It didn't quite fit to tag this onto the end of the previous post. I had nothing planned this weekend, apart from the usual swimming and cleaning. So I planned (hoped?) to finish the first draft to the sequel of Dream a Little Dream. The long sequel, as opposed to a short sequel. The original had 10,000 words in the first draft and 17,000 in the final. My first drafts are always a rush to get the plot out - I have to go back and add the description. And in some cases, attempt to work out who is saying what.

So today I wrote 3000 words over the course of the day and finished the first draft. It currently stands at 14,500 words. So once it's done it will surpass the original as the longest thing I've ever written. And I'm planning to try and get it done by the end of August - the ending ties into SJA and assuming it doesn't get cut in the rewriting & editing process, I don't want to get jossed, if possible.

Today, I also cleaned, tidied, put some stuff on DVD and CD, made flapjacks and did the washing. So tomorrow I just have to swim, shop and make muffins. Monday I'll be making bread, and since I made flapjacks on Thursday and chocolate rice krispie cakes I'll have plenty of food.

Tomorrow I plan to spend my afternoon continuing to work my way through the First Doctor. And the Fourth if I get bored of the First.

When Harry Potter came out and there was a big thing about it, I didn't read it on purpose because everyone else was. It was only after the fourth book came out and long before the first film that I decided that maybe that if so many people are reading it there's something in it. And I was glad I did read it.

Last year someone at work was reading a book at lunch called We Need to Talk About Kevin which was about a fictional boy who did a equally fictional High School shooting. I thought it sounded interesting but had forgotten about it the next day. Until someone else was reading it at work at lunch not that long ago.

Normally, the sorts of things the girls at work are into are not what I'm into at all. But it still intrigued me. And then the other day I followed a link to a blog and on it, the person who wrote the blog had read it and said it was good. I had a look and discovered the local library had it. So on Thursday (the only day they're open after work finishes) I got my first book from the library I didn't have to pay for.

I planned to spend this weekend reading it, except I started on Friday and just finished. And I'm very glad I did get it because it was very good. It's easy to get completely caught up in the characters and the writing style, of the Kevin's mother to his father. A part of the ending I predicted halfway through - if 'I wonder if...' counts as predicting. But none of it came as a surprise, though. Except that I read the last few pages in tears. And like Kevin, who it's impossible to say exactly why he did it, I don't know who I was feeling sorry for.

Reading my RSS Feeds this last week there are some that make me think I am not on the same planet as most of the rest of the population, in that there are major dramas that have gone on that I didn't think anything of at all.

Like, people avoiding LJ/the internet until they'd read Harry Potter. Whereas when I took a break from reading it I read my RSS Feeds. I just didn't read the ones that had spoilers in them - I either marked them as read without reading, or left them unread to read until I'd read it.

And then people are running round like chickens with their heads cut off about LJ going down for an evening. I only noticed because I thought I wasn't tired when I got in, so turned my computer on. By the time I got there I was, but it was fine before I went out and was fine in the morning. I've known websites down far longer than that. So why is one such a big deal? Do people not visit any other website? Do they not have real lives?

You know that thing where you read really good fanfic and then just can't write any of your own because it can never be as good? I had that last night but with my own. I went and read an old one of mine (well, not that old) and apart from a few bits I thought I could have changed, I mostly didn't think I could do any writing last night because how could I possibly write anything even vaguely that good again? So I had planned to do some beta'ing but I procrastinated and read something else of mine. Which was older and loads of bits that needed working on. So I went and wrote 2000 words before I got too tired and went to bed to listen to my neighbour's TV.

Melli asked me some really hard questions:
Read more...

Well, I've just watched the first two episodes of Heroes. Which started late - my video stopped taping episode 1 and started taping episode 2 and at first I thought they might have edited the two together.

I spent the first episode wondering when it would start - the answer was five minutes before the end. So I looked forward to the second episode. Except it was weird. I almost started caring about the characters, and then something bizarre would happen and I just couldn't be doing with it. I didn't really dislike it, but I don't get why everyone's crazy about it either.

And as they said in Unmasked, there are lots of questions. I just don't really care what the answers are, though. Except that is doing Confidential type things Anthony Stewart Head's new job or something? (Although Unmasked was just as pointless as the similar-length Torchwood equivalent).

