This year's been a bit hit-and-miss, but I think on balance the hits have it. So, yey me!
( Fic )
( Work )
( Health )
( Romance )
( Other stuff )
(no subject)
Dec. 21st, 2007 05:24 pmDoes anyone else do this thing: You write a long, bilious rant about families and faux-civility and tension headaches. You look at it, and think, wow, I'm a litle bit crazy. You edit it until it's rational. Then you edit it until it's reasonable. Then, when there's no actual text left, you deem it fit to post.
Just me? Okay.
p.s. If anyone figures out how to dis-invite members of one's immediate family from Christmas, let me know? kthanx
Just me? Okay.
p.s. If anyone figures out how to dis-invite members of one's immediate family from Christmas, let me know? kthanx
Home again, home again, jiggety jig.
Nov. 25th, 2007 10:08 pmMe and my shiner survived the weekend in London, and I had a a lot of fun with my school friend. We went to some bars and then a wine and cheese thing that was very grown up and sophisticated, until an obscene quantity of wine was consumed (them, not me) and then it was far more normal. I've got a lot of love for quality time with old friends - there's such a lot of affection and trust, and we just ribbed each other and shared news and advice and complaints. I once spent six months travelling with her, and we were together 24/7 the entire time, so she probably knows me better than anyone. I really ought to get down there more often.
I listened to podfic for the drive home and have been writerly all evening - 2000 words, which is a lot for me and feels great. It sucks a bit to be back here, though. Whenever I go home to London I remember how much I love it down there. I always feel a bit stifled when I come back here, where I live in suburbia with my business partner and her boyfriend... both of whom I adore, but I do sometimes want to throttle them and their happily-settled-together-in-love-ness, all certain opinions and throwaway assertions about my hometown. Which probably only annoy me because they're right, but it's like anything close to me - only I get to critique it, and when others do I get bloody-minded and defend it to the bitter end. But my life here is good and I'm just nitpicking. And one day I'll have made enough money from my burgeoning property empire to be able to move back to London... where I'll probably get fed up of the pace of life within about a month and wish for Nottingham again.
Hmm. Well. I left John and Rodney in the middle of an argument, so I'm gonna get back to that and figure out why they don't actually end it with a punch, because that's sort of where they're heading so far...
I listened to podfic for the drive home and have been writerly all evening - 2000 words, which is a lot for me and feels great. It sucks a bit to be back here, though. Whenever I go home to London I remember how much I love it down there. I always feel a bit stifled when I come back here, where I live in suburbia with my business partner and her boyfriend... both of whom I adore, but I do sometimes want to throttle them and their happily-settled-together-in-love-ness, all certain opinions and throwaway assertions about my hometown. Which probably only annoy me because they're right, but it's like anything close to me - only I get to critique it, and when others do I get bloody-minded and defend it to the bitter end. But my life here is good and I'm just nitpicking. And one day I'll have made enough money from my burgeoning property empire to be able to move back to London... where I'll probably get fed up of the pace of life within about a month and wish for Nottingham again.
Hmm. Well. I left John and Rodney in the middle of an argument, so I'm gonna get back to that and figure out why they don't actually end it with a punch, because that's sort of where they're heading so far...
Work is kicking my ass! Or just my face
Nov. 23rd, 2007 07:39 pm1) I ache all over and I've got a shiner on my cheekbone. It's red and blue and raised and feels tight, and I have to be PRESENTABLE this weekend. I didn't put ice on it because a) we don't have a freezer at work, and b) we don't have heating either, and it's November so I figured ice would be kind of moot. I shall henceforth be known as Fatface.
I just deleted a paragraph that went here about how my life = so hard, which basically boiled down to some whining about the fact that 'Property Developer' sounds so much cooler when not accompanied by evidence of slapstick. I'm gonna have to preface every conversation this weekend with the rich, cool, sophisticated Londonite people I barely know with an explanation of how I smacked myself in the face with a piece of plasterboard. I'm trying to find this amusing, not slightly humiliating. The friend I'm going down to see will find it utterly hilarious. If you're wondering, that is an upside to the situation.
