girlofprey

,My mouse really needs to start scrolling when I tell it to. Also, to stop scrolling when I haven't told it to.

Anyway. Just to make it clear, the thing that happened in Coronation Street on Monday is the extent of the spoilers I know. Other than a vague thing my mum said she read about when the storyline might end.

( Coronation Street, including mentions of a rape storyline )

Bbrrrr, in other news I got two things in the post today. One was a letter from the House of Commons, which is what my MP tends to send me when I send her 38 Degrees emails about the NHS. It is sort of interesting to see her different reactions to the different emails I send. If I send something about a relatively minor issue, I get an email with a PDF from (seemingly) someone in her office. I send her an email about something bigger, like the NHS, I get a signed letter from the House of Commons. Naturally, I assume it's because she feels more strongly about certain issues than other, rather than just because she wants to seem like she is. Naturally. The other thing was a new bank card. Which was kind of nice, because I've been moping a bit about my old (now) bank card running out this May, and how once that was YEARS away. So it was sort of nice to have that suprisingly pre-empted by suddenly getting a shiny new one. And the new one doesn't run out until 2015, which is YEARS away! Although it's a bit weird that it's only three years, given that I'm pretty sure I had my old bank card since university, and I graduated from there in 2006. Maybe Barclays have plans for even shinier, newer bank cards they want everyone to have in 2015. In any case, YEARS away. Although now I do have to remember a new card number and security code whenever I want to buy things online.

In other other news, it is March, the year of my birth. The daffodils are starting to come out. And it really is quite nice to have a nature sign that your birthday is coming soon. However, it has got a few problems with it. Number one, I'm trying to do the Black March thing - harder when you remember that 'entertainment items' also include books - so I really don't know what to ask for/get on my birthday. It's not really that big a deal, because my birthday's on the 27th, so it's only a few days after that until it's April, when I could buy anything I wanted again. But it might be slightly weird to either just get money or not get something I actually WANT on my birthday, unlike pretty much every other year.

Te other problem is whether or not I want my sister to be involved in my birthday celebrations. I don't, but actually excluding her might be a bit difficult and awkward. I didn't go to anything to do with her birthday last year, but I do think it's a bit different choosing not to go to a family member's birthday party, than not letting them come to yours. The thing is that I normally do at least see the kids on my birthday, and my sister and her partner are usually there to look after them if nothing else. So I'd probably have to exclude them as well. Which I don't especially mind, but it still might be a bit weird. I've already talked to mum about it, and she's acting like she can't understand why I'd WANT the kids to come to any birthday dinner or whatever of mine at all, as if I, my parents, the kids and my sister haven't all been out somewhere together on every other birthday of mine. Last year my parents and I went out for a meal, just the three of us, on one night for my birthday, but I'm pretty sure we went out somewhere for dinner with my sister and the kids the next day as well. And we usually have them over or go over to theirs for cake on people's birthdays. Although I don't think I've been the last couple of times we did that. So I don't know. I don't really want her there, and I'm not ready to start pretending things are alright between us again - if I ever will be - but it's seems like it's going to be awkward actually saying she can't come. I don't know, maybe it won't be. Maybe she won't care, and it won't even come up. Not having the kids around might be another issue though.

I'm back.

I asked my mum to get me some ice-cream when she went to the supermarket, for my throat, even though we weren't a hundred percent sure the fridge was fixed, and we'd had to defrost the freezer before the man came to fix the fridge, and even if they were both working they weren't back to normal yet, so I had nowhere to store it. I figured that would be fine, since I tend to eat the whole tub in one go, or in one day, at least, so we wouldn't need to store it. However, my mum came back with it at tea-time, with it already going soft and no way to store it until after tea-time. So I've just had to eat a whole tub of ice-cream now, in one go, and I will be having my tea whenever I don't feel too sick to eat it. But hopefully at some point before I go wash my hair tonight. My forward planning: Needs some work.

In other news, cakesy recently introduced me to the joy and wonder that is Ripper, and the walkthrough by The Spoony Experiment, a game 'based' on the Jack the Ripper killings, but set in 2040, starring Wolf from The 10th Kingdom, and Christopher Walken. It's most of what I've been thinking about for the past couple of days. I decided I slashed Quinlan (Wolf) and Magnotta (Christopher Walken), have been spending some time fighting my way through acting which is not the finest and slightly all over the place characterisation to think of scenarios for them. Mostly they involve handcuffs. And police custody. Because I am unimaginitave.

