![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Slept in the new flat for the first time last night. Very nice, though I did miss our kitties, who will be coming over later in the week. Had a good chat at work today about a new project for the Neutrino Interaction Working Group that I can start sinking my proverbial teeth into. And I've got a twenty-five mile bicycle ride from Banbury to Oxford planned for next weekend, as a good way to kick off my triathlon training. So it looks like my new year is off to a good start, filled with all sorts of beginnings! Huzzah!
Meanwhile, the old year ended on a pretty spiffy note. On Friday night, we broke in the new flat by hosting a Halloween party. Some very lovely people showed up, and we enjoyed gaming, good food, and some great conversations. Special thanks go to my beloved![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cheshcat, the jolly josington, and the lovely miss_amaranth for helping with set-up in advance and for assisting in hanging the Halloween decorations!
One of the highlights of the evening for me was bobbing for apples. I've not done this in a great many years, probably over a quarter of a century. Maybe that's why I ended up buying an 85 litre bin to put the water and apples in. This may have made things a wee bit tricky... but, in the end, I was able to successfully retrieve two of the apples! Hooray!
This being a Halloween party, there was some most fantabulous costumes on display. In particular,miss_amaranth's devil was soul-seductively fetching. cheshcat's spectre probably was the spookiest! My own costume evolved somewhat over the course of the weekend. Below, please to find a photograph -- taken by the awesometacular darkfloweruk late Friday evening -- of my favourite incarnation:
Don't run away -- it's only me!
When the evening wound down and people had gone to bed, I was happily able to squeeze in some quality alone time with my darlingmiss_amaranth. Due to my recent travels -- both in Merry Olde England and abroad -- we had not seen each other for a month; it was quite good to reconnect!
Since nearly everyone slept over, we made our way over to Atomic Burger for breakfast on Saturday morning. We semi-took over the restaurant and enjoyed the most important meal of the day in a most delicious way!
After we finished up at Atomic, around two o'clock, people began to disperse... including us! We drove on up to Nottingham to set up for our traditional Samhain ritual -- an Ancestor Feast and Toast. We had the same size group as last year, with two new people replacing the two that have left us. The ritual, which is the most intense ritual that I regularly participate in year after year, went well.cheshcat ran it solidly and, from my own perspective, it was interesting to observe how the experience has changed and evolved since I first began doing this WORK in 1994.
The ritual lasted for five hours, covering the time change. Shortly after, I went to bed. Sunday was a much more mellow day, at least in the beginning. I had a lie in, ate a leisurely breakfast, and sat about chatting. In the afternoon,cheshcat and I did a private purification and cleaning ritual -- third in a series of three for this Samhain -- and then we made our way back to Oxford. Once settled in there, I completed the season with the salt circle mentioned in the previous entry.
Definitely a very good weekend... and, it appears, one that has led into a very good week!
Meanwhile, the old year ended on a pretty spiffy note. On Friday night, we broke in the new flat by hosting a Halloween party. Some very lovely people showed up, and we enjoyed gaming, good food, and some great conversations. Special thanks go to my beloved
cheshcat, the jolly josington, and the lovely miss_amaranth for helping with set-up in advance and for assisting in hanging the Halloween decorations! One of the highlights of the evening for me was bobbing for apples. I've not done this in a great many years, probably over a quarter of a century. Maybe that's why I ended up buying an 85 litre bin to put the water and apples in. This may have made things a wee bit tricky... but, in the end, I was able to successfully retrieve two of the apples! Hooray!
This being a Halloween party, there was some most fantabulous costumes on display. In particular,
miss_amaranth's devil was soul-seductively fetching. cheshcat's spectre probably was the spookiest! My own costume evolved somewhat over the course of the weekend. Below, please to find a photograph -- taken by the awesometacular darkfloweruk late Friday evening -- of my favourite incarnation:When the evening wound down and people had gone to bed, I was happily able to squeeze in some quality alone time with my darling
miss_amaranth. Due to my recent travels -- both in Merry Olde England and abroad -- we had not seen each other for a month; it was quite good to reconnect!Since nearly everyone slept over, we made our way over to Atomic Burger for breakfast on Saturday morning. We semi-took over the restaurant and enjoyed the most important meal of the day in a most delicious way!
After we finished up at Atomic, around two o'clock, people began to disperse... including us! We drove on up to Nottingham to set up for our traditional Samhain ritual -- an Ancestor Feast and Toast. We had the same size group as last year, with two new people replacing the two that have left us. The ritual, which is the most intense ritual that I regularly participate in year after year, went well.
cheshcat ran it solidly and, from my own perspective, it was interesting to observe how the experience has changed and evolved since I first began doing this WORK in 1994.The ritual lasted for five hours, covering the time change. Shortly after, I went to bed. Sunday was a much more mellow day, at least in the beginning. I had a lie in, ate a leisurely breakfast, and sat about chatting. In the afternoon,
cheshcat and I did a private purification and cleaning ritual -- third in a series of three for this Samhain -- and then we made our way back to Oxford. Once settled in there, I completed the season with the salt circle mentioned in the previous entry.Definitely a very good weekend... and, it appears, one that has led into a very good week!
