(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.

I've discovered the perfect way to catch up on my lj reading - mark everything as unread.

Writing
I just wanted to say yay, for I got Estel's Ears through HASA review. With a 7/2 ratio as well. My two declines had nice long reasons why, which was great. They also pretty much agreed with what one of my betas has been saying recently, which is a good thing. And being as I've questioned other people, I should ask this:
Ask me one question - any one - about my writing, then post this in your LJ so I can satisfy my curiosity about yours... (although in my case, it's more if I've asked you, or are going to but haven't quite got round to it yet, then ask me).

Stargate
I had a plan for Stargate which involved watching part 1 on Wednesday, in bed, and then part 2 on Thursday. Except that I was enjoying part 1 so much I went straight onto part 2. Here be spoilers.... I loved Amanda Tapping in it. And Jack and Daniel so fancy each other, don't they? Although so do Sam and Jack, still. I think my head is a strange place. But it was good fun, and great to see General Hammond, McKay (although since his name was in the beginning credits, that wasn't exactly a surprise - I hate it when they do that) and Kowalski.

The Bill
I hated Wednesday's episode, and Thursday's ordinary episode. We've been here before, and it was crap the first time. The half hour one, I liked though. I think perhaps it's the perfect length for The Bill - ie as much as you can take in one go. It does now feel like the end of an era. But left me with an urge to see Old Bill back again. I'm only really still watching for Gina, Smithy, Reg, Tony, Lance, and I'm quite liking Roger as well, he feels like one of the old crowd. But I really don't care who is sleeping with who, just give us a crime and solve it in an hour, not fifteen minutes if you take the sex out.

And on another note, I know through two people that slasher decided it was a good idea to watch when the PoG and Puke storyline was going on. Which, I'd like to point out, it was not. That storyline involved two personality transplants, and turned The Bill first gay copper from the sergeant who happened to be gay, but mainly was very straight, played by the rules and wasn't Bob Cryer, into the gay sergeant.

On a more positive note, I'm off to Redemption in a few hours, and Australia in a month.

I went to a foreign country last weekend - otherwise known as Up North. Or more specifically, Manchester. Which wasn't quite as scary and northern as I thought it was going to be. Although this view,

doesn't really do much for it.

Manchester must be a foreign country because I've only ever seen trams in the middle of the roads in Prague before
.

But it can boast the delights of:

I took 21 photos, I found out when I put them on my computer. I'm really not sure how I managed that. Although one of them is of a particularly blurry tram.

It was also very, very cold, and we got lost a lot. But the Air and Space museum had a couple of Enterprises, a TARDIS, a Dalek and a couple of Cybermen. Oh, and some planes. And we got to see a program being recorded! We went along to Granada Studios (where they film Coronation Street, and other programs I've not been desperate enough to watch) and got to see two-thirds of a gameshow being recorded. I say gameshow because that's what they called it.

We did see a couple of guys set a frying pan on fire, which was quite cool. The host, whose name I've entirely forgotten, introduced it four times - once with one camera, then with another but she said the words differently, so did it again, then couldn't pronounce 'superchef', so did it a fourth time. They recorded audience shots and laughter in advance. Hmm.

It was quite interesting though, but we had to leave before the end so I could get the train that would get me on the last bus. It's not going to be shown until the summer, so we'll have to wait to find out who won a cooking holiday to Goa.

I also had the most interesting train journey home. Even though it started from Manchester, it was pretty much breathing-room only. Why can Virgin not go back to ten carriage trains? So I stood outside first class, which was cold, especially when the door was open and it was snowing outside. It's since snowed three times today, so making that slightly less exciting. Never enough to settles properly though, but I digress.

A drunk girl fell out of the train at Wilmslow, so they dragged her back on, and took her off again at Stafford. A bloke in first class was watching Pirates of the Carribean on his laptop. Which sadly, isn't as good without sound.

At Birmingham the train managers changed over and the new one told the two of his in the corridor to go and sit in first class. Which was very nice and comfortable, but still cold. I did take half my bags to the toilet with me, and the bloke before me came out carrying his laptop. Which didn't surprise me at all.

So, I had a good time, I just seem to be missing sleep somewhere along the way. I also met Nic, although I was really disappointed no-one ever attempted to take both our names.

If you click on the photos you can see bigger versions.