It also made me think of one of my favourite games from my childhood, with fairly similar graphics, Escape From Horrorland. And sure enough, I found a walkthrough for it online. The walkthrough isn't the best, partly because the woman doesn't always remember what to do (which I do), so you have to watch her figure it out, and partly because apparently she can't really see the graphics very well on her computer, which makes doing the visual puzzles - interesting. But hands down the best part is when a vampire lady turns up, and the woman says "oh I love her, she's so pretty. She always reminds me of Isabella Rosselini, although obviously Isabella Rosselini is way to good to do this game." And then we get a close-up of the woman's face, and she's all "....What? Is that Isabella Rosselini? Is that actually Isabella Rosselini??!" BECAUSE IT IS TOTALLY ISABELLA ROSSELINI. ISABELLA ROSSELINI WAS ALL OVER ESCAPE FROM HORRORLAND. And then Jeff Goldblum turns up, and shit goes down. It's pretty special. The other best bits are obviously the bits with Madison Storm (swoon). But I'll stop boring you with tales of my adolescent crushes on evil scientists now.

Hmm. In other news, I don't even know what's going on with my money anymore. I've not been keeping that tight a hold on it, I've made trips to Lancaster and bought a number of Threadless t-shirts. Which is really Threadless' fault for repeatedly reprinting designs I used to like. But anyway. Every time I go to the bank machine and check my balance, I expect it to be like £100, or perhaps £0. But every time I go back, it's still around £250. That's roughly what it was yesterday anyway. I suppose I got my grandma's pocket money at the end of the month. Which suggests I'm still due an Employment Support Allowance payment (I hope) roughly tomorrow. Hmm. I'm not really complaining. It's just weird not knowing where it's all coming from. Again, not complaining though. It does make me worry about spending it wisely, now that I have it. I still need to buy a second pair of jeans, and register for Connotations. And there's an MP3 player in WH Smith that is £30 reduced from £60 (if it's still there), since my old one is broken. So maybe I can make a commitment and buy some stuff, finally. Although I should also be saving up for this holiday in a few weeks, I guess. Hmm. And there's a woman I've found an etsy who does lovely little art illustrations of cartoons and films from the 80s and things, for about £4 each, which I've been agonising about. That's less of a priority though, obviously.

Anyways, I'd best be off and start trying to sort out dinner before Coronation Street (hurray!) tonight. Ghost!Tony sighting: Still zero. Hmph.

P.S. The girl on Hollyoaks decided to cover up her lying with MORE LYING, by the way. Oh, Leanne.

So. I've had an interesting and full day. I went to the doctor's this morning, and got my second sicknote. Which was nice, because my mum seemed to think that the doctor I was going to see wasn't someone thought much of mental health issues, or something. She said she'd seen him with my grandma sometimes, and he seemed to be of the opinion that people should just get on with things. But he turned out to be really nice. He asked what the problem was, whether I'd been working before my OCD 'flared up', and where I was supposed to be heading with the sicknote and benefits and stuff. I said OCD, that no I'd mostly been unemployed for the last year or so, and that I was on the waiting list for some counselling, and they'd said they were meant to be contacting me in mid-April, so hopefully I'd hear from them soon. And he said okay, and gave me a sicknote. Hurrah.

But due to some mix-ups with me and mum, who'd given me a lift to the doctors and then went shopping, and me having not much credit on my phone and not calling her when I got out of the doctors, in favour of going to buy some toothpaste, and my phone being on silent so I didn't hear when she tried to call me, she ended up driving home from town without me. Which meant I had to get a £1.30 bus journey home, and then walk back from the stop, with my OCD kicking in all the way. Which led to me crying on the bus and in the street. And then at home when I sort of confronted my mum about it. It probably wouldn't have been so bad, but I really didn't expect her to go without me, even if I didn't call her; and I have no idea what it is, but I had the sheets changed on my bed the other night for the first time in a while, and the duvet sort of moved around so it's not so heavy, and since then I've had really weird unsettled sleep, waking up every few hours; and after I got upstairs after talking to my mum I started having some adbominal twinges, which suggest I'm going to be having a period soon. We sorted it all out, she came upstairs and we hugged, and I apologised for crying at her, and she apologised for going home without waiting to speak to me. I do think it was a bit weird of her, but I probably overreacted a bit, and we got it all sorted out.

