I went out to a boardgames meetup for the first time last night.  It was really good.   It was a big group, but I only really got to meet the 3 other people I was in a game with.  That's enough for me though, with my inability to remember people's names.  3 at a time I can manage.  We played Pandemic for our long game (and we managed to beat the game and save the world) and played a couple of short games of Codenames before we finished up.

The guy in our group was the absolute image of Ed Milliband.  My sister and boyfriend both said the same thing when I told them that: "maybe it was him".  Haha.

It was good to get out.  I nearly sabotaged myself with excuses - I have a cold, it's too far away, a weird guy followed my mate home around here when she was walking alone the other night, I'd rather just hang out at home - but in the end I made myself go and I'm glad I did.   Mickey still does everything he used to do before we had a baby.  In fact he goes boxing even more.  And I genuinely don't mind that and I'm glad he does.  But I could imagine that I might become resentful  if I didn't make sure to keep up a social life of my own.

Codenames is really cool.  I think even non-gamer people would like playing it.  I might buy it, but I suppose it's going to be rare enough occasions when we have 4 people to play it.  According to the box you can play it with just two players, but after playing it myself,  I can't imagine how that would work.  4 was a good number for that game.

Did I mention I have a horrible cold?  Bleeeehhhh snoooootttt sniffffff.

Today I have the exciting job of going bra shopping.  All my bras are uncomfortable to varying degrees, due to the fact that I've never been measured for one, and up till now I've been buying the cheapest ones I could get my hands on.  I buy them "by eye" but if I'm looking at sizes, I get a 36B.  I found out how to measure myself for a bra last night and gave it a go, and got the result of 34F!  If that is right, I've been out by quite a bit.  They are bigger at the moment, but not by much.  I can't believe I've got to 35 years old wearing such a significantly wrong size.  Explains why they are all so uncomfortable.  Anyway, I'm not going to necessarily believe my home measurement, and I'm going to go into town and get measured and buy at least one decent bra today. I'm going to Bravissimo, which according to the internets is the best place. and then I might look in John Lewis, because they apparently have good bras for a tenner.  I hate having to go to Oxford Street.  I hope the sales crowds have died down a bit, but it's always busy in there anyway.

I stayed in last night and played a bit of Dragon Age Inquisition.  I'm really pissed off with it.  It's not the game itself that's the problem, but the specific technical issue of the text being so small as to be unreadable, which makes me not only miss lots of details from the story, but also make what I would consider wrong decisions.  And I've never regretted a decision I made in a Dragon Age game before.  Yes, part of their schtick is that they try to make some of the decisions hard for the player, but I've found that generally I know what I would do in the situation and act accordingly, and that can't work if you don't really know what's going on.
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Some of you guys like a bit m/m romance, so I come with a warning and recommendations.  I started reading this, Double Alchemy, last night and had to abandon it after several pages because it was so dire, ridiculous and badly written.  I wish I could remember some of the preposterous descriptions the author used, but I think my brain has erased them for the sake of my sanity.  Has anyone read it, and do they think I should give it another chance?  Actually, reading the blurb on that  link now, I don't know how I didn't guess at its probable awfulness.  I think I bought it on the recommendation of Bookbub, and their blurb must have sounded more promising.   Anyway, if you haven't read it, I wouldn't recommend it, based only on the first encounter of the two main characters.   This, Widdershins, on the other hand was a lot better.   Lovecraft-inspired m/m romance/horror?   Yes please, and about time too.  I love how the Kindle occasionally delivers authors who seem to have written their stories specifically for me.   I also liked this one, Memory of Scopions, that I read before xmas.  Lots of muscely toughguy sex in this :)   Any recommends for me, people?

Now, to get dressed and go to goddamn Oxford Street.

The upcoming week is an exciting one.   The new Richard Morgan book is out,which will be the last in the trilogy.  I'll get to find out what happens to a bunch of character who I love   I hope it's a huge, big brick of a novel, because I don't want it to be the end.  Pleeeease don't kill or torture anyone, Richard.   Actually, it's probably way too much to ask Richard-torture-porn-Morgan not to torment his characters.  But maybe the main chara got tortured hard enough in the last book...  I hope it's a good, satisfying end to the trilogy, even if I darent hope for a happy ending.  I've preodered it both in book and kindle form, because I'm a saddo, and I like to give Richard Morgan money.

The new Dragon Age game is also out.  Back when it was announced I thought I'd have to buy a new console for it, but it is coming out on the newest one and the old 360, so I don't need to think about a new console (thankfully, because I couldn't afford that).  I'm preposterously excited about that, even though I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to play it.  We have one telly in this house and four people (Mickey's cousin is staying with us, sleeping on the sitting room floor at the moment) so I'd feel bad monopolising the telly in the evenings.   I'm really curious about what characters will show up in it.  Will we find out more about Flemeth? And Sandal. And do you remember Dagna?  It would be cool if she showed up again.   I also wonder what being in the Inquisition will mean for the story. Presumably it's not going to force you to be pro-Templar.  Oh, and you also get to romance a qunari, squeee.  I haven't preordered the game yet, but I might do so after I finish typing this.  I really hope I fall in love with the characters as much as did with the ones from the previous games.

I'm going to start reading one of the Dragon Age novels today to get (even more) psyched up about the game.

I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday morning to check how my pregnancy is going (so that's a short day at work) and it's my birthday on Friday so I have a day off for that. I will be 35.