I'm still alive. I think. Despite having had flu already this year, and a flu jab, I've had flu. Which is now lingering. I'm only up this late because whenever I got to bed I can't get to sleep. And it's entirely my mum's fault I dreamt about being covered in stick insects last night. I'm still trying to catch up on my life. I'm nearly there. Which is good because I'm away in Manchester this weekend, with Nic. Next week I could be out every night if I wanted, except that I think I might need some sleep at some point. Then the weekend after is Redemption!

But what I really wanted to talk about is Stargate. The other week I saved the episode of Atlantis because it was a two parter. Then, when I came to watch them both, part 1 was just a continuation of what had gone on before and part 2 was really part 1. Which annoyed me. Stargate had a two-parter at the same, so I saved that one as well. And that, I enjoyed. It was BIG. And had all the things that are good in Stargate. I'm suddenly quite liking Ba'al as well.

So I was really looking forward to the following Stargate, which as it was 90mins long I assumed was the equivalent of a two-parter (being as a two-parter is 90mins). Except that this fails to take adverts into account - it just never occurred to me that it's possible to fit 30mins of adverts into a 1 hour program. It might have been okay - let's face it you can't go from the universe's imminent destruction to flowers - except for when they got rid of [censored]. I was trying to work out if there's anyone left to get rid of an I can only think of one. Please can we not have a season 9, so he can stay alive?

This week's Stargate I'm saving for next, as it's yet another two-parter.

Sunday's Stargate I was particularly keen to see because it explains a lot of things about Atlantis I'd forgotten. I noticed they had a little bit of the Atlantis theme tune at the end of the episode! But, yes, that was a good episode. Another BIG one. I was completely shocked by Dr Weir. I knew she'd been played by someone different but I'd not really noticed. Which is quite bad really considering the original was blonde, the new isn't. Never mind.

Anyway, I had exactly the same reaction to her the second time round - didn't like her at first (she was replacing, the irreplaceable, General Hammond) but liked her by the end of it. I was trying to see her as the new Weird through the episode, but they were really different people. Which I can't complain about, given the Stargate film/TV series differences.

I've managed to be talked into going to Prime in September (Buffy con in Blackpool). Although not staying in the Norbreck because they'd have to pay me to do that. Um, yeah. Money. Grows on trees, doesn't it?

Enterprise's cancellation is obviously big news - it made my BBC news e-mail and The Guardian. It's not really a surprise though, I can't say I've been rushing to watch it (I will get round to it though, I'm only two episodes behind at the moment). It seems a shame when you compare it to Voyager, which was also crap, but didn't get cancelled. I saw every episode of Voyager - there should be medals for that.

I discovered recently that My Money can tell you all sorts of things about what you're spending your money on. I only started using it so I didn't have to add up all the things I'd spent every month, because it would inevitably go wrong and I'd end up having to do the sums at least three times. So from the beginning of January I started putting all my spending into categories and the results are quite interesting. The only trouble is that it's a bit difficult to write down where all the cash I get out of the hole in the wall goes to. It accounts for my second biggest spending, after rent, but I'm just not sure how to deal with it.

Happy Birthday for yesterday, Nessime.

I'm tired. It's entirely my own fault though, because last night I felt tired about 11pm, got ready for bed and then decided to stay up for The Dead Zone, which started at 11.55. And I hadn't seen it, contrary to what the TV guide said. And then I watched a program on sleep, which I yawned through. It did feature quizzes that said I was normal though!

Apparently, my sleep is very well-optimised, 89% according to the website although to improve it, it just said things I already knew, like go to bed and get up at the same time every day (nice, but unlikely, I feel), have a comfortable bed (same thing), calm down before you go to bed. Mind you, it also tells me I could increase my alertness with caffeine, and since I really don't like tea or coffee, it's basically telling me to eat chocolate. Sounds good to me.

My e-mail's not currently working - it might be bouncing as well. The server has been hacked (twice in the last few days!) so my index page was down today as well (that's fixed though). Admittedly, some of the e-mail problems could be due to freeserve.

Dad is working on it though.

I finally finished the Rotaract website, got the guy to upload it, then discovered I'd completely cocked-up the contact page. Anyway, now it is all fixed, I just need him to re-upload it (and hope the logo doesn't get corrupted again).

My e-mail, on the other hand, is not working. Again. On the plus side, I just have to message dad about it. Freeserve also likes to randomly mark emails as spam, even though they're not. And even though it won't mark similar ones from the same place as spam, even with really similar headers. Anyway, I just found out it decided a review I had from SoA was spam! The worrying part is I got a review for the same story, the same day and that wasn't spam. Hmm.

