I know I haven't seen the Coca Cola ad yet, which is usually my signal to do this, but it is getting close to that special time of year, and to balance the angst/jolly ratio of my LJ, here’s my now-traditional list of things I would like for Christmas!

• Bonnie Langford back on the West End. PLEEEEEEEEASE. Or at least in something in the UK.
• Moondreamers stuff!!!!!
• A pie tin. For the making of pie.
• A writing career!
• The entire contents of Dress Circle, Forbidden Planet and Waterstone's. And a flat big enough to put them in.
• For Doctor Pulaski to get some GODDAMN RESPECT. And more fic. With Deanna in.
• To be able to travel more next year than I have this one

iPod's on shuffle... you know how it goes... for the easy ones, extra points for getting the right version/performer!

1. I am not your senorita, I am not from your tribe Raspberry Swirl, Tori Amos Guessed by ladyvivien
2. I’m only happy when it rains Garbage, I'm Only Happy When it Rains, Guessed by silly_cleo and trialia
3. Billy Ray was a preacher’s son Dusty, Son of a Preacher man, guessed by silly_cleo and trialia
4. All the things you said to me today changed my perspective in every way Dreaming my Dreams, the Cranberries, guessed by 3_fries_short (sort of) and trialia
5. I was searching down a one-way street
6. Hit me with a hot note, and watch me bounce Hit me with a Hote Note, Bonnie Langford, guessed by silly_cleo
7. You must be mistaken, it couldn’t have been, you couldn’t have seen him yesterday Take That Look off Your Face, Song and Dance guessed by ladyvivien (but it was Bernadette!)
8. When darkness falls, leaving shadows in the night, don't be afraid, wipe that fear from your eyes Run With Us, Lisa Lougheed, guessed by carawj
9. Feels like I’m standing in a timeless dream I Love You Always Forever, Donna Lewis, guessed by trialia
10. Clouds descending, I’m not policing what you think and dream
11. We are not together here, though we lie entwined Between, Vienna Teng, guessed by trialia
12. I must go on standing, you can’t break that which isn’t yours Regina Spektor, Apres Moi, guessed by trialia
13. Holiday quiet on these streets, except for some stubborn leaves Carbon Leaf, What about Everything? guessed by silly_cleo
14. You can tell from the scars on my arms and the cracks on my hips Girl Anachronism, Dresden Dolls, guessed by ladyvivien and trialia
15. Live in my house, I’ll be your shelter RENT, I'll Cover You, guessed by silly_cleo and trialia
16. I have got so much to give, I swear I do Barking at the Moon, Jenny Lewis, guessed by carawj
17. On the floors of Tokyo, down in London town's a go-go Billy Idol, Dancing With Myself, guessed by silly_cleo and carawj
18. You got me running, going out of my mind
19. I want a little sugar in my bowl
20. Once I found a stowaway upon my ship on Christmas day The Stowaway, Doctor Who ST, guessed by silly_cleo

deccaboo and Patrick are staying with us! In preparation for seeing Nation tonight! It are exciting! I wish I could have taken some time off work to actually hang out with them during the day, but this is still fun!

At the weekend, carawj, silly_cleo, myself, Sasha, Josh and 55,000 other people went to the firework display in Alexandra Palace. It was shiny. Like, super shiny.

In addition to that there was a party and a write-in and a movie and all sorts of things, and life in general continues very busy! Off to Nottingham this weekend, muchly looking forward to it, but also really looking forward to the next weekend where currently there is nothing on the calendar. Would really like it to stay that way.

Phew!

Bit of a manic weekend – it just didn’t seem to stop!

Friday night was fun. carawj, silly_cleo and I watched the whole of The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, and squeaked and cried and jumped up and down like idiots. Then we fetched chips and poked youtube for pretty much the rest of the evening!

Saturday was mostly taken up with getting Halloween costumes ready – I went as Dr Quinn: Medicine Woman, and carawj went as Ace! Also silly_cleo went as Rainbow Zorro, which was the best EVER. She came over to ours to get ready, and Maxine came for dinner too, and then we went for Halloween karaoke with jenepel(Elphaba) and lazyclaire (Boggart Snape), which was such fun because it was the kind where you get a room to yourselves so there aren’t strangers looking at you funny, and you can just enjoy yourself without it having to be a performance.

We had to have a few drinks first for the confidence, and then we had a few after as a reward, and then we eventually staggered home and had chips again (oops!). There was much drunkenness. I won’t say who was the most drunk, but it was carawj.