The one thing I really liked was that the Japanese guy immediately connected being able to warp time with being able to warp space. That was cool. In the whole 80 minutes, that was the best bit. Which probably says it all really.

So I now know who vote4nathan is, and Sylar sounds a lot less like a Vulcan when it's pronounced Siler (although how do you get le from lar?). But I'm not really feeling the need to watch it next week. And since my weekly viewing currently consists of Mock the Week I'm wondering whether it's worth spending 98p for a TV guide.

Those are pretty much accurate, I would say. And agree with every other test I've taken. Although that graphic misses Visual/Spatial at 5% off the bottom - although I think 5% probably 5% too generous...

I've just discovered that the post I wrote when I finished reading Harry Potter on Saturday ended up just as a draft for some reason. I'm sure I pressed the publish button and it did its thing though.

Edit: Whoops, went to change the published date and deleted it! All I can remember it saying is that I thought it was alright, didn't make me cry, but did require a sick bucket.

It was so nice to have the chance to just sit (well, lie down) and read. And for some of that time I even had peace and quiet to do it in, which was even better. So when I got back yesterday I spent some time just reading. Well, and falling asleep. And trying to work out in what situation Harry Sullivan would have got married as a young man. My brain just went Harry Potter -> Harry Sullivan, which is a direct connection when your mind works sideways like mine.

I've been cross stitching to Doctor Who the rest of the weekend. I started a small thing off mum's magazine, but I was nearly through the first colour and ran out of thread. Fortunately, I have plenty of that colour, but it's only at that point that I discovered the instructions said to cross stitch in one strand. Clearly, I didn't read them, but that's because they always said cross stitch in two strands, backstitch in one. I am not unpicking it all, though, so it'll be interesting to see if I run out of any of the other colours.

I've been enjoying The Daleks Master Plan, which I started halfway through Wimbledon and will finish tonight. There's one episode where it's all a bit silly and Peter Purves sounds just as amused. I really like his narration voice. At work I listened to Reign of Terror and have been enjoying that too. Possibly it helps that I've already seen it, but I much prefer narrations to reconstructions. In fact, for good episodes, narrations are almost better than the moving things. Although that could be because it leaves me free to cross stitch without having to look up when it all goes quiet. Or means I can lie down with my eyes closed and it all looks better inside my head. Or would, if I have pictures in my head.

I went to the Harry Potter launch last night. Waterstones didn't seem to want to let people in and Blackwells didn't start till 11pm. Borders is usually open till late anyway, so I went there. It was really busy. There were things going on but I don't know what because there were too many people stood around them for me to see. So I sat in the history section and read a book about the French Revolution (which I then went and bought, since they were doing 20% off until midnight).

They started people queueing at 11pm, which was silly, I thought. Not least because they went all round the shop so you couldn't get to any of the shelves. We joined the queue at 11.45pm, which seemed sufficient. By 12.30 we hadn't moved far - which was a problem because the bus was at 1am and I didn't really want to hang around until the next one at 2am, since I was already tired.

Borders had a mad system on where you queued round the shop to go downstairs and get the book. Then you came back up and queued round more of the shop to pay for it. I reckon at 12.30 we'd have had another hours wait. Waterstones had an even longer queue, I think because it was a couple of quid cheaper there. Blackwells is a bit out of the way so I don't know what it was like there. But Smiths had opened at midnight just to sell it, so I got it there - it took all of five minutes.

I've read half a page so far. I was counting on having a lie-in, but my neighbours had other ideas. So at the moment I'm waiting for them to shut up so I can go back to bed. I'm too tired to read at the moment, plus I just don't care. I just want to sleep.

I missed it, but half an hour ago it was 20:07 on 20-07 2007

I was woken up this morning by thunder. I then discovered it was also pouring it down with rain. My feet didn't get dry till I got home. And although it didn't seem like an unusual amount of rain, it seems to have caused loads of disruption. I'm now getting the bus to Oxford to go to the Harry Potter midnight launch as the person who offered to drive is still on a train somewhere. I don't want to drive because I'm confused about driving round Oxford, and can't drive after midnight.

