I managed to fail to tape yesterday's episode of Doctor Who on my TV card and then fail to tape Confidential on the Freeview card. I ended up watching it on the TV, which isn't widescreen so doesn't have such a good picture (I tape it on that to watch with the commentary). It was so sad though. I watched it with lunch, then went into the Dairy Free chatroom, which was a bit quiet anyway, and was just too depressed.

Where does the horse on a spaceship joke come from? I know the writer didn't get it from anywhere specific, because he talked about it on the commentary, but I'm sure I've heard a joke with that in somewhere.

I also saw City of Death this week. It's the second Tom Baker story I've seen and the first with Romana, if you don't count the BBCi Shada remake with Paul McGann. I'm scared of Romana's hat. It somehow seems to stick on the back of her head and defies gravity. And I almost can't quite believe Tom Baker doesn't trip over his scarf. I think at one point he was holding it up while running.

I read somewhere this week where someone was saying that David Tennant's Doctor is a lot like Tom Baker's. Having seen them both in a week I can see where they're coming from. The Doctor had a habit of coming out with something that just wasn't quite in keeping with the tone. And the comments he made about Leonardo DaVinci ('Leo') and Shakespeare were great. It seemed to fit in so well with Mickey's comments in The Girl in the Fireplace about Cleo(patra).

I liked the character of Duggan - although mostly the Doctor's comments about him, but he bugged me all the way through because I was so certain I recognised him. It was only when I looked him up and found he was Del Grant that it was so obvious!

On balance, I liked it. I think I'm going to like Tom Baker's Doctor, although he does have a lot of teeth and hair.

I've been dynamic today. I have:

• defrosted the fridge - I keep learning more about it and got it down to 6 hours in total - only about 4 hours of that was actual defrosting
• mostly updated my website - I've not uploaded it yet but I've done the vid recs and fan fic (I seem to have written a lot since my last update) and changed my updates page so it tells you exactly what's new
• typed up my Lake District diary. I just need to pick some photos and bung that on the site as well
• Actually finished the first draft of a story I started at the beginning of the week. It's Doctor Who, and definitely longer than the other two I've written, so I might have to admit defeat here and actually do it properly and get it beta'ed and everything. Not what I'm supposed to be writing, unsurprisingly.
• Tidied my room, so I can actually see it. And tidied all the food that I had round the place. And found some seriously out of date Reef. Disgusting is not the word - it's not strong enough
• Completely forgot about the Dairy Free chat at 2pm until 4pm - whoops!
• Lasted until 7pm to see Doctor Who, so I could see it on my computer in widescreen. Then watched Confidential and the episode on the TV with the commentary. I actually had the two exactly in sync, then accidentally leaned on the fast forward button (which I do a lot, it's annoying) and it was never quite the same after that. I've commented on the episode in Sel's LJ because I'm too lazy to press the more button to put it behind an LJ-cut so I don't spoil Avon and Melli.
• Actually, I think that's it.

Tomorrow I get to wax my legs - although that means I also get to listen to the first half of Night Thoughts. Doing my legs bores me so much, and the washing afterwards is such a pain, I save the Big Finish CDs for this especially, because then it's at least something to look forward to, apart from once I've actually done and have beautifully smooth legs (except for the bits I've missed that I spend the next few days spotting and trying to ignore).

So that's sort of Doctor Who every day this weekend! Not including the Eighth Doctor book I'm reading which is well weird.

I've been so busy telling people about my holiday I've lost the energy now. I'm still working my way through catching up as well. But briefly:

Conference (photos) was great. Next year's is my birthday weekend, so will be even more fun.

The Lake District (photos) was very pretty, if northern. And sheep everywhere.

Doctor Who - yay! (need I say more?)

I am writing this from the hotel's free wireless internet connection Although it's in the coldest corridor ever - it's warmer outside (even this far north).

So far the Lake District is very pretty, although I feel like I saw everything yesterday afternoon. I saw the first 15mins of Doctor Who last night, but decided to go downstairs to drink and talk to people rather than watch the last half hour - I can do that anytime. I liked what I saw, though - I am liking David Tennant's Doctor so far.

