I'm all yay! at the moment because I just drove to bowling in Oxford and back. I even had quite a good score in the first game, it all fell apart after that. But driving home was the first time in a long time I've driven in the dark - it's quite scary because you can't see very far! And I used the full beams for the first time ever in my life. And only forgot to turn them off once - after being really paranoid about turning them off in time.

And I put Dream up on Teaspoon just before the weekend and got some really nice reviews, so I'm feeling good about that. Although less so about my whofest thing which has to be done by Thursday. I've been really bad at proscrastinating on it and it now needs more work than I really have time for. Which isn't good.

Work, though, looks like being really busy this week. Could have done with it being five days really!

I kept reading today that Pluto is no longer a planet which confused me because I thought they'd alreay decided there would be 12 planets in the solar system (with the addition of Ceres, Charon and Xena). But I must have read something that just said that's what could happen and I liked the idea. So, I reserve the right to have 12 planets in my solar system, rather than 8, so there. *sticks tongue out*

I'm quite tempted by the sg-rarepairings ficathon as it includes all pairings that aren't Sam/Jack, Jack/Daniel, Shep/Weir, McKay/Shep. Which doesn't rule out most Atlantis pairings I'll quite happily read. I know the 11th December deadline looks a long way off but it won't be by the time assignments are out and I'm distracted by something else.

I also had a drive tonight, with my landlady's boyfriend, who was really good to drive with. The roads were quiet, which was good. I was thinking I might just about manage to go round the block but we actually went through town then round it on the bypass and it went okay. So I might well drive to bowling on Tuesday (with a new Rotaract member who is training to be a driving instructor).

I've also been playing with my sat nav. Not only do I have John Cleese's voice on it, but the daleks too. Not that you can really understand their instructions but it works for entertainment value. And Sel, you're right, it can't find your house. It manages your postcode but gives me another road and then refuses to deal with house numbers. So I'll be able to get in the vicinity of your house for Peg2, then there might be some ringing of your house to tell whoever answers John Cleese can't find it

I'm all excited now! I'm off to Banbury this weekend - it's a big Rotaract camping weekend, so I'm going up for the day today and tomorrow. Tomorrow is the Conference bid, so I have been told I have to be there Tonight they are having a big Christmas party - which is their theme. Don't ask.

But it's a bank holiday weekend, yay! Except last one till Christmas Monday I'm going to defrost the fridge, do my monthly backup of the whole computer and clean my room. Wow, don't I live an exciting life.

I have a car instead. Well, all I've paid for is the insurance and a sat nav. I'm so looking forward to understanding the cost of petrol and the fun of services and MOTs next summer. And trying to understand the lights, the fan thingy, the windscreen wipers (ok, they're simple) and de-icing. To say nothing of cleaning and painting related activities. Why is owning a car so complicated? It's very strange to see dad's car parked outside my house, though, that's not right.

If only I could drive it... I need to convince people to let me take them round the block in it. I did get dad to take me to Tescos before he left, which was just as well because they've moved my milk to the highest shelf possible, then stacked it up. So there was no way I was going to be reaching that.

I hurt from swimming yesterday as well. I discovered just how much my arms ached when I started my driving lesson this morning. Yesterday I just felt really tired and couldn't be bothered with anything. I have got a bit more done today, though. Except when I looked at the clock on my computer and saw it was 21.39. How did that happen? Where did the weekend go and do I really have to go back to work tomorrow?

The trouble with going away is that I forget how crap the network at work is. Plus our IT guy is away, which is a signal to it to go completely screwy.

On Friday I cut my nails (a sad pre-requisite) and got my guitar out for the first time in a couple of months, I think. This was on the basis that no-one was in to hear how much worse I'd got for not practising, plus I wanted to try and calm down a bit before my driving lesson. The latter worked and after a bit I wasn't too bad. I'm forcing myself to get back into a routine of practising straight after dinner and tonight I was back up to where I was before.

I had a conversation with dad about this at the weekend. I keep thinking that driving should really not be that hard because so many people can do it - and some of them really are complete idiots (most of whom I seem to meet when trying to cross the road). But on the other hand an awful lot of people seem to be able to play the guitar and that's hard. Dad did point out that they've had many years of practise - and if they can't play you don't get to hear them in public. In all fairness, a greater percentage of the population can drive than can play the guitar.

It didn't help that I discovered that I can't play and sing at the same time. Not being able to talk and play at the same time I'm fine with because I could never do that while playing the organ and I learnt that for ten years. But the singing thing is a problem because I can't get enough space to breathe probably. And if I hold the guitar further away from my chest I can't get my hand round enough. I much prefer playing tunes anyway.

I posted the latest part of my longest fic I've written ever last night: Dream a Little Dream part 2

And a meme that I've seen in at least two places this evening:
Read more...

I liked it, it was fun. And it had more guest stars I've heard of than you can shake a stick at: that guy from Hustle (who's also apparently going to be in Life on Mars, yay!), the girl who was Moaning Myrtle and one of Bridget Jones's friends, and Moya Brady (Robbie Cryer - it seems like forever since she left). And Peter Kay, who I've heard of but not seen in anything. I keep thinking I hate him but then remember I'm getting him mixed up with Johnny Vegas, whose scene in Blakes Junction 7 is fabulous but makes me cringe because it's Johnny Vegas.

So, on balance I haven't had enough sleep.

In today's driving lesson I only stalled the car twice, which is an improvement on last week. I also failed to find fifth gear on all but one occasion (the first one, bizarrely). And I still can't do junctions. So, as long as I don't have to drive anywhere that involves changing roads, I'll be fine.

There was also tennis today, yay! Two good matches, hopefully tomorrow's final will be good too. Only a week till Wimbledon, and three weeks till I go there.