When I got home today there was an electoral roll letter on my doormat. Well, in fact it had missed the doormat and was just lying in the hall, but that’s not the point. I opened it, thought, “I suppose I just put this in the envelope and post it” when I looked closer to check. I discovered that if you don’t want to change anything you can text them (which I didn’t do because it didn’t say if it costed, plus texting takes me forever) or you can call them, free. You just dial, press some numbers and that’s it.

To be fair, it could have been like that for a while, but I’ve always had to change it. But I was quite excited about confirming I want to vote by phone. Of course now I have a form I don’t know what to do with. I suppose to be on the safe side I should take it into work and shred it (as I’m too cheap to buy my own shredder).

Permalink | 2 comments | Categories: News: Election

For anyone who hasn’t got a clue what I’m talking about (which the Americans reading won’t), The Bill is a cop show. It’s the cop show. It’s been running since 1984 (or 1983, depending on how you look at it). It’s a national institution – people who don’t watch it know who Frank Burnside and Jack Meadows are, the same way people who don’t watch Eastenders know who Dot Cotton and the Mitchell brothers are. You’d have to bury your head in the sand not to know of its existence in this country – and maybe in Australia too. I don’t know about now, but it once was bigger over there than it was here.

It started off as a pilot (called Woodentop), then had three series of twelve hour long episodes. And in those days of fewer advert breaks, it was a lot closer to an hour long. Then it went to half hours twice weekly, then three times weekly. Then back to hours twice a week. It was cut to once a week recently and moved up to 9pm – it might have started there, given the 15 rating on the early DVDs.

Ratings were a problem, but reinvention isn’t a bad thing. The half hours used to consist of two crimes that didn’t seem connected at first, but would end up being connected. Which did get samey. The hours gave more time for humour and more in-depth crimes. And then the Executive Producer decided to show more of the coppers lives and it all snowballed into being so soapy I’m amazed there was time for crime. And since there had been a rule that we didn’t see their home lives, it meant that everyone was sleeping with everyone else.

I was worried/scared when someone told me they were watching purely for the slash in it. There were two male coppers having a will-they-won’t-they thing going on. Which doesn’t sound terrible, until I tell you that Sergeant Gilmore was the first gay copper in it and, apart from his first episode, it was entirely incidental. PC Luke Ashton I never really knew because he was first in it when I was in my first year at uni with no TV. Gilmore I took a while to warm to, but he became one of my favourite characters. Until he had a personality change in order to have this ratings-grabbing relationship. I suppose it worked from that perspective, but I hated seeing a character I liked behave so completely out of character that he merely shared the same name with the previous version.

I don’t remember why I started watching again late last year, but it had changed and it was all about the crimes again. I didn’t recognise most of the characters, but that was ok because they were all on the website and I could look them up on my netbook as I watched. I’m ok with first names now, but last names I’m more shaky on.

The thing about The Bill is, aside from me loving cop shows, is that it was my first fandom. When we first got the internet in 1996, I found the forum on the website. I have no idea what name I went under, but I remember leaving because they redesigned it and I hated it. I didn’t come back until I was at uni and had a pseudonym.

In the early 2000s we used to have London Trips (LTs) where we hung around outside the studios and ambushed the cast for autographs. All of whom were lovely. Although we were scared of Roberta Taylor because her character scared us! Of the current cast I’ve met Jack, Smithy and Mickey – who for reasons that I’ve forgotten was nicknamed Twiglet, and he answered to it too.

Eventually the LTs changed from hanging around the studios then going to the pub, to walking past the studios and spending the rest of the time in the pub as we gradually just didn’t like The Bill any more.

But through The Bill I’ve made some great friends. The ones I’m still in touch with are the regulars at the CA: Avon, Melli, Kacey, Laura. They’re all in Australia, so for them they have a lot of The Bill left. But given that we all varying gave up on it and rarely discuss it any more, its passing isn’t going to stop us talking.

And I’m hoping, that after a while, there’ll be a gap in the market for The Bill again. And like Doctor Who, it’ll rise like a phoenix from the ashes and be greater than before. And what have ITV put in place of it next week? Utter rubbish. For quality drama, you don’t go to ITV these days.

Permalink | 4 comments | Categories: TV: The Bill

And it’s not just facts I’ve forgotten either. I’d forgotten how funny and brave Pippin was, how loyal Sam was, how pretty Anduril was. And Elrond. I don’t think he was right in the film, in terms of looks -he was too old and not pretty enough. But he spends most of the last two angsting over Arwen, and for that, I can forgive a lot.

