girlofprey

My dad's such a jerk. I was just watching Coronation Street (second episode only, I need to catch up at some point), and they're doing a storyline about a character's new boyfriend being a transvestite at the moment, and tonight she was going out on a date with him when he was all dressed up, and my dad literally jumped up to go do something in the kitchen, shouting something about how they'd lost 3 million viewers, and they've got a new executive producer or something, and he's friends with 'Colin' (??), and he keeps bringing in all these new stories about "homosexuals", it's all his doing, losing viewers, etc. I tried arguing with him by pointing out the number of serial killers they've had on the street over the years, only for him to say something along the lines of it wasn't him saying it, it was all in The Sun, he could show me. Twat. They've actually made Ken's gay grandson slightly more interesting tonight, although from what I've heard I don't know what the future holds for the teenage lesbians. But. It's still mostly straight characters on the soap. He just doesn't want to look at a man in a wig. It's times like these I want to tell him that I'm bisexual (if he hasn't already guessed), but shouting it in a fight doesn't seem like the best way to tell him. If I ever do. Hmph.

Anyway. I've been feeling a bit weird and restless over the last week or so. I've been going to a couple of my hometown's local festivals over the past couple of days, so that might be it. Just strung out and slightly more anxious than usual all the time. I'd like to assume it's my hormones or something, but I think I spend about half my life nowadays feeling a bit weird and assuming it's something to do with my hormones. Maybe it is. Sadly, while it has been a few weeks since my last period, I've never been terribly regular, so it's pretty impossible to tell when anything's actually going to happen. Alternatively, it might be having done all the things last week with my appeal and trying to do some volunteering that's put me a bit on edge. Or, I've been eating too much sugar lately. Possibly one of those things.

I've been watching some more Danny Phantom lately, which is an animated kids show really, but one I really like. Also, I don't think I've ever seen a show so set up for underage fic as that one. Yowza. BUT, having finished off season 1, I got onto the season 2 disc last night, only to discover - after a number of episodes that didn't seem to follow on from each other - that like the American Gothic dvds, they haven't put the episodes on it in the right order. So I have to get a list from the internet or something so I can watch them in the right order, or watch the ones I should have seen by now but haven't to start off with. Which is irritating. I never had this problem with Daria. Or only slightly.

Also, the kink memes I have been following have gone weird in a new and exciting way. Not seeing any prompts for the pairing you like is one thing. Only seeing prompts for your pairing where one of the characters is basically a Bad Guy as a plot point to set up the fic for another pairing, is another thing. Seeing prompts for your pairing where one of the characters is basically a Bad Guy in plot point fashion, but without it being to set up another pairing, or ANY other pairing, is...another thing. Hmph.

My plans for this week continue apace though. I've emailed K about possibly going to the Riverside Festival with her. She's in Berlin at the end of the month apparently, but I don't know if she's free at the beginning of August yet. And a cinema near me is showing Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 this week, which is nice because I never got round to seeing it when it came out. And I am quite interested in seeing Part 2, and seeing it in the cinemas, so. It'll be nice to be able to. Also, my DVD of Single-Handed series 1 has FINALLY arrived, and series 2 starts on Thursday. Starting with Jack Driscoll finding out a 'terrible family secret'. Oh Jack, will your family ever stop being terrible and having secrets? I shall have to watch to find out I guess (my guess is, no). So. It's not been a 100% bad week, so far.

It is so warm. It is too warm to do anything. I can't believe how warm it is.

( Some blathering about the next few weeks/months )

Anyway. So I'm doing a bit of planning at the moment. And it's very warm.

I keep meaning to post about Cornwall. Essentially the train journey down there was long but lovely, the B&B me and mum stayed in was lovely, we went to the Eden Project, which we both now have annual admission to because we donated our admission and giftaided it rather than paying it. Then we went to Charlestown, a harbour which was nearby, and paddled in the sea, and went to the Shipwreck and Heritage Museum. Then we went to the Lost Gardens of Heligan, which are lovely. Then we went to a small town called Fowey, which is lovely and more interesting than we had time to explore in the morning we were there, because we caught a ferry at midday-ish to another town called Mevagissey, which we had passed through on our way to and from the Lost Gardens of Heligan, and which was also lovely. We spent a good part of the afternoon just sitting in the harbour. We saw a seagull get, open and eat a packet of strawberry sweet sticks as well. Then we had another incredibly long train journey, though not as long as the one going down there, and we were back in Leeds. I didn't get a chance to go to the Jamaica Inn, but it was lovely, I really enjoyed it.