I am so incredibly tired, but am enjoying Conference. Next year's is a bit closer - Watford - and is over the May Day bank holiday weekend, so my birthday will be on the Saturday. So I'll be celebrating my birthday there, very cool. I just need to make sure plenty of the club and the district are there.

I can't believe it's the evening already. Although possibly that's because I only just had lunch. I slept for 11.5 hours last night. I'm nearly recovered from the flu but still a bit tired!

Dad told me about The Guardian's April Fool which was about Coldplay's Chris Martin supporting David Cameron. It's really impressive - they redid the song 'Talk' and everything.

The BBC have put the new Doctor Who series trailer up. I'm guessing from the ending of it it's on TV too, but that assumes I watch any I would be all excited about it, if it wasn't that I have to wait until I get back from the Lake District to see it - and they'll have shown two episodes by then.

I watched a Peter Davison story yesterday. It could be due to seeing Christopher Timothy in Doctors this week, but I had to keep reminding myself that he was the Doctor. Although at the end, for some reason, I couldn't get over how young he looked.

I also listened to a Big Finish CD. When I was in Bournemouth I was ambushed by Sophie Aldred being on a free CD with Doctor Who magazine. I'm glad I bought it though, because it was a good story. The Doctor wasn't in it at all, it was just Five's companions, Peri and Erimem, and Seven's Ace and Hex. I really liked Ace and Hex in it, they were funny. Peri I've heard in one other and not seen at all, and Erimem I'd never heard of before, but I really liked them too.

Some people also have Tom Baker 'singing' Common People. Having listened to it I can't help agree with Sel that he would be a bit much for a SatNav. But as cool as it is having John Cleese direct you (which my sister does), it would be very cool to have the Doctor do it.

The day before the first night of Chanukah always seems to drag. We got there in the end though, but not before discovering my parents have four boxes of candles squirreled away in the cupboard, and not one as they first thought. Although one of them is white.

The usual fun ensued when lighting the candles, when mum suddenly popped up on messenger on dad's computer when he was in the middle of a prayer at the time. Then mum and my sister mainly spent the song laughing. Me and dad were doing a good impression of two people playing the same song entirely separately. He wanted to go quick, I didn't let him. At one point we were a whole note out, which certainly sounded interesting.

I got my dad The Uxbridge English Dictionary, which turned out to be good because he said only a few days ago that dictionary definitions was his favourite ISIHAC round (mine too). I got socks (which I needed but couldn't be bothered to shop for), Peacekeeper Wars on DVD (for when I next watch Stargate), another two cross stitches (I think I still have three to do apart from them), a little Hutch (from Wallace and Gromit) and four Lois McMaster Bujold books - one I haven't got to yet, the others I've read but do include the first two, which I like best.

Doctor Who was excellent. We listened to the commentary track this morning, which was also interesting. Dad got the Hitchhiker's reference before the Doctor mentioned it, my sister got the Lion King speech before the Doctor pointed it out. There were also definitely Star Wars and Independence Day bits in there. It was nice to see a big alien spaceship over London for a change and not The White House! And I did like Harriet Jones effectively telling the US President where to stick it.

Basically, I entirely agree with the review in The Guardian, and the Doctor is brillian when he wakes up and does his stuff. I'm really looking forward to the new series in the spring (as well as series 3 and the Christmas special next year, and Torchwood).

We've just got back from Narnia, which I really enjoyed. Peter's sword was absolutely beautiful - not quite up to Anduril's standard but that is quite difficult. I remembered nothing about Narnia except that it's at the back of a wardrobe, although my sister remembered more and told us over lunch. Some of it vaguely comes back to me now.

Just before the battle when Peter is riding up to the others me and mum were both wondering whether the unicorn's horn was stuck on or CGI'ed later. Which was probably not what we were supposed to be thinking at that moment!

First, there was Doctor Who on Children in Need; which was quite interesting. Although its only a month till the Christmas Invasion now. The funniest part was when Terry Wogan introduced it, saying it was exclusive - for all of three hours, anyway! Then he was easily spotted in Harry Potter, along with Roger Lloyd Pack (Trigger) and George from Drop The Dead Donkey. I enjoyed it, despite the length and the annoying under-12s who didn't shut up.

