Saturday of hmm

Went to my Dad's today, and spent the day hanging out there. It's been a good day, although the weather has been horrible, stupidly windy and later on rainy as well. We hung out and I was able to head out and get my Mum's Christmas present, and after that it was a lazy day, just chatting and watching bad TV.


Halfway through Strictly Come Dancing (not my choice, my Dad's wife watches it), it struck me that I could either have been going to Belgo's with Rob and Em and the southern crown tonight, or going to see the new Hobbit movie. Belgo's didn't happen because this time there was a pricey hotel involved and I thought it would be a bit much to do that and Berlin in the same month - financially sensible but rather more depressing than I expected to be left out of it when the time actually came. The Hobbit didn't happen due to a complicated set of circumstances. However I haven't seen the first one, and after seeing the trailer for the second one, it left me cold. It just looked so ridiculously Hollywoodified and over the top and I'm still finding it faintly ridiculous that they've made it into three movies. Still, it was good to see my Dad and I'm glad I spent the day there in the end.

Yesterday while in work, one of my colleagues and I resorted to YouTube videos to listen to over headphones to avoid the Christmas dross that someone is somehow allowed to play in the office. Somehow I discovered that Sepultura covered Firestarter by the Prodigy a couple of years ago, and it's surprisingly good. Then we discovered a band called Rotting Christ. Unsurprisingly it's a black metal band, and I don't normally go for that sort of thing at all, but their latest album is somehow strangely compelling. It has the screamy vocals that I'm not too keen on, but the music is excellent. 

Decided I need to work harder on clearing the house out with the eventual aim of moving next year. It's funny how things change. A few years ago I was happy to collect vintage computers and play with them, but now I could give the ones I have left away without a second thought. I still like to play with emulators and the like, but physical hardware is just something to get in the way and be annoying now. There are a few computer museums dotted around the UK - I'm tempted to make up a list and see if any of them want the stuff I have. But there's a lot more crap as well. It seems like an impossible task sometimes.

The 206 isn't much use for this kind of stuff either. I wish I could have kept the old Honda Accord and put it on a limited mileage insurance policy or something - that was great for lugging stuff to the tip or whatever, but when I got the 206 I had nowhere to keep it. Oh well.

My state of mind has improved a bit, I was not in a good place for a while back in October and November, but I'm feeling slightly more optimistic about things. I still have my problems but they don't seem quite so insurmountable as before. At least for now anyway.