A week away

Spent a week down in Melbourne with Rey for her birthday, visiting a few friends & family. Had a lovely time, including...

- Pirate clubbing. Photo here of yrs truly attempting a menacing 'Arrrr!' and managing... I'm not sure quite what... along with the wonderful silverblue.

- Meeting shadow_5tails and asagwe's new cats, and seeing their Ninja Skillz in action. It was a short step from their deciding that the world is more interesting when seen through bubblewrap to their figuring out how to wear a bubblewrap bag as a Ninja Hood... and I was especially impressed by the Ninja Door-Opening Methods.

- Rey's birthday dinner, during which I caught up with my brother and learned some v. interesting family gossip...

- Visiting my great-aunt. She's not been well and was a little frail, but for 87 she's still holding up pretty well.

- Seeing Merlin Bird performing before they head off overseas.

- The weather, which alternated between 'dry', 'wet', and 'wet plus burst water main'.

- A dinner date with my beloved. Verdict: we really ought to do that more often.

- Talking to Mel Uni about prospective back-to-study-ness (specifically in psych). Looks interesting, although paying job that doesn't require a year of study first would be preferable.

Got back to discover that Rey's mother, while house-sitting, had tidied the kitchen (including cleaning the stove!) and that da_norvegicus had brought home a respectable school report, go him. Also that Dog-Or was overjoyed to see us, no surprises there.

Meanwhile, via vito_excalibur, advertising execs are still morons. Or possibly a significant portion of people are morons, and ad execs are just cynical bastards who exploit that. Either way, I think several people on my f-list will find that photo far more attractive than it was intended to be.