Yesterday, I got up early to collect money for Children in Need from people in cars waiting at the lights at the crossroads. It was actually not too cold, once you get going, although it did help that I ways wearing loss of layers. I then had the day off, so I went back at 12pm to stand in the sun (which was actually quite hot!) and collect more money.

I was really tired after that, but last night Merlin was curled up at the top of my bed looking smug and not leaving me any space to sleep in at all. Luckily, he doesn't mind too much being moved and was happy when I stuck bits of me under him. Once he settled down and stopped purring I actually slept well, although at 3am he wanted to go out and I discovered he'd been making me quite warm. And blocking my noise up. last night during Atlantis he'd made my eye itchy so I am definitely allergic to cats (I've lived with them all my life, so its probably safe to say I'm not that bad!)

The last few minutes - I wondered if they were going to do that. It makes me wonder at what point that was written and decisions were made etc. But once I saw the light on the hand, I knew.

But, I was actually, for the first time ever, scared of the [censored].

I still have a pink face - I think I must have got sunburnt. I didn't bother with the sun tan lotion because it wasn't that hot or sunny when I left and I thought I would be covered up. But my hood kept slipping, so my face was exposed. Never mind, it'll go back to its normal colour in a couple of days.

Because now I've seen the episode I want to watch Confidential (before I forget to watch it) and I can't because it's not up yet

Tonight's episode was good. I thought it was going to finish about halfway through though - it looked like they were all going to be in mortal danger which is pretty standard for Doctor Who cliffhangers. Also, I think I've got used to cross stitching again and now I can't watch anything without getting bored if I'm not cross stitching at the same time. While I was resting my thumb there were quite a few episodes of The Bill I didn't quite watch because I got distracted by the first set of adverts.

Back on the subject, I love Captain Jack. It's impossible to call him Jack, though, I suspect Pirates of the Caribbean might have something to answer for there. A question though - what was the programme he was in? They never told us the title. Is it something along the lines of What Not to Wear?

The internet is a wonderful thing: I've been finding out all sorts of things about the Doctor & Ace's story. Or stories, since there is more than one and they all differ. I realised why I love them. Partly because Ace is totally my role model as a child. Regardless of whether I actually saw it or not I definitely knew who the doctor was (Sylvester McCoy) and I knew who Ace was. So it's sort of like re-discovering my childhood.

And it's also their relationship. It's been interesting seeing how it is between the Doctor and Rose, and Captain Jack. But the one between Ace and the Doctor seems a bit like a father/child relationship to me. From what I've found she didn't know her father, hated her mother and pretty much had no time for authority figures. Okay, so she didn't always do what the Doctor told her (which is, after all, the role of the companion) but they looked after each other and worried about each other. They were certainly friends (when he introduces them he always says, 'my friend, Ace') but because she's so young I think it makes it a different slant on their friendship.

And I seem to love those sorts of relationships. Parent & child ones, whether not related or are related and are dysfunctional. So it explains Elrond & Aragorn, Clark Kent & his parents, Sydney & Jack, Sirius & Harry, Qui-Gon & Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan & Anakin.

Why can't all weekends be bank holiday weekends?

I had a good time this weekend. Saturday we had shots, cocktails, dinner at Nando's and lots of cleavage. And Annie freaking me out by ringing me and saying 'Are you my mummy?'. Which was very cool, but I'm so glad she didn't just put the phone down because mine didn't recognise the number and it probably would have been more scary. This was before Doctor Who as well.

I saw the first 20mins of Doctor Who Confidential, as the friend I was staying with has Sky. I don't really feel a need to watch the last 10. Although it was really strange to see the BBC3 logo so close to the corner of the screen - watching on the BBC website, it's in the centre.

I finally saw Kill Bill. There was more blood etc than strictly necessary, but then it is a Quentin Tarantino film. But I really enjoyed it, it was good.

We managed to spend an hour on Sunday afternoon cooking a fry up that ended up being breakfast, lunch and dinner combined, being as we ate at 3.30. Which is pretty much an essential component of a lazy weekend. I saw Superman, which was amazingly boring.

