A bloggy blog by alocin

alocin42 @ 2009-10-11T14:09:00

2009-10-11T13:11:13Z

Hope that's brightened your afternoon! :D

alocin42 @ 2009-10-04T20:16:00

2009-10-04T19:21:04Z

Random fact o' the day: there are 22,900 Google results for lolhamster and only 4,090 results for lolgerbil. Those attention-hogging hammies steal all the fun!

One of the few actual gerbil ones actually has a cat in as well:

But I forgive the fluffball hamsters when they can be this cute:

Asylums are fun

2009-09-25T22:02:18Z

Poor crazy Batman. Spoilers for a brilliantly twisted cutscene from Arkham Asylum - Scarecrow's fear toxin creates an alternate scene by scene rehash of the opening of the game, only Bats is the one being dragged back to the asylum. I loved this when I was playing it and someone's very kindly put it on youtube.

I've been watching some of the "Joker gameplay" you can do with the PS3 version too. I remain jealous that's not an option for PC. His fighting style is an awesome mix of slapping, kicking and poking people in the eyes! With the odd stomp to the head thrown in. I believe it's been termed "clown fu". Bless that psychotic clown...

Warning: Hazard

2009-06-21T20:54:57Z

Earlier this week two charming individuals stole several bikes from our secure car park at work, including mine. Since I cycle five miles to and from work each day, I find having a bike makes this cycling process a lot easier. So I went and bought a pretty basic second hand bike from this lovely chap who used to service my old bike: Jake's Bikes. Okay the left pedal crank fell off the second day I had it, but he very kindly replaced it for me free of charge so I'm not complaining.

Anyway it was a little battered around the edges, so in a bid to cheer it up while detering thieves and ne're do wells I decided to tart it up a bit DIY-style. I wanted to paint it eye-searing neon pink but I couldn't be bothered with the faff of stripping it down, so I turned to the classic that is hazard tape:

Plus a little reflective tape for that night-glowing shine (with flash on camera):

I'm quite pleased with the result! Only a proper desperate druggy bike-nabber would nick that I suspect.

In case you're wondering, the myesterious yellow box on the side is one of my bike bins. I <3 bike bins, and the thieves are lucky I hadn't got my new shiny yellow ones when they stole the old bike or they would be dog meat by now...

Moving & Gerbies

2009-06-14T16:28:54Z

I've just moved from a shared house to renting my own little garden flat, still in Bristol, and am now surrounded by boxes and clutter. Not much change there! All went fairly smoothly apart from having a single bedframe delivered by the geniuses at Tesco, which didn't really work with the double mattress they brought at the same time...

In more thrilling news as the letting agency/landlady are okay with pets (to a certain degree) I also now have a pair of gerbils named Fruit Loop and Shreddie! They are currently still pretty freaked out by me whenever I move or talk or look at them or breathe in their vicinity, but they have had a glorious time shredding a large quantity of cardboard and digging tunnels in their tank. Typically they much pefer this to going in the cage topper I constructed, which I expected, but has led to me to have to stick water bottles to the inside of the tank in case they die of deydration by not wanting to use the bottle in the cage topper. Yes I'm an overprotective first time gerbil mother/owner/whatever, shush.

If anyone is nosy or interested, there are some piccies of new flat here and gebils here!

As a bonus teaser, this is an action shot of Shreddie digging her lil' gerbilly heart out:

Desktop Meme

2009-06-07T20:33:51Z

Courtesy of lizbuf

RULES:
01. Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper at their LiveJournal. [pffft - I say rules are made to be broken; don't feel you have to]
02. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
03. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!

1. I have a whole bunch of "Dreamy World" wallpapers made by this guy: http://grafixeye.deviantart.com/ that cycle round and change ever 15 minutes - I just really like them, and I like the variety.
2. Umm... that's about it!

alocin42 @ 2009-04-27T00:10:00

2009-04-26T23:13:58Z

Hee. I do greatly love xkcd. And velociraptors.

