girlofprey

Hello. I went to Crete. I am now back from Crete.

Here are the places I visited:

Agios Nikalaos (where we were staying)

Spinalonga

A Cretan Olive Farm experience place.

Elounda, and the surrounds.

The Knossos ruins.

Heraklion, though mostly the Archaelogical Museum bit of it.

These are the things I wish I'd known before we left: That even though it was October, it was still going to be hot. I would have bought some suncream BEFORE I got sunburn. And that it was a four hour flight from Manchester to Crete. I would have bought a book, before the only ones I could find were about 13 euros in the Duty Free shop in Heraklion airport.

It was a bit of a funny holiday. Before we went I was barely able to muster up any enthusiasm for it, since it had dropped in the middle of a bunch of other things I needed to do. My mum, while packing, kept saying that sometimes it felt like these holidays were more bother than they were worth, and my dad said "I'm fed up already". Then, on the day we travelled there, I ended up coming down with some sort of stomach bug, and spent most of the evening doing things whatho wouldn't want to hear about, and other things the rest of you probably wouldn't want to hear about. I couldn't actually stand to go into the dining room, and ended up going to bed at 10 o'clock with the shivers. Mum thought it was just because I didn't get much sleep before we went, then travelled all day, and maybe ate too much chocolate on the plane. I suspect it was something to do with the fact she had my ON over the night before we left, and my MN had been throwing up that day, and my ON then apparently was throwing up that night. My dad was also suffering on that first day with some sort of stomach thing. My mum saw no connection. Hmm.

But after that, it turned into a pretty nice holiday. I felt much better by the next day, the weather stayed pretty nice most days of the week, and it was sort of nice that it was so relaxed. It was a bit funny because we went at the end of the season, and there were basically no tours, or trips, or anything to really just go on. As the man at the Cretan Olive Farm, who was very nice, explained, most of real Crete is up in the mountains, and all the towns and stuff by the sea were basically built for tourists. So essentially, everything just started to close down. Even our hotel, which was huge, was apparently closing today, 1st November, until next Spring. So it was sort of quiet. The boat trip we took to Spinalonga was the last one for the season, so we were lucky to go on that too. It was a lovely trip though - Spinalonga's a tiny little island that has in the past been a Venetian sea fortress, then a settlement for the Turkish, and finally a leper colony. We joined a tour group on the island to learn a bit more about it's history, and I really thought the leper colony aspect would be the one that was least interesting to me. But the woman explained it, and it was really pretty cool. The lepers couldn't leave the island, but they had houses, and markets, and grew their own vegetables when people from the mainland tried to price gouge them, and had constant access to medical care, and got to hang out with a bunch of other people who didn't just hate the sight of them. There were a bunch of marriages on the island, and 154 children were born there, even though their parents couldn't keep them. Only 10 of those children ended up with leprosy when they grew up. So it was pretty lovely. The guide woman said she always cried on the last day of the season, and she did, but it was lovely all the same, and really sort of eye-opening. Also she was pretty permanently annoyed about an art exhibition that had been set up on the island, which was pretty fun too.

So yeah. We wanted to go to the Knossos ruins - had been wanting to since we booked the holiday - but there were no trips still running, so we had to rent a car. Pretty much the last time we rented a car abroad was in Barcelona, when we had that crash, so it was a little bit nerve-wracking. But without a Sat Nav distracting dad, and basically just a lot of highways between us and Knossos and Heraklion, and with us all pulling together to spot the signs for where we needed to go, we made it there relatively easily. And because it was off season, it wasn't crowded, and because it was October, it was a little overcast and windy instead of baking sunshine, so it turned out pretty nicely. We got another guide, who explained some of the history and about the Minoans. It was pretty fascinating really - I couldn't always understand because of her accent plus high winds, but it sounded like the Minoans came over from Egypt, so there culture was a lot more Egyptian-influenced than Greek-influenced. It was pretty cool. Then we went to the Archaelogical Museum to see some of the artifacts they found at Knossos and other Minoan palaces and - I cannot even explain, except that the craftmanship and the detail on some of those things were insane, and just blew me away. For things made in like 2000 BC - yeah. I thoroughly recommend looking into the Minoans, if you're interested, and going to the Archaelogical Museum in Heraklion if you're going to Crete. It's all pretty amazing stuff.

