A year ago I discovered lotr_community when I wanted to get back into writing LOTR again and needed a challenge. So I wrote a few things and then it all went to pot in the autumn when my Sci-Fi Big Bang fic took over. It didn't help that I was determined to write different things. I've gone back to it this month and told myself that if I want to write fluffy and/or angsty Elrond fic I can. So I have. It's not finished yet and it's not due yet, but I have 800 words of Elrond and Arwen fluff and I don't care if no one reads it. I actually wrote something, which is a start.

Mind you, I've also signed up for girlsavesboyfic, the premise of which is that you write anything you like where the girl saves the boy and/or the world. The idea being that that's unusual. Except all the girls I could immediately think of writing have done that in canon... And then I remembered I signed up for fanbingo and I have some squares that I will never fill unless I specifically write something to fill them. And now I have a vague plot idea and a main character definitely in mind.

And at the end of the week (ish) I am going to be running an SJA ficathon. So I think that'll all keep me going until Yuletide...

This week I have:

• Made a shepherd's pie for the first time ever. It didn't stick together, but it tasted nice and that's all that counts
• Had a fry up for breakfast because I ran out of porridge - well, I say fry up, but actually only the tomatoes were fried. The has browns were cooked in the oven the previous night and microwaved. But they did taste very nice
• Got the car out of the garage without having to go forwards for the first time ever
• Seen a lot of tractors on my way to and from work. On Wednesday I managed to get stuck behind one when it was stuck behind a cyclist going up a hill...

This weekend I paid all my final bills for my old flat and then gave Big Finish all my money. Well, I bought the Benny box set that's out next month, the Jo companion chronicle and then thought I might as well buy the next Ian companion chronicle, even though it's not out until October.

I also bought a subscription to the main range. I ummed and ahhed over it for ages. I do want to listen to them all, so a download subscription would be fine for that. But I want to keep the Seventh Doctor and Ace stories on CD. Burning those isn't quite the same because you don't get the inserts and prettiness.

So my choices were to get a download subscription and then buy all the Seven & Ace stories on CD, or get a CD subscription and wonder what to do with the rest of the CDs. I ended up doing the latter since it'll work out cheaper in the long run. I made a deal with hhertzof to send her the Fifth Doctor CDs in return for books. Is anyone after any of the Sixth, Eighth or Seventh without Ace ones and wants to do a similar deal?

Yay for it being a three day weekend. Although that meant today was manic at work as we all tried to get stuff launched before the weekend. I am looking forward to three days off and watching Reading. Although it clashes with Doctor Who, so I'll have to tape them both.

Yesterday I managed to post my femgenficathon fic: Stuck With You, featuring Jo Jones née Grant.

I've been watching Downton Abbey too. I kept meaning to watch it, being as so many people talked about it, and then I heard there would be a second series in the autumn, so I thought I ought to get on with it. I was expecting it to be the usual serious period drama, but it's actually quite ridiculous and I am liking it.

I have internet back again! As great as it was to have BT OpenZone, it was slow and I couldn't use it on both computers at once (well, I didn't try, I just assumed) and it randomly went down.

Maybe now I can start feeling like things are normal again. Although it still feels like I'm living in someone else's house.

I have uploaded photos - they're the first eight at http://www.flickr.com/photos/paranoidangel/tags/house/

I am all moved in. I just need to sort out the mess in the lounge and put up some posters.

I managed to move on a day when it rained pretty much all day. The removal men came, packed everything in an hour and a half, then moved it over to the house. It was so quick that my PVR hadn't lost any of its settings.

Since I've moved in I've discovered that the shower is a trickle (although I think that might be because the shower head is tiny and useless), the light switch in the kitchen is upside down, the oven doesn't work unless you set the time and the smoke alarm just outside the kitchen (which has no door) is really sensitive.

I also have internet, courtesy of BT Openzone, which I have paid for, but it's better value than dial-up or 3G. It is a bit slower than I'm used to, but far faster than the alternatives. At least it exists, which is great.

