We had a lovely evening playing Settlers with a few friends, celebrating birthdays with drinks and nibbles too.
Or not so guilty, as I have plastered them all over the internet! Steve’s out collecting a car from London tonight and won’t be home until midnight. The girls are out at the local Panto society hearing a read-through of the next pantomime before auditions next week. Josiah’s in bed.
I took the opportunity to hoover the floor (oh yes that is a pleasure when no-one’s here to mess it up for at least an hour), eat chocolate, drink tea, and now I’m playing Bejeweled on the big screen. The full version, on PS3! And NO-ONE is moaning at me that it’s a pointless game, even more boring than Tetris. I LIKE boring games 
And when the girls get home, I’m going to go to bed early all by myself 
Josiah got the Wii Play Control version of DK Jungle Beat today, as a reward for his 100 days of practice. Currently sitting here wetting myself laughing at him playing it, it seems to have ported well onto the controllers and you now really ‘hit’ the enemies. Obviously quite intuitive as he’s picked it up quickly – not quite the same as the novelty of using the bongos, but it’s still a fab little game. Has Ernest Portico still got my GC version? I can’t find it. It’s one of the only games I have ever completed (in Feb ’05, so my blog tells me (and there’s a grand example of a long comments thread!)) so I’m feeling all nostalgic and enjoying watching it over again, anyway.
Otherwise, just an average week, but with added baby news from one of my good friends, so we got to have a cuddle tonight, which made my day
Having a very late (for us) curry for dinner, then going to watch a film, if we can stay awake. Weekend is busy but I might get round to blogging again if I’m lucky.
p.s. I’m doing an experiment; only using blog not BK for a while, just to see what happens in this micro-blogging era …
Our bank holiday weekend so far has been fairly relaxed – Steve has been off racing and done well at a new hillclimb. Apparently the hours and hours of YouTube video watching did help.
Those of us left behind did orchestra, housework, some homework, had a visit from my sister, then congratulated Steve in the five minutes between him getting home and falling asleep. The girls went out to a friend’s birthday party and Anna had a sleepover afterwards.
Today has been slightly more interesting … we video gamed for the first part of the morning (mainly Pikmin 2), then went over to Steve’s parents’ for lunch.
After that we had the treat of watching a rehearsal for a performance of Verdi’s Requiem. It was organised by the primary school music teacher as a ‘here’s a trip you’re invited to but I’m not really organising anything’ so ended up being just a few families having an afternoon out together! Grandma came with us as well Just like a concert, only with added breaks and the bonus of being free! The Musical Director of the Devon Guild of Singers also founded a Youth Orchestra in Ealing, and tonight’s concert is part of the orchestra’s 50th anniversary tour.
Not sure what the kids made of it really but they all sat and listened well – good for them to hear and appreciate some different music for a change, even if they didn’t like the particular style. They definitely enjoyed watching the orchestra. Probably should have thought to print out a translation of the Latin for them or an explanation of the different parts for them to follow but there we go. I loved it.
Had to laugh as our bugbear about posture came to the fore again; one violinist on the front row had *awful* posture, and made us laugh out loud when he yawned during the performance and used his violin to cover his mouth. Don’t think he was actually playing at the time, but still!
Back to the grandparents’ afterwards for tea and general veg out time before going home. Steve came second today but one of his friends rolled his car so that eclipsed the afternoon’s racing for him I think.
Now we are being subjected to Dadnapped, argh. Suppose I have watched films with less stars than that before now; if nothing else it’s a chance for an early evening nap 
Still no plans for tomorrow although ideas are coming in, now I just have to work out how to keep everyone happy with whatever we end up doing …
* When you’re an opera star, with a large repertoire, how do you please the crowd? Sing Verdi very loud!
(Beethoven’s Wig, music and lyrics permanently engraved in family lore here, not sure if this is good or bad!)