And then I came home on Tuesday. And unfortunately, after getting on pretty well with both my parents for the entire week, my dad and I fell out - and I got pretty angry at him - the night we came back. Which is a shame. But other than that it was really lovely, and good weather, and a pretty interesting time. Also I swam in the sea! Which I haven't done in quite a few years. It was lovely.

And yes, now I'm back. Halloween was yesterday, and I missed most of it, between computer games and unpacking. I started playing my computer games again, and as I largely suspected before I went away, I was pretty much near the end of Dishonored and Bioshock 2, which is always an annoying place to leave it. Except actually, I wasn't expecting Dishonored to end so soon. I finished it today, but it was a little bit anticlimactic, with a lot of loose ends that didn't seem that tied up, and irritatingly, I'm assuming - I'm pretty sure - it's because they want to pad the game out with DLCs. Which is annoying after enjoying the game so much during the beginning and middle. And I haven't finished Bioshock 2, but I'm pretty clearly on the home straight. So I should be done with it before too long - and before the next game comes out. Hurrah!

I'm largely caught up on my flist, and even managed to get through my ridiculous email inbox. The other main news I have from the internet is that Evil Villains Studio made another vid about villains being villains, and I love them. It's called Monster, and it probably deserves an epilepsy warning. Also the song is a Dubstep remix, so apologies if you hate that sort of thing. This is probably the first Dubstep-y thing I actually like though, which is nice. I can finally be one of the COOL KIDS now. It's much better than Crush On You, at any rate.



HOPE YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WELL IN MY ABSENCE. I know most of you have anyway.

( 5 questions from whatho )

That was quite fun. If any of you want any questions of your own, feel free to ask, although I can't promise they'll be terribly interesting or incisive. But incisive might not be what you're looking for anyway. So ask away.

I was in Wakefield yesterday, and the day before. We had my oldest nephew on Tuesday, and my youngest nephew yesterday. I just came back from Nottingham last Sunday, and I'm going on holiday with my parents and both nephews tomorrow. I really want to do nothing today, but I probably am going to have to pack today, and possibly wash my hair. Although I'm probably just not going to wash my hair.

There's a big part of me that wants to say I'm going to stay home for the week. We've had some problems with trying to house the dog - we normally leave him at a local kennel, but we arranged for my sister to have him this year since we're taking both kids so my parents didn't book, and then last Sunday my parents took him to their house to see how he got on with my sister's dog, and my sister's partner (who'd apparently forgotten they were having the dog) said she wouldn't be able to cope with them both, now she's pregnant. My mum has been ringing up kennels and possibly the RSPCA all week, with no luck, so my sister's basically going to have to have him. But if I stayed home, I could look after him, obviously.

I probably won't though, I'll probably end up going. I'm feeling a lot better about it today than I was yesterday, and I was going to discuss it with mum today, but she's working till half 8. So. Yeah. I'm just not really looking forward to a week of looking after both kids and running around, and then getting back and having to unpack and catch up on soaps and all the programmes I've missed. Emmerdale has sort of just started getting good, with Aaron getting all self-destructive over killing his boyfriend, and Carl sort of being almost nice about it, because he obviously understands guilt over killing people. But I probably will end up going. It seems a shame to miss my youngest nephew's first holiday away with us. And I've already discussed with my parents that if I find it all a bit much I might just need to sit out of looking after them or being in the middle of things and stuff. And it's only for a week. It probably wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't just been to Nottingham last weekend, and then had two appointments this week. But it's not like I could rearrange the Riverside Festival. So there we go. Also, I probably won't need to pack much - we're going to Wales, and with the weather being like it is I'll probably be dressing much the same as I always do. And we're going to a caravan park, so it's not like I'll need to be dressing up for dinner either. So today probably won't be that bad either.