While I unpacked I listened to The Rocket Men (Big Finish Ian companion chronicle) which I thought was quite clever. And has jet packs in. Once I've had this month's credit card bill I will be giving Big Finish lots of money for a monthly releases subscription, the Benny box set and the Jo companion chronicle coming up.

I've also been watching Game of Thrones this weekend, since I promised people at work I'd marathon it this weekend. I don't know if I'll finish it though, since I'm only halfway through and it's already mid-morning on Sunday. But so far I am enjoying it, with the aid of a character and actor guide. I spend half the time watching it checking who the characters are and then going to imdb.

I had no idea so many actors I knew were in it. I am less keen on all the sex and gore, but I do like the sword fighting. I definitely need to read the book to understand what's going on - the episodes don't make it clear how much time has passed, which has been confusing me. So far I like Ned Stark dealing with his daughters making his life complicated. Which is much more interesting than him dealing with politics.

I went and saw my new house today - for the second time technically, but this time it didn't have other people's stuff in it. After last time I moved and discovered the flat didn't have a freezer, I was ready to have a mad panic about something else instead. But there isn't anything.

The kitchen doesn't have a door (to be fair, there isn't much space to have one open and has a smoke alarm right outside(!), but the lounge has a door, so I can still shut away the noise of the washing machine. Which seems to be a washer/dryer. Not that I'm likely to use the tumble dryer that much, but it does make towels nice and fluffy.

I measured my furniture with bits of string, then took the string to the new house to work out where to put everything. I'll get to see on Thursday how accurate the string is... But it looks like I can fit all my bedroom stuff in the smaller bedroom (which only shares a wall with my neighbour's bathroom), so I'll have plenty of space for books and other stuff in the big bedroom (which shares both its walls with both my neighbours. I will take photos after my stuff is moved in, it just might be a while before I can upload them.

I also spent the afternoon ringing companies up to change my address. My car and contents insurance have both gone down, which is good. And all the people I talked to were English, apart from one who was Scottish. But on my list of people to tell my new address is 'Friends'. And I've lost track of who even had my address to begin with, so if you'd like my new address (or phone number), let me know.

I pick up the keys to my house tomorrow - I can't believe the date has come around already. I'm not used to having so long between finding somewhere and moving.

I am so glad the removal men are packing my stuff because there's no way I'd have the energy to do everything by myself. This weekend I got about halfway through my list of people to tell I've moved (although some are unimportant and can wait), spring cleaned the lounge (except for the book shelves, which I did a couple of weeks ago), defrosted the fridge and did some other odd bits of cleaning. And done some betaing. It's just as well I'm not actually moving until Thursday.

Given that my contract for the new place says I have to have it professionally cleaned before I move out, I hope that means the last people have done that, so I won't have to clean it before I move in. Just buy a few things that I need - so far I know I'll need some airers to put on the radiators, as I don't have any. But I'm still paranoid that things will go wrong. I have to try putting my car in the garage tomorrow - I don't know if I can do it or if I can even open the garage door, having never done either of those things before in my life.

On the plus side, I have a couple of friends who live five minutes walk from my new house. They already lent me their electric cool box, so the entire contents of my fridge fit in that and stayed cold while the fridge defrosted. And I will be borrowing space in their freezer, as I have to defrost the freezer for moving it. But they are getting whatever tea bags the removal men don't drink in return.

Because moving isn't enough for one month, I am starting a new diet this week.

There's a theory all these food intolerances are caused by not enough good bacteria and too much bad bacteria in the digestive system. Which itself could well be caused by stress, at least in my case. I was stressed by becoming lactose intolerant in 2005 when I got most of my intolerances. And I became soya intolerant the last time I moved house...

In order to get rid of these intolerances I have to not have any of the things I'm intolerant to for three months, as well as not having any yeast or sugar. And only three portions of fruit a day.

I say that it will get rid of them, but the doctor couldn't say for sure. The only evidence is from alternative medicine, which doesn't prove anything. But Mum tried it and it worked for her, so it's worth a go.