2) In other news. This week I went to the dentist for the first time in eight years, and it highlighted to me how much more I like my twenties than my teens. I have this Thing about dentists, wherein I give myself a tension headache after about thirty seconds of sitting in the freaky reclining chair. I get the shakes. Sometimes there's snot. As a child I just had to sit there and let Mr-Paid-By-The-Extraction have his way with my poor, innocent mouth. At the great age of 25, I went in, told my new dentist I was phobic, and made him explain everything he was going to do. When I asked if something was going to be painful and he replied 'not unless my hand slips', I sat up and calmly asked him if he was mocking my irrational fear, and to please show a bit of sensitivity. He apologised, I lay back down, everyone survived unscathed. Ha! Adulthood rules. *Bounces*. AND, the wisdom tooth that's been hurting since, um, January no longer hurts, and I can chew on both sides again.
3) We had our chimney swept today, and the sweeper found three footballs, a cricket ball (seriously?!) and half a dozen beer cans. The chimney is, and has always been, capped. Does not compute. Even if it wasn't capped, how on earth would you get a football to fall down it? It would be like scoring a hoop at one of those rigged fair ground games, with the added problem of the hoop being six metres off the ground.
4) I'm going to load up C's ipod with podfic for the drive to London. I'm looking forward to it! Of course, when I get home I will check the ipod obsessively to be certain I've deleted the evidence.
In conclusion? I need more friends who think fanfic is cool and shiners are funny.
I just deleted a paragraph that went here about how my life = so hard, which basically boiled down to some whining about the fact that 'Property Developer' sounds so much cooler when not accompanied by evidence of slapstick. I'm gonna have to preface every conversation this weekend with the rich, cool, sophisticated Londonite people I barely know with an explanation of how I smacked myself in the face with a piece of plasterboard. I'm trying to find this amusing, not slightly humiliating. The friend I'm going down to see will find it utterly hilarious. If you're wondering, that is an upside to the situation.
2) In other news. This week I went to the dentist for the first time in eight years, and it highlighted to me how much more I like my twenties than my teens. I have this Thing about dentists, wherein I give myself a tension headache after about thirty seconds of sitting in the freaky reclining chair. I get the shakes. Sometimes there's snot. As a child I just had to sit there and let Mr-Paid-By-The-Extraction have his way with my poor, innocent mouth. At the great age of 25, I went in, told my new dentist I was phobic, and made him explain everything he was going to do. When I asked if something was going to be painful and he replied 'not unless my hand slips', I sat up and calmly asked him if he was mocking my irrational fear, and to please show a bit of sensitivity. He apologised, I lay back down, everyone survived unscathed. Ha! Adulthood rules. *Bounces*. AND, the wisdom tooth that's been hurting since, um, January no longer hurts, and I can chew on both sides again.
3) We had our chimney swept today, and the sweeper found three footballs, a cricket ball (seriously?!) and half a dozen beer cans. The chimney is, and has always been, capped. Does not compute. Even if it wasn't capped, how on earth would you get a football to fall down it? It would be like scoring a hoop at one of those rigged fair ground games, with the added problem of the hoop being six metres off the ground.
4) I'm going to load up C's ipod with podfic for the drive to London. I'm looking forward to it! Of course, when I get home I will check the ipod obsessively to be certain I've deleted the evidence.
In conclusion? I need more friends who think fanfic is cool and shiners are funny.
(no subject)
Nov. 5th, 2007 10:24 pmSo, I haven't received any comments for days and days and it's making me crazy. What's the consensus when this happens? Will they show up eventually? Do I need to report it to LJ? They aren't getting filtered by my email account, it's gotta be on LJ's end.
Hmph.
In other news, I went to a phenomenal Bonfire Night thing this weekend at JJ's parents' farm. The bonfire was twenty feet tall unlit, and doubled that when it was on fire. There were dozens of fireworks, and a barbecue of the finest organic meat in Suffolk, and 60 or 70 twentysomethings, gallons and gallons of mulled wine... No burning effigies of seventeenth century protestors, but several students almost went up from high blood-alcohol in proximity to a naked flame.
It was smelly and dangerous and carbon-excreting and fantastic! ♥
Hmph.
In other news, I went to a phenomenal Bonfire Night thing this weekend at JJ's parents' farm. The bonfire was twenty feet tall unlit, and doubled that when it was on fire. There were dozens of fireworks, and a barbecue of the finest organic meat in Suffolk, and 60 or 70 twentysomethings, gallons and gallons of mulled wine... No burning effigies of seventeenth century protestors, but several students almost went up from high blood-alcohol in proximity to a naked flame.
It was smelly and dangerous and carbon-excreting and fantastic! ♥
I'm going to a fancy dress house party on Saturday with a loose theme of Disney and Fairy Tales. I have no ideas! Help!
Random fancy dress things I have:
I'm working the rest of the week so I'd rather not need to go into town to shop. Am ok with sewing and have a house full of Random Household Crap.