I also got to see the first series of Coupling. I was a bit sceptical about it but it was funny - it got funnier as it went on. Now I have to go back to see the rest.

I wasn't terribly impressed, in Comet and PC World, at their collection of DVD+Rs because they were all 8x. I've got a 16x DVD writer though! It's just as well I still have 22 left really. I will have to get some more over the internet, which at least saves carrying them.

I also went to the Tesco free from section which was bad because I now have chocolate muffins and chocolate cake. To add to my chocolate brownies and raspberry ripple ice cream from Waitrose (I had the chocolate before the raspberry ripple). And I still haven't finished my stamp collection bunny (it's quite bitter chocolate so it's taking a while - which is probably a good thing).

I have been good and updated my website, and more importantly, written up my Australia diary (beware of loading times, there are 46 photos on that page).

I am confused though, due to watching The OC and Enterprise on a Sunday afternoon (usually while doing other things). From the first episode of The OC, Ryan really reminded me of Trip Tucker. For no reason at all. But when I watch one after the other I can't quite get it into my head which character I'm watching.

I'm also very glad last night's Doctor Who was early because I got to watch it just before I went out. On the one hand I kind of don't want my phone to ring now - last night's episode was a bit scary. But I'd kind of like to ring someone and say 'are you my mummy?'. Which would only work on someone who'd seen it and had the right sense of humour. Or at least, my sense of humour. Which pretty much narrows it down to my dad.

I also have a big Enterprise rant. Or at least, an Enterprise fan fiction rant. NOTE: THIS RANT CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR POTENTIALLY EVERY EPISODE OF ENTERPRISE EVER. See, the thing is I've been reading some Enterprise fic recently (well, Trip/T'Pol) and it hasn't improved. I read some when the series first started and I was disappointed at the quality but it was a new series and a minority ship. So you'd think that four years later and a canon ship would help but it hasn't seemed to. Perhaps I've only found the bad stuff, I don't know, I would love to be disproved on this.

Admittedly, a lot of my problems with it are found generally in ship and slash. There's a lot of cutesy living happily ever after in there that you need a sick bucket to wade through. I checked the Star Trek Encyclopedia (which came free with one of dad's computer magazines) because I felt sure Spock was the first Vulcan-human hybrid and Sarek and Amanda the first inter-species marriage. Except that I couldn't find any evidence for this beyond a post on a message board where someone said that Gene Roddenberry always assumed this to be the case.

So, canon isn't entirely against Trip and T'Pol marrying and living happily ever after, it's just unlikely given the xenophobia on Earth (and Vulcans aren't too keen on hum

TV

I thought last night's Doctor Who was sad, but not sad enough to make me cry. It didn't help that Rose's eyes looked so black I couldn't help but wonder at the amount of make-up she was wearing when I should have really been being sad. And the Doctor's smiles are getting distinctly Avon-esque - I get worried when he smiles now.

I also saw the last ever episode of Enterprise. I got all nostalgic and actually sat through the theme tune without muting it, for possibly the first time ever since they changed it for the beginning of season 3. I enjoyed it, it made me cry. Although whether the episode was any good I can't tell yet - I wasn't expecting to miss Enterprise at all. It didn't help that it managed to make me miss Star Trek. Although as I haven't seen all of the original series, it's not finished yet.

Alias has been interesting although I can't quite work out whether Jack likes Sloane or hates him. It's all got a bit confusing.

Real life

I managed to stay up till 2.30am election night, which was just after my constituency, Mid Dorset and North Poole (I'll have forgotten what it's called in a few months) announced. It's gone from a 392 Lib Dem lead over Conservative to a 5000-odd lead, mostly from Labour. Although it's impossible to tell how much that was people switching allegiance and how much was tactical voting to stop the Tory getting back in.

Interestingly, the constituency I'm actually living in now has a 8000-odd Tory majority over Lib Dem. Up till now Labour and Lib Dem have been equal, but the Lib Dem's edged ahead this time. It will be interesting to see what happens in 4/5 or however many years time.

