I've been dynamic today. I have:

• defrosted the fridge - I keep learning more about it and got it down to 6 hours in total - only about 4 hours of that was actual defrosting
• mostly updated my website - I've not uploaded it yet but I've done the vid recs and fan fic (I seem to have written a lot since my last update) and changed my updates page so it tells you exactly what's new
• typed up my Lake District diary. I just need to pick some photos and bung that on the site as well
• Actually finished the first draft of a story I started at the beginning of the week. It's Doctor Who, and definitely longer than the other two I've written, so I might have to admit defeat here and actually do it properly and get it beta'ed and everything. Not what I'm supposed to be writing, unsurprisingly.
• Tidied my room, so I can actually see it. And tidied all the food that I had round the place. And found some seriously out of date Reef. Disgusting is not the word - it's not strong enough
• Completely forgot about the Dairy Free chat at 2pm until 4pm - whoops!
• Lasted until 7pm to see Doctor Who, so I could see it on my computer in widescreen. Then watched Confidential and the episode on the TV with the commentary. I actually had the two exactly in sync, then accidentally leaned on the fast forward button (which I do a lot, it's annoying) and it was never quite the same after that. I've commented on the episode in Sel's LJ because I'm too lazy to press the more button to put it behind an LJ-cut so I don't spoil Avon and Melli.
• Actually, I think that's it.

Tomorrow I get to wax my legs - although that means I also get to listen to the first half of Night Thoughts. Doing my legs bores me so much, and the washing afterwards is such a pain, I save the Big Finish CDs for this especially, because then it's at least something to look forward to, apart from once I've actually done and have beautifully smooth legs (except for the bits I've missed that I spend the next few days spotting and trying to ignore).

So that's sort of Doctor Who every day this weekend! Not including the Eighth Doctor book I'm reading which is well weird.

I went to the theatre in London today to see The Pocket Orchestra. It's by Graeme Garden, of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue fame and I pretty much didn't know anything else about it before I went, except that it was something to do with music.

It turned out to be really good - and everyone was saying so afterwards. It was funny, of course, and it was sort of about the (possibly apocryphal) lives of the great composers. There were six actors who variously played the composers and people related to them - or screaming fangirls in a couple of cases. They also played a lot of their music, which was really impressive. One girl, at one point, was playing Brahms on the electric piano while holding a conversation with Schumann. They all walked around playing as well, which was really impressive for the one who was a cellist!

Sylvester McCoy was dressed up almost clown-like. He basically narrated it, occasionally played a composer and occasionally played an instrument (well, the cymbals very enthusiastically, and the spoons, mostly on the audience). And he heckled people.

I was sat at the front - and there wasn't a stage just an area where they performed, so I definitely had a good view, and a fair bit of attention from Sylvester McCoy, probably because I was also on my own and look younger than I am.

During the interval one of the kids there wanted to have a go on the keyboard, so the main actor helped it, and revealed the secret of the beginning of the Eastenders theme tune they were using.

It was funny, insane and brilliant. I'm just not quite sure what to believe now! It's on until 20th May, and when I went it was only half full, so if you get the chance, definitely go.

Yay, it's the weekend - and a three day weekend! The May Day bank holiday weekend (why celebrate for one day when you can celebrate for three or four?) is usually my official birthday, but since Julia's party is Saturday that's a bit weird this year.

From Melli:

The interview meme:

01. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
02. I will respond by asking you five questions of a very intimate and creepily personal nature. Or not so creepy/personal.
03. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
04. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
05. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions

Melli asked me really hard questions, but has at least given me something to think about for two days!

1.What's your favourite non canon ship?

I was thinking of ships and kept realised they're canon, which just isn't on Eventually, though, I've decided my favourite, at least at the moment, is Sheppard/Weir from Atlantis. They seem to work really well in AUs. In non-AUs, though, I really can't see them together but since I like lots of UST that works fine for me

2.Which fanfic (that you've written) are you most proud of?

Generally, it's whichever I've just finished, if I've finished one recently, or whatever I'm writing now if I'm into something. I think it's going to be the drabbles I wrote for Back to Middle-earth Month. Not because I think writing 25 drabbles in 4 days is going to produce 25 excellent drabbles, but because I wrote 25 drabbles in 4 days, which, when I started, I really didn't think I could do.

3.What was the thing that finally made you give up on The Bill? Was there a specific ep?

It wasn't any one specific thing but a culmination of things ending up with me thinking about how Wimbledon on TV doesn't finish until 8.30 and The Bill starts at 8pm. So just before Wimbledon 2005 I realised that I didn't want to tape Wimbledon and if I taped The Bill I just wouldn't get round to watching it. So I stopped watching it entirely and haven't regretted it at all.

4.Favourite West Wing character and why and your favourite episode featuring that character?