Anyway. But then, my mum informed me that unfortunately, today was the day when we - or my mum and my dad - were meant to be taking both my nephews off my sister and her partner's hands so she and he could have some time together alone. My parents did this a few weeks ago, and I assumed it was a one-off, but apparently no, it's something they're meant to be doing every month. So. Anyway. My mum said that she and my dad would take them out, so I wouldn't need to see them or play with them until the evening when they came back to the house for their tea. But they were planning to take them to Halfords for some helmets to ride on their bikes with, and then to the park. And then it started raining in the afternoon, so they ended up bringing them back here. It wasn't too bad though, there were a few fights and tears, and then the rain stopped and they went out to play on their bikes and there was a bit more bad behaviour, and then it was about time for them to go home, and then there was a lot of bad behaviour. But they were pretty okay most of the time. It did feel like a different day to the one where I went to town this morning though. But anyway. Then my parents and I had our tea and watched tonight's So You Think You Can Dance. I disagree with the judges pretty often in that show, but I do tend to enjoy the dances. Especially the hip hop dances. I might start trying to watch that regularly again.

And then I came upstairs and went on my computer, and started listening to the rest of the Adam and Joe Show from today that I missed on the radio today. Hurrah.

In between all of that I have been watching more old Coronation Street episodes I have found on Youtube. Oh. I have found things I had almost forgotten about, and things I never saw and wished I did. I did not get to see the episode where David and Gary met for the first time, but I saw the episode where the Windasses moved in next door to the Platts/Mcintyres. It's weird how crazy and violent Gary was when he first came to the street. In some ways I kind of miss crazy thuggish Gary and evil mastermind David, who were obsessed with each other. Always with the underlying feeling that if some greater evil, like a MOTORCYCLE GANG came to the street, they might band together, and become an unstoppable two-boy gang. It's nice to see it though. I just recently saw the episode where David freaked out at his mum for letting Anna hug her, because he can't stand the idea of 'physically touching' one of the Windasses. Oh. And it's sort of the start of Steve and Becky's relationship, properly, and oh God. The first time they properly deliberately had sex, and it wasn't just a drunken mistake, Becky stopped and wasn't sure what she was doing because she'd never had sex sober. OH. In some ways Steve was her first. And these are also the episodes with Sad Detective Maria, who's convinced that Tony is a murderer and had Liam killed, and everyone else is just telling her she's mad. I'd almost forgotten how great she was then. It's weird, but even now, watching it back, I kind of hope she uncovers Tony's lies and gets him sent to prison. Even knowing like I do what happens later, and loving it so much. It's just good writing I guess. I LOVE OLD CORONATION STREET. I AM GOING TO KEEP WATCHING TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS AND WHAT HAPPENED.

( Sort of spoilers for tonight's Coronation Street )

I did manage to see some of Emmerdale tonight though. So, Declan's just a dick, isn't he? I can't tell if he's gotten worse since Nathan left, or was just always like that. And Mia thinks that her relationship with Adam should be more important to him than the fact she helped her dad try to evict his family. Okay. There's hardly anyone I really like on Emmerdale anymore, except Carl and Val. And it's just difficult to like Carl at the moment. And I don't even know what is happening with Cain and Amy. He doesn't know who she is or how old she is despite the fact they've been living in the same small village for a few months now, and she was working with his dad at one point? Hmph, Emmerdale.

Anyway. In other news, music I have learned I loved lately. Mostly it's You Think You're Cooler Than Me by Mike Posner. I heard it first in a garden and home centre on Monday, I think. I thought it was by Mika on hearing it, and I was so convinced about it that when I came home and looked it up and heard it on Youtube, I assumed Mike Posner did the original, or an earlier version, and it was actually a song from the 90s or 80s or something. But anyway. No. It's totally a new song, and I quite love it. It's funny actually, because I was thinking pretty hard about Blake/Jayden from Heavy Rain at the time, and it in some ways fits their relationship quite well. There are even a pair of high-tech glasses that Jayden wears to help him solve cases, which will probably make more sense if you've heard the song. But mostly I think it's probably Ryan Howard's theme song. Or everyone who knows Ryan Howards' theme song.

