But I do have a meme from selenay936:

Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your blog/LJ/DW (or just add a reply back to me). Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

selenay936 gave me:

Rotaract
It has been my source of friends, social life and knowledge of the local area since I moved here. It's weird not having it in my life quite so much any more. I collected for Children in Need on Friday, as I've done every year, and I had to wear a Rotary tabard. And we have to be more organised about seeing each other socially now that we're not meeting up anyway at least once a month.

So that's a fairly reasonable thing to associate with me. And I'm glad I have got the Rotaract name out a little bit because not many people have heard about it. Amusingly, while I was writing this bit, I was interrupted by a Rotaract-related phone call.

Tennis
Wimbledon's always been this big fixture in the calendar. It's only recently that I've started going to tennis matches. I'm going to the ATP World Tour Finals semi-final on Saturday. And next year I'm definitely going to two Olympic tennis days and two Paralympic tennis days. Plus am also hoping to go to Queens, Wimbledon and the last ATP World Tour Final in London. Which is quite a bit of tennis...

But there is something about Wimbledon and the atmosphere. More so for home Davis Cup matches where almost the whole crowd on Court 1/the NEC are cheering for Team GB so loudly. Except when we're losing when it gets a bit depressing.

So, yes, I like tennis. Although mostly I only watch the men because the women are boring and grunt, which is annoying. The men's game feels like it has more stars. It certainly has more status in this country, but at least some of that could be due to Henman/Rusedski/Murray versus no decent British women players.

Doctor Who
I do like Doctor Who. Doctor Who fandom makes me think I don't and it's only when I see a new episode that I remember I like it. It's not my favourite TV programme, it's just the one that I am involved in (bits of) the fandom currently.

But I do like that it has time travel (I love time travel - time is my favourite bit of physics). I also like that it has historical episodes, so that's two of my favourite things.

Cats
My parents have always had cats. So I like cats. I can especially talk about cats when I've just been home for a long weekend. Not that I actually played with Timmy - he did all his playing outside. But he did take great delight in sleeping where other people wanted to be sitting, investigating an Amazon box by getting in it and answering questions by making noises. No idea what they mean (except for the noise that means he wants someone to play with him and the ones that means there are birds outside). Cats are entertaining and relaxing and useful for eating spiders that have come in the house.

Having Interesting Adventures Unintentionally
Er, I do this? I would say I don't mean to, but that would be the point of the unintentionally bit above. I think it comes from a mixture of bad luck and a tendency not to know when to leave well alone. But at least they're interesting adventures.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Animals, Life, Meme, Rotaract, Sport: Cat, Doctor Who (New), Life, Meme: other, Rotaract, Tennis, Timmy

Of course it helps to have some time in the evening. Last week was the end of the Rotaract year, so Monday and Tuesday I was out at both the Rotary clubs handover dinners, which took all evening and meant I had two late nights. Wednesday was ballet as usual, Thursday I had stuff to catch up with and before I knew it it was the end of the week. So then after all that I woke up dizzy on Saturday morning, which wasn't really a surprise.

As of last Friday I'm no longer a Rotaractor. And my Rotaract club no longer exists, which is the sadder thing of the two. We've been talking about it and sorting out closing it for so long it hasn't quite sunk in yet. And we stopped doing stuff every Tuesday a while back, so I won't even notice much on Tuesday. I do still have some website stuff to do, but there's no rush. Now I have all this free time I could conceivably do something with it. I have established I can go out two nights a week (but not three). I have lots of ideas, the trouble is having the energy to do them.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Life, Rotaract, Sport: Ill, Rotaract, Wimbledon

inmemoryofsjs

Ballet was cancelled for the second time this term (and it's only week 3). The arts centre just give the impression of people who don't know what they're doing. I get the impression that they moved it from Thursday to Wednesday just because, which then meant the last two terms' teacher could no longer make it, rather than the other way round. I just want to go over there and organise them. Or tell them what I think about that, but I won't manage to do it politely, so I won't. But I was really enjoying ballet and it was helping, so I'm hating not going.

