I think it was getting SFX this week and reading them raving about Heroes, as per usual, that made me decide this week's BBC3 episode would be make it or break it for my viewing of it. I wasn't that impressed by the first two episodes, but I kept going - after all, everyone seems to think it's the best thing since sliced bread, so I thought there must be something in it.

The episode I watched last night turned out to be the 8th one - I feel like I've been watching it for longer than that. It didn't have Nikki or her equally annoying family in it, so on the plus side I didn't feel like throwing things at the TV. And it had plenty of Hiro and Ando, who are the only characters I like. It even had plenty of Matt, who is played by the same bloke who played Weiss in Alias, which makes him automatically cool.

But I was bored by it. Hiro and Ando bored me, and the rest of them bored me too. There were two moments of excitement, one of which was when it had Kasuf from Stargate in it. The other I've already forgotten, so it can't have been that exciting.

I had a look at some synopses on the internet to find out what I would be missing and if there were any answers to the questions they threw up at the start and haven't answered yet. I got lost by the use of character names I haven't learnt yet (ie most of them) and bored by everything else.

So the net result is I get 40 minutes of my life back (although probably more like 35 minutes as I skip through the previously as I have a memory longer than a goldfish).

I have finished v3 of the epic! It's now at 18,400 words, which is definitely the longest thing I've ever written. Hopefully it won't require too many more edits before betaing.

I will now celebrate with Ugly Betty and The Dead Zone series 4 - which if Channel 5 showed I missed it, as I tend not to read that column of the TV guide. And then I need to read my RSS feeds and reply to comments...

I knew today would be busy, as I was off Friday and my boss was off today, but I didn't think it would be that bad. I left work at 6.40, got home, had dinner, went out to Rotaract meeting (somehow managed to make it on time), then went to Tescos. I didn't get home till nearly 11pm. Thankfully, I'm not going anywhere tomorrow evening.

I listened to the latest Blakes 7 CD on the way up. Twice. And I still have no idea what happened. Which proves that I can't listen to something while I drive if I haven't heard it before. I did ok with music though, as long as I could sing along to it.

Now all the muscles in my right arm near my wrist are hurting from driving and working. And after one day I'm feeling all behind already!

There are all sorts of ways to take risks and get whatever thrills, or death, you might out of them. But for the ultimate risk, last night, I hate half a biscuit. Containing 16% wholewheat flour and some wheat flour. Today I've been fine, so at some point I need to eat more biscuit. But not tonight because I have to drive back tomorrow.

This morning we went to The Deli for sausages. Bournemouth was hideously busy, unsurprisingly. It's strange, though, that although The Deli is a lot smaller, they have a lot better choice of sausages than Kosher Kingdom in Golders Green. So now I have a variety I have to work through and decide which I like best.

This afternoon me and mum spent hours reading a diary written in 1872 by a man in Cambridgeshire who knew some of our ancestors. He just had an ordinary pocket diary, which had some really interesting stuff printed in it - including telling us that the exchange rate for the dollar was about 4 shillings - which works out to about 20p in today's money.

He wrote about ordinary things - letters written and received, what trains he got on when he went to various places, when he went to church etc. But it's a life that's completely different from the way we live today, so it's really interesting. Plus there are the times when Aunt Sophie came to visit unexpectedly (she lived in Llandudno) for a few days, and stayed for the best part of two weeks. What took the time, though, was deciphering his handwriting - some of the words were definitely debatable and some we still can't work out.

I had a play with Vista, as well, and discovered that Windows Explorer has no buttons on it where in XP it has back, forward, up, etc. It still has back and forward, but there's no way of adding buttons. I always put cut, copy and paste amongst other things on my computers, so it's one less click to do that. So not being able to is a complete pain.

But, thankfully, dad's computer magazine had the answer: PowerDesk. There's a pro and a free version and I'm loving the free version. You can launch other programs from it and add & delete which ones you want on there; you can have a button for just about any menu command; you can have two windows in one; and best of all, it recognises my pen drive when I plug it in (sometimes Windows Explorer does, sometimes it doesn't). It also hasn't crashed yet, but since Explorer's currently going through a non-crashy phase, that doesn't prove anything.