Otherwise, I finally listened to 19 by Adele, which I bought about a year ago, ahead of/around the same time I ordered her new album. It turns out it's really good, as I thought it probably would be. I really like Adele.

And speaking of Welsh people, it turns out the Newport State Of Mind vid from Red Nose Day is up on Youtube. Complete with Michael Sheen. Hurrah!

In other news, what the hell is happening with The Event? I knew it had come back, I saw it on the TV communities and stuff, but I don't know what my dad's download limit is like in terms of entire episodes of stuff, and I knew it would be coming back to Channel 4 at some point. So I waited, assuming I would hear about it, or that it would be back in it's old slot at 9 o'clock on a Friday. I'd heard something about it coming back on March 28th, and I looked out for it around then. But I heard nothing. Then a week or so ago I noticed in a TV guide an episode on one night at about 10.50 or 11.50, which I assumed was a repeat, but which didn't have the (rpt) symbol in the blurb. I forgot it was on and missed it anyway. Then I checked the Channel 4 website to see what they said, to find out they totally had started screening the second half of the season, and they had some episodes on the 4 on demand service that had already been on, but when I checked an episode guide it seemed that I'd still missed out on a few episodes before that. So what the hell? I'll probably have to man up and just download it. If my dad has enough downloading limit, obviously. But I really thought they might have MENTIONED it was back on somewhere. Man.

Other things:

• Remember my fancy new jeans? They're still lovely and fancy, they're a sort of charcoal colour that I don't know why all jeans aren't. But previously I got my jeans from Gap, and it was a size measured in inches but according to their table that made them a UK size 16. But the last time I got jeans I got them from the outlet Gap shop at Junction 32, and I had to get size 18s, and they were still really tight right away, which was a bit of a shock. But I just figured fair enough, I have put on some weight.
  
  So with these jeans I picked up a size 16 and a size 18 to try them on in the dressing rooms. I tried the 16s on first in cheerful optimism, and was delighted to find that they totally fit, and were comfortable even. So off I danced to the till, I got them home, and ended up putting them on the same day so I could go out to my nephew's birthday party thing at Pizza Hut, happily ripping off all the tags because haha, they fit. However. According to the label they are 'slouch' jeans. It turns out they're a little too slouchy. I basically can't walk without them slipping down and the ends getting under my feet. Like properly, unable to walk across a room without having some problems. Seeing as how I can't take them back because I've ripped all the tags off, it's meant I need to start wearing belts, but that's okay because I totally have some I got from River Island last year that I've never worn. They were men's belts, but ask me if I care about that. You don't have to ask: I don't. Anyway, so it's all fine and everything, I could buy another pair that are slightly smaller but that seems a bit like overkill. And I'm getting some use out of my belts. And apparently I'm a size 14, I guess, at New Look. Mostly I just wish clothing sizes made any sense. Especially when you're on the run and have to buy jeans to go out to your nephew's birthday party in that night. Dude.



• The fun I didn't mention on Tuesday: I slept in late, which I was pretty much expecting after Monday, and when I got up my mum wasn't in. But that wasn't unexpected either, given that she had to do all the shopping she hadn't done on Monday, and was going to visit my aunt in hospital at some point. I messed about for an hour or so, then the house phone rang, then rang off before I could get to it. It was my mum, and I tried calling her back, but it just went straight to answerphone. Then about ten minutes later the phone rang again, and it was my mum calling from a payphone in the bus station, because her car had a flat tire, she didn't know how to change it, and her phone had died. She wanted me to call my dad to tell him, and I was in the middle of juggling two phones when he came home. So he had to go out to sort out the car while she did the shopping, which she hadn't done by then. It was not a brilliant set of days.



