Of course, this week has been stressful with sorting out my meal on the plane. Monday lunchtime I rang STA Travel because it seemed easier to get them to do than ringing the airline. You have to ring the branch, so of course the person I spoke to was with a customer and promised to ring me back. Although he did say 'is that vegan?' I said no, they would have an option for lactose free/intolerant.

At the end of the day I realised he hadn't but it was too late to do anything about it.

Meanwhile, I had emailed the people I am getting a coach with from Adelaide to Melbourne on Sunday and they replied on Monday to let me know it was changed.

So I range STA Travel up Tuesday first thing, so they wouldn't have any customers. This guy said he would do it. I sat and wondered whether it really had been done this time and planned to ring back Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Tuesday night I tried to check into my flight online but it didn't work. The airline was closed at that point, but said they opened at 8am. So I rang them this morning at 8.30 and the lady I spoke to said the reason I couldn't check in was they didn't have my passport number (I'm sure they should!). And incidentally, I was booked in as a gluten-free meal. She changed it to lactose free.

I tried a few times in the morning to check in, but with no results. So I rang them again at lunchtime the lady I spoke to then had no idea why it wasn't working. But she could book me a seat. So I now have window seats on my flights there and back.

And hopefully, I won't have to queue for ages before I check in so there will be time for dinner.

On the plus side, everything fits into my suitcase with some room to spare.

And on a majorly exciting note: I'm going to be in the same room as Ewan McGregor! He said on Parkinson on Saturday that he's going to be in Guys and Dolls in the West End, so we are going in July. I'm more excited about that than Oz, but then I think it's because I've been planning this for ages, so it doesn't seem quite real yet.

From copperbadge

STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING!

01: Take a screencap of your desktop.
To cap a desktop:
1) Press "Print Screen" (prt sc) button on a PC or cmd-shift-3 on a Mac
2) Open your graphics program-o-choice
3) Press CTRL + V or go to "edit > paste"
4) Save image as a JPEG

02: Upload the screen cap to your image server.

03: Reply to this entry with A LINK TO your screencap. Along with any explanations you feel are necessary.

04: Post your cap in YOUR LJ along with these instructions.

desktop

I am currently on, as of last Thursday afternoon, an entirely lactose-free diet. Due to me feeling ill Thursday after not much milk at all. I need to change my meal on the plane to lactose-free, and on the coach from Adelaide to Melbourne but I do at least have 148 lactase pills if I'm desperate.

One problem I found with this - my travel sickness pills had lactose in! Luckily, they were the only ones you can get with lactose in, so now I have some different ones. But it wasn't really what I needed to be spending my Saturday doing. I also found soya milk tastes really disgusting. Well, no, I lie. Waitrose unsweetened soya milk tastes disgusting. Waitrose sweetened soya milk is actually quite nice.

I feel fine so far but it's easier to disprove lactose-intolerance than it is to prove it. Although it would be more helpful if I could experiment with introducing it in and finding my tolerance but going to Australia is going to much that up a bit. At least, as mum pointed out, I've found out before I go. And my aunt knows as well and is prepared to take me to the supermarket when I get there.

I've watched a few episodes of Alias recently and I realised that part of the reason I'm really enjoying it is Jack Bristow. I remember back in the first series when he shoots that annoying CIA guy in cold-blood (looking at an episode guide, was his name Haladki?) that it was a bad guy thing to do. Yet Jack is a good guy. And at that point I wasn't sure if they were just highlighting that Sydney would think twice about that sort of thing because she's a good guy, and perhaps because she hasn't been a spy for quite so long, or that perhaps Jack's not actually such a good guy.

Now I'm watching the fourth series and I still don't know the answer to that question. In one of the episodes I saw recently, just for a minute, there was a bit of uncertainty about whether he'd gone over to the dark side. And actually, come to think of it, no real proof afterwards that he hadn't. Or hasn't.

The other part that was really interesting about him in the second series was his relationship with Irina Derevko. For years she pretended to be Laura Bristow and he loved her. Still does. But Irina betrayed him horribly and he hates her, understandably. Except that he still loves her. I do wonder if perhaps part of the reason he hates her is because he loved her.

And then there's Sydney. Sometimes I think she's the most important thing in his life and he would do anything to save her. Other times I'm not so sure. There's never any easy way to tell how he feels about anyone. I can't work out his feelings about Sloane at all. He doesn't like Vaughn and never has.