In other news, I finally got the second series of George Gently on DVD yesterday, so there's no point in watching it now. Will have to save it till after the holiday. Sigh. But I do love Single-Handed and Jack Driscoll. He's like a terminator. And I like him a lot better now he's proved he's a terrible boyfriend, because he's a good garda. Also I'm really liking Emmerdale at the moment, especially if it continues in it's current vein, even if Carl is still being a twat. Also I love Seth in Hollyoaks. Yay!

Sigh.

So. Prague. The thing is, I really want to explain in the kind of detail that will take pages and pages, and basically say everything that happened. Which I'm sure would be torturous. So I'm going to try to summarise it a bit more.

( Prague )

So. Those are my not so short thoughts and impressions of Prague. Hurrah.

Hello. I am totally still around. Now I'm going to Prague tomorrow, and I still haven't picked out any clothes to pack, packed, or tidied my room a bit like I wanted to. Eek.

I don't think it'll be too hard to pack for Prague though. We're only going for six days, and two of them are going to involve travelling, so we'll only really be there for about 4 full days. And from what I feel like I know about Prague, and what my mum has seen on the weather forecasts for there, the weather will probably be pretty much like it is in England, if not slightly worse. So I'm mostly planning on taking a few pairs of jeans, maybe some lighter trousers for if it's sunny, some t-shirts, something nice to go out in of an evening, and something to sleep in. Plus the basics, obviously.

What I have done is listened to the Adam and Joe show this morning, which came complete with a bit about Labyrinth, which was lovely because I just rewatched it the other night, so it was very apt for me; went into town today and finally bought another pair of jeans, so I now I actually do have (including the ones I'll be wearing) a 'few pairs' to take on holiday with me; I also managed to get some vests, a nice dress, and a free pair of sunglasses because I spent more than £35 at New Look (the free sunglasses started falling apart not long after I started trying to clean them, but I managed to get the little screws and put it back together, so hopefully that'll be fine); and I also went for my yearly haircut this week, and shaved my legs and underarms, as is my yearly tradition. Mostly I am pleased about my hair. It is short and doesn't get in my face as much. I would like to make a note to try to keep it this short more regularly.

I also got my period this week, not that long since my last one. But there was quite a big gap, I think, between my last one and the one before it, so it's probably fair enough. And as I said to my mum, I'd rather get it now than when I'm in Prague. So hurrah.

So yeah. I've had a fairly busy week. I've also been watching lots of stuff and having things to say about them, but not massive things to say.

One of them, though, was ( Spoilers for Silk, last week's Scott and Bailey, and now next week's Emmerdale, possibly triggery )

I also went to see X-Men: First Class last week. And I have mixed, and then changing feelings about it. ( My thoughts, spoilery )

Anyway. So those are my (apparently fairly long) thoughts on X-Men: First Class.

Right. I have other thoughts, but mostly they are about how I love Becky McDonald and I love David Platt and Gary Windass is acting a bit creepy at the moment. And other things. But I really need to go and pack. I am going on holiday tomorrow. So you probably won't hear from me until next week sometime, at the earliest. So, bye!

Oh, television did things tonight.

( Coronation Street )

( Scott and Bailey )

There's other TV I've been watching. PSYCHOVILLE IS BACK. It has been back for about three weeks now, it's more than halfway over I think. But it makes me really happy. Especially when Mr Jelly's in it. And really loves that old woman. And David and his mum are in it. Any of them could die any episode now. But at the moment they're not dead, and they're making me quite happy.

I can't think of anything else now. Mostly I'm all caught up with Hollyoaks now and watching it most days, and reading welovehollyoaks.com and loving Brendan Brady. And Seth Costello. And Ste Hay. And Jacqui. And Theresa, sort of. And Mitzeee. Well, lots of people really. Hollyoaks is still quite shit, in many ways, but I'm still quite enjoying it at the moment.