• The fun I had on Wednesday: After my Jobcentre appointment, since I was awake and about at a reasonable time, I decided to try to go to Junction 32 and maybe Leeds after that to have a look at the shops and the sales. I was in my town centre until about 11-ish, then went to walk to the train station to get the train. I got to the road leading up to the station just in time to see my train in the station, and then pulling out. I walked back into town and went to the bus station, and went to get the first bus that said Junction 32/Xscape on it. There was one in a few minutes or so, and I got on it, and we set off, and then I noticed it was going down a route I never went down, because I'd gotten on a bus that had already gone past Junction 32, not one that was going to it. I do not know why our bus station claims buses are going 'via Xscape' when they're already been 'via Xscape'. Truly. But anyway, I could see the bus I wanted just going past us. So I got off, walked back into town, and went back to the bus station, to wait for the next bus, which ended up being the same number but the opposite, correct route. And when I got on the bus, I noticed it was the same bus driver that had been on the other bus. So I could have just stayed on it. But whatever. In the end I only went to Junction 32, not Leeds. I think I mentioned the lack of sleep, and then after the fun with the buses - and spending a bit more than I intended to - I was kind of done.



• I copied over my Favourites bar successfully to the new laptop, and I installed Morrowind and the two expansion packs, and I copied over the saved games I'd had on my other computer. And after all that, I had enough spare space on my hard drive that, for the first time in a few years, I could install Ghost Master on my computer again. Ghost Master is the best game in the world. It's as good as Morrowind at the very least. The game is basically this: you are a ghost master. You have ghosts. You get to go to a bunch of buildings in a town, set up your ghosts, and either scare everyone inside away or, if you can, drive them crazy. And there's usually trapped ghosts to free on each level, so it's a bit of a puzzle game. But mostly it's a scaring people with ghosts game. On the back of the box it says it's for 7+. Let me tell you, 7 year-olds are good and all, but they in no way deserve to keep Ghost Master all to themselves. I was a bit worried that, having bought it quite a few years ago, the graphics might not be any good on my new laptop, and the same with Morrowind. But the graphics are fine, if not better and prettier than before. Anyway. Ghost Master is so good I have accidentally finished it just a few days after installing it. But then you get to go back and replay any level you wish. It makes me very happy.



• Speaking of things I love from my childhood (sort of), when I was going through my Links last week I ended up refinding and watching again the My Little Pony specials I used to watch when I was young, which someone uploaded to Youtube. I sort of don't understand at the moment why every tv show, book or film isn't about people being basically kidnapped and taken to a fantasy land where they have to help magical ponies fight evil. Think about it for a second. Jason Stackhouse would lead them with military precision and only some ineptness. Luke Rattigan would probably sell them out to evil at the first chance he got, so he'd probably need the Doctor or Donna or someone looking after him. Nathan Wylde would be SUPERB at helping magic ponies fight evil. It would probably be a slightly corrupt world he built for them in the aftermath of defeating evil. But they're magical ponies with an innate sense of right and wrong, so probably they could look after themselves in that respect. It would be incredible.



• Last night I remembered a bit of Adam and Joe podcast I'd found funny (among many bits), and wanted to listen to it again. But when I went looking for it, I realised I hadn't actually transferred my Adam and Joe Xfm podcasts over, because they were in iTunes, which I wasn't planning to use on this computer. And I think I got them by subscribing to the podcast through iTunes, so I didn't have them as MP3 files either. I went looking for a way to download them last night, and ended up downloading iTunes again, then subscribing and downloading most of them, one by one, again. I say most of them because part of the way through I realised that the iTunes software was about 70MB, and each podcast was a few Megabytes as well, and there were quite a few of them, and my dad had a finite download limit. So I decided to stop just in case we ran out of download capacity about halfway through the month. I'm totally get the rest at the end of the month or next month though. Also: Adam and Joe podcasts. Including some I don't think I've had before. Score.



• Speaking of which, no-one told me Adam and Joe had released Song Wars Vol 2. Or that it had a physical release. Dude.



