Redemption was good. I was supposed to have a busy week this week but have been mostly lying down with my eyes closed because I have Labyrinthitis again. Although more mildly than last time - and by mild I mean I haven't thrown up every time I've moved for the first few hours.

So I've been working my way through the radio section of the iPlayer, because none of that moves, which is a big improvement over telly and reading.

Redemption con report to follow once I can sit up for long enough.

I do like my Wii.

I kept looking at my open documents this evening, thinking about how the things I needed to do before I went and couldn't quite bring myself to get round to. And my back hurt sitting at the computer.

So I had a few games of the cow jumping game, sat back down at the computer and got it all done. Which is exactly the sort of thing I bought it for.

Now I'm sat on the sofa with the netbook, watching All Creatures Great and Small.

I want to say I've packed for Redemption, but what I actually mean is I've put my books in a Bag For Life so I can actually carry them on the two minute walk to the train station, and thrown some stuff into a suitcase. But I have packed some CDs for , a book for to deface and will be glad to hear I've packed my cheque book. But I don't need to leave the house till 11.50am, maybe 11.45am to be on the safe side, since the train leaves at 11.55am (I am liking living this close to the train station just a bit) so there's plenty of time in the morning. Famous last words.

Now I have hunted through my drawers to find where I unpacked my travel alarm clock to and then packed that.

But in the meantime, I leave you with interesting news about the Red Dwarf specials, or possibly interesting news about Robert Llewellyn's use of Twitter, depending on how you look at it.

I've been trying to think about what I like about Vista vs XP. There are lots of things I like about my new computer, but none of them are related to the operating system at all. And I can think of plenty of things I hate about Vista. But when it comes to things I like about it...

There are two. The running things as administrator, as a security measure. The trouble is that I don't get to see the benefits of it and it's a pain every time I want to do something that requires being an administrator.

The second is the taskbar not being blue. I can now have the wallpaper I wanted on my old computer, but couldn't have because it clashed with the taskbar. Although I'm not keen on the taskbar being such a dark grey because black icons (like TweetDeck) don't show up well. I know there is a workaround to get it lighter, but it involves having a wallpaper that's not darker than the taskbar, or fiddling about with the wallpaper and I can't really be bothered.

When it comes down to it, there aren't many things I liked about XP over 98 either. There's only the start menu, which doesn't scroll when you have too many icons (although I always made sure to keep mine down to one column anyway) and the recent programs on it, so you never have to go into the depths of the Start Menu where I could never find anything anyway. That was the only reason why I didn't change to the Classic View.

I can't remember 3.1 enough to remember whether I liked it or 98 better. But in conclusion, Microsoft shouldn't keep changing things.

Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your blog and elaborate on the subjects given.

gave me: Rotaract; Sarah Jane Smith; travelling; driving/cars; the colour pink. Read more...

I thought deciding which car to buy would be simple. I thought I'd go and test drive a few, hate them all and then buy a Toyota Yaris.

Yesterday I drove a Ford Ka and continually failed to get first to second. This morning I drove a Toyota Yaris (where I continually failed to get the handbrake off because I was trying too hard), a Vauxhall Corsa (where the handbrake was too far back and the indicators were so quiet I couldn't work out if I'd turn them on or not), a Volkswagon Polo (which I hated on the basis that it had indicator lights on the wind mirror, when there is no need and it is annoying) and a Honda Jazz (in which I can move the seat too far forwards - I never knew such a thing was possible).

I liked the Corsa because it's like my car, I like the Yaris, except for the stupidly tiny boot space, and I like the Jazz for it's ridiculously big boot space. I liked the Toyota dealer because they found me a red one to drive.

It was only when I got back in my car that I realised how uncomfortable it is to sit in, how hard it is to drive, and how many ratting/squeaking noises it has (three rattles, two squeaking). So I definitely want a new car, I just don't know which one.

It doesn't help that I had a late lunch by the time I'd driven all these, so now I'm really sleepy. And my arms and legs ache from all the driving.

Leverage has been renewed for a second series and Hustle for a sixth. Yay! Although I missed the mention at the end of tonight's Hustle, but you can't moor a yacht in Bournemouth. But you can go to the beach (and a very nice beach it is too, in the winter when it's not full of tourists and you can see the sand).

And I have just ordered myself four packs of sausages (I was down to four dinner's worth!), some soup (I ran out ages ago) and some matzo. Given that I seem to be running out of all my food (I do need to go shopping and do baking) I might actually have food after this weekend.

My jeans all seem to be getting holey, so yesterday, when I went out for some apples and an armchair, I thought I'd look in a couple of shops to see what they had. Bearing in mind that I can't wear flared trousers because I need them to stop at my shoes to keep me from walking on them and I can't wear hipsters because I have no hips.

I started with New Look because I know their size 8 trousers fit me and they do trousers with short leg lengths. And indeed, they have average (30'), short (28'), long (32') and extra long (34'). Short is only slightly too long on me, so they're fine. They do all sorts of different jeans, but if you want size 8 you're supposed to be tall, because I could only find 32' and 34' leg lengths. Which is unhelpful. Their 915 (ie kids) section only does flared hipsters.

So I went next door to QS, who had cheaper jeans. Except they don't go smaller than a size 10. So I thought I'd try them anyway. I wasn't terribly impressed to find that they were the same leg length as an age 13/14 because I could tell without trying them on that they were too long. Age 13 fits me usually, but not when they pair it with age 14 and therefore design it for tall people.

