PB100676,
originally uploaded by paranoidangel.

I finished this cross stitch last night. I don't remember how long I've been doing it, but the next one I'm going to do was my birthday present, so I certainly started it more than six months ago. There just hasn't been enough on TV to cross stitch to, that's the trouble! The border was horrid on this one, I'm glad that none of the others I have in my drawer have such a lot of border.

Last night I typed up the plot for my script and worked out what was going to happen in each scene. I thought I had too few and put off actually writing the script. This morning, though, I sat down and did nothing but write it for an hour and half. I came out with 3000 words and 25 pages. It should be about 40 pages, though, so it does definitely need more scenes, mostly, I think, to explain why the characters do what they do in the story. But at least I have a finished first draft, and it was quite easy to do once I only had to think about a scene at a time. I definitely need to go back and work out what sort of description I should be putting in, though.

Now I've cleaned the house that's everything I need to do this weekend. Although I really want to write prompts for all my RP characters, so we'll see how that goes...

This post isn't about the play, it's about names and what people call each other.
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I've been attempting to write a script for which has been going a bit slowly, although I was, when I last wrote anything on it, on target to finish it by the end of the month. I was a bit worried I didn't have enough plot though.
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Remember how back in June, there was an amount on my credit card statement that wasn't mine? And how Barclaycard did nothing until I rang them last month to ask them when it would be sorted, then it was suddenly all done?

Well, this month I got a bill (which was amazing enough in itself - I had a letter this week dated 15th October) and there's interest on it, even though I paid everything on my previous bill that was mine. And got confused and accidentally paid too much, which they acknowledged.

So, I rang them up again - which costs money being an 0870 number, and they still haven't changed their hold music. The bloke I spoke to said that the refund for the interest will appear on my next bill, so I need to pay all of this one.

So, I'll wait another month to see if it's sorted - by which time it will have dragged out for six months. I don't think I want to look through my phone bills to see how much it's cost me - not least because I had to call them from work once, and dad's called them. And that's not even mentioning the stress of discovering this on my bill half an hour before I left for Romania for two weeks.

I've just been to see Stardust. It's terrible, I keep meaning to read some Neil Gaiman books. I've read Good Omens, seen Neverworld and read his blog, but that's it. So I thought I'd see the film. I was slightly worried that it was a love story so was going to be soppy. I thought Neil Gaiman must be mad to describe it as being like The Princess Bride, because that's a fencing film.

But it was ok, because it was good and I really enjoyed it. The best bit by far was swordfighting to the Can Can. There were lots of other good bits, but nothing so great as swordfighting to the Can Can.

The only trouble was that it was a British film, so I spent most of the time trying to work out who everyone was. I failed to recognise Robert De Niro was Robert De Niro. I was distracted by Dishwater Sal, who eventually turned out (courtesy of imdb) to be Marie Carver in The Bill, and Hazel in Auf Weidersehen, Pet. I recognised Ricky Gervais, unfortunately. He stands out so much because he can't act. I also recognised Billy the goat who played Arthur Weasley and was in Red Dwarf.

The one person who is driving me mad, though, is the main pirate on Captain Shakespeare's ship. The imdb just lists pirates and none of them clicked. Anyone any idea who he is to put me out of my misery?

I went to London today. I thought I'd go to the big Tescos with the big Free From section at Earls Court. I walked out of the tube station at the main (TARDIS) entrance and then realised I hadn't been for a while and didn't quite remember where it was. So I took a guess and realised a bit further down the road how lost I get in London with a map and directions. Eventually I looked at the map and worked out a route to get there. After I'd walked a lot further than it looked like I should I looked at the map again and realised I still wasn't on the right route and in fact not only had I turned the wrong way out of the station but I had also gone out the wrong exit.

Eventually I got there, approaching it from an entirely different direction, only to find they've moved everything around. They also labelled their red grapefruit as pink and they didn't have chocolate buttons. However I passed a Holland and Barrett in my getting lost and went in just in case. They had three packets - I now have two left. Hopefully, some local Holland and Barretts will have some. But now I've had a packet I feel better. I just need Harry to shut up about the chocolate buttons and talk about Ruth instead. Or smarties, I have some packets of those.

I got the bus back to the tube station after that, and made my way to the British Museum. I'm gradually working my way through London's museums. This was one that was very badly signposted and I only found it because I thought the road with coaches parked on it was suspicious. I had a wander round all the ordinary boring museum stuff and thought it wasn't going to take me long to get round. Until I found the ground floor (I came in on floor -1, which was very confusing). They had a big room of massive statues and gates etc from the Egyptians and some other eras I can't remember. But they were all really impressive. And then I found a massive marble structure in another room. And then I found the Parthenon. I ended up spending two hours in there.

