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This Saturday I celebrated my birthday (belatedly) with a trio of treats. Firstly I went to the BP Portrait Award exhibition. My favourite picture was this one, which seemed to me to have love for its subject etched into every line. I went to Ikea. (Should it be capital letters, like a TARDIS? I feel as if it should.) I don't know what I'd imagined an IKEA would be like, exactly, but I was thinking along the lines of DIY store. And instead it was like a giant toy shop, with Poängs and cake. And refillable hot drinks! It was like climbing to the top of the Faraway Tree (four escalators. Four!) and discovering a land where tea fountains slosheth over. I had a birthday tea of winter vegetable soup, accompanied by a lovely cup of Earl Grey without which I would never have made it through the daim cake. I first came across a Daim bar on holiday in Norway many, many years ago, and its wrapper sits proudly in my holiday scrapbook, along with the fjords and the stave churches and the Viking ships. Daim bar + cake = heaven, which is good, since Daim bar + cake = almost certain death by dessert. There are two moments in film that never fail to make my world a sunnier place. One is Gene Kelly dancing in the puddles with a smile on his face, singing in spite of the rain. The other is Julie Andrews' rendition of "I have confidence", which is far from the best song in the film, even, but just gathers me up in a small ball and sends me soaring into the sky. The Sound of Music is my favourite film by an arm and a leg. I won't extol its virtues here. Do you have a week? You're either in or you're out, and I'm in, all in, hook, line and wimple, and really, what more is there to say? The Sound of Music stage production is on tour, and Saturday night I went to see it. It was delightful from beautiful beginning to glorious end. Connie Fisher's Maria really is a triumph – warm and funny and with a voice you could listen to all day. The children were wonderful, and the ländler exquisite, and Maggie Preece's "Climb every mountain" so roof-raisingly beyond spine-tingling it took me half the interval to compose myself enough to go and buy ice cream. So it was a good day. Yesterday evening's Emma had two Edmunds from Mansfield Park, a Daniel Deronda reunion and a relentless supply of good weather. I am inclined to agree with all the points made by this reviewer, but I've also seen enough to be fairly sure that by the end of Week Two I will be casting all my reservations aside and counting down the days until Week Three. In other TV news, my last five Tuesday nights have been spent revelling in sheer joy, thanks to the third series of The Choir. It is a thousand times better than the X Factor, for this reason, among others. :) Current Mood:  happy
Current Music: yo-de-lay-ee-yo-de-lay...
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Oh little urn, it's nice to have you back. This series may not have been the epic tussle of 2005, but the Freddie/Harmy hug at the end kind of undid me. An Ashes summer has a sheen that sets it just a little bit apart, and it's a glow that stays with you even after it's over. I won tickets to the fourth day of the Headingley test, which England lost in three days. I think this is fair compensation. :) Sunday was my Grandma's birthday and we went to see her by the seaside, where she any my Grandad live. As we were walking along the seafront, the Red Arrows flew past, which I think makes my Grandma royalty. Driving home after sunset we passed New Forest ponies grazing in the mist, which was rolling off the ground in great swathes and was positively magical. I had most of last week off work, and went up to London and then on to see ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) elisi, which I shall come to a minute. I've wanted to see Adam Cooper dance ever since his six seconds at the end of Billy Elliott. I almost didn't, a chapter of mishaps meaning I didn't make it to see Shall We Dance until the interval. It was his wife Sarah Wildor who made my evening though, a dancer of mesmerising loveliness. This was followed by sticky-rice-and-mango in Thai Square, a near-mythical dessert that had been off the menu on my previous mission to find it (although green tea and coconut ice cream served me well in its place). Next day I caught my train bright and early, and it was on time! ( Further adventures )In other news, the Times lists its top ten sexiest vampires. There's a reason I'm linking to this. Obviously. :) I am away camping for the bank holiday, and must go and pack. But I'll leave you with a recent ( visitor to my garden )And before I go, the happiest of birthdays to two lovely ladies, estepheia and the best pocket-provider in all the world, sweet_ali. {{{hugs}}} Current Mood: thankful