More Meme-ness

2009-04-08T21:50:31Z

“Comment to this post saying that you want to play [do not feel at all compelled to join in, I'm just reposting to explain this entry] and I'll give you 5 subjects/things I associate with you. Then post in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.”

lizbuf gave me the following:

1. Otters
I do greatly love otters and I currently never shut up about them at work. I remember buying a soft toy otter on a school trip aged around seven or eight, which I of course called Tarka. I come from Tarka country so read the book when I was quite young; maybe this helped to instil a sense of childhood loyalty towards poor persecuted otters? It's hard to believe they were once hunted in the same way as we (kind of) still do with foxes in this country. Mostly they are just adorable though: like water dwelling cats, and they make very cute noises. They’re even cute when stuffing their faces with dead baby mice and three-day-old chicks at zoo feed-the-otter talks. I refuse to choose between our river-dwelling native type and the American wrapping-themselves-in-kelp sea type as my favourite, not forgetting there are actually 13 species all together.

2. Penguins
Penguins are just awesome, what more is there to know? I recently found out that the Madagascar penguins have some kind of spin-off kids TV show. I intend to find and watch some of this.

3. Penn and Teller
I love Penn and Teller and hope that the “&” means they count as one guest at my ideal dinner party. Penn’s gig as Drell in Sabrina the Teenage Witch was casting that required no acting of any kind, and prepared me well for an adulthood of enjoying his loudmouth showmanship/ranting. After a while you realise all that talking is largely to distract you while Teller silently does something sneaky. Their wikipedia entry describes them as specialising in “gory tricks, exposing quacks and frauds, performing clever pranks, and they have become associated with Las Vegas, atheism, scientific skepticism, and libertarianism.” I’ve probably watched just about every piece of their “magic” you can find on the net as well as all of their more recent Penn & Teller: Bullshit shows, where they “apply critical thinking to misconceptions” with a strongly libertarian angle. I guess we don’t really have libertarians in the UK, not in any noticeable sense anyway, but being generally liberal I agree with the majority of their thinking. Plus they actively encourage people to freak dinner guests out by explaining how to make it look like you’re stabbing yourself in the eye with a fork. What better dinner guests could you ask for?

4. Big Bang Theory
Not the theory; the American sitcom! lizbuf got me started on this with her talk of glow in the dark goldfish nightlights. So after a bit of relentless nagging (or it might have been gentle encouragement – I don’t quite recall) I found and downloaded the episode with said glow in the dark goldfish. Although it was a few episodes into the second series and I didn’t know any of the characters, I quickly got into it and watched the few earlier episodes from that series. And then the entire first series. Like over the course of a week! (In my defence each episode is only 20 minutes long…) Sheldon really makes it for me in his narrow-minded geeky inflexibility and bizarre misunderstandings of “the social protocol”, but really the entire show is a beacon of excellent writing and geek-love. It’s a fave!

5. Real Ales
An odd one you might think, for a girl who didn’t drink more than a sip or two of other people’s beers until she was 21! (And for any non-UK folk who may stumble across this I point out I had been legally drinking loads of other stuff since I was 18). I just didn’t like beer unless it was mixed with cider and blackcurrant cordial. Then in my final year at uni I joined the Cardiff University Real Ale & Cider Society. Maybe it was because I was a postgrad and thought it was about time I joined a more “mature” society (some like the Harry Potter society attract mainly freshers, others mature and postgrad students). Maybe it was just due to my South West upbringing which gave me a love of cider! On the first pub tour/crawl I asked some of the others what was a good beer for a non-beer drinker, to give the ale side of things a shot, and was advised to try Leffe Blonde. It was surprisingly not disgusting, and I haven’t really looked back since then! I try to help out at CAMRA beer festivals when I can and spread the love of proper ales; from the palest of India Pale Ales to the darkest of Porters and Milk Stouts. Drink up!

lizbuf also (kindly?) tagged me with some random happiness thing which would entail posting eight days in a row! *hysterical laughter* As a compromise, one thing that made me happy today was getting to lick three spoons covered in plain, milk and white chocolate from coating mars bar krispie cakes ready for work tomorrow. Yum.

