![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Puppy Psycho!
Jan. 18th, 2016 10:37 amLearning to play guitar has always been one of my ambitions and when looking back on a lack of achievement in 2015, I became determined to make this reality this year. I discussed this with Stray on the Monday night out we shared between Christmas and New Year and he agreed to teach me. My first lesson was on Friday night and I'm hoping to do every other Friday night in the future too. As well as learning power chords, he also installed Rocksmith on my PC, meaning I can practice in the interim too. As you know, I'm not a huge fan of video games but this is generally helpful - and has a way of tracking progress in numerical form, which is all the motivation I need to actually do something. Between installing the program and playing, I practiced for three hours on Friday until my finger became lacerated with the playing. I was progressively getting more accomplished though and I was delighted with my modest progress over these three hours. It was also a fun evening with good friends Stray and Luna, and hopefully more of these sessions will get me to a decent level. All I need to do now is get my electric guitar from my dad's, which was an eighteenth birthday present but something I haven't played for many years, and then I'll be good to go. Adding to my sense of achievement was, after the playing, we all played Fibbage, one of the games I didn't play at Entmas last month. I didn't do well but getting over that psychological barrier was also a positive for me.
Another positive was the meet on Saturday in new venue The White Rabbit. I feared this may be too small and expensive for people but generally it worked well, with a load of positive feedback about the place. The bar was very accommodating, opening at 12 noon rather than 5pm for our "ticket only" private party, while the Fursuit walk with ten fursuiters was a success, with us effectively doing an inverse walk to what we usually do in Baa Bar. There are an awfully high number of roads to cross unfortunately but that's just how it is in a city centre, while the tucked away nature of the bar, near to the station, was another plus point. Hopefully we can get the venue on a more permanent basis as it does offer a different kind of meet to Manchester and Sheffield, and I think it's important to offer choice to people. The bar staff loved us and so hopefully all will be smooth. We will be having a chat with them on Wednesday.
I didn't Fursuit at the meet due to my zip still being buggered but I did go on the walk, largely to guide it but also to boost my exercise steps. The meet weekends are always going to be difficult from a dietary perspective but this Saturday wasn't too bad, with only two and a half points drunk during the day followed by a pizza at Frankie and Bennies, a pizza that I barely finished as it was drier than cardboard and had a similar taste. I had hoped to go to the Caribbean place The Turtle Bay but even though it was January, many restaurants were still busy, so we had to go for an alternative. Unfortunately, they were very understaffed and service took three hours from start to finish, the whole experience really was abysmal. We should probably have complained but we were so tired, plus snow was beginning to fall and we needed to head back before it caused significant disruption. In fact, this was something of a blessing for us as we didn't go for more drink, meaning I stopped drinking by 5:30pm and was consequently sober by the time I had got home. That very rarely happens. Still, good for the weight loss regime and considering this weekend was always going to be full of pitfalls, I'm pretty pleased that I managed to navigate it sticking to moderation.
Sunday was an attic building day with Wolfie's parents, another good day of exercise although I was left feeling like a spare part for much of it as Wolfie and his Dad do make a fine working team. I did some tidying though along with some cutting of plasterboard so I wasn't totally useless. I also made the tea and cooked dinner once they had gone as we were destined to go into town to see the Star Wars movie with some friends. I had invited Taneli and Aces but they cried off for different reasons, meaning it was just Suburban joining us for the film. It was an enjoyable movie but certainly overhyped, largely because it didn't really follow any new arc, it just seemed to be an amalgam of episodes four and five. Some of the dialogue was so clunky too and the plot predictable but it was an enjoyable two hours and clearly was created to please the fans. To this extent it succeeded and I'm glad I managed to see it without any spoilers. No doubt it will be Zootopia next. After this, we said goodbye to Suburban who left to catch his bus before we headed up to a desolate Shuffledog for a drink before our last bus. We grabbed some tasty high strength beers and chatted to the staff, partly to show our faces as the diet means we are visiting far less frequently. It was interesting to discover that some furs popped to Shuffledog on Saturday looking for the meet - not sure what happened there - but generally we just caught up with our bar staff friends, which is something we are very glad to have done, particularly as it rounded off a rather pleasant weekend.
Another positive was the meet on Saturday in new venue The White Rabbit. I feared this may be too small and expensive for people but generally it worked well, with a load of positive feedback about the place. The bar was very accommodating, opening at 12 noon rather than 5pm for our "ticket only" private party, while the Fursuit walk with ten fursuiters was a success, with us effectively doing an inverse walk to what we usually do in Baa Bar. There are an awfully high number of roads to cross unfortunately but that's just how it is in a city centre, while the tucked away nature of the bar, near to the station, was another plus point. Hopefully we can get the venue on a more permanent basis as it does offer a different kind of meet to Manchester and Sheffield, and I think it's important to offer choice to people. The bar staff loved us and so hopefully all will be smooth. We will be having a chat with them on Wednesday.
I didn't Fursuit at the meet due to my zip still being buggered but I did go on the walk, largely to guide it but also to boost my exercise steps. The meet weekends are always going to be difficult from a dietary perspective but this Saturday wasn't too bad, with only two and a half points drunk during the day followed by a pizza at Frankie and Bennies, a pizza that I barely finished as it was drier than cardboard and had a similar taste. I had hoped to go to the Caribbean place The Turtle Bay but even though it was January, many restaurants were still busy, so we had to go for an alternative. Unfortunately, they were very understaffed and service took three hours from start to finish, the whole experience really was abysmal. We should probably have complained but we were so tired, plus snow was beginning to fall and we needed to head back before it caused significant disruption. In fact, this was something of a blessing for us as we didn't go for more drink, meaning I stopped drinking by 5:30pm and was consequently sober by the time I had got home. That very rarely happens. Still, good for the weight loss regime and considering this weekend was always going to be full of pitfalls, I'm pretty pleased that I managed to navigate it sticking to moderation.
Sunday was an attic building day with Wolfie's parents, another good day of exercise although I was left feeling like a spare part for much of it as Wolfie and his Dad do make a fine working team. I did some tidying though along with some cutting of plasterboard so I wasn't totally useless. I also made the tea and cooked dinner once they had gone as we were destined to go into town to see the Star Wars movie with some friends. I had invited Taneli and Aces but they cried off for different reasons, meaning it was just Suburban joining us for the film. It was an enjoyable movie but certainly overhyped, largely because it didn't really follow any new arc, it just seemed to be an amalgam of episodes four and five. Some of the dialogue was so clunky too and the plot predictable but it was an enjoyable two hours and clearly was created to please the fans. To this extent it succeeded and I'm glad I managed to see it without any spoilers. No doubt it will be Zootopia next. After this, we said goodbye to Suburban who left to catch his bus before we headed up to a desolate Shuffledog for a drink before our last bus. We grabbed some tasty high strength beers and chatted to the staff, partly to show our faces as the diet means we are visiting far less frequently. It was interesting to discover that some furs popped to Shuffledog on Saturday looking for the meet - not sure what happened there - but generally we just caught up with our bar staff friends, which is something we are very glad to have done, particularly as it rounded off a rather pleasant weekend.