• I don't know why they won't make David and Gary friends on Coronation Street, I don't know why they haven't just done that by now. I know they're developing Gary's relationship with Izzie, and I know David has that other storyline coming up. But. They live next door to each other, they have great chemistry, they've looked out for each other already a bit a few times, and if they wanted someone to sympathise with Gary about having nearly been killed once, they could do that with David, and if they wanted someone to sympathise with Gary about feeling guilty about feeling like they let someone die/having nearly killed someone, they could do that with David. I know Gary's situation is a little bit more complicated than that, but. Dude. ( Mild spoilers for next week, and the next few weeks sort of )
  . I could be wrong. But I find it very hard to pin my hopes on things actually happening in fandoms/soaps that I want to see. I just WANT IT TO HAPPEN. CORONATION STREET! I KIND OF HATE YOU.



• Another thing Coronation Street is doing is having Maria start dating a known wife-beater, and the actor who plays him has warned there are 'troubled times ahead' with the story. The only way I'm okay with this storyline is if Tony Gordon comes back as a ghost to UNLEASH HELL on anyone who would ever DARE to hurt Maria. Otherwise, fmeh.



• Also, there was an interview on Digital Spy the other week with Kevin Fletcher, who plays Andy on Emmerdale, and whether or not he started the fire that's just happened. He said that Andy is 'basically a good man, who is just unlucky at this particular point in time'. A good man who used to beat his wife. And still kind of hates women. Nice.



• Mostly at the moment I'm trying to decide what to spend my leftover Christmas money on, and then not buying anything at all. Or buying a new pair of jeans. Or a scarf from out of the sales. It's slightly frustrating. I kind of need to get my money sorted out pretty soon though. And even buy stuff or put a stop on it for a bit.



• I also keep meaning to post more. A part of me wants to do a series of posts pimping films I love, or picspamming people about my favourite, little-known film pairings, every day for 30 days or something. The idea of doing a picspam every day - in the way that I tend to do them - is a little daunting though. Yet at the same time, quite attractive.

Hello. I was at my parents' for the weekend. And then for Monday and Tuesday, since my youngest nephew's Christmas party at his playgroup was on Tuesday, and I decided to stay for that. Which was lovely even if he did get bored and wander away before Santa got round to giving him a present.

These are some of the things that happened over the weekend:

• I spent part of Friday crying in the street over my housing benefit claim, after going to the Jobcentre to get proof I asked for it when I called at the beginning of September, and was finally told after asking about it for a month or so that there was no sign on my claim that I had asked for any housing benefit. They sent me off to the council office to get another form, and I ended up having to stand at one side of the street and cry before I could get on and go get the form. I did get quite upset about a pair of pyjamas I'd asked for for Christmas having apparently sold out (the thing I went out looking for on Wednesday night) and about the fact that this week's Misfits looked like it might have a horrible, sad ending though, and I started my period the next day, so I think my hormones were probably all over the place, as much as anything. I was told the only thing I could do to prove I asked for housing benefit now was try to get the transcript of my original call, which I sent a letter off asking for yesterday. Hopefully that will work, but I'm not really expecting much at this point.



• Tony was back in Coronation Street briefly, looking a mess and asking about Maria a lot, asking if she was alright, and if Carla thought she'd ever forgive him. Love.



• I went to Leeds with my mother on Saturday, and the pyjamas that I'd asked for, which were sold out in Nottingham and on the website, and not available in my size on ebay, were there. In my size. Hurrah. And then I found a scarf in Marks and Spencers which I'd loved, and thought had also sold out or wasn't being sold anymore. And my mum bought it for me for Christmas. Double hurrah :)



• I had horrible period pains for most of Sunday and which kept me awake for a lot of Sunday night as well. Despite my taking my mefanemic acid, which was unfortunate, and I hope will not be the case when I have my next few periods.



• I did watch Elf on Sunday though, which was not as good as I thought it was going to be, storywise, but still pretty funny.



• Oh, and I ordered my oldest nephew's Christmas present online, which should arrive at my parents' some time this week. Which only leaves my mum, youngest nephew and grandmother, and I have a few sort of ideas for my mum and youngest nephew, and my grandmother probably won't care what I give her. So hopefully my Christmas shopping will be basically done soon.



• My dad called me a parasite, which was nice. We were talking, a little, about holidays, and he mentioned Rome this year and said "That'll be the last time you come on holiday with us. You're a parasite". And he was sort of joking at the time, but thinking about it afterwards, it really quite upset me. I spoke to my mum and she said to take no notice of him, and that it was his idea, apparently, to ask me to come along in the first place. Still, it wasn't very nice to hear. Coming from my dad and everything.