I have updated my website though. And made a little 'new' icon. It's red, of course. And it's two months till I go to Australia. I'm so not ready.

I saw all three Lord of the Rings films this weekend. It's interesting how much is more noticeable when you see them so close together. And my sister's boyfriend has a widescreen TV and surround sound - so it's just like the cinema only with comfy seats, cheaper food and better-timed breaks.

I noticed the knife Galadriel gives to Aragorn is the one he holds up when he's woken up at Dunharrow. And the battles get bigger - so it's just the Fellowship fighting orcs in the first one, then there's the Rohirrim and lots of orcs, then it's everyone against everyone else in the third.

There's also a roast chicken joke going on in extended Two Towers, which I never realised before. At the beginning, Sam says he brought seasoning with him in case they found a roast chicken. At the end, Merry and Pippin find a roast chicken!

The hobbits looked so much different at the start: more innocent, I think. I did like how Sam, when fighting orcs to rescue Frodo, after Shelob's lair, killed one for Frodo, one for the Shire and one for his Gaffer. But never one for himself. All the hobbits went from throwing stones to actual fighting with swords. Well, except for Frodo who had battles of his own.

Avon posted a link in her journal to a site with a list of best books. I've only read 9 of the 100 on the science fiction list, but not only have I read the first one on the list, but some of my favourite books are on there. I'd debate whether some of them were science fiction, mind you. There were quite a few on there I'd like to read. And quite a few Asimov's that I'd like to like but just can't seem to for some reason.

My best is the BBC Big Read list, of which I've read 29. It does help that there are a fair few Terry Pratchett's on there, mind you

I am laughing, reading everyone's comments about LJ not being around for a day on Saturday. What I did that day was: exactly the same as if it had been up. It had that much impact on my life. I don't have a GJ backup journal, nor can I see the point of one. Mind you, I can't work out why anyone would need more than one userpic either. I only have this one so I can post in communities, and I only write in it so people can read it on their friends lists if they want to.

I was more affected by my site getting moved the weekend before and my email going down for an evening, as I was trying to plan meeting up with people. Although, strangely, LJ emails still got through.

I have now read every Quantum Leap book. The latest one followed on from an episode I hadn't seen, so I watched it last night after Tae Kwon Do. It was weird because it was series 2, Al still had the old brown handlink, and the introduction was voiced by a man, which just doesn't sound the same.

But it occurred to me that Quantum Leap is pretty much a comfort programme. Because you know it's always going to have a happy ending (apart from some of the crap they came up with in series five, but we'll just pretend they don't exist). The idea of starting off with Sam having essentially lost his memory was brilliant, because that way you can introduce his life, and Al's to the viewer as he learns about them.

I also love the relationship between Sam and Al. OK, so I also love Al's shirts. And that everyone at school watched it (we were introduced to it in RE when they did a race prejudice episode as we were doing prejudice at the time).

How did it get to be midnight? I could have sworn it was 11pm a minute ago. Must go to bed.

Today I went to the Blakes 7 series 2 DVD launch. I got the first bus from here to anywhere and ended up taking four hours to get to the actual place. I was very good at just missing trains, mind you.

First, we saw Blake's Junction 7, which was really funny. The only minor flaw was that it had Johnny Vegas in, who I hate. But regardless, his scene was still very good. I have a postcard from it, and if I stand at the other end of the room they could easily be mistaken for the original cast.

There were seven cast members there, and some back scene people as well. I'm quite impressed that I printed out the photo I took of the cast on photo paper. Admittedly, it's dark in the middle, and has someone's head in the way, but it's a start.

The cast, from l-r: David Jackson (Gan), Michael Keating (Vila), Peter Tuddenham (Orac, Zen, Slave), Gareth Thomas (Blake), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Jan Chappell (Cally), Brian Croucher (Travis II)

Brian Croucher has apparently been in lots of episodes of The Bill - he's into double figures. I only remember the one though. I also spoke to Gareth Thomas, but I can't reveal our conversation until 28th January in case my mum reads this.

I then went to Oxford Street - the best time to go is as the shops are closing. I thought I'd get a bus to Harrods and ended up walking to Selfridges (from the nearest tube station this time) so took a photo of it all lit up:

I eventually managed to get myself on a bus and get off at the right stop. I couldn't be bothered to walk far enough to one end of Harrods to get as good a picture though:

I only really went in to look around and go to the toilet - which were like a posh hotel's. I followed signs to the Egyptian Hall, because I couldn't work out what it was, and ended up walking round with my mouth open. It looks like an Egyptian themed hotel in Vegas (although not the Luxor, because that's a pyramid). The Egyptian escalators, even more so. Although they were normal escalators, just with Egyptian ceilings and statues around.

