(no subject)

1. This has been another crazy busy week in work, building up to a migraine last night, which has left me feeling rather fragile this morning. Am now very much looking forward to the weekend, when I will be meeting up with the always lovely bagpuss1966 and welshdreamer for an outing I believe we first talked about something silly like 18 months ago, when we met up at the Gower. Life has got very much in the way since then, but we've finally got ourselves organised.

2. The news from Japan remains awful to watch. My cousin Stephen, who lives near Tokyo, has been keeping in touch and sounds pretty upbeat, under the circumstances. There isn't much physical damage in the small town where he lives, although he says that the aftershocks haven't been much fun, everyone is pretty shaken, panic buying has caused shortages, and trains and the like aren't running. According to the Beeb, the government is urging ex-pats living in the area to leave because of the nuclear crisis and its knock-on effects, but I can't see Stephen wanting to uproot his family. He has lived there for nearly 15 years now. His wife is Japanese and their whole life is in Japan - Yuki and the boys barely speak English, Yuki and Pip (the 8 year old) have only ever been to the UK once, and little Marcus (age 4) never. I imagine that unless things get really bad, they will stick it out where they are. It is worrying, though. Here's a pic of Stephen's boys, posing for the New Year cards they sent out last year.


3. I've finished watching both seasons of New Street Law now. It was a nice little show. I can see why it didn't attract a large enough audience to justify a third season, but it had a really strong cast and I found the storylines interesting and the characters engaging and would have liked to see more of them. Ah well, such is life.

4. So, Being Human's third season certainly ended on an I can't believe they actually went there note! I know there's been a lot of mixed feeling about it in the fandom, but I enjoyed the season and wasn't as devastated by the shock ending as I might have expected (or as so many others seem to be). This review pretty much sums up how I felt about it (albeit in rather more flowery and enthusiastic language than I'd have used), thereby saving me the trouble of having to collect and compose any thoughts of my own.

5. Sister Mine, plus Bro-in-Law and Niece are coming to stay with me for the weekend in just over a week - they arrive on the Friday, which is D's birthday, but are actually coming to celebrate Mum's 60th which is the following week. I had a text from D the other day, however, mentioning that they are also going to have to bring her own birthday present from R with them...because it has four legs and a tail. He's bought her a dog - a staffy. Her name is Amber, she is three years old and had to be rehomed because her owner had terminal cancer. D is in love. Me, I'm wondering a) how they are managing to fit a large dog into their already crowded little house, b) how their four cats have taken to the new arrival, and c) what my own cats will make of it when they bring Amber to stay for the weekend!

(no subject)

1. This has been another crazy busy week in work, building up to a migraine last night, which has left me feeling rather fragile this morning. Am now very much looking forward to the weekend, when I will be meeting up with the always lovely bagpuss1966 and welshdreamer for an outing I believe we first talked about something silly like 18 months ago, when we met up at the Gower. Life has got very much in the way since then, but we've finally got ourselves organised.

2. The news from Japan remains awful to watch. My cousin Stephen, who lives near Tokyo, has been keeping in touch and sounds pretty upbeat, under the circumstances. There isn't much physical damage in the small town where he lives, although he says that the aftershocks haven't been much fun, everyone is pretty shaken, panic buying has caused shortages, and trains and the like aren't running. According to the Beeb, the government is urging ex-pats living in the area to leave because of the nuclear crisis and its knock-on effects, but I can't see Stephen wanting to uproot his family. He has lived there for nearly 15 years now. His wife is Japanese and their whole life is in Japan - Yuki and the boys barely speak English, Yuki and Pip (the 8 year old) have only ever been to the UK once, and little Marcus (age 4) never. I imagine that unless things get really bad, they will stick it out where they are. It is worrying, though. Here's a pic of Stephen's boys, posing for the New Year cards they sent out last year.


3. I've finished watching both seasons of New Street Law now. It was a nice little show. I can see why it didn't attract a large enough audience to justify a third season, but it had a really strong cast and I found the storylines interesting and the characters engaging and would have liked to see more of them. Ah well, such is life.

4. So, Being Human's third season certainly ended on an I can't believe they actually went there note! I know there's been a lot of mixed feeling about it in the fandom, but I enjoyed the season and wasn't as devastated by the shock ending as I might have expected (or as so many others seem to be). This review pretty much sums up how I felt about it (albeit in rather more flowery and enthusiastic language than I'd have used), thereby saving me the trouble of having to collect and compose any thoughts of my own.

5. Sister Mine, plus Bro-in-Law and Niece are coming to stay with me for the weekend in just over a week - they arrive on the Friday, which is D's birthday, but are actually coming to celebrate Mum's 60th which is the following week. I had a text from D the other day, however, mentioning that they are also going to have to bring her own birthday present from R with them...because it has four legs and a tail. He's bought her a dog - a staffy. Her name is Amber, she is three years old and had to be rehomed because her owner had terminal cancer. D is in love. Me, I'm wondering a) how they are managing to fit a large dog into their already crowded little house, b) how their four cats have taken to the new arrival, and c) what my own cats will make of it when they bring Amber to stay for the weekend!