Knackered

[mandragora]

What I did this weekend:

Friday night was office party night. Was actually okay, lots of drunk people but all still nice with it (most unusual for bunch of lawyers).

Saturday: dashed to garage to pick up courtesy car as mine was being repaired.
Food shopping.
Washing.
Worked rest of day, reading witness statements.
Early evening went into West End to meet thermidor, thermidor's other half who was visiting from the US (thank you deeply, thermidor other half, for Smallville eps and naked Callum!), temaris, moonlettuce, and A (who I don't think has a LJ). A good time was (I think) had by all, even if it did piss down with rain and, due to being too vain to wear glasses, I steered us wrong out of the restaurant and we ended up in Holborn rather than Covent Garden. Was accused of concocting fiendish plot to make sure I got direct tube line home, until pointed out that could also have got direct tube line home from Covent Garden...

Sunday: spent 6 hours doing legal research. Then worked further on legal project, picking up where left off yesterday.
More washing. Ironing.
Also thought of way to fill plot hole in Smallville story started before legal project arrived. Hastily wrote down filler for plot hole, have no idea when will actually be able to work on story again. Sigh.

Am now knackered, Must get early tomorrow to get to work early, as have very tight deadline to make (and damn other lawyer for sitting on project for bleeding months anyway). Will be working most of Christmas and New Year as a result. Bah humbug.

Still, have delectable Sean Bean to look forward to in Scottish play tomorrow night, which is some consolation.

Comments

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

Was actually there last Xmas for two weeks, staying with an uncle in Twickenham, and yeah, on the few occasions that I did get up to central London for the galleries etc. I definitely noticed the public transport issues. I think it's got worse since the last time I was there a few years before. I guess there's a slow decline for year after year, and then things hit the point where the decline is no longer slow. My uncle was saying that no govt. has put significant money into London Transport since the 50's and, well, it's starting to *show*.

Would've loved to have done a cultural blitz last Xmas, but was alas there in part to visit a very ill elderly relative, so I only got up to London twice the entire time I was there, and there was only time for me to see one play. Judi Dench in the Royal Family at the Haymarket. Good acting, but a lousy, lousy play. Last time I was there in the winter, Xmas 96, I was also just there for two weeks but I planned it out in advance like a military campaign. An Ideal Husband at the Old Vic, The Cherry Orchard (at the Olivier????), Turandot at the Royal Opera House, and the Kirov doing Nutcracker at the Coliseum. That was also the year that rather revolutionary all-male Swan Lake was on, but I couldn't get a ticket, alas.

So anyway, the point is that the next time I come up to London I will definitely be making up for last year's lost opportunities and doing a cultural blitz. Of course, since I just bought a flat and am skint as a result, that may not be for a while. Unless I have to fly over for a funeral, in which case going off gallivanting might be considered rather bad form by the other mourners. People are picky that way. And the difficulty of having family in or near London is that on the one hand, you have a free place to stay, but on the other, your activities tend to be rather circumscribed by their expectations. Especially when every family member is at least thirty years your senior and mentally still thinks of you as a little widdit with no decision-making power of your own.

Where was I? Oh yeah, responding to your comment. Got a little sidetracked by the ME, ME, ME subject. I find myself endlessly entertaining. Interesting that you and t'other Mandragora should come from the same part of the world and have the same user name. The odds of that are...slim. And no, while it is true, she wouldn't believe you. I wonder if any of the same teachers are still at that school.

Why in the world would you feel guilty about not replying to a comment? It's LJ, it's supposed to be done in your free time. Of which you apparently have precious little at the moment, from the sound of things. Hmm, there's something wrong with that sentence. I'm enormously grateful that you engaged Sally, because while I dimly felt there was something slightly off in that logic, I couldn't pinpoint it. Always nice to have somebody else chiming in on the discussion. What I love about LJ is the chance to engage in discussion with people from all sorts of places, and with all sorts of backgrounds (ex: your knowledge of the Roman Empire etc.).

Also, Sally is somebody who extremely liberal, so for her to be saying something like that really speaks to the despair and fear that a lot of ordinary Americans seem to be suddenly experiencing. To teh point where even the most extraordinary solutions seem like possibilities. I suppose that's how Bush is getting his agenda through, is through that fear. People in the UK or other parts of Europe have already been living with terrorism for a long time, and for Canadians it simply hasn't hit yet. I understand that there have been tremendous outpourings in Australia since the Bali bombings of not only grief but also of a desire for massive political changes and restrictions, so I suppose it could happen here too.