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Once upon a time I wrote a wee bit of fic in which Spike was among the crew of the first moon landing. Imagine my surprise when one night on holiday I turned on the TV to discover someone had kindly filmed it for me. Hee! My only complaint is that they showed it in the dead of night, and when JM started worrying that, "I don't look as good on camera as the rest of you guys," and Neil Armstrong reassured him that, "They could probably do something with the lighting," (Seriously! I think that line was in my fic) I had to give up all hope of remaining focused, and chuckled myself to sleep instead. "The camera hates me" isn't high on the list of things I'd ever expected JM to be given to say. ;) So the week before last I spent in the Lake District. A week is just long enough to never want to leave, and not nearly long enough to visit all the pretty, pretty places. When I've had time to sort out my photos properly I will come back and tell you all about it, but in the mean time, here's just a peek: ( Waterhead )Earlier this week I was puppy-sitting in a world of Other TV Channels, and finally saw an episode of ( Dollhouse )In other news, Geocities may be closing in October, but when I looked it had gobbled up half my sites already. It was the perfect excuse to update properly, and although I am not quite done I am getting there. I love html formatting. It's oddly therapeutic. Anyway, it's all here, and while it is not exactly a work of genius it makes me happy. Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: go - sparklehorse with the flaming lips
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In my last year of Junior school, we talked too much, so to try and stop us our teacher sat us all boy-girl-boy-girl. I ended up next to Wade Elliott, who on Monday scored the goal that took his team into the Premiership. Mrs Rogers, you chose your punishment well. :) I spent a blissful bank holiday weekend with friends in Newark. We went to a beer festival (the beer was mostly gone. But there were bagpipes, which pretty much hit the same spot). Summer was officially launched with my first barbecue of the year (in fact, officially, summer begins when you're at a barbecue and Will Smith in the back of your head is wondering how the smell from a grill can spark off nostalgia). And we went on a boat trip (this weekend was brought to you by the letter B. Did I mention that we were staying in a bed & breakfast?). ( I bring pictures )In TV news, Ashes to Ashes is so easily my favourite thing on at the moment that I am having to stop myself reporting my scene-by-scene reaction each episode. And there are only two more episodes to go! I wrote what is really a sloppy essay recording my love for the Gene/Alex dynamic this series cunningly disguised as drunk!fic. (I should clarify, it was not me that was drunk. I do admit to shameless use of alcohol as a plot device/excuse for ham-handed writing though.) I am too embarrassed to post it here, but here's a blink-and-you'll miss it link: Postscript. Tags: ashes to ashes, picspam
Current Mood: relaxed
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Last winter, or possibly the winter before, I posted the first two parts of my Buffy/Rainbow extravaganza, Over the Rainbow. Having hunted out exactly when and where, I've discovered it was in fact 2004. Whoops! The final two parts have been sitting half-done on my PC for just about ever, so I have been working hard to make them ship-shape, and this is Part 3. Back in 2004, I promised: Next time, Buffy arrives at the Rainbow House! Can she stop Spike having his wicked way? Wacky hijinks ensue! Which is roughly what you get. :) Although is "hijinks" a word? Should it be "high jinks"? It helps if you've watched Buffy, but you could, I suspect, get away without knowing the first thing about Rainbow. Catch up: Part 1; Part 2 ( Over the Rainbow, Part 3 )Hopefully I'll get the last part posted before another four-and-a-half years are up! Today the very best of birthday wishes go to jonesiexxx! Have a lovely day, and may the snow hold off! Or hold back, at least. Also, the happiest of birthdays tomorrow to mistakency! Have a wonderful day. ::sends scones:: Tags: buffy/spike, fic: btvs
