I got my Yuletide assignment on Tuesday and I got the fandom I secretly wanted to write. As I research I am appreciating my recipient's favourite character more and more. And I have started writing - I just need to find the time to write more.

This evening's short because the tennis was long - not that that's a bad thing. Today was the final of the ATP World Tour Final and it was a good, close match, so that was good. I went to the first semi-finals yesterday and saw Mirnyi/Nestor vs Bryan/Bryan, followed by Federer vs Ferrer. There are photos and some of them aren't blurry.

The doubles match was not terribly exciting. The Bryan brothers challenged at the end of the first set, but then went and sat down, so they clearly knew it was out and they'd lost the set. And then they challenged at the end of the match, but were trying to shake hands before Hawkeye had confirmed the call.

The singles was more exciting, but confusing. Whenever the umpire said Federer, then he was clearly talking about Federer and that was fine. But when he said Ferrer it could have been either. And after the first set Ferrer changed his white shirt for a black one, and Federer was already in a black shirt. So you had to pay attention to which was which based on the colour of their headband.

I got dizzy due to sitting in the dark and watching tennis. When I wanted to go to the toilet between matches and my sister didn't I had to get past people on our row without being able to hold on to her. But the people I passed started holding on to me!

Afterwards we stopped off at Westfield to go to the Lego shop. When we came out the Jubilee line was closed. We were really lucky we weren't coming out of the O2 when that happened because that's the only tube line from the O2. Whereas from where we were we could get back into central London on the Central Line. But it didn't help the busyness on the tube caused by people Christmas shopping and a load of lines being closed for the weekend.

We get to repeat the experience in just under two weeks for Coldplay, albeit on a Friday evening rather than Saturday during the day.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Sport: Tennis

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

One of my neighbours across the way has a black and white cat. After the first time it saw me it's been really friendly and bashing its head against my hand, wanting to be stroked. Today, when I got home I found it sitting outside my back door. Which wasn't that much of a surprise because there's quite a big gap under the back fence. But then it meowed to be let in! So I let it in and it wandered around my lounge and purred when I stroked it. When I decided I really ought to put the dinner and opened the back door it happily went out. It was a very good cat.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Animals, Sport: Cat, Olympics

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

But then I remembered what Wimbledon is all about. It's spending evenings doing nothing much while watching tennis. Until 8.30pm you even get a choice of two matches. I am making the most of it this week because next week I'm out more than I'm in. It's mostly Rotaract things, so I can't begrudge it that much, as I'm only a Rotaractor for another week and a day.

And I'll be making it up for next year. This year we couldn't go to Wimbledon due to both my bosses being off. So we went to Queens instead where it rained all day... So next year we'll be going to Queens and Wimbledon, and the ATP Tour Final as we have the past two years and will do this year. But also we have tickets for the second and last day's of tennis at the Olympics. Although on Court 1, but we're bound to see something interesting.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Sport: Tennis, Wimbledon

They moved the start time from 2pm to noon because it was forecast to rain in the afternoon. It was raining when I left the house not long after 9.30am. But we got there early and hoped it might stop raining... Optimistically, I thought that the big screen by the food court might tell us what was happening. Since my sister had an iPhone we checked the official app and the website, neither of which said anything. Twitter, on the other hand was the most useful source of news all day.

We ended up going back into the centre of London. I introduced my sister to Foyles and she introduced her bank account to four books. We discovered the iPhone is useful for finding Starbucks when you can't walk any further and are cold and wet.

Despite the sky being grey and horrid, and it being cold and windy out, we were amazed when it stopped raining. Just as we found a Starbucks with seats. So we didn't linger and went back to Barons Court.

When we changed trains a woman and a boy ran past us. Then we we got off at Barons Court the same woman and boy ran past us. Then they ran past us on the road on the way from the tube station to the Queens Club. I don't know how they managed that.

By the time we got there and used the toilets, it started raining again. So we hung around for an hour. We discovered that all the places to sit that were on seats were in the cold and all the places to sit that were on the floor were warm, but really hard.

We ended up leaving when it was clearly not going to stop raining and people were leaving. Once we got to Paddington we found Twitter said it was called off for the day.

