lucifermourning

The drive back to London is mostly silent. Drop off the others, then on to her parents’ house. A few words to name the dead, then leave Michèle to fill in the gaps downstairs. He can do the talking. Passing thought – she’d never asked who her mother knew. Which of them Nadia would miss personally, which were more than just names.

Step quietly into the room. It’s dark except for the soft glow of a night-light. Same balloon shape from her own childhood. The posters have gone, the room’s had a paint job. The clean scent of baby powder as she steps over to the crib.

It’s only when she reaches down to take her son’s hand that she realises her heart is still racing. Adrenalin, even hours after the fight’s over. Wound tight, but she’s got to keep holding it in. Maybe once they’re all home and safe she can let it go.
Taking a few breaths, she gently lifts him into her arms, holding him close. He makes soft, sleepy noises as she kisses his forehead.

It’s only when she starts to put him down again that she sees the blood smeared on the front of his pyjamas. Not hers, of course. Probably Kaerlud’s from moving the body. But definitely blood, staining the clean white of his clothes.

He’s not even two months old.

if anyone is looking for a house guest, i can highly recommend grey_damaskena. (or, in the future, a housemate)
she's be staying with us because she has some interviews, and is most excellent - she even cooked us dinner!
hopefully the interview in London will lead to her moving down here. that would be awesome.

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i would say yes...

So I believe that very few of my friends are sports fans but, on the off chance...

My sister wants to come and visit during the Olympics and see the women's football. I was completely rubbish and failed to enter the ticket lottery thing, and have just found out that the "second chance" is only open to the people who previously applied. Grr.

So I was wondering if anyone is eligible for the "second chance" and doesn't plan to buy all the tickets they're allowed. If so, would you be willing to try and get some tickets that I would buy off you for her?

Very grateful if anyone can help - please comment or e-mail me - (lucifermourning at gmail dot com).

Thanks!

Anyone interested in really inexpensive courses?

At work, we've recently start a new venture, running courses in practical skills. Mainly DIY so far (decorating, woodwork, etc.), but we've added a few more specialist ones, like woodcarving, and furniture restoration (more crafty stuff is being developed too).

They all either run for 1 full day at the weekend of for 4 evenings.

As it's a new venture, the focus initially is to get people to come along, rather than on loads of money, we're doing a few discount things.

The really good one is for friends and family, which is 90% off - so £13.50 for a day or £4 each evening for courses that are normally £135/£160.

So if anyone is interested, check out the details on the website (The Good Life Centre), and use the code "SAMPLE" at checkout.

generally speaking, i am pro-legalisation. the more i learn about the drug war, the more i think it's a massive waste of resources. i think it would be much better to legalise and regulate, thus taking away lots of business from organised crime.

i also tend to lean toward the general principle the adults should be allowed to go about their business if it doesn't interfere with others.

that said, i don't drink very often (usually a 3-4 times a month), and tend to only have 1-2 drinks when i do. i don't like being drunk so usually stop if i feel tipsy.

i've smoked a few clove cigarettes before deciding this was really very silly.

i have never taken any illegal drugs. i just don't find myself interested. i would probably consider marijuana in some sort of edible form, but not smoking it. because i have asthma and really don't need to be smoking anything.

i've finally signed up to Google Wave, which turns out to be fairly awesome and fun to play with - looks like it will be very good for planning games! or would also be generally good for planning parties and get-togethers and such.

so now i have a bunch of invites - does anyone want one?

you need a Google e-mail account, so i've screened comments.

BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?
( list )

happy new year to all.

i have had an excellent holiday season, starting with the arrival of my littlest sister on the 19th. She is studying abroad in Milan this year, so naturally i insisted she spend christmas with us. there was a great deal of baking cookies and playing boardgames for the next few days, and we all went down to my in-laws on the 23rd.

christmas and the days surrounding were lovely - fine food and many presents exchanged (in-laws, who are all-around great folks, have a habit of spoiling us terribly). and board games played some more.

we came back to egham on the 28th, and i fulfilled my promise to take my sister to afternoon tea (her, urizen and i went to the windsor castle hotel and stuffed ourselves silly with cakes, sandwiches and scones). she flew off to amsterdam the next day to meet up with her boyfriend (who was flying over from the US), and we were sad to see her go, for she is great fun to have around. it was an excellent visit, and the 10 days flew by, despite any foolish ideas about how long house guests are supposed to be enjoyable for.

we did have other entertainment planned, as that afternoon was a session of nemy's Dark Heresy game. there was a fair amount of attempting to beat back horrors, with ultimate success, but we lost one of our red-shirts (hired mercenaries) in the process, and one party member had to burn a fate point to avoid losing an arm and bleeding to death. i discovered the joys of the psychic power 'force bolt' hampered somewhat by the wretched damage rolls (which everyone seemed to suffer from). afterward we had a character gen session for the new year's eve Spirit of the Century game.

quiet day on Tuesday - did some shopping and pottering about, likewise wednesday morning, though i managed to drag myself to the pool in the afternoon to get some minimal level of exercise.

then in the evening was a fabulously silly and pulpy Spirit of the Century game. for many years now i have joined a small group of folks to role-play on new year's eve, as an alternative to partying. there was much cheese, and snacks and some amount of drinking, all whilst raining about foiling dastardly plans by Huns and other evil geniuses. i played an Amazonian princess with a magic spear and a pet pterodactyl. other party members included a blunt American flying ace, a reformed Chinese henchman (who retained a health distrust of imperialist western dogs), an action librarian and a mysterious gunslinger in black (who was never in the same place as that annoying dandy who kept hanging about...). it was altogether absurd and highly entertaining, and i think urizen did an excellent job in keeping up the mood and pace.

have a few days off now, with no major plans - perhaps some gaming, certainly some vegging.

best wishes to all for the coming year.