girlofprey

I went to Wakefield and Leeds today, and I bought some earrings and some nail polish. And I tried on some perfume from Lush. It's very nice, but it turns out for a proper bottle of Lush perfume it costs about £32. And even the atomiser costs £15. Also, Jon Burgerman has designed a new tin for Lush which has bath bombs in it. This also costs about £30. Hhrrrghksjdfkdsj.

Anyway. Other things I have done as well as watch Harry Potter:

• Watched the last episodes of Case Histories. Sniff. ( Vague character spoilers that no-one will probably care about )



• Watched the first two episodes of Single-Handed. Sometimes when I am busy loving Jack Driscoll, I forget how genuinely really bleak Single-Handed is. It reminded me in these episodes. And now they have another evil ex-Garda come in to make the community more awful and make Jack Driscoll's life hell. And this one doesn't even love him, like his father. Jack's life is truly awful.

I've been thinking a bit about my fandoms lately. Especially with Connotations coming up and everything. At the moment, they mostly seem to be soaps, webcomics, and weird British/UK detective shows. And films, sometimes. I don't know what the detective shows thing is at the moment, possibly just the fact I've been watching a lot this spring. Most of them don't even have an obvious pairing. At the moment, my head is like a weird little detective agency. Filled with very competent people, who will get the job done, but might just fuck everything up and fuck their own lives up while doing it. Still, at least they have EACH OTHER. Which is often more than they have on their own shows.

Maybe I should focus on Danny Phantom, which has actual fic, and only has ghost, murder and underage issues.

Although I did watch Coronation Street tonight. They made Ken's gay grandson a calculating conman, and then GOT RID OF HIM. I know it's good to have positive gay portrayals on TV, but given that a lot of soaps now have gay and lesbian characters, I'm quite ready to see something outside the general gay and lesbian characters they have. Like villains. Hollyoaks has had a gay gangster for ages, and I know it's Hollyoaks, but they're doing quite well with it. Anyway. But no. He's gone now. Also, Gail got all jealous over people trying to date Nick again (I think they have to stop doing that, at some point. Or make it canon). And Gary is going crazy, and Izzy has to put up with it. Oh well.

Also, I watched a bit of Emmerdale last night and tonight, and I feel like I might be able to start watching it again. Except, as well as pairings which are just sort of starting out and then someone dies, one of the most annoying things for me is watching one half of one of my OTPs just be swanning around without the other one. I think that's half the reason I still go on about Toby De Silva and Toby/Jordan sometimes - because I watch Casualty sometimes nowadays, and Jordan is STILL THERE, being really clipped and brisk and slightly short with his colleagues, and then maybe finding out he was wrong and having to go apologise to them, and running the department on his own no matter what problems arise. And it's so easy to just imagine how much better things would be if he had Toby just quietly standing next to him, watching him, and when he'd had an argument with someone smoothing things over, even if just with his presence. And doing spare paperwork, and being lovely with the patients. And Jordan would have someone supporting him, and someone to take care of, and someone to shout at sometimes eventually leading to a heartfelt apology while Toby didn't look at him. And it just feels very much like it would improve his life. I once had a plotbunny, when all the actors and/or staff were leaving Casualty, about Toby coming back for some reason and finding Jordan running the department literally single-handed, except for maybe the paramedics bringing patients in, and helping to run it with him. That was a lovely plotbunny.

Anyway. My point is that it's weird watching Declan wander around and get on with his life when Nathan isn't there. And how much EASIER his life would be if he had Nathan to mock and argue with, and then jump in to help maybe when Nathan did something TRULY ridiculous. However, Declan's awful wife and not that brilliant daughter are apparently leaving soon. Maybe that will make things easier. Mostly I want Carl to have pushy, not-explaining-the-whole-truth arguments with Aaron about murder, and how at least Aaron had a good reason. But I don't think Emmerdale is going to give me that somehow. Hmph.

I'm sorry if any of this is coming out weird. I didn't get much sleep last night, and now my head and eyes hurt. I am TYPING THROUGH THE PAIN.

Oh God I love Toby De Silva and I miss Toby De Silva. I can't believe that Nick Jordan came into it just to be ill and sort of get rid of Toby, when THE OPPOSITE should have been true. I go through periods of forgetting about Toby and Nick Jordan, and then periods of remembering and thinking about AUs where Nick is a vampire who gets captured by a vampire-hunting sect that Toby's sort of involved with and they want him to tell them about other vampires, and just to mess with them he tells them he'll only talk to Toby. And thus follows Toby's attempts to interrogate him while Nick messes him around and plots his escape and sort of seduces him through the bars, and then they FALL IN LOVE. I went looking for old Casualty episodes on Youtube tonight, and I found tons of them. Here is the part of the first episode where they meet (starting at 2.47). OH GOD. TOBY JUST FREEZES AND NICK JUST STARES AT HIM AND DRAGS THE PAIN OUT AND THEN LATER SMIRKS ABOUT HAVING FOOLED A YOUNG DOCTOR AND TAUNTED OTHERS WITH HIS BAG OF MYSTERY. Oh God. They do have plenty of good pairings on TV and in soaps sometimes, but I still can't help feeling they MISSED A TRICK with Toby and Nick.