And now it's dark, I'll actually get round to some writing...

Given the week we've had it was amazing that today was hot. Well, I say hot. It was pleasantly warm - or would have been if it wasn't so humid. This is in comparison to Romania where it was in the 30s and not humid - far more pleasant than when it hits 30 here. The temperature today was the sort of temperature in Romania where I'd have been wearing a jumper.

But still, it was perfect weather to go out to the middle of nowhere by the sea for a waterfight. Although Vodafone thought we were in France.

There were the usual alliances made and broken (what else could you expect from Blakes 7 fans?) and hiding at the back of the cave. We also had fun shooting round the pillars at the front in the light. And in the end, just in the open. Up till that point I was quite dry at the back. But running away while being shot a lot soon destroyed that. My trousers are still a bit damp because I haven't been bothered to change them yet.

It's a lovely peaceful setting, entirely destroyed by us. And good fun, as usual.

Photos to follow when I introduce the camera to my computer.

Ages ago, when I was round my sister's when The OC finale was being repeated I was surprised to find out she watched it. But she mentioned another series she watched, similar to it, that she thought I'd like. And it was called Ugly Betty. But she also said I should watch it from the beginning.

I remember it starting on Channel 4 but that's no help. 4OD only went back as far as episode 10 at the time, which was unhelpful. And I could only find the latest episodes anywhere.

But I finally got hold of it and watched the first episode last night - and the second tonight. I'm really enjoying it. It's quite funny, there's all sorts of plots going on, and there's a Scottish girl in it, which makes such a nice change from the American accents.

So I'll be watching more of it.

Heroes, on the other hand, I would stop watching, except there's usually something each episode that interests me. And I'm sort of watching it out of habit. All the characters annoy me apart from Hiro and Ando, and Matt only doesn't annoy me loads because he's played by Greg Grunberg. So I'm still watching it, for now.

Meme about reading, from ladyvivien and hhertzof:
Read more...

I re-read Anne of Green Gables last year, and then Avon pointed out there were some more - seven more in fact. By the end, Anne's youngest daughter is older than Anne was when we started.

I came across all of them when I was in America, so I bought them. It's just taken me a while to get round to reading them, since the first one was a bit hard going. Anne has a tendency (or she did in that one) to talk a lot and sometimes you'd turn the page to find the paragraph was a whole page long.

The others I found harder because I liked Anne young, so I was less keen on her growing up and everyone getting married. Some of them went by really quickly as well. The 7th book, Rainbow Valley, seemed to focus on the Minister's children more than Anne's, but then they were probably more interesting.

It improved with the last book, Rilla of Ingleside, which entirely focused on Anne's youngest daughter. It's also set during the First World War. I don't know how historically accurate it is, but I still enjoyed seeing how the war affected the people at home.

And it was interesting in the books generally to see their reactions to such new inventions as telephones, aeroplanes and cars.

I've been very remiss in not writing in here. And I should this week because I have nothing on. At all. Except for going swimming, probably on Wednesday, with my new prescription goggles, which is quite exciting.

Today I took my car for my first MOT & service. I've heard all sorts of horror stories of the amounts people have paid so I was expecting something horrid. When I went to pay, since the garage shuts before work finishes, my boss said he thought I'd be lucky if it was less than £200. It was £186. So far less than I was expecting, which is good. I haven't completely killed it in the year I've had it!

Yesterday I went to Birmingham to meet someone I know through The Bill fandom. I've only been to Birmingham a couple of times since they built the Bullring and it's completely confused me. We did walk all over the place, some of it in the rain. We found Forbidden Planet and where Toys R Us used to be and where the Lego shop used to be. The latter was particularly disappointing.

We did go to the BBC shop and studios, which was unexpectedly cool. They had some Shaun the Sheep stuff, which I didn't need. Upstairs you can see where they record The Archers and where people sit in the newsroom behind where they broadcast. They fit an amazing number of people into a small space by judicious use of flat screen monitors and tiny desks.

