Yesterday was Kim’s birthday, so Nienke and I went over for cake, the giving of pretty gifts, mutual merriment and cat-shaped entertainment.
Lola
Also, earlier this week, I bought a typewriter! It’s an Olivetti Lettera, so I named it Oliver 🙂
Oliver
Dear Ingrid turned 30 yesterday, so we had a celebration!
Nienke and I gave her a gift certificate to go to the movies with us to Step Up 5 and Begin Again with a cute candle holder and a giamt clothespin to hold notes and stuff. I’d also made an elaborate slideshow with photos from our history, back to early high school when we met all through the years, festuring her and our friend group. Nienke then put a lovely score behind it. Unfortunately the music wouldn’t play on the laptop when it was shown 🙁
There was also a pub quiz, expertly put together by Bas & Mellien. I was mighty pleased when my team won 🙂
Then there was talk and laughter and tasty food and a round of Guess Who? to top the evening off.
Last month the League of Extraordinary PenPals had a swap wherein partners each had to buy a puzzle, write a letter on the back, scramble the pieces and mail it off.
Yesterday, my puzzle arrived, all the way from the USA. I built it today and it is: Spider-Man (which, for the record, I think is a dumb way of writing his name).
Yesterday it was also time for my three-weekly shot of testosterone. As usual I cycled to the clinic to see my GP for this. But this time, it was different. As agreed upon the last time around, today was going to be the first time I would do it myself.
I’ve seen him do it since December, so I was pretty sure I got the mechanics down. Of course, in practice a first time is always clumsy as you don’t know the feel of it. I started by breaking the vial so I could suck up the liquid. The vial is tougher than it looks (fortunately). But as long as I remember to keep the black dot at the back, and break towards me, the top pops off just like that.
Then there was finger acrobatics as I held the vial between two fingers and the syringe between two more so I could use my other hand to actually pull up the plunger.
With that done, I sat down, found my thigh muscle, hesitated only briefly and stuck it in. It went in like a hot knife through butter. Smooth, easy and painless. As I hoped it would 🙂
After pulling back a little to check if I hadn’t speared a blood vessel, I slowly injected the T into my body. Since the liquid is so viscous, you have to take your time to do it slow.
Afterwards I spent the rest of the day making something for Ingrid’s upcoming 30th birthday and watched movies (City of Ember, The Hunters, Zathura and Inkheart) and caught the latter half of The Patience Stone, a really good movie with Golshifteh Farahani playing the main character whose husband gets shot and becomes a vegetable. She remains in their war-torn village to take care of him. As he is unresponsive, she just talks to him and tells him of her days, and slowly she starts telling him her feelings and secrets. He becomes her patience stone, a thing from legend that one can say all their unhappiness to until it is soaked through and explodes, freeing the person from sorrow.
Yesterday I shaved my head again. My hair was getting waaaaay too long. In the afternoon we went birthdaying at my aunt’s birthday. It had been a while since I had seen them on their turf. Usually I see them when they come over here for Mom or Dad’s birthday. It was fun to see their house, which was new to me, even though they’ve lived there for quite some time now.
Today was funday 😀 That time of year again, Fire Drill! Fortunately the sun shone so it wasn’t too bad being outside for an hour or two.
I came home Tuesday to a new edition of Flow on the door mat as well as next season’s theater catalog. After the first run through, I was on 9 shows I wanted to see.
My Uncle’s birthday was Wednesday so went there in the afternoon.
Then Thursday I had planned to go see The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared after work, but it rained so much I decided against it. Instead I went to the Bruna at the train station and bought books (including The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman). Once home, I watched The Normal Heart (I had recorded it when it premiered on HBO Sunday).
It’s a movie, after the play of the same name, about the beginning of the AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 80’s. Main character is the, gay, writer Ned Weeks. As more and more people around him get ‘gay cancer’ and die from it, he notices that mainstream medicine and the government choose to look the other way. He and his friends form Gay Men’s Health Crisis, an advocacy group to raise awareness and money and help those affected and afflicted by the disease. Ned favours a more aggressive, vocal approach which conflicts with the more diplomatic way the rest of his friends choose. Meanwhile, in his personal life, he falls in love with journalist Felix. The two start a relationship, but then Felix gets AIDS as well.
It is a difficult movie to watch. It is raw and deep and open, quite literally like a festering wound. It is beautiful, intensely fragile and strong at the same time. Watching it left me devastated and in pieces. I will be watching it again, and I will definitely be buying the blu ray when it’s released. And I only buy blu rays of movies I really, really, love.