• On a lighter note, I went to town and to see my grandmother and had a bath and washed my hair on Monday. It was a bit win, even if it did end up taking most of the day and some of the night. But South Park was on during the night, so that was pretty good too.



• My youngest nephew apparently now calls me "Ee-a". Or "Aych" (Rach). Which is quite sweet.

Today, after getting hardly any sleep and still having to fill in my Jobseeker's job-hunting diary at the last minute, I got down to the Jobcentre a little bit late and had an interview with an advisor rather than a regular signing on session. I'm guessing because it's been about three months since I first signed on. They have moved me up to weekly appointments now, rather than fornightly ones, to "give me as much help as they can" in getting back to work. And the next one was next Wednesday, and I had to explain that I was going back to my parents' on Friday or Saturday and staying until Christmas, at least, and I had to fill in a holiday form. But at least that's sorted now, aside from the annoying extra appointments. But they probably won't make much difference really, since I'm probably either going to get this job - I heard about the full-time one last week, I didn't get it, so I'm just waiting to hear about the part-time one now - or I'm going to move back into my parents' house, probably, within the next few months. But I've got to go to the appointments until I know about the job, one way or the other, anyway.

Another thing I was doing last night was looking at Pirates of the Caribbean slash, of all things. I can't actually believe, frankly, that a fandom as big as that, that's been going on for years, doesn't have a single piece of Norrington/Barbossa slash. Not one, that I could find. Besides whatho's drabble. Which was brills, but even so. What up, fandom?

Some other things:

• Gray O'Brien, who plays Tony Gordon on Coronation Street, is in a panto in Manchester. Starting Saturday. Wearing eyeliner, if the website is any indication. Starting next week. WITH - Chris Fountain, from Hollyoaks and Dancing On Ice! !! I could go see that panto. There are trains from Nottingham direct to Manchester. According to the website they only cost £12.00 with a railcard on the day. I COULD MAGIC UP SOME MONEY AND IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE TO GO SEE IT. ONSTAGE. WITH EYELINER. Maybe.



• Ahem. I love Adam and Joe. I love them most weeks I hear them, I loved them this week and I loved them the other week. Last week I missed the show when it was on so I had to listen to it on Listen Again, and I always end up doing other things and not hearing all of it when I do that, but I probably would have loved them a lot if I had. Anyway, I had a difficult time listening to their show at first, just because I hardly ever listen to the radio, and I'm not really used to listening to music I don't know and haven't picked out myself. However, I know that most of the music is picked out by the BBC 6 Music team and not by Adam and Joe, but generally speaking, I almost always hear a song on the Adam and Joe show every week that I like, and for the last few weeks they've been playing Cornerstone by the Artic Monkeys. I resisted and had no interest in the Arctic Monkeys for a long time, but I think this one is really, really lovely. So I wanted to mention it, and the Youtube link is here :)



• I'm up to date with Looking For Group! Which means that now I can read all that slash fic there isn't! Hmph.



• It's December tomorrow. That sort of snuck up on me. As per usual, now I have a bit of money I'm mostly thinking about a bunch of things I don't really need and can't really afford in most cases. But I'm going to have to start saving up for Christmas presents really. I've got a few ideas for things for nephews already though, and I'm guessing my mum, dad and sister won't be expecting much, given the state of my finances. Still, I'm going to have to start looking soon.



• On the plus side, I can start thinking about some seasonal watching before Christmas. I might watch the 10th Kingdom again. I started watching it last Christmas, watched just enough to remember how much I'd loved it and how great it was, and then stopped and forgot to watch the rest. Or I could rewatch the Hogfather at some point. Or Fred Claus, which is not a great film, but I still quite love. It's all very pleasing, really :)

I'm going to talk about Tony and Maria again. Don't worry, I probably won't be doing this for much longer. The storyline is basically finished, except for Tony apparently making a brief reappearance in spring next year, and I'm not going to able to get any dvds or get hold of the canon in any other way. It's one of the few drawbacks of soap fandoms. For some reason they don't seem to want to put their hours and hours of canon on dvds for the public to buy. Whatever.

