so wonderful was the flies the marauded up and down the beach - tiny black ones. I think they were harmless (not 100% sure, though) but they crawled all over your skin, and face, and were horrendous. So we didn't spend long at the beach. Awh, but oh well.
We went out for food in a place called Casey's tonight and it was amazing. The best meal so far on the trip.

Day 4: Port Aransas
Port Aransas could have been better. The weather was stormy, the clouds a dark shade of grey. I really wanted to go swimming, but a gale was blowing and the waves, while small, were frequent and frothy. I probably would have gone in, but I'm not sure what lordkilljoy and lainey316 would have been. So I settled for dipping my feet.
After a long stroll of the beach and the town, we headed out for dinner. Dinner tonight was the second best of the trip. Mahi-mahi, cooked to perfection, with the most lovely crab sauce over it. It was the most yummy thing ever - well, maybe not ever - we'll get to that later.

Day 5: Port Aransas / San Antonio
I'd hoped the weather might have improved by today, but it didn't. Still, I headed for the beach first thing with swimming togs on and towel in hand. I got wet up to my thighs, and standing there with the waves breaking over my knees, the sky a dark, ragged shade of grey, mist rolling off the waves reminded me of Ireland. It was beautiful, in a rugged way - a desolate beach, a gale blowing, frothy waves and a pale strand, littered with foam and seaweed, definitely very Irish (but for the fact that the gale was hot and the sea was warm).

The drive to San Antonio was uneventful. The most thrilling thing was that we got to follow the evacuation route all the way. It's cool - they have a specific route for people fleeing a hurricane to go. We wandered around San Antonio when we got there, browsed a few shops and strolled the river walk. The river walk is so pretty - paths wander along the river bordered by pretty shrubs and huge trees. The bank is steep and walled, keeping out the noise and bustle of the city. Restaurants and food stalls line the path - all kind of boutique style with lovely, themed decor.

Day 6: San Antonio
The Alamo sits in the very centre of San Antonio. People are funny. The story of the Alamo is not a good one - a bunch of Americans lost a battle there, and still it is lauded as a symbol of patriotism. I can see why - holding out when all hope was lost and all, but still.
It was pretty, though. Small buildings surrounded by lush trees. Actually - that was what surprised me most about Texas. It wasn't dry and desert like you see in the westerns, it was lush, humid, green and full of trees.
That afternoon we went to the botanical gardens, because coming from somewhere as dry as Albuquerque, you just can't get enough of green trees and colourful flowers.
From there we went shopping, and at this stage the day felt like it had been a week.

Day 7: San Marco / Austin
We left San Antonio early and heading for outlet malls about an hour up the road. It was boiling - 34C and humid. My feet were killing me from too much flip-flop wearing and there were few shops I was interested in. Still lainey316 got loads she wanted, so I was okay with that.

Back on the road again, heading for Austin and we were all a bit tired. We stopped off in barbecue town (aka Lockhart) for food. It was all right, but not what I'd been expecting. We didn't stay long - just ate and moved on. Approaching Austin, the sky ahead of us looked ominous, all dark ragged clouds and strong winds.

We were almost to the outskirts of Austin when the radio cut out. It started beeping and then a voice came on: "This is an emergency broadcast. Severe thunderstorms in [town names I don't remember] with hail the size of a quarter. Seek shelter and stay indoors." We were heading right for the storm. As the emergency broadcast ended, we saw the first fork of lightning hit the ground way off to our right. A few seconds later the clouds lit up with more lightning, and again a few second later. It didn't stop. The wind tugged at the car (and not just a little car - we were in an SUV). As we hit Austin, the rain started. It pelted the windscreen in sheets. It crashed into the road, creating a layer of water droplets about an inch thick. It was so bad we couldn't see the road markings and just had to hope the guy on front knew the road better than we did. It was a scary 10 minutes, but eventually the rain eased off. We made it to the hotel safe and got to watch the lightning from the safety of our room.

That night we went to a rooftop bar and enjoyed the lightening from there. Yea - the lightning went on for hours - flashes every few seconds or so. It was amazing.

