Freedom Days

 One is pleasantly surprised to see so many celebrations of freedom these past weeks.

It is quite humbling to see what seems like the whole world turning out to celebrate one's two year anniversary of being freed from the dictatorial control of Supervisor Grand Chief K.

Yes, it's hard to describe the sense of relief one can feel when such a yoke is removed and one has to no longer kowtow to the completely unreasonable demands that actual work be done and projects be completed.

It is sad to no longer be "working" with the likes of Sister Serials, Psycho Chicken, Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, The Maple Maverick, Lord of the Small Fries, Longstride L, Bomber Babe, LibraryBFF, Sidekick, Days of our Libraries, The Administrator, Roysgirl, Sonja Roster Queen, and Mr Prada - but they too had their incomprehensible demands that things be fixed, technology be made to work, procedures written up, and could one please stop eating all the cake in the staff kitchen.

So, here's to one's freedom, may it be everlasting!

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Time for T

Well it has taken more than 6 months for One to get to the 'T' of one's A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors.

This one came from one's large to-read shelf and was Six Moon Dance by Sheri S. Tepper

If you fancy novels that begin as exploration of alternate societal gender role set-ups and then pivot effortlessly into mass mind sex with space moths then this is the story for you. Similarly, if you like getting to the end of the story and exclaiming how it has ended so far removed from the beginning, then this may also be the story for you.

For the rest of us, it will still be an interesting 3 and a half star read.

Next in the AtoZ series will be a U of which there are Nil on one's shelf, so a future crowd sourcing will be needed shortly (for values of shortly approaching 6 months). 

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Meet the New Boss

Well posts to The Tales have continued to be rather sparse, and that is mostly because of my incredibly demanding new boss.

A sudden and swift change occurred many months ago, saddling One with a new boss.

It commenced with a family Saturday afternoon discussion about fostering felines in which Salsa Girl, Hulk and Oneself cautiously decided to fill in an application form to test if we would be acceptable as a fostering household. A scant 24 hours later Frantic Fostering Organisation* called up saying they had a "perfect" one for us, and that it would be no trouble to have it foisted delivered within the hour.

And thus Madame Beans joined us in her 14th year of bossitude.

Madame with Beans on display.

After a brief orientation we were all soon at her beck and call.

As can be seen above she frequently commandeers One's work from home office heater, denying One any humane working conditions.

She is also known to demand that One's work start early in the morning and continue late into the evening.

Madame Beans also refuses to enter into any meaningful dialogue about these working conditions and has even been known to set up circumstances to try and trip One up in the commission of One's tasks.

There is also engagement in inappropriate physical touchings such as foot rubbing, hand licking, and she particularly likes head bumps.

All in all I'm sure you can see the hardships One has to endure for the provision of only meagre purrs of compensation.

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The Fall of Troy

 So One has just completed the reading of Troy by Stephen Fry.  The tome was a birthday gifting from Grandma J that one had finally commenced a few weeks back and then completed a few weeks back. Of course in these times we are in, One glances at the calendar and espies that a few weeks is in fact nigh two whole months!

In any case the read was quite interesting... and informative, and flowed fairly well after the initial 50 odd pages of getting up to speed on past history bombardment of peoples and events.

My reading of it also fell at the right time for the regular Tuesday Knights gaming group had only recently commenced playing AGON the game where you play heroes of legend in an ancient Greece inspired setting.

I give it a solid 3 star rating as the end with the wooden horse seemed a little unbelievable.

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My Guitarist Joins the Club

Well, it's been a long time between drinks and it's also been a long time between drinks.

Both of these shortfalls shall be rectified by this report on One's recent attendance at My Guitarist's "joining the club" soiree (or, as Hulk predicted it, "Boring, just Adults standing around talking and drinking").

Of course, in true tradition of The Tales, "recent" in this case means nigh on a week.

There are those that may claim it would take one that long to recover from one's imbibing a single high strength honeycomb stout, but they have no proof.

Anyway, after a quickish zoom Southwards (that's zoom in the old-fashioned speed sense) one arrived at said event to have a great catch up and natter with the assorted cast. My Guitarist of course, Redneck Ben, Duff (with The Tumbling Trio in tow) and other assorted uni guitarists and associates. Fridgepower, Judge Mingus, and The Keyboardist showed up shortly after oneself as well for a real getting the band back together feel.

One cannot fault an event with friends, free food and crumbiliscious honeycomb stout, other than for not happening on a weekly schedule.

Whilst literally zooming home one's thoughts - other than those on the miraculous performance of one's sportsball team one was listening to on the radio - were on one's hopes to not have to wait quite so long for the next catch-up with My Guitarist et al.
As it turns out One had forgotten about the curse of halfway parties.

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The Further Education of Salsa Girl

 My my, one seems to have been "busy" for some time. Anyway on with the news of import.

