Busy weekend was busy! Lates at the V&A, British Museum and Sticky Fingers and Avatar with carawj's dad and little sister, then lots of awesome hanging out with silly_cleo and jakera and baking of cake and writing of pitches for Big Finish. And now I'm in work again? What is this? Surely that wasn't the whole weekend?!

Found a Russian podcast that's just the sort of thing I need - short-ish news items, complex enough that I have to listen two or three times and maybe look up a word or two to get everything, but not so much as to be horribly daunting. And I'm also finding that my Russian music on my iPod is helping already. If I can keep this up then I should be well up to speed by the time I go to Kitezh again in May. Fingers crossed!

1. Comment to this post with "I surrender!" and I'll assign you the basis of some tv show or fandom idea. (Science fiction show, medical drama, criminal procedure, etc...)
2. Create a cast of characters (and ships, if you wish), including the actors who'd play them.
3. Add in any actor photos, character bios and show synopsis that you want.
4. Post to your own journal.

In this post, talk with your icons, and *only* your icons. Post early, post often, and respond to whomever you want. Just leave a dot or a dash in the comment field if LJ tells you you can't post a blank comment.

1. FYI, Deanna does not actually crash the ship in Star Trek: Generations. She does a very good job of flying the ship in the middle of a battle, and by the time it starts crashing she’s lost helm control and Data is the one who eventually gets control of the thrusters. Also in this movie she wears sailor drag and is all perceptive and in charge of things. Why have I not seen this more times?
2. I am TIRED.
3. Remember Kerry Weaver on ER? Wasn’t she AWESOME?!
4. One of my Christmas presents was a cookie jar in the shape of a certain Doctor Who character. Now when people come over and want biscuits we ‘fetch the Davros’. This tickles me.
5. On a similar note, used our lovely new teapot from bunnyvon for the first time the other night, to much acclaim.
6. Strategies for passing time at work becoming sillier. This morning M and I chose new names for everyone in the office.
7. I have new glasses! They are red. I am told they make me look like a crime-fighting librarian.
8. These new headphones are not as good as my old ones. My old ones are, ALAS, broken.
9. I want January to end soon, please.
10. There is nobody in the world like carawj. She is incredible and I love her WAY MUCH. I know this is soppy but I don’t care, the world should know how amazing she is.

So, we're having another go at cc_sff, which is the women in SF&F discussion group that deccaboo, seti_fan and I ran on Yahoo! Groups way back when. It would be super duper to see some of you there! At the moment we're talking about Sarah Jane Smith, yay!

Now that I've got my paid account back I have space for 110 icons and I'm barely using any of it! I had a bit of a trawl earlier and now I'm quite well-stocked with icons about retro British improv comedy shows, and several Doctor Who ones, but I still need lots, lots more!

Anyone have any recommendations where to find good icons? I'd like a couple of good Dr Quinn ones, maybe a few nice literary quotes, just generally stuff from fandoms I like, and cool stuff generally! I've got so much space to fill I don't really know where to start!

OMG, and I completely forgot to say, and I do think it deserves a post of its own - Bonnie Langford in Chicago was amazing!

I mean, I know I love her anyway so I'm biased, but she was just the perfect Roxie, I couldn't imagine anyone better. Both vocally and in terms of her general performance style, she really knows the character and the show, and it was just so thrilling, and I wish she had been there for longer because I'd love to go again!

So yes, that was an exciting thing that happened over the holidays! :D

Three days into a new year already - gosh!

Christmas, as expected, was a bit upsetting and miserable, but had some lovely bits! Quite a few people got me presents to share with carawj (thank you, those people, for cushions, teapots, spice racks etc! :D) and my brother got me a Davros cookie jar, so, awesomes. And then when I got back to London we had a little Christmas of our own and I had a stocking with jelly beans and bubbles and poetry and biscuits and it was very lovely. :)

As to my feelings on Doctor Who... mostly disappointment and betrayal. I might post properly another time.

So anyway... 2010, eh?

Where I am now is nowhere near where I imagined myself this time last year. And 2009 in a lot of ways was a difficult year, but it was also a year filled with loveliness and awesome, and one in which I think I've grown a lot and learned a lot of things about myself, so I'm counting it as a win overall. I have a lovely home and girlfriend and a wonderful circle of friends both near and far who mean the world to me, and if I don't have a job I love, I at least have one that pays the bills and lets me wear what I like and listen to my iPod in the office, which could be a whole heap worse.

I'm not sure I want to make a list of resolutions, but as a general thing I want to spend more of this year doing things that are important to me, and I want to make more progress towards my goal of making a living from writing. Although technically I do that already, it really doesn't count.