A walk avec my camera

2009-04-04T15:56:14Z

Well it was a nice day, so I felt like going for a bit of a walk and thought I might take my camera along to do some random snapping. I finally paid my dues to flickr so my pro account has been reborn, and if anyone cares to look at my decidedly non-pro results you can see them here: clicky.

Random Pics that made me smile

This is my front door. I don't know who put the tape there with that message on; it's a shared house and it was like that when I moved in. I'm not sure it does a whole lot of good since we still get takeaway leaflets and other junk every day!

Lol-some graffiti at the local skate & BMX park. There were lots of young kids about doing cute "tricks" on scooters. Hopefully the fact that I'm a 23 year old girl went some way to the parents not reporting me to the police as a paedophile because I was there with a camera but no child of my own in tow...

I have a coaster of this at work and it always gives me an ever-so-slight smug glow. Negated by semi-regular drives down to Devon, but hey the commuting by bike still must give me one or two eco points!

This terrified me. Bins should not have faces! We chuck rubbish in them; if you personlise them you're half way towards having to give them rights or they'll rise up against us all.

Colourful community mural that was done in 2002 but surprisingly has not yet completely been defaced by gangs of teenagers with stolen spray paint.

Very random pub name: "The Hop Pole". Is it to do with pole vaulting? Or that crazy jumping-over-ditches thing they do in Norfolk? Who knows.

I always feel sorry for the remains of dead bikes, but also worry that they might one day come back to life as zombie bikes and begin feasting on the whole and undamaged ones. My mind sometimes disturbs even myself...

This shop sells everything from potatoes to charcoal, mops and brooms, garden equipment, paint and floor coverings. Plus "fancy goods". Who needs Tesco anyway?

Mmm, colourful Piemaster pies available at the Fire Engine pub!

If they see you with a bag of stale breadcrusts you might well be shot on sight. That Birdwoman from Mary Poppins should be strung up in public as a warning to us all.

Is this a respectable time? ponders

2009-03-31T20:18:16Z

38 seconds

alocin42 @ 2009-03-08T22:00:00

2009-03-08T22:09:07Z

Ahh what the hell, this amuses me so I'm posting it. Below is a slightly bizarre photo of me at work, taken by lizbuf:

I'm the one in orange, attempting to have my hair "highlighted" with a highlighter by a colleague (who shall remain nameless to protect ~~the guilty~~ some semblance of privacy). I expect posting a picture of the inside of the building is probably breaching something in the information assurance training I had recently too, so just pretend the background is blurrier than it actually is.

To anyone reading this who hasn't seen a picture of me before: alas, you can no longer say you've had that pleasure. *waves*

I miss dyeing my hair stupid colours with things other than office supplies.

Writer's Block: AKA

2009-02-27T21:29:03Z

What's the story behind your username?

View 503 Answers

It's my name written backwards with "42" on the end of it, because that's the answer to life, the universe and everything.

*nods sagely*

Nope...

2009-02-02T19:23:24Z

Do not adjust your monitors - I am actually posting something in my own journal! *gasps of shock*

So I haven't posted anything here for over a year, and I'm not really starting up again now either. Mostly I thought my LJ was long-overdue for some pruning and tidying up. So I've de-friended a whole bunch of people from back in the day. It's not personal in any way - basically I'm still only really using this for communities, and I haven't been reading many personal journals on my flist for over a year now. I'll only probably post the odd meme here so I more than expect the same de-friending treatment back! Live long and prosper, ttfn and etcetera.

On the odd meme note though, I did want to steal this one from agent0fchaos:

25 Random Facts

1. I have poor self control when it comes to things like going to bed before midnight or later on work nights. I know I’ll get sleep deprived and grumpy, but there’s always one more X to watch/read/do…

2. I don’t understand how people can cope without a “current obsession”. What do they spend all their time thinking about?

