Fabulous February

Book of the Week: Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons (OK, not really a book so much as a graphic novel... but at least I’m reading!)

Wow. Nearly the end of February already. It’s true then – time really does fly when you’re having fun. Or get old(er).

Let’s see – it’s been a pretty good month. I became an aunt (again) – Jo’s kid Arianna was born on January 30. Looks just like her dad from the photos. Though when she squints she kinda looks like her mum. Made me feel all broody. Some day we’ll see Mishmish. I hope.

On the same night, on this side of the world, Gareth and I went to see Sandi Thom at the Carnegie Hall. We had listened to Smile, It Confuses People during two weeks of driving around Kiwiland in 2007, but I honestly could not remember anything besides I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (which I thought was Punk Rock Girl for ages – just the emphasis, I guess). We had a great time, even if I did come out a little deaf. Catchy tune upon catchy tune, and after the gig we listened to the CD all the way home. No, repetition doesn’t always bore us.

Had new PCs and story filing/editing system installed on February 12. Was really a) pleased because no longer have to endure embarrassment by not being able to access information prior to interviews; b) pissed off because installation was done on our work time, as opposed to doing it after working hours, which led to c) even more pissed-offness, because Mr Big made us all come back in on Saturday to “make up for Thursday”. And when it came around, he was in for just the half day. Just as well we hadn’t made any plans for Valentine’s Day. Luckily, didn’t miss much of the England-Wales match either.

Next day, went into Stirling and got a bunch of new winter clothes at Mountain Warehouse and Tiso (mostly for myself) before going into Glasgow for a wee taster of what lay ahead the coming weekend. Got a congratulatory card for Jo, picked up tickets for Religulous at the Glasgow Film Theatre, picked our way along Sauchiehall Street (actually most of it was in Jessops checking out digital SLRs), saw The Strange Case of Benjamin Button at Cineworld, hit Wagamama for dinner, went to Borders for a good sexy browse, went back to Wagamama because had left card behind on table, before rounding off the day with Religulous. It was all right. A few good jokes, but as ever, the Jews and Christians made easy targets. Would like to have seen Bill Maher asking the imams about taqqiya... or a few really hard-hitting questions about Muhammad’s personal life. Starting with getting married to a six-year-old.

On Friday, we started the first of our four Wonderful Weekends, which we will have on the trot throughout February and March. Went through to Glasgow after work and hung out in Borders while waiting for Gareth to finish his movie with Graeme. We then went to Wagamama (again!) for a late dinner – lovely yasai chilli men (for me) and yasai laksa thingy (for him). Checked into Travelodge Braehead (£80 for two nights, a steal) where we finally went to bed at... must have been 2am before we fell asleep.

Next morning, went for breakfast at Braehead Centre (big ham and mushroom pancake for me) and got a pair of gloves each (I also got a free bottle of contact lens fluid from the nice man at Optical Express – must have been my dazzling good looks) before heading to Xscape. WHOO!!! Real “fake” snow! It was great! I couldn’t wait to get going. Unfortunately my excitement was tempered some by having to wait around for someone to take us onto the slopes. But someone finally did turn up at exactly 11.15am – and even then Gareth and I couldn’t jump in right away because we didn’t have right-sized helmets on... bah. Curse of the squiffy heeds.

But after that it was all systems go. Was a bit worried as I jumped into an ice slide for the first time – could see myself crashing into the wooden sideboards and meeting the same sort of end as Dracula – but man, it was cool! In more ways than one – we both got snow into our shoes, up our pants, on our bums... honestly, it got everywhere. The only thing we didn’t enjoy about it was the dip right before crashing into the foam blocks. And crashing into the foam blocks, come to think of it. Newton’s Third Law of Motion. After about half a dozen gos at manoeuvering, I finally got the hang of How Not To Get Whiplash by trying as best as possible to hit the wall side-on first.

After our 45 minutes were up, we had barely time to catch our breath before we went on the sledging. Oh wow. So much fun. Gareth had always talked about taking me sledging down Cockleroy but now that we live on the other side of the water, that seems a bit far away. If you’re going to risk quadraplegia zooming down a slippery slope at 30mph, you might as well do it close to home. That’s why we went 50 miles out. The sledging area itself wasn’t that amazing, maybe a 10-degree, 50m-long slope – but the rush came from trying to dodge other sledgers and not run over three-year-old tots (who, in addition to not being able to steer very well, were also, due to Newton’s Second Law of Motion, going like grannies on a B-road).