Um?
Random fancy dress things I have:
- A great little black dress I got for halloween that's a bit gothy.
- Stockings
- Christmas hats and such (the Grinch? Oy.)
- leftovers from a hawaiian fancy dress outfit - shell bra, lei (sp?)
- ...um, that's it. I'm out.
I'm working the rest of the week so I'd rather not need to go into town to shop. Am ok with sewing and have a house full of Random Household Crap.
Um?
Eureka recs, anyone?
Aug. 25th, 2007 01:43 pmLong weekend home alone, with nothing but flat packed furniture awaiting construction, and five months of company finances that I still don't want to do. Is it pathetic to be looking forward to C getting back from Reading so I can go back to work? Or JJ, so I can hand off the flat pack to the man of the house and, I dunno, make pies or something. Clean the bathroom. Avoid the finances for another few months.
I've watched eight episodes of Eureka in the last 24 hours and am about to settle down in front of season 2 with some drawers and some wood glue. I'm after some fic recs - anyone know of some good Eureka fic? The only fic I've ever read in that fandom was an SGA crossover, featuring McKay and Sheppard descending on the town and arguing a lot. Who was that by? SGA with added crazy can only be fun.
So, recs, anyone? Open to any pairings but haven't got an OTP, so maybe skewed towards gen?
Thanks!
Courses of bricks laid (slow going this week because we did the scary structural part with the 250kg piece of steel and the huge hole in the side of the house that was utterly terrifying):
I've watched eight episodes of Eureka in the last 24 hours and am about to settle down in front of season 2 with some drawers and some wood glue. I'm after some fic recs - anyone know of some good Eureka fic? The only fic I've ever read in that fandom was an SGA crossover, featuring McKay and Sheppard descending on the town and arguing a lot. Who was that by? SGA with added crazy can only be fun.
So, recs, anyone? Open to any pairings but haven't got an OTP, so maybe skewed towards gen?
Thanks!
Courses of bricks laid (slow going this week because we did the scary structural part with the 250kg piece of steel and the huge hole in the side of the house that was utterly terrifying):
| |
27 / 58 (46.0%) |
I am beside myself with glee over all the fic up on the Big Bang site. My preference is always for long stories over flashfics or other shorts, and there are sixteen new beauties to entertain me. Sixteen! I don't know where to start.
In other news. I'm back from Barcelona, where I took 40 hours of Spanish lessons and learnt how to talk in tenses beside the present tense - this comes in handy when trying not to sound like too much of an idiot. Can now strike up conversation in Spanish, as long as the other person is willing to talk slowly, and occasionally mime. Met lots of new people and had an awesome time, despite bag getting stolen. I was left with no passport, money, cards, phone, makeup or camera. I am one of those women whose bag could sustain a small family for a month. Had to go to the British Embassy and get them to ring my parents and ask for money for an emergency passport - Dad very traumatised by phone call out of the blue that started 'This is the British Consulate in Barcelona'... Hurray for wonderful parents though - they sent me sympathy cash and don't want me to repay them, so the rest of the holiday was free!
It was fun to go away, but I realised again how cool my job is that I was actually excited to get back to work. Excited! This is weird and wrong.
Courses of bricks laid (And we now have concrete floors! No more mud!)
In other news. I'm back from Barcelona, where I took 40 hours of Spanish lessons and learnt how to talk in tenses beside the present tense - this comes in handy when trying not to sound like too much of an idiot. Can now strike up conversation in Spanish, as long as the other person is willing to talk slowly, and occasionally mime. Met lots of new people and had an awesome time, despite bag getting stolen. I was left with no passport, money, cards, phone, makeup or camera. I am one of those women whose bag could sustain a small family for a month. Had to go to the British Embassy and get them to ring my parents and ask for money for an emergency passport - Dad very traumatised by phone call out of the blue that started 'This is the British Consulate in Barcelona'... Hurray for wonderful parents though - they sent me sympathy cash and don't want me to repay them, so the rest of the holiday was free!
It was fun to go away, but I realised again how cool my job is that I was actually excited to get back to work. Excited! This is weird and wrong.
Courses of bricks laid (And we now have concrete floors! No more mud!)
| |
24 / 58 (41.0%) |
late night nothings
Jul. 9th, 2007 01:10 amSo, it's been a slightly random week.
Courses of bricks laid (mostly in the rain):
And we're concreting the downstairs floors this week! No more mud! Yey!
