Four years makes a post

[andrewducker]

I can't believe that it's been four years since I took Julie out for a nepalese meal, then to the pub, and then walked her most of the way home even though it was after midnight.

And that for two of those years we've been living together. And that we're getting married in less than nine months.

We went out for a meal last Saturday*, to the original place we had that first meal and it was lovely.

We also went to see We Need To Talk About Kevin, which was as grim, miserable, funny and brilliant as the book. Julie bounced off the book through hatred of the narrator, but enjoyed the movie, except for feeling that it was a bit over-long, and that the people behind her could have done with not wearing a gallon of perfume.**

Life's been generally quite quiet recently. Julie's churned out about 25,000 words for her PhD through lots of late nights (until 10pm), we're now working through the DLC for Borderlands (ninja robots FTW), and I've been pottering along on my link-feeding web-app.

I've been trying to keep more space in my life, which has been good. This last weekend had nothing at all in it, which was glorious. I left the flat for about 45 minutes on Sunday to buy groceries, and the rest passed in a haze of not very much. I actually felt recharged by the end of it. I then ruined it by taking until nearly 1am to fall asleep, sleeping badly and being appallingly tired at work today, but one can't have everything.

Oh, and some game playing, including a Saturday at my brother's where I thoroughly enjoyed the Warhammer board game "Chaos in the Old World", which works very well at providing different victory conditions for each of the players, and this evening playing Mansions of Madness with bracknellexile and Alex whose LJ name I have forgotten (if he has one), but whose birthday it was. MoM is also good fun, with a nicely variable plot, but plays a little slowly with three players. Good fun with five though.

And that's quite enough incoherent rambling for one evening. I have the fifth volume of Absolute Sandman to read, and I've never seen the P. Craig Russell adaptation of The Dream Hunters before. Tucking myself up in bed with it sounds like one of those "good plan" things I've heard so much about.

*Okay, the 12th, I've not been in a life journalling mood recently, so this has been sitting half-written on my PC for over a week
**One of the many things that Julie and I have in common is a loathing of perfume. Even simple aftershave or scented deodorant makes my eyes itch and smells awful to both of us (as well as setting off Julie's asthma). I'm not sure what it is about it, but there's something acrid in there that most people don't seem to be sensitive to.

Comments

[star-tourmaline.livejournal.com]

:-) many congratulations to you both. From the outside, you seem incredibly well-suited.

I've been trying to keep more space in my life, which has been good. This last weekend had nothing at all in it, which was glorious. I left the flat for about 45 minutes on Sunday to buy groceries, and the rest passed in a haze of not very much. I actually felt recharged by the end of it.

Delighted to hear it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Congratulations on 4 years together.

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

MoM will play better once I've played it a couple more times (and without such big gaps between games) so that I don't have to go diving in to the rule book every five minutes to check minutiae.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

I've been quite intrigued by Chaos in The Old World for a while now, it does indeed look fun.

[makyo.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! Congratulations on your fourth anniversary, and may everything continue to be splendid.

[davesangel.livejournal.com]

Massive congratulations to you both!!!

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

Many congratulations on marriage-to-be!

[lilysea.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! ^_^

[skington.livejournal.com]

Out of interest, regarding the perfume thing, can either of you eat coriander, or does it taste like soap to you?

[soon_lee]

I like coriander but perfume, especially the cheap stuff, well there's something in them that's probably chemically synthesized that makes the back of my throat itch - not in a good way.

A small amount of natural scent I'm fine with. An aura of scent that wafts off a person like a personal shield, not so much.

[andrewducker]

I'm not a fan of coriander. Not sure it's soap it tastes of, but it definitely tastes of _something_.

[skington.livejournal.com]

There you go, then. There's a particular recessive gene - the "taster" gene, I think it's called - that makes people who have it taste things in food that other people ignore, and coriander is one of the foods that's particularly noticeable. Chances are there's something in perfume that triggers the same reaction.

[andrewducker]

Oooh, that is interesting, thanks!

Someone within 20 feet of me is wearing something perfumed at the moment and it's a constant distraction. If I could, I'd ban the stuff.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Huh. I have one that means I can taste the acid in grapefruit (it tastes hideously bitter to me) but I love fresh coriander. Excessive perfume tends to irritate the back of my throat but I wouldn't say I was particularly intolerant of it. I have a friend who gets awful headaches from it though, which can be a nightmare if she's on a bus or something and cant escape :(

[andrewducker]

Hang on, you mean that grapefruit doesn't taste bitter to everyone??

I always assumed that some people just really, really, liked bitter things!

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

It tastes far worse than lemon to me, even worse than kumquats - my Dad has the same thing with grapefruit and actively enjoys eating raw lemons. My highschool biology teacher told me it was a Thing, I have to admit I've never bothered looking it up.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Okay, having had a quite nosy at a paper on this, it would appear bitter tasting genetics is still poorly understood but some scientists think there are 3 or more different groups of bitter compounds that people can have 'tasting' genes for. Grapefruit sensitivity is linked to PROP tasting but the paper I'm looking at links that with bitter coffee (which I also dislike), green tea (not a huge fan, I generally find it bitter) and veg like brussels (which I actively enjoy).

[andrewducker]

That might explain why I can only cope with coffee if it has lots of milk and sugar in it (and thus no longer drink it at all).

I love brussels too!

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

I can only drink coffee with stacks of milk in it to remove the bitterness, sugar in coffee makes me feel sick for some bizarre reason, despite the fact I drink my tea with a small amount of sugar in it. I'm super-sensitive to caffiene in coffee though, it give me heart palpitations unless I've had a big meal beforehand so I don't tend to drink it anyway. Although I do occasionally drink decaf despite the horrified looks I get from coffee fans for doing so!

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

Coriander tastes like bonfire smoke to me.

[http://users.livejournal.com/puzzle_/]

Yeah to happy years :)

[soon_lee]

Congratulations!

[dalglir.livejournal.com]

Awww ^_^

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

The private adventure of coupledom lacks narrative, but it is still an adventure. Congratulations on four years with such a fine partner.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the anniversary :) Happy to hear you are taking time and space to relax too, recharging is a good thing!