having a bad brain day
Oct. 27th, 2010 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
llywelaMy Christmas cactus appears to be of the opinion that the festive season is almost upon us. And they are setting up Winter Wonderland in town. The Christmas Craft Fayre will be next - that one opens exactly six weeks before Christmas, and functions as my starting pistol: this is your six week warning; commence Christmas shopping now!
Last year doesn't seem all that long ago...
The London trip went off well, but I'm absolutely knackered now and have been wandering around like a zombie for most of the day. Probably a good thing my boss is on holiday this week!
It probably didn't help that the trip was preceded by quite an energetic weekend, what with one thing and another. On Saturday I went for a lovely looooooong walk around Westonbirt Arboretum to see the autumn colours, which were stunning. Of course, it was cold and poured with rain for most of the day, because that's just what my luck is like lately, but still worth the visit. There's a lot of ground to cover, though!
Then came London, setting off off at half past yawn in the morning, which made for a very pretty journey, what with the glorious golden sunrise and the frosted fields shrouded in mist and all. Also, since I know several people who have had problems with Megabus ranging from minor to major, I feel honour-bound to point out that it has always run like clockwork whenever I've used it, and this trip was no exception!
Chel and I were met off the bus by Deb and Shanei - Ray had to work, unfortunately. We ended up spending Monday afternoon wandering randomly around whatever of the sights of London were within walking distance of Victoria - the girls got on famously once again, and had great fun spending their pocket money on random bits of tat and having their picture taken with the horse guards!
I felt very sorry for this poor little chap as they were desperate to provoke a reaction from him, but he determinedly resisted all attempts to make him laugh!
Our cousin Veronica also joined us for lunch and the afternoon's wanderings - she just moved up to London a few weeks ago with her boyfriend, who has a new job, but has been pretty bored and lonely with him at work all day, since she isn't working herself yet. V has suffered badly from depression in the past, so we were really glad she came out to meet us.
After well and truly wearing ourselves out, tramping around from Buckingham Palace to Downing Street and back again, we went back to D&R's for the night, where I reaquainted myself with Alfie's brother Jasper, who is enormous
and Poppy's sister Mackerel, who is tiny
as well as D&R's other two cats, Lulu and Disney, who are mother and son
Then on Tuesday we took ourselves off to London Zoo for the day. Of course, having been beautifully sunny all day on Monday, it promptly turned cold and wet once more for the zoo trip, but such is life. We all had rain coats, and at least the wet weather meant it wasn't too busy! Most importantly, since Chelsea is 14 going on 8 and Shanei is 17 going on 12, the zoo was pretty much the perfect day out for them!
We had to leave D resting while I took the girls off by myself a few times, though, as her back was playing up - the weather probably didn't help much there, either. Myself, I thought this Galapagos giant tortoise had the right idea - after a few hours wandering around in the rain, a good snooze sounded like bliss!
This little fella was just adorable
And I was rather delighted by the staring contest these two gorillas were engaged in
(Of course, this evening I see in the news that a baby gorilla has just been born at the zoo - we missed the excitement by just one day!)
Most impressively of all, there were no meltdowns at all from either of the girls. We weren't sure how it would pan out, as Chel tends to get stressed out by anything different or unpredictable, as well as by prolonged social intercourse, and Neitjie is just stressed out in general by her family situation, not to mention that both are extremely emotionally immature. Teenage hormones on top of all that makes for quite the potent mix, but they both had an absolute whale of a time.
Again, though, we covered a lot of ground each day and my legs are really feeling it now! Also, I've been fighting recurrent headaches since Saturday, which is annoying.
Was very impressed that Megabus arrived back in Cardiff bang on time. Bang on, to the minute. Not sure how the driver managed to time that one so exactly! Got home to find two rather cross cats waiting to greet me and express their annoyance at my being away overnight. Also found that they had apparently spent most of the past two days dancing around on my kitchen floor with muddy feet! Oh, the joys of pet ownership. Poppy has barely moved from my lap since I got home, although Alfie is rather more blasé about the overnight abandonment!
