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.

I went to London today. I thought I'd go to the big Tescos with the big Free From section at Earls Court. I walked out of the tube station at the main (TARDIS) entrance and then realised I hadn't been for a while and didn't quite remember where it was. So I took a guess and realised a bit further down the road how lost I get in London with a map and directions. Eventually I looked at the map and worked out a route to get there. After I'd walked a lot further than it looked like I should I looked at the map again and realised I still wasn't on the right route and in fact not only had I turned the wrong way out of the station but I had also gone out the wrong exit.

Eventually I got there, approaching it from an entirely different direction, only to find they've moved everything around. They also labelled their red grapefruit as pink and they didn't have chocolate buttons. However I passed a Holland and Barrett in my getting lost and went in just in case. They had three packets - I now have two left. Hopefully, some local Holland and Barretts will have some. But now I've had a packet I feel better. I just need Harry to shut up about the chocolate buttons and talk about Ruth instead. Or smarties, I have some packets of those.

I got the bus back to the tube station after that, and made my way to the British Museum. I'm gradually working my way through London's museums. This was one that was very badly signposted and I only found it because I thought the road with coaches parked on it was suspicious. I had a wander round all the ordinary boring museum stuff and thought it wasn't going to take me long to get round. Until I found the ground floor (I came in on floor -1, which was very confusing). They had a big room of massive statues and gates etc from the Egyptians and some other eras I can't remember. But they were all really impressive. And then I found a massive marble structure in another room. And then I found the Parthenon. I ended up spending two hours in there.

And then I got lost in the museum trying to find the cloakroom. It was a very confusing layout. I decided to go out the main entrance, on the basis that lots of other people were, and by following them I found Tottenham Court Road station. I went into the Sainsburys there on the off-chance and mixed in with their red grapefruit with a pink sticker on, were some that looked as if they might be pink. So fingers crossed for when I cut one open tomorrow morning.

I was home in time to watch SJA: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? For which there will now be spoilers if you're not up to date with the CBBC episodes.
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originally uploaded by paranoidangel.

I have finally uploaded my photos from Winspit from the bank holiday weekend.

Yesterday I went to Oxford to do touristy things. I usually go to shop, get the train or go to the pub and there are loads of touristy things I haven't done. I've written it up at the Wallingford Rotaract Blog so I'm not going to repeat it here.

I've been very remiss in not writing in here. And I should this week because I have nothing on. At all. Except for going swimming, probably on Wednesday, with my new prescription goggles, which is quite exciting.

Today I took my car for my first MOT & service. I've heard all sorts of horror stories of the amounts people have paid so I was expecting something horrid. When I went to pay, since the garage shuts before work finishes, my boss said he thought I'd be lucky if it was less than £200. It was £186. So far less than I was expecting, which is good. I haven't completely killed it in the year I've had it!

Yesterday I went to Birmingham to meet someone I know through The Bill fandom. I've only been to Birmingham a couple of times since they built the Bullring and it's completely confused me. We did walk all over the place, some of it in the rain. We found Forbidden Planet and where Toys R Us used to be and where the Lego shop used to be. The latter was particularly disappointing.

We did go to the BBC shop and studios, which was unexpectedly cool. They had some Shaun the Sheep stuff, which I didn't need. Upstairs you can see where they record The Archers and where people sit in the newsroom behind where they broadcast. They fit an amazing number of people into a small space by judicious use of flat screen monitors and tiny desks.

In the Bullring a thing was set up with trampolines that people could go on attached to bungee ropes. The trampolines weren't really for bouncing on, it was the ropes attached to them either side that made them bounce as high as the next floor. Later on, some girls were doing somersaults on them, which was quite cool. I feel sure that that sort of thing would have made me throw up.

I was quite impressed that I got a seat both ways - it doesn't seem to have occurred to Virgin trains that people might actually want to get on them. Well, no, that's not true. It's that people want to go in that direction and they're the only train company that do. They do tend to be on time more often these days, but instead they have fewer trains going to fewer places and with fewer carriages. On balance, I'm not sure that's a win.

I was in London yesterday for a friends birthday in the evening, so I decided in the afternoon to go to the V&A. It was a bit of a strange place because I came in on floor 0 and one flight of stairs up I was on floor 3. I decided to go and look at the musical instruments. Which was completely the opposite end from where I was. So I got lost, more than once. And went through the 20th century section, which was pretty much all the same stuff as anywhere else - ie radios from various years, that kind of thing.