3. At various points in my childhood I wanted to grow up to be an RAF dog handler (I wanted a German Shepherd dog), a librarian (I love books) and a computer programmer (I like computers). Currently I work in the regulation of childcare and enjoy it, even if it’s a time-limited thing. Yet I really don’t like children. Sometimes I make no sense even to myself…

4. Childhood family holidays aside, if I travel somewhere it will usually be solo. The idea of trying to plan a holiday with another person frankly horrifies me, and I anticipate I would kill them by day two when we had different opinions on where to go/what to see/which coffee place to stop at. And I don’t want to end up in a foreign prison.

5. I consider cheese to be a separate and key food group in its own right. Mmm, cheese…

6. If I could cancel all soap operas (in the UK things like Eastenders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, etc) I honestly would. I don’t know why but I really, really dislike them and even more so the obsession with the latest trying-to-top-the-others ridiculous storylines. Millions of people get entertainment from them, and I would feel like a git spoiling their fun. But I’d still do it.

7. I always have a desire to go to the highest point I can find, wherever I am, and see the view. But then I see a higher point, and then a higher one after that. Before you know it I’d be on Everest and dead from lack of oxygen. So I try to restrain that impulse.

8. I am unbelievably hypocritical. When I cycle I had cars and pedestrians, when I drive I hate cyclists and pedestrians and when I walk I hate cars and cyclists. And don’t get me started on bloody buses.

9. I crochet “granny square” blankets for family and friends. I’ve probably made around a dozen ranging from baby-size to giant. I find it very relaxing. But I find knitting completely incomprehensible.

10. If I could change one thing about my childhood, it would be to force the young me to pick an instrument and learn it. Even if I didn’t turn out brilliant – which is likely – I’d like to be able to stumble through a chord or two on something.

11. I spent most of my time at university wandering around with short, spiky dyed hair, Doc Marten boots and an old army surplus jacket. A friend described me as looking like a militant lesbian (I’m neither).

12. On a linked note my twin sister (when she also had short hair) and me were once mistaken for a lesbian couple when we were in a bar with some friends. It wasn’t even a lesbian bar. I fail to follow this female with short hair = must be a lesbian thing. And anyway, ew – she’s my twin sister for goodness sake!

13. I believe that everyone should volunteer some of their time and/or money to a good cause of some description, if at all practicable. Not for any religious or grand philosophical reason – just because it’s a nice thing to do. Even five minutes or 50p is better than nothing at all.

14. I can get sea-sick sitting in an inflatable ring in a swimming pool.

15. I am terrified by the idea that the government has decided that I should be allowed to drive. In my heart I believe that very few people are truly responsible enough to be in charge of a tonne of metal going seventy miles an hour, and I am not one of the people on that very short list.

16. As a child I was fascinated by unexplained mysteries and the paranormal. Aged around nine or ten I read a graphic description of alleged spontaneous human combustion where a woman’s legs suddenly caught on fire seemingly from nowhere, and the flames couldn’t be put out. That was my ultimate worst fear for years afterwards.

17. I like to cook but am not very good with following recipes; teaspoons and tablespoons tend to get mixed up, I miss out fairly vital ingredients then wonder why my cake batter is so solid (hmm – forgot the eggs). Chucking everything in a pan and heating for a while seems to work much better for me.

18. For a year or so at primary school I insisted on wearing two watches; one on each wrist, both set to the same time.

19. I have one taxidermy squirrel (called Cyril) and I covet more so I can build a squirrel army to rival the Janitor on Scrubs.

20. Although I’m not a redhead, after about five minutes of exposure to sunlight I break out in a giant freckly mess. I like my freckles though, possibly due to my Nanny always telling me when I was little (and even frecklier) that they were “sun kisses”.

21. I probably only leave reviews on a quarter of the fanfiction I read. Sometimes because I feel uncomfortable trying to come up with something nice to say about a fic I didn’t enjoy, but other times it’s just because I’m feeling lazy. I don’t particularly like that about myself, but I don’t anticipate changing my behaviour any time soon.

22. I can’t have pets currently due to renting, but I love cats. I can foresee myself turning into a crazy cat lady. Hopefully the good type, who maintains personal hygiene and doesn’t throw cats at passers by while shouting incomprehensibly.