Today I'm sitting in our nice tidy flat, we've shopped and eaten proper food, I've been doing creative things all day and even if I haven't made the best possible use of the Christmas break, I have really enjoyed it. So I think this is a good way to start the year. *nod*

So, we're still on our massive Star Trek kick. We watched Phantasms yesterday, and I really enjoyed it, it's always been one of my favourite episodes. What really gets me about it is Deanna at the end - like, for serious, she just got stabbed a bunch by her friend (ok, so he was in an altered mental state and not responsible for his actions, but still), and it was clearly really traumatic, so at the end of the story she bakes him a cake, and takes it round to his place, along with a big fucking knife that looks just like the one he stabbed her with?!?! I mean, that woman has some serious self-control, I wouldn't be going near him after that.

I also love that she actually is cake earlier in the episode, and Riker's weird moment of being oddly Irish, and Picard trying to get out of going to the banquet. And having his head turned by a pretty ensign. Fun fun fun.

In other news, carawj and I have tickets to see Bonnie Langford in Chicago, oh hells to the yes!!! Rather excited! Very much looking forward to having over a week off work. It snowed here loads but it's already turned into gross slush. Hmm.

So, carawj and I put up our Christmas tree on Friday night!

It was fun. We'd inherited a second-hand tree, and we hadn't really checked that it was ok, so we were surprised to open the box and find that it didn't come with a stand, oh noes! So we were like, what do we do, and then I remembered how we never had a stand at home and my dad just used to (and AFAIK still does) wedge the tree into a bucket using rocks of various sizes from the garden.

We don't have a garden to get rocks from, nor do we have a bucket, so instead we washed out the bathroom bin and used that, and wedged the tree in with the entire contents of the tins cupboard in the kitchen.

Of course, now we can't eat any tinned food until January 6th, but our Christmas tree stands up practically almost straight! And is sparkly!

And there's already a present under it because my dad got something for carawj, which makes me super happy.

Saturday folk came over and we watched Christmassy movies and had mulled wine and nommy foods, yay! Then I spent Sunday going 'aaargh, aargh, too congested to breathe'. And now I'm back at work, but only for a week and an half before I have nearly two whole weeks off! No idea yet really what I'm doing with them... Wales folk, want to meet up? London folk, want to do things that we normally can't do on weekdays because we're always working?

OMG THERE IS A CHANCE I WILL GET TO ACTUALLY SEE BONNIE LANGFORD IN CHICAGO ON THE WEST END OMFG. Don't want to get too excited until it's actually booked, though...

In other news, I am ill at home for the second day in a row, listlessly poking the internet with iPlayered Doctor Who on in the background... carawj has been looking after me very well but she is out now doing family stuff!

Off to Wales on Sunday morning for a Secret Mission, but before that, Jim Moray gig tomorrow night! Hope I am well enough by then to make it as far as Finchley. I am determined.

Also, I has a fandom_stocking! HERE.

Happy Turkey Day, everyone who’s celebrating it!

Well, I’ve officially given up NaNoWriMo for this year. Sorry, lovely NaNo people! I think it would have gone better if I hadn’t already had so much to do in November, what with visiting folk and having folk visiting me. I got a fair bit done in the first week and a bit in the second, and I really enjoyed going to the write-ins and found them helpful for getting stuff done, but I really need to work hard on the advent calendar stuff for my site and I couldn’t really do both at once. I might give it a go next year, though, depending on what else I’m doing! And I may well still go to a couple of write-ins anyway.

3_fries_short is coming to stay tomorrow! I’m jolly excited! We are going to watch Sanctuary and things.

In other news, carawj and I have been watching a whole bunch of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and it’s strange, having grown up with it always on at home, been obsessed with it for a while in my teens and then abandoned it for a few years, to come back to it now and look at it with fresh eyes. I’m really enjoying it. I’m loving how much of a dork Beverly is, I totally didn’t notice ever before. She spends her free time looking after her plants, and she squeaks with excitement when she wins a hand at poker. And no matter the cause of death, she always wants to do an autopsy. To the point where she’ll wander the ship, complaining at people about not being allowed to do an autopsy. I am re-warming to Beverly a lot after going through a phase where I was cross with her for not being Pulaski... Pulaski is still my favourite, but Beverly’s very sweet!

And when I say Pulaski’s my favourite, of course I mean she’s my favourite of the two doctors, because of course Deanna is still my proper favourite of the whole cast. And I’m also loving how much of a cad Riker is. We watched the one the other day where he shags a random alien chick just so she’ll help him escape. And the one where he two-times Deanna and Ro. Oh, Riker, never change.

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.