I have also been to the cinema twice in the past few weeks, after not going at all for nearly four months. I have a lot of thoughts about both films, but not really enough understanding of what I really mean to make big posts about them. I saw Attack The Block and really enjoyed it, I think in terms of race it wasn't perfect but it could have been a LOT worse. And I saw Blitz, which. Well. When I first heard about it, it sounded like a perfectly decent little chase/cat-and-mouse thriller with Jason Statham. And then I found out that Paddy Considine was in it as a gay cop, and I was pretty much sold. Then I found out that Stuart from Queer As Folk was in it, as the psycho, and apparently really good. So I was quite looking forward to it. But I didn't realise ( Vague spoilers for the general tone of the film ). Paddy Considine was still pretty good in it, though, even though I sometimes felt like they had him dressed a bit oddly. And I really liked Zawe Ashton as a fellow police officer in it, who I've just found out from imdb was both Jessica from Misfits, and Sally Donovan from Sherlock. I didn't even realise they were played by the same person. I'm rubbish sometimes. But yeah, anyway. I saw both of them. And enjoyed them to varying degrees.

In other news, my terrible week last week didn't exactly go off without a hitch. There was a bit of family drama, which I may post about later. But I'm glad it's over, anyway. I'm looking forward to this week more than I was to last week. Although I still haven't heard from the DWP about my claim for Incapacity benefit. Gulp.

In other other news, apparently I'm going to Prague in three weeks. Eek.

I went to Scarborough yesterday for the day with my parents and youngest nephew. ( Scarborough )I love Scarborough. Like, properly. I've probably said.

I've not posted since the last time I went to the seaside, I think. I had a pretty busy couple of weeks, the week that we got back we ended up having my 2 nephews (mostly separately) four times, instead of the usual two, mostly because it was the school holidays and my mum thought it would be good for them to get out of the house a bit. Also, I had said that I would get my bedroom tidied up since bringing all my stuff from Nottingham, finally, before the end of August, so it wouldn't be over six months since I moved in and still not done, and I really did want to do it. However, I largely didn't and also didn't count on having my nephews over four times instead of two, which sort of left me making a big effort last Tuesday. And I actually managed to get quite a bit done, it didn't take long, but I got a lot of stuff put out instead of sitting on the floor, and I'm pretty clear about what I need to do now to get it pretty much finished off. Um, except for the magazines, and the big box of I think magazines that I found in the wardrobe, and the drawer and big bags of magazine cuttings and pictures I should at least go through. But pretty much done. However, that was Tuesday, I think. Then I went to Leeds with mum on Wednesday, I did a bit more on Thursday, then I slept in and we had my oldest nephew again on Friday. And then I decided to give myself a rest on Saturday and Sunday, because I was starting a college course in Wakefield on Monday. And yes, I'm going to college, sort of. It's only on a Monday for four weeks, and I don't have to take notes or have a test at the end or anything, but it's interesting, and possibly worth doing if I want to get into the NHS or anything. So yes, that was Monday. Then Tuesday was Scarborough. Today I had a Jobcentre appointment, and now I'm here, making this post.

I keep meaning to post and talk about films and TV I have seen, but then I can't remember what I've seen, and it's hard when I have problems with things I've seen, or NOTHING OF VALUE TO SAY, except 'oh I love Lucy Punch' (which I do), so then I mostly give up. I was going to talk about my current love of children's nursery rhymes, having listened on the way to Devon and on the way back, and when we were going to Scarborough yesterday, to the CD my dad bought last year of them. He bought two actually, and one is slightly odd and is just weird new versions of nursery rhymes, trying to make them kind of modern and funky and is WEIRD. But the other is a mix of traditional nursery rhymes, new songs they seem to have made up themselves, and folk songs, and is sung by either a man and/or a woman with quite good voices, or a children's choir. A CHOIR. SINGING NURSERY RHYMES. They have things like Molly Malone and The Leaving of Liverpool on there, which always makes me think of cakesy, because I know it would totally be the leaving of Liverpool that grieved her. And it's just really lovely. Also at one point you were going to get a post about THINGS I HATE, including the current Strongbow adverts and people who post fic in communities and in the summary space, instead of putting a summary just put a link to a prompt on a Kink Meme, when IF THEY HAD TO GO TO THAT PAGE TO COPY AND PASTE THE LINK THEY COULD HAVE COPIED AND PASTED THE ACTUAL PROMPT AS WELL, SURELY, SURELY, SO PEOPLE DIDN'T HAVE TO FOLLOW A LINK TO FIND OUT WHAT A FIC WAS ABOUT AND THEN THAT EITHER BE A WASTE OF TIME IF THEY DIDN'T LIKE THE SOUND OF IT OR HAVE TO COME BACK AND FOLLOW ANOTHER LINK TO GET TO THE FIC, SURELY, OH MY GOD. But I thought that, on it's own, might be a bit negative.