And then I got lost in the museum trying to find the cloakroom. It was a very confusing layout. I decided to go out the main entrance, on the basis that lots of other people were, and by following them I found Tottenham Court Road station. I went into the Sainsburys there on the off-chance and mixed in with their red grapefruit with a pink sticker on, were some that looked as if they might be pink. So fingers crossed for when I cut one open tomorrow morning.

I was home in time to watch SJA: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? For which there will now be spoilers if you're not up to date with the CBBC episodes.
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I decided today to go to Tesco in Abingdon, since I was about to run out of bread mix and, thanks to Harry Pearce, I needed some chocolate buttons. Since the bridge is closed I went the long way round, in a bit of mist only to find, when I got there that:
a) they've moved things around
b) they labelled their red grapefruit pink (doesn't make it pink, Tescos!)
c) they've got rid of the chocolate buttons. They don't even have a space for them. They were the only place round here that sold them. What am I supposed to do now?

I went back via Sainsburys, which was actually a quicker route, and found that they weren't too keen on the pink grapefruit idea either. Fortunately, I am going to London tomorrow.

I went for a roller skate after lunch. The tennis courts were great for it - slight incline, not too many nets in the way (nets on tennis courts, what a novel idea). The only trouble was that there were leaves all over the place.

After wearing myself out doing that, I lay down and watched Miss Potter. I wanted to see it at the cinema because it had Ewan McGregor in it. Although I was less convinced about his fake moustache in it, even if it was set a hundred years ago. And I'm not a Beatrix Potter fan at all. Even though there are rabbits in it. But I actually really enjoyed the film, I was pleasantly surprised.

I haven't done any writing today at all, but I am hoping I will wake up tomorrow in plenty of time before I have to leave, but not early, so might get some in in the morning. I did watch next week's Spooks and was quite excited that Lance from The Bill was in it. Again.

I was in Borders this morning and I had a look round the calendars section, as I haven't decided what calendar I want this year. Me and my sister always buy each other a calendar for Chanukah, although going into town between Christmas and New Year is plenty early enough even if it's nearly a month late this year.

I'm amazed at the different calendars you can get. There are celebrities, animals, landscapes (I'd be tempted by the one with pictures of beaches if it was bigger), all the usual. I was amazed, though, to find there was a Green & Blacks chocolate one with pictures of various chocolatey foods. Somehow I think that having pictures of chocolatey things on my wall all year won't be a good idea.

I got the I Want One of Those catalogue in the post this week (I got post!). I was convinced I hadn't ordered anything from them since I moved, but I have a feeling they were the only people I could find a backwards clock from, which explains how they have my new address. The only trouble with the catalogue is that I don't actually need any of these things and can't really afford any of them. But, here is a list of the things I would fill my house with if I was a millionaire.
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There's no way I can write 50,000 words of one story if I had all the time in the world, never mind one month. Last year, though, 5000 words was a much more viable target, so for I wrote a radio script that I'd written one scene of and not done any more on. I did finish it, but I was still trying to work out the plot as I went along and I realised that since I needed to write a character out that it needed a page 1 rewrite really badly.

Which I meant to do, really. But instead I nicked the plot for my Big Finish competition entry. And still meant to come back to the script and then October came round and I thought it's ok, I'll do it for Pico. Which was fine until one night last week when I couldn't sleep and I realised that the idea works much better in half the number of words and I just can't add in enough without feeling like I'm padding it.

Which is a problem. It was one easily solved, though, because I have ideas for stories I want to write. Well, mostly they're things I want to write that need plots - I'm really not that great on plots. However I do have one that came from me trying to work out in my head if Harry Sullivan was once married and no one ever knew, how did that come about? I haven't got as far as writing it and I think it would actually work better with original characters. So that's the basic plot of my script (I have more than that I'm just being cagey about it because I haven't pinned it all down yet).

So far I've thought about it today and read a radio script off the BBC website. At some point I will start writing and it will be finished by the end of November. I'll probably count in pages though, since it makes more sense with scripts. Once I've double checked how many pages 30 minutes is...

There's also Yuletide. My recipient was quite easy in what they wanted and didn't suggest much. So I'm sure it will go fine once I have a plot. However, it doesn't take long to write 1000 words, so November will be for research, so I know these characters well, and to hopefully get inspired as to what to write. I'm quite enjoying the research element so far. I could certainly spend the whole month doing it...