23. I flit back and forth between atheism and agnosticism, and would probably be more vocal about this if I wasn’t so averse to offending people. But if foolish people knock on my door and want to talk about religion then that’s their look out…

24. If someone walks along the pavement in a slow and meandering fashion lost in their own little world, and there is no good reason for this, I believe people should be allowed to trip them up.

25. I love the taste of old fashioned cough syrup and would drink it by the bottle-full if I could.

Early Festive Felicitations F-list!

2007-12-10T21:39:12Z

*zombie walk* Mmm, brains...

Nope - as usual I'm not dead. Just thought I'd pop along and spread some salutations of the season! Yeah I know it's still 2 weeks but our family is having an early Christmas next weekend due to sister imminently disappearing to Italy for yet another holiday.

Current status: living in Bristol, working for Ofsted (semi-ineptly), doing the (flexi) 9-5. The only thing I've posted on LJ in the past 2 months is a Criminal Minds fanvid and some icons, so I can't see a return to regular rambly posting anytime soon. But I do check the ol' f-list every now and then in my lunchbreak, without which I probably would have completely missed the Fivey & Ten CiN skit. That was love on several levels!

So hi all; live long and proper. Don't eat too much turkey. And if you live in South Area 2 don't complain about your childminder/nursery on Christmas Eve - I've got to work then and don't need new cases!

alocin42 @ 2007-09-30T21:16:00

2007-09-30T20:34:49Z

Okay haven't updated in about 6 weeks and not sure I've actually logged into LJ at all in that time either! I seem to have drifted away somewhat. Probably a combination of living-at-home reduced net use, other stuff keeping me busy and no Who or any other LJ fandom stuff really going on to keep me checking in on a regular basis. I may drift back in the near future as things change or just log on now and then, but thought I'd better reassure anyone who may have been wondering where I was that I'm not dead. Sorry flist!

Quick update of life: after a summer of fruitless job searching and signing on as unemployed, helping at a local hospice charity shop, crocheting and attempting to teach myself to type properly I now have a job. It's a six month maternity cover as a case officer with Ofsted up in Bristol - working in the regulation of childcare bit not the schools bit. It pays well and it's a lot more interesting than most paralegal jobs so even though it isn't completely law related I'm pretty darn happy. That should keep me busy while applying for training contracts to start next September. I start next week and I'm staying with friends for a while until I arrange a 6 month let somewhere in Bristol. First real work that isn't a thankless summer job or temping for my mum so I'm hoping I don't screw it up!

As well as a job I now have a car to help with the getting to Bristol and back and forth travel - a lil' red Corsa. I've been t-cutting and polishing away today when not helping my dad paint our kitchen ceiling. Thus my arms hurt quite a lot now. So a job and a car - now I just need a husband, kids and a mortgage! Or maybe not... ;) Sister is still in Peru and says she's bought me a toy llama called Julian. She's coming back in two weeks so I'm a week early moving away, but I may yet have to drive to Heathrow and pick her up so that llama could be mine soon. Muhaha! She's managed to avoid anymore earthquakes and her only horrible tropical disease was from a dodgy chicken sandwich, not frolicing with monkeys or swimming in polluted rivers. Plonker.

Hope all are well and I'll try to pop back on again a bit sooner than mid-November! ;)

alocin42 @ 2007-08-16T09:52:00

2007-08-16T08:55:26Z

Sister dear has been in Peru less than a week and they go and have an earthquake!

She's emailed us to say she's okay and Cusco only shook and didn't have any damage, but still what next - frog rain?

I'm really not dead...

2007-08-10T09:21:37Z

At least I don't think I am. I don't use the net as much when I'm back home anyway and it's summer and there's things to do and I keep composing LJ entries in my head but never quite get around to writing them...