Yesterday was like three days smooshed into one – we went to meet Manda for dim sum (we waited aaaaaages to get in but it was totally worth it), then we went to a NaNo write-in at Waterstones Piccadilly (I decided to be a bit of a rebel and try to make the word count, but finishing off some of my projects that I’ve left hanging instead of starting something new. I need a push sometimes, and I find write-ins quite helpful. I’m already behind, though!), and then we went to visit carawj’s dad and stepmum and little sisters, and we heard about their holiday and played Guitar Hero and it was fun and nice!

Then we trekked most of the length of the Piccadilly Line home, and made a desperate attempt to catch up on all the stuff that needs doing on a Sunday evening, I belatedly updated the website, we collapsed in a heap, and six hours later we were up again.

Aaaaargh. Why aren’t weekends longer?

When carawj and I first moved into our flat, we got all of the books we'd brought out and put them in a big pile on the floor to see exactly what we had, and then arranged them on the shelves, and, as if by magic, we had pretty much exactly the right number of books for the shelf space we had.

Ten minutes later, we found the other boxes of books that we'd missed. 'Oh well,' we said, 'it's not as if we've completely run out of shelf space...' - so that was fine, and some of the books had to be in piles instead of arranged nicely with the spines showing, but you can't have everything in this world...

So then a couple of weeks later we went for lunch at carawj's mum's place, and we absolutely had to pick up some of the mountains of books still there, so we figured, well, that top shelf is piled pretty high, but it doesn't look too precarious, it could go higher.

This weekend we visited ladyvivien and she took us to an awesome second-hand bookshop... oops. (There was also much tea and a museum, hurrah!)

We've now started piling books along the living room wall. I have visions of us ending up like those people who just have piles and piles of stuff and have to carve corridors through it and eventually get crushed to death by an avalanche of Doctor Who tie-ins and old textbooks...

But what a way to go, eh?

Ok, ok, I suck at the internet... and communication in general, lately, sorry guys. And I know I keep saying this in each of my sporadic postings, but I'm really going to try harder now to keep up with LJ. I haven't been at all, though, for months, so if you've said stuff I should know, link me!

( Updates about me )

*waves*
Yup... still here... just busy, and DISTRACTED BY THE FACT THAT carawj IS MY GIRLFRIEND ZOMG.
Um... yeah.
Work is boring, I am tired, but life is good!
Anyone see the Dalek that got pulled out of the bog today?
And should I get a haircut?
And, I renewed my paid account at last, and it turns out I have space for like 109 icons, but I deleted all of mine while I was on basic account to make room for a Bonnie icon... so... what icons should I have?

So, carawj and I started a community all about Bonnie Langford:

bonnielangford

Because she's a terrific performer and lovely and awesome and there wasn't one already!
So please, if you're a fan of Bonnie for her singing, acting, dancing or skating, join up! It'll be fun, I promise!

Well, everyone else is doing it... and I wasn't going to, but I was told to. :P
So, without further ado:

( 25 Possibly Slightly Interesting Things About Me... )

Yes, I suck at updating/keeping in touch/the works. I will update properly sometime but today is not the day.
However, if you give me a fandom and a prompt (a pairing, a word, whatever) I'll write you a drabble! Available to all comers!

A few brief messages:
seti_fan - Your parcel arrived but I won't be at my Dad's for another couple of weeks, I'll pick it up then! Thank you a million! One is winging its way to you!
penguin2 - I miss you! Hugs!
ladyvivien - You = Awesome

So, I had a really boring day at work, and I was all cross because I had a sore throat, and no money to buy lunch with, and it's cold where I sit, and all these silly things.
But I was quite looking forward to going to see Mandy Patinkin in concert with sashavangenius this evening. So I was glad when work was over, and I went to Leicester Square to meet Sash, and we went to collect our tickets from the box office, and then went outside to work out what to do until the show, and coming out right behind us was only ELISABETH FREAKIN' SLADEN. I was stunned! Then she went past, and I flailed like an idiot to Sash...
We saw her a couple of times over the course of the evening, but I was a bit too shy to say anything, plus she was on an evening out and I didn't want to be pushy, especially since I've already met her at a few events. It was different the time with David Tennant because he doesn't ever do conventions, so I knew I had to seize my chance! (Incidentally, that was in the very same theatre, the Duke of York's! Spooky, eh? Next time I go there, I'll be disappointed if I don't see one of my favourite Doctor Who stars!)
So that was exciting, and it was a good concert anyway, and Sash got her Sunday in the Park DVD signed by Mandy Patinkin at the stage door afterwards, so we were both happy.
And then, when I got home, my new Bonnie Langford CD was waiting for me, even though it wasn't supposed to be delivered until mid-February. Hooray!

