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2001-12-04 - 5:20 p.m.

I tried to add an entry earlier with adventures in Scotland and the Commonwealth and (former) Colonies Thanksgiving, but as usual, it punted before I got to finish it. Grrr.

Short form, after the week with Rob & Wendy, which was lovely, I changed the sheets and was visited by James and Mitake (or J'itake as they are now known) Friday night. Then I took a late train out to my sweetie's (he was *supposed* to be at a party til late, although it apparently ended earlier than they'd thought.) He was tipsy and entertaining though.

Saturday we traipsed off to the Re-enactors Market in Oxford, which was fun although it's more fun when you have more money. I was pretty good - I only bought one length of fabric, a couple of books and a pouch. I had to rein Steve in by reminding him he didn't have any money either, but he got some feathers for his Landsknecht hat, and some leather to make pouches to sell.

Then we had to leave to go to a quite festive party where I knew precisely no one. Well, okay - I knew Steve and his brother Mike, and our host Phil (well, I'd met him once). I knew one other person there by reputation (and it wasn't a good rep!) So I did what any normal person would do, and stationed myself by the stereo playing Ms DJ. Now, this may surprise you, but this is actually something I'm moderately good at. After Phil & I inflicted Alice's Restaurant on all the teenagers ('cause they'd never heard it, what with it being both old *and* American), I put in some good tunes. Unfortunately, I managed to miss all the food while changing CDs (this tells you it went pretty quickly), so I ended up eating, um, a cheese sandwich, and a piece of bread with gravy after being promised dinner. Lunch was a handful of fried scampi and chips, and that may have also been breakfast. And what else do we do at parties?

Yep. I got hammered. I had a couple of ciders (those nice 7% and 8% ones) and then someone started feeding me TVR (tequila, vodka and Red Bull). Normally there's a fair bit more Red Bull than Steve was putting in these, so in short order, on an empty stomach, I was a complete waste case. We watched the splendid fireworks Steve's brother assembled (with him looking somewhat demonic dashing from point to point setting them off), and at some point I decided to go to bed. Steve helped, we got the airbed set up, and I was down for the count. Sigh.... Ah for my youth when I didn't pull stunts like this.

So Sunday was Steve's birthday! Happy birthday to Sweetie! We went home, ate a hasty brunch of pork chops, Smash and gravy, then dashed out for our birthday outing of seeing Harry Potter! It was excellent, and I bought Steve ice cream so it was festive and birthday-ish. Then we went home, had a nap, then went to Pizza Hut where we had dinner and I gave him the rest of his modest birthday loot.

Why is it so hard to do celebrations that involve gifts when one or both of you have no money? It's just so damned awkward. Yeah, Gift of the Magi and all that, but it's still a pain in the arse.

Then I went home 'cause Sweetie had to get up at 3:30 for work. His new job (driving lorries) has really cut into our together-time. Pout.

Monday James & Mitake left (you'll notice I wasn't really home when they were. Sorry....) and I got ready to go to Scotland. I took the train up Tuesday, and was walking towards their hotel when I heard a suspiciously Brian-ish American voice from behind a parked car.

So we partied, had dinner at the best restaurant in Edinburgh (in my estimation). Shopped. Toured the castle. Shopped. Had pub lunches. Drank whisky. Ate haggis. Shopped. Walked. Toured. It was generally splendid to see everyone even if my feet hurt. And I had some great late-night talks with my friend Mike, whom I was staying with.

Friday Tamma & I took the train to London and had a good time chatting on the way (until I fell asleep, thanks to talking with Mike til nearly 3am....) She got on the tube to her hotel and I scurried home to prepare for Thanksgiving in Wales. I was supposed to be in NW London by something like 7:30 and it was closer to 8, but everyone else was running late too, and I had a good reason.