Although tonight I got some Rotaract stuff done. It's just starting to feel like a long drawn out death at the moment. I used to come away from Rotaract meetings feeling all excited about Rotaract and now I come away feeling depressed. It makes it really hard to do the jobs I need to do for it because I don't want to. Partly because they're the usual things to keep it running that seem pointless when it's closing, but aren't because they still need to happen for the next month and a half. Or they're things to close the club and I don't want to.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Fan fic, Life, Rotaract: Ballet, Rotaract, Sci-fi Big Bang

On the plus side, I finished the first draft of my Big Bang fic. It comes to 17,600 words, which is quite a lot considering the first draft is more of a plot outline with dialogue. I have to go back and change bits of plot now. Well, I say now, I mean after I've done Remix. But I have already decided what I'm going to do, I just need to find the energy to do it.

I also got my Ebook Reader (but not the cover, but that's a long story). It's great having so many books on it and I'm loving that you can change the direction you swipe your finger to turn the page - I always went the wrong way on Dad's. So far I've filled it with a couple of books from Gutenberg and a load of fics from last year's AU Big Bang which I've been meaning to read for months.

Speaking of, while I was looking for the 2010 masterlist for AU Big Bang, I looked at people signing up and what they're intending to write. And I thought there should be a Lynda Day at the Chalet School...

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Computers, Fan fic, Life, Rotaract: Ebook reader, Ill, Remix, Rotaract, Sci-fi Big Bang

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I was going to do it last week, but I spent it writing fandom_stocking fics. So I thought I'd do it this weekend. So I spent Saturday reading fandom_stocking fics and responding to comments, and playing Lego Harry Potter on the Wii.

Sunday afternoon I was going out for tea. So I sat down in the morning and got it done. In an hour. It was painless (mostly). Why couldn't I have done that sooner?

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Life, Rotaract: Life, Rotaract

jedinic

But it was the perfect thing for when I had no brain. I do have a secret love of teen dramas, although usually high school based ones. This one's just the same, only centred round gymnastics. It's completely OTT drama-wise, but that's what I like about it.I can forgive some of the gymnastics for not making sense (it helps not to think about it), but I can't forgive Sasha for saying he won an Olympic gold for England, as that's impossible and I can't believe that none of the writers or the actor (who's English) spotted that.

The characters took a while to grow on me, but Sasha (who's a bloke and played by an Englishman - I'm still not sure whether the character is Romanian or English) started a teasing relationship with Summer and then he became my favourite character. He's also the hero-type, which hhertzof pointed out are the ones that tend to be my favourites.

Fortunately just before I was dizzy my Gmail account got hacked. Gmail spotted it and stopped the emails from going out, but I did then spend a whole day changing all my passwords. Some of them are a nightmare to find where to change, some of them just didn't work and I ended up emailing to get them changed. I now have more passwords and more secure passwords than I did (I should have changed them long ago really). Some of them are so secure it takes me a few attempts to log in while I fail to remember what they are.

My friends' wedding was on Saturday, which was good. The actual ceremony felt never-ending and was really boring (seriously, it was 45 minutes and it only took 2 minutes to actually marry them), but it was good to talk to people I hadn't seen for ages. The official photographer took a picture of all the Rotaractors and that must have been at least half the people there. I definitely established that the whole thing isn't for me - that would be my idea of hell making such a big deal of it and being the centre of attention and all the formalities you have to do. The only part I like is getting to see all your friends at the reception.

Permalink | 1 comment | Categories: Internet, Rotaract, TV: Internet, Make it or Break it, Rotaract

