I can nearly breathe out of my nose. This wouldn't normally be an achievement but it is the first time in a week. My mouth and throat were so dry that I was drinking 1.5l of water a day, which is ridiculous. I know you're supposed to drink 2l a day, but I was going to the toilet every hour and only really drink about half a litre a day usually. I just don't have the capacity for large amounts of liquid.

And a drabble meme from lost_spook I've been waiting to put up until I'm feeling well enough to think:

The first TEN people to comment in this post get to request that I write a drabble of any pairing/character with a prompt. In return, they have to post this in their journal, regardless of their ability level.

Although feel free to ignore that last sentence - it's not like I'm going to be checking. By first ten people, I mean first ten notifications in my inbox regardless of whether they come from my blog, LJ or DW.

There's a list of fandoms I've written in on the left of my fanfic archive, but feel free to request anything I know. If I really can't write it I'll just get you to pick something else.

It's just one thing after another at the moment. Last week I was doing really well, felt really good and consequently overdid it. So this week I've felt terrible and been busy, which hasn't helped. I'm just at the point of starting to feel a bit better again and now I have a cold.

Why can't I just sleep until I'm better? Or more to the point, why is it that whenever I put 301 on there's either no Australian Open or they're just finishing? And why do we always have to listen to Sam Smith rabbiting on annoyingly?

Considering that I don't like driving and given the option would far rather not, I can't quite believe I'm going to say this but... I really want to be able to drive to work.

I'd be warmer, I could leave later, so get up later, so get more sleep, I could listen to the radio (I haven't heard Chris Evans at breakfast yet and I'm missing the Five Live guys with the news on my way home). It wouldn't matter if I left a few minutes late, I would have to slide over so much snow, I would spend ages waiting for a bus and I could leave work whatever time I liked (well, after 5.30pm obviously).

I can't drive at the moment because although the main roads are fine, I'd have to park down a side road, which aren't so great. My road isn't great and to make it worse, I'd have to turn my car round 180 degrees, it's currently on a slight slope and there's a pile of snow behind it because it's been parked there ever since we had the heavy snow Tuesday night last week. And most importantly, having experienced driving on snow once I'm not desperate to try it again.

It's supposed to be a lot warmer from tomorrow (where a lot warmer means above freezing) so hopefully there'll be lots of melting going on. But I am so sick of the snow.

I'm going for a theme with my LJ icons. Also, it makes them multi-use. I did one a while ago with Harry Sullivan, Harry Pearce and Harry Potter:

Now I've done Jack Meadows, Jack O'Neill and Jack Harkness:

and Sam Carter, Sam Gamgee and Sam Beckett:

I had a really surreal moment at the end of The Bill last night when, in the trailer for next week, I could have sworn I saw Tommy Knight (Luke in SJA, although I was too tired to remember the actor's name at the time). I contemplated rewinding - I don't watch live because I refuse to watch adverts. I've been on The Bill website a lot recently to try and learn some of the names because I don't recognise most of the regulars any more, so I know they don't have credits or tell you about the guest stars (not when they're not that big, anyway). But what I did find were more trailers and clear evidence that it is Tommy Knight 30 seconds into this video and a photo that tells me he's playing Greg. Although I am more excited that Terry was in it - I hadn't seen him yet, so I didn't quite believe the website when they said he was still in it.

I am enjoying The Bill at the moment, despite its lack of theme tune and pullover, and I am getting used to the incidental music. I can even name some of the new characters. Not that I can necessarily recognise them first off, mind you, even though they have their names on their uniforms these days...

I stopped watching in June 2005, I discovered from looking through my blog. And started again in October 2009. Thanks to the magic of YouTube I've been watching some old stuff and I can honestly that what I've missed has been utter rubbish, for the most part. And it's obvious from the synopses too, which consist of a lot of sentences about the character's personal lives back then. These days it's a couple of sentences about the crime, which is what I'm watching for. I don't mind them having personal lives, as long as it's a background to the crime and isn't the main focus.

Now I might go and put on an early half hour episode from the Volume Two DVD I got for Christmas and see who I recognise...

There is currently snow about. You'd be hard pressed not to miss it - even my parents have had snow. But it's quite amusing.

