I go away to no-internet-land (as

ravenlas's parents' house shall henceforth be known) for a few days and what busy bunnies you lot are!

The good news first:

Congratulations!

ant_girl and

grufti for getting engaged in what sounds like true romantic style, and also to

evieb and Stuart on the birth of their second son, Andrew.

Edit: also Happy Yorkshire Day! from God's Own County. Where it's currently chucking down. Just before I have to go for my train. Who'da thunk it?

The bad news:

RIP David Gemmell, who passed away a couple of weeks after having a heart op.

a.k.a. what I got up to on my jollies.

For a start, it wasn't really a jolly except inasmuch as I wasn't at work.

ravenlas and I headed over to N.I. for his cousin's wedding. We got to see a good chunk of his family (parents, aunts, uncles, brother, sister-in-law, neices, cousins), which was great. Hannah recognises her uncle now and is quite fond of him - taking her lots of presents obviously works. *heh* She's 3.5, and has a huge vocabulary which she uses all the time. She never, ever shuts up unless she's asleep, which is fine as she's not an annoying brat. She's very intelligent and has a lovely nature (and is a complete princess). It's startling when she gets a bit confused between 'this is too small for you' and 'you're too big for that' concepts. And that's solely because she's talking far better than the local 6-year-old kids.

So anyway, lots of family, and we headed into Belfast on Saturday and Sunday to visit some of

ravenlas's friends, which was great. We even got to meet up with David, aka Doctor Dave, as seen on Beauty and the Geek (yes, he is that cute in RL *heh*). He's signed up to present some science shows, which I suppose I shouldn't talk about here as goodness knows whether the news is public or meant to be or whatever.

ravenlas took me to the Monsoon half-half-price sale and bought me a fab dress (which was *even more* reduced when it was scanned through the till) and a skirt and a jacket. I got another 3 skirts and a belt. *beam* No, I can't afford it. Yes, they're gorgeous and should last for ages. Yes, I'm wearing one of the skirts now, and no, I'm not posting photos as they're not revealing or anything, ta muchly

d_floorlandmine. ;-p And I will post a photo of the dress when I wear it to some event. It's very swish, and I likes it lots. It's not revealing either, okay?

I have missed my writing deadline of 1 August for finishing the Squirrels in Space edits. I have been Doing Some Thinking, however, which has translated into a little plotting, and I think I have the structure for how the ending *should* go. I'll be having a better look at it through this week. It means a few changes in who-does-what, but the big events - chasing down the bad guys through the mining station, the Captain getting kidnapped - will stay the same.

Anyway, enough. I have to go order a new iPod battery. My charger died last Weds (in time for me not to be able to charge my iPod to take away with me), and since a new charger purchased at the airport is allegedly working and yet my iPod is still not charging, I suspect the darn charger of having blown the battery. At least, that's what I'm hoping. I hate to think of how expensive it'd be to get it fixed if it's anything else. Or indeed to get another one. Feh. We'll see. And now really enough. Go read someone else's blog. It'll be far more interesting, I promise!