(no subject)

[girlofprey]

It's New Year's Eve, and I haven't done any end-of-year memes. I meant to, but I haven't. I haven't done the Slashies either, as I usually mean to do every year. Rest assured, the Most Beautiful Woman would probably be Mitzeee from Hollyoaks, the Best Dressed would probably be Cheryl from Hollyoaks or Sophia from The Event, and the Best Enemy Pairing and Best Pairing would probably be Nathan/Declan.

In place of any end of year posts, or any more Christmassy posts, I'm going to post what I think is my usual list of Things I Did This Year. I was going to do a regular one and a fannish one, but I don't have time now, so you just get the one. I apologise the random incoherentness that will probably occur when I get to fandoms you don't know about. Anyway.

• I went to Barcelona, which I've been wanting to do for some years now. As I kind of expected, I really really really loved it.



• I went to the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, or what will be the Sagrada Familia when they finish building it, and as I didn't really expect, I really really really loved it.



• My family and I had a car crash in Spain, or Catalonia rather. We didn't like it much, but at least none of us were harmed, or the people in the other car.



• I got my first experience of what it is like when you miss your plane home while on holiday in a foreign country. I didn't enjoy it much.



• I was going to get my first experience of what it was like to sleep in an airport while waiting for your replacement flight home while on holiday in a foreign country, I thought, but I actuallly got my first experience of what it is like when you and your flight company vastly miscommunicate about when your replacement flight home is, and you have to go back into Barcelona quite late at night to hopefully find somewhere to sleep for the night.



• I got my first experience of walking around and around Barcelona quite late at night, for hours, looking for somewhere to sleep for the night, at the last minute.



• I got my first experience of actually finding somewhere to sleep for the night, albeit expensive, after walking round for hours and hours in Barcelona. And then the next morning, of walking up right next to the Cathedral, on a Sunday morning, in the middle of the city, and hearing the hymns being sung, and finding out I could see my parents room from my window, and walking out onto people doing the national dance of Catalonia in the middle of the street. All of which was really lovely.



• I went to Filey with my mother, sister and two nephews earlier in the year. Complete with massive arguments, crying, being freezing, and having a bit of a laugh and going to the lovely massive Sea Life Centre in Scarborough.



• I went to Paignton with my mother, father and oldest nephew, in the middle of the summer, and learned just how far 'about a mile' (aka the Paignton Mile) can be, and stayed on a bungalow on a hill that was steeper than I even thought possible, and played crazy golf on a pier, and suddenly found a nature sanctuary while out walking.



• While on holiday in Paignton, my mum, dad, nephew and I all went to Paignton Zoo. There are pictures of me at a zoo in Qatar, but I don't remember it, and I know I went to Flamingo Land or something once, but I don't remember much of that either. So to the best of my knowledge, this year is the first year I remember seeing tigers, a gorilla, elephants, giraffes, cheetahs (I think), meerkats, flamingos, crocodiles, bats, and a whole lot of other animals.



• Also I went to the circus with my mum, dad and nephew while in Paignton. It was a while before then since I did that either.



• And, as I recall, there was an Experiences With Animals stall outside afterwards, and I held a tarantula and stroked a meerkat. Which was also pretty great.



• I went to Scarborough for the day with my mother, father and youngest nephew, because he didn't get to come to Paignton with us. Which was lovely.



• I went to Connotations, in the fancy new hotel. IT WAS FANCY INDEED. There was inexplicable chocolate cake, unexpected fruit smoothies, porn on the walls, weird little bays where the windows in our rooms were such as would be suitable to do comedy skits in, I bored everyone to tears talking about Emmerdale, and at least two nights, possibly three, of slash pictionary. It was quite win.



• Also, I went out into Durham for a little bit, from the hotel, on a couple of the days. It turns out Durham is quite lovely.



• I'm guessing I went to Eastercon. I did go to Eastercon. I'm mostly having trouble remembering things that were more than a few months ago. But I did, because we had that ground floor room, and I had that horrific cold that meant I couldn't talk for most of the time. OH AND WE PLAYED APPLES TO APPLES. That was brilliant. I mostly remember now.



• I went to London to see Sarah, at least once, possibly twice. Actually, it was twice I'm sure - I went to see the Snow Queen ballet (which was great), and Sarah and I went to Camden (I THINK? Maybe), and then I went down in May. When I went in May, I went to see a Mark Bruce Company show with K, then went to see LUKE RATTIGAN IN A PLAY, where he MADE OUT WITH ANOTHER MAN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AUDIENCE, QUITE NEAR TO ME, and played a gay young man getting seduced by a gay older man and then an old Yorkshire miner. And then we went to see Tom Stade. And then we spent most of the next day watching as much as we could of the first three seasons of the US The Office (OH RYAN! AND TOBY! AND ANGELA! AND DWIGHT!), and Blades of Glory. IT WAS AMAZING.



• I went to Lancaster to see Jen and Alice, and we watched Season 2 of BUGS and season 2 and the special of Hana Yori Dango. THAT WAS ALSO BRILLIANT.



• Also I found out about Parks and Recreation and Leslie/Greg Pkitis (?) while at Sarah's. Thank you Sarah.



• I moved out of my flat. Which was a bit sad. But at least now I know what is involved in giving up a flat and moving out of places, and that I can probably do all of that now. Hurrah.



• We got a Conservative/Liberal Democrat government. Which is to say, mostly a Conservative government. Boo.



• I didn't vote, because I'd forgotten to sort of my Electoral Registrar stuff, but my mum totally went and voted in my place, even if my party didn't win. Hurrah!



• I went to my first comic book convention, in Leeds. It was quite great, and I'd really like to go if it's on again next year.