• Working. It's holiday season, so there's been permanently someone away for the past couple of months, which makes it busy. But I think just about everyone's been away somewhere now so it'll be my turn again in September!
• Rotaract. When I'm not too ill to go - I'm not doing well this (Rotaract) year, having only made half the meetings so far...
• The Bill. Well, ok, it's not strictly something I'm doing, but it is very sad that it's the last ever episode next week. And I'm actually, for once, in on that Tuesday. I'm going to have to get some more of the DVDs and get to know the 80s characters better.
• Ballet. I signed up for a five week course of lessons over the summer, although only three of them actually happened. I thought it would be good for my back and my balance and would be gentle exercise that wouldn't make me too dizzy, but would at least get me out of the house. I enjoyed it, it's just boring now that it's stopped until the end of September. I'm definitely not graceful - I'm usually a beat behind everyone else. But it's quite fun because no one's taking it too seriously and we all laugh when we go wrong.
• Writing. In trying to get my 100 drabbles done I neglected everything for a bit. Pretty much the only thing I have on at the moment is a Sarah/Harry happy fic, that's another Five Things fic. It's very hard not to write angst for those two...
• LJ RPing. I left one of the games I was in and it's been so nice to have so much more time for the others. Which involve far less effort anyway. And I've met some fun new people too
• Computer games. While I was at the windmill it occurred to me that I really miss playing computer games. I've enjoyed the Doctor Who one, it's just the sort of thing I like. I thought I should do some research and find what's about for the PC and then I opened a drawer at the weekend and found some old ones. I really ought to get them out and play them.
• I have a free from recipe for biscuits with smarties in. At the weekend I made them chocolatey with chocolate chips in and managed to cook them just right so they were chewy, rather than so hard you're in danger of taking your teeth out. And they're really nice. Chocolate does improve everything.
• A rare piece of baking for me - I made something without chocolate in: I made my own burgers. Although having done it once I've discovered the onions are superfluous and half an egg* will hold it together nicely.

*The usefulness of using egg replacer means it's really easy to cook with fractions of eggs.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Fan fic, Life, Rotaract, Sport, TV: Baking, Ballet, Life, Roleplaying, Rotaract, The Bill, Writing

Then I thought work would be relatively quiet so I could get some stuff done, but it was ridiculous instead. I needed to start on a new project, thought I could do it in the morning, then thought I could do it at 4pm, then 5pm and eventually started ten minutes after home time...

But on the plus side, our Rotaract handover/16th charter celebration last night was good, especially to see some old friends. And I got home to find altariel1's Doctor Who book on my mat, which I am saving for my train journey to London on Sunday.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Life, Rotaract, Work: Life, Rotaract, Work

I feel quite good at the moment, which is pretty much related to work calming down and me getting some sleep. I keep going through phases of waking up at 6 or 6.30 and if you do it occasionally then you could argue that you didn't need that much sleep. But when you keep doing it and get tireder and tireder and have to go to bed earlier and earlier, that's not a help. So far this week I've only woken up at 6.30am twice, and once dreamed I had, which was a bit surreal.

Since I actually have a brain for a change, I have managed two drafts of my Remix fic. I'm quite excited about it and quite happy with it, so hopefully I'll get it finished soon, before I start feeling terrible again. Staying up late for the election in two weeks isn't going to help with that, but that's life.

I have decided that Sports Resort is my new favourite game on the Wii. I love archery on it - you hold the remote in your left hand and pull the bow back with the nunchuck, so it's much more like archery in real life. It keeps your progress like Wii Sports does, so you can see how you're improving (or not in tennis in my case), but there are other goals you can get (like getting 10s with your three arrows in archery for example), which makes it fun.

Speaking of, I think I'll go and do some Wii playing now, before HIGFNY and Outnumbered...

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Computers, Life, Rotaract: Ill, Rotaract, Wii

On the plus side, I now have time to do things other than watch curling and ice skating. I just have two weeks worth of TV to watch instead. Which actually won't take me a week - there's not really much on at the moment.

Saturday night I helped run the bar at the annual Welsh evening (it being St David's Day today). It consisted of quite a bit of singing in Welsh... We had a whole load of beer left over that we couldn't take back to Tescos, so I took it into work because I know people there would go mad for free beer. And, I brought it all home again. The reason: they'd have to get it out of my boot. Despite my car being parked a whole two minutes walk away, it was a sunny day and I was parked in the same place everyone else parks. I knew people at work were apathetic, but not being able to get off your arse for free beer is something else. So I'll be throwing that away now.