Saturday: Lounging on the bed with Milo 🙂
The Normal Heart stars Mark Ruffalo as Ned, Matt Bomer as Felix and has, among other, Jim Parsons, Julia Roberts, Jonathan Groff and Alfred Molina in it.
Friday I went to the cinema with Kim to see Maleficent. I liked the movie. The visuals were very pretty, and the back story they gave for Maleficent was nice. The acting was okay to good. Angelina Jolie was good, as was the guy playing her lackey. But the dude playing the king sported the most awful fake Scottish accent. And later on, in a scene at his castle, all of a sudden mid-scene half the men there acquired the same horrible accent… And the ending felt rather rushed.
Back home, I went through the the theater catalog again. Got it down to 7… But am talking with Mom about going to see War Horse in January…
Saturday I played a lot of Warcraft, and I read The Ocean at the End of the Lane. It’s a lovely, lovely book. It tells the story of a little boy who meets the people who live at the end of the lane, the Hempstocks. And there is something odd about this family. There are no men, and they have an ocean in the garden. And then an old evil manages to enter this world, and he needs the Hempstocks to survive. It has magic and supernatural stuff and all those things you find under the veneer of modern day life (well, modern day sixties life). It is definitely a recommended read.
Also, the new birthday calendar I ordered to hang in the downstairs toilet came. Unfortunately packed, but very, very, pretty 🙂
Tomorrow is my Dad’s birthday, he turns 71. Sometimes it kinda scares me when I consider his age, and keeping in mind he has heart problems and an ICD. But everything is actually going really well, the meds are doing their thing, the ICD is doing its thing, so I expect to have him around for quite a while still 🙂
We celebrated today, because the weekend is easier. I gave him money for a present as he has said he would like a new bicycle. Together with the rest of his prezzies, he made a good start towards one 🙂 The day itself was the usual family gathering fun.
Friday and Saturday I watched a bunch of movies (Hancock, Mirror Mirror, Holes, Oz the Great and Wonderful, Robots, Epic) and hung around the house in chill mode. And tomorrow evening? Tomorrow evening I go to see Daniel Lohues at the theater with Mom.
Friday was the last workday before having a glorious week off. After work I hit Blokker to get some birthday/housewarming presents for Eva, Jarig and Feije. They’d all had their birthday in the last two months, but with moving, it was bad timing to celebrate. So they were doing a party now. I found them a cute little step ladder-like thing to put plants on, as well as some paper lanterns and for Feije I had a book I’d chanced upon earlier this year.
Saturday I met Ingrid in the city so we could drive to Eva’s. There we helped set up the garden for the party carrying tables, chairs, the BBQ and assorted food stuffs around. The rest of the guests arrived near the end of the afternoon. It was a great party, good people, good conversations, good atmosphere and good food. When it got really dark we unleashed our inner pyromaniacs and built a fire. It was far past midnight when we finally abandoned it.
We stayed the night and camped out on the sofa’s in the living room. I didn’t sleep too well, but I’ll blame that on the crappy synthetic sleeping bag and sticking to the leather sofa 😀
The next morning we got woken up pretty early because the kid of the other couple staying over was awake. So we switched and took their bed so they could stay in the living room. Finally got out of bed around 9ish. We helped put away the tables and chairs and then breakfasted with the remainders of the bread and herb butter and cream cheese from the night before. Ingrid and I left shortly after noon to go home so I could catch the 13:22 train.
All in all, it felt like a weekend away. It was so fun and relaxing. I’m up for a repeat 😀
Yesterday our friend and former colleague Harm (from Groen & Grond Muntendam) came to build a privacy fence around the back yard. I had to work first, so I did that from home. After working my half day I went to get my T. shot and then proceeded to assist Harm. We finished the fence between us and the attached neighbours, and the outside of the fence separating us from the other neighbours. And since I’d done this, I figured why the hell not and tortured myself at the gym with a steep ten minute stationary bike ride and a 5 km rowing course.
Today was another day off for me which came in handy as Harm returned early in the morning to finish the job. We fairly quickly finished off the remaining fence and then built a door. We ended up having to hurry as Harm had places to be, but we got it done! Hurray! All it needs is a little slide lock on the door so we can keep it from being opened from the outside when we don’t want to. In the afternoon I joined the parents for Aunt Grietje’s birthday. She turned 85 🙂
In the evening, I watched Treasure Planet on Netflix, it’s a fun movie.