1. OMG, how hot was Penelope Wilton back in the day? http://community.livejournal.com/dw_daily/16860.html
2. Yesterday was the Sarah Jane gang trip to the panto - the Sladen herself was magnificent, the rest of the show was... well, I've trashed it here: http://girladventurer.blogspot.com/2009/01/peter-pan-comparison.html Although actually I don't like some of the sentences in there, I might go back and edit... Anyway, the show wasn't much cop but I still had an awesome day!
3. Colin Baker should drag up more often. Not that I like it or anything.
4. I've had a weird sore throat for over a week now, and I'm starting to wonder if it might be tonsilitis or something.
5. Weekends are much too short.
6. Mum Update: She's finished with chemo for now, which is nice. She's on some hormone treatment that makes her legs act weird but is otherwise much easier, apparently. So we're waiting to see how that goes but it sounds like her doctors are quite pleased with her progress.
7. Must remember to give blood. Ooh, but if this sore throat is actually something, I might not be allowed... Well... I'll leave this sentence anyway to remind me later.
8. I need a Bonnie icon! It's ridiculous that I don't already have one.
9. Going to see Mandy Patinkin in concert on Tuesday, Sash got tickets! But aargh, it clashes with my piano lesson! Oops...
10. There is no number ten.

1. Sorry for long absence and rubbishness! Soon I shall catch up - I owe lots of people comments and long emails, and you shall get them!
2. Work very good but hardcore! The girl who usually does BBC2 isn't in this week, so I've been doing loads of her stuff. Good for me! Also, got shouted at by a BBC scheduler today! I feel I'm going up in the world. It totally wasn't my fault, though.
3. Commute is killing me slowly. Especially waiting in the cold at Acton Town for the horrible, mean District Line. Can't quite believe that I am daily spending three hours on the tube.
4. New Year was great. Went to bunnyvon's. It was really great to see all the girls and hang out over the holiday. Miss you guys!
5. Saw Bonnie Langford in panto on Monday with carawj. OMG!! It was so thrilling! We went to the stage door and I took Jazz at the Theatre to get signed, but when Bonnie mentioned it I just stood there like a freak instead of telling her how I've been listening to it non-stop since Sash got it me for Christmas. I am such a dork. And I'm usually quite calm in the presence of awesomeness.
6. Going to see La Sladen in panto on Sat! Exciting! Both this and the Langford panto are Peter Pan, so carawj and I will be in a good position to compare...
7. Found a sandwich shop near work that does a cheese ploughman's on white!! That's it, I can never leave Ealing now.
8. Have been salivating over shelves and sofa beds on the Ikea website. Watch this space for pictures of my shiny new room, come payday.
9. Having my first proper piano lesson on Tuesday evening! Yay!
10. I want pie.

( Grumbling )

( Pleasantness )

In about two weeks time, I will be even more similar to Sarah Jane Smith than I already am...
Yes, apart from being quite short, sarcastic and afraid of heights, I now have a writing job in Ealing, and make a living from the BBC!

Yes! I got that awesome job!!
Ok, so writing TV listings for EPG and iPlayer isn't quite the same as being a journalist. And I won't actually be directly working for the BBC, but for another company that works for them, but I will still be writing exclusively BBC listings, so it's almost the same.
I can't believe I'm going to be able to say that I work in TV! And that I make a living out of writing. Ok, so, it's not in production, and it's really more editing and proofing and summarising than real writing, but still. It's a really good start!
I've been waiting on tenterhooks all week, and they finally called me last night, just as I was on my way in to work at the theatre, so I didn't have time to squee to anyone about it!! And then I was on the downstairs bar by myself, and the crowd was one of those annoying ones that won't leave even when you put all the lights on and start really obviously clearing everything up...
So it was quite late by the time I got out, but Justin said I could have a free drink upstairs, and there were still a few staff round who'd been on the upstairs bars, so I had a glass of wine to be sociable... And then Kayleigh got another pint, so I got another glass of wine... and then another...
I came home on the night bus at about three. Kayleigh, Lorraine and Justin were still going strong when I left. And now I'm up for work and I still feel kind of a bit drunk... And I've got to go into the office and tell them I'm quitting...
Have a nice weekend, everybody!

Yes, I've seen the Christmas Coca Cola advert! And as everyone who grew up in the 90s knows, that's how you can tell that it really is nearly Christmas. Which means it must be time for my usual Christmas Wishlist!

Dear Father Christmas,

I would like:

* Theatre tokens and book tokens
* To be published, somewhere
* Something approaching financial stability
* For Bonnie Langford and Annette McLaughlin to appear in Chicago together. Or for Bonnie to just do Chicago again full-stop. Or, failing that, anything else involving Bonnie!
* A sofa
* A million more seasons of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
* Lots of pie
* To go back to Kitezh next year, and maybe to Australia again, and the US
* Health, wealth and happiness for all of my loved ones. I know it's cheesy, but it's true!