Permalink | 2 comments | Categories: Rotaract, Sport: Olympics, Rotaract

In Yuletide news I am currently reviewing the source material in the hopes that I might manage a plot at the end of it. I'm quite excited about what I'm writing and it helps that my recipient likes a lot of the same things that I do. I'm hoping that writing that will help remind me about the whole doing something constructive thing.

It's Children in Need tomorrow, so it's guaranteed to rain, since it's not that cold. Normally I'd be running around in the road with a bucket before work, but I'm not well enough to do that, so I am counting money after work instead. I don't think I can quite cope with the idea of not doing something for Children in Need any more.

I'm having a week off work next week, which I will mostly be spending listening to the tennis, since the BBC aren't showing much. I was very excited by a twitter post of Andy Murray's today because he revealed that he's playing Sunday afternoon and that's when I'm going. We're further back than we were for the gymnastics, so expect pictures of ant-sized people.

I am most distressed my today's paper when they announced they are discontinuing the Technology section in the Guardian. I liked it best when it was the Online section with the Science section inside, but it's still been worth buying the paper once a week for it. Without it there'll be no reason to buy the paper any more - and I don't like reading the paper online, it's not the same. These days I tend to get my news from Radio 5 on the way home from work.

Permalink | 2 comments | Categories: Fan fic, Life, Rotaract, Sport: Children in Need, Life, Tennis, Yuletide

Then it got cooler again and I planned to do lots, but I had a busy couple of days at work and that nearly wrote off last week. The crowning glory was being really sick that I thought was a stomach bug, but might actually be an intolerance reaction to something. I don't know what, but I can't find out until all my symptoms go away, once my system's cleared of whatever it is.

So my dizziness hasn't really improved much over the past couple of weeks therefore... But I saw an ENT yesterday who said it can take 5-6 months and it's only been four and a half so far. But every doctor and ENT I see say something different, so who knows. But it says something that I've become resigned to it now. Well, I am today, when I'm having a bad day I'm not so much. But I am typing this on my netbook while lying down having a break from packing because I got too dizzy to do any more.

In other news, Wallingford Rotaract won Club of the Year within the district, which was great and unexpected. I'm still quite thrilled about it and we found out at the handover on 4th July. I finished my remix fic, although it's annoying the archive goes live this weekend because I'm away till Tuesday on the annual windmill trip, which should be nice and relaxing. Then when I come back I really need to write my who remix fic, since that's due in on the 3rd...

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Fan fic, Life, Rotaract: Ill, Rotaract, Writing

I had a good time at Conference at the weekend (there are even some photos). I did hate that I had to go to bed early because I was dizzy - watching people dancing and especially the bright, flashing lights didn't help. But I did get to speak to pretty much everyone and it was fun. Apart from the last few bits of getting money from people I need to do (not helped by Royal Mail delivering all my post two weeks late) I'm looking forward to not doing any more Conference stuff and having time for things I want to do.

We went to see Star Trek yesterday, which was good, but I'll write about that in a separate post so anyone who hasn't seen it yet can skip it.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Life, Rotaract: Conference, Ill

But I wanted to say that I got a fantastic fic in the TARDIS Gen ficathon: The Inestimable Value of a Good Pair of Shoes which stars Harry.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Fan fic, Rotaract: Conference, Fan fic

For the next couple of days everything gets put on hold for Rotaract. Tomorrow I am not looking forward to venturing out into the cold (not that it's that warm in here) and breaking my car out from under a load of ice, while the car only gets even colder than the outside air. But I am driving far enough that not only will it warm up before I get there, but I might also be able to get warm air on my feet too! It's very hard to drive when you can't feel your feet, your hands and you're shivering.

Thursday I get to spend several hours outside in the evening selling chestnuts (bonus: I like chestnuts). I discovered last year that two pairs of trousers keeps you warm, but it looks like this year will be colder than last year...

But on the plus side, because I have a long weekend to do moving things, this is my last five day week before Christmas!

Permalink | 2 comments | Categories: Life, Rotaract: Driving, Life, Rotaract

Last night was our Human Board Games Event and I have the bruises to prove it. Well, not bruises exactly, but my knees really hurt from kneeling down on a hard floor to tape out a 8x8 grid for Snakes and Ladders and Draughts. My legs ache from walking around the Snakes and Ladders board picking up the big dice (although I've seen bigger) and passing it to people. And I have a couple of cuts on the inside of my fourth finger (what everyone else would call their ring finger, but then everyone else counts them wrong too). Those I have no idea how I got.