My other big news is that last week, I think, my mother got a letter from HM Revenue and Customs, saying that she accidentally owed them £1,800, and they would have to take it out of her future tax, which is not very pleasant for her. But today, I got a letter from HM Revenue and Customs saying that I'd overpaid tax to them, and in a separate letter there was a cheque for £327 for me. Which was quite a bit lovelier.

Things I could do with this money:

• Put it into my ISA to make up for some of the savings I spent.


• Pretty much pay off my overdraft with it.


• Keep it and spend on some of the things that are coming up that I wanted to do, like Connotations, and going to see Tony Gordon in pantomime in Nottingham at Christmas, and for Christmas, as well.

Given that I have basically been hoping and planning to do those things for a while, it's probably going to be the third one. An alternative option would be to put it on one side, or into one of my accounts and keep a note of it, and save up as well and use it to pay for one of the (expensive) pieces of art I have been genuinely thinking about saving up for, for a while. But given my low income, I'm probably better off doing the third one, just at the moment, I think.

My other news: I love Nathan Wylde. And Lyndon Ogbourne. I love Nathan Wylde-Lyndon Ogbourne. I missed a bunch of Emmerdale while I was on holiday in Devon, and then most of the week after that, but I have been watching it lately and oh God. I worried for a bit that the writers were going to have Nathan become properly evil, or properly psycho, and he's kind of being a prat, but also INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL. At the moment, an increasing number of people - including Nathan's sister - are convinced that Nathan's half-brother Ryan is innocent of killing their dad (he is), that Nathan was involved in setting Ryan up (he was), and that Nathan is the one who killed their dad and his mum Natasha knows but is covering up for him (it's the exact opposite). I just managed to see last night's episode today, and HE LOVES HIS SISTER SO MUCH, AND SHE WAS LIKE 'I HATE YOU, YOU'RE EVIL, JUST ADMIT YOU KILLED OUR DAD', AND HE JUST STARTED TO CRY AND THEN BEGGED HIS MUM TO 'TELL HER I DIDN'T DO IT'. OH GOD. And he is not entirely the best actor ever, but he is PLENTY GOOD, PERFECTLY GOOD SOMETIMES.

And another person who suspects Nathan (and sort of Natasha) is Natasha's new boyfriend and business partner Declan, and Nathan hates Declan, and I slash them quite a lot. And today in one of the new soap mags Lyndon Ogbourne (who plays Nathan) said that the reason why Nathan hates him so much is because '"Nathan never got the chance to have it out with his father about what he'd done to the family"' (lying about having another wife, another life before he met Nathan's mum, a different name and stuff). '"He's been left with all this pent-up emotion, and his anger at [dad] Mark is being geared towards Declan. He just takes it out on whoever gets in his way."' AND OH MY GOD. DADDY ISSUES. ALMOST CANONICAL. AND MASSIVE. OH MY GOD. ON THE FLOOR IN A PUDDLE, PRETTY MUCH.

This time next week, I'll be in Spain. Assuming there are no more clouds of volcanic ash. At any rate, I'm not quite prepared for it. I haven't done any holiday shopping, but happily, I have been buying new tops recently. Unfortunately some of them are those new tunic tops, and I don't really have anything to go with them. But I do have tops. And some pretty new jeans. And my dad bought me some new trainers, because he wouldn't let me take my current ones which are black with flames up the side. I can't imagine why. But anyway, I've got some stuff. No swimming costume, and no night wear, really. But I'm sure I can pick something up and get it all packed by next Saturday. Probably.

