I spent three hours this evening wrapping ten presents, which is damn slow - even if I do say so myself. Sigh How did that happen again?

The snow which fell and settled, turning central London into a postcard from Narnia, did of course melt before I had time to get to my digital camera. More's the pity. I am actually a tad disappointed about that.

And things are a little too social for fannish life at the moment: guest for dinner last Friday, guests for dinner tomorrow... and I've still got to watch last weeks Spooks. Also have an inkling to sketch out two short fics that have been flirting with my muse. And then, maybe shake the cobwebs off the two fics that have been rough drafted on my hard drive since August.

Wednesday, currently it looks as if I'm baking again.

In the meantime iPlayer let me catch up on the first two Alan Bennet monologues in the mini run of - Bennet on Bennet - which are available for the next six days. The third airs tomorrow and will no doubt be up afterwards.

Sky One was not so obliging where their Ten Minute Tales are concerned. Missed today's - with Timothy Spall and Natasha McElhorne. Have to remember to catch the one with Bill Nighy. Cannot fathom why Sky isn't putting them up on their website, seeing as they're just the right length.

Talking of Christmas viewing Tuesday 8pm sees BBC4 celebrating Oliver Postgate. He was the creator of Bagpuss for those wondering why the names familiar.

That's one to watch.

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Remember the dyed fleece from last summer? I took it to KM's last week, and we decided I should run it through the picker before trying to card it. I sort of divided it by color, and this is the result. I think I'm still going to card it.( my dyed fleece, the next step )

I'd never used the picker before, so that was interesting. I still want to spin this for my Ravelympics project, although the entry names aren't really helpful. The amounts of each color vary wildly, so it'll be interesting to try to come up with a repeat that isn't completely goofy.

I took over maintainership of anime_manga, which was abandoned in 2004. Time to get it running again, right?

This is a community dedicated to all things anime/manga. Fanart, fanfiction, doujinshi, graphics, cosplay photos, general discussion, news, questions or live reports - it's all welcome here. We are multi-fandom here, not restricted to one or a few specific series/shows.

Find rules and guidelines here.

Bored? Got some time to yourself and nothing to do? Feel inspired by something you saw on television, at the movies, in the paper, from a book, on your computer, read in your ebook etc?

Then how about trying Fanfiction? Yes, the wonderfully creative world of fanfiction!

At alikelyscenario we give you 21 challenges/scenarios on which to base your fic upon. Each scenario comes with 5 prompts associated with it to inspire your writing. Come sign up and try your hand at fic writing.

Already have something written? We have a few fandom specific journals that are waiting for you.

heroes_fiction - The Heroes fandom burst on the scene four seasons ago. Since then there has been a lot of good fic. Come and share yours here.

sanctuaryforall - For the Webseries turned television series Sanctuary. Here you can post not only fanfic, but fanart, icons, challenges, news about the show, and anything else related to the fandom.

startrek_redux - Beam yourself up to this asylum for the new movie. Like the asylum above, anything related to the new movie is accepted.

Got something not associated with any asylum listed above, multi_fiction welcomes any and all fandoms. No matter what genre, we want it.

made me icon:

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Want snow Tardis and eyebrow doctor?
Gank at will, though C&C is always lovely.

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on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, was Mark Gatiss' Crooked House which was shown last year on BBC4, and which just repeated. It is up on iPlayer - in three parts - starting here, and is well worth watching. I thoroughly enjoyed it last year, though think the second segment by far the weakest.

Looking back though my blog, just now, I discovered I taped it last Christmas but didn't get around to actually watching it until May! *Grin* So, a festive ghost tale that I actually watched out of season. If you're curious, my thoughts from then are here: link to DW entry.


Cranford is also up on iPlayer. Although I watched, and will be watching next week (and will watch the behind the scenes special) my current take is that it's a shadow of it's former self. And no, that's not just because they lost Philip Glennister.

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...though my wishes are a tad belated, I know.