Fortunately, we get our money back, but it was so annoying to see Murray win today after taping it and watching it this evening when we could have been there. But we are planning to go next year - the tournament's only gone to a third Monday three times in the 125 years it's been running, so we'd have to be really unlucky to be rained out again.

Next year we could go really overboard with tennis with Queens and Wimbledon and the Tour Final and if we get Olympics tickets. But this year there's no live tennis for me until November.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Sport: Tennis

But it's also really strange feeling like I know what I'm doing. I don't completely, but everything is either the same as last term or similar enough that I understand it relatively easy. It makes it all a lot easier, so I can concentrate on doing it right, not just vaguely doing the right thing at the right time. Not that I always manage that anyway, but.

The next thing will be remembering to look up and put my shoulders down, but perhaps that will be next term.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Sport: Ballet

After Saturday's Nadal vs Murray semi-final I was a bit worried that nothing could top that. But I was really excited to be seeing Federer vs Nadal. I've never seen Federer play (in person) before. And I wanted to see what colour Nadal's shirt really was

But first there was the doubles. I hadn't taken much notice of the doubles this year because it's not on telly and it's never mentioned on the telly or radio - it's almost as if it doesn't exist. I like watching doubles, although we couldn't decide who to support. It was Nestor and Zimonjic vs Bhupathi and Miryni. And it was boring. There was one deuce the whole match and one break of serve. I don't know what it was about it, but it was boring.

They managed to finish with just about enough time before the main event. The camera men had purple tops on and Nadal's was definitely pinker. Very handily, when they posed for a photo at the start they only did it looking towards us. They got going, it was very exciting and very quick. They light up the court for the players and so the spectators sit in the dark. Which I discovered made eating pasta for dinner a bit interesting...

And then all of a sudden the match was all over. Federer got ahead and then that was it really. But we also found all sorts of things with the aid of a pair of binoculars. I found Uncle Tony. Greg Rusedski was in what was presumably the Sky TV box with two other men I couldn't identify because they had their backs to us. Tim Henman, Boris Becker and Sue Barker were in a box above them. On the other side there was a big bar with TVs on - but they were fractionally behind the main action!

Despite the threat of tube strikes they were all fine. But cold! Even on the Jubilee, underground, I had to put my gloves on because my hands were cold. Which only goes to show how cold it was outside. And as long as we can get tickets, we'll be going back next year.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Sport: Tennis

I meant to post a few times this week and then it just didn't happen... Mostly because I've been spending my time working my way through the Commonwealth swimming. I tape what's on BBC1/2 during the day, then watch it in the evening. So then I can fast forward through everything that isn't an actual race, which is a vast improvement. Although sometimes I miss bits and only discover which stroke they're doing and how far they're going once they've started the race. It just makes it more exciting!

I got very excited this morning when I went up the road to Sainsburys and discovered the old Woolworths is turning into a Currys/PC World. Playing with an iPad is only ten minutes walk away!

This week I'm off to London to see the third Sarah Jane Adventures episode (ie the one with Jo Grant in). And then back again the next evening to see Chris Addison, which I'm really looking forward to. I will definitely write up the SJA thing, and depending on whether I can make it spoiler free or not, I'll either post it next week or in a couple of weeks time.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Life, Sport, TV: Commonwealth Games, Life, SJA

• 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

jay_of_lasgalen

Thursday
This was the day the Queen was there. So after negotiating the hot, busy tube, we got to queue to get our bags searched because they were really thorough. Usually they just open them, have a look and give in. But they took everything out and opened everything. Although they didn't bother with the bag my dinner was in. But they did confiscate our Union Jack for not being regulation size. No, I don't know what regulation size is either, but I did see other non-Union Jack flags being waved about, so I reckon they just took it for the fun of it.

So after all that we were in the tunnel on the way to our staircase when the Queen came onto court. And then it turned out we were as far across an aisle as it was possible to be and everyone we had to get past were sitting down. On our way there the players came out.

After that we had lunch and enjoyed the Murray match. Unlike the Queen. It wasn't too hot near the back under the shade. There were two problems with our seat: it was opposite the umpire, so I got dizzy watching the ball, and the cameraman was in the way of the scoreboard. We couldn't see if a ball was out on Hawkeye and we couldn't see the number of games the person at the bottom had. Which was fine as long as you were concentrating, but unhelpful when they put up scores for other matches at the change of ends and then you had no idea.