Anyhoo, brief summary of life at the mo: drove sister dear up to Bristol yesterday where she stayed with her housemate and today they're off on a coach to Heathrow, where they'll get a flight to New York, then one to Pananma, then one to Lima, Peru and then a dinky one to Cusco, Peru. You can't fly direct to Peru from the UK and that was the cheapest option using some old airmiles as well. She's there for 9 weeks doing her required "elective" for med school, so amongst all the Inca Trail, llamas, altitude sickness and guinea pig & chips she should do a bit of medical stuff and learning Spanish too. Fun for her and amusing to see how much our mum was fretting. Now she's actually gone it should calm down a bit because she can only email her questions, advice and worries...

I had my second interview with a local firm last week and I'm waiting to see if they'll give me a job as a trainee solicitor. They had a couple more people to see so I've got to wait another week or two yet. If I don't get it then I'm quite screwed and not sure what I'll do then... In the mean time been volunteering at a local Hospice charity shop (my mum is a trustee so it's almost our family charity) which is quite fun and has been keeping me occupied. I like sorting stuff - I have that hoarding instinct which is conducive to sifting through bags of unidentified bits n bobs. I'm about 50 years younger than most of the other volunteers though so I get picked for all the heavy jobs too!

So that and the odd bit of sitting out in the sun reading now the weather is behaving is how I've spent my last few weeks. The Narnia books was the last set. I went to CofE primary school when I first read them and I still failed to see the (not even subtle) religious themes. The Last Battle is really quite odd with its seeming message that it's best to die young so you can get to heaven as soon as possible, and Susan not being let in because she's only interested in boys and parties... I think His Dark Materials might need to be next after that!

alocin42 @ 2007-07-21T05:46:00

2007-07-21T05:05:53Z

Harry Potter Book 7

Well I got the book this morning and started reading it at 12:20am. By 5:30am I was finished! Now it's light and I'm not tired so may just not go to bed at all...

Well I was certainly entralled and couldn't turn the next page fast enough, and generally I thought Harry's life was wrapped up neatly, although I fell for the bluff 50 pages from the end and was sure he was dead meat. Dumbledore was fleshed out much more and it was satisfying to finally learn his backstory, and I liked the explaination behind Snape's actions. I may have sqeaked with joy a small bit when the other teachers all started fighting him and he flew out the window - that will hopefully look so cool when they finally film-ify it... As you can see I have few philosophical opinions on the plot and meanings of minor character's names - this isn't exactly an in-depth review. I just mostly liked it.

However there were an awful lot of deaths. I'd heard rumours that rather than just one much-loved character dying it was more like a bloodbath and I think I'd agree with that assessment. It's almost easier to name who survived than who was dead by the end! Lupin and Tonks were my two favourite characters so their almost in-passing deaths annoyed me quite a bit. And I almost cried when they killed Hedwig right at the start, the bastards. That was just cruel! After a while the deaths just mounted up so much they failed to have the individual impact of say Cedric's death in GoF. So now Colin Creevey's been killed - big deal! Chalk him up with the 70-odd others... That was the main element of the book I didn't much like.

Anyhoo mass killings aside I did otherwise like it and I think it's a satisfying end to the series. Not exactly a feelgood-novel and not one I'll go back to time and time again, but not everything can be rainbows and kittens. Not when you're dealing with good vs. evil. If good always completely wiped the floor with evil and no one got hurt it wouldn't really be evil...

I await mass public opinion over the next few days to see if I'm in the minority or majority with my views!

Helllooooo....

2007-07-18T13:20:09Z

I'm still not dead; honest! I've been re-reading all the existing Harry Potter books and plotting how to prevent myself reading the whole of the 7th book the minute I get my sticky mitts on it. It's the Pilton Green Man Festival on Saturday (local ancient fertility thingymagig with a parade and fair and tomboloas and dancing and music and yay and woo and such) and I don't really want to stay up till 6am reading and then be a zombie. Must be restrained. Reading the old books has made me remember how much I love it all and I bet I end up crying when goodness knows how many people end up dead or whathaveyou. All good things must come to an end...

