In which the Rodent eats steamed buns and watches Reaper with friends.

Happy New Year for Friday, to those it affects.

I woke up and came downstairs as usual, but Pol came back from work just as I was waking up. I hadn't realised just how much I needed that first groggy hour of watching inane drivel on telly. As a result, I ended up on edge and snappy while he was trying to unwrap his new purchases.

Pol unpacked various things and when Rob, Angela and Claire came round, Rob helped him take it up. He gave me a box of good acrylic paints, shiny! Very shiny when some of them are Windsor and Newton. Big tubes, too. These will get used. Painting is very hard for me to do now, since my head has to be tilted forward and it takes a level of concentration and detailed vision in good light.

We talked about Chinese restaurants, about how irrational jealousy can make people very isolated, played Identify the Steamed Bun and flux and watched Reaper on E4 for buggy goodness.

Now I am tired and headachey and very, very happy. Being in pain didn't stop me having a good time. I do want drugs though, so I'll get some more after typing this up, making two doses of cocodamol for today. My pain level is at a nice, solid thumping 6, heading toward the 7 where I stop enjoying myself, and I want to be able to keep this sense of having had a good time. When it gets to 7, I literally can't enjoy anything, although I still function.

In which the Rodent enjoys artistic endeavours and Chinese food.

That was fun. Claire and Angela and Rob came round so we could do cards, which tomorrow I have to try to post. Tonight, they're drying. It was like being back at school, with a table full of bits to cut out, and people showing each other what they'd done, and paint getting everywhere. Claire did stars, Rob did a tree and a cracker, Angela did a penguin and I did a tree. They're all bright, cheerful and friendly.

The cards will be sent to Amnesty International, who will send them on to various prisoners in various places as a morale booster. I like the idea, and it's exactly the sort of thing I joined AI for. It tells political prisoners that, whatever else happens to them, they have not been forgotten by the world at large. I can get right behind that.

The Chinese restaurant sent us a new menu and one of the items on it, I discovered afterwards, is a platter of steamed buns, all different flavours. I am nuts for steamed buns, so I can't wait until next month's Chinese meal. I think it might well be Chinese New Year by then too, and I think the year of the Rat. I like Rat years.

Steamed buns are hard to make, which is a shame because their texture is fantastic - soft and not quite chewy. They're made from wheat flour, but what sort of wheat flour I don't know to turn out the bright, bleached white you get on restaurant steamed buns. The obvious ones are the steamed custard buns - since the pastry is doughy and sweet, this makes sense to the English palate. However, the pork buns, the char sui bao, are savoury pork in the same sweet, soft bun, and that seems very odd. I can't wait to try lotus bun, yam bun and peach bun.