And that was getting home, tossing a load of laundry in and realizing two hours later that it was still wet. In fact, parts of it were still *dry*. And the soap was still on top. Hmmm. Re-run cycle. Same thing. No agitation. Agitator *motor* noises, but no spin. No nothing. Take icky wet slightly soapy laundry out and rinse it all in the sink. Fail to get it as dry as one would like before leaving it out on racks all weekend to mildew. Oh yum. In meantime, call and rant at landlord, explaining that I'm leaving town and flatmates are in Amsterdam. But he did manage to fix it Sunday, which I considered a miracle.

So I got up to Tina's, we load four people, our sewing projects and stuff in to the car and head off for Wales. We didn't get on the road til almost nine, but it was a shorter drive than some people thought so we were there by midnight.

Here begins the saga of the Commonwealth Thanksgiving. In our car were a Brit-born New Zealander, a South African, a Brit and an American. We're going to visit two Americans. Already there is a Brit-born Maltese. And three cats. The Brit and the New Zealander both have cat allergies but figure they'll dope up and be fine. Well, they weren't. Or precisely, one of them wasn't. Poor Meesha couldn't sleep (or breathe!) so she spent part of the next morning sleeping in her car, and then we found her a B&B where she spent most of the day. Meanwhile my saintly (okay, sometimes-saintly) Tina sewed both her *and* Meesha's dresses for Twelfth Night.

Meanwhile I cooked. Well, first I shopped. Or tried to shop. This was my first attempt at making "American" food in Britain, and while it was a success (judging by the very small amount of leftovers!), it was not a traditional American Thanksgiving. In no particular order, you cannot buy in this benighted country:

pumpkin

yellow squash

pie crusts in disposable tins

disposable pie tins, full stop

Karo syrup

cubed stuffing bread

buttermilk

pearl onions that aren't pickled

Now there are many fine things you *can* buy (like French verjuice and really scrummy chocolate and stuff) but there were things I needed for turkey day and they weren't there.

So I improvised. We had apple pie instead of pumpkin, I faked my mother's buttermilk pie recipe with creme fraiche, I used Golden Syrup in the pecan pie, I made instant sage stuffing with additions for the stuffing, I used shallots and "small onions" for the Onions of Death, and basically made do. But it was entertaining.

Meesh came back over for dinner, and we ate outdoors in deference to her misery (basically she had to eat outdoors so we all did....) It wasn't anything like 70 degrees, several folks ate with their coats on, but it was convivial and that was the important thing.

We were also joined by Steve (another Brit) for dinner, and Nina (an Aussie) later, so we ended up with virtually all the Colonies covered in some fashion except India....

There was much sewing, much eating and drinking, some watching of Galaxy Quest. There were munchies in the morning and pie for breakfast, and later in the afternoon/evening, we went back to London.

It was a nice weekend, but tiring. I had, at this point, been on the go for something like three straight weeks. So I took Monday and Tuesday to rest, do stuff, etc. At least I think I did. I was trying not to come down with something.... Oh, yeah, I did condo paperwork at the Embassy and house-sat for Tina, waiting for the computer repairman....

Wednesday Tamma came over and we had fun touring about (Madame Tussaud's is a stitch! I'd never been before!) and Thursday we had dinner with Tom & Heather at Tina's. Friday Tamma left, I came into work, Gyrth (bless him!) signed my condo paperwork (I'm free!!!), and had dinner with Tom & Heather again.

Saturday was girlie day, bead shopping and celebrating Tanya's birthday. Happy birthday to Tanya! We had a nice day but I was wiped when I got home. Sunday I lounged, made soup from leftover turkey, did *actual maths* with my flatmate (trying to work out the WW point formula so we can log our points by computer), and had a three-hour Board conference call starting at, um, 11:30 at night. Ugh.

So Monday was a waste. I puttered at home, went to the gym. Weighed in. How can I have been down weight after Scotland and Thanksgiving but back up again now??! I don't get it. Ah well, more precision in point counting and more exercise.

Speaking of which, I should get my act together, finish my soup and get ready for Jay to pick me up for fighting practice. Whee!!

Miss y'all, thinking of ya. More philosophy in the next entry....

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