See yas. x

A Poll

In your knowledge/opinion, the Golden Compass movie:

• Using spoilers from the rest of the books in the trilogy?



• Making up extra stuff for their own purposes?

If it's the first one, I may actually have to avoid it, which will be disappointing.


Had flat inspection on Thursday. Didn't get all the cleaning I wanted to done, but it turns out that where things can't be cleaned, wiping is just as effective for a visual test. Sadly not everything could be wiped, but still, they haven't written any angry letters to me yet. And I like the flat being clean. It's amazing how much bigger places look when you hoover the floor. It needs a bit of a dust and the drawers tidying, and a bookcase for the books and stuff on the floor, but other than that I'm quite pleased with it at the moment.

And then last night I went to London to see Interpol play at the Alexandra Palace. I need to update LJ more often I think. ( The gig )

Then I had to get back to Cee's flat by myself at 11 o'clock at night. I had a route all planned out on the buses because I didn't particularly want to take the tube, but after getting a bit lost then finding my bus route again and having three of my buses go by packed with Interpol fans, I decided to sod it and got a bus to the tube station. It turns out the tube is packed at quarter to midnight on Fridays, or at least the ones going to Kings Cross. So it was all fine. And then this morning Cee took me for breakfast, to a lovely place that offered pancakes I failed to take advantage of. And I had a smoothie, though I wasn't expecting the tanginess of the blueberries. Then Cee went off to do some shopping, and I had a wander through Islington. Bought my own Kripy Kremes, and managed to do a bit of Christmas shopping. My schedule for the next few weeks looks like this:

This weekend - Interpol in London
Next weekend - A thing at Newstead Abbey with my parents, briefly
The weekend after - Free
The weekend after that - Last weekend before Christmas, for which I'll have just gone back to my parents

So I need to get a start on it really. Anyway. I came back to Nottingham, and missed my train so had to pay £30 for a new ticket. Which was shitty. But will at least teach me not to miss it again. And I went to see Fred Claus, with my "free" evening. It was a bit beautiful. ( Vaguely spoilery )

And now I'm home, and my mum just called to say my uncle Bill has died. Which is sad. It's sort of strange because I never really saw all that much of him and my aunt's family, or at least not recently, and he's had terminal cancer for a while. But I did see him ocassionally, and know him, and he was only 65. But them's the breaks, I guess. I mostly feel bad for my aunt. I'm going to try to send her a card, I think. Or send it to my mum to give to her. I think she's been prepared for it for a while too, but still.

There is tons of Peter/Sylar fic, and tons of Percy fic. IT'S LIKE FANDOM HAS FALLEN IN LOVE WITH ME. You'd better all hope I don't wish the goblins would take any of you away. Which I don't. Of course not.

Yesterday ( I went to Alton Towers )

Oh. Back to work tomorrow. As I say, it should be quieter now we've got all the urgent responses sent off, and, y'know, can't actually send anymore (while the guy's away), but it's still a bit stressful with the main guy not the there. It should be alright though. Mostly I just want a week off work, to sequester myself in the flat and watch all the things I want to watch and read all the things I want to read and also sleep. But. I guess the day off on Tuesday will have to do.

Heroes is starting again tomorrow! Though I probably won't be able to watch it till Tuesday. I wasn't quite prepared for this. Probably I can let myself read about the new S2 Heroes in the SFX special now. Yes.

( These are the spoilers I know )

( The New Statesman )

Back to work tomorrow. Boo.

Today wasn't quite like I expected it to be.

The day I expected:

Getting into the office at 8:30 for a calm, relaxed few hours, where nobody really did anything because it was Christmas and only a half day, and mostly I'd spend chatting with the office ladies, both of whom would be in early, joking and winding down. Leaving at 11:30 to go to a local tapas restaurant for the Christmas lunch at 12, with interesting food constantly on offer and plenty of people to talk to in a relaxed atmosphere outside of work. Getting home at about 2-ish and just savouring the fact that I didn't have to work again till Christmas, and never had to do filing there under my dad's watchful eye again.

