Piling It On

[liadnan]

With Christmas behind me and that nightmare date for those not on PAYE, 31st January, looming ahead, January really ought to be the cheapest month. Unfortunately, I seem unable to pass a bookshop or a cd shop at present without wandering in and finding something I really can't do without. (Incidentally, for those who follow such things, Joan Aiken's very last novel is now out as is the second of John Dickinson's incredibly dark children's fantasy series, The Widow and the King, as are a variety of other things.)

In the meantime, my desk has, by dint of me being the only junior tenant around this week, piled high with lots and lots of briefs and sets of instructions, all of them fast approaching Really Final Extended Deadlines, plus I really need to start making inroads on a major Thing I'm supposed to be doing involving A.N.Other jurisdiction. Plus I'm working on something non-professional and new, which may or may not come to anything.

I should be relatively cheerful, but I feel as though I'm waiting for something. I just don't know what yet. Either that or I'm just bored.

January in my 33rd year. Hmm. W.A.Mozart, Alexander of Macedon, F.Baggins, J.H, Christ. Oh buggerit.

Oh and my shoulder hurts like hell, as it has for weeks now.

This has been a post for the sake of it.

Comments

[booklectica]

Oh, good. :) It's just that I'd already found out that spyinthehaus was at Oxford the same time as me, had gone to LBG, had met Andy, nou etc. and was friends with Chris Emerson who I was briefly involved with (and who was friends with Jenny's ex Amanda, incidentally). So any more small-world stuff would have been too much...

[spyinthehaus.livejournal.com]

Reciprocal autofriending, in this case...

On the other hand, there is no absolute evidence to demonstrate that we *don't* know each other, because we don't know who the other *is* (or, to be strictly subjunctival, may be). Odd, isn't it?

[liadnan]

Quite so. In fact, it's as likely as not that we have been at the same party at some point.

Surely I may be anyone at all. It *is* who I am (or is) that matters. Or have I confused myself. Or whoever I may have been while writing this.

[booklectica]

Well, Marcus (whose journal we are currently on) was also at Oxford and is a historian, so it wouldn't be impossible for you to have met before. Though Marcus is a couple of years older than me and you're a few months younger.

You were also both at my Christmas party but I don't think you met.

[liadnan]

Overlapping but not quite coinciding circles then. Or something.

Amanda really didn't like me. Although by the time she didn't like me things had moved on drastically.

Actually, you know, all that must be almost nine years to the day right now.

[booklectica]

It's not entirely surprising that Amanda didn't like you, though, if the circumstances were as I recall them. :)

The end of this month make it exactly 11 years since Simon and I met, which should mean it's just over 10 years since you turned up - is that right?

[liadnan]

Yep.

Well, the circumstances were indeed as you remember them, but by the time she knew anything about it there was a far more proper target for her antagonism in the shape of Andy.

Yes, I realise this isn't a very convincing moral position for me to take. I have indeed been party to Bad Things in the past and the only real defence I have is that my karma came home with a vengeance.

[booklectica]

Oh, it's not like I have any moral high ground here. Anyway, the clique has a long and dishonourable history of overlapping serial monogamy. I'll never entirely understand why only Kake and I emerged as poly...

[spyinthehaus.livejournal.com]

On the subjunctive - hey, I'm just the janitor. katyha is the English graduate. Thumbscrews on her. On Amanda - do we mean Amanda, Trinity, matriculated '93, red hair?

[liadnan]

Mmm. She was going out with Jenny who was simultaneously, um, vaguely involved with me, until J and Andy got engaged. Tune in next week for the next enthralling enstallment...

[booklectica]

I must dig out some old photos. I know I have one of Chris. And some of Jenny, though she never really looks like herself in photos.

The chances appear to be huge that we've all been in the same room somewhere in Oxford at the same time. Dan, did you ever visit some people and find that at some point they all broke into a word-perfect rendition of Rocky Horror?

(I know nothing of subjunctives, but I'd usually spell installment with an 'i'.)

[liadnan]

Yes, I'm not entirely sure what's become of my spelling and grammar at present. Some of it is simply typos but not all.

H has loads of photos, including of that morning nine years ago, and I have copies of some. Keep meaning to scan them.