So, it is party time again, folks!

[wiseheart]

Each year this time, we launch my virtual birthday party, which starts on October 1 and ends on October 9 at midnight, sharp. The goals of the party are to post as many comments and collapse as many threads as possible, on as many new pages as we can. It is always great fun, as you can see if you check out the similar entries of the last few years.

This year, I'll also throw the real party at mid-time - and post the recipes of all the food that will be there for you, so that you can all participate if you want to. Virtual food has no calories.

Fandom-related discussions are as welcome as the ones about coffee or chocolate (just to name a few favourites from previous years), and, of course, pictures and recipes of birthday cakes. ;)

So, drop by, tell your story, post your pics or silly poems, ask questions you always wanted to ask and have a good time!

Soledad, in excited expectation




Oh, and by the way, to provide birthday gifts hobbit-style, I've got a revived story and a Kansas 2 update for you.

Enjoy!

Comments

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

It is a glorious day here, with beautiful sunshine. There was a bit of a chill in the air as I cycled to work though, and I saw the most glorious ivy on a building having turned a vibrant red, so it is most definitely autumn. How are other people fairing for weather?

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Here is something I realized I don't know about a lot of you? What sort of place do you live, in a flat or a house, in a small town, big city or quite isolated in the countryside?

I live in a semi-detached house in relatively new mixed housing estate, on the outskirts of a smallish city; it takes me about half-an-hour to cycle to work. From there it is maybe a 15 minute walk to the city centre.

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

That tends to happen on occasions like this one.

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you've contributed many more comments than I have.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I am going to make another top-level comment to wish wiseheart a happy off-line birthday party! May it be a great success, with lots of fun discussions, and not too tiring clearing up afterwards!

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

My house is at the corner of a row of five, with a railway crossing and a path to the platform of a nearby station at the other side.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

wiseheart really does throw the best virtual birthday parties!

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

And does this take us to page 3?

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

If I have counted correctly, this should get us onto page 3...

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

You made it before me! *hands over virtual chocolate*

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

*Bows and accepts* The good thing about virtual chocolate is that it has zero calories.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

That sounds lovely! Do you find the sound of the trains going by a pleasant noise, as I do with my railway line, or a nuisance? I think it helps that trains don't run much more often than 3 an hour in each direction, and only that often during rush-hour. In the evenings and on Sundays there is only one train an hour in each direction, which makes it less useful as a form of communication...

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Also, it never runs out, so I can share it with people as often as I wish!

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Now that we are on page three, I suggest the next goal should be to get threads to start collapsing here, too. I will have to leave that job up to others for a bit, though, so that I can get some of the work I came in to the office to do done.

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

Most of the time I don't even hear the trains. There are 4 an hour in both directions, except in the evenings and on Sundays, when there are only 3 an hour. But because they're either just departing from the nearby station or slowing down on approach, they are not going fast and therefore not particularly noisy. The most irritating thing used to be the warning signal of the crossing, until they toned it down a bit after complaints by the neighbourhood. One street was functioning as a kind of ear trumpet - with an opera singer living at the end... (He seems to have been the one who sabotaged the signal bell on occasion, but I don't know this officially, of course.)

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

I am in Boston, Massachusetts, and I live in a building style that is unique to the New England region called a triple-decker or three-decker. There are a number of variations, but the original idea was that the owner lived on one floor and rented the other two for income. As is usual, we have a built-in china cabinet with drawers below, and a small stained glass window high up in the bowed wall of the dining. Closets are small -- Victorian factory workers had not so much stuff to put away! And there are porches front and back, high ceilings (helps with cooling in summer) and tall windows all around. And although the houses are built close together, there's usually at least bit of space between them, enough for light and air to come in.

When we moved here, at the beginning of the century (it's so fun to say that!), many were being sold off and converted to condos. That was the arrangement in both our previous homes. Our current buidling is completely owned by the landlady -- she grew up here -- so we are pretty sure we don't have to worry about that this time!

Read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple-decker

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

Soledad, do be sure to tell us all about your party!

[sammydragoncat]

I am in Los Angeles, California, in a house built in the 1939, just outside the city.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I hadn't realised they were Swedish! Somehow they feel very British. My husband had a Rayburn in his previous house, but we've neither of us ever owned an Aga, so it's going to be an adventure.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Ground fresh beans do smell simply wonderful :)

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Getting any official documents in the UK can be very hasslesome. I recently renewed my passport and was appalled to find that while it was possible to fill the form in online, one still has to print it all out and post it. Surely all they need is the photographs and a signature? Well done on getting the photographs done - -that's a real slow step.

Cycling is really good for one's health -- unfortunately I stopped when I injured my back and have never managed to get back into it, despite buying an expensive reclining bicycle, which I've never got to grips with.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

We used to buy whole pineapples but too often they went off before we got around to using them. Also we have granite work tops which are sensitive to the enzymes in pineapple so it is particularly difficult to cut them!

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Didn't get too much done today, for various reasons. Tomorrow!

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

It is embarrassing how most people in continental Europe are fluent in English, but the English-language television is definitely a factor in your favour. I think there's also a cultural difference -- here it is often considered uncool to learn languages for some reason, whereas in many European countries it is completely the norm to be fluent in several non-native languages. I once worked with a Finnish lady who spoke six languages fluently; her English was lightly accented but otherwise close to perfect.

I learned French and German at school for five years apiece, but in neither case can I speak the language at all any more. (I can read French a little.) There are occasional French subtitled films but German is even less easy to come by. I don't know what language I'd learn now if I had a choice to start again as a child. Spanish perhaps? Chinese would probably be a good bet, population wise, but much harder for an English speaker.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

At the moment I'm in a cottage, part 17th-century half-timbered, part 18th-century brick, part modern extension. We're in a tiny hamlet in agricultural land (mainly cattle pasture but the field opposite is arable), a mile from a decent-sized village and about six miles from the nearest town. The nearest city is perhaps 45 miles away.