I won't say more because it would be a spoiler, but I'm still not sure how he feels about Nadia. I can understand that he would have mixed feelings but the thing about Jack is if you go for the obvious you're probably wrong.

So I'm watching Alias for Jack Bristow. May he continue to puzzle me. And I like Weiss, who is funny, even though they pronounce his name wrong (it's my grandmother's maiden name, so I do know how it should be pronounced).

I lied when I said I was going to appreciate fanfic authors here. I've given Sel some of my many LOTR recs instead. So I can talk about Rotaract, being as World Rotaract Week is this week.

We used to have an international site, now we don't. I mostly tend to use the National one, the District one, or ours.

I won't use the official line, good as it is, but Rotaract is an international organisation for people aged 18-30. We are affiliated with Rotary - we're the younger generation - but that and the name is where the similarity ends. There are two primary focuses, social and community. How they're divided depends on the club and the person.

Socials can be big - like National Conference and European events, which will happen a few times a year. More often, like once or twice a month, there are district events (a district simply being a grouping of clubs in a similar region). About half of these will be to raise money for charity. Then there are small socials, just within clubs. These tend to be things like going out for a meal, or to the pub.

The aforementioned district events also contribute towards community but clubs will also do things within their town, such as getting involved with local events like carnivals and holding tinshakes. For which Rotarians tend to come in handy.

Another, smaller part, is PD, which stands for either personal or professional development. In some respects, these things happen in the background. For example, in January I stood up in front of sixty people and talked without any nerves at all. Which I couldn't have done a year ago. But there are also more organised things, such as first aid training or taking a wolf for a walk.

The reason that most people join is to meet people, make friends, and have something to do. And because everyone wants the same thing, that's quite successful. It's also a good way of learning about your local area and community.

I have to admit, I am a crap salesman. But this post has at least told you what I'm always talking about. Hopefully it's inspire you to learn more. If you can't find a club near you it's always worth asking because there are new clubs in the pipeline.

I was going to get loads of things done tonight, except I had a pizza baguette (don't ask) and a hot chocolate for lunch and spent half the evening trying to decide if throwing up would be a good thing or not. I'm not as ill as I was at Redemption but I really didn't think I had that much milk.

On the plus side it pretty much proves I'm lactose intolerant but I'm not terribly comforted by my mum telling me her tolerance went down. She eats more chocolate and ice cream than I do (and her special ice cream is actually very nice) and I don't like cheese, so I'm not too worried about that. It's all the other things that lactose is in that does my head in. I mean crisps and biscuits, for goodness sake.

So I've been watching Queer as Folk instead tonight, which meant, interestingly, that I discovered Dodgy DI is in an episode! Playing a dodgy gay character, mind you.

All this week I've been helping with coding, which I've quite enjoyed, probably because it's different. Coding involves taking the answers to open ended questions (such as 'what did you like about this drink?') and categorising their answers. So, if for example they said (and I've been doing toothpaste the last couple of days) 'I like the minty taste and the smell' you'd give them one number for the minty taste and one for the smell. It makes entry easier because then it's all numbers, and the people analysing it can see, for example, that minty taste is a good thing because a lot of people liked it.

There are some people who give some really strange answers though, which is funny. Some of the spelling that comes out is interesting as well. But what's been really annoying me about it is that I've been dreaming about it. Honestly, I was coding my Australian trip last night, which really wasn't fun.

(I love the BlogThis extension)

The Fandom Verb List - conjugated for you.

Ten things I've learned in fandom that I wouldn't know otherwise

Speedy Relief - Comic Relief racing game Addictive but hard

Plastic Balls - Bricks but in a drain I've never really made it very far into level 2

Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer I got 5/10 purely by guessing

You scored as atheism. You are... an atheist, though you probably already knew this. Also, you probably have several people praying daily for your soul. atheism 83% agnosticism 79% Buddhism 54% paganism 50% Islam 42% Satanism 42% Judaism 38% Hinduism 25% Christianity 13% Which religion is the right one for you? (new version) created with QuizFarm.com

Which is really not a surprise give that I am an atheist, albeit a Jewish one (I don't believe in god but still get to eat nice food at passover).

Last night I booked my hostels and coaches etc for Australia. It's getting scarily real. But I am glad I'm starting off at my aunt and uncle's so it won't be so scary, before I have to go off on my own.

I had terrible trouble getting a coach from Melbourne to Sydney though. There's one that used to go but isn't for Summer 2004 (which goes up till the end of April), there's one that only goes on a Monday (I want to go on a Thursday) and then there's OzExperience. They don't quite go on a Thursday but worse than that it seems that you book to tell them you're turning up - but not when. So the stories I've heard of people not getting seats suddenly seems more true.