The day that actually happened:

As fellow office lady Brenda predicted, the last day before Christmas was the day when everyone scrambled around trying to get everything finished before they left. Possibly EVERY LOOSE SHEET on people's desks was put in the filing trays, and they were also tidying their desks, which meant putting files away WHEREVER in the filing room. Except I didn't get a chance to do any filing, because people were constantly asking me to do letters, amend reports they hadn't actually said they wanted done by the end of the day, and type things up. One office lady didn't get in till 11 o'clock, as usual, and they were both busy as hell until we left. About 40 or 50 of us, it turned out, were going for this lunch, and everyone was mostly in their departmental clumps, so I ended up talking to/sitting with my dad most of the time.

Christmas lunch in a tapas restaurant is VERY DIFFERENT from going out for dinner at a tapas restaurant. It took us about an hour to stop drinking and go get sat down. Then another half hour for them to bring out some food. But there were only three things, and when they were finished no-one was sure whether there was going to be anything else, because no-one had a copy of the set menu. Till SOME HERO found one a bit later. So we all sat around, ordering more drinks, not sure if it would be more worth our while to leave as food had ended. But eventually they brought out more stuff, and it was nice, but no-one was sure when things came if more was coming, or if the next thing would be something they liked, so they basically filled up on each thing, and ended up feeling sick. It was a NERVE-RACKING ADVENTURE with spicy potatoes. Then it turned out there was no pudding with this lunch. NO PUDDING. But then half an hour after they'd cleared away the plates they brought out coffee and dessert menus, and it turned out we could HAVE dessert, but we'd have to put it extra on the company tab. We did. Dessert was mainly cheescake and ice-cream. I picked cheesecake.

And then, half an hour later, they brought it, and half an hour after that people had finished and been pleasantly drunk for awhile, and dinner was over, and dad and I decided to leave. Not before dad got some ribbing because of the story I accidentally told about how at last year's work lunch I didn't hear from him till 7.30, when he phoned me up drunk to tell me he was getting on a train, then an hour later to tell me he'd got on a train, and it went to Sheffield, and had waited and got on another train, and it went to Sheffield, but now he was definitely on the right train and would be home soon. It was agreed that mum should be on the platform waiting just in case he was asleep. He was. I assumed, since it was a work do, that they would all know about this. Wrong. Anyway. So we left, and people kept asking if I was staying for another drink, and was I going now?, and why wasn't I coming out drinking with them afterwards?, and I just felt SO AWFUL that I wasn't going to stay out with these nice people who I'd worked with for 7 months and would probably never see again. And apparently liked me. One girl seemed to get a bit emotional about it. I'm always mostly suprised when people like me, because people tend to be quite quiet about that kind of thing, and can still seem to feel a bit awkward talking to you. And I guess because I'm quite quiet, and mostly assume people haven't noticed me. It's nice to find out that people do - but sad that it tends to happen when you're leaving them.

But it was a nice day. The food was different, and interesting, and I learned the sheer miracle of garlic mayonnaise on crusty bread, and they got me a leaving card, and dad and I had a writing war on the restaurant paper tablecloth. And it was fun. Sadly on the way home I was struck not so much with relief that I didn't have to work again till Christmas and never again filing/being bored there, as with complete cluelessness what I was going to do with myself for the next few days. And what I was going to do after Christmas/New Year's about getting a job. And if I EVER WOULD. Mostly I have calmed down now, and can think of plenty of things to occupy my time for a week or so, like looking constantly for jobs on Gumtree. And I can always start volunteering again, to keep busy, if I don't get a job right away. So. It's fine. Really. Probably. Mostly I'm going to catch up on film magazines and watch DVDs and THAT'S THE PLAN, DUDES. And my first job is (hopefully) over. Hmm.


In the evening I went for chocolate and helped mum with her Christmas card deliveries. On our way we saw the WORST CHRISTMAS DECORATION EVER. It was two trees in someone's garden with those tubes of lights things, that seem to move and flash? Except they were both red, and flashed like strobe lights, and at funny angles, and it just looked like two DEVIL TREES, and it was the worst thing ever. Also the streets were icy, and my mother showed almost no care for this fact when having me dash silently to her friend's doors and then away so we wouldn't be seen. Like Christmas ninjas. Escaping SATAN'S WONDERLAND.

Something worth mentioning: the traditional winter pastime of trying to get into the car without getting antifreeze on your gloves. Ah.

So that was my day. Mostly I am glorying in the fact that I don't have to get up tomorrow morning. Or do anything much besides wrap presents and watch DVDs. And that hunt for a job thing.

I remember the days when I thought when I finally didn't have essays to do, I could just relax and enjoy Christmas. Remember them fondly.

