girlofprey

• Did anyone watch X Factor at all tonight?? CHRISTOPHER MOLONEY'S EYES OF DEATH WILL KILL US ALL.



• In unrelated news, I recently spent weeks trying to work out who the posh woman in The Paradise is and meaning to look it up. Only to find out yesterday that she's Abby Mills from Harper's Island. HER ACTING STYLE IS VERY DIFFERENT IN THE PARADISE. No wonder I didn't connect the two roles.

I went to Thought Bubble in Leeds today. I do love Thought Bubble. I spent quite a lot, as usual, but it's only once a year. And some of the artists you never see there again. I still wish I'd picked up a poster from Sister Claire's artist the first year. But oh well. My dream is to one day have enough money left from buying books to be able to buy some of the art on sale there. Because it is quite beautiful. But a lot of the artists, at least, do seem to come back year after year, I guess because doing commissions at a con is often pretty good business for them. But before any of you think about judging me, I would just like to point out that the guy who does Romantically Apocalyptic was there, and he was selling his books for £40 each. And I was sort of tempted to get one, because they're always going to be £40, and this way at least I would save on shipping. But I didn't! I just spent at least £40 on OTHER books!

Also, I got a cuddly Mameshiba. Which I adore. I didn't even know you could buy them.

I also got a letter from the DWP today. Well, I got 3 letters. The first was to tell me that they were going to pay me through my appeal, £61 a week from 12th October. The second was to tell me that they were going to pay me through my appeal, £61 a week from 18th October. The third was to tell me that since they were going to pay me through my appeal, they were going to need doctor's certificates again, so I should get one into them by 12th October. So yes. They're planning to pay me, at least. I don't know exactly how it's going to work with the doctor's certificates, but before I stopped needing them (for a bit) they were happy to just give continuing ones that I could pick up from the reception, without needing to see a doctor. Obviously I haven't been getting them for a few months now, but given that my condition is ongoing, maybe they'll be willing to do another continuation again? And if they are going to - or even if they're not going to - I might be able to ask them to backdate it, since, as I say, my condition is ongoing. I don't know. I'll need to call them this week. But at least the DWP are happy to pay me. And I'd still like to check with an advice organisation that they won't have any leverage to ask me for it all back if I lose my appeal, so I can feel comfortable spending it, but I don't think they will. It would make the ESA and appeal process even more unfair if they could do things like that. So hopefully, I'll at least have some money coming in for the next few months (although not as much as I did before, unfortunately).

Kate Beaton was supposedly at Thought Bubble. But when I went by her stall in the afternoon she wasn't there (that I could see), and there was nothing on sale that I particularly wanted to buy. And when I went by again before I left, just for the novelty of seeing her in the flesh, there was a sign on her stall saying she wouldn't be back for another 45 minutes. A more suspicious person would suspect maybe she wasn't there at all. But she probably was. Just away from me.

ILLUSIONS, Michael.

Hello. It's me. I didn't get stuck somewhere on the way back from Connotations, I just haven't been posting. I'd like to apologise again about the lack of posting or commenting. Sorry about that.

But I did go to Connotations. I took longer than I probably needed to getting to Lancaster on the Thursday and then drove up with jekesta, alicamel and calapine on Friday. The hotel screwed us over slightly by booking boxing as well as the con on the Friday night so we had to have the first couple of panels in a weird hot room where we normally have vid shows or pimping, but jekesta and I had a lovely double room, with a view of the beach from the bathroom, and a view of the sea and what turned out to be a seal enclosure at the aquarium next door from the main room, although we didn't find out about the seal enclosure thing until we were just about to leave. I've forgiven the hotel so many things because it was near the beach. But the next day we were back in the main room for panels, so it was a bit better. And we had panels and discussed fanfic trends and minority pairings and femslash and we played slash pictionary and there was cake and I watched some of Spirited Away and I learned about huge fannish events that I hadn't noticed at the time and one of the panels was slightly livened up by a bee and we played slash trap, which is AWESOME, even if we didn't ever get the Tyler/El Blanco High School AU I was hoping for. And I had a great time, Connotations hurrah!

On the Monday after we checked out, jekesta, calapine and nerdcakes and I all went to aquarium down the road as well. We saw beautiful fish, and a shark, and some seals doing the best chasing and twirling in the water ever. I fear I might have been slightly ruined for any other aquarium, because I don't think any of them could ever have such great seal chasing and twirling again. Oh well.

Also I won Sirius Black and a red flower thing in the Connotations raffle. Hurray.

Since then I have managed to a) catch up on some of the things I didn't watch or listen to while I was at Connotations, b) get into town twice before the shops closed to buy (cheapish) things I didn't need, c) go to the Goose Fair with my parents and oldest nephew, which was pretty great, I had Rocky Road fudge and a freshly (cooked? baked?) made doughnut, d) pay the rent with money I'm going to have to borrow off my parents till my housing benefit comes through, and e) catch up on some of the things I didn't watch while I was out at the Goose Fair. I know. CHECK OUT THE ACHIEVEMENT. Tonight I'm aiming for f) apply for at least one job and g) fill in my Jobseeker's diary, and then tomorrow for h) get up in time for my Jobseeker's appointment, i) go to my Jobseeker's appointment, and j) try to sort out getting some money from my ISA so I can pay my parents back the money I owe them. Who knows.

In the meantime: ( Harper's Island, spoilers up to 1.10 )

Anyway. Back to those things I have to do.