The musical instruments were quite interesting, but it was really hot and there was an alarm constantly going off, which drove me mad. I tried some of the other historical stuff but it seemed mostly concerned with fashion, and even hotter. So I only spent an hour in there in the end, and am not really feeling the need to go back.

I'm very behind on my viewing - I now have Life on Mars, Doctor Who Confidential and David Tennant on Graham Norton to watch, as well as Smith & Jones commentary. And let's not mention two episodes of Lewis and three of Midsomer Murders. The trouble is TV watching requires being in and I just haven't.

This weekend was Rotaract District Conference (at the Rotary District Conference). Possibly I should have got more sleep in last week because I didn't get much at the weekend. It was good fun, though, to catch up with people I knew and get to know people I didn't. We nearly broke the dance floor Saturday night and had to move the disco to the other end of the room - which still made the CD skip when we all jumped.

There wasn't that much to see in Eastbourne and it looked like a typical seaside town, so Saturday afternoon I went to Brighton, being as it was only half an hour away on the train. Brighton I liked - it was much bigger than Eastbourne but really busy. The water was freezing - I put my hand in it.

By the time I got back on Sunday night I managed to stay up for an hour before going to bed. Then last night I went to Tescos and hit a pheasant on the way (I think it was a pheasant, it was big and brown and I can't think of anything else that would fit that description). It flew out in front of me and in the battle between pheasant and car it was a draw, since the pheasant was probably dead after that, and the grill on the front of my car, and the lights on one side are no longer as attached as they used to be.

Tonight I went to Rotary, to hear about Hong Kong and Macau from the GSE team. GSE stands for Group Study Exchange. A group of people are selected from here and from there, and they go to the other country to learn about that country and about their profession in that country. I'd never heard of Macao before, so that was interesting to find out about.

I did manage to see Doctor Who on Saturday night - live for a change, and for the first time for a series premier! There will be spoilers for that episode:
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I've had a good and bad day in London, so typical trip to London, really. By driving to the nearest train station I saved myself the stress of getting a bus but had the stress of driving and it cost me slightly more. It won't in future, now I know that it's a lot cheaper after 11am. I still managed to get lost though. In my defense I had been to the station once before, years ago. The case for the prosecution is a tad watertight, though, as I had a sat nav. I'd be fine if I just followed John Cleese's instructions.

I managed to be only 10 minutes late to meet Sel, which was entirely the tube's fault. And since Beth and Kate were later, that was very good. So I had a nice steak for dinner. Well, as nice as steak gets, since I don't really like it that much. I suspect the other people in the pub might have got entirely the right idea about us, though.

After a while I went to go to the ZZ9 AGM. I headed to Leicester Square tube station and ended up at Charing Cross. Which I couldn't have done if I'd tried, since it was in the right direction. I picked the wrong tube line to take, though, as I failed to get on a packed train and ten minutes later they told us someone had thrown themselves under a train at Camden so there weren't going to be any more. So in a choice of two, I picked the wrong one, as per usual.

I then managed to get lost in the tube station and got a train on the Bakerloo line going the wrong way. And then got lost in London Bridge station, as they seem to think that the first time they need to tell you which exit is for St Guy's Hospital is until you get there. And then I failed to follow the instructions to the pub I'd been to before. It always takes me half an hour to get anywhere in London on foot, from leaving the tube, and today was no exception.

It had been such a crap journey I had thought about not bothering and just going home. Which I should have done because they'd all buggered off by the time I got there. On the plus side, I discovered at Paddington at 8pm that there were no fast Reading trains after 9pm, so that was probably just as well. And I got home in time to wash off the smoky smell.

And I entirely should reply to some LJ comments and posts I have marked unread but hhertzof sent me the latest chapter of Unexpected, so I'm going to read that instead.

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'm feeling that I've achieved lots tonight. OK, so I haven't practised and haven't watched Doctor Who (in all fairness he's not in mortal peril and Jo isn't quite yet) but I've cleared up the mess of papers that were on my desk, my chair and my CD boxes, replied to various comments/reviews that I've been meaning to for ages, and updated the Rotaract blog and diary. I just reached the stage tonight where I thought about putting it off till the weekend then realised, given I've been putting it all off for ages, that there's no reason for me not to put it all off for ages.

I've also renewed my domain name - I've had it for nearly four years now, wow! Although Phil did decide to send the invoice to dad for some inexplicable reason.

Work is hideous. I thought today that I was actually doing quite well, so took my whole hour for lunch (rather than the half hour I'd taken the rest of the week). But over lunch someone decided to suddenly ask for a whole load of work. And by ask I mean tell. So now I'm ridiculously busy and am getting up early tomorrow to go in early.

