I thought I’d look up what constituency I’ll be in when I move. Turns out it’s the same one – I’m not moving far enough away. It’s a pain because it’s rural and therefore Tory country, and the second place is so split between Labour and Lib Dem that it feels like your vote doesn’t count (not that it will ever stop me voting – you could offer me £1 million and I’d still rather vote, thanks to John Major who made it so I was 22 before I could vote in a general election).

On the subject of the US election, I forgot about it when I first got up this morning. Ordinarily my alarm goes off at 8am to the news and I’d have heard it then, but since I’m not going back to work until tomorrow, I didn’t wake up until much later. The Guardian has a collection of US election maps that are quite cool (the trick is to remember that the colours are the wrong way round).

I thought I should make a post about the new Prime Minister being the fourth since I was born. Five Live did a whole afternoon on it yesterday, so I listened to the tennis on Sports Extra instead. I mean, it’s interesting but it’s not that interesting. Mostly it’s just weird – you get used to one being there forever, or at least that’s what it seems like. And it seems like much more fuss than any of the others. Major was the first time I noticed politics (and worked out Paddy Ashdown was not in fact in the headmaster of the local secondary school, just because it was called Ashdown – it was logical at the time).

Then Blair was a general election four days before my 18th birthday, so that was a big event for everyone not born at the beginning of May. But this one, I came back from Romania wondering if Brown had been elected yet. I never quite got round to asking or looking it up. I don’t think I need to yet.

The date I was born makes naming PMs easy – Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown – anyone older than me has to know the one before: Callahan. No idea what his first name was, mind you. Mind you, I can tell you my MPs party, what school she went to and I think I can remember her first name. Her last name could be anything though. I also can’t tell you what my constituency is called since it has such a strange name.

Oh, and Henman’s out of Wimbledon – it’s a good thing because now we can focus on some more interesting players who don’t favour long drawn out matches. I want Nadal to win.

The OC has been cancelled! I’m obviously out of the loop because that article is dated 4th January, and I only vaguely read something along those lines today. In better news, as of this morning, we no longer have a hosepipe ban. Now I just need a hosepipe…

My leg’s definitely getting better, albeit slowly. I’m supposed to be driving to Wycombe on 27th for Burns Night, so we’ll have to see how that goes. If it’s bad, I might end up in a dress and walking boots because I don’t think 2 inch heels are going help somehow.

I watched The Invasion, courtesy of Lovefilm getting it right for once. I liked it but it was a bit slow. I quite liked the Second Doctor and Jamie. Zoe I’m not so sure about yet.

I kept reading today that Pluto is no longer a planet which confused me because I thought they’d alreay decided there would be 12 planets in the solar system (with the addition of Ceres, Charon and Xena). But I must have read something that just said that’s what could happen and I liked the idea. So, I reserve the right to have 12 planets in my solar system, rather than 8, so there. *sticks tongue out*

I’m quite tempted by the sg-rarepairings ficathon as it includes all pairings that aren’t Sam/Jack, Jack/Daniel, Shep/Weir, McKay/Shep. Which doesn’t rule out most Atlantis pairings I’ll quite happily read. I know the 11th December deadline looks a long way off but it won’t be by the time assignments are out and I’m distracted by something else.

I also had a drive tonight, with my landlady’s boyfriend, who was really good to drive with. The roads were quiet, which was good. I was thinking I might just about manage to go round the block but we actually went through town then round it on the bypass and it went okay. So I might well drive to bowling on Tuesday (with a new Rotaract member who is training to be a driving instructor).

I’ve also been playing with my sat nav. Not only do I have John Cleese’s voice on it, but the daleks too. Not that you can really understand their instructions but it works for entertainment value. And Sel, you’re right, it can’t find your house. It manages your postcode but gives me another road and then refuses to deal with house numbers. So I’ll be able to get in the vicinity of your house for Peg2, then there might be some ringing of your house to tell whoever answers John Cleese can’t find it

I’m all excited now! I’m off to Banbury this weekend – it’s a big Rotaract camping weekend, so I’m going up for the day today and tomorrow. Tomorrow is the Conference bid, so I have been told I have to be there Tonight they are having a big Christmas party – which is their theme. Don’t ask.