Day 8: Austin
Austin was boiling today. It was 35C and humid. We had a lovely breakfast (which may have included a glass of bucksfizz), then tried to walk around for a bit but were defeated by the heat. We rallied with ice-cream, and headed to South Austin to browse the vintage and curiosity stores. I could definitely live in Austin. It's a cool place with loads of off the wall stuff. I don't think I could deal with the heat and humidity, though. This was only May, I can't even imagine what it's like in July.

Tonight was party night. We started with a divine meal in Haddingtons (a very stylish restaurant and cocktail bar). This was the best meal of the holiday. I had rabbit for the first time in my life and it was delicious. It was cooked to perfection and the sauce with it was the most gorgeous thing ever. Nom nom nom.
From there we moved to Red River, which is the live gig area of Austin. It was fine - the gig we went to wasn't very good, though. So we moved on after a bit. We made our way down 6th street (Austin's main party street). It reminded me of Khao San Road in Bangkok - packed with people out to get drunk. We settled in an Irish bar (of all places) to enjoy the Louisiana blues band that was playing there. They were quite good - entertaining and lively.
As all nights did - it ended with food off a street truck, lively debate about how Cork is like Texas and a ride up the glass lift in the hotel.

Day 9: Back to Albuquerque
We woke late and packed up, only to realise that lordkilljoy had lost the car keys for our car in Abq. He figured he'd taken them out of his bag in Galveston and must have left them in the hotel. So the drive to Houston was a little stressful, the keys and diversions because of roadworks outside of Austin setting us a little on edge. But it wasn't too bad once we got on the highway.
We got to the airport and did one last search through the bags - no joy. We checked in, got some food, then made our way to the gate. We had some time, so we played our DSs, and when lordkilljoy opened his headphone case the car keys fell out. :)
So it all ended well. We were excited getting on the plane, and on the bus to the long-term car park, and in the car on the way home and when we got home - exclaiming "you found your keys" every few minutes.


So that was our trip to Texas. It was good.

Christmas in Las Vegas

Christmas for me this year was totally different to any christmas i've ever had before. first off, it didn't feel like christmas, and second off, i spent it in vegas with lordkilljoy. Vegas is... bright, colourful, loud, amazing, ott, beautiful, seedy, silly - as lordkilljoy described it, it's a theme park for adults. so many of the hotels are designed around a theme - just like disneyland or something. in disneyland they have little cafes and snack bars that look like they should be in the jungle, or a tropical island, or a fantasy city - vegas is the exact same, except that, instead of selling burgers, pretzels, and sweets, they sell wine, beer, and top of the range meals.
i think the most impressive places were paris (pretty, pretty, pretty, nothing more needs to be said), the venetian (they have indoor canals, with gondolas), luxor (it's a pyramid, and the whole inside is hollow) and the bellagio (that place is like a palace - a real one).
what's really funny, too, is that it reminded me of glastonbury. i think the crowds had something to do with that, but it was also the lights, the atmosphere, everyone looking for a good time; it felt like a permanent festival with permanent gigs (all the hotels have acts that play every night - the same act every single night). it also reminded me of a cross between bangkok and hollywood boulevard. there are people dressed up as all sorts of mad characters, from superman to jack sparrow to angels and devils. but there are also people out trying to get you to go to their strip clubs and they slick flyers at you. not quite as bad as asia, and they were easy enough to ignore. at least they didn't chase after you.

we went to see Penn and Teller, two magicians. Their act was good. Some of the tricks were brilliant, and they alluded to how they were done, which made you wonder just how, exactly, it was done.
That's how we spent christmas night - we got a wonderful christmas dinner in Rio (where the show was on) of fish. I had tilapia and it was amazing. it had a parmesan crumb coating what was delicious.

we stayed at the mgm grand. it's massive, and one of the busiest places. it has a bar called centrifuge that does the most amazing cocktails. they have one (appletini) that tastes like a red apple. but what's amazing is that it tastes like a red apple with the skin on. what else is cool is that every hour, the bar staff jump up on the bar and do a little dance. it was funny.
we saw lions, too - acting like bored cats. their trainers were trying to interest them in toys and they weren't really going for it. we saw tigers, leopards, dolphins and a guest mouse. the mirage has a miniature zoo. what we didn't do was see a pirate fight or go on a rollercoaster. but we couldn't fit it all in. we did see the bellagio's fountain (during the day, but it was still impressive). what i wasn't expecting was the sound. shooting that much water into the air sounds like shooting a tiny cannon.