I'm so looking forward to my holiday (no work for a week!). I'm quite enjoying that it's so much simpler, being in this country. I booked my B&B last week. At some point next week I ought to pack (which involves a mountaineering expedition under my bed to find my sandals for the black tie ball about the time Doctor Who debuts).

I have finally seen the last four episodes of Bugs. I signed up to one of those DVD rental things that give you a free trial for a month - so I must cancel it before Easter. I rang play.com last week and they are happy to replace my non-working DVD, I just have to send the whole thing back to them. Unless the company that make them will send me a new DVD. I just have to remember to ring them. And the student loans company who don't quite seem to have managed to send one of my deferment letters.

I got quite excited in Bugs, when in the second-to-last episode we saw Windows 98! In 800x600 resolution! It looked so old - except for the white flatscreen monitors. There was a particularly surreal part where Adam asks Alex what a gizmo is. She tells him it's an EMP generator. Which is fine except it's quite obviously a sonic screwdriver. It looks like one, Adam uses it like one.

And now I really must go to bed and try to finish the fourth introduction in my book (it's a good book, except the introductions are really dryly written).

I'm so used to my ridiculously big resolution this looks so big, I almost don't know how mum copes! I'm down for the Rotary District Conference, which was in Bournemouth this weekend, so I've taken a long weekend off and am staying with my parents.

I had a good time at the Conference - they had some good guest speakers. We could see Rotarians being entirely confused by us sitting at the foot of the stage eating bacon butties, though, as the District Chairman didn't tell them until the end of his talk. I had fun with the Rotaractors too, and we did come up with some publicity stunt and fund raising ideas in the pub! I'll be posting more about the conference on the Wallingford Rotaract website once I've got home and got my photos of my camera.

I've enjoyed watching the Commonwealth Games as well. I was quite amazed to see swimmers representing Jersey and Guernsey - there's probably more athletes from Australia taking part than live in the whole of Guernsey! But I heard last night that the Isle of Man had won their first medal in something like 20 years, so good on them.

I've discovered the Commonwealth fencing is in Belfast in September. I was thinking about having a holiday round about then anyway, so I'm going to go to that. I will have to get myself an England flag during the World Cup though, it won't do to have a Union Jack. I'm very tempted to go to the next winter games in Vancouver, too.

I've had a three and a half day weekend, which was very nice.

Saturday managed to be a bit of a disaster. I went to London to meet some friends for dinner. Someone threw themselves in front of a train at Acton, so it took an hour to travel the last ten minutes to London. Luckily, I wasn't in a rush and had my lunch and a good book with me, so I didn't mind too much.

I did the Earth section of the Natural History museum, which was mostly rocks which I found boring enough in Chemistry at school. There was an Earthquake simulation thing. I don't think it was set very high because there was a notice up saying that was as much stress as could be exerted on the relevant bits, but all the same it was quite freaky. And that was when I knew it was going to happen. It must be so scary to experience the real thing (I've slept through the tiny ones we've had here).

I also went to Camden as a friend of mine was always going on about the market there. It was a bit like the ones I went to in Melbourne and Sydney, only smaller and not as good. So I wasn't terribly impressed. I did find some mini eggs though, in the Holland and Barrett there, which was good.

Then I went to dinner and was ill. Luckily, I recovered enough to walk down the Mall and see Buckingham Palace (which I've never seen before). The Mall was interesting, but Buckingham Palace was just like you see on TV, so unimpressive. I had no idea they changed the guard more often than once a year though! I will have to go back in the daylight and see it.

Then, there were engineering works on the way home so it took an hour extra, which wasn't good as I was feeling ill again by then. And being ill tends to knock me out, so not getting to bed till 1.30am doesn't really go with that.

But I got all my jobs done yesterday, so I could do whatever I liked today. Which has so far consisted of sleeping for twelve hours (I feel so much better for it too) and generally not doing a lot. I did some more work on the Arathorn/Gilraen fic. Although that mainly consisted of actually reading through what I've done so far, deleting a couple of scenes and adding a few bits. With the result that it's now shorter than it was before I started.

I've got nothing on all week this week (in contrast to next week, which will be busy) so I'm going to try and be good and work on it a little bit every day. Or if not this fic, then another. Given that it's 10,000 words so far, is missing quite a few scenes, and is still very drafty, I reckon it could be 30,000 when it's done. Given that the longest thing I've finished so far is 5000 words, that would be quite impressive.

