Pancake Party

It turns out - who would've thought? - that half a dozen people eating several dozen pancakes in my tiny flat has much the same mess-creating effect as a small explosive charge, particularly when the pancakes are topped (although not all at once) with such delights as maple syrup, golden syrup, ice cream, chocolate sauce, sugar, lemon juice and wild berry jam (!). I've got an awful lot of cleaning up to do when I get home this evening. Still, it was lots of fun; I love me some pancakes.

Having sated our appetite for sweet things (and played more than a few rounds of Bomberman) we watched The Right Stuff, which really does drive home the message that the space program took utterly the wrong approach, for all the wrong reasons and with completely the wrong people in the hot seats - but damn, look at what they got done anyway. When I grow up, I want to ride a space rocket. And when everyone left, I did my usual trick of making sure they took media with them (although this time they asked! There was no coercion involved, swear to god): Milia got The Second Coming, Gary left with Heart of Darkness, Christina took a pile of Smallville CDs and Eliot borrowed Brave New World.

So now it's Lent, and if I was religious I might be considering giving something up until Easter. I did briefly think of taking veggiesu up on her challenge and going without SF, but discarded this idea when I realised that (a) I couldn't work out whether or not I'd be allowed to read Cloud Atlas and (b) I've still got to work through most of the BSFA shortlist. If anyone has any alternative suggestions, now's the time; I'll be happy to reject them out of hand consider them.

Coming up soon: A possible excursion to the Cheltenham spring weekend, in particular this and this. If anyone else is interested, give me a shout. Possibly also a visit to the Oxford festival, but there seems to be less of interest there.