There's also been a really strange creaky banging sound round here. It started up late last night and stopped after I went to bed. It had gone this morning, but was back when I got home. It's just recently stopped, about two and a half hours later, when my upstairs neighbours got home... I have no idea what it is but the two events must be connected.

Plans for tomorrow are: hoovering (did the rest of the cleaning tonight), swimming and reading Harry Potter.

I'm giving a presentation to Rotary on 31st about my trip to Romania. So I actually got my arse in gear and wrote it tonight. Well, I wrote a few bullet points on slides and added some photos. I need to work out how long it's going to be and write myself some notes - I have to give it again on 17th September, when I'm more likely to have forgotten what happened.

I listened to the Blakes 7 audio last night in the car. I'd listened to the first three episodes when they were first up, but got distracted during them. I listened again when a few more were up, hoping that might be the end of the episode. It wasn't, and it annoyed me that I had to get up every five minutes to start the next one (remembering what one I was on) and listen to the theme music at the start of every one.

It was much easier to listen to on CD. And it was good. It was strange to hear one of Avon's lines being given to someone else. But I recognised one of Vila's that he kept. And I did love that one of the prisoners had been accused of 217 counts of murder, at which point he pointed out he worked in administration

Of all the characters Avon hasn't made an impact on me. But then he hasn't had much to do yet.

I'm looking forward to listening to the next one, but I think I'll just skip the website and buy it off Judith again.

There was an article in the paper today about the Harry Potter book leak (or possible leak - it might not be the right manuscript) and it mentioned security around the Harry Potter books:

Ahead of the launch books have been kept in guarded warehouses and delivered by vans tracked by satellites. Clays, printer of the British edition, installed barbed wire around its Suffolk plant and hired extra guards to search workers as they left the factory.

I was quite amused that at the end of Mock the Week they had 'Lines you'll never see in the final Harry Potter book', which with the exception of the owl postal strike, were all dirty, as you'd expect really.

It's nice being home. Although the cat draped himself over my lap this morning, making my nighty muddy and putting holes in it (and my leg). And dribbled on it. Now he's using my right leg as a pillow, so my computer is balanced mostly on my left leg. My legs are warm. My feet are cold but I can't get up to shut the lounge door because the cat will get upset.

I saw the new Harry Potter film yesterday. I am really looking forward to the book now. I felt like some of the characters didn't really have much to do, but then there are so many characters and they only had two hours to tell the story in. The girl who played Luna Lovegood was very good - she definitely sounded like she wasn't quite all there. And I loved the witching world's equivalent of a crazy cat lady.

Only thing now is I have to drive back - although at least it's not sunny. And I have Blakes 7 to listen to on the way back up.

I drove home last night - it's the first time I did it in the evening. It's good that it gets dark late, though, which makes it not so bad.

I have some occasions when I get in the car, as I did on Wednesday when I went to Abingdon, and I think I'm all grown up, I can drive, it'll be fine. And other occasions, as I did last night, when I think I don't want to do this, I can't do this, it's all going to go horribly wrong.

But it was actually fine. The A34 was so empty I had to stop at the services just before I got to the bottom of it because I was bored - not enough lorries to pass. Although there was one memorable point where I was passing one, but before I got to it, another lorry decided to pass it, so we were doing 55mph in the right lane. I also discovered that just as my back doesn't like me changing gears too often, it also doesn't like me not changing them much at all - I was sat in the same position for a while and that was obviously too much for it.

I shouldn't complain about the roads being empty though, because that's far better than the opposite. And meant I got home in 2 hours and 5 minutes, including my ten minute stop at the services.

So now I'm home and it's all nice. I can sleep next to a wall and next to the edge. My room is more pink - it looks good. I have a pink dalek - daleks look good in that colour. And my parents have a new posh-looking bathroom that's a bit scary. I'm not sure it goes with the rest of the house.

In sad news, Peter Tuddenham has died. I've met him - if by met you mean been in the same room as. Funnily enough, he didn't have the same voice as Zen/Orac/Slave at all.

On a happier note, Happy Birthday, Marta!

Exciting news: Heroes starts on 25th July! I thought it wasn't till the autumn, but it'll mean an hour and ten minutes of TV viewing a week, instead of the half hour I was expecting.