So, I'm flying from Melbourne to Canberra, staying there for about 24 hours, then getting the Greyhound bus to Sydney. Which all works out cheaper as well.

I also found out why I can't get hold of this guidebook - it's not being published till April now. Blackwell's Online told me and the website confirmed it. So why could no-one tell me before now? I will be getting the 2004 edition instead.

I also noticed it was Fanfic Author Appreciation Week (well, from Sunday). I will have to sort my list out when I have time and appreciate them on later on in the week. Anyone I have recced on my site, or Sel's or reviewed is appreciated though

I borrowed Queer as Folk on DVD off a friend of mine at the weekend - must go and watch another episode.

I can tell what I've been doing this week - Thursday night I had a strange dream mixing Redemption and Rotaract. When I woke up at 4.30am I honestly couldn't tell whether it was real or not. The cold light of day sorted it out a bit though.

Someone at Redemption suggested going as Ace for Conference, which looks doable, actually.

Since that time, my mother has diagnosed me as being lactose intolerant. On the basis that she decided she was, a few years ago, and her mother has recently decided she was too. And when I think back to times I've felt it, it's either involved milk products, or I can't remember - but there must have been something causing those. I obviously have a higher tolerance than she does as I'm mostly okay, but I've been madly reading the ingredients of food since then, so I have a better idea of how much I've been eating.

A side-effect is that I think I am almost taking more drugs to Australia than clothes.

I've also been having fun with STA Travel and Amazon this week. I ordered my Australian VISA online at the beginning of February. I knew it was all electronic, so I wasn't certain whether to expect anything other than an order confirmation. It was just as well I checked though, because they had no record of my order! I ended up having to do it all over again, this time over the phone. The receipt for it turned up this morning, so they will definitely let me into the country.

I also ordered a guidebook that came out on 1st February. Although that's not what Amazon said when I ordered it, I had it on the four to six week delivery. They assured me they were going to change the site, but hadn't, so I wrote them a pissed off email yesterday (after spending ten minutes trying to find a phone number - the only way to get it is to email them, then follow the link at the bottom to say it wasn't very helpful. I've since written it down). They've now dispatched the other two books I ordered, which I don't need quite so much, and the guidebook changed to an estimated delivery date of 5th-19th April. Helpful, given that I'm getting back here on the 16th. I got them to cancel that book.

Onto Tescos, who have free delivery if you spend over �20, and are actually quite cheap. I also have �1.50 worth of e-vouchers, so they looked like a good bet. Except that their help is not very helpful and the book was listed as special delivery and I couldn't find out what that meant. So I ordered it and found it meant 30 days. So I emailed to cancel, they replied to say they were busy and I should ring up to cancel. So I did.

Next, I went to Blackwell's Online, who, at the beginning of February had it more expensive because of the difficulty of getting hold of it. It's back at the normal price now, so I ordered it with an estimated delivery date of 17th March. Seven days before I fly out.

Then I went into town and found the 2004 edition in Waterstones, which I might end up getting at this rate. I ordered it from them as well, they say it will take an average of 7-10 working days.

I had stress with booking a coach from Melbourne to Sydney as well, so that's not booked. I still haven't decided which one to get from Adelaide to Melbourne, so I also haven't booked my hostels, or told my aunt exactly when I will be there.

I do have walking shoes, as Manchester set off the RSI in my knee - no idea what given that I've walked further than that recently with no ill effects. These shoes cost a small fortune, I just hope they're worth it. I also had to order my foreign money. So I didn't really achieve a great deal today. And I'm really tired, so should have been in bed ages ago.

I wrote down a list of all the things I went to, then a list of all the ones I wanted to go to and it was almost as long. I had a good time though, despite the cold (not helped by my roommate and I not being able to agree on the temperature, so our compromise was that I was cold and she was hot). I've signed up for Redemption '07, will be stewarding again (it does remove the indecision on which panel to go to when they all look equally interesting), and even came up with an idea for a panel to run. Oh dear.

Here follows a fairly lengthy report, with images.

Friday:
When we eventually made it (due to slight trauma of locking keys in boot) the first place I went was the dealers room. And did very well - I only bought one book. Then there was the first book panel, at which I picked up a few recommendations. Or would have if I could remember any of them, or had written any of them down. Then I stewarded, dinnered and opening ceremonied before getting bored waiting for the pub quiz to start and wondered off to the alien lifeforms panel. Which was interesting, although wondered off topic into depressing!