I can't believe it's Christmas in five days! Friday, it's on Friday!! And, currently, I'm just as pleased that Santa's bringing a new episode of Doctor Who as I am about anything else (family, presents, food and frolicking) - though I type that with my tongue just a little in my cheek. It's the DW ident you see. Saw it for the first time on telly tonight - as opposed to YT or the interwebs - and the TARDIS buried in a snow drift is made of win and <3 and carolling. It's even better drawn by Rudolph and doing the loop-the-loop with the Doctor at the reins.

My shopping is done, tree decorated, wrapping bought and baking begun. Just some of the reasons why I haven't been on-line much since I struggled back to a cyber connection. And about that...

It took my being on hold with Virgin Media for pretty much four afternoon's/evening's straight to get it fixed. Pressing option one, then two, then option three, only to end up speaking to someone in totally the wrong department and being cast back into the wild's of the switchboard, to be tortured by the same pop song played over and over - while I sat, still stuck on hold. They are hellish where customer service and support are concerned, which is why I'm seriously looking to change in the new year. But enough about my teeth gashing while I was bereft without the interwebs.

The play's the thing!

The first two weeks of December saw me at the theatre twice. In fact I'd planned a post with Cock as the subject header. Cock - play not pron to be exact, to talk about Ben Wishaw and Andrew Scott in the round at the Royal Court.

I did book to see Ben Wishaw on stage (not having seen his Hamlet and having missed him in Katie Mitchell's The Idiot at the NT last year) but it was Andrew Scott's performance that blew me away. While Wishaw was the lead - and the only character named (John, whereas Scott is M and Katherine Parkinson W) it was Scott's performance that gripped me.

He was mesmerising as the heart-broken, exasperated lover of a younger man, who is indecisive and easily swayed. The shock of the play is supposed to be that John - while taking a break from his relationship with M - meets W (M for man, W for women respectively). But, if one views the play outside the labels of sexuality, straight, gay, bi it becomes a tale of two people both in love with a young man who clings to a passive aggressive stance; so unable to choose that, in the confrontational second act of the play, John/Wishaw actually lies down on the stage and just... waits, as if divine inspiration will help him choose between continuing his relationship with M, or moving forward into a more conventional life with W.

Part of the power of the piece undoubtedly came from the choreography, which was made all the more potent because the Royal Court staged the performance in a very small space, in the round. The green dot that marked the stage itself would fit into a moderate sized living room and, when sat on the lower tear of amphitheatrical seating (as I was) you could literally reach out and touch the actors.

It was terribly disconcerting to be so close, to have the fourth wall melt at my fingertips. Not only did I see the actors imbue the characters, but that person was then crying less than half an arms length away from me, Andrew Scott moving himself to real tears. Really, really disconcerting and unnerving, which added to the power of the play as the feeling of unease, created in the viewer, echoes the characters own.

It all culminates over a confrontational dinner that wouldn't be out of place in a Noel Coward play, with John's male lover, his female competition and M's widowed father meeting for dinner. Mike Barlett's play is strong, with sparking dialogue, but it's the acting that really compelled.


Wish that had been the case with Katie Mitchell's Pain of Youth, which I saw at the NT last week. A tale of young medical students stretching the bounds of convention, and declaring Bourgeois existence or suicide. There are no other choices.

Gorgeous set, lovely twenties costumes - a black coat with velvet patterned sleeves, and a silk trimmed dressing gown I would have absconded with, happily. But little else to commend it, despite four and five star reviews. Half an hour in, I felt as if I were watching paint dry. I found it excruciatingly dull, any passion (and really there should have been passion, as one girl seduces her friend into a lesbian affair, while her previous male lover seduces the chambermaid - they're all living in a boarding house - and plays such mind games with her, that he has her not only stealing from him but going out on the game) reduced to little more than raised shouty voices.

And between the scenes, the self same actors coming onto the set in black suits (which wouldn't be out of place in the city) to wrap and unwrap the set in plastic sheeting. That choreography was, by the interval, far more interesting to me than the play itself, and both I and my friend seriously discussed leaving. We stayed, expecting that act two would reveal itself like a Strinberg play. We stayed unable to fathom that it would get worse. It did.