So far I've been eating up things with sugar in that won't keep or are frozen. There are plenty of things I know sugar is in, which is fair enough. But then I'm finding it's in things like cornflakes, sausages, chips, stock cubes, pasta sauce. Ok, so I got unlucky with the chips because they don't all have it in, just the packet in my freezer. But there are no stock cubes I've found on the Sainsburys website that don't have either sugar or yeast in.

I'm feeling positive about it at the moment, but I might well be sick of porridge for breakfast and rice cakes for snacks in three months time. Especially when there's nothing I can find to spread on rice cakes except for butter. But on the plus side I did make my own pasta sauce tonight. I've tried it once before and I didn't like it, but I don't remember what I did. Tonight I had tomatoes, tomato puree and basil in what ended up being random amounts, but it came out tasting nice. I've been meaning to make my own pasta sauce for ages, so when I've finished the diet I might stick with it. Apart from the jar I have in the cupboard that will need using up before it's best before date.

This week I have been acting as if I'm not ill. So now I am regretting it. There went my weekend of actually getting things done.

But on Tuesday I went to see Harry Potter. It was good and I was very glad I hadn't read the book since it came out because I remembered quite a bit of it. Although it was quite surreal watching it, having played Lego Harry Potter. I kept recognising bits of Hogwarts.

Today I posted my Sci-Fi Big Bang story: The Atlantis Sacrifice, which turned into a massive pain in the arse. First I discovered that the plugin I have that automatically posts links between all parts of your fic broke a few WP versions ago. There are alternatives, but they just create new taxonomies, and I can do that myself.

Then uploading multiple chapters to A03 was really hard. I didn't look at the help because I expected it to be obvious. I ended up with chapters in the wrong order and some of them repeated. And I thought it was all draft, but it wasn't.

And then LJ decided not to let me read the comm. It still isn't, but I can still open individual posts and the RSS feed is definitely updating, so I don't know what its problem is.

The word count on this Big Bang was 25,000, but I only managed 24,100. It took enough effort to add in the last 3000, I wasn't going to manage another 900. And annoyingly, it's still not the longest thing I've ever written. The last Big Bang I did had a word count of 20,000 and I wrote 26,000.

But now it's all finished and posted and I really have no excuse to not start of my fic.

I'm feeling like I've achieved things this weekend.

Yesterday I went to London. As the train pulled into Paddington they announced that the only tube line running was the Bakerloo. Which isn't a particularly pleasant line at the best of times, certainly not when it's hot and it's only line stopping at Paddington. So, having established that it was an easy walk, I walked to Oxford Circus. I didn't get lost (although I did consult my map twice). The bit in Hyde Park was quite pleasant, walking through the crowds on Oxford was less so, but I did stop off in a few shops to have a look around, but not buy anything.

Then today I cleaned my bookshelves. I didn't get rid of much because I can't decide, for quite a few books, whether I'm likely to read them or not. But once I've moved I'll have space to buy more bookcases, so then everything will get moved around anyway and I can make decisions. I still have all my other furniture to clean and everything to go through to get rid of stuff I don't want, but at least I've made a start.

I am trying to be back in the real world after a long weekend at the windmill. It was fun, apart from the earwigs in the windmill, the ticks on the walks and the stinging nettles (I got stung, but no ticks - after seeing them on the cat I think I prefer the stinging nettles).

I ended up reactivating my Facebook account (I never completely deleted it because I didn't trust them to delete my data). After the end of Rotaract dinner with people I hadn't seen for years I thought I really ought to keep up with them. And then at the windmill there were people I hadn't seen for a year, so I knew nothing of what had happened to them during that time, but they all knew about each other.

So I ended up going back on Facebook. It looks like I can see all status updates on TweetDeck and post from TweetDeck and I am assured that these days emails to say you have a message tell you what the message is. So I shouldn't have to actually go to Facebook itself. But it is purely a real life thing - I only have Rotaractors and people I knew at uni on there (plus Emma who is the only person from school I still talk to).