The evening was the celidh, which was interesting on carpet, but at least easier than in two inch heels. As I'd woken up at the usual time that morning (annoyingly, because I didn't need to) I went to bed early, in order to stay up late the other two nights.

Saturday:
Saturday began with talking about slash - which did become something of a theme in the writing panels. Although, for the life of me, I can't remember what we actually discussed. Then the veil dancing workshop offered a chance to get up and do something practical (I can only sit down and listen to/talk in panels for so long). The veils were remarkably easy to get tangled up in, and involved more exercise than it first looked (my arms got quite tired!). It came in handy for recognising moves made by the dancers in the cabaret.

Then I went to hear Jason Carter talk and found out who he was in Angel (I didn't recognise him, or remember seeing his name in the credits when I saw the episode). He was very interesting and funny. I was quite impressed he remembered the words to Modern Major General (or whatever its called), if not the tune. The fanfic writing styles panel, I suspect probably went a bit off topic, as I can't remember any of it. After that I got to steward the dealers room, so I could see Blakes Junction 7, although not hear it. It was enough to remind me how funny it was though.

I then couldn't decide between two different panels, so I wondered round the Zocalo instead. I was attracted by (and did play) Giant Jenga, which was good fun. Although I ended up late to the next panel because I couldn't leave until we had finished the current game - the tower wasn't getting quite thin in places by then. I also went along to the Beeblebear's picnic - and ended up with a Beeblebear. Admittedly, I have been meaning to buy one for years but could never quite decide what colour to get. I now have a mint coloured one, imaginatively named Minty.

The next panel was discussing how much exposition we need, which went into different sorts of media, and generally agreed that most of it was because the author/producer/writer/whoever was assuming we were all stupid and had the memory of a goldfish. After this I spent some quality time in the bar and had a very nice dinner. Or at least it seemed nice at the time.

The panel on the Star Trek and Blakes 7 Federations was most interesting because someone fell asleep in it (and snored quite loudly!). After that I missed half of the fancy dress and cabaret because something I ate for dinner disagreed with me and I went to bed in order to avoid throwing up. The worrying part was the number of people who remarked on Sunday about how much better I looked!

Sunday:
Sunday had lots of writing workshops going on. The first I went to (well, was late to, 10am seemed quite difficult to manage for some reason!) was about editing fanfiction. There were lots of different ideas at that one. After that was Blakes 7 Fashion - otherwise known as a good excuse to laugh at the costumes. The people doing it were quite organised, as they had a projector and some pictures, which was handy because there were some I'd forgotten (or possibly just blocked out of my memory).

Then there was the writing workshop, where we got some interesting stories from people who had turned pro, and others who were hoping to. Then I couldn't miss the Ruler of the Universe hustings. I was impressed by all the candidates - it was really hard to choose just one. The fanfic writing workshop afterwards was smaller than the writing one, so it was quite a nice friendly group It was interesting to hear how different people write, and how many problems seemed to be universal!

I only made it to half the B7 signing workshop, as I had a stewards debriefing. I don't remember half of it, but it was much more interesting to learn words like thief, rebel and psychostrategist, than it would have been to learn ordinary boring words. I stewarded during the closing ceremony, so that was interesting to see from the back.

Then I managed four panels in a row. First was on Tolkien - I realised in that one that I've read very few fantasy books, even though my absolute favourite book is fantasy (Alice in Wonderland). The Egyptian gods panel did turn into something of a general discussion into Stargate, Xena and other historic (and not so historic) gods. Books 3 was nice and small, although I did manage to have the opposite opinion to everyone in it, on every topic, it seemed!

The future of SF and Fantasy was the biggest, but was one of the times it seemed everyone at the con agreed on something (apart from how good it was) - we don't like reality TV! Being the last panel of the con, it overran of course. And could have gone on all night, except the bar was calling. I was relatively hardcore, staying up till 2.30am (even though the bar shut at 11pm!). The time seemed to go so quickly.

Monday:
I'm not sure how we managed get woken up by the alarm at the same time as previous days, but still not be ready for 11. It takes talent, I think. There were plenty of people hanging around though, so we could put off the con ending for another hour before driving home in the snow (and spending an hour in the coldest Little Chef ever).

The most interesting thing I found about the people there, beyond being able to talk to absolutely anyone, was the variety of different opinions there were on most topics.