The good morning, good night thread

[Rev. Austin]

I watched the first Twlight film recently to see what the fuss was all about, and thought it was adequate.  Although, either the director etc perfectly captured the stilted awkwardness of teens in love, or everthing from the direction etc was hideously stilted  I did laugh at how Edward sparkled in daylight; I'd only watch the second one if the werewolves glow in the dark.

[Geoff_N]

The trailer seemed so 1960s Hollywood to me - not always a bad thing, but it was in this case. Then with all the hype it would have to be amazing to live up to expectations.

[Grillmeat]

Well its a little late here, but happy Thanksgiving to everyone. In my defense, I've been enjoying the family and eating waaaaay to much food. Hope everyone's day was grand!!

[delboy]

This week seems to have really dragged. It's been raining all week (although the sun's out now so I'm going to take the hound for a walk), let's hope for a nice weekend. I'd like to get out on the bike or spend a couple of hours on the canal bank, but the way things have been I might well be holed up trying to keep dry. Still, soon be Christmas 

Del

[Ed]

A belated happy Thanksgiving to our American cousins I'm never quite sure when it's supposed to be, because I've never seen one, but it sounds good

Can't wait for Christmas to come along - looking forward to as long a holiday as I can get away with. I'm going to try for two weeks.

[Geoff_N]

Since end of September I've looked at the 10-day weather forecast for N.Wales urging it to show a min of 4 dry days for me to go cycle camping to Snowdonia. Even now its winter with expected cold, there seems to be no high pressure giving us cold but dry days for more than 2 at a time. I don't mind cold if it around 5 C or more - I soon generate heat while cycling and have a warm sleeping bag for night. But its suicidal riding in rain. Grrrrr

Geoff

[Geoff_N]

In spite of my (only cycle in the dry) comment above I set off this morning to get a Sunday paper. Overcast and only 4C but my legs yearned for rotation. Half an hour's exhilarating country lanes later the sleet hit me in the face. No turning back without having reached Pont-y-Bodkin paper shop so I set my attitude to enjoy-whatever and curiously I did.

At least the rain was behind me on the way back unless I exceeded 15mph at which speed I caught it up and got a wet face again!

[Ed]

Urgh - better you than me, Geoff. If there's anything I hate more than being rained on, it's getting pelted in the face by rain while cycling. It's as close to misery incarnate as is possible, I think

Still, at least you enjoyed it, which is the main thing

[Pharosian]

Things have been hectic here, hosting the family Thanksgiving get-together this year. Nine of my relatives arrived on Wednesday, including parents, aunts, siblings, and my adorable high-energy 18-month-old nephew. Fortunately, my part of the deal ended at providing the venue; my brother agreed to do the cooking, as I'm hopeless in the kitchen beyond a few simple dishes (not to mention the fact that my stress level increases exponentially with the number of people involved).

It all worked out well, though. We had a lovely Thanksgiving meal on Thursday. On Friday my mother made her traditional "leftover" meal of creamed turkey and peas with biscuits on top (I'm not sure what that translates to for the Brits, but "biscuits" doesn't mean "cookies") and on Saturday my dad took us out for dinner. The first two relatives departed yesterday; the rest leave tomorrow, and I go back to work on Tuesday... but only for the four days. After having so many people around for several days and all the stress leading up to their arrival, I need a *real* vacation.

So next Saturday I'm heading to sunny Kauai! 

[Ed]

Sounds great - wish I was going with you. Right now I'd kill for the chance of a couple weeks off in the sun

I think it's nice having Thanksgiving when it is - I get the impression that Americans use Thanksgiving as a kind of starting block for Christmas, so everything from here onwards is 'the festive season', whereas here in the UK and in the rest of the world Christmas can and does kinda sneak up on you. Blam - it hits you, and then before you know it it's all over and you wonder where it went.

BTW, what you call biscuits we call scones (some people say 's-cones' and others say 'sc-ons'). I remember me and the missus sitting in a diner somewhere in California, staring at the menu and asking what the hell biscuits and gravy was about. It's soup and scones - so why not call it that?

[delph_ambi]

Sounds like a cobbler to me. That's a sort of scone mix top over a casseroled base.

[Ed]

No, it's not a cobbler, Delph - we saw somebody eating it. They had a bowl of soup with scones instead of bread.

[Rev. Austin]

Now that's just weird   mind you, I'm always impressed when I go to American restaurants for breakfast and see everything from pancakes to jelly(!) on offer. 

I haven't written anything in almost two weeks, so plan to use today to crack on with several stories, but I'm in a kind of malaise, in that I know what I want to write, but it's actually doing it that seems harder than anything else. Kind of like I have so many ideas I can form a coherent start point for something, if that makes sense.  Also, my parents are back off holiday so I think my dad will drag me along to the supermarket with him which'll eat up the day.

edit: and speaking of Christmas...

At work this weekend, I had a table full of kids to look after and help with art activities and one of them mentioned Christmas.  This young lass, about 7, asked the others "Who believes in Santa?" to which all the other youngsters raised their hands.  This lass then goes "I don't.  He's not real."  The silence that draped itself over the table was really, really uncomfortable  I said "well do you leave mince pies or beer out for Santa?" and she goes "Yes" and I said "and do they get eaten and drunk?" and she goes "yes" and thankfully a parent piped up with "We leave him things like that too an he gobbles it all up" and this lass goes, a little more uncertain, "I don't think he's real though" and I said "If he's not real, who delivers my presents?  Because I believe in him." which confused her a bit but seemed to do the trick haha I think it's terrible kids that young have reason to question something as joyous as Father Christmas.  I think I believed in him right up until I was nine, but so did all my friends so it wasn't like I was a 'late bloomer' so to speak.

[delph_ambi]

I never believed in Santa. Didn't occur to me to believe in him. When I was little we went to department stores and I enjoyed going round Santa's grotto, but the man himself was so obviously just any old bloke in a costume (and the gift he gave was such a load of cheap plastic shite) that to 'believe' would have been completely irrational. I've never been that irrational. 

[desertwomble]

I never believed in Santa. Didn't occur to me to believe in him. When I was little we went to department stores and I enjoyed going round Santa's grotto, but the man himself was so obviously just any old bloke in a costume (and the gift he gave was such a load of cheap plastic shite) that to 'believe' would have been completely irrational. I've never been that irrational. 

You've gone too far this time, Del!

I'm sending the elves round!

SC (aka FC, aka SN)