- Housemate JJ started a new job designing tractor parts at his Dream Company - his eight year old brother is practically frothing at the mouth with excitement, and JJ's only a bit more grown up. C and I made him a cake when he heard he'd got it the picture's come out a bit orange - the tractor was bright yellow. Those rear treads are curly wurlys and the exhaust is liqourice. It was made to a tight two hour deadline, and took us more than a week to eat. Also, we were out of unsalted butter so I put lard in the icing. Shhh!
- I decided to go to Barcelona for a fortnight from next weekend - C and JJ are going to Turkey so I'd be home alone and bored if I didn't arrange something. I'm going to do a week of Spanish classes with the aim of boosting myself into the third year evening class - I've dropped out of the second year twice and am not sure I want to learn the first (gusta) term's (gusta) syllabus (gusta) again. Me no gusta.
- I sprained my elbow. Seriously, who does that? It was my own damned fault, obviously - I was chasing C (it was all perfectly reasonable and constitutes a valid form of conflict resolution) and there was an incident involved my hand around her ankle, her lunging around a corner, and my arm not quite following. Well. Parts of it did.
- I shovelled two tonnes of hard core from one end of the workhouse to the other. Left handed. Three more to go. Oy.
- I got a text from the long distance relationship guy from this spring. I really don't get the point of this text. It was basically just hi, are you single. To which I basically replied, yes, still single. And then he didn't reply. So, because I believe he's a genuinely nice guy who isn't just asking to snort and laugh about my extended singleness... what the hell does he want? Not conversation, not a booty call... what's left? Idle curiousity? Hmph. He could at least share what's going on with him.
Courses of bricks laid (mostly in the rain):
| |
15 / 58 (25.0%) |
And we're concreting the downstairs floors this week! No more mud! Yey!
Places I've been
Apr. 11th, 2007 02:20 pmGakked from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alipeeps, apparently I've been to 14% of the countries in the world! Am not sure if that's more or less than I'd have guessed, but it certainly seems like quite a lot. Though I'd brag share the total on my LJ.
Am hoping to go to Mozambique this summer, but maybe I should go to Russia instead for a more impressive coverage of green.
Places I went when I should have been working (hurrah for student loans)
alipeeps, apparently I've been to 14% of the countries in the world! Am not sure if that's more or less than I'd have guessed, but it certainly seems like quite a lot. Though I'd brag share the total on my LJ. Am hoping to go to Mozambique this summer, but maybe I should go to Russia instead for a more impressive coverage of green.
Places I went when I should have been working (hurrah for student loans)
Much better!
Apr. 5th, 2007 12:33 amHave joined facebook, and have discovered that seemingly half of my year from school are on it - am back in touch with close friends from my teens, and am really pleased about it! Hurrah for the Internet. Am not a huge fan of facebook itself - seriously, how did it catch on?!? Isn't it basically email, but public?! But some of my happiest times were at that school, and I don't think I've been as secure in my identity since. It was a weird, weird school, but we were a close bunch. Is fun to be back in cheerful, mocking contact with fellow weirdos. Insta-friends!
Not much progress on promised drabbles today, have been keeping myself pretty busy and feel pretty good. After a couple of hours enumerating all the ways in which ex-man was neurotic and irritating, I feel much better.
Wow, am coming across as a bit unhinged, aren't I? It's just that I got so caught up in the idea of having a boyfriend that I overlooked all the things about this particular guy that were actually quite annoying. There's a small sense of relief mixed in with the pissyness over getting dumped (dumped!) and the depression over not having a love life anymore. Ok, so the relief is small in comparison to the singleness, but I'm fixating on the positives.
Not much progress on promised drabbles today, have been keeping myself pretty busy and feel pretty good. After a couple of hours enumerating all the ways in which ex-man was neurotic and irritating, I feel much better.
Wow, am coming across as a bit unhinged, aren't I? It's just that I got so caught up in the idea of having a boyfriend that I overlooked all the things about this particular guy that were actually quite annoying. There's a small sense of relief mixed in with the pissyness over getting dumped (dumped!) and the depression over not having a love life anymore. Ok, so the relief is small in comparison to the singleness, but I'm fixating on the positives.
It left one account and never arrived at the other. The bank are on the case, so I'm oddly zen-like. Possibly because the numbers are too big for my puny brain. It feels very strange to utter the words 'it'll turn up' in this situation.
Huh.