You could get two of me in the size 10 waist and when I held it up to my current jeans I found out why: they're hipsters. They just come up to my waist. There's too much material there to wear with a belt because it's really uncomfortable having your entire trouser round the front.

So at some point I am going to need to find some ordinary, straight-legged, non-hipster jeans designed for short people. Admittedly I need to go somewhere with more shop I'm not at all convinced such a thing exists. (I also get bored after one shop and give up and go to the bookshop instead, which doesn't help.) I also want decent sized pockets and not to spend more than about £10, but I suspect I might be onto a loser with those requirements.

First picture for special

Wow, they look so old. Well, Danny John-Jules has got wrinkly and Chris Barrie has not a lot of grey hair. I know it's been ten years since the last one, but I was at uni then and it really can't be that long ago, can it?

My cautious optimism of the initial announcement has been replaced by excitement upon seeing this photo because now it seems real.

As the snow has now gone (except for a tiny snowman down my road) I drove to work today. And my car annoyed me so much I have finally got round to requesting some test drives. I think I want a Toyota Yaris, as my parents and sister have them and if my sister only had a white, not a grey one, we could do The Italian Job with Yarises. But I am going to also try a Ford Ka and Vauxhall Corsa and I might see about some other Fords too as the garage is only two minutes walk away. I wanted to try a Renault Clio too, but they didn't have any of those at any places nearby.

I might not actually get to drive them for a while, but it would be handy to have a car that goes in the rain once spring comes.

I have looked at a few reviews on Top Gear and the What Car websites, but does anyone have a subscription to Which? they can use to look up superminis for me? What I want in a car is quite simple:

• Ability to reach the pedals
• No choke
• No having to go under the bonnet twice a year to tell it what season it is
• Goes in the rain
• Goes uphill
• Goes in the cold
• Warms up sometime during my journey to and from work
• Red

I suspect those requirements won't be hard to fill. Everything else comes in the 'quite like' category (power steering, electric windows, air conditioning, USB port, no fifth gear (I suspect that might be a bit impossible), everything in a similar sort of place so I can find it).

On a different subject, I did like Terry Pratchett's answer to why he has six screens: because he doesn't have space for eight.

I realised today that there's a flaw in the way I parked my car outside the house on Friday (I haven't driven it since).

Pretty much the closest space to my block is much easier to back into and then just drive straight out of, especially in the morning when the car is prone to stalling anyway due to the cold. Often when I back it in there there's a car in the space next to it, so it's just a case of getting it between that car and the hedge without hitting anything.

I'm getting better at it, but on Friday there wasn't a car there, which made it harder to work out where to aim for. But I gave it a go and did it absolutely perfectly the first time. Except for one small problem: I was too close to the hedge to be able to open my door. But since I'd done it so well I didn't want to have to go through the complicated manoeuvre of moving the car sideways, since they don't naturally go that way. So I just got out the passenger side.

Only today when I got back from work and looked at it did I realise there's an additional problem: there's not even enough space between the car and the hedge to get to the driver's side windows to scrape them.

In my defence, where I last lived my car parking space was a really narrow space next to a wall, so I'm used to parking really close to things. Parking in car parks confuses me completely because the spaces are so wide.

But I might well just get the bus all this week anyway - I'm liking not having to drive to work and I'm certainly not doing it in the snow.

It snowed overnight, and during the day, so I got to the bus to work on the basis that it was warmer and I wouldn't have to walk so far. Plus my car doesn't like the cold or the rain, so I dread to think what it would think of what's essentially cold rain. It comes from a warmer climate like me, so it's not used to all this snow business.

And I didn't get a day off either. I've never had work or school closed for snow and it never snowed the whole time I was uni. Just the year before I went and the year after I left.

According to the forecasts it's supposed to do this pretty much all week, so I'll be leaving work on time every day (the buses go once an hour, which is crap). And probably not making it back to fencing, again.

So, the TARDIS Big Bang sign-ups are live and I've signed up to... beta. The deadline only gives four months to get it all done and although I managed the actual writing in that time last year, this year I don't have a plot or even know what I'd write if I did sign-up. But I'll offer a beta to anyone on my friends list who gets that far.

The other reason for not signing up is that there are other things I want to write instead and last year it took over a bit:

• the four requests I have from last June sitting in my inbox
• LOTR: Tale of Arathorn and Gilraen, which I started a looong time ago. If there was an LOTR Big Bang I'd write this for that
• Atlantis: Elizabeth post her last story, with Jack
• Atlantis: Elizabeth ascended, visiting Jack
• DW: Harry in SJA just after Enemy of the Bane (which I actually have 300 words of)
• DW: Sarah & Harry undercover as newly-weds (I don't know why, I just know it would be interestingly uncomfortable)
• DW: What happened to Harry while he was missing (a completely different idea to the other version of this I wrote)
• DW: Tales of Harry losing his shoes

I think that's quite enough to be going on with, especially as I added one of those to the list just this morning.

I now have a clean and tidy flat for the first time since I moved in. I made loads of space by throwing out stuff, which includes a bag of books to take to Redemption, three boxes of floppy disks (mostly blank) and backups of my last but one computer on eight CDs. But not only can I now get to things but I also have space for more things! Which is great. Well, it will be till I fill the space up again.

My lengthy to-do list did all get put on hold this morning for the Australian Open final, which was great, although did mean I had a late lunch. I can't believe what sort of times they play till over there. But I really, really enjoyed the match. No matter what happens I can't stop thinking of Federer as the No 1 and champion and Nadal as his adversary. Despite the fact that it's pretty much been the other way round recently.

Next big thing is the Davis Cup, which we ought to win...