I stopped writing in the fandom because I thought I’ve said everything I could about Elrond and Estel. Well, Elrond in general, but those two especially. And now I’m thinking there are loads of things I didn’t write. Which could have been because I read them instead, but, that was years ago anyway.

I am currently re-reading Nilmandra’s History Lessons because it’s good and has lots of Elrond, but also because I’ve forgotten a lot and if LOTR is hard to get through (and it is – I hate description, Tolkien loves it…), The Silmarillion is worse.

I did, however, manage to write a drabble: My Heart and in the words of Samwise Gamgee: I’m back. Or at least, I intend to be.

And I leave you with my new found screen capping ability of one of my favourite scenes (despite not being in the book) as it features Elrond, Aragorn and an exceedingly pretty sword.

Elrond, Aragorn and a sword

Elrond, Aragorn and a sword

Elrond, Aragorn and a sword

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• 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

And it turns out it is. I’ve written 100, 99 of which from his point of view. You can see them all using this tag. If you look at the tags at the end of each post that’ll tell you who is in the drabbles in that post and when they’re set. I started off posting them in sets with similar times and characters, but by the end I was mopping up a bit.

On the whole I quite enjoyed it. There were still some ideas I had to do that I had left over. It was good to get into the mindset and write 5-10 a day. But it’s a hard way of writing 10,000 words!

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Fan fic: My fanfic

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Life: Life

• Work is not currently too busy! Although in saying that I’m sure I’ve jinxed it
• Yesterday it rained only while I was out. I do so enjoy shopping in the pouring rain and driving down the dual carriageway in rain so hard you can’t see anything and not all cars put their lights on. Still, the last time I did that I had sunglasses on, so not having them on was a step up. And I did see a rainbow.
• I can’t remember how many years ago it was that I bought my swimming costume, so it’s not a surprise that it’s wearing out. It was a surprise that it was so hard to find a new one. Everywhere sells bikinis and swimming costumes with shaped bits at the front, but if you actually want one to swim in, you have to go to the sports shop. Who had about three that were under 40″ chest size.
• I have photos from Cheddar Gorge
• After telling people how none of my friends that I’m close enough to to be invited get married, I have been invited to a wedding. Which is a bit strange to me because I don’t quite see the point of getting married, I refuse to set foot in a church again without a book to read to stop me from getting bored, and I was friends with them both before they got together. And I think that other people might be all sappy, saying how whatever they look together etc, etc, and I’ll be thinking ‘pass me the sick bucket’. I don’t do sap. Fortunately it’s in October, as both my dresses are black.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Life: Life

So the simplest solution was to download a new version. Which was instant. Installing it took less than a minute and it’s now fine.

However, before I installed it I first wanted to create a system restore point. In XP I just went to the link I’d pinned to the Start Menu. In Windows 7 I stare at the Start Menu for a while before giving up. Fortunately, when I got Windows 7 I found a great site with tutorials on how to work it, so I went there and found how to create a system restore point. It’s in Control Panel->System, nowhere near the System Restore menu, which is in Accessories->System.

I decided it’s really silly to keep searching for how to do it every time and ended up following another tutorial which adds a shortcut to your desktop, which you just have to click and type your restore point in and it does it. Much quicker and easier. This is why I also have shortcuts to Start Menu for user and all users because I have no idea how to get to them in Windows 7 because right clicking on the Start Menu doesn’t work.

Then I remembered that I wanted to add TextPad to the Quick Launch. In XP you dragged the shortcut. Doesn’t work in Windows 7… I ended up going back to the same website to find where the Quick Launch lived and then sticking it in there.

I know Microsoft have done all this so people can’t cock it all up (and people really can cock anything up on computers given half a chance). It’s just that, by doing that, they’ve made everything so much harder if you know what you’re doing. Which is the opposite to the version of Linux I have on my netbook, where if you don’t know what you’re doing you’re reduced to copying and pasting into scripts… (which works, mind you)

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Computers: Windows

I think occasionally about what would be the worst job I could possibly do. Not because it’s a terrible job per se, or something I couldn’t do because I haven’t had the training, but something that I just couldn’t do no matter what.

I think the worst thing I can come up with is hearse driver – because I have a phobia of dead bodies and I hate driving.

So what’s yours?

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This morning I parked perfectly: I had to get out the passenger side.