Toby's SO PRETTY. I can't believe he hasn't just been on TV or in plays CONSTANTLY since leaving Casualty. He didn't even get to be ( Sort of identity spoiler for Sherlock 1.03 ), and THAT COULD HAVE BEEN AMAZING. Oh. ALSO THERE IS ANOTHER MATTHEW NEEDHAM OUT THERE STARRING IN PLAYS AND SUCH. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? It makes tracking him down VERY DIFFICULT. I ONLY ASK TO KNOW WHAT PLAYS HE IS IN, IF ANY. That's all dudes. God.

Hello. It's me. I'd like to apologise again, really, for my general lack of posting nowadays. This time I have an actual excuse though, as I've been at my parents' for the week. I went down for Halloween, and then stuck around for my dad's birthday on Bonfire Night. And then a bit longer. But anyway, I'm back now.

( Things I did while I was at my parents', mostly )

I don't think I mentioned, before I went to my parents', I went to Blackpool for a day last week. It was my mother's idea - me, my sister, her and my two nephews went and stayed in a Bed and Breakfast for the night last Thursday, while my nephew was on half term, so they could see the illuminations. It was quite great, even if we didn't get very much done the next day. And then I ran back to Nottingham to see Simon Amstell on Friday night. Which was great. I HAVE HAD A BUSY WEEK. BUSY BUT GREAT.

Lilliput Lane are doing pieces based on Yorkshire Heritage buildings (or just Yorkshire buildings) at the moment. I didn't know they did actual places that exist. It's almost enough to make me want to get some. The Peter Jones in my home town promised there was a Wakefield Cathedral piece somewhere, but it wasn't anywhere on the shelf. That's just teasing, really.

Note to self: be less rubbish.

Which I'm working on, honest. Lots of things happened this week. I came back from a con. My debit card did need things doing with it so I could use it, it turned out. I went to see a dance thing on Thursday, which was great. I had to do food shopping on Thursday as well, which was less great. I found out I'd been paid by cheque two weeks in a row, and I can only assume I got something from Jobseeker's Allowance this time, because otherwise I don't know why I'd have had money in my account. Things went off all at once, sort of.

Plus there was Coronation Street. And I was thinking, there should be cons in lighthouses. And cons on canalboats. The only thing that stops me thinking that's a grand idea is the fact that you can only fit about six people in a lighthouse or on a canalboat. Unless you had a small fleet of canalboats. You could hold panels in the pubs the con passed on their way. The lighthouse you can't really get round. Unless people were willing to sleep on the beach.

My current favourite idea about Coronation Street is the one where Tony Gordon notices David Platt hanging around being evil and unemployed, and decides he needs a new underhanded PA. David would have to do filing and wear a suit all over the place, and he could silently lord it over Gary that he had a job. Then at some point Tony would find out that David used to be a hairdresser, and would need him on hand AT ALL TIMES, just in case he has an emergency meeting or someone he needs to impress, and has to look his best. Hairdressing is one of my favourite things that David does, and I didn't really actually watch it back then when he was working in a salon, maybe he has no skills but was just very good at sweeping up hair. In my mind he can at least do a trim pretty well. Eventually Tony would probably take Gary on as a new bullyboy/"assistant", but would still want him to look his best, and David would have to cut Gary's hair as well. While fuming. It is an idea I quite love. A lot.

Select-A-Disc is closing down in Nottingham. That's really quite sad, but it does mean they're having a closing down sale. I made a couple of discounted music purchases. It's a shame though. When it closes, Fopp will be the only music/dvd alternative in town to HMV or WH Smith or somewhere. And I do quite like Select-A-Disc. Oh well.

The TV Choice has a little headline on the cover for Casualty this week saying "Jordan's BIG mistake". LETTING GO OF TOBY, is clearly the answer to that one. Maybe this is the week he realises.

I LOVE YOU TOBY DE SILVA, I LOVE YOU.

I'd heard that he did some things that were less than socially great this week, and I thought they might be a bit awful, but I didn't expect it to be BRILLIANTLY AWFUL, HILARIOUSLY GREAT. I thought that he might try to kiss Jordan, and wasn't sure how that would go, but no, they settled for brilliant interaction instead. It was all a bit good.