But it’s a bank holiday weekend, yay! Except last one till Christmas Monday I’m going to defrost the fridge, do my monthly backup of the whole computer and clean my room. Wow, don’t I live an exciting life.

Which is entirely true, but sadly, I can’t write it. I might put it in a friends-locked entry, though.

In brighter news, Blunkett has resigned; there’s a new spoof news program on BBC2 Monday nights that is quite funny, and has Claudia Christian in it, plus some other people I recognise but can’t remember the names of; I don’t have to go back to work till Wednesday; I have chocolate spread that doesn’t have vanilla in and is in date.

On the bad side, every Green & Blacks chocolate I looked at has vanilla in. It’s probably not enough to make me ill, as long as I don’t eat too much in one go. Hmm. I went ice-skating last night, which turned out to be ice-dancing night, so there were quite a few really good people about trying to trip us up. But apart from that the ice was quite empty, which makes it much easier to skate. I’m surprised how many people have been to Ice Trax at Tower Park.

I watched Rome tonight. Or more accurately I watched the first half hour while putting my Australia photos in my album, at which point I couldn’t take any more and ended up watching The West Wing instead, which was good. I’m starting to get quite bored of the election though, I wish they’d just get it over and done with already.

(Although I started writing this yesterday, so I’m technically a bit late with that, never mind)

You couldn’t make it up: Drunken prank led to armed siege

I had no intention of seeing Serenity. I’ve seen 20mins of Firefly and that was enough. But there was an article about it in the latest SFX that mentioned they go to a remote place called Maidenhead. I mentioned it to Rotaract and there was a general concesus we’d have to check out this ‘Maidenhead’ place. (A small note – Maidenhead is a town not far from here. One of our members is going out with an ex-member of Maidenhead Rotaract).

I discovered today this WordPress blog has the best thing ever – search. We were having a Myers-Briggs discussion and I knew I had what I was on my blog somewhere but couldn’t remember which month it was. But I searched for it and found it.

I’m really bad with names, it takes me a long time to learn them. For some reason I find it much easier if I see them written down – although if isn’t pronounced as it’s written that doesn’t help. I struggled with who Weiss in Alias was for two series. I was seeing it written when people talked about him and assumed it was pronounced Veiss, and I couldn’t remember anyone with that name.

I’ve seen someone called Halling mentioned paired with Beckett (Carson, not Sam, which doesn’t help). I assumed it was the woman from Duet whose name begins with a C or K, but no, turns out Halling is a man. Is he actually on the series? Admittedly, it’s taken me a series and a half to work out who Zelenka is.

I’m doing really badly on episode titles as well. I keep seeing episode tag fics, where they’ll say it’s set post ‘Hot Zone’ for example. Which is great. Except that doesn’t really narrow it down very much. Which is why I started putting an episode guide on my site – I need it for me.

The way Lost introduces you to a character each episode is really handy because I’m learning a name per episode. I think I’ve learnt the same number now as I would have in the entire series. I did confuse myself though, as I temporarily named Sawyer, ‘that guy’ but then got confused and thought Adam was ‘that guy’. I think the only ones I have temporary names for now are Adam, the pregnant girl who I think was Tess in Roswell High, that guy who’s been in everything, the kid, the kid’s dad, the dog, the one with silly hair. I’ve even managed to learn Shannon without her having an episode yet, which is pretty good going for me.

After the two-part starter for the latest Spooks series I realised there was a new character and I should make sure I remember his name. Needless to say I’d forgotten it a week later and I still can’t remember. It’s only one name and four episodes later it could be anything. Although the other week I couldn’t for the life of me work out who this Fiona Adam was referring to was.