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But it also makes me think about what people in the future will think of how we lived. We look back at how people lived 150 years ago and it seems so primitive: no cars, no TV, no welfare state etc. So in 150 years time people will look back at how we lived and think it’s so primitive and they couldn’t have lived in the early 21st century.

The trouble with living in it at the moment is I can’t imagine how people’s lives will change. There are plenty of people predicting how technology will change etc, but it’s more a question of how all the new inventions and discoveries in the next 150 years will affect the people living then.

They’ll look back and wonder how we didn’t know that and how we survived without this, but who knows what this and that might be? I think I’d like to go to the future and have a look. Although would it make the present seem primitive and unliveable in?

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• Defrosted the fridge (it was desperate – but now my back and legs ache from it
• Wrote 10 drabbles for the 100 drabbles – I’m now up to 51, so over halfway there!
• Watched all of The Chase commentary, which was really interesting. My lovefilm rental list now consists of The Avengers, Ewan MacGregor films and a whole load of stuff they won’t give me
• Watched two episodes of The Prisoner – I have four left on my PVR, although there’s another one on tomorrow

Friday I went to the pub at lunch and then to a different pub after work. I was really dizzy after all that pubbing and not enough relaxing. Even though I sat with my back to most of the room, so I couldn’t see much movement. The reason for going after work was to see someone who left in December to go travelling and she’d come back to visit for the afternoon.

I have sometimes wondered if I’ve missed out by not going travelling, but I wouldn’t want to give up my job (especially during a recession) and before I got it I wouldn’t have been confident enough to go. Now I can say that I haven’t missed out at all. Most of the places she went to I’ve either been to or don’t want to go to. With the exception of New Zealand, which is a hard place to get to, partly because it is the furthest away from here you can go, and also because there are too many people to see in Australia. So I’m happy just seeing the world a couple of weeks at a time – which is generally plenty because I need to go home for a rest after that.

Permalink | 2 comments | Categories: Life: Life

I thought about getting petrol the same day every week to get around it, but I don’t need petrol every week. I do try and fill the car up when I’m down to half a tank, but that’s mainly on the basis that the pumps aren’t designed for people with small hands and any longer holding it really makes my hand hurt.

I’ve been meaning to buy petrol all week, especially as yesterday it went down to three eighths of a tank (my petrol gauge comes in eight discrete units). I finally managed to buy some this morning, on my way to work. I passed the petrol station on my way home and the petrol’s gone down 1p.

There must be some sort of god waiting for me to think about/buy petrol just to change the price, it’s the only explanation.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Life: Driving

Any feed with titles only or partial doesn’t count because I can’t read that without putting in effort. Anyone who posts to Twitter a lot also doesn’t count because TweetDeck only picks up the last 200 tweets and I only read Twitter in the evenings when I put my main laptop on.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Internet: Internet

melliyna

avon7

1. My first drafts consist of getting all the plot onto the page as fast as possible before I forget it. Sometimes when I go back and read it, I don’t even know what I meant.

2. I do many drafts. I’ve got into the habit of keeping them all now, in case I change my mind and want to go back to an earlier version. Generally it starts with first draft, then a re-write, then onto the editing. And yes, there is a vast difference between re-writing and editing.

3. I have very little visual memory and I rarely see stuff in my head. It means that I’m quite happy not to read description and I do quite happily skip entire paragraphs when I’m reading because I just don’t care what stuff looks like. I’m also quite happy not to write description, but I can’t get away with that. My editing stage mostly consists of adding description and taking a load of rubbish out. Which you’d think would make the edit shorter, but no, it makes it longer.

4. I do tend to write a lot of stuff with only two people in. I don’t know why. I think it’s partly because I get lost with more than two people in a scene, although I suppose that’s just lack of practice. I think mostly it’s because what I’m most interested in, when I’m writing, is the relationship between those two people.

5. I find that writing to a deadline tends to get me to actually sit down and write. Otherwise I find much more interesting things to do than writing.

6. Most things I write I think about beforehand. Sometimes for a long time, usually in bed when I’m trying to sleep, or at weekends when I can lie there for a while, thinking. Sometimes when I write the first draft I have to stop and think about what the characters are going to say, then write it. Generally I’ll write some sort of plot down, based on what’s in my head, in case I forget it. Sometimes I don’t think about it for ages, pull my plot description out, and then I remember it all again.

7. I find writing long things hard – perhaps because exploring the relationship between two characters doesn’t involve much plot. My natural length seems to have ended up being around 1500-3000 words these days.

Permalink | No comments | Categories: Meme: Meme: 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

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.

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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