Have been absolutely brain dead all day today, after all that activity. Roll on the weekend!
Last year doesn't seem all that long ago...
The London trip went off well, but I'm absolutely knackered now and have been wandering around like a zombie for most of the day. Probably a good thing my boss is on holiday this week!
It probably didn't help that the trip was preceded by quite an energetic weekend, what with one thing and another. On Saturday I went for a lovely looooooong walk around Westonbirt Arboretum to see the autumn colours, which were stunning. Of course, it was cold and poured with rain for most of the day, because that's just what my luck is like lately, but still worth the visit. There's a lot of ground to cover, though!
Then came London, setting off off at half past yawn in the morning, which made for a very pretty journey, what with the glorious golden sunrise and the frosted fields shrouded in mist and all. Also, since I know several people who have had problems with Megabus ranging from minor to major, I feel honour-bound to point out that it has always run like clockwork whenever I've used it, and this trip was no exception!
Chel and I were met off the bus by Deb and Shanei - Ray had to work, unfortunately. We ended up spending Monday afternoon wandering randomly around whatever of the sights of London were within walking distance of Victoria - the girls got on famously once again, and had great fun spending their pocket money on random bits of tat and having their picture taken with the horse guards!
I felt very sorry for this poor little chap as they were desperate to provoke a reaction from him, but he determinedly resisted all attempts to make him laugh!
Our cousin Veronica also joined us for lunch and the afternoon's wanderings - she just moved up to London a few weeks ago with her boyfriend, who has a new job, but has been pretty bored and lonely with him at work all day, since she isn't working herself yet. V has suffered badly from depression in the past, so we were really glad she came out to meet us.
After well and truly wearing ourselves out, tramping around from Buckingham Palace to Downing Street and back again, we went back to D&R's for the night, where I reaquainted myself with Alfie's brother Jasper, who is enormous
and Poppy's sister Mackerel, who is tiny
as well as D&R's other two cats, Lulu and Disney, who are mother and son
Then on Tuesday we took ourselves off to London Zoo for the day. Of course, having been beautifully sunny all day on Monday, it promptly turned cold and wet once more for the zoo trip, but such is life. We all had rain coats, and at least the wet weather meant it wasn't too busy! Most importantly, since Chelsea is 14 going on 8 and Shanei is 17 going on 12, the zoo was pretty much the perfect day out for them!
We had to leave D resting while I took the girls off by myself a few times, though, as her back was playing up - the weather probably didn't help much there, either. Myself, I thought this Galapagos giant tortoise had the right idea - after a few hours wandering around in the rain, a good snooze sounded like bliss!
This little fella was just adorable
And I was rather delighted by the staring contest these two gorillas were engaged in
(Of course, this evening I see in the news that a baby gorilla has just been born at the zoo - we missed the excitement by just one day!)
Most impressively of all, there were no meltdowns at all from either of the girls. We weren't sure how it would pan out, as Chel tends to get stressed out by anything different or unpredictable, as well as by prolonged social intercourse, and Neitjie is just stressed out in general by her family situation, not to mention that both are extremely emotionally immature. Teenage hormones on top of all that makes for quite the potent mix, but they both had an absolute whale of a time.
Again, though, we covered a lot of ground each day and my legs are really feeling it now! Also, I've been fighting recurrent headaches since Saturday, which is annoying.
Was very impressed that Megabus arrived back in Cardiff bang on time. Bang on, to the minute. Not sure how the driver managed to time that one so exactly! Got home to find two rather cross cats waiting to greet me and express their annoyance at my being away overnight. Also found that they had apparently spent most of the past two days dancing around on my kitchen floor with muddy feet! Oh, the joys of pet ownership. Poppy has barely moved from my lap since I got home, although Alfie is rather more blasé about the overnight abandonment!
Have been absolutely brain dead all day today, after all that activity. Roll on the weekend!
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Date: 2010-10-28 12:35 pm (UTC)