In the Bullring a thing was set up with trampolines that people could go on attached to bungee ropes. The trampolines weren't really for bouncing on, it was the ropes attached to them either side that made them bounce as high as the next floor. Later on, some girls were doing somersaults on them, which was quite cool. I feel sure that that sort of thing would have made me throw up.

I was quite impressed that I got a seat both ways - it doesn't seem to have occurred to Virgin trains that people might actually want to get on them. Well, no, that's not true. It's that people want to go in that direction and they're the only train company that do. They do tend to be on time more often these days, but instead they have fewer trains going to fewer places and with fewer carriages. On balance, I'm not sure that's a win.

I hate this time of year for two reasons and they both hinge on the fact that yesterday was A level results day. I should avoid the whole thing really but it is hard.

More students than ever have got As. This is the same every year. But it's annoying because even though I have good A level grades, every year they look worse. And the media always highlight people with stupid numbers of them.

And then there's always a Clearing supplement in the paper. I'm glad to see that as usual, you can't get into Warwick to do Physics through Clearing. I just wish employers would work out that means my degree grade is better than it looks because I went to a good university to do it.

There's always stuff in there about life at uni, at least 50% is complete bollocks. But there's enough in there to remind me what it's like. And I really miss it. It's been seven years since I left, which is a terribly long time. I don't think I managed to get back there at all this year either. I really should email Dave and work out a time for me to visit and he can show me all that's changed in that time.

I don't miss the work - I haven't done an exam since 2000 and I'm quite happy for that to continue. But I really miss having your friends so nearby, seeing them everyday, and spending most of your time going out and having a good time with like-minded people. Whereas these days I spend my days with mostly boring people at work. They're alright people, just not who I'd spend my time with if I had the choice.

Perhaps I should go and watch last night's Mock the Week because I've depressed myself more writing this post.

I feel like I'm getting somewhere with my latest epic. According to the date on the v1 file I finished the first draft on 28th July, and it was 14,500 words. But then I thought about it and read it and decided large parts of the second half of the plot needed to change. Today I finished the second draft: some of the words are the same, some are completely different and some are just a bit better. It's currently 14,000 words.

Although part of the stuff I changed is when Sarah finds out various pieces of information. So now I don't know whether all the relevant bits are in there, or whether they're in there twice. So I need to read it through and make notes with which to do v3 - which is where I usually start editing rather than rewriting. Although it depends on whether it all makes sense as to how much work the third draft is going to be...

My parents came up to visit yesterday, so now I have a new desk. Although by new I mean the one I had in my bedroom, but there won't be room for once mum gets a double bed in there, so it'll be a spare room. For people who like pink.

The trouble is, this one's shorter, so I'm looking at a slightly different bit of wall, so I'll have to move my posters around a bit. The walls in my lounge are yellow. All the other walls are ok, except for this one room. When I have a house of my own, there isn't going to be any yellow at all. It's horrible to look at.

I've also had to put my chair down as far as it will go. Sadly, though, that's not far enough. And my laptop is too big to put on a telephone directory. At the moment I have it up on a set of rubbers, but I only have 5 rubbers and the newsagents in town were unhelpful at being able to provide me with more. They did have some, but probably not big enough. Annoyingly, it's going to be impossible to tell how many I'll need until I put them under there. And work couldn't provide me with enough rubbers the same to test it out either.

Nothing's ever simple.

I have finished all of the First Doctors episodes. I almost don't know what do with myself now - I liked him, and I really liked Steven. I have now seen all the episodes for all the odd numbered Doctors. I just have to work on the even numbered ones now.

I did find some interesting things I can do with WP comments, like allow people to post with the LJ ID. So I will be playing with that at some point.

And an old meme, recently seen on Van's LJ:

Post a topic, list, category, whatever, in my comments section. (examples: "5 Loveliest Things About Remus Lupin" or "5 Things You'd Do If The World Explodeded" or "Top 5 things to drink"). Then, in the comments, I'll post the answers to all your Top 5 ideas, according to me.

Some completely useless Doctor Who stats, in table form, that confirm that the First Doctor had more companions than any other Doctor and Jamie has been in the most number of stories.

