shadows of echoes of memories of songs

addedentry and I had a party, and it was great! It was lovely to see all the people who were there, & we were sad not to see the people who couldn't make it. I'm not going to try to list you all, or list all the lovely presents we got (though I hope I thanked everybody at the time!) but fivemack gets a special vote of thanks for bringing us lots of fab wedding photos and making fried breakfast for seven people (without the aid of forks) on Sunday morning. :-)

I would also like to apologise to khalinche and timeplease for failing to wake up in time to say goodbye (but I hope they slept well on our sofabed), and to juggzy for failing to be awake when she returned to fetch some things she'd left here (but I hope she found everything in the end without too much trauma). I am not very good at mornings, sorry.

I was pleased with the way this year's cake decoration turned out, though I'm afraid the actual cake was a bit on the 'meh' side -- too dry, not enough jam.

Late on Saturday night my ridiculous 15" boots got an impromptu airing, so that I could prove that they existed (that's the first time I've taken them out of the box since moving to Oxford -- I had to cut the packing-tape to get them out). If anybody took a decent photo of them I'd love to see it: a flickr link would allow me to prove the existence of the boots without risking breaking my legs. :-} On the other hand a flickr link would not have given me the rather fun experience of being nearly as tall as htfb.

I hope "a good time was had by all", but I can only really speak for myself; I spent most of last week feeling fairly fail-ish and not at all partyish but was much cheered by conversation and silliness and singing and cake and port, so thank you again to all our guests for making an old-ish woman very happy. :-)

[More posts to follow on Oxbridge limericks, singing, decluttering, and running... watch this space, tonight is LJ-catchup night!]

The Botley Badgerarium is now well and truly warmed (and even has a new badger!) - thanks to all who were there, i.e. (deep breath) aardvark179, barnacle, bellinghman, bellinghwoman, bluedevi, bopeepsheep, brrm, burkesworks, c1anger, covertmusic, ewtikins, hairyears, half_of_monty, i_ludicrous, imc, invisiblechoir, juggzy, lnr, monkeyhands, mooism, mzdt, nja, pseudomonas, qatsi, rejs, saffie1981, sesquipedality, sion_a, smallclanger, tkb, truecatachresis, uitlander, and (NOLJWTFBBQ???) Andy, Chris J, David H, Glyn, Henry, Lynsey, Mike S, Pablo, and Victoria H. (If I missed anybody from this list then I'm really sorry!)

Geek social fallacy #4 notwithstanding, nearly everybody seemed to get along just fine -- possibly because everybody turned out to already know everybody else from other places, or be the cousin of the landlord of somebody else. Even some of the people who didn't have LiveJournals knew people! How do they do it?

( More party-related rambling... )

Amazingly, the house is still tidier than it was before the party, leaving us with time and space on Sunday and Monday to entertain taimatsu, play computer games, start the jigsaw we were given for Christmas, make tasty meals out of leftovers, and contemplate actually beginning to catalogue the books. The flat looks unbelievably studenty (Dali print, check; rag rug, check; ethnic throws over cardboard boxes, check; amusing fridge magnets, check) but despite that -- or maybe because of that, as goodness knows I've never really grown out of wanting to put pop-star posters on my walls -- it really feels like home at last. Come and visit us!

If I don't update this soon I never will. Apologies for the slightly rambly diaryism.

So there was Christmas, which was relaxing and great fun, ( in which nobody falls out ) and then there was a New Year party, which was bizarre and great fun, ( in which London transport plays a part )

Then last night there was New Year again, or rather it was enthusiastically re-toasted (with, variously, deferred champagne, water, and sticky toffee pudding tea) by myself, addedentry, jiggery_pokery, dezzikitty, wednesdayschild, and two other people who looked similar to one another, but of whom I can't remember which one is meant to be kept anonymous. I guess you had to be there.

I'm glad to have seen the New Year in surrounded by a) music, which is something on which I want to spend more time and effort, and b) new friends (at least, I hope I may call them that). I just hope I haven't neglected my existing friends too much in favour of the new.