In other news, New Man is on holiday with his dad, and I'm taking the lack of texting very personally. It's entirely possible his phone just isn't receiving my messages - C's didn't when she was in Germany last month. But when I saw him on Friday night (my birthday) he was shattered and just wanted to sleep - I've only been seeing him a few weeks, what the hell? I've never shared a bed with a guy where he's been the one that just wants to cuddle up and go to sleep. Have become completely paranoid and insecure. Is this normal?
Am far more concerned about lovelife than large pile of cash that's disappeared into the Great Internet Ether.
My priorities are strange.
Huh.
In other news, New Man is on holiday with his dad, and I'm taking the lack of texting very personally. It's entirely possible his phone just isn't receiving my messages - C's didn't when she was in Germany last month. But when I saw him on Friday night (my birthday) he was shattered and just wanted to sleep - I've only been seeing him a few weeks, what the hell? I've never shared a bed with a guy where he's been the one that just wants to cuddle up and go to sleep. Have become completely paranoid and insecure. Is this normal?
Am far more concerned about lovelife than large pile of cash that's disappeared into the Great Internet Ether.
My priorities are strange.
(no subject)
Mar. 29th, 2007 03:05 pmSo, today is my last day of being 24 - tomorrow I hit the quarter century. For a change, I actually feel okay about it. I usually get in a snit and irritate everyone by alternating between Yey, presents! and Boo, Where-Is-My-Life-Going-I-Need-A-New-Plan all day.
My theory on this is that it's not the age that bothers me, it's whether I feel like I'm where I should be given my <irony> advanced age </irony>. And this year I feel pretty good. I have a business, a house, housemates I adore, a new boyfriend who doesn't yet appear to be insane and/or evil.
My theory on this is that it's not the age that bothers me, it's whether I feel like I'm where I should be given my <irony> advanced age </irony>. And this year I feel pretty good. I have a business, a house, housemates I adore, a new boyfriend who doesn't yet appear to be insane and/or evil.
(no subject)
Mar. 20th, 2007 05:50 pmI've had a pretty cool couple of weeks, lately.
Things that rock:
Things that rock:
- I have a New Man. Haven't been in a relationship since... second year? Considering I graduated in '05, that's just pathetic. New man is funny and sweet and adorable, and apparently keen. He keeps giving me chocolate. I'm having of the sex!
- The new house should be ours by the end of the month - meaning I will have some direction in my life and will have no choice but to start working a lot, stop playing on The poxy Sims all the blimmin time. Is also first step to becoming a millionnaire by thirty.
- Am officially a size 10! Have been steadily losing weight since I started my new, not-behind-a-desk career. That's a US 6, I think. Am thin! My waist is tiny, though my arse is still enormous. It's all fine by me.
- New Man lives an hour and a half away. My carbon footprint is starting to suck. And he works all the time. I haven't seen him since Thursday, and I won't see him again until this Saturday. He's a teacher though, and it's almost the Easter holidays (right?) so should soon get him to myself. What kind of crazy school makes the kids come in on a Saturday morning? And why would anyone volunteer to do quite so many extra-curricular things? Is refereeing football in a blizzard fun in some way? Is it unreasonable and controlling of me to hope he dials it back a bit next term?
- Haven't written a word since
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
amireal's last challenge. Can't think of McShep romance when I'm busy obsessing about my own.
- Umm.... that's it. That is actually all that sucks. I mean, I'm still broke, and my brother still doesn't reply to my messages, my current house still isn't finished, and I'm still incredibly lazy and unmotivated... but these things have been persisting for years. Who cares? Have New Man!
(no subject)
Jan. 16th, 2007 11:47 pmOk, so it's been a while.
( First, there was Christmas )
( Then, there was New Year )
( Then, there was the exciting part )
( But, what's really traumatic was this week's Atlantis )
( First, there was Christmas )
( Then, there was New Year )
( Then, there was the exciting part )
( But, what's really traumatic was this week's Atlantis )
Friends vs Atlantis
Dec. 13th, 2006 06:00 pmMy download of Atlantis has an hour left. I've been jittering all day wanting to watch it - I thought I'd have it by the time I got up this morning, but the file I got was corrupt - arrgh!
The problem is, we're going to Manchester to stay with a friend tonight, and I'm supposed to leave, like, now. My lovely friends or Atlantis? If it was up to me, there'd be no question.
Unfortunately, it's not up to me, and C is making me go to Manchester.
The problem is, we're going to Manchester to stay with a friend tonight, and I'm supposed to leave, like, now. My lovely friends or Atlantis? If it was up to me, there'd be no question.
Unfortunately, it's not up to me, and C is making me go to Manchester.
