Can’t believe it’s been a week between posts. Talk about slack.

Saturday we went to our neighbours’ for a home-cooked brunch — home fries (which aren’t fries at all but sautéed potatoes that have been roasted for a bit), gluten-free pancakes (the thick kind, like pikelets but a bit bigger) with real maple syrup, and fruit. Yum!

While Pete cooked, I played Gears of War on their Playstation (at least I think it was a Playstation). I’m useless at those games, my hand-eye coordination just terrible, yet it wasn’t long before I was completely engrossed and unable to carry on a conversation.

After brunch we all headed out to check out a few shops. It was Black Friday weekend so everything was on sale. We went to a camera store first so I could check out a new tripod that I later bought online from the same company but cheaper.

And then we went down to Winners on Front St, passing an alley that had been sprayed with fake snow for a TV show/movie. There were angry, killer snowman attacker cars and a cop backing away carefully. It was a strange sight to say the least.

Then we went back up to the Eaton Centre, which was just heaving with people everywhere desperate to pick up a bargain. Glen bought winter snow shoes. I tried some on but couldn’t get the right size.

By the time we’d finished buying them, my people-tolerance was pretty low and I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I felt like putting a blanket over my head and running for the exit. Too much stimulation. Thankfully, we left soon after (but not before getting a hot chocolate at Starbucks).

That evening we stayed home and most of Sunday was spent indoors from what I remember. Stayed in and read a book or watched movies mostly. A quiet Sunday but definitely don’t want to make a habit of it.

The “working” week has been fairly tame. During the day I go to the gym, go grocery shopping, do various bits of work. On Monday morning I woke up at 4:45am (really early for me) for an online meeting as I’m now on the Romance Writers of Australia committee. We meet once every two months for a couple of hours but due to the various timezones everyone is in, it’s meant a 5am start for me. It’ll be 6am when daylight savings comes (or goes, depending on where you are).

I managed to struggle out of bed, grab the laptop and climb under the covers on the daybed and remain engaged (although towards the end I closed my eyes for a second and woke up a minute later with a start). I could have gone back to bed when it finished but Glen was up by then and I was talking to people online so I’d more or less woken up and decided to get on with the day.

Yesterday I finished writing the first draft of a new book, the sequel to the one that’s being published next year. That was my highlight. Felt very good to complete it, even though it’s going to require a lot of work to make it presentable. But 60,000 words down is a good start.

Tuesday night Glen and I finally saw Thor 2 at the movies. We’d been trying for a while but it just hadn’t happened. Like the first Thor film, it really wasn’t all that great. Chris Hemsworth has an amazing body, Tom Hiddleston is to die for (and was the saving grace of this film, in my opinion) and there were a few amusing parts, but overall it was a bit boring.

In contrast to the superhero movie, we saw a gay film last night called Test. The film is part of a four-film film festival put on by InsideOut that we have tickets to (one film every month). It was set in San Francisco in 1985 when the first test for HIV came out. It was another film that chose to have dancers as its main characters (like Five Dances we’d seen at Ottawa). It was ok, typical indie film really where not much happens but you’re forced to watch it all not happen.

I think I’ve got to the point where I find the mainstream movie formula more comforting than a film that drifts (which has been quite a lot of the “slice of life” indie films I’ve seen lately). However, the film wasn’t terrible (though there could have been some judicious editing), and it definitely wasn’t in the same league as Sarah Prefers To Bore Me Stupid Run.

There were some nice moments in Test and it did make me think about what it would have been like when HIV/AIDS first emerged and the fear that went through the community. I still remember seeing that Grim Reaper commercial, though at the time not knowing what it was actually about.

The next film, in January, is going to be Stranger by the Lake, which we saw in Ottawa (oh, la-di-da). Definitely don’t want to see that again so we’ll give those tickets away.

The only other thing of note that’s been going on is planning holidays for next year. Glen’s booked leave for the Galapagos Islands in May so now I just need to book that. Other plans will fall into place soon. Strangely though we haven’t decided on what to do in January, which is rapidly approaching. Grand Canyon maybe?