It's been so long since I last posted I can't even remember when it was or what I said. Although this is partly because I've been so busy at work I've been a bit stressed and my memory goes when I'm stressed. Which is a problem because I have a good memory, so I rely on it a lot.

I got halfway through watching the first half of Lost tonight and got bored. It didn't help that there had been about ten minutes worth of adverts in that time. And, strangely enough, nothing in it had changed since I saw most of it last autumn. So I'm taping the second half and will find out at some point where I got up to. I also think that watching it just before I got to bed is a stupendously bad idea. That is assuming I manage to stay away till 11pm. It's not looking likely at this point.

I had a good weekend, despite working ridiculous hours to have Monday off. I met up with Sel, Kate, Beth & Terry on Saturday. Terry and I rowed in the Serpentine. Although rowed is perhaps putting it a bit strongly in my case. I think there was more swearing than rowing going on.

Sunday I saw a couple of friends in the London Triathlon. If I hadn't known anyone in it it wouldn't have been so interesting, but as it was I really enjoyed myself.

After that I was off to Somerset for the annual trip to the Windmill. It was good to swim in the outdoor pool on Monday while everyone else in the office was at work.

The only trouble with the weekend (and in fact, most of them) is I get some intelligent conversation. Or dirty conversation in some cases. But it makes going back to work so much more difficult when the main topic of conversation is Big Brother, clothes, shoes and diets. None of which I have any interest in at all.

On the plus side the latest Atlantis was great. Mainly due to David Hewlett, who was fantastic. Stargate was equally funny but can't quite match McKay and [censored] doing [censored]. I want a screencap of it as my wallpaper. At work, of course. (Note to people watching it on Sky, this is the fourth episode called Duet. It will be obvious which bit I am talking about).

Today I went to the Blakes 7 series 2 DVD launch. I got the first bus from here to anywhere and ended up taking four hours to get to the actual place. I was very good at just missing trains, mind you.

First, we saw Blake's Junction 7, which was really funny. The only minor flaw was that it had Johnny Vegas in, who I hate. But regardless, his scene was still very good. I have a postcard from it, and if I stand at the other end of the room they could easily be mistaken for the original cast.

There were seven cast members there, and some back scene people as well. I'm quite impressed that I printed out the photo I took of the cast on photo paper. Admittedly, it's dark in the middle, and has someone's head in the way, but it's a start.

The cast, from l-r: David Jackson (Gan), Michael Keating (Vila), Peter Tuddenham (Orac, Zen, Slave), Gareth Thomas (Blake), Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan), Jan Chappell (Cally), Brian Croucher (Travis II)

Brian Croucher has apparently been in lots of episodes of The Bill - he's into double figures. I only remember the one though. I also spoke to Gareth Thomas, but I can't reveal our conversation until 28th January in case my mum reads this.

I then went to Oxford Street - the best time to go is as the shops are closing. I thought I'd get a bus to Harrods and ended up walking to Selfridges (from the nearest tube station this time) so took a photo of it all lit up:

I eventually managed to get myself on a bus and get off at the right stop. I couldn't be bothered to walk far enough to one end of Harrods to get as good a picture though:

I only really went in to look around and go to the toilet - which were like a posh hotel's. I followed signs to the Egyptian Hall, because I couldn't work out what it was, and ended up walking round with my mouth open. It looks like an Egyptian themed hotel in Vegas (although not the Luxor, because that's a pyramid). The Egyptian escalators, even more so. Although they were normal escalators, just with Egyptian ceilings and statues around.

I got completely lost trying to get out, until I found a map anyway. I also got off the bus at Hyde Park Corner instead of Marble Arch. Which is a complete pain by tube. I remember when I first went to London I used to get lost coming out of the tube stations - when I got off the train all I could do was follow everyone else. So I've improved a bit but I think I'm always going to get lost in London. The trouble is it all looks the same!

I went on holiday to London last weekend. I am so tired now though, that last night I had ten hours of sleep and I'm going to go to bed soon so I can get another ten hours tonight. I had forgotten how knackering holidays are.

I started off nice and gently and met a friend for lunch, wandered from Covent Garden to Tottenham Court Road and eventually checked into the hostel in the middle of the afternoon. The instructions to get there seemed simple enough - turn left out of the tube station and it's 50m away. Having tried the two left turnings I finally spotted the right road sign and found the place. Turned out it was across the road, turn left, turn right and it's 50m on the left. Which is not quite the same.