The main thing one has been busy with is continuing the amaranthine task of educating Salsa Girl in the ways of all things Phillian.

Of late this has been in the form of commencing a watching of the complete* B5.

As Salsa Girl is a good sort there was no need for bribery or threats and Bab 5 night coinciding with foot massage night is pure coincidence...

At first One was planning to follow a guide of which season 1 episodes to skip to just get the highlights, however we were both enjoying things, every episode has moments of plot or character development and, contrary to what TNE Superstar may say, none of it has been exceptionally annoying or felt too slow.

Anyway, we are now out of the woods and into season the second so, apart from Salsa Girl mourning the loss of "our captain", it should all be plain sailing from here until the rocky shores of season the fifth are upon us.

* no complete does not include the Crusade series - nor the Rangers telemovies various - One is not so blinded as to consider them necessary to foist upon poor Salsa Girl.

A Magic Birthday

 Firstly, let me acknowledge the tsunamilanche of birthday well wishes one received whilst one was engaged in birthday activities elsewhere.  They are by no means required but they do warm the cockles of one's heart - creating a sort of tight hot feeling in the chest.

Anyway, on to the events of the birthday weekend.

Things commenced with Salsa Girl informing one to be decently dressed for Friday dinner - as if the mucking about pants one drapes oneself in for workdays would not pass some sort of muster.

The mystery deepened as, throughout said dinner, Hulk repeatedly just had to check nothing at the front door and assured one that definitely no one from the family was expected.

You can imagine one's surprise when Sneaky Pete appeared at the door to assume Hulk control responsibilities.

Salsa Girl then promptly extracted us from the chatterboxing Hulk and whisked one away to attend none other than a Magic event.

One was sorely disappointed when, rather than playing the card game that is a mainstay of one's gaming life with the likes of Gavman and Elfboy, one was forced to endure a highly entertaining, interesting, and amazing show of prestidigitation. The covid-related bonus was that being singled out to assist because of birthday-ness did not require one to leave ones comfortable seat as everything was done via shouting and extenda-claws.

The next day - the actual date - dawned with  a relaxed morning of mandatory traditional birthday cheescake eating, and one buying one's presents from Hulk the proprietor of the lounge room Present Shop. The remainder of the day passed with one indulging oneself in whatever manner one chose, which this year including doing the weekly grocery shop.

Sunday saw the gathering of the Legion clan and the traditional handing of the insulting birthday card from Freeloading Mum to oneself - although one does wonder why Sneaky Pete who also has a birthday around this time received a card full of glowing and loving sentiment?

In any case a fun-filled legion-time was had before all headed home to sleep the sleep of the afternoon-nap deprived.

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The Holiday is Over

 So, One's holiday break is over and it's time to apply oneself to the task of getting The Tales ticking over again and hopefully reach the heights of last years 13 entries (and then on to top 2008's one hundred entries you prompt? Madness I reply).

Since One's last communique many things have passed:

• One's first XMAS gathering for the new workplace, wherat Sis drafted one for table wrangling duties as apparently "other duties as required" also applies at this workplace.
• A hybrid remote and in-person boardgaming session for the birthday of BestFriendSincePrep
• A zoological XMAS gathering (a gathering at the Zoo as opposed to a Zuulogical gathering which would involve the underling of demon Gozer the Gozerian)
• A traditional Legion XMAS with the wider Legion clan.
• More boardgaming with in-person guests, instigated by Hulk who left the game after turn one to do something else. instead
• One's annual beaching.
• A return to Zoom, I mean work, including zoom-training the whole workplace prior to upgrading.
• Bunnings-ing up some minor repairs on the household.
• Seeking Sanctuary in Healesville where Hulk rushed Salsa Girl and I from exhibit to exhibit in order to get to the nearby playground as soon as possible.
• Upgrading the work system without leaving one's home office
• Marking the return of footy with a visit to The Great Sandro wherein he could not stop remarking, over the top of the footy broadcast, about how "doesn't look right mate" One's lockdown beard was.
• Attending the celebration of the life of Fifi who had finished her 29 year battle recently outlasting the predictions by a measly 26 years. It was this quiet determination that, during one's 6 or so years of sharing an office space, caused one to fix Fifi's problems pronto and also imbibe many a team coffee run, lest one fall afoul of those looks of portent. The celebratory tone was enhanced by also being able to reconnect with the likes of Sonja Roster Queen, Big J, Lord of the Small Fries, Longstride L, Days of our Libraries, and the increasingly incorrectly named Supervisor Grand Chief K
• And finally a relaxed, run of the mill, odds and ends weekend.

So, as you can see, there was not much to write about and no stories lost to the vortex of not being got around to writing them down.

Hopefully some interesting times shall arise this coming year...

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