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I have spent all day configurating, and to no avail. I like grappling with technology, but I like it more when I come out on top. Today I drowned in user manuals. Yesterday my copy of New Moon arrived. It was a warehouse damaged copy from Amazon that cost 1p, so you can see that I had to intervene. It might have been pulped! My motives are heroic, practically. ( I am not done with the sparkling )Now, some links. My Little Pony Jack Sparrow! Hee! Most of these are quite disturbing actually. Writing for a living: a joy or a chore? Whingeing about writing, which I can always relate to. Of course, what they all need to do is listen to more Linkin Park. :) I can't stop listening to Take That's The Garden. I love the way Mark fumbles emotionally around the notes and Gary comes in three octaves higher. In knitwear! Also, I only have five songs saved on my laptop, so I have no choice. I am slow here, but happy belated birthday to my very dear pocketmate lynnb! I hope you had a lovely day. Anyway, I must go and do useful things. Youth Club accounts and Yellowstone are calling. Not to mention yachting, yo-yoing, and yeti hunting. If I can stop making Spike sound like Gene Hunt, I'll be back in a day or two with long-neglected fic. Don't get too excited though. Tags: twilight
Current Mood:  silly
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Snow day! The last time I remember this happening I was in infant school. I'm not convinced I was risking life and limb to get into work this morning, but I did have to put on my wellies, which is probably almost as serious. Wellies always make me feel slightly like I have superpowers. You can slosh through puddles, and mud, and even snow – yes, snow! – and live to tell the tale. When I did arrive it turned out that the college was closed, although strangely still visible through the half an inch of snow in which it was buried, and since the chief source of heating seemed to be tea, and no-one else was hanging around, I set out across the arctic wasteland once more and returned home. Hee! We are absolutely allowed to come to a standstill over a wee smattering of snow, since the next opportunity to get trays out and slide down hills might be in another twenty years' time. Case in point: I had padded myself amply against being caught by wayward snowballs today, but in the event risked only being dusted by handfuls of snow, because there was a whole generation of children out there today with only the thinnest of concepts of what a snowball might be. The local news reported that "snowmen, staff and pupils struggled to make it into school today," which seemed slightly loopy even for local news gone snow-happy. It turned out that it was actually "snow meant staff and pupils struggled to make it into school today." More logical, but less visually appealing. ;) I have been trying to coax birds into the garden to have their photos taken in the snow, but they have been unwilling to oblige. And I couldn't go outdoors without scaring them away, so these are taken through the window and lacking pristine sparkliness. ( Snow ho ho ho )February is probably too late to wish you a Happy New Year, but I hope all of you are having one, all the same! And a very happy birthday to soundingsea! I hope you have a lovely day. Tags: picspam
Current Mood: cheerful
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I seem to have been on summer hiatus, which was not intended. Time got away from me, and the million-and-one-things I would have liked to do went with it. I think there are independent life forms growing on my keyboard, which gives you some idea. But I did have some wonderful, happy days, and it's lovely to be back. TV has also been on summer hiatus, although I did watch a lot of Olympics during a soggy summer break, Matt Baker's gymnastics commentary being my personal highlight. With the return of socks to my life signalling autumn sniffing around the corner, though, TV is back in action. And hence so am I. :) The first two episodes of ( Lost in Austen ) Talking of Jane Austen, Chawton House are holding a Jane Austen FanFic Competition. That's not quite how they phrase it. ;) I have an ulterior motive for watching ( Tess of the D'Urbervilles )In other TV news, the Battlestar Galactica DVD out next month will give me a chance to catch up on season 4 so far, which I'm muchly looking forward to. Strictly Come Dancing will, as always, get me through the winter, and every now and again I find myself with a great big grin thinking about the new series of Ashes to Ashes next year. Oh, asta77! I had a week of free evenings in the summer and meant to listen to Brideshead Revisited in bits, but ended up staying up half the night to hear the whole thing all at once. Jamie was brilliantly cast, and compelling enough to hold my attention for hours. You'd know all about that, I think. :) Anyway, I have to head off to youth club shortly, but I will be back sooner next time! ETA: The first Buffy quote that popped into my head: BUFFY "Also? I think you're drunk." Oh, show. Current Mood: hopeful
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