It turned out to be a lot bigger than I thought as well. The fun part was making my bed. I was on a top bunk so you have to be on the bed the whole time you're putting the sheet on the mattress. Which was a bit of a trial. As was getting up and down to the bed itself. Getting back into the centre of London I managed to catch up with a load of people coming from a Chelsea game. From which I'm guessing that their football ground is on the District line, possibly close to Earls Court, but it could be anywhere really.

I was going to go to the Natural History Museum but wasn't going to get in before they closed. So I went and visited the Australian shop on the way. Having seen a sign at Embankment tube station to say Covent Garden was walkable from there, I thought I'd do that. I didn't even get lost! I went past the Canadian pub and the Australian pub on the way as well. I loved the Australian shop though - they had so much food there! I now have some dark chocolate TimTams, which are the only ones Tescos haven't sold so far. I was hoping mum might be able to eat them but they have milk and milk chocolate in. I haven't tried them yet - I need my chocolate to be cold first.

Since pretty much the only thing left open by that time were the shops, and I'd been in that direction earlier in the day, I was fairly sure I might be able to make it to Oxford Street without getting too lost. As it turned out I went in the opposite direction. Which counts as not too lost when it comes to me and London. I ended up walking all the way up Oxford Street to Marble Arch. Which is a long way. I did get my mum and sister birthday cards - necessary to do a long time in advance otherwise the only cards you can get are Valentines day. You're obviously not supposed to have a birthday anywhere near the 14th February.

I didn't have the energy to do anything in the evening. The hostel had a DVD cinema and were on the second half of the theatrical Two Towers by the time I got there. The seats they had I can't quite explain but were really comfortable. I could have quite happily fallen asleep if it wasn't for the orcs making noise - and seeming to make the floor vibrate. I saw a bit of the Jerry Springer opera in the TV room. Every time they sung I couldn't quite make out all the words so I had no idea of the plot really. The part of the first half I saw was fine because it was a take-off of Jerry Springer. The second half got weird though, so I ended up going to bed. Which was going to be an early (or at least not too late) night but ended up being 12.30.

The annoying thing about the hostel was that they had a 10am check-out time. And nothing opened till 11! I did some more walking (ie getting lost trying to find Tescos and then finding out they didn't open till 11 either). And I walked past Harrods (they didn't open till 12). I managed to get two hours in the Natural History museum. I did all the bits I wanted to in the Life section though - although since this was Human Biology, a tiny Evolution exhibit, and similarly tiny primate one, they didn't really tell me much I didn't already know.

Then I met up with some Rotaractors at Somerset House (which I ended up walking past, then walking back past because they didn't really want you to know how to get to the rink - I only found it by accident) to go ice-skating. I did up my boots too tight - which I do every time - but once I got that sorted I enjoyed myself. The only trouble with it was that there were so many people and such a small rink that it was really hard not to crash into people, or fall over them. I only ever learnt how to skate forwards - learning to stop never seemed necessary (that's what the barriers are for). An hour was just right though, so you could skate the whole time and not hurt too much afterwards.

There are still loads of things I need to do in London, so I will have to go and do it all again. And do the same thing in other places - although for longer if they're further away. I remember losing half a stone when I went to Eastern Europe (which was significant because my jeans fell down so far I kept walking on them) because we did so much walking. Perhaps it's just as well I'm planning to get buses between cities in Australia - if I stayed in one place I wouldn't be able to keep up with the pace! I need a holiday to get over my holiday - I went to work for the rest.

I have actually finished the php book (well, skim read a fair part of the last few chapters). But more importantly I have actually done something useful with it. Although the entire point of me learning php was to be able to modify my guestbook and I haven't even looked at it yet.

This afternoon I need to go into Poole to do some Australian shopping. I like being able to come back and shop in Poole because of all the cheap/independent shops that you just don't get in Oxford or Reading. Plus they have an MVC, which may or may not be a good thing.

I have managed to spend lots of money this morning though. On the one hand, ABE Books is a great site. Except for the part where it's very good at parting you with your money.

The other thing I did was book myself into a hostel in London - which my dad found by reading a Canadian Warwick students blog, and she stayed there and liked it. I've stayed in hostels before in Eastern Europe but not on my own, so this'll be a chance to see what it's like before I do it in Australia. Plus I'm going open-air ice-skating on the Sunday, and it's a bugger to get to London (or anywhere) on a Sunday because there are so few buses. So if anyone's around in London on 8th Jan, I'll be about. No idea what I'll be doing, but a pub sounds like a good idea.

Although having established getting to London on Sunday is a bugger, I'm doing that the following weekend instead, because I'm going to the B7 DVDs launch. Although not actually buying the DVDs, because much as I'd like to, I can't afford them.