After that we skipped the women and spent money in the shop. I needed a new cap, new mouse mat and new pen. Then we baked on Henman Hill watching the marathon match. The big screen TV doesn't have commentary (which is good, since it also doesn't have mute for the annoying commentators) and it also cycles round the scores on the other courts. Except that it stopped and given that we were baking and losing the will to live watching the match, we wandered off a few games before it eventually ended. But we found the women had finished.

So then we saw Nadal. Who took more sets to finish than we thought, but was quicker than we thought. Especially since this is Nadal we're talking about - he never has quick matches because he's so slow.

But he finished in time for dinner. We opted not to watch the random ladies doubles match on Centre and instead managed to find standing space above Court 18 to watch our number 1 GB doubles team play a French team - one of whom had been in the marathon match. It even got chilly!

When they gave it up for bad light a lot of other people left as well, so we were queueing down the road from the tube station. Then we got there, three trains went in the other direction, so the tube was packed (and boiling) and I had to change trains. I eventually got home close to midnight.

Saturday
This time we got there ages before the match started - we even had time to eat lunch before the players came out. It was weird watching the ladies singles final because, despite all the photos and extra stuff at the start, it's easy to forget it's the final and not just another tennis match. Especially when the second set isn't even very close...

The seats don't feel that uncomfortable to start with, but they quickly get that way. Fortunately we were two seats from the end of the aisle and right by the staircase. So we went outside for a wander.

We went to the other branch of the shop this time and discovered a polo shirt for £140! And that they did Wimbledon flip flops (I don't think there's anything you can't get with the Wimbledon branding on). Said flip flops were £17 or £25 depending on the style. And the only thing different between them and ordinary flip flops was the logo on the bit that goes under your foot. Funnily enough we weren't a bit tempted...

The mens doubles got their first set over quickly, so we thought we'd better get back on court in case it was all that one-sided and we missed it all. It then wasn't so one-sided, but they still finished in straight sets. Because we weren't far round from the Royal Box, my pictures of the people collecting their trophy are a bit of spot the tennis player...

Then we stayed for the women and ate dinner since it was quite late by the time they managed to get through the first set. I can't say it was the most exciting tennis I've ever seen. All the finals were straight sets jobs, which was a bit disappointing.

It being the second-to-last day there weren't that many people round Wimbledon in comparison to before and there weren't many courts in action. It made it feel a bit sad to be so unused, really. But at least it meant the tube home wasn't quite as hot or crowded.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Sport: Wimbledon

I was going to write about my two days at Wimbledon, but I just don't have the energy. And work is busy enough that I'm not going to get the energy before I forget it all. But there are lots of photos. And I mean lots. There are 41 from the first Thursday (including my annotated ones - also Murray, Nadal and the Queen) and somehow I managed to take 110 yesterday... I now have more photos from Wimbledon than anything else, at least based on my flickr tag cloud.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Sport: Wimbledon

I am looking forward to Wimbledon, though. I have picked out my fantasy Wimbledon team which will hopefully not be as crap as last year's. Although since I take no notice of the women my team mostly consists of the Williams sisters and cheap people who have interesting names. I have added the Wimbledon feed to my Twitter, so I can read all about what happened at Wimbledon six hours later when I get home.

Friday night I went to see the I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue stage show. It was so good my throat still hurt on Saturday from laughing. The new series starts tomorrow - it'll be one thing I won't be saving for after Wimbledon.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Radio, Sport, Work: ISIHAC, Wimbledon, Work

And my right wrist hurts. It's caused by me sleeping on it, and I sleep on my right when I'm stressed (and I've been dreaming about work this week - and not sleeping much because my brain won't stop working). And the bit of my left hand between my thumb and forefinger hurts. I only just worked out last night that it must be caused by holding the mouse. I might have to try a small mouse out next week and see how that goes.

On the plus side I didn't get as tired and as dizzy as I thought I would. But I did get a sore throat instead. And had to miss my two Rotaract meetings this week, which is really annoying. I do only have a four day week next week, as on Friday I'm going to see ISIHAC. Although this does, of course, mean doing five days work in the space of four. Mind you, this week I did six and a half days work in the space of five...