And then after that I got curious about Google+. So I used my netbook, where I'm trying out Firefox 4.0. I found that it's much easier to change the privacy settings on Google+ than Facebook. And that's the only thing I've done on either of them really. I don't intend to use Google+ for anything, not least because it seems to have chosen one of my Gmail accounts to associate with my Googld+ account. Which isn't a bad choice, but I wish it had warned me in advance.

On the topic of old friends, I'm off to London this afternoon to meet livii - and shinyjenni and sillycleo too. It's been very handy having people come here, when I can't go anywhere. This year I've also seen selenay936, hhertzof, just_ann_now and munditia and I've only had to go as far as Coventry and London.

This week started well on Monday and went downhill rapidly after that. Tuesday I had a conference call that started at 12.30 and finished at 13.40. By which point my tummy was making hungry noises and I only got a short lunch break. Which might have been fine, except that I'd only got a short lunch break the day before as well, so I ended up having the 40 minutes I'd missed in the middle of the afternoon instead.

Then Wednesday afternoon I felt all weird. It wasn't until after I left work that I realised that maybe it was a mild migraine, but with none of my usual triggers. So after that I was tired. But last night I slept for 11 hours. Now I feel great, except that I have conjunctivitis...

On the plus side I am off on the annual trip to the windmill with no TV and no internet for four days. Based on past experience my conjunctivitis will be getting better by the time I leave...

I called the removal firm I wanted and, typically, the date I want the van is having an MOT. They gave me the option of using a bigger van, but they want to start at 8.30am when people are leaving for work so they won't be able to fit it down the road.

So my timetable for moving is:

Monday 15th August: pick up keys, clean new house if it needs it (my contract for it says I need to pay for a cleaning firm to clean it before I move out, so it might not need cleaning before I move in), see what (small things) I need for it and buy them

Tuesday 16th August: rest/finish off anything not done on Monday/do packing related things

Wednesday 17th August: defrost freezer

Thursday 18th August: move

Friday 19th August: clean old flat, if I have the energy to do it

Saturday 20th August: clean old flat if it wasn't done on Friday and I can hand the keys back late enough

The good part of it is that since it didn't cost much more to get the removal firm to pack, they're packing. I think I will have to write a list of things they're not allowed to pack because I keep thinking of more.

But all help is gratefully received. Either with helping direct removals men or cleaning the old flat. And with providing the removals men with tea, since I don't have any tea bags or milk suitable for putting in tea...

I updated WordPress over the weekend and then I had to message my dad because I couldn't find the add post button... It turns out they've taken it away and put it on a menu. And for some reason this post is in an awful font, but I don't know if that's because I'm on my Linux computer and it wants to use a Windows font.

Moving house is all about drama, it seems. Not that it's been very dramatic so far, but it's been enough of a pain.

Two weeks ago I rang three local removal companies, G, P and R. P are the people my friends used to move house - they said P were very good and the cheapest quote.

Two days after I rang, G rang me back. They came round on the Sunday after and I got a quote on the Tuesday. At which point I emailed P and considered whether I could be bothered ringing R again.

Last Wednesday R emailed to tell me to fill in the form on the website that I'd filled in, or to ring. Which just annoyed me, so I decided to ignore them until I could be bothered with them.

On Thursday P emailed and said they'd ring the next day - when I was out on a first aid course and therefore couldn't answer my phone. R also emailed to say I'd filled in the form twice (interesting counting, since I filled it in once) and I should call them. Which I would have done in the first place, had I known. So I did call them. They were really unbending with their options, which put me off them more than I already had been put off.

P called on Friday, and left a message. Usually I don't listen to my voicemail, but since I had nothing better to do during our long lunch break, I did listen to it. Then called them back and arranged for them to come over for a quote that day.

Today, nearly two weeks after I first called, I now have two quotes. The one from the company my friends said were cheapest... is the most expensive. So I'll go with the other ones since I just liked them anyway.

The cool part is that it doesn't cost much more to pay them to pack as well as move. Which means less work on everyone's part and less dizziness on mine. And I don't have to go to my sister's house (45 mins drive away) to borrow her crates.