I made an executive decision not to come back to my parents' on Friday last Friday, and went to see Twilight (also a bit brilliant but more awful) instead, and tried to get my Christmas cards done and pack instead. I did not get my Christmas cards done, sorry about that. I came home on Saturday instead, and started my period on the train. Thankfully I had Mefanemic acid tablets in my bag, but I did pretty much spend the rest of the day on the couch. On Sunday, my mum had some friends over who live in Majorca and she hasn't seen in a few years, and over the course of the conversation you could hear her voice going, and I felt like I had a bit of a tickle in mine. The next day I woke up with a sore throat and a cough. But, we were going to see the Snow Queen in Leeds that night, and I had to do a bit of Christmas shopping still so I was going early. Except that I didn't go early, and you had to go into town to get the bus now, and I had to go to the cashpoint to get money, and then the next bus was twenty minutes late. So in the end I only had about an hour to do my shopping, and they had closed down or apparently ripped out a lot of the places I knew in Leeds or wanted to go to. But I got my nephews' presents and went to see the Snow Queen, which was good. And Laurel from Emmerdale was there, which was good as well.

On Tuesday, my mum said she was going into town and then maybe to Junction 32, a nearby outlet village afterwards, did I want to come? And there were a few things I wanted still, so I said yes. But town was packed, half the stuff mum wanted wasn't there, being outside did nothing for my cough so I kept spluttering up and down the aisles (and sometimes she did too), and having to stop off to buy big bottles poof water, and then in Tesco's I had to wait with the trolley while she went to put another ticket on the car, and then when we finally got to the checkout, the gammon she'd got instead of one of the £28 ones from Marks and Spencer’s, had lost the seal on it's film lid, and she and the checkout got covered in honey glaze and possibly gammon juices. When I went back to get another, four of the five left had had the seal on their lids broken, and I too got a bit coated in honey glaze. But after we packed the stuff and got disinfected and the checkout was cleaned, we managed to get home. But by this point my cough and the headache it had caused and probably the five hours of sleep I'd had were making me feel quite ill, so I laid on the couch under my coat with the fire turned up for about an hour. We decided not to go to Junction 32.

Wednesday was fine. I wanted a bath in the evening, but my mum needed to go to my sister's to take my nephews' presents (from my sister and her partner) round, and I went with her ad helped her deliver some cards, then had to stay up wrapping presents. I still had a cough, but it was okay.

Then it was Christmas! My mother got me up, and I cam down and we exchanged gifts. I have a digital radio which informs me it is a Rock digital radio, mainly for Rock, and some DVDs and a Radley purse, and a CD and a book of photography. It's all very good. We watched films about Santa, and then just as dinner was about ready, my sister called and said she and the boys and her partner were ready. They came round, and Jack and Ryan had their presents from my parents and me, and then we had dinner, and then we played with the toys as a family, and hurray, Christmas. Still a bit of a relief when they all left though.

They came back yesterday for Boxing Day, and it was a bit more fraught, but it was fine. We played with Jack's new scalextric, and he took some pleasure in switching cars when people were beating him or his car went off the track.

But it was fun, and we did have a good time, and we've certainly had worse Christmases. I had to go off every bow and then to cough and try to breathe a bit better, but it's mostly gone now. But other than that, it was all pretty good.

I hope the rest of you had great Christmases, and holiday seasons generally. I grope the food was good and the presents were great and the company was similarly great. Merry Christmas!

If I was running Yuletide, there would be way more Emmerdale and Casualty and Green Wing fic than there is. But I'm not.

Also, I love David Morrissey. I hate Doctor Who. Hurrah.

And in the end, I voted for NO-ONE, because I am an IDIOT and can't remember SIMPLE FACTS.

Anyway. Pizza was nice though.

( Casualty )

Austin Healy as well. I love him. I love his comments of gay, and how he attracts comments of gay. Did anyone watch It Takes Two yesterday? ( Spoilers )

So.

I spent a good part of last week off work sick, with period pains, and it's unfortunate that came just before the job finished. I went to the doctor and picked up some methanoic acid, although apparently Ibuprofen (which I assumed had pretty much the same effect as paracetamol) might have been a first place to start. But I have it now, so I'll see how things go next month.

I was unemployed for a whole day today. And slept in and didn't have a shower till the middle of the day. Which was fairly fitting.

I don't actually mind the prospect of a week off, except for the fact I won't be getting paid and don't have much money I need to go to the bank some time this week and sort out the transfer of my account from a Student account. Which they seem to have now spotted.

Yesterday, I made a bit of a step away from Tesco's, after a year or two of saying I wasn't going to shop there anymore. It turns out they're selling some shark fin products in their Thailand stores, and that struck me as a reason to finally boycott them. The problem is, the next nearest big supermarket is Sainsbury's, which is on a road parallel to mine, and there are no direct buses to it from my road. So it's a bit of a walk, or a matter of bus-hopping. But I did it yesterday, so we'll see how it goes. I haven't decided if it's actually more expensive at Sainsbury's or not.

Incidentally, Lush are now doing Shark Fin Soap (not made of sharks' fins), a portion of whose profits go to the Sea Shepherd organisation, which are now involved with shark conservation apparently. If anyone's interested in funding shark conservation while buying toiletries. It smells nice too. Lemongrass, I think.

In other news:

• I really love the new Eastenders advert. Although that could be because of Stacey in a maid's outfit.



• I love Toby De Silva. So much. He is BEAUTIFUL.



• You can buy In Deep DVDs at some Australian website. Who knew?