Favourite character: CJ. Silly question Why is more complicated because I'm not really sure. I think because she's really cool, she's really good at what she does, really clever and quite human as well in the mistakes and bad decisions she makes.

My memory is really poor so my favourite CJ episode is the most recent I can remember featuring lots of CJ and being really good. I looked up the title and it's Liftoff. But as it's early season 6 I can't talk about why because Australia haven't got that far yet (CJ has a particularly stressful day in it).

5.Which city do you really want to visit?

I considered so many cities and finally decided on San Francisco. It looks pretty and sounds as if it might not be as American as the rest of America. When I was younger I used to tell my dad I wanted to go to America but not to any bits that were hot or cold. He's been everywhere so suggested San Francisco.

Behind a cut because it's long, it's real life and contains several moments that make you (or me, at least) want to bang your (my) head against a wall, or similar large, hard, unresisting object.

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Happy Birthday, Gemma! (I only knew it was your birthday because I saw it on Una's LJ )

I read two books while I was away, experiencing long train journeys and long waits for buses:

26.1cm / 155cm (16.8%)

The Colour of Love by Preethi Nair
When I was at Rotary District Conference last month Preethi Nair spoke about how she became an author. It was a really interesting story, and she spoke really well, so I thought I'd try this book. It's a fictionalised account of what she did to follow her dream. I don't know how much of this is real and how much she made up (although the main character's dream is painting rather than writing) but the characters are so realistic. Nina's dad particularly sticks in my mind. The only thing I had trouble with was that it's just straight fiction - I've read nothing but sci-fi & fantasy and history for so long it was strange!

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
This was one of my mum's she recommended to me. She makes good recommendations because this was really good. It was slightly surreal at times, though to be reading about Georgiana in the 1770s and going to houses set up like they would be in the 1770s! Georgiana was a really interesting person, and it was quite an interesting to be a female member of the aristcracy back then. Their lives were so different from ours, in terms of what rights they had.

And a starship meme from Una that has some quite funny options to choose from. This result gave me the funniest weapon and defensive system:
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I've just signed up for amazon DVD rentals and my list has 53 DVDs on it. At 3 a month that's going to last a while. It's probably just as well they don't do book rentals, I can just imagine that length of my list (or actually, I can't, which is worse).

I've been so busy telling people about my holiday I've lost the energy now. I'm still working my way through catching up as well. But briefly:

Conference (photos) was great. Next year's is my birthday weekend, so will be even more fun.

The Lake District (photos) was very pretty, if northern. And sheep everywhere.

Doctor Who - yay! (need I say more?)

I am writing this from the hotel's free wireless internet connection Although it's in the coldest corridor ever - it's warmer outside (even this far north).

So far the Lake District is very pretty, although I feel like I saw everything yesterday afternoon. I saw the first 15mins of Doctor Who last night, but decided to go downstairs to drink and talk to people rather than watch the last half hour - I can do that anytime. I liked what I saw, though - I am liking David Tennant's Doctor so far.

I am so incredibly tired, but am enjoying Conference. Next year's is a bit closer - Watford - and is over the May Day bank holiday weekend, so my birthday will be on the Saturday. So I'll be celebrating my birthday there, very cool. I just need to make sure plenty of the club and the district are there.

So not what I'm supposed to be writing. So no change there. There's a Bugs piece that's about 1600 words. Unbeta'ed because there's basically no fandom, so no-one to beta, or to read. But, hey, it's good practice. And two Doctor Who pieces, both only about 500 words. Also unbeta'ed because I'm not in the fandom, I'm not entirely sure about being in the fandom, and I don't feel I can go into it and ask for betas. So these three are unlikely to end up anywhere except for my LJ, website and ff.net.

Bugs: Happily Ever After

A Happy Ever After post-ep - which is the one where Ros decides, at the last minute, not to go to America with Channing. Ros's new flat is sort of jossed by the next episode, but we'll just gloss over that.

Happily Ever After

Doctor Who: University

Ages ago, actually it was nearly a year ago, I had an idea about Ace and the Doctor going undercover in a modern-day (ish) university. She could pretend to be a student by going to lectures (no-one's actually going to notice) and the Doctor can be a lecturer. So Ace can call him Professor for real.

This was the only scene I wrote and when I came back to it I realised that's because that was what the whole plot was for. I certainly didn't have any more plot - like why they were undercover for a start.

This is inspired by the Big Finish audio 'The Harvest', at least in the idea of the Doctor and Ace undercover.

This is set not that long after Survival, and Ace is about 18/19ish.

University

Doctor Who: An Ordinary Morning in the TARDIS...

This was inspired by a line in 'The Veiled Leopard' where Ace threatened to confiscate Hex's favourite marmalade if he didn't do as he was told. After that, I can just imagine Ace and Hex as squabbling siblings and the Doctor the much put-upon parent.