A thing I have done is finally paid off my final bills from my flat, emailed the paid bills to my landlords, and got my deposit back. Which is probably the last thing I'll have to do about my old flat. My deposit turned out to be a lot more than I thought it was going to be a few months ago, at £365. My only problem now is what to do with it. It has quite nicely paid off my overdraft, so I could just leave it there and switch to a regular account that I don't have to pay £7 a month for and one I wouldn't have to pay off if I wanted to switch to another bank. But my mother has suggested putting it back into my savings account, and given how much I have been taking out of it lately, that probably wouldn't be a bad idea. OR I could keep it, and...spend it. There's a lot of nice stuff I want. Nice nice stuff. The possibilities are not endless, but difficult to choose between.

( DVD talk for a bit )

One thing I DID try to buy earlier, though, was Colour: Travels Through the Paintbox by Victoria Finlay, which I'd seen for sale at thebookdepository.com a month or so ago. I finally decided to buy it a few weeks ago, but when I went to thebookdepository.com, it was out of stock. I was worried that it wouldn't be available anywhere, but it was on sale at amazon.co.uk, and at play.com. I ordered it from play.com, and the web page said it was in stock, and 'usually dispatched within 24 hours'. I waited a week, and never got a 'We have dispatched your item' email. I thought maybe my order had gotten lost, so I cancelled it, and ordered it again. And again, I didn't get a 'We have dispatched your item' email, and when I checked the page again after a few days, it had changed to say 'usually dispatched within 6-8 weeks'.

Not wanting to lose my chance at getting it at all, I didn't cancel my order, but looked around, and found a seller on ebay.co.uk selling the books, brand new, for not much more than play.com would have charged. I ordered it - and recieved no 'We have dispatched your item' email. Something I'd ordered the day before came, the t-shirts I'd ordered from threadless.com a few weeks before came, and still no book. Finally, last Wednesday I checked my email, and there was an email saying they'd dispatched my book, and it would probably be there the next day. And sure enough, the next morning it came. But my mum has my youngest nephew over on Thursdays, so I spent most of the day with him, and then I was watching TV in the evening, and then our internet was on the blink that night. I managed to get on my dad's internet the next day, but I was meant to be going to get my oldest nephew so he could come to our house, and I forgot to go to play.com and cancel my order. That night, I went on again, went to play.com, thinking I would probably be okay since they'd said it would be 6-8 weeks. And what happened? They were bastard packing it, so I couldn't cancel the order. I can't cancel the order. So I'm going to have to wait for this book to arrive, and then send it back, which I've not done before.

Unless anyone on LJ would like a brand new book about the history of colour, and the travels of the woman researching it, for £7.49 plus postage? I haven't read it, so I can't say much about how good it is, but it looks pretty wicked. Alternatively, I will swap it for a DVD of Brotherhood. Or Danny Phantom.

Anyway. Enough of my capitalist woes. One thing I did buy without too much trouble was a little guide to British wildlife, in WH Smith reduced from £7.99 to £3. It is quite good, and I have also realised while reading it that the cutest baby animal, in my opinion, is fox cubs. Part of it is that they are adorable, part of it is the colour, and part of it the knowledge that when they grow up quite a lot of people will probably consider them vermin. But still. Fox cubs.

And I also realised that the more I learn about pikes, the less I like them. When I was at university part of our university handbook had something to say about the pike in the campus lake, and the fact that skinny-dipping wasn't a great idea given that it had been known to bite off fingers 'or other body parts'. The next year they brought out a new handbook, and made no mention of the pike. Naturally, I smelled a cover-up. I actually did a piece about it for the student radio I was involved with at the time. And the research I did on them for it gave me more than enough extra reasons to fear them. Check this out, from the new book: "The pike is a vicious predator that hunts alone. It lurks motionless amongst vegetation, waiting until its prey is close enough to reach." And, "At breeding time, the female is courted by two or more males and will eventually lay up to 500,000 eggs"(!) And, "Once they have reached three centimetres in length they begin to feed on small fish. From then on they are fully carnivourous, even eating other pike or fish the same size" (my emphasis). As far as I can tell, pikes? Are out to get us.

I was considering making this post just a big list of all the dvds I wanted to buy, but couldn't really afford. Count yourselves lucky you didn't get that.