• THE OTHER GUYS CAME OUT, OH I LOVE THE OTHER GUYS, I KNOW IT IS CLEARLY NOT THE BEST FILM, BUT OH I LOVE IT ANYWAY. OH.



• Other films I enjoyed - Knight and Day, Despicable Me, How To Train Your Dragon, The Princess and the Frog, RED, New Town Killers, Red Eye, Wild Target, Inception, My Name Is Khan, Ponyo. And others, probably.



• I saw Kick Ass, which I really enjoyed, and recently found out people are sometimes writing INCREDIBLY HOT Frank/Chris fic. SCORE.



• I saw Shrek 4, which wasn't a film I massively loved, but it did make me actually cry about 3 or 4 times. Which is quite impressive, really.



• Watching New Town Killers and Red Eye made me remember how much I love little, one-on-one person type thrillers, and that's sort of all I want to watch at the moment. Hmm.



• Last night I watched Flash Gordon again, for whatever reason, and not only was it as good as I remembered it, it was somehow better. OH.



• I discovered Bad Machinery, and then later rediscovered/read the rest of Bite Me!, and then discovered Snowflakes (Priti!), No Rest For The Wicked (Red!), and Sister Claire (Claire! Gabrielle! Evil Cat!). All of which was quite win.



• I discovered Horrible Histories. And the King Of Bling. And the Viking Song. And the Boudica song. Oh.



• Matt Baker was on Strictly Come Dancing. He probably wasn't the best dancer on there ever, but I loved him, and he danced a great Austin Powers dance, and a tango I really liked, and he did an Argentine Tango to Bat Out Of Hell on the Halloween Special, and that properly stands out in my mind as one of the moments of Strictly I might never forget. I keep meaning to find it and download it. I probably should.



• Also Patsy Kensit and Felicity Kendall were on Strictly Come Dancing, and were pretty great.



• Also Gavin Henson was on Strictly Come Dancing, and a Foxtrot to Blues Brothers music, and a jive that was a bit weird, but I really enjoyed. Hurrah.



• Nathan Wylde's dad nearly left Nathan's mother for Faye, his first/real wife, then Nathan's sister and his secret half-brother found out they couldn't go out with each other or sleep together because they were brother and sister, Nathan's mum killed Nathan's dad and pretended he'd just run off, Nathan's sister had a breakdown and had to go off to a clinic for a few months, Nathan's mum told him she'd killed his dad and said she needed him to help her cover it up and keep it a secret for the sake of the family, Nathan blackmailed her a bit and then got thrown out of the house, then he came back a few months later, he agreed to help his mum cover up the murder because he thought it was an accident, he and his mum got blackmailed by a random bad guy in the village, Nathan set up his half-brother to take the fall for his dad's murder and then arranged for it all to come out that his dad was dead, Nathan's half-brother, sort-of stepmum, mum's boyfriend, the random bad guy I mentioned and sister all believed that Nathan had killed his dad, Nathan's half-brother got convicted of murdering Nathan's dad and at around the same time the bad guy kidnapped Nathan for a few days to try to get him to confess, the bad guy brought Nathan's sister around to torture him to try to get him to confess, Nathan told her that their mum had actually killed their dad, the bad guy went to get their mum while Nathan stayed with his sister who still didn't believe he hadn't killed their dad, their mum arrived and confessed to the murder, Nathan's mum got arrested by the police, Nathan was nearly disowned by his brother and sister but managed to convince them he had nothing to do with setting up their half-brother, Nathan was tricked into selling the house and business to his mum's ex-boyfriend who he hates, Nathan's half-brother tricked him into confessing that he had set him up to take the fall for the murder, Nathan's half-brother played the confession to Nathan's sister and she and their brother disowned Nathan properly, Nathan's half-brother blackmailed him into signing all his money away to their young brother or he'd go to the police with the recording, and Nathan got thrown out of the house by his mum's ex-boyfriend with no money, no family, and nothing. All in one year.



• In between all of this, Nathan/Declan happened. All this year.



• One of the end of year memes I was thinking of doing had one question which was 'what is your greatest squee moment of this year?'. I find it really hard to pick things like that, but the Nathan/Declan "You look nice"/"Are you flirting?" exchange was a PRETTY BIG SQUEE MOMENT. Also, Declan saying forcefully to a friend of his about Nathan, "He's a weird kid though, isn't he?". THAT WAS PRETTY GREAT AS WELL.



• All other questions about Nathan or Nathan/Declan can probably be answered in the Nathan Wylde story. I'll just use that link, to save space.



• David and Gary on Coronation Street had a rather beautiful moment of David offering him sanctuary when he went AWOL from the army. Apparently people are uploading entire episodes of Coronation Street to Youtube now, so you can see that here, at 9.44 and 12.55, and here, at 5.54. They are BEAUTIFUL, and a little bit PERFECT. I LOVE THEM A LOT. Then David and Gary had more beautiful moments later in the year, and David had quite a lot of beautiful moments separate from Gary. It was all a little bit great.



• Tony came back into Coronation Street briefly, to be mad and attack people, and then Maria came back, and he LOVED HER, and was a bit mad, BUT LOVED HER, and didn't shoot her and let her get away. And then he died. And Maria sounded a little bit sad about it. It was brilliant, although the timing wasn't brilliant, with the guy shooting people in the Lake District. That was kind of awful.



• Ste/Brendan happened in Hollyoaks. Like IN CANON AND FOR REAL. And some of it was kind of horrible, because Brendan is self-hating and abusive and a bit crazy, but some of it was lovely and beautiful and oh God.



• I found out I love Jacqui and Mitzeee on Hollyoaks, and Theresa a little bit. Hurrah.

And probably other things happened, but I think these were the main ones, and it's nearly midnight so I'm sort of out of time. They are pretty great things though. Happy New Year's Eve, everyone!