Only three more sleeps!
Suddenly, the convention has gone from being weeks away to being this week. I think I’m almost ready though: both secret projects are complete, and one is on its way to Sherlockfan; the bags are sewn and lytteltonwitch has added the logos and sent them up to Wellington; I’ve sorted out which books I’m taking and packed them (one bag full for Wellington and a smaller bag full for the trip up); the quiz questions have been finalised (well, almost, I keep second-guessing myself about one section) and MrPloppy said he’d burn a CD today for the music bit; I’ve packed the various bits and pieces I’ll need for Saturday night (and just hope they aren’t too fussy about the amount of hand luggage they let you take on the ferry, because they wouldn’t fit in my main bag, so they’re in a shopping bag pretending to be essential stuff I need with me for the trip); and I’ve loaded up my MP3 player with a couple of audiobooks to keep me amused on the ferry (I know from experience I’ll get seasick if I try and read, and if it gets rough I’ll be spending a lot of time walking around the decks trying to convince my stomach that all that movement isn’t really happening), though I’m hoping the weather will be good enough that the passing scenery will provide sufficient entertainment.
Which means all I’ve got to do now is pack some clothes; print off some pre-numbered labels (we’re going to a backpackers’ – they’re sure to have a bookshelf with books that need crossing!); make a decision about those last few quiz details; put up the bed in the spare room for Wombles and try and convince George it’s not there for his benefit; clear all the old photos off my camera to make room for lots and lots of new ones; and try and get hold of my brother to arrange parking for lytteltonwitch’s car (they’ve just moved to Blenheim, which is not far from Picton where we’re catching the ferry, so leaving the car with them will be a lot easier (and cheaper!) than leaving it in long-term parking at the ferry terminal. They agreed to the idea in principal when they were down at Christmas, but we didn’t arrange the exact details, and as they’ve just moved I don’t have their address or phone number yet (we’re not great at communicating in my family!), so I’m hoping they’ll to respond to the message I left on their mobile). Oh, and finish off my ESOL homework for tomorrow night. I’m sure I can manage all that… in three days… when I’ll be out tonight and tomorrow night… and I’m really busy at work (ok, obviously not that busy, or I wouldn’t be posting this 🙂 but I do have a LOT of meetings scheduled for the next couple of days)…
But who cares how much I’ve still got to get done – it’s three more sleeps until Wellington, and I’m seriously looking forward to it!!!
We had a games evening on Saturday night for some of MrPloppy‘s friends from the group (and lytteltonwitch :-)), and for a change we had quite a few people turn up! There was Tam*, of course, who hasn’t missed a games evening yet, and Norm and his wife (who, are wonderful people, because as well as a big plate of goodies, they brought me a couple of books!), and Ian, who MrPloppy hadn’t really expected to come, so that was a nice surprise. He’d invited awhina and meerkitten as well, but school started back last week, so awhina rang on Saturday afternoon pleading exhaustion.
Anyway, seven was a really good number for the games we played. The first, called “Excuses”, that Tam had brought along was kind of like “Apples to Apples” – everyone was dealt a hand of cards that had excuses written on them (“my dog ate it”, “I thought it was tomorrow” sort of things), and then another card was drawn with a situation on it (E.g. a customer complaining about a faulty product) and everyone had to pick the excuse from their hand that best fitted the situation and read it out, and the best (or funniest) excuse won the point. Then we played “Pit” (brought by Norm and Mrs Norm) which is based on the stock exchange and involves a lot of shouting and throwing cards at each other – great fun, but my already hoarse voice was seriously suffering by the time we finished! The last game we played was another the Norms had brought, which I don’t remember the name of but was sort of a cross between Gin Rummy and Scrabble. It took us ages to work out the rules (the game was a gift from one of their children, and they’d only played it once before), and we were all a bit confused by it at first, but I think if we’d had time for a second game it would have started to make more sense.
A fun night, anyway!
*After consideration of various naming conventions for people who don’t have convenient screen names or family relationship labels for me to use, I’ve decided to just use their real names. Yes, it reduces their privacy slightly, but really, what’s the chances of being able to identify someone just on the basis of their first name? Initials are just annoying (especially when one of them is I!), and I don’t really like using nicknames (other than screen names, obviously!) – they always seem a bit insulting to me, and I tend to forget which name I’ve attached to which person anyway – so first names seems the best solution.
Currently reading: The Wise Woman by Philippa Gregory