I also opened my presents and got: rabbit socks, chocolate bunny, rabbit cross stitch, a rabbit hot water bottle type thing and a photo album. And a contribution to my DVD writer, which arrived last week and is very cool. I wrote a CD on it in two minutes. I now have six CD players, three CD writers and three DVD players. And technically, a DVD recorder as I also have a TV card.

I'm in the process of writing up my Australia diary but it's going to take a while, as I also need to sort out the tenses in it, explain a few bits, put it into HTML and sort out some photos to go with it. And find some time to fit that all in.

I should really post this when I'm feeling more awake but I just won't get round to it otherwise. I'm tired because I've just been at Rotaract National Conference. Which was really good fun. Except for the lack of sleep part - that's the lack of sleep in the week preceeding it, not during.

I got up at 6.30am(!) on Saturday and failed to follow the instructions on how to get there. They mentioned a big roundabout - we found a big roundabout but sadly not the right one. So we drove round Bristol a bit, went round a few roundabouts more than once and eventually made it early. Which turned out to be handy because they let us go in for (second) breakfast. Where I put scrambled eggs on my plate because I realised that would not be a good idea and completely failed to find the toast. I was tired - it was still pre 10am at that point.

Anyway, Saturday morning there were Conference sessions. People spoke. Probably about something, not sure what. Wasn't really awake, oddly enough. I found biscuits with the coffee and biscuits I could actually eat but very nearly didn't have any lunch. One of the hotel employees seemed to think that cheese didn't contain milk. Which was a tad worrying.

In the afternoon we did a spot of karate and then were actually allowed to check in (yay!). At which point lying down sounded like a good plan while we watched Charmed, Buffy and made me a mask for dinner. I'd read the 'Masked Ball' part of the info and failed to read the word 'mask' at any point. It was just as well as they were trying to fine anyone who wasn't wearing their mask as we walked into dinner. At 7.30. We left the room before 7pm to avoid temptation. Although later in the night someone took wine¹ with anyone who considered, even for a minute, coming down to dinner late to watch Doctor Who. Quite an alarming number of people stood up but we were all very good and were actually there.

We were, though, on a table with nine girls and one bloke. Who was married. Which really was quite poor planning (we fined the person who planned it). Although the single men who stood up for take wine didn't look worth bothering with to me anyway.

I was so tired I was dead to the world at 12.30 (I didn't even hear my roommate come in or the big thunderstorm in the night), quite depressingly. 14 people made Wide Awake club, which although really hard is great fun and a good way to meet people.

Sunday was more conference sessions. I was still tired, even after eight hours sleep. Lunch was much better and we made the most of our free time by going ice skating. And getting lost in Bristol. We did make it back in time to finish off my roomate's fancy dress costume. The fancy dresses were interesting, as always, although was interrupted by the fire alarm (the thing that people took out first was their drinks).

I did dance in the disco, drink lots and stayed up till 1.30. I would have stayed up later but most people had gone to bed, from staying up late Saturday and having to drive the next day.

The Monday morning sessions were quite good. They consisted mostly of giving out awards. Our district did quite well out of them, and we won the anagram competition by being the only people to actually answer all ten questions. The auction was much funnier than most I've been to - the signed Colin Baker pictures ended up going to someone who didn't actually bid (Colin Baker being a Rotarian, hence the reason we had them).

We were let out on our own for lunch, which actually turned out to be quite stressful.

On the whole, though, I really enjoyed myself. It's always good to hear what other clubs get to up to, outside of our district. And talk to different people, some of whom I haven't seen for a year. Now I just need some sleep in preparation for Thursday.

¹ Take wine is where you pay �1 to take wine (ie stand up and have a drink) with a person, or group of people, at the conference.

I got back and watched Doctor Who. It was the second episode I didn't like. Warning: there is bit of a spoiler here

I really liked the Dalek, and admired the way it manipulated people and killed rather a lot in one go (didn't looke like 200 though). On the whole it just seemed a bit cliched and bored me, really. Anyway, I'd already had a Cyberman and a dalek this weekend (there are apparently photos of the dalek in bed with someone).