Warning: this is not to be taken seriously.

This is set after 'The Veiled Leopard'.

An Ordinary Morning

A reading my height in books update:

21.2cm / 155cm (13.7%)

The books I've read are:

The Chalet School and Jo/The Chalet School in Camp
I like the Chalet school books, they feel like adult children's books. It's very strange with Jo as Head Girl, though, I still think of her as a naughty middle.

Useful Toil
This is one of mum's and it's short autobiographies of working people from 1820s to 1920s. The introductions to the book, and to each section had useful information but were really boring. The autobigraphies were really interesting, though. Some of the domestic servants were so badly off: they worked unbelievably long hours and were treated quite badly. Some of the people were so badly off they were admitted to hospital with malnutrition. What some of the women did during the First World War was interesting as well, as they found new lives working in factories.

Doctor Who: The Domino Effect
This was free with the SFX Doctor Who special. I got all excited with it being the Eighth Doctor, but then I remembered I was thinking of the Big Finish version with Charley. The actual thing was quite interesting but I didn't understand the mystery there, or whodunnit, and I felt like I missed something important before the book started, and it didn't quite finish either. Perhaps that's why they gave it away.

At lunchtime the other day someone was talking about organising her upcoming wedding in July, and how she didn't have many more weekends left to do it in. And her and someone else agreed you don't want to do that sort of thing in the evening because it's too much like work. I was slightly stunned at this because:
a. what else can you do in the evening (you can't go out every night unless you're made of money)
b. that's actually what I do, specially when it comes to Rotaract.
If I didn't do that, I'd be bored, though. When I wrote a meeting down in my diary the other day I realised I've got Rotaract meetings on the last three Mondays in May.

Anyway, I'm off to the Lake District on Friday, and not back till St George's Day, so you won't be hearing much from me till then. I'll be avoiding all Doctor Who spoilers until I've seen the episodes as well (probably first thing I do while I'm downloading my spam emails).

I've been so busy at work this week that I'm tired, I ache and I've set off the RSI in my thumb. At least next week's only a four day week. I have discovered, though, that the Big Finish audios while working make it all so much better. I might have an investigate, and actually buy some without the Seventh Doctor and Ace... Speaking of Doctor Who, I really enjoyed The Green Death, I wish they'd show some more. Although I could have done without the maggots. Making them big doesn't improve them at all.

I discovered, through a comment my mum made on the Diary Free forum, that Coldplay were doing a concert on Radio 2 tonight, so I'm currently listening to that. It's good, that goes without saying.

I've had this tiny ficlet in my head since this morning, so I finally got round to writing it down. And I did literally write it, which is why my thumb now hurts. Which means I'm going to have to watch the second half of Poirot without cross stitching, if I want to use my thumb next week.

I'm going to London tomorrow though for sausages, chocolate spread, possibly some gluten free matzo. And a look at some other free from food in a nice big Tescos, and a health food shop. And back in time for Doctor Who night (although night's a bit strong considering it's three hours, one hour of which is an episode of Nine and the other is a documentary they've already shown twice).

I am going to miss the Davis Cup tennis, though. I was looking forward to watching a nice bit of doubles today (although given the result, nice might not be the best description) but the BBC in their infinite wisdowm decided not to show it. Doubtless, because the Grand National is more important. And football, needless to say. I am not impressed.

I wasn't going to do this but checked it out anyway and had entirely forgotten the interesting people who share my birthday.

Go to Wikipedia. In the Search box, type your birth month and day (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death.

Events
1809 - Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a US patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.
1961 - Mercury program: Mercury 3 – Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into space, making a sub-orbital flight of 15 minutes.
2005 - The United Kingdom general election takes place, in which Tony Blair's Labour Party are re-elected for a third, consecutive term. [although a whole lot less exciting than the 3rd May 1979 and 1st May 1997 elections]

Birthdays
1943 - Michael Palin, British writer, actor, and comedian
1957 - Richard E. Grant, British actor

Death
1821 - Napoleon I of France (b. 1769)

I'm feeling that I've achieved lots tonight. OK, so I haven't practised and haven't watched Doctor Who (in all fairness he's not in mortal peril and Jo isn't quite yet) but I've cleared up the mess of papers that were on my desk, my chair and my CD boxes, replied to various comments/reviews that I've been meaning to for ages, and updated the Rotaract blog and diary. I just reached the stage tonight where I thought about putting it off till the weekend then realised, given I've been putting it all off for ages, that there's no reason for me not to put it all off for ages.

I've also renewed my domain name - I've had it for nearly four years now, wow! Although Phil did decide to send the invoice to dad for some inexplicable reason.