I was quite amused, though, when the paperwork on one of the quotes mentions that offers of cups of tea are appreciated. I don't have any tea bags and rice milk makes tea taste of semolina (apparently), which I can't imagine would go down well. They'll have to make do with water and watered down orange squash (no one takes theirs as strong as I do).

Tomorrow I have to go on a first aid refresher course. I've been on a couple before, so I know where it is, but I was never the one driving. This time I'm going on my own. If I was going there from where I used to live, it would be fine. If I was going there not during rush hour it would be fine. However, the main route there gets really busy at rush hour and is best avoided - everyone I know who goes in that direction at rush hour goes the back way.

I have been the back way, as a passenger, a long time ago, in the dark, when I didn't really know the area.

I already knew how the route started, which is something. I looked it up on Google and it suggested the back way as an alternative, which is a good start. So then I followed my route on streetmap. Which got a bit confusing with sudden changes of weather and times when I went too far and then ended up facing the wrong way. But I eventually ended up at the edge of town, which I recognised. Despite the fact that it somehow jumped from one road to another. I retracted my steps and found the turning was where I thought it was.

There are a lot of places round here where getting there mostly just involves getting on one road and staying on it. Which is how this route is to start with - I just then have to keep an eye on the signs and turn off it. But I at least know now the junction is by the 30mph sign (or was when Google photographed it). After that I keep going to the end of the road twice more, and then just follow the signs. So hopefully it'll all work out... If I do miss the one turning, I just take a detour through another village, so I should end up where I intend to.

It turns out that the theatrical version of Yes, Prime Minister is on at the Apollo between now and mid-September. And The Guardian likes it, so it must be good. It doesn't have the original actors in it, obviously, but it is written by the original writers.

Does anyone want to come and see it with me on a Saturday matinee?

This week I have mostly been procrastinating about doing anything. Well, I did for Monday and Tuesday. Although Tuesday WordPress got updated, so I was thinking about doing that and then playing with it. Which I will do at some point.

Yesterday was ballet - the last one of the term. Before it started I was sitting on the floor, having changed my shoes and I realised I couldn't tell whether I was moving, which isn't a good sign. But I was fine until we did stretches when I definitely had moments of dizziness - I have no idea why that would set it off. But once I lay down on the floor I looked up at the ceiling and it was going round and round...

I might have been ok after the first round of pirouettes (which were going really well), but it didn't occur to me until afterwards that the reason I could only get halfway round before I fell over was because my balance had gone. After the class I walked home very slowly. And managed to nearly fall over in the bath because I had my head upside down to dry my hair.

After that I just didn't have a brain or the energy to get up off the sofa. But I did go to bed before it was really dark. This morning I thought I wasn't really well enough to drive. So I left a bit earlier than usual and got the bus. My drive to work takes about 20 minutes. The bus to the centre of town where I used to work took 20 minutes. Then I waited 30 minutes for another bus that took 5 minutes to get me 10 minutes walk away from work. My total journey time from my house to work was 1 hour and 15 minutes and I was 40 minutes late.

Which is just crazy and the reason I don't get the bus usually (plus it would also cost £9 more a week than I spend on petrol). I got a lift home which meant I got home earlier than usual. And now I am spending the evening doing nothing but lying on the sofa.

On the plus side, at least it's not next Thursday where I have to go to a first aid course. And to get there on a bus I would have to leave half an hour earlier and I think I would still be a bit late - the bus takes an hour, whereas driving the back way will take about 20 minutes. And the government wonders why people don't use public transport...

So that's the tennis over with for another year. Well, until the US Open in August, which isn't on TV and is mostly at night. The evenings suddenly seem so much longer, I almost don't know what to do with them.

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.

Wimbledon started and I've been listening to it on the radio at work in the afternoons and have had it on in the evening. When it started I was a bit unsure what I was going to do with all this Wimbledon on. I got used to not being able to see much of the French Open and Queens and I just concentrated on the big names.

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.