I got completely lost trying to get out, until I found a map anyway. I also got off the bus at Hyde Park Corner instead of Marble Arch. Which is a complete pain by tube. I remember when I first went to London I used to get lost coming out of the tube stations - when I got off the train all I could do was follow everyone else. So I've improved a bit but I think I'm always going to get lost in London. The trouble is it all looks the same!

Some meme spamming - lj cuts for length.

IQ Test

2004

Films

I'm a bit behind myself, so a belated happy birthday to Annie and Altariel.

My printer arrived yesterday (after a delivery estimate of 20th-26th January). The lead hasn't arrived though, of course, so I appropriated the one from my TV card. It's not as if there's anything on till Wednesday anyway.

I spent an hour setting it up and installing all the stuff, twice. So then I tested it and I spent five minutes completely gobsmacked at how fast it is. Admittedly, my old printer is old, but the new one prints so quickly you can practically blink and miss it. I'm, not my phone will fit on top of it, which is something I didn't think of, but apart from that, it's great. I will have to try printing some stuff in colour, in draft quality, double-sided and some photos on the paper they sent with it.

At work today we had a charity day to raise money for the tsunami victims (specifically someone living near the company chairman's house in Sri Lanka who has been taking in people who have lost their homes). We managed about �500, which the company said they would match. Which is really great but annoys me because most of the rest of the people in the company never give anything to charity at any other time. Except when I come round selling raffle tickets/asking for sponsorship.

I know you can't have a big thing too often - we used to have a charity week at school so often it seemed like it was every other week. And I know that there are a lot of charities, all worthy causes, that you can't hope to support them all. And it's really important to remember that there are lots of others that need support, apart from tsunami-related ones. But I just want people to remember them at other times of the year - when they aren't prompted to by the rest of the country.

Tomorrow night is our annual cheese and wine quiz. It was not looking good on Tuesday, for the numbers of people we had going. Now it almost looks like we'll have too many for the venue! I managed to stand up in front of about 20 people at the Christmas dinner and make a short speech without getting nervous, so I'm going to attempt to make a welcome speech in front of 50 tomorrow. Which, I have to admit, I would never have considered doing six months ago.

I went on holiday to London last weekend. I am so tired now though, that last night I had ten hours of sleep and I'm going to go to bed soon so I can get another ten hours tonight. I had forgotten how knackering holidays are.

I started off nice and gently and met a friend for lunch, wandered from Covent Garden to Tottenham Court Road and eventually checked into the hostel in the middle of the afternoon. The instructions to get there seemed simple enough - turn left out of the tube station and it's 50m away. Having tried the two left turnings I finally spotted the right road sign and found the place. Turned out it was across the road, turn left, turn right and it's 50m on the left. Which is not quite the same.

It turned out to be a lot bigger than I thought as well. The fun part was making my bed. I was on a top bunk so you have to be on the bed the whole time you're putting the sheet on the mattress. Which was a bit of a trial. As was getting up and down to the bed itself. Getting back into the centre of London I managed to catch up with a load of people coming from a Chelsea game. From which I'm guessing that their football ground is on the District line, possibly close to Earls Court, but it could be anywhere really.

I was going to go to the Natural History Museum but wasn't going to get in before they closed. So I went and visited the Australian shop on the way. Having seen a sign at Embankment tube station to say Covent Garden was walkable from there, I thought I'd do that. I didn't even get lost! I went past the Canadian pub and the Australian pub on the way as well. I loved the Australian shop though - they had so much food there! I now have some dark chocolate TimTams, which are the only ones Tescos haven't sold so far. I was hoping mum might be able to eat them but they have milk and milk chocolate in. I haven't tried them yet - I need my chocolate to be cold first.

Since pretty much the only thing left open by that time were the shops, and I'd been in that direction earlier in the day, I was fairly sure I might be able to make it to Oxford Street without getting too lost. As it turned out I went in the opposite direction. Which counts as not too lost when it comes to me and London. I ended up walking all the way up Oxford Street to Marble Arch. Which is a long way. I did get my mum and sister birthday cards - necessary to do a long time in advance otherwise the only cards you can get are Valentines day. You're obviously not supposed to have a birthday anywhere near the 14th February.