This only includes the first seven Doctors. I've counted appearances in a story as being in all the episodes of that story - otherwise it gets hideously complicated with various of them disappearing for an episode. It does count every appearance, though, so The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors counts each of the Doctors and companions in it.

(For more completely useless statistics, I've also updated my list of The Bill regulars who have been in Doctor Who and Doctor Who regulars who have been in The Bill)
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During a bit of random surfing today I came across this site, which has lists of places Doctor Who has filmed. I already knew The Curse of Fenric beach scenes were filmed at Lulworth Cove - not that you can tell because they never point the camera directly out to sea, which makes it recognisable - although I didn't know that the Russian sailors came in through Stair Hole.

I've also been to Winspit aka Skaro from Destiny of the Daleks. Not that I've seen the episode though, but I've seen the episode of Blakes 7 it's in and it's very weird to see.

And I also knew that The Android Invasion village was actually East Hagbourne, which my satnav thinks is the best way to get to the A34 (it's not). So I've driven through it, but that was after I saw the episode this time and I was too busy panicking that I was driving through a small village with narrow roads to notice much.

But what I didn't know was that The Invasion was filmed in Wallingford! I knew Midsomer Murders has it as Causton and Rosemary and Thyme filmed part of an episode there (which I haven't seen) - I walked past Pam Ferris in the street. The part where The Invasion was filmed has since been built over with a housing estate (I nearly lived there...) and the tall building that might have been recognisable was pulled down a few years ago (at which I took no notice since it wasn't as interesting as the Poole Power station towers coming down).

So there you go.

And on a different note I am really excited at Redemption 09 is going to be in Coventry. OK, so I don't live there any more, but it still feels like home.

Last night I had fish and chips and I ate half the batter off the fish. And today I wasn't ill... We have a work trip to the Chinese on Friday so I had planned to have something with soy sauce in it and see what happened. I say had planned because it depends on how I feel because...

Walking home from work last night I hit my head, hard, on a fence. Yes, a fence. At least it's different. In my defence, it does lean into the alleyway I was walking down and I was taking off my jumper at the time, so wasn't looking where I was going. Also, I am accident prone.

According to the NHS Direct website, who like to overdramatise things a bit, I have all the symptoms of a head injury. Funny that. But I don't have concussion because you have to have passed out for that. But whatever you call it, I've had it twice before (from a door and a desk, so at least it's something different each time) so I do agree with the NHS Direct who say that the way to get rid of it is ibuprofen and rest and a few days wait.

So tonight I have so far watched Rosemary and Thyme from last night (which was very good, but why only a 2 episode series?) and the first episode of The Celestial Toymaker. Which is a mostly lost story, so I was listening to the narration (I really like Peter Purves' narrations). In it, the Doctor has a solve a puzzle, with dire consequences if he fails. They made a whole big thing of it and I could tell from the description it was just the Tower of Babel. If I can do that, the Doctor can. Although once he started it was obvious from his first two moves he knew how to do it. But why they made such a big thing of it, I don't know.

Back around the time I went to Romania, I had £100 on my credit card statement that wasn't mine. When I got back I filled in some forms, and for the statements I got in June and July I didn't pay that £100.

They did say originally that when I got back I should get my card stopped, but I had a dead phone line to deal with, so couldn't ring them anyway, and since it looked like a one-off, I didn't bother with it. I've only just learnt the number (although the number on the back still eludes me).

In my weekly post I got a credit card bill, on which they charged me interest, even though they promised they wouldn't. So I rung them up, explained this to a lackey and got put through to the fraud department. I explained it to them and they put me through to the fraud aftercare department. The woman there told me that nothing had been done with my dispute because I hadn't blocked the card. Which was nice of them to tell me.

After asking her the question three times, I established that I don't need to pay the interest. I then had to ring another number, which after pressing various buttons got me back to the same department I rang originally. At this point I couldn't be bothered with going through the whole thing again and just told them to block it, which they did without asking any questions (apart from the same security questions the fraud aftercare person had asked me).