I've just watched Dancing on Ice. Donal Macintyre is beautiful, he danced tonight to a Blues Brothers song and wore a glittery striped suit, and his partner started off wearing a glittery suit jacket too. He wasn't brilliant, he fell, but he was BRILLIANT. When the Nasty judge, Jason Gardiner, started criticising him, the audience BOOED THROUGHOUT his speech. When it came to the dance-off, Donal and Florentine were the first to be announced as safe for another week. It was a bit great. I love Dancing On Ice. Although I didn't think the right person got through the skate-off eventually.

I have to go to bed soon, because I'm working in the morning. And at a place I used to work at, so I already know it quite well, which is nice. And relieves the pressure from not earning anything for a while. Although I won't actually get paid for another two weeks, unfortunately. But hopefully in time for February's rent. I have to tell/ask them tomorrow for two days off for Redemption though. Ulp.

I had been doing some thinking over the weekend about characters I tend to like, and I was going to post about it, but I don't think I have enough time now. Oh well.

Oh! And I was also going to say that I am SUDDENLY INTO ALL THE SOAPS at the moment. There's always been Emmerdale of course, but at the moment Debbie has a massive storyline, which isn't very fair. But now I've been sucked into the Ronnie/Danielle (/I love Stacey) debacle on Eastenders, and the new violent problematic teenage boy on Coronation Street spent the entirety of Friday night stalking David Platt. Currently I'm plotting the fic where they become quite good friends AND THERE WERE NO SURVIVORS. I get the feeling this won't be good for my free time though.

The weekend was lovely. We took my nephews to the local soft play area at Xscape, and I got to climb those levelled column things, crawl through tunnels and slide on slides in the name of watching my nephew. My other nephew, whose first birthday it was, laughed for about two minutes straight because I crawled under a slide and looked at him from under it. And then we went home and had cake. It was lovely. We've said we might go mini-golfing for my birthday. I rather hope we do do that.

As an aside, that Lighthouse Holiday I was talking about the other week, turns out to be really near to Clevedon, the town where mum, dad and I got stuck when our car broke down on the way to Cornwall one year. The lovely town, which we ended up really quite enjoying, I mean to say. The lighthouse bit remains a Fantasy Holiday for the most part, but it would be nice to go down there again some day.

And, just in case I don't get another chance -

This year was the year:

• I walked with and stroked a wolf.


• I went to not my first con, but my first official, not organised by fans con. And it was wicked.


• I had Sarah over to stay. We found a cave.


• I went to see Simon Amstell (at a gig).
  
• I first had Cuban food.


• I went to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds play live.


• I went to the Eden Project (again).


• I went on holiday to St Austell, Cornwall.


• I spent 9 hours on a train doing the above.


• I did a few film courses.


• I started listening to the Adam and Joe Show on Saturday.


• I started discovering music on the radio.


• I watched Strictly Come Dancing, properly. And loved it. Even if parts of it went a bit odd.


• I watched flamenco. That was quite good.


• I loved girls and female characters. I did before, a bit, but it feels like it was more this year. And it was quite great.


• I went to Camden.


• I went to the British Museum.


• I saw a nature documentary in the cinema, for the first time I think.


• I went to the Nottingham Riverside Festival.


• I first drank cranberry juice.


• I found Alys Power.


• I watched the Dark Knight and the Joker I LOVE YOU THE JOKER.


• I spent 6 hours in a theatre, with only a one hour break, I think. For a very good production of War and Peace. That was a bit grand.


• I first went to see a Bollywood film.


• I got a new nephew. Who is walking now.


• I started keeping plants. Some are still alive, as well.


• I had my mother over to stay in my flat. Which went pretty well.


• I built my own bookcase, as I recall. From a pack from Wilkinson's. With my OWN FAIR HANDS.


• I joined the Broadway cinema as a member.


• I went to see an ice show at the Royal Centre (The Sleeping Beauty).


• I saw a DV8 production live.


• I went to a 1940s street party, even if I didn’t get to wear my 40s costume there for very long.


• I saw China Mieville.


• I saw Swan Lake, done Chinese acrobatic-style.

These are the high points obviously, but looking back, not a terrible year.