I didn't have the energy to do anything in the evening. The hostel had a DVD cinema and were on the second half of the theatrical Two Towers by the time I got there. The seats they had I can't quite explain but were really comfortable. I could have quite happily fallen asleep if it wasn't for the orcs making noise - and seeming to make the floor vibrate. I saw a bit of the Jerry Springer opera in the TV room. Every time they sung I couldn't quite make out all the words so I had no idea of the plot really. The part of the first half I saw was fine because it was a take-off of Jerry Springer. The second half got weird though, so I ended up going to bed. Which was going to be an early (or at least not too late) night but ended up being 12.30.

The annoying thing about the hostel was that they had a 10am check-out time. And nothing opened till 11! I did some more walking (ie getting lost trying to find Tescos and then finding out they didn't open till 11 either). And I walked past Harrods (they didn't open till 12). I managed to get two hours in the Natural History museum. I did all the bits I wanted to in the Life section though - although since this was Human Biology, a tiny Evolution exhibit, and similarly tiny primate one, they didn't really tell me much I didn't already know.

Then I met up with some Rotaractors at Somerset House (which I ended up walking past, then walking back past because they didn't really want you to know how to get to the rink - I only found it by accident) to go ice-skating. I did up my boots too tight - which I do every time - but once I got that sorted I enjoyed myself. The only trouble with it was that there were so many people and such a small rink that it was really hard not to crash into people, or fall over them. I only ever learnt how to skate forwards - learning to stop never seemed necessary (that's what the barriers are for). An hour was just right though, so you could skate the whole time and not hurt too much afterwards.

There are still loads of things I need to do in London, so I will have to go and do it all again. And do the same thing in other places - although for longer if they're further away. I remember losing half a stone when I went to Eastern Europe (which was significant because my jeans fell down so far I kept walking on them) because we did so much walking. Perhaps it's just as well I'm planning to get buses between cities in Australia - if I stayed in one place I wouldn't be able to keep up with the pace! I need a holiday to get over my holiday - I went to work for the rest.

Because I untaped my thumb to wash my hair and now can't type.

Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

(I looked back in my archive and I came out as ISTJ on the Myers-Briggs meme going round at the time. I think I came out as the same thing on the Hogwarts house one as well.

On New Years Eve I actually dreamed I resigned from my job. Then panicked because I didn't have a job.

I've just spent just under £100 at amazon. And when I say just under, I mean by 9p. All of the stuff I bought was under £10 except for the printer. Which itself is a tale and a half.

I realised some time ago that my printer didn't talk to me anymore. When it won't print it just flashes, which could mean it's run out of paper or one or both of the cartridges need replacing. I also realised that this had been going on since dad bought a special lead to connect it to the USB port. And it had taken me a few years to notice.

Then I got a new computer and it prints everything backwards (ie from last page to first), which is caused by XP.

The HP web site suggested using the XP driver rather than the one supplied with the printer. Except that the computer can't find the printer when you tell it to look. It will print perfectly fine though!

So me and dad spent some time going round the shops measuring printer boxes (because they never tell you details like that) and looking at printers. I read reviews, which turned out to be quite useless because they would say things such as it's slow, when it's actually four times as fast as my current printer. I think I spent more time choosing my printer than I did my computer.

The other day I was reading some of the comments about people's HP fanon constants, and then Nilmandra posted about Elrond and loss and it got me thinking about how I see Elrond. There are all sorts of things about him in my personal fanon that are entirely unsupported by canon - at least in the sense that they're not mentioned either way. In all fairness, some of this probably comes from other people's fics because you can't help but be influenced.

My Elrond...

I also saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind tonight. I don't quite know why it's described as a romantic comedy because it's not funny. Or that romantic. But it makes you think, and I like that.

A multi-part post. It's quite long, so it's interspersed with livejournal to make my life a bit easier.

Firstly, the New Years Resolutions.

2004 Resolutions

2005 Resolutions

Taggart

New Year

On an entirely different note, I have discovered how to make my friends pages have no cut tags (as long as I'm logged in). It makes other peoples friends pages do the same thing and it's great! I don't read my friends page very often, but I do read other peoples (mainly because I can't quite be bothered to put them on my list) but it means I can actually read them!

I'm writing this in Semagic, which is great (I especially like the quick links thing) but I'm still going to have to put it into Blogger to spell check it, send it to lj, then change the links from cut-tags to actually links.

Oh, and happy new year everyone - may your 2005 be better than your 2004.