First, the background. I grew up on the south coast of England where it snowed every three years or so. Although it did, however, completely fail to snow while I was at uni - except in the Christmas of my first year where it snowed at home and nowhere else. Until last winter I'd never seen the snow stay around for more than a day. Until this winter and one a few years ago, I'd never seen it start to snow and settle during the day. So I was a bit startled before Christmas when it did just that, it was really slippery and I vowed never to drive in snow again.

Cut to this winter. There are quite a lot of people at work who, at the mention of snow, get all excited. They were rather less excited after the sudden snow we had before Christmas, mind you, but they're back to being yay about snow again.

Yesterday it started snowing about 5pm, so although I did drive home in it, it wasn't really any different from driving in rain. It was forecast to get heavier and it did. We cancelled our Rotaract cheese and wine planning meeting for the second time for the same reason. So everywhere was a bit white this morning.

But it is just ordinary snow. Walking to the station this morning to get the bus was pretty easy because people had already walked along the pavements and flattened all the snow. So I reckon, looking at the height of the bits people have walked on and comparing it to the bits people haven't, that we've got about two inches. The most snow I've ever seen was last January, which was more than that.

The main roads are fine, just slushy at the edges. The minor roads are snowy, but really slushy where enough people have driven. So understandably the bus was 35mins late. And then he didn't drive that fast because the slush isn't great to drive on. The route does go through a village and coming out of that onto the main road the bus did go sideways. I was just glad I wasn't driving.

So I got to work 45mins late to find that no one else in my office was there. One of them lives not far from me and hadn't come in because she reckoned the roads were impassable. Someone else hadn't come in because they didn't believe the bus company's website when they said they were running the buses until 7pm and she thought they'd leave her stranded. (Amusingly, the bus that runs between home and work stops at 6.53 usually...)

Given that I'm the one least used to snow, I can't believe how wet they're all being. I left early because I had loads of overtime to take and had failed to take any of it on Monday or Tuesday. The roads were much better and because there was no traffic and the bus was on time, I had the fastest bus journey home I've ever had. I'm waiting to see how many people bother to make it tomorrow now.

The best part is that I bought some really big, thick gloves from Primark at Christmas (for a whole £3) and although I can't do a thing with my hands while I'm wearing them, they do keep my hands lovely and warm. I was also wearing my fencing socks on top of my usual socks, my walking boots (waterproof and good grip), my tracksuit bottoms on top of my work trousers, three jumpers and two hoods and a hat on my head. The only part of me that was cold was my feet and part of that was because they were really stuffed into my shoes so I couldn't really feel them anyway.

I am going to bed really. I just got used to going to bed about 11pm ish and waking up at 9am ish. I just have to get used to getting up at 7.30am when it is dark and cold.

First, a toast - to the Professor, since it is Tolkien's birthday.

And a meme from melliyna that looked fun:

Pick a fandom! And then I will say who from the fandom I would...

1. bake cupcakes for:
2. trust with the keys to my car (if I had a car):
3. put thumbtacks* on their chair:
4. have a crush on:
5. pack up and leave if they moved next door:
6. vote for President:
7. pick as my partner in a buddy movie:
8. pair up:
9. vote off the island and into the volcano:
10. wheedle into fixing my MP3 player:

*Bonus question: What's a thumbtack? Is it a drawing pin?

And I didn't write as much this year due to being ill, but I do this every year and it will be interesting to see how it all compares. And since WordPress tells you the number of words in a post, I can easily tell how many words each story has. Read more...

Now that the Yuletide authors have been revealed I can reveal that I wrote a 5000 word Press Gang story, Hoops and Bumps. I didn't intend to write any full length treats because I knew I wouldn't have time. But while I was writing this one I had some Spike and Lynda banter I couldn't fit into the story, but wanted to use. So I made a story out of it and ended up with 1003 words for selenay936: Memories Are Not Made of This. I had wanted to write some short stuff on Christmas Eve, but I was just too tired and work had been too busy and I didn't have the energy or time.

Although I didn't mean to, I managed to read everything I wanted to in the archive on 30th December and therefore two days before the author reveal (as that was quite late yesterday). In the past couple of years I've done a recs list of everything I've read and enjoyed (and therefore commented on) but it was just never going to happen this year. But I have already reviewed nine (I think it was nine) stories for Sel's site.

And on a completely different subject, I took some photos of the cat (the first three of these). He is very sweet and a complete idiot.

I think there were other things I've been meaning to blog about, but I'm buggered if I can remember what they might have been.