But I had great fun watching Snakes and Ladders and I got to play a couple of games of Hungry Hippos and one of The Game of Rotaract (loosely based on The Game of Life). Everyone has had great fun too, which was the main thing. Even at the end when there were four of us left on our hands and knees, polishing the floor that we'd cleaned with the masking tape...

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Life, Rotaract: Moving, Rotaract

This morning I got up at 6.30am when it was still dark to go and run around in the road. Which sounds like a crazy thing to do, but it's good fun. You have to run when the lights turn green and you have to get back to the front by the time it turns red again, so you can get as many cars as possible.

Although some of the interesting parts come later when you compare stories. I had one bloke who told me he didn't believe in it, one who forgot he hadn't wound his window down and hit his hand on it giving me some money, one lady who gave me a bag full and someone who gave a £20 note.

Every year I get hot doing it, so I tried to not overdress. But I got hot just walking to work to dump my stuff and I then I got really hot running around for an hour and a half and nearly ended up just in a long-sleeved shirt and my tabard. Except that my coat would have been a pain to carry, so I left it on. The sun didn't go in until later, so it was lovely and warm.

When I went out to the pub at lunchtime I could see loads of yellow where people were collecting. Although because I know most of them I ended up rationing my change so I could give each of them a bit while I spoke to them.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Rotaract: Rotaract

It's on the evening of Saturday 22nd November and if anyone wants to come it's £6 and my sofa is apparently very comfortable. BYObreakfast.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Rotaract: Rotaract

I first heard of Rotaract seven years ago when I moved here and really a chance to make friends outside of work and fencing. And something to do with my evenings and weekends. I joined Wallingford Rotaract. To start with I was new and shy and didn't go to much outside of the club's things. I felt like a bit of an outsider too sometimes, because this group of people all knew each other and stayed round each others houses and met up outside of Rotaract events.

It changed a bit when I went to my first National Conference in Southampton in 2002. Having had twelve hours sleep the night before (clearly, I needed to catch up) it meant I managed Wide Awake Club. Which, as the name suggests, means you stay awake all night drinking, then have breakfast, then go to the first conference session. Then spend the afternoon asleep. It was a really great way to meet people.

Gradually things changed, people left the club, new people joined, and after being Secretary and Vice President for two years I failed to prevent myself becoming President. It was an interesting year, not least because at the start of the year I was really nervous talking to 30 people. By January I could manage 60, no problem.

And at this point I should explain that the Rotaract year starts in July. So we only have two weeks of it left now.

It all went a bit downhill from there because for the past two years I've been the Communications Officer on the District Exec and am on the Conference Crew for the National Conference in 2009.

It's through Rotaract that I learnt of Habitat for Humanity and went to Romania last year (in fact, this time last year, I'd just got back). It's also through Rotaract that I have someone giving me a lift to the hospital on Friday when I have my wisdom tooth out, someone else giving me a lift back and someone staying with me afterwards. And no one has to take a day off work (except me, obviously).

At the last club meeting last Tuesday, it was then that I asked if anyone could stay. One of our new members said that I'd need someone I trusted (which is true, because I'm not really going to be a position to be a good hostess - if I ever am) and needed to ask my friends. The thing is - I was.

I do have friends all over the place, but the only friends I have round here are in Rotaract (partly because I haven't been to fencing for a long time, after my lift moved). It's something that makes it hard to justify leaving because I'd still go to all the social events to see my friends from around the District.

This month, there's something going on every Saturday. Last week was one club's 30th birthday party, yesterday was a charity launch, next Saturday is the town carnival, which we have a stall at, and clashing with Middle Saturday at Wimbledon, is the District Handover. The latter's going to be an awards party and I have accidentally nominated myself for an award. (The awards are going to be a mixture of sensible ones and silly ones for people who have made asses of themselves in some way.)

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Rotaract: Rotaract