I have once again arranged to go away for the weekend and by Thursday night completely forgotten to pack. When I need to get up early for a lift again tomorrow morning. Sigh. At least I have a few CDs worth of the Smiths to get me through this stressful time. And a vague rememberance of what was useful and not-useful last weekend. Ah, the Smiths.

Also I need to fill in and send off my Green Wing convention acceptance sheet. And write my "Christmas list" so my parents have some idea what to get me. Given that it's December in two weeks. Eek.

So yes, by the way, I will probably be offline until Monday, maybe by Sunday night. I hope to see a good play, my friends, and possibly Casino Royale by the time I get back. Hurrah.

It would be sort of helpful if LJ posted paragraphs as they were written, on posts like this, effectively combining possible interaction and composition time.

Anyway. I also watched the last three episodes of American Gothic. ( Brief thoughts )

And now. I need to pack.

Whee, I got my DW Vol.4 DVD today. The only bit of new Who I plan to buy (sorry and all). It would please me more if it was the Satan Pit two-parter and Idiot's Lantern so I could be all omgmylove at The Wire, but it has Toby with writing on him and Marc Warren, so that is alright good.

Went to the park with mum and Jack. In the scum corner of the lake we saw another dead bird, which this time was a duckling. Just when I thought it couldn't hurt me anymore. We let Jack run wild in a field to show him we were okay with it when there was no danger, and he actually got quite far before realising we weren't chasing him, and came whimpering back to get us. Also we fed the ducks, and an evil swan was there, but somehow we survived, so hurrah.

Going to the cinema later with mum, to see My Super Ex-Girlfriend. It figures the time I finally gave up and was going to trundle down there on my own she offered to come with me (it is exceedingly hard to get my parents to come to the cinema with me/do anything). Possibly I will have thoughts on that later. Or just mockery.

Also last night some people of the flist went a bit wobbly, and I was going to comment but it was this morning so possibly crisis averted, but just to say I SYMPATHISE, and want to hear that poetry. So yes. You get a brief endnote of my love. Treasure it.

Liquorice festival today. For all of an hour. Once again, the highlight was pretty much buying an ice-cream from the ice-cream van, but it was still a nice change, and sunny. Perhaps too sunny. I am decidedly pink in the arms. Still. I learned that rum truffle tastes like rum, and should probably be left alone if you don't like such, and am currently in possession of TINY CELTIC WARRIORS, and a Green Man carved from British Coal. Mostly he looks like a scary cobweb face man, but I wanted a coal dragon last year and didn't get one, so at least I have closure on that. Oh, and mum randomly suggested she and I might go to Venice for a weekend at some point this summer. Which is yay :)

There were less people than last year, but also less semi-animated street drama about cafes and the death of a beloved mouse. But then a local brass band started up, and made most of the day worthwhile. Why will no-one teach me to swing dance? Oh why?

And now I'm home, and Katie and Mick are downstairs, and lalala. The weekend of semi-fun is over, and must rely on Emmerdale and gay sex, for entertainment. THANKS SO MUCH, UNIVERSE.

(Except that - thank you.)

My town are having a bit of a festival weekend. It's our night to have Jack, so we took him to see what the Enchanted [Blank] Gardens in our local public gardens was. As it turns out, an ice-cream van, some plastic birds, and a pop opera version of King Arthur. It was a bit like Wagner, but not. Think Malory meets The Tribe. Mordred and Morgan wore dark purple satin corsets/shirts, so you knew they were EBIL!!!1, and there was the use of thyme to illustrate line about time. That was special. Mostly we didn't get to watch any because Jack was busy running around in circles, and through broken glass. Then we just left. Somewhat disenchanted. So we played at a petrol station till dad came to pick us up. It's the Medieval Day tomorrow. So at least I'll get to practise my Old English skills.

On Emmerdale, hardly anyone died, except people I don't care about. Shame. Mostly Carl ran around looking fetching in a rumpled, filthy white shirt, covered in grime, calling for his brother, breaking down into racking sobs, and trying to ignore the fact that all the emergency rescue people were blatantly flirting with him. Curiously, he and Chas (his fiancee) were far apart - him looking for Jimmy, her looking for her dad. And the ambulance woman referred to her as his girlfriend. Probably this doesn't mean they're really gonna go for the gay incest plotline. But a girl can theorise. Anyway. Carl and Matthew and their dad had a little King huddle at the end. I am agog at what will happen in the coming weeks.

I have pringles. Ha ha!