I did, however, manage to write 25 of my 100 drabbles (well, I started on 1st June). I ought to sort out posting some of them this weekend. I did also find mini eggs in the health food shop, which kept me going in the afternoons (I was looking for smarties, and got some of those too, but mini eggs are nicer).

Because our overtime year ends at the end of June and I'll have at least three and a half days then, I'll get paid for it at the end of July. And I've just won tickets to the final Saturday at Wimbledon (Women's Singles Final, Men's Doubles Final, Women's Doubles Final) and because I know this money is coming to me, I can afford to go. I am also going on the first Thursday - both times are to Centre Court too. Mind you, if I'd got tickets to the final Sunday I wouldn't be caring how much money I had

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Fan fic, Sport, Work: Wimbledon, Work, Writing

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

The rest of the curling will wait until after the Olympics - I'll just wait and see if we get into the semis and watch that.

Because of this I haven't watched any TV all week and I have a whole load of RSS feeds marked as unread that I just haven't read/commented on. And a whole load of other things to do. And other sports I'd quite like to see some of. I really could do without having to work...

Permalink | 1 comment | Categories: Sport: Olympics

Tonight I managed to get the pair short program into about an hour but cutting out anything that wasn't the actual skating. But tonight's the free program which has more skating, then tomorrow there's a GB curling match and I'm going out for pancakes in the evening.

And there's only so much Olympics you can watch in an evening. Fortunately I have nothing planned for the weekend, so it might involve watching a lot of ice skating and curling and a bit of other sports...

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that various people have been posting their TV series for the meme at isurrendered and there's some really interesting stuff there. I think I have the smallest cast...

Copper won the prize for guessing the connection between the actors in mine: they've all played policemen/women:

• Peter Davison was DC 'Dangerous' Davies in The Last Detective
• Ben Peyton was PC Ben Haywood in The Bill
• Philip Glenister was DCI Gene Hunt in Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes and also DCI William Bell in State of Play
• Jaye Griffiths was DI Sally Johnson in The Bill

Georgia Moffett only played a policewoman's daughter: she was Abi Nixon, DS/DI Sam Nixon's daughter in The Bill.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Meme, Sport: Meme: other, Olympics

We saw Nestor and Zimonjic play a Polish pair I've never heard of, can't spell and certainly can't pronounce. They're ranked 8, so they're the lowest ranked pair in there. It was a bit odd because they played a variation, so when it got to deuce whoever won the next point won. And if they won a set each they'd play a tie-break, but to 10 points. It made it very quick, but it felt like it all turned on those deuce points because the Polish pair broke once per set on those points. But it was a good match and now I'm reduced to seeing the rest of the doubles matches online.

We had half an hour's break after that and then there were a lot fewer empty seats for Murray's match. This was back to usual point scoring and because they spend a lot more time than the doubles per point, made it seem really slow. The doubles match was an hour long, this one was two and a half. But it was a battle and Del Potro played well, apart from in the middle of the first set and towards the end of the third. That was a good match too, but we really wanted it to end because the seats just go so uncomfortable after sitting in them for the best part of five hours, I was really dizzy and it was really hot in there, which didn't help.

But we had a good view, even though we were near the back. People at work were trying to tell me we wouldn't be able to see a thing, but it was no different from being at the back of Centre Court.

And there are photos, some of which are a bit blurry because they're all taken with the flash off and the lighting was terrible (really bright on the court and we couldn't see a thing, which made eating lunch interesting).

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Sport: Tennis

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

It made me really dizzy, but was good fun. We went to the women's all round because the men are boring and we got to see every piece of apparatus. We were sat high up and behind a metal bar, which hid the vault completely. So you'd keep checking to see that there was a girl still stood there, and the next thing you knew everyone was clapping because she'd vaulted and you'd missed it.

There were two Brits competing and you could tell when they were up next because the crowd would go mad. So I made sure to watch them, but apart from that I watched a bit of everything. What you can't tell from watching it on the telly is how much of nothing goes on. While they're busy showing you slow motion replays and discussing the routine there's just waiting around for the score. Which adds up to quite a lot of waiting sometimes.

It was nice not to have to get annoyed with camera angles. Which I did at the weekend when they kept moving the camera around unnecessarily and made it impossible to watch some of it.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Sport: Gymnastics