Parcels, Presents, Plonk and Pool.

Wow, I never realised not working could be so exhausting!

Spent the morning playing with my new laptop (yes, it's arrived already, I am impressed!) and getting it all set up, so that was fun. Shipped out a parcel of plants in return for Malus and got sidetracked by the loaches darting about like manic Chinese dragons.

Then had a panic as it's The Vicar's (Mum's mum) birthday and ran to get bus into town. Having wandered around for about an hour puzzling what to get her (and accidently buying a 512mb memory chip for camera, whoops) I ended up in my friend's crystal store, and bought a VERY nice bit of fluorite. A natural spinel, perfectly symmetrical with lots of rich purple, clear, rainbow and stripes. Then I had another wander around trying to work out how to PACK it. I ended up nipping back to my old workplace and using my skills with cellowrap and ribbons.

Got the bus down to her house and, as luck would have it, the heavens unleashed their torrential fury JUST as I stepped off. Drowned rat I believe is the term. My Nan was amused. And insisted on feeding me tea and rhubarb pie. A couple of relatives swung by to wish her a happy birthday, and my grandfather set the cat on me. Not that I mind, but Charlie chews. By the time my mother turned up, I was coated in cathair, and had probably consumed plenty with my biscuits. See today's quote. Grandad was sulking, because my stepfather was driving, my mother already had a brandy, and he had no-one to share this ANCIENT bottle of white with. I was "volunteered". Actually, it turned out to be a pretty good 15% vol Muscat, a bit syruppy with age, but smelt and tasted like honey.

Hitched a lift with Mum into town to go out, so managed not to get drowned whilst just trying to breathe. (Yes, at one point it really was that bad - nipping to the cash machine left my step-father soaked to the skin, even through his jacket) It was great to be able to go play pool with the lads - haven't had chance for MONTHS. (That's my good friend Ross and his peculiar curly beard.)

Mind you, we were falling about at Kris - he lined up a nice shot, tap the yellow off another yellow to land it in the pocket, then chase first in with second shot. BUT - the cue bunny hopped perfectly over the first ball, hopped again over the second... and landed neatly in the pocket. SUPERB! "I did it on purpose!" Uhhuh, if you say so. Shame I wasn't fast enough to catch his facial expression with the camera, but was too busy juggling drinks orders. Needless to say, I went on Ross's team.

Turns out he's worse - we lost 4-1. Ouch. Kris laughed: "Karma!"

A quote today: "Don't worry, we were all brought up on cat-hair and two veg."