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May. 5th, 2016 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
turpsChanning Tatum announced Magic Mike live, and I like his style.
Catching up. On Saturday night it was a party for a family friend. She'd ended chemo and radio for breast cancer a while back and wanted to celebrate being in remission. It was a good time, a disco, lots of buffet food and karaoke. Two girls tried to sing The Black Parade, which I give them props for because man, that's a hard song to attempt. The only bad part was mam went with us, and inevitably got too drunk by the end of the evening and caused hassle. As soon as she started on vodka I knew things would end badly, and sure enough, just past 11 she stormed off.
Sunday I went swimming \o/ I was so nervous beforehand. You don't want to know how many times I google imaged the pool and looked at the ladders, trying to work out if I could get out or not, not to mention stressing about wearing a costume in public and showing off my legs. But I could get out, quite easily in fact. With it being a hotel pool it was pretty quiet, and we spent about two hours in the pool, with quick tries of the steam room -- which I loved, the jacuzzi and sauna.
They also had good disabled changing facilities for the most part. It's a joint disabled/family changing room, and you go in one door into the room, and exit another straight onto the pool side. Which is excellent, except that door has about a foot high gap at the bottom, so if I helped James get dry and changed on the floor, which would be safest, the people in the pool would have been given a free show. In the end the attendant brought in a chair and covered it with a towel so that was fine. There was a fold down chair in the shower part of the room and the toilet, but neither were ideal for changing purposes.
Also, next time I need to take a bigger bag, or two bags. The one we had was fine for taking in two towels and costume and shorts, not so much when I had to take our clothes, shoes, towels, my usual bag and James' leg into the ladies changing rooms where the lockers were. And I really need to take in shampoo and shower gel. My hair was like a crazy thing the next day.
Monday it was Civil War day! I was talking to one of our favourite cinema people and he made me laugh by saying how he's been working at the midnight showing the Friday before, had gone in the staff room and saw Captain America getting changed. I thought he was leading up to some kind of joke but nope, they'd had cosplayers there, and he made me laugh again when he described Iron Man turning up too, so he'd left saying he wasn't an Avenger so should go.
As for the movie, I really enjoyed it and suspect we'll be going back to see it again soon.
Tuesday we went to the beach for the first time in a while and caught up on house stuff and grocery shopping. We didn't actually do anything exciting that day but it was still busy.
Yesterday we went to an early showing of Eye in the Sky which was really good and got both of us talking. It's one of those films where you walk out and think, what would I do? And I'm still not sure.Five Guys has just opened in the area so we tried that for dinner and I was underwhelmed. We shared a milkshake which was very sickly sweet and as I don't like to eat red meat, I got a veggie sandwich which turned out to be nothing more than a layer of button mushroom slices, a few jalapeños, some onion and two slices of tomato on a bun. For nearly £4 I expect much more than that. The fries tasted nice, though. Then it was off to the limb centre to pick up some new stump socks for James, and onto Asda as it was scout/explorer night and they were cooking pizzas, so we had to pick up the bases and fixings for that.
Today James was supposed to be back to work but he woke up ill and has had to call in. So now he's holed up on the couch being pitiful as I keep him supplied with hot tea. It is a beautiful day though, so I intend to go out in the garden soon and plant some more seeds.
Other random things. I had a good phone conversation with Corey last night. His course finishes in a week or so but he's staying on for a while until the majority of the students have finished. I don't blame him at all, his friends are there and better staying in halls and in the heart of Newcastle than coming home and having to travel back in to socialise.
And finally, GoT. Wow, that was an intense episode!
Catching up. On Saturday night it was a party for a family friend. She'd ended chemo and radio for breast cancer a while back and wanted to celebrate being in remission. It was a good time, a disco, lots of buffet food and karaoke. Two girls tried to sing The Black Parade, which I give them props for because man, that's a hard song to attempt. The only bad part was mam went with us, and inevitably got too drunk by the end of the evening and caused hassle. As soon as she started on vodka I knew things would end badly, and sure enough, just past 11 she stormed off.