In theory a new card will turn up in 4-5 days. But with the constant postal strikes in Oxford and the national strikes, I reckon it'll be a good two weeks. So I am currently credit card less, which is good in a way, but I was thinking of buying myself some prescription goggles (any recommendations of where to get them from?) and booking myself in a hostel in Cardiff for my cheap long weekend away at the end of September, that will also feature some Rotaract stuff.

Interestingly, the fraud aftercare woman was really, annoyingly polite. She asked me if I minded her asking me some security questions. Now I wonder what she would have done if I'd said yes?

I went to Tescos tonight, after I went swimming, and I discovered they sell a very interesting type of potato, according to the sign with the price on it: Miniture potatoes. And it was written on two different signs too (but spelt right on the packet).

I got reminded by a policeman to turn my lights on as I left - he was crossing the zebra crossing I was waiting at. It took me a while to work out what his hand signal meant. It was only later that it occurred to me he was miming turning lights on in his car. Whereas it's in an entirely different place on mine. I keep doing it as well - and thinking it's a bit dark before someone reminds me to turn them on. I got better at it in the winter when all my driving was in the dark, but I got used to driving in the light. I will have to write myself some sort of note.

I had a meeting tonight at a pub in Maidenhead. It was so nice with it being smoke free this time. Since it's the second time I went there, I thought that I might be able to work out how to get there without John Cleese. Although the slight technical hitch is that it's not actually in Maidenhead, so although you can follow the signs to Maidenhead once you get past Henley, at some point you need to ignore them and go a different way.

As I made my way out of the car park to come back John Cleese dropped off the window. I put him back, he dropped off again. So I just left him on the passenger seat where he was a bit quiet. Except when I got to Henley he decided to tell me I'd reached my destination. Then he told me the same thing ten minutes later. Then the next thing he said was where to go on a roundabout just before home. So where he thought I was going, I don't know. Fortunately, I do know my way back from Henley - although it is just one road.

Perhaps next time I'll take him but not turn him on. I should do that with going to my sister's too - he'll probably be less confusing that way, since he thinks one of the big roundabouts is actually two roundabouts. The one thing I do like is that you can just look at the screen to see how far you have to go till your junction, when you're on the motorway. And in kilometres, which I understand, as opposed to the miles the signs are in, which mean nothing to me.

I might try cleaning the windscreen this weekend, see if that helps him to stick. Plus it's really quite disgusting. The rain has clearly not been doing a good enough job.

I think I got a week's worth of post yesterday: SFX (which took half an hour to read), DWM (the back of which scares me - I thought you could get Doctor Who everything by now, but no, there's also a skateboard, scooter and a toiletry bag. With a sound chip), and my DVD from amazon which literally took a week to arrive, first class. Annoyingly, amazon seem determined to send me the first half of each of the first three series of Hustle, which I am catching up on. Hopefully, they'll go back to the second halves soon.

Last night I did a talk at Rotary about my trip to Romania. Which went all right. I'd never used a projector before, so that was an experience. Some of the Rotarians knew what they were doing with one better than I did. The scariest part was, as always, parking and getting out of the car park. It's built on a particularly steep hill, so when you pull the handbrake on and take your foot off the brake it creaks and rolls forwards, towards the Thames. The only way to to do it is to pull very hard and leave it in first. Then getting out requires your foot flat to the floor on the accelerator to get it to move away from the Thames. I hate it every time I have to do it.

I got back tonight from playing tennis in time for Heroes. The mad part was that Unmasked was about stunts they did last week. As well as most of it spent talking about how great they all are. I don't think I need to bother with it in future. Especially as they've decided to put the next episode on after Unmasked on BBC3. I am taping it - I don't think I can watch two in a row, it's too much. But this week's was interesting enough. I still don't really care about any of the characters, the Japanese is a complete pain because not only do I have to stop cross stitching during those scenes, but also because they have a tendency to do it in white on a white background. Which is really not helpful. Now that we've vaguely seen him (was that black man in the bar with Weiss from Alias him, I wonder?) I wonder if he has everyone's abilities, since we saw telekinesis and regeneration. I imagine we'll find out - in five months time when we get to the end of the series.