Also been sleeping, watching Red Dwarf with my sister and cooking more stuff. Apple cake and tomato and courgette chutney have been the latest and I'm making cookies for a charity cake stall for the festival on Friday afternoon. These ones. Just ignore the insane quantity of sugar and chocolate for I've made them before and they are gorgeously lovely. Yum. And gosh it's actually sunny and nice at the minute - miraculous! Our garden is still partially under water but some of the veg is looking better with a bit of sun.

Got my results at the weekend - passed with commendation. Or condemnation - can never remember which... No so I'm very happy with that. Not quite a distinction but better than just a pass or a fail! Good good marks in my elective subjects including 79 for childcare; my highest mark! Thank you Jason for both enthusiastic teaching and very thorough course notes. So now just waiting till the 2nd for this interview and then I can find out whether I've got a job sorted or need to find something temporary while I apply for any odd position which comes up.

alocin42 @ 2007-07-10T13:37:00

2007-07-10T12:58:37Z

Hello! I'm back slightly earlier than expected - my little trek didn't go entirely to plan. First day was good, the weather was lovely and camping went well but I spent all Sunday morning being mobbed by a cloud of flies which kept landing all over my face, arms and even trying to get in the eyelets of my boots. It was like something out of a cartoon the way they were buzzing around me and it was thoroughly annoying since every time I stopped for a minute they'd try to get in my mouth and nose and it was driving me nuts. Current theory is the rare sight of some sun had made loads hatch out all at once... Anyway after five hours of that and with some nice blisters developing I decided since I wasn't in the army being paid to slog up and down hills carrying a Giant Bag o' Stuff, since it wasn't fun with the flies that was enough for me for the time being.

So I'm back at home now with a bed and a kettle and other nice things people so often take for granted. Made two lots of cherry jam yesterday - overcooked the first lot and it turned into cherry jam toffee. Forgot shouldn't follow a normal recipe when using jam sugar containing pectin and boiled it almost ten times longer than I should have. Whoops. But the second lot turned out nice. Also made scones and we had scones, jam and clotted cream for pudding. Pure bliss.

alocin42 @ 2007-07-06T10:36:00

2007-07-06T09:49:54Z

Gosh I'm gone for five minutes and then You-Know-Who and the other You-Know-Who both get cast as companions for the next series. One I don't mind because I liked her when she last turned up and I'll just try to remain non-judgemental about the other until I see her...

The plan is to disappear off on the first stage of my little trip tomorrow. The weather still isnt't inspiring but it looks like the entire summer is going to be like that so hey. Giant Pile o' Stuff has turned into Giant Bag o' Stuff which I managed to get up and down the stairs with so I have hopes for the same being the case with bloody steep hills up and down all the little coombs and bays. The whole thing is 630 miles long and you climb more than three times the height of Everest in the process - I'm talking lots of hills. I'm just doing the start which is conveniently local to me and ends up passing my house after 5-6 days so I can stay home for a few days and collect my course results on the 14th if the post strike on the 12/13th doesn't bugger up the postage.

Purple = where I should be going. I may yet give up tomorrow afternoon and ring my sister for a lift home, in which case I'll appear again a bit sooner than planned. If not then I'll post again with some pictures of a soggy windswept tent in a week or so. TTFN!

meow

2007-07-04T15:32:57Z

Had a meeting with the senior partner of a local firm of solicitors the other day about getting a training contract with them - got a more formal interview with three partners in August. Keeping all fingers crossed! The local office is a ten minute walk from my parent's house so that could work out quite well if I got a job there. Since it's not for a month though I'm plotting to go and do some of the South West Coast Path in the meantime - gathering all my stuff together it makes a very large pile. Not sure how far from Minehead I'd get carrying all that - half a mile? We'll see. My mum's fretting about the weather and me falling off a cliff. Parents never stop worrying, do they!

Not going anywhere for a few days anyway so I expect I'll appear again, maybe with a picture of my Giant Pile o' Gear. Just back from blood doning which was at least my 12th but showed up as my 10th (because the Welsh and National Blood Service computer systems don't always talk to each other) so I got given my Bronze 10th donation badge. Yay! Off for a drink with some friends later but I'll be on the soft stuff so I don't fall over I think...