Sunday I went swimming \o/ I was so nervous beforehand. You don't want to know how many times I google imaged the pool and looked at the ladders, trying to work out if I could get out or not, not to mention stressing about wearing a costume in public and showing off my legs. But I could get out, quite easily in fact. With it being a hotel pool it was pretty quiet, and we spent about two hours in the pool, with quick tries of the steam room -- which I loved, the jacuzzi and sauna.
They also had good disabled changing facilities for the most part. It's a joint disabled/family changing room, and you go in one door into the room, and exit another straight onto the pool side. Which is excellent, except that door has about a foot high gap at the bottom, so if I helped James get dry and changed on the floor, which would be safest, the people in the pool would have been given a free show. In the end the attendant brought in a chair and covered it with a towel so that was fine. There was a fold down chair in the shower part of the room and the toilet, but neither were ideal for changing purposes.
Also, next time I need to take a bigger bag, or two bags. The one we had was fine for taking in two towels and costume and shorts, not so much when I had to take our clothes, shoes, towels, my usual bag and James' leg into the ladies changing rooms where the lockers were. And I really need to take in shampoo and shower gel. My hair was like a crazy thing the next day.
Monday it was Civil War day! I was talking to one of our favourite cinema people and he made me laugh by saying how he's been working at the midnight showing the Friday before, had gone in the staff room and saw Captain America getting changed. I thought he was leading up to some kind of joke but nope, they'd had cosplayers there, and he made me laugh again when he described Iron Man turning up too, so he'd left saying he wasn't an Avenger so should go.
As for the movie, I really enjoyed it and suspect we'll be going back to see it again soon.
Tuesday we went to the beach for the first time in a while and caught up on house stuff and grocery shopping. We didn't actually do anything exciting that day but it was still busy.
Yesterday we went to an early showing of Eye in the Sky which was really good and got both of us talking. It's one of those films where you walk out and think, what would I do? And I'm still not sure.Five Guys has just opened in the area so we tried that for dinner and I was underwhelmed. We shared a milkshake which was very sickly sweet and as I don't like to eat red meat, I got a veggie sandwich which turned out to be nothing more than a layer of button mushroom slices, a few jalapeños, some onion and two slices of tomato on a bun. For nearly £4 I expect much more than that. The fries tasted nice, though. Then it was off to the limb centre to pick up some new stump socks for James, and onto Asda as it was scout/explorer night and they were cooking pizzas, so we had to pick up the bases and fixings for that.
Today James was supposed to be back to work but he woke up ill and has had to call in. So now he's holed up on the couch being pitiful as I keep him supplied with hot tea. It is a beautiful day though, so I intend to go out in the garden soon and plant some more seeds.
Other random things. I had a good phone conversation with Corey last night. His course finishes in a week or so but he's staying on for a while until the majority of the students have finished. I don't blame him at all, his friends are there and better staying in halls and in the heart of Newcastle than coming home and having to travel back in to socialise.
And finally, GoT. Wow, that was an intense episode!
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Date: 2016-05-05 04:42 pm (UTC)Glad the swimming went well. :D
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Date: 2016-05-05 05:53 pm (UTC)The swimming was excellent. Though the next day I could hardly move my muscles were aching so much.
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Date: 2016-05-05 07:34 pm (UTC)I'm so glad to hear your first swimming trip went well. It sounds like a really nice place. (And yes, shampoo is definitely a must after all that chlorinated water.)
Sandwiches can be such a hit-and-miss when you're eating out, I've found. They can be incredibly delicious but far too often they're either boring or plain bad.
Poor James! And poor you having to hear his moaning :-) But yay! for beautiful weather! (We went directly from early spring to summer this week. It's amazing!)
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Date: 2016-05-10 04:51 pm (UTC)It's a really lovely place. Quiet but has good facilities, including a small but very well equipped gym we can use if we want. We went swimming again yesterday so the plan is to get an actual membership next week as it'll work out cheaper that way. And yeah, I took shampoo yesterday and it was so much better.
