serialdeviant.org(y)

This weekend we shall be eating smelly cheese with my cousin.

And I’d like to unclutter my wardrobe (as should Neil, who has been promising he’ll do it “this weekend”, every weekend).

And there is also that scarf that is being crocheted far, far too slowly — it needs to be finished and embellished, and then sent off.

(Oh, and W starts its UK run today.)

• went to Club Noir in Edinburgh
  This was fun. Carene was all dressed up as a cross between Roxie Hart and Liza Minnelli, and I made an effort (silver and black cheongsam-style dress, patent leather boots), which is a huge deal (i.e. I wasn’t wearing jeans). Most unfortunately, a lot of the females there were dressed almost identically, either as bunnies or Parisian can-can girls, i.e. any excuse to wear as little as legally possible. I very much appreciated those who dressed up because they really were into alternative styles, not just because they wanted to look hot.

  Then of course there were a couple of blokes who tried to chat us up, something that hasn’t happened in years (middle-aged deluded horndogs in Xiamen aren’t counted). It all started with a random comment about the time the first shows were starting (11.30pm), and then a throwaway comment about whether any of us could help him tie his bowtie. Probably much to his surprise, I volunteered — my cousin just taught Neil how to tie a bowtie (for the wedding) and I was there. So I managed to tie it for him and it actually looked acceptable. Which meant I didn’t even notice that he was trying to chat me up since I was being all self-congratulatory about getting it right. And then Carene pointed it out and hey man, this proves I’ve still got it. Once every five years or so, someone might try to pick me up. Heh.

  But what of the show itself? We only managed to watch the first show and half of the second, and given that I’m only 5′ 4″ and wasn’t right in the front row, I only got to see what the video cameras captured. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting or hoping for — I was thinking more variety and humour and wit and cross-dressing, and definitely less striptease. There was an interpretive dance-type striptease, though, which was appropriately odd. All in all, Club Noir is a good night out.

• mainly did a bunch of DIY
  To be more precise, I helped out. We hung lining paper on the hallway upstairs, and it’s quite amazing what some light-coloured paper will do to lift the mood. We’re almost done, but there are some extremely tricky bits as the upstairs is a loft conversion and so I’m a bit worried that Neil will fall and hurt himself (he jokes that I’ll return and find him in a decomposing heap at the bottom of the stairs) as I’m going away next week.
• realised how much I haven’t done about going away
  I still have to get a hold of Canadian dollars for my holiday this week, and although I think I’m organised (I have a list and everything), I suspect I’m not. I’m really looking forward to seeing my family this week, and so I have certainly not been in the mood to do anything but wish I was already on holiday.
• saw the rings
  Neil’s picked up our wedding rings, which I had almost (but not quite) forgotten about. This site has mostly been a wedding-planning-news-free zone (because going on and on about something this low-key and self-obsessed is boring), and now all the things that need to be done have been done. All I’m worried about is the guests having expectations of a traditional wedding when I basically want it to be seen as a regular weekend with a short civil ceremony in the afternoon (especially since I’ve always been an advocate of the Vegas quickie).
• watched a few movies on the teevee
  Two stick in my mind: Omen II, where it appears that any direct or extremely indirect human threat to young Damien was dispatched fairly ruthlessly, and makes me wonder if the Devil was so omnipotent and omniscient, why did his (clearly quite powerful as well) followers have to worry so much about us puny humans? Damien was perfectly capable of defending himself from anyone. And he sure embraced the “I am the son of the Devil” idea pretty quickly. The other one was Batman Begins, which was broadcast on Sky One last night. I love Christian Bale and want him to bear my children, but I still think Michael Keaton was the best Batman / Bruce Wayne, because he looks more like a crazy rich guy than the other actors ever did. I am pissed that The Dark Knight starts its run here while I am away. Neil thinks the make up used for Heath Ledger’s Joker looks remarkably like that of The Crow.

• re-designed this here website
  as I mentioned in my self-absorbed post (what post on a personal website isn’t self-absorbed?) of last week, I’ve been feeling somewhat uninspired. So I’ve gone back to ‘asides’-type postings, this time for news articles I find interesting and have brief comments on (not grammatical, but shorter that ‘on which I have brief comments’). Google Reader is for articles I’ve read, Tumblr is for crime news I found noteworthy, and del.icio.us is for interesting sites. Friendfeed aggregates almost everything.
• made something from scratch that tasted really good
  Neil cooked it but I prepared and marinaded all the ingredients myself, while Neil was being manly and doing DIY-type things. I still do not enjoy cooking, but I do enjoy discovering new dishes because I get bored with food really easily (case in point — after months of eating yoghurt-covered cereal back in 2006/2007 and stopping because I got really tired of it, I tried it this morning with plain yoghurt, honey and cereal, and it almost gave me the boak).
• considered doing a web programming course
  I’ve been toying with the idea of doing some additional training in web geek stuff since my sparkling personality can only get me so far (heh). Somehow I have managed to get a job that involves a lot of social media and general webbiness (no I haven’t changed jobs, I’ve just made it more, er, mine), and I really want to learn about web application development. I need some advice here — basically I need to know if the Master CIW Website Manager course is worthwhile. I’m calling the course advisor this week to find out more, but if anyone out there has had experience with it, please tell me if you think it’s worth doing.

• went to the gym
• computered (another new layout in the works, why can’t I be happy, dammit?!)
• had an excellent mushroom and mascarpone cheese pizza from Morrisons
• helped out at my cousin’s second child’s birthday party (I do not understand why rolling around on the floor punching one another is a fun activity for four year old boys, BTW should that be completely hyphenated?)
• took my cousin’s wife to the airport
• hung out at Carene’s (girls’ night in?)
• did a small shop at Asda and then B&Q
• prepped my lunches for the week (sometimes I am so organised)
• tried to watch the teevee while Neil used his new mitre saw (give the man a power tool and his day is made)
• was thoroughly impressed by Neil’s carpentry efforts upstairs (quote: “I missed my calling, I should’ve been a joiner!”)
• cooked up some lamb mince in the wholly-unprofessional ‘trying to copy our favourite Xinjiang restaurant in Xiamen’ way (not too bad, especially considering that I did everything, though it wasn’t quite spicy enough for Neil)

• met Derek ‘in the toon’ and had dinner at Ichiban
• painted the spare bedroom (two tins of paint, pretty much exactly, which is good because that’s all we bought)
• watched some bands at a local pub (where I drank less alcohol than anyone over 14 that night, and was introduced to the heaven that is a Bell’s chicken curry pie)
• slept in (walked into the kitchen to discover that Neil had eaten half a pizza, two char siew paus, and two hot dogs our of a can of six)
• finished the hot dogs and ate pretzels while spacing out in the living room
• did the small weekly shop (and bought a pack of Bell’s chicken curry pies!)
• computered till late