Something that occurred to me while reading the paper at lunchtime. The reason filesharing over the internet is illegal is because the file is copied, not because it's shared - lending a video of a recording is not illegal. But, if I was to tape something on my PVR, convert it to a more useful format, send it to someone over the internet, and then delete the original, is that legal or illegal? I'm not planning to do this, it just seemed an interesting question.

I'm slightly scared by the woman in G2 today who had 8 kids and gave them all names beginning with N. On purpose. She did seem to have half a brain, since she pointed out they all had different middle initials, so the post didn't get mixed up. Although that won't work when they get letters addressed to N [lastname]. The names, incidentally, are Nadine, Natalie, Nathanael, Naomi, Neiel, Naarah, Noah, Noelani.

The paper was clearly inspiring today. I realised that, in my head at least, I always use less where other people would use fewer. For example, "I have less chocolates". Which sounds wrong, except that implied in that sentence is 'in the way of', so although I say, "I have less chocolates", what I actually say in my head is "I have less in the way of chocolates". But the 'in the way of' is silent. The reason why I was inspired by the paper? They wrote a sentence using 'in the way of'. And let's face it, it's not the most necessary phrase ever.

And I see the interview meme is going round again. Although I'm going with a variation: ask me five questions and I'll put the answers in another post.

It's strange, now there's no tennis, I have so much more time in the evenings. I would say I don't know what to do with myself, except that I do. Last night I made bread, flapjacks, tidied, did my bank statement, paid my water bill, attempted to pay my first ever car tax but discovered you can't until 15th, wrote 1100 words, watched Balderdash and Piffle and listened to episode 4 of The Daleks Master Plan. And also did some other little things that needed doing. And that all only took me until 11.30. At which point I was bored and decided bed would be a good idea if I wanted to get up at 7.30.

Tonight, we went to the pub after the Rotaract meeting. It's terrible, I've been waiting what seems like forever for the smoking ban to start and then it did and I hadn't been to a pub until tonight. But it was so nice! It still smelt a bit funny, but I could breathe, see and I don't need to wash all my clothes. It's almost not like going to a pub at all! It'll take a while though for my immediate pub reaction to be to not go because I hate smelling like that.

Well, that's Wimbledon over for another year. Today was a great day of watching tennis all day - only the second time I've been able to do that. I was quite enjoying the men's doubles final while I had lunch but that was just a prelude to the main event. I really wanted Nadal to win because Federer's won Wimbledon before. But it was such a good and close match that I just really enjoyed it, and in the end I wanted them both to win.

There's such a contrast between the two of them. Nadal's always really sweaty and Federer never seems to break a sweat. I don't think I've ever heard him grunt either. Those two things, and his ability to just hit an ace breakpoint down (which must make it so frustrating to play against) make him such a cool customer on court. He makes it look easy. And he is the one person who can get away with wearing flannel trousers and a white blazer.

And then, we had the mixed doubles final. Radio 5 commentated on it - they never usually commentate on doubles because it's impossible to keep up with the rallies, they go so fast. Which is why I like doubles. But in this case it also features Jamie Murray - Andy Murray's older brother. Jamie's more of a doubles specialist and only asked Jelena Jankovic to play on the second Tuesday. And then they won! It was a great game and we have a Wimbledon champion for the first time in twenty years since Jeremy Bates and Jo Durie won the same event. Which I very vaguely remember.

And as one of the 5 Live commentary team said, as an older sister, I'm also very glad Jamie's won a Grand Slam title before Andy.

I have updated my website, finally, which includes the diary I wrote while I was in Romania.

Royal Mail are really pissing me off now. They tried to deliver a parcel last Tuesday at 1.30pm (!). So I went on the website to get it redelivered. Except they've taken the address off the 'you were out' card and don't want you to find it on the site, so I had to ring up to find out what the address was. So I asked for it to be redelivered on Thursday at work.

So it didn't turn up, surprise, surprise. Last time this happened it only turned up because I rang. But I was busy yesterday and thought I could go and pick it up on Saturday. So I went down there this morning and there was a sign on the door to say they're closed due to staff shortages. They're only open while I'm at work and not at lunchtimes, so the next time I can pick it up is in two weeks time and they only keep things for three weeks. So I will be ringing them on Monday to tell them what I think of them. And then a few times a day until I actually get it.