True. I've had some really nice sandwiches but some horrible fails. I don't mind so much if they're cheap, but that one wasn't.
Oh James was very pitiful, but he's much better now. And it's still sunny so win all around.
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Date: 2016-05-05 09:06 pm (UTC)Congrats on swimming! You are a rockstar for going for 2 hours the first day. Nothing like diving right in, metaphorically speaking. *g*
Yeah, Five GUys does great hamburgers, but I am not surprised their veggie option sucks. It really is a burger place. Too bad Burgerville from the West Coast isn't expanding to the UK (as far as I know). They do great shakes.
I hope James feels better soon.
I hope Corey rounds out his school year is great academic style, and has fun hanging out too. :-)
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Date: 2016-05-10 04:47 pm (UTC)I always loved swimming so it was great to get back in the water. We were there yesterday, too. I suspect that pool is going to become one of our usual haunts. Though I'll pass on a coffee next time. With it being a hotel it's too expensive and just a bit formal for when you're damp after a swim.
I'm sure Burgerville will turn up at some point. I'm trying to think where I've heard the name before. Is that the one Dine loves with the seasonal onion rings?
He's much better now and is back at work. Then has two sets of shifts to go before his annual leave. All the lie ins will be mine!
I hope Corey passes okay. Everyone I've talked to said year one doesn't really count and is more to get them used to uni standards of work. But I'd still like him to do well. Whatever happens I'm sure he'll have a good last few weeks. Then home for a little bit before his summer of festivals.
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Date: 2016-05-06 08:15 am (UTC)Sorry to hear about your mam behaving the way she did. It's just a sad situation with her :(
Hope James feels better soon!
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Date: 2016-05-10 04:08 pm (UTC)It is a sad situation, but I can't see it ever changing now.
He's much better now, thank you <3
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Date: 2016-05-06 11:34 pm (UTC)I hope James is feeling better and less pitiful.
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Date: 2016-05-10 04:07 pm (UTC)Looking back it's silly how concerned I was about those ladders. As always the fear of the unknown I guess. And while you're here, some swimming costume advice if you can help. How do you dry yours? I know you can't wash them or shove them in the tumbler, but I'm getting conflicting advice online about washing in plain water or shower gel and drying flat or hanging up. Do you do anything special drying wise or just a case of hanging somewhere and forgetting about it until next time.
James is much less pitiful now. Though ended up at the eye infirmary at the weekend with a cold sore under his eye lid so his pitiful level went up first.
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Date: 2016-05-10 07:03 pm (UTC)Swimming costume: I skin out of mine in the shower, and then rinse it in plain cold water afterwards, squeeze it out, and roll it up in the towel (tho' I live five minutes away. If it's a longer trip, maybe put it in a bag by itself, as heat degrades the stretchy stuff, and the towel traps heat from the shower.) In between swims, suit etc. lives on a dedicated drying rack in the corner of the back hall, away from the heater. Seems to be doing fine. You can wash them -- cold, delicate cycle, and not too often. :)
Tip: If you're swimming a lot in a chlorine pool, it really is worth it to get one of the chlorine-resistant suits if you can afford to. Speedo call their fabric "Endurance+," other brands have their own proprietary names. They're more expensive, but last so much better -- previous suit gave up the ghost after 3 months, but this one I've been wearing for 2 years and it's still fine.
Poor James again! That's painful just to read about!
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Date: 2016-05-09 08:56 am (UTC)I'm glad the swimming was a success, and whilst the changing room isn't ideal, that you can get it to work for you without too many issues. The sauna, btw, is an excellent place to put on a hair mask as the heat will let it work in thoroughly.
What a totally disappointing sandwich. I know people are a bit obsessed by 5 guys, but it doesn't seem very convincing to me.
I hope James is feeling better now!
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Date: 2016-05-10 12:25 pm (UTC)I'm loving swimming so much. We were there again yesterday and it just works perfectly for me in terms of getting good exercise without stress on my joints. I like that hair mask tip, too. I love stuff like that.