Work is hideous. I thought today that I was actually doing quite well, so took my whole hour for lunch (rather than the half hour I'd taken the rest of the week). But over lunch someone decided to suddenly ask for a whole load of work. And by ask I mean tell. So now I'm ridiculously busy and am getting up early tomorrow to go in early.

I'm so looking forward to my holiday (no work for a week!). I'm quite enjoying that it's so much simpler, being in this country. I booked my B&B last week. At some point next week I ought to pack (which involves a mountaineering expedition under my bed to find my sandals for the black tie ball about the time Doctor Who debuts).

I have finally seen the last four episodes of Bugs. I signed up to one of those DVD rental things that give you a free trial for a month - so I must cancel it before Easter. I rang play.com last week and they are happy to replace my non-working DVD, I just have to send the whole thing back to them. Unless the company that make them will send me a new DVD. I just have to remember to ring them. And the student loans company who don't quite seem to have managed to send one of my deferment letters.

I got quite excited in Bugs, when in the second-to-last episode we saw Windows 98! In 800x600 resolution! It looked so old - except for the white flatscreen monitors. There was a particularly surreal part where Adam asks Alex what a gizmo is. She tells him it's an EMP generator. Which is fine except it's quite obviously a sonic screwdriver. It looks like one, Adam uses it like one.

And now I really must go to bed and try to finish the fourth introduction in my book (it's a good book, except the introductions are really dryly written).

I just put Coldplay X&Y in my stereo and put it in shuffle. I was listening to the first one that came up and loving it and thinking 'why isn't this one my favourite?'. Then checked the listing and found out it was Speed of Sound. Which is my favourite. Mostly, though, I wanted to listen to it because when dad told me about The Guardian April Fools I didn't think Coldplay had done a song called Talk. I am really great with song titles, as you can see.

Anyway, Remix authors were revealed last night. So I can now say that I wrote Dear Jack (The Elizabethan Remix), which is a remix of From Pegasus, With Love by Soleta. The original was for the SGA Flashfiction Documentation challenge, and is a series of emails, and is quite funny. I took Elizabeth's point of view, filled in the gaps and made it slightly angsty.

My first thought on seeing my assignment was, 'excellent, a Sheppard/McKay writer'. From Pegasus, With Love is Sheppard/McKay. But Elizabeth didn't know there was anything going on, so mine ended up being the more hinted at pairing of Liz/Ronon. And there's a teeny tiny Teyla/Ronon hint in there that probably no-one will notice.

It means I am now more than halfway through my writing goal for the year:

15,362 / 20,000 (76.8%)

I can't believe it's the evening already. Although possibly that's because I only just had lunch. I slept for 11.5 hours last night. I'm nearly recovered from the flu but still a bit tired!

Dad told me about The Guardian's April Fool which was about Coldplay's Chris Martin supporting David Cameron. It's really impressive - they redid the song 'Talk' and everything.

The BBC have put the new Doctor Who series trailer up. I'm guessing from the ending of it it's on TV too, but that assumes I watch any I would be all excited about it, if it wasn't that I have to wait until I get back from the Lake District to see it - and they'll have shown two episodes by then.

I watched a Peter Davison story yesterday. It could be due to seeing Christopher Timothy in Doctors this week, but I had to keep reminding myself that he was the Doctor. Although at the end, for some reason, I couldn't get over how young he looked.

I also listened to a Big Finish CD. When I was in Bournemouth I was ambushed by Sophie Aldred being on a free CD with Doctor Who magazine. I'm glad I bought it though, because it was a good story. The Doctor wasn't in it at all, it was just Five's companions, Peri and Erimem, and Seven's Ace and Hex. I really liked Ace and Hex in it, they were funny. Peri I've heard in one other and not seen at all, and Erimem I'd never heard of before, but I really liked them too.

Some people also have Tom Baker 'singing' Common People. Having listened to it I can't help agree with Sel that he would be a bit much for a SatNav. But as cool as it is having John Cleese direct you (which my sister does), it would be very cool to have the Doctor do it.

I finally managed to read through Remix IV while it was still anonymous. I wrote a list of all the ones I got to the end of and enjoyed - which was most of the ones I started. The only ones that didn't fall into that category were just because they were something I wasn't that interested in. In general, all of the stories on there seem to be really good. With some quite funny funky remix subtitles (I particularly liked Remixes Lead to the Dark Side). I still need to leave feedback for these, and go back and read the originals (and leave feedback) but that will have to be another day.

There's a list of various people's recs posts here. I'm really excited that my remix fic got recced!

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I was at home a couple of weeks ago when my parents watched Hustle. I didn't take much notice of it until about half way through when I realised it was actually quite interesting. So I ended up watching it last night (with the added flu excuse) and I really liked it. Yeah, I'm behind on this one.