I enjoyed the tennis today. I had one men's semi on the screen and the other in a little picture in the corner. And the one in the corner was the one they were focusing on on the radio. It's annoying that the picture through Freeview is so far behind the radio, because I knew the outcome of the shot before they hit it! Interestingly, at one point BBC1 and 301 were showing the same match and the little picture was fractionally ahead of the big one.

Then I enjoyed the women's final. I was hoping Bartoli would win but thought it unlikely. I was right, but it was a good match, so I don't mind. The mixed doubles with Jamie Murray and Jelena Jankovic was a really exciting match. And because they're so far behind there's lots more doubles action yay!

I hope the men's final is good tomorrow. I don't mind too much which of them win, as long as it's a good, close match.

And then Monday I won't quite know what to do with myself with no tennis to watch. Apart from all the other stuff I have taped to watch, and other stuff I have to do that's been building up because I've been too busy watching the tennis...

I was having a bad day today at work - I started on today's work at 5.15pm. Which is marginally better than starting on it the next day, which does happen when we're busy.

But then there was non-rain interrupted tennis this evening! I left work just after Williams evened up the match with Henin and got back to find Henin serving for the match. It would have more exciting if Henin had won it, rather than Williams lost it but still. At least now perhaps Serena will rest her leg - given that the only person who thought she was ok to play on it was Serena herself.

And then there was actual doubles! Mixed doubles with Brits in, partly because they're so far behind mind you. So that was good to watch, although less good to listen to since they had Virginia Wade commentating. She has an annoying posh voice and talks complete crap the whole time that I'm just not interested in. The good part was that when they stopped at 8pm for Today at Wimbledon and I could switch over to channel 302 to continue watching it.

I was going to quite happily carry on watching tennis until Taggart and then watch that on time delay but my best friend rang instead, so I spent an hour and a half on the phone. So Taggart has been postponed until another day. So have rather a lot of other things - when Wimbledon finishes I always end up not knowing what to do with the extra time I have, but I have plenty of things queued up.

It's been another frustrating day. Play started at 11am but since it didn't look like the matches were going to be that interesting, I didn't bother with the tennis till lunchtime. The minute I got myself set up to watch it, it started raining. They started playing an hour and a half later, which is not helpful. And then I spent the afternoon getting up and down a lot, so kept putting the headphones down and not putting them back on straight away. Which meant that every time I sat down to listen to the tennis it rained, and whenever I stopped for a long period, they played.

It was quite interesting to hear the thunder over the radio. It thundered here an hour after it did there, but that was all it did. As a result I saw, I think, one Nadal game before they went off again. And that was it for the day. Why they didn't play on Sunday I don't know, because they might not have been that far behind after Saturday, but they certainly are now - starting on all courts at 11am and using every single courts - including ones that don't have a number.

I finished The Myth Makers, which is Vicki's last episode and I'm all sad because I liked Vicki. And I am discovering Doctor Who is a bad influence - it's really hard to type doctor with a small d.

Well, we had tennis and it was exciting. Although mostly it was the Five Live commentators making me laugh - Michael Stich will take any opportunity to criticise the Hawkeye, Jonathan [something] persists in saying 'three points away', 'two points away' etc, although I think he's doing on purpose to wind everyone else up. One of them decided to commentate on the warm up to show how ridiculous it was, and accurately predicated the rain (which wasn't difficult really).

And then there was the whole thing with Serena Williams. I ended up watching her match this evening, even though I could have watched Nadal's because I was trying to work out if she was injured or not. It was bizarre.

I've reached the point with my Doctor Who watching when more of the episodes are lost than not. I hate reconstructions - I get bored of looking at the pictures and end up looking away just as some action scrolls across the screen. Although since it's white on a black background and moves I can't read it anyway. So I'm listening to the narrations instead. Peter Purves has a good voice for it I think.

Since I have conjunctivitis it's working quite well to take my mind off how much my eye hurts, and I can curl up with my eyes closed, so it's hurts a bit less because then I don't move it. Although it feels a bit strange closed, so that's only helping so much. It doesn't help that it hurts when I touch it and it keeps feeling like I've got something in there. It's probably just as well that I wear glasses, so it requires more effort to poke.