Stuff in my head:

* Happy birthday Els! Hope you had a wicked time.
* Urgh I feel so ill. I've been trying to shake off this horrible cold all week, and I just feel so drained and limp and fuzzy. Had a funny turn on the tube this morning, the Piccadilly line is very airless. I know that it's my own fault really for working too much and eating rubbish at stupid times of day. Day off tomorrow. I think I shall have a long lie-in and just lounge around the house. Maybe tidy my room a bit. I rearranged it and it looks good, but very messy.
* On Wednesday I interviewed for an amazing job. I should hear this week. Please cross your fingers for me if you have a second to!
* Today was the Elisabeth Sladen, Tommy Knight, Daniel Anthony signing at Borders! It was a terrific day. I did badges! There was food! I gave The Sladen a letter that some of my Kitezh kids wrote her. Other cool stuff. Possibly longer post later.
* Really missing Kitezh lately, actually. Feeling a bit emotional about it.
* I am sort of worried about Christmas. Fear it will be all forced jollity and people going off to cry in corners. Also, I have no money for presents.
* I don't like having two jobs. It makes me feel like I'm always rushing. Again... hope I get this one I interviewed for t'other day. It's in Ealing! Which, shockingly, looks nothing like TV-Ealing, since TV-Ealing is actually Cardiff...
* Oh self, stop moaning! You live in London, you have your own (small) steady(ish) income, your friends are great, the SJA is on every Monday, and your hair is cool. Blessings. Count 'em.
* In fact, self, why are you still up? It's half three! Being crazy-wired for no apparent reason is not a good enough excuse.
* Love and hugs to Penguins and associated persons!

( Of interest only to Doctor Quinn: Medicine Woman fans... )

Had a very full few days!

1. On Friday, Sash and I went to a Q&A with Joanna Lumley. Oh my gosh, she is so cool. I mean, I always liked her as an actor, and I really respect all the stuff she's doing for the gurkhas, but oh, in person, she's so marvellous! Very friendly and sweet, full of useful advice for the actors who made up most of the audience, absolutely hilarious and an excellent speaker all round.
2. The act at work this weekend was a guy called Hans Teeuwen, a Dutch comedian. He's not quite like anything I've ever seen before, and he's terrific. There are some clips of him on YouTube but they're mostly in Dutch, unfortunately for me!
3. Thinking of spending a couple of days in Wales this weekend. Which means, because I'm working Friday night (until 1.30, eep!), that I'll have to go first thing on Saturday morning, and come back last thing Sunday night, for work on Monday morning. Ooh, or, if I ask work nicely, maybe I could work Monday afternoon instead of morning, to have an extra night at home... time to start sucking up, methinks...
4. I've barely been in the house all week, and my room is still a tip. How does this happen? Big tidy-up today.
5. I got a lovefilm free trial, and got By the Pricking of my Thumbs to watch Bonnie Langford (she was great!), and ended up unexpectedly falling a bit for Greta Scacchi - I definitely prefer Tuppence Beresford as a lonely alcoholic, is that wrong?
6. I also got Trial of a Timelord for the commentary - I would like to marry Colin Baker now, please. He may not be as pretty now, but he's so clever and nice and wonderful!
7. I wish there was such thing as a West End Theatres season ticket. If that existed, I wouldn't mind not having any money. Well, I would... but not very much. There's so much stuff coming up that I want to see. Hopefully by Christmas I'll be able to afford at least a couple of things!
8. Hope everyone has had a nice weekend!

OK, I'm blogging from work, bad me...
So, I was opening the post just now, and I found an invoice from the temping agency for my services...
It's ridiculous! The agency are getting basically twice what they're paying me - I mean, I know they're obviously going to take some for their stuff, or they wouldn't make any money, but seriously, they're making as much out of my work as I am?
This makes me more tempted to go for the permanent position that I'm currently filling in for - because obviously I should be in for a pretty big pay rise if I got it...
Hmm.
Actually, I can't believe what I do is worth that much money. They're crazy! I wouldn't pay that much for me...

Feeling considerably cheerier and less dramatic today!
Partly because I've got a temping assignment and some shifts at the theatre - I feel a bit safer. And also, the temping assignment is the same really nice one I was on before I left (the girl they had in the interim was rubbish, haha!) and so I feel a lot less like going away to Wales just threw all my London stuff upside-down. Finances are still a bit wobbly, but hopefully I can get things back on track.
I just need to accept that this is going to be a weird time, and make the best of it.