Yeah. 5 Guys only opened a few weeks ago and every time we went past the queues were really long. Why I don't know.
He is, though had another blip when we ended up at the eye infirmary as he has a coldsore under his eyelid. It's always something with him.
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Date: 2016-05-12 02:14 am (UTC)Hooray for your friend being on remission! I can't think of a better reason to throw a party. It's also so great to hear that your swimming pool time was fun, LOL.
As I said to you over at my CW post, the one thing I wish I could change about my experience going to see this movie would be a better audience. If I were to give the rest of the people the benefit of the doubt, I'd say that they were really tense since no one knew how the story was going to go. Unfortch, this meant that I sat with the quietest group of people ever. :|
Ugh, pity about that veggie sandwich at 5 Guys. Here in the US, there's an unofficial rule that most eating establishments have to have at least 2 vegetarian options in the menu. Depending on the type of restaurant, the veggie choices are rather pathetic. >:(
Here's hoping that James feels better and that Corey gets to enjoy the rest of the end of the semester.
As for GoT, I'm enjoying the heck out of it. I'm well-aware that, even if the stories in the TV show are quite different from the book series, there are still a handful of potential spoilers hanging about. Still, there's also this overall vibe of "anything can happen"--which I'm v. grateful for. So far, my babies are still alive/in the game and things are getting all kinds of bollocksed up in quite dramatic ways. :)
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Date: 2016-05-12 07:00 am (UTC)It was an excellent excuse for a party, and yeah, swimming is so great. I've been back again since and suspect we'll be going often.
Gah, sometimes quiet is just what you want at the movies, but not so much for ones like this. I was lucky as we were sat next to a couple who were clearly really into comic books so had a little excited exclamation at each new plot development. I liked that, it was nice to hear them enjoying themselves.
That's a good unofficial rule to have. I think with 5 Guys I was extra disappointed as so many people had raved about the place. I was expecting greatness and just didn't get it. I'd go back to share some fries and get a drink, but not for an actual meal.
James is much better, and I was talking to Corey last night. It's his last exam this morning then he's off to celebrate with his friends later.
I'm with you, this season of GoT has been so good. Each preview I want the next week to be here already. I'm desperate for Winterfell to be taken back by a Stark.
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Date: 2016-05-12 01:51 pm (UTC)Yeah, if the movie's a SRS BIZNESS drama like, say, Spotlight (which deals with child abuse) or Million Dollar Baby (female boxer tries to make it), then yes, a quiet crowd is to be expected. But, for a big action film? It's a very weird reaction. I mean, the only time anyone ever said something was during the kiss scene: a young woman a few rows below mine groaned outloud (she DID NOT approve and wanted everyone to know it. #Ohwell).
During my show, there were two young women (including the groaner) a few row ahead, then 2 different M/F couples. I was in the middle seat of my row and there were two dudes on either side of me. EVEN THE BROS WERE SILENT!!!
Two factors that might've affected things: I'd gone to a v. early matinee show AND it was for a reserved seating that only admitted 21+ (because it's the only part of the theater where you can drink alcohol). I'd gotten my ticket there because I wanted to avoid parents w/their kids for my first time seeing this movie.
It might sound terrible, but I like how HORRIBLE Ramsay is. /o\ If only because I know I'm going to enjoy seeing his downfall. Will it happen, though? Things are so messy this year (and Sansa's importance has now lessened after Ramsay got his ~gift~). In any case, I'm crossing fingers while watching it. Hee!
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Date: 2016-05-14 04:05 pm (UTC)Five Guys - the real draw for me is the mix-your-own coke machines of infinite refills. The veggie sandwich with cheese and all the fixings is decent, so long as you wat it when it's still really hot, but I don't get the raving excitement about the chips (you do get a *ton* of them, and they're good, but they're not worth standing in line for) so on the odd occasion we go, it's really for the soda fountain!
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Date: 2016-07-04 08:57 am (UTC)I've been back to Five Guys once, for the pop only. You're right, the mix your own element is an excellent thing.