what else, what else... we went to lush yesterday. there's a lush in vegas. i was the happiest person ever. lordkilljoy bought me my christmas present there. i got two gift boxes (because it was after christmas, it was 2 for 1). now i have loads of yummy lush stuff and will have wonderful showers for the next year. I have (ready for the list?) happy hippy shower gel, ice blue soap, too drunk emotibomb, sandstone soap, each peach massage bar, whoosh shower jelly, snow globe soap and squeaky green shampoo. the emotibomb smells lovely (all of it smells lovely) and i don't want to use it, because it only lasts for one shower. i might use it to smell up my sock drawer or something... :P . i also got porridge soap as a sampler. it smells interesting.

i don't know what else to say. on the flight to vegas, we flew over the hoover dam. it is impressive, even going by at 200mph or whatever pre-landing speed is. leaving last night, we got to see the strip from the air. it's amazing - all the lights and all the shapes.

yea. so. i'm going to go now. have a shower and use all my lush things - maybe not all of them.

the last few days

we went to santa fe today. like a silly girl, i forgot my camera. the drive was amazing. through desert and mountains and things that looked like sand dunes. you could have imagined the sea was just over the dune. but it wasn't. there was just more desert. santa fe is at 7,000ft. we drove up 2,000 feet in under an hour. we were at twice the elevation of the highest mountain in ireland. mad.

once we got there, we went to an outlet centre. not very exciting, or touristy, but lordkilljoy wanted to look around at the sales. i got a big towel too, so i was happy. ooh, and a new wallet. it's smaller than my old one and i can sit on it without it poking into me.

yesterday was quiet. i made dinner. the stuffing was amazing. the turkey was nice too. the potatoes messed everything up though. i roasted them and after an hour they weren't ready. so everything else was done and we had to wait for the potatoes. so everything else was a bit cold by the time we got to eating.
i watched discovery channel for about 5 hours yesterday. mythbusters was on. and then i watched this crazy thing called punkin chinkin. there's this championship that happens every year to see who can chuck a pumpkin the farthest. but teams are allowed to make machines (catapults, trebuchets, air cannons, etc) to throw the pumpkin. it was kind of cool seeing the machines people had come up with.

ooh, we went out for a walk in Rio Grande Valley State Park, along the Paseo del Bosque trail yesterday. we saw a squashed snake (or possibly a very intact snake skin). that was cool. the walk was nice too. it was cold, though. but it seems like a good place for a cycle.

snow creed

Snow is great. the light in here seems a bright as it is in summer thanks to the snow reflecting it all in the window. i have more energy than i've had in ages. i'm listening to my dancy playlist and bopping around the place. it's great.
but there's one problem. the chapter i'm editing at the moment is meant to be depressing and that is the last thing i feel right now and i don't want to get into that mood. i don't want to put on some sad music and kill my energy buzz.

I'm playing assassin's creed II at the moment. it is 20 million times better than the first game (and that was a game i played and finished twice). the game play is more advanced, the story is way better (it actually has a story, as opposed to the first game where it was a series of the same scene over and over with a different target) there's more to do - around the cities but also outside of the main story (like renovate a whole town, manage finances, do extreme-mini dungeon crawls, read loads of back-story). It's fantastic. I think i'll be playing this game for ages. Mostly because i am a completionist and i want to collect all the collectibles and get every piece of armour, do up my house and clear every marker from every city.
I also like the way it staggers the stages of learning stuff. It shows you how to do something and lets you get really comfortable with it before introducing more stuff. and if you forget something there are loads of hints that pop up to remind you of things.