Anyway. I have realised that I've been talking about Tony and Maria, probably somewhat incoherently, for about a week now without actually saying who they are or what their storyline actually is. ( The storyline )

( Another paragraph about how much I love Tony and Maria )

Do you want to see some beauty? That was mostly the point of my post. In this Youtube clip, there are clips of Maria and Tony, of the part before he delivers her baby on the beach, and one of him being all psycho when she was accusing him of killing Liam, before they got together. And in between those, you get to see Samia Smith (who plays Maria) talking. And Philip Schofield and Fern Cotton also talking. It's sort of a win either way.

ITV also did some clips on their website of "Tony's diary", which is basically Gray O'Brien, who plays Tony, saying the same confession to Maria onto a tape in three different ways, depending on whether Tony decided to get around the Roy situation by killing himself, killing Roy, or turning himself in to the police. It's here. The last one, "surrender", is by far the saddest, because it's really quiet and resigned and practical, and it's the most in character, really, especially given that it what he ended up doing. At the end (of all of them really, but the third video is the best), he calls Maria "my darling", and it wouldn't be nearly as painful if I hadn't been thinking of a bunch of sad love songs and how they relate to Tony/Maria, and imagining him sort of singing Unchained Melody in his cell, after he gives himself up. Oh god.

The itv site also has this video of clips of Tony's good and bad sides, pretty much out of order from when they appeared in the show, but including the part where he actually delivers Maria's baby, and his really quite gay scene where he kills Liam. I hate those adverts they put on all their videos, although I guess they have to have them. But the clips are pretty good.

How about some RIDICULOUSLY CHEERFUL Maria/Tony vids? There are a few Maria/Tony vids on Youtube, and some of them are quite sad, as befits the storyline really. But I think I love the cheerful ones the most of all. There is I Only Wanna Be With You and I Love It When We Do. They're made by the same person, so some of the clips are the same, but there's quite a bit of different stuff in each one.

And some slightly sadder ones. For some reason this person hasn't put the song title anywhere in the vids or in the info, but there's this one, and this one, which is more of a narrative since they started getting closer. Both are pretty good though.

If I had the clips or the episodes, and I had any kind of vidding capabilities, I would vid Tony and Maria to a bunch of songs. I've already said, most songs at the moment, especially love songs, seem to be Maria/Tony songs. For example, I just put iTunes on and the first song that came on was Trouble by Coldplay. God. I want to do a Tony vid to Poker Face by Lady Gaga. Because they can't read his poker face. And he is marvellous. I love Tony/Maria. And Tony. And Maria. And Gray O'Brien. And Samia Smith. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.

( Monday's Coronation Street )

I did not apply for any jobs on Tuesday. There were none I had experience for that which didn't seem to want me to have a driver's license, or some other ridiculous thing. I did not go to my appointment on Wednesday. I stayed up all night, since I'd not been getting up for most of the week at a time that get me to my appointment, then decided to lay down for an hour at 9 o'clock-ish, set my alarms for half ten, then got into bed and woke up when my mother called, at what I thought was the time I'd set my alarms for, but was in fact the time when I should have been at my appointment. I rescheduled, and I'm going tomorrow instead. And meeting my mother in town to get an interview suit. Everything's going to go fine, I assume. I've actually seen quite a nice suit in Marks and Spencer's, so hopefully if it suits me and isn't too expensive, it should be fairly straightforward.

Anyway. The Maria and Tony storyline, as I have said, is finishing tonight. So I'm going to have another crack at why I love it. ( Tony/Maria, Part 2 )

The new episode is on now. Oh.

I didn't watch Doctor Who last night. In a rather happy turn of events, I didn't know it was on. It's a bit like being cured of some non-threatening but annoying disease. Hurrah.

I have been watching Coronation Street though, as usual nowadays. They're finishing the Tony and Maria storyline. This week. I'm not quite ready for that, I don't think. I keep meaning to post about how it's ending and how great it is, but it's hard to explain all of it and it is really quite fucked up, and it's difficult when I remember that most of the characters I like tend to be murderers, or accidental murderers, or assassins, or serial killers. But it is great. The first episode of the week is on in a few minutes. Argh.