A challenge for you, flist: I need to find a song about a woman who is ditzy/annoying, but secretly awesome. Upbeat would be best. Some of you may guess what I need this for... Any suggestions gratefully received!

It shouldn't be exhausting to psych myself up to answer one LJ comment.
Sometimes I feel like, if I post something, anything online, it tells the world that I'm awake, and then people will want me to do things. And then I get weirdly afraid and don't answer my emails for days.
I feel like the only reason I'm still going right now is because nobody has told me to stop.
Things aren't nice in my head at the moment.
Bizarrely, one of the things keeping me going is Bonnie Langford. At times of stress my obsessions get more... obsessy. Nice to get away from the real world, I guess. And at the moment it's all about Bonnie.
Deep breaths. I know it's going to be all right. I just wish it was all right now.
Right. Early night. Big Finish audio. Fresh start in the morning.

I'm back in London!
When I got into Euston I was so happy I nearly cried... I'm such a dumbass.
But work aren't giving me any shifts because business is bad, and they haven't paid me for the shifts I did before I left... so I'm in London with no money, so as usual I can't leave the house or buy anything, or indeed eat anything but pasta... So pretty much as usual.
Oh, everything was looking so good for a while there... I had a decent medium-term temping assignment and evening work, I was really getting stuff together. *sigh* And now it could be ages before I have work again. I obviously had to go home, but the timing sure could have been better.
I'm so sick of this. I just want a regular income that's enough so that I can have fun sometimes and put a bit away for a rainy day. But now I'm afraid to apply for things because I don't know when I'll be needed at home.
Although, Mum wants to have a go at managing without me there and see how it goes, so I'm in town for at least a couple of weeks, and I may only be going up at weekends. And she's encouraging me to apply for graduate jobs, so I guess she doesn't want to shake up my life too much...
So I'm doing that, but I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get to any potential job interviews without any money for transport. We'll see.

The silver lining in all this cloud is my friends. I've been so touched by how great everyone has been. Thank you all for your supportive comments, offers of cake etc! penguin2, thank you so much for being all wise and stuff, and for sending me lovely things! ladyvivien, you are an angel, thank you for all your calls!

Housemates are out tonight, so I'm going to try and spend the evening writing, since that's a part of my life I've been neglecting quite badly recently. I really want to get going with it again.
I'm certainly not going to do what I did last night, and resolve to spend the evening writing, and then instead eat peanuts and chocolate and watch the whole of Caves of Androzani, no sirree!

Well, Mum's starting chemotherapy tomorrow. From what I gather, there's about an even chance that it'll go well, in which case she could be around for another couple of years, maybe more. So, not exactly good news, but certainly not the worst. I'm somewhat encouraged.

Anyway, in other news, the new series of the Sarah Jane Adventures has started! I watched the first story - I felt that the script and the direction could both have been better, but on the whole I was pretty pleased. *sigh* I love the Jacksons. And there were some very sweet moments.

I'll probably be in London for a week or two, from this weekend or the beginning of next week. So if anyone wants to hang out, stake your claim now, everyone wants a piece of me! OK... what I mean is that I'll have to do lots of shifts at work to make up for all the time I'm missing, so I'll be boring-busy instead of fun-busy...

The man who was supposed to sell me a snake sold it to somebody else! Dammit! So now I have a vivarium and no snake to put in it. Next stop, Gumtree, I suppose...

I suddenly have all this fast internet access and I don't quite remember what I used to do with it...
So I've been YouTubing kids' shows I used to love...
Raggy Dolls, anyone? I always identified with Dotty because she was bossy... Also, it makes me laugh now that all of the dolls were in the Reject Bin because they were poorly made in some way, except for Claude, who was just in there because he was French!
Also, Playdays! Does anyone else remember the thrill of seeing which stop it was going to be? The Tent Stop was my favourite, but I hated the Patch Stop.
Astro Farm, too, what a classic!
Count Duckula!!! Need I say more?
Now, Roger and the Rottentrolls has to be one of the most awesome things ever invented. I don't care if it's for kids, I still love it.
I also used to love Moondreamers, Mike and Angelo, The Dreamstone and T-Bag. Clearly I leaned strongly towards SF&F even as a kid...
I know everyone thinks the kids' TV while they were growing up was the best, but I do think that my generation were pretty fortunate. A lot of our stuff was really intelligent and interesting, and not based around the idea of several primary-coloured blobs roaming around very small sets talking nonsense.
Having said that, now they have stuff like The Sarah Jane Adventures, Raven, My Parents Are Aliens and MI High. So it's not all bad.