So that's it really. i had a really good christmas at home and down in kerry. went to ross bay with the kayakers for new years (and went for a walk along the beach at 1:30am - the moon was full and shining on the snowy hills across the bay - it was beautiful).

right - need to get today's scene done.

last post for a while

i am officially finished writing for the winter holidays (and i'm doing it a week early, so i'll be an extra week editing). i'm heading home tomorrow evening, have this afternoon and tomorrow to clean the place and pack.

i can't wait to go home and see everyone again. penelope_stone will be around for a good long time too, so i'll get to hang out with her. woo. we're heading to kerry for the week after christmas. beaches. sand. cold and wet (ok, that's not so good). an open fire.

i finished editing for this year on a really good chapter too. i think i'm really evil that inflicting pain on my main character makes me happy. i just made poor zachery cry and i walked away from the chapter thinking: that was good. well - it's not good because he's crying, it's good because i think i wrote the emotion in the scene well. i can't wait to have other people read this, but i can't share it with anyone because it would ruin the rest of the story. i hope when people read it that it comes across as a "no, they can't do that, stop the story, it can't happen this way" sort of tragedy moment.

i finished borderlands for the second time last night, with a different character (lilith) - so now i have played it 2.5 times. i'd love to finish it a third time with mordecai, but i'll save him for playing whatever dlcs that come out with lordkilljoy. i have more xbox achievements from this game than any other. i kinda feel like playing brick and ronald up to fifth level just so i can get the achievements for them too. i'd love to get every achievement but it's not possible with a silver account (boooo).

i don't really have much else to say. i havn't updated in ages, but things have been quiet.

back from lanzarote

ahh, warmth - how lovely you are when i don't have to expend any energy to keep myself warm. lying on a beach, or by the pool, or just walking around - all the time being heated by the warm air. bliss.
the photographs are many, the adventures great, and the sights awesome - too much for one poor journalist to put into words, so i will sum up.

monday - rain! amazing. there is nothing quite like rain in a hot country, unexpected, light, exciting. spent the day getting acclimatized to the heat, the area and the cool water of the pool and the sea. walked about 5km in the middle of the day. did not get burned, surprisingly. i wonder if the clouds helped with that.
tuesday - hung out by the pool for most of the day - wandered to the beach for a swim. badly mixed long island ice teas caused the loss of the guide book - booo! painted my toe-nails for the second time in my life - 5 different colours used :)
wednesday - spent recovering, hung out by the pool, went to the sea. went to arricife, it is very spanish and not very tourist friendly (this may have happened on thursday - we had sushi while here, yummy). didn't get up to much.
thursday - walked along the beach (it's really nice to walk along - a bit rocky, a bit sandy, quiet, little waves). didn't really get up to much.
friday - sunbathed on the beach - rented a parasol and attempted to fall asleep in its shade. not tired enough for sleeping, so played beach tennis instead. me and lordkilljoy are the worst people at beach tennis i have ever seen. it was a struggle to get 6 hits without one of us dropping the ball.
saturday - rent-a-car day. the best day of the holiday. cesar manrique is a genius - architect artist who does these amazing things with lava structures. visited about 6 or 7 (ok, 11) different places (flea market, manrique's house, restaurante lagodar, lunch stop, haria, mirador del rio, cueava del verde, white-sand-beach south of orzola, yaiza, playa blanca, random sunset beach) and caught the sunset over the atlantic. it was so amazing - the island is so small you can see nearly all of it in one day.
sunday - the only really sunny day of our holiday, spent the day packing and getting bits and pieces and messing in the pool. then had to go home :(

and that was it, really. came home and have been wearing three layers. i was wrapped up in a blanket for the whole day yesterday. heading down to cork tomorrow - the health fair is on. that should be fun.

off to the seaside (2500km away)

passport arrived yesterday, booked a holiday today, flying off on sunday (tomorrow would have worked well in that sentence, but that is just a little too rushed for me - 2 days is a good amount of time to get ready). and where are we off to? Lanzarote - Los Pocillos, near Puerto del Carmen to be exact.
right at the moment (apart from trying to update my Lj) i'm making a packing list and reading the guide book i got (i just can't help it - when you went around the world on a guide book (or well, 3 of them) you kinda get hooked on their helpful facts and must-see lists of places) and planning what we can fit in during our week, giving enough time to hang out on the beach too. and it's so small that we could rent a car and see everything away from the resort in a day.
i wonder would lordkilljoy join me in renting bikes and come for a cycle along the coast. and we could bring a lovely picnic and juices and it would amazing. even if lordkilljoy isn't up for it, i might rent a bike myself one of the days and head out to Uga (near the volcano). and visit their salmon smokery (aka, place where smoked salmon is made).

um, so i think that's all my news.