Smudge (cat number 2) is on my lap and says hello.

waves

2007-07-01T15:02:13Z

I'm not dead - honest! After parents finally acquired a wireless router I discovered my USB adapter has gone walkabout or been eaten or something, so I'm still fighting the rest of the family for our main PC. I'm currently attempting to type this on my sister's laptop which doesn't like me much, but at least it now has net access... Mostly I've just quite busy with some temp work and family stuff and such (like attending the first annual North Devon Beer Festival - woo!). Hence I'm very behind with F-list reading! Do poke at me if anything exciting has happened. Not so much to do this week so I'll try to catch up.

Just watched last night's Who which was very woo in parts but had the traditional Rusty deus ex machina which I couldn't entirely follow. Overall I'd say this was my fave new Who series so far with several episodes I loved very much, and it was good re-watching Utopia and Sound of Drums with my sister so we could both watch the finale (she was a bit behind). So kudos Who-folk!

Gutten tag!

2007-06-25T14:20:50Z

Three days without checking t'interweb including a new Who Saturday night = flist chaos! It goes on forever! I'll attempt to catch up at some point soon...

Well I'm back home in distinctly waterlogged Devon (our garden is under a couple of inches of water in some places) and somehow I've squashed all my stuff into a combination of my room, our spare room and the loft. If you hear of someone in North Devon being crushed to death by a load of textbooks and files that collapsed through a bedroom ceiling then that's me. The cats were pleased to see me and shed fur all over my clothes and I've now driven over our very swish new town bridge and was only slightly confused by the new road system. Doing some work for my Mum this week, job interview next week and then we'll see what the future holds! Still plotting to walk some of the South West Coast Path but job situation, weather, enthusiasm for extended camping and insanity at going up and down all those hills will determine whether that'll be a few days, few weeks or whole summer thing.

Sound of Drums was good, but maybe not as magically wonderful and brill and fantastic as Utopia, but still yay. John Simm was wonderful - funny, menacing and completely loopy. Bonus points for "are you asking me out on a date?", the hitch in his voice when the Doctor first spoke to him on the phone and of course the jelly babies! And sending the Torchwood lot off to the Himalyas to get rid of them - I hope they're fruitlessly looking for the Abominable Snowman...

I may have squeed slightly when I realised they were actually going to show Gallifrey; that whole conversation was just lovely. Haven't a clue what's going to happen next week - I can't entirely believe they're going to leave the Who universe with 1/10th of the human population killed which leads me to suspect all the events will end up undone somehow. Going to be fun finding out anyway!

It seems to still be raining... I blame Wimbledon.

Au revior Cardiff

2007-06-22T17:09:06Z

Woo, just about all packed now! Stuffed a load of junk into bags and then in the boot of lil' Fiesta and my room is now filled with Ikea bags full of shoes/clothes/God knows what. The hall is full of boxes of books and yet more junk, plus bookcase and chest of drawers. What on Earth is it all? How did it survive several sortings/chuckings out/trips to charity shops? Ahh well. Good job lovely kind parents are borrowing a van really! So tomorrow morning load that up and back down the motorway saying bye bye to Cardiff for possibly the last time. Sniff...

God knows where all this stuff is going to go in my parent's house - I haven't had all my stuff home since the first year and I was in halls and didn't have any furniture then! Plus sister dear is home in a few days too with all her stuff, because she's in Plymouth next year. Hmm. Might be a slightly cramped summer!

Also done some more industrial cleaning so at least the communual areas of the house won't be in a state when uber-messy housemate is the last to leave. Student fridges = *shudder*. As self appointed fridge police I try to chuck other people's forgotten stuff out when it grows visible mould or starts to smell but there's always a stray rotten tomato or carton of off milk I find too late which then completely grosses me out when I come across it. Ack... All clean and shiny now. Hopefully it can last for the final week! Anyway if she can just bring herself to chuck the last few things out, quickly hoover again and clean the bathroom as she goes then we might get our bonds back okay.

Side note: ooh it's nearly Saturday, next Who episode soon - yay! *excited*