Just about sprinted back to the Travelodge to get changed into fresh clothes – I was paranoid that my socks would be frozen to my ankles and the paramedics would peel off a swathe of skin as they sliced the wool off – but we did get a fantastic cardio workout, what with all the climbing up slopes. Went back to Xscape for lunch (a superb garlic prawn farfalle for me – or to give it its proper Wild West Weegie name, “bowtie pasta”) before thawing our bums out at Paradise Golf, where I scored my first hole-in-one in my first game of miniature golf. We were both really pegged out by 4pm, so chilled out with some hot chocolate and apple and raspberry crumble before heading back to the Travelodge for a power nap before dinner. Still couldn’t feel our bums at that point. Mental note: must get proper snow/ski pants.

Mile-long traffic jam on M8 on our way in but made our 6.30pm appointment at Borders, went to Nanakusa (had been agitating for a Japanese all day despite the visit to Wagamama the previous night – or maybe I just needed a massive noodle fix) where I had a massive, but very daintily presented, plate of sushi (it came on a “bridge”). Went back to Odeon the second week in a row to watch Hush – I think Mum and Dad would probably enjoy it, but it just annoyed me, with all its “thriller-horror” cliches. Right twat of a hero, scary old house, planted backstabber... all the typical plot twists.

Lazy Sunday morning fry-up at a Wetherspoons on Sauchiehall Street before hitting Mountain Warehouse (acting on mental note) and Borders again. Lovely roast beef and Yorkshire pudding dinner in Clackmannan on way home. All in all, it was the near-perfect weekend – just those draggy loose bits of thread on the edge of Gareth’s jeans drove me mental. Walked ahead of him all day so I didn’t have to see them if I happened to look down.

Weather-wise it’s been a better winter than usual. It snowed a few times in January – very happy – though couldn’t enjoy it as much as I would have liked despite staying home because I was feeling absolutely crap. It snowed the night we came home from Religulous so I put on my new winter clothes and went out for a gambol. Also enjoying the longer days – glad not to wake up/go to work/come home in the dark. The really good programmes on TV are helping as well – am really enjoying Being Human to the point where I caught myself thinking, I wish the box set were out already so I could just watch it all at a go.

On the career front – resolve building by the hour now to quit job. Already at that point in my life where I don’t want to waste time on anything that makes me pissed off, miserable or generally feeling all-round negative. Getting really annoyed with work, people at work, system at work – it’s been a right crappy two weeks. The new filing/editing system is driving everyone up the wall - everything takes three times as long (never trust an programme where you can’t copy and paste). Of course, can’t really do anything until visa is sorted (and all the process leading up to THAT entails). Gareth saw a job for press officer at CHAS... let’s hope offers like those are still around in two months.

In the meantime, we plan to make the most of now. (Hmmm... where have I heard that tagline before?) Tomorrow I’m doing a half-day then we’re off to London for the second of our Wonderful Weekends. Can’t wait. We’ve never done it together so really looking forward to it.

Factoids of the Week:
Watched University Challenge this week and have been well impressed by Gail Trimble – very annoying how so many people over here have shot her down. What is wrong with being educated? Knowing stuff? Why in the name of all that is holy (and intelligence is one of them), is intellectual superiority vilified, and ignorance championed? She’s doing a PhD in Latin at Oxford following her first-class honours degree, scored 11As in GCSEs (10 of which were A*) and four As at A-level, for crying out loud - if we had anyone like her on a University Challenge in Malaysia (where no doubt the teams would be all Chinese if contestants were chosen on merit), she would be lauded, offered scholarships, have odes composed celebrating her accomplishments. So this week’s selection is in her honour. She’s smart enough not to let the airhead-worshipping snipes get to her – they can make all the comments she wants about her appearance, because she can lose weight, shave her legs and/or get new boobs, but they’ll still be stupid. You can’t get a brain transplant, after all.

Measure for Measure is the only Shakespearean play set in Vienna.

Leiden, home to the Netherlands’ oldest university, also gave its name to the leyden jar, an early form of capacitor.

The taco terrier is a cross between a toy fox terrier and a chihuahua and originated in Mexico.

In botany the term “etiolated” describes the appearance of a plant which has developed without or been deprived of light.

Hilaire Belloc’s Matilda and Charles Dickens’s Miss Havisham both died in fires.

The four-field rotation of crops adopted in the agricultural revolution and popularised by Charles Townsend involved the successive planting of barley or oats, clover or rye, wheat and turnips.