And Hitchhiker's. Warning: there are more spoilers here

I didn't like it. Although I did think it was a good film and there were definitely bits I liked, some old and some new. I liked Stephen Fry, I hated Trillian saying Zee Zee 9 Plural Zee Alpha, that's just not right. I'm not convinved Marvin sounded depressed enough and I didn't like his look - you couldn't tell how he felt from the suit. I actually quite liked Zaphod's second head and his third arm looked really real. I loved the little things they put in but didn't explain like the sign telling us Arthur lived in Cottington, the jeweled crabs, and never explaning why towels were so important.

I wasn't entirely convinced by the point of view gun until Marvin used it. I was really sad when it looked like he was dead, although I couldn't quite believe they'd done that. I liked Ayers Rock being painted and I thought Bill Nighy was a good Slartibartfast. I spotted Marvin in the queue and Simon Jones as the answer machine. I think they really missed a trick though when Slartibartfast (which really is a bugger to type) asked Arthur if there was anything he wanted changing and he looked out across the fields. I thought he'd say no, it's perfect and we'd get some Louis Armstrong. At least they had Journey of the Sorcerer, although not for long enough.

I can kind of see how they're going to do a sequel although not how they'll get Zaphod into it.

I am really looking forward to the radio series tomorrow, specially as they're actually putting it up after the first episode rather than the repeat, so I can listen to it when I get back from Rotaract rather than while I'm trying to eat and write the agenda. I listened to the trailer - there are some things in there I recognise from the books and some other bits I don't but sound like they follow on from the Secondary Phase.

I also had a look at the Serenity trailer. Which was quite impressive - I wasn't certain whether I wanted to see the film before I saw the trailer. Now I definitely don't want to see it. So good trailer there.

I have just booked tickets to see Hitchhikers tomorrow night. I've read a couple of reviews of it and neither were particularly excited, so I'm not expecting much. At the moment I can't stop seeing Martin Freeman as Vila - Blakes Junction 7 and Love Actually are the only things I've seen him in so far.

I was reminded at the weekend that Christopher Eccleston was in Shallow Grave. So I dug out my video and watched the beginning (I had to switch it off or I'd have wasted an evening watching the whole thing - it's a good film and I haven't seen it for a while). Now that I know he's not Scottish, I can spot his accent slipping. He looks completely different - the longer hair hides his ears. Although in all fairness it did come out eleven years ago, and Ewan McGregor looks completely different in it as well.

I found out at the weekend, as well, that he's only doing one series of Doctor Who. I am so behind on my news. So I watched Casanova, which was good, and I quite like David Tennent. So the news doesn't seem quite so bad.

I also decided I'd quite like to see Second Coming and some old Doctor Whos. I can't remember whether I've actually seen any Sylvester McCoy or merely knew it existed. Although he is, to me, The Doctor. And I'm going as Ace to Conference this weekend, so it would be good to see some stuff with her in.

So, I thought I'd go to the Blockbusters website, where you can rent DVDs by post. Except that you only can for some of them - ie the ones you'd find in the shop anyway. If you want anything elsse you have to pay per month. Which is the same on every other site I looked at. Trouble is, I'd never watch enough DVDs in a month to make it cheaper than buying them! So I am unimpressed by that.

In other news, I voted today. So anything any candidate does now cannot influence my vote as my envelope is sealed. I also had my presidents meeting on Thursday cancelled as it clashes with my birthday the election. So I am going to stay in, open my presents, play in the Dairyfree arcade and stay up until they announce Mid Dorset and North Poole.

(Tonights Bill was dire. I would say they've hit a new low but I feel sure it can get worse.)

Australia was fantastic. I will be writing it up and putting my diary on my website, along with some of my photos.

Meanwhile, I'm loving the new Doctor Who and the latest episodes of Alias that have revealed so much more about Jack.

I'm at home this weekend for Passover. At the moment, though, I'm watching Enterprise and writing this on dad's new toy. And I mean the writing part literally. Me and dad have discussed Hitchhiker's to death - I'm going on Thursday, he's going on Friday. It doesn't really matter what the reviews say it's not as if were not going to go. Me and mum have had a Peter Davison trivia session, which was started when we were trying to establish whether he did Doctor Who before or after All Creature Great and Small (it was after, but he'll always be Tristan to us).