I can't remember when I was last so bored at the theatre. Unfathomable to me that Katie Mitchell - who remains the director of my all time favourite play for her adaptation of Strinberg's A Dream Play can have staged this dull, insipid, thing. - And no, I don't think Martin Crimp's adaptation is really to blame. I boggle at the excerpted reviews quoted on the NT site, really I do.


You (and I'm thinking of shiv5468) may be interested to know that the NT site is running a Spot the prop competition. The winner gets a pair of tickets to each NT production for a year. Not bad eh?

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Finally sending out my Holiday Cards! If you don't get one it's because you didn't give me your address, or your address has changed since last year, and your card is lost at the post office. (Or blessing some stranger's mail box!)

It isn't too late for me to send you one! If you would like one, head on over to my Holiday Card post right here! and leave me your address!

yesmeansyes - Anti-rape/sexual violence blog
blackandmissing - Blog that focuses on highlighting the Black missing & murdered ignored by mainstream media

I finally stopped flipping out long enough to remember what I read about giving permission. I gave myself permission to be crazy, and I gave the swirling worry permission to exist. Magic. Went from pacing to sitting down and finishing a sock to relatively functional calm. Not that this is a permanent change. But it's a lovely step in the process.

Of course, not until I'd bombarded alh with too many emails, but she's gracious, so it was OK.

I've been folding clothes and talking to myself, which may seem odd, but that's OK. It's helping. Later, I go get trained in PetCo's method of kitty care-taking for their contingent of CAT cats.

It's 4 degrees below zero. I'm glad it's warmed up a bit. Yesterday, I had to bring in the bird feeder, scrape ice off it, and run hot water over the lid so that I could open and fill it. But it's very pretty out there, with lots of snow on the ground.

It's also nice to see Christmas decorations going up. My favorite so far is about a half mile from my house. Someone has set up store mannequins in pink prom dresses and attached gold wings as part of his display. It looks like he's filming Attack of the Freaky Paris Hilton Angels.

During the time it took to write this, the temp dropped to minus 3. I'd probably feel warmer if I got rid of the Weather Bug at the bottom of the screen.

( ramblings, not coherent, ignore )

In saner news, my back isn't bad today. Standing around on cold asphalt over the weekend wasn't really good for it, so this is a win. I think Terminator Stout is much better for it than oxycodone--I can still walk around, and I'm not nauseated, and my back just relaxes. Oxycodone involves passing out and waking up shaped like a pretzel, with even more back pain. That just isn't right.

We survived a total of eight hours of standing in the cold (two shifts, four hours each), working at the Holiday Express fundraiser for the Portland steam engines and their new home. The fun part was watching the 4449 in action. And I wore antlers. Frightened two dogs and three children.

The wildlife refuge area on the other side of the train tracks is pond-like, and froze in the cold; yesterday, it attracted walkers, skaters, and few sleds. I was a little worried about that, as the temps were rising, but we didn't see anyone fall though the ice. (We were on the trail next to the train, warning bicyclists and runners of the traffic jam ahead during loading and unloading.)

I could not have done a longer shift; as it was, when we got home Saturday, I staggered around and did a little laundry, and then fell asleep. Yesterday, I was wound up, so I didn't sleep in the afternoon, but I did crash early in the evening, after a lovely hot bath.

OH!! There's a roller rink at the park where we were. I didn't know that, or I'd forgotten. I think I want to go skate! I wonder whether that skill comes back...

I've been practicing doing the half-right thing, which actually led to some of the mess in the bedroom dwindling. It's not gone, but I think if I hadn't reminded myself, it would still all be a huge pile. Instead of a half-pile. ;-) It seems to be rewiring the thing in my head that's confused about time, just a bit.

And now, after a brief bout of freaking out, I'm going to go eat, and then empty the dishwasher. No, I didn't really need to tell anyone that, but I want the record. If you weren't used to the boring you wouldn't be here.

edited several times because I don't make sense

Back from dentist with freshly-filled tooth; it was the last old amalgam, which had been getting looser over time. Still numb. Tried drinking a little coffee, but it's not safe yet (got more on my chin than in my mouth), and I'm currently at the stage where I have to be careful to not bite myself.

( Dentist wasn't so bad. My brain is a strange place. )