Weekly Rundown: The Birthday Edition

Today is my 28th birthday and this whole week has been a bit of a birthday celebration. That's just the way we roll in the Click household.

Easter weekend last week meant that my week had already been shortened by one day and I'd booked the Friday off as well for an appointment that got cancelled. Rather than switching it back to a working day, I thought what the hey! and decided to stay home then as well. It made for a lovely relaxing day right before our trip to Oban yesterday (which called for a ridiculously early start to cram in all the things we wanted to get done) - more on that tomorrow!

This week saw a return to our regular activities which meant a little more online time. It also meant getting Tara back to dog training (she started well but rapidly went downhill as the night progressed mainly because the first half of the night was about walking to heel and the second half was about staying put where she was told... she wasn't so keen on the second one).

I have also started work on my EMA for my course. Well, I made a list of all the books I might use and how they could link to the question I was being asked. I've got to put together a bit of a proposal about what I'm going to write about and send it over to my tutor for approval so I'll get stuck into that this week and hopefully start it for real over the bank holiday weekend.

I've done less writing this week but more knitting. The two crafts aren't mutually compatible seeing as I use both hands for both so I can't do them at the same time. After our trip to Oban we sat up (like we hadn't been awake for long enough already) watching The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and I finally finished the monster I'd been knitting since I went to Manchester for Sport Relief. It was just the final push to get it finished and I'm pleased I did, though I'm torn about what to work on next.

Speaking of films, and viewing in general, I'm well provided for over the next few months. From Tara (why yes, our dog buys us presents, doesn't yours?) I got a Dixie Chicks Blu-ray (it would appear that Mr Click has been reading my blog to figure out my favourite musics).

I knew a little of what to expect from Mr Click as I'd shown him precisely the Kindle keyboard I wanted and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug came out just in time to be a birthday present (I'll get the Extended Edition for Christmas). Everything else was a surprise. I've received The Mentalist Series 1-5 (which was actually on my list for Mr Click's Christmas this year, back to the drawing board) as well as the BBC's Ripper Street on Blu-ray.

My colleagues also completely surprised me on Thursday with a card, a cake and an Amazon gift voucher with a note to put it towards the new camera I'm getting when I graduate. That was a massive surprise and I honestly nearly burst into tears right then and there at work!

Now we're having a special birthday lunch and I'm planning on relaxing with my new toys this afternoon.

In non-birthday news my poll will draw to a close tomorrow. Thus far the results are:

This is to decide which series of books I will do Chapter-by-Chapter reviews on and at the moment it's going to be a toss-up between A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Chronicles of Narnia. I almost managed to get the complete set of Narnia books in Oban yesterday but there was one missing so I left them there. I did manage to get another set of books from the list so at least I'm ready for when I get around to that one.

If someone would like to cast a deciding vote one way or the other I'd be grateful. Or if you'd like to raise the stakes and throw in another vote or two for one of the others, go ahead. This is quite a fun way to pick my reading material, I might do it again in the future.