Han, in London

Basically this is just showing off the cool stuff I got. Weirdly this year I only got two rings, one bracelet and one necklace/earrings set, which is a big drop from usual! Although mostly this was because I'd asked for stuff for the bedroom. 

NB following on from last year, new user icon from one of my presents :D

( Many pictures :D )

I have had such a busy weekend.

Friday night kikishua came over as Strictly was on, so we watched that which was fun. Saturday we went to Ikea \o/, where I bought stuff (including a laptop rest which has turned out to be one of the best things I have ever bought) and biscuits and we ate meatballs. I also bought paint for my bedroom. We then went to see Looper, which I really enjoyed (and watched the second ep of Strictly, of course).

( Spoiler )
Sunday morning kikishua helpfully drove me to Sainsbury’s so I could buy heavy things and not have to drag them home myself, and then in the afternoon I did the first coat of the purple in my bedroom (it is lovely, and I will post photos when it’s more even). After that I made 5 more cards (still on the Christmas cards), made dinner for last night (smoked salmon pasta) and lunch for today (smoked salmon pate) and watched Mock the Week, Casualty and 2 QIs. And then once I’d done all that, I watched Merlin.

( Merlin spoilers )
I’m also working on various fics but it’s a bit piecemeal at the moment. I need to set aside some time just for that, really (hahahaha). Tonight I have some photos to post (Cornwall & other bits and pieces) and more cards to do and Monroe is on, woo!

Tonight for dinner I am planning on doing something with trout as I bought some thyme the other week (to go with my squid) and I’ve still got lots left. Yum. I have been thinking about this all day.

I am super behind on recipes and photos (as well as the current stuff, I found the rest of my photos from Cornwall - I thought they were on the nearly-dead HD!), but they will have to wait until late tomorrow/Saturday morning as I am out tomorrow evening with delgaserasca. We are going to see Chicago where Raza Jaffrey will give us the old razzle dazzle, be still my beating heart.

The second episode of Line of Duty was amazing, and I really enjoyed the first episode of Blackout, which managed to do something different with a fairly traditional basic plotline. Sadly telling you anything about it would be a massive spoiler. I would recommend it though.

(both shows are currently on iplayer)

I have missed a week of Holby that I want to watch for canon reasons, so that is on iplayer desktop (I have had iplayer desktop problems recently – if anyone has a dl link to the Julius Caesar with Paterson Joseph etc that was on recently, could you let me know? I missed it and am v sad about that). This week’s Casualty was there briefly but has disappeared :/ I do not like being behind on Holby/Casualty.

I have downloaded the Richard II thing with skinny Ben Whishaw but have not watched it yet.

In other news, Dear and I watched Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows at the weekend and felt it was subpar and had way too much stuff onscreen that was supposed to look cool but didn’t go anywhere. Ah well.

Last night I watched The Guard, which I loved. Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Liam Cunningham and Mark Strong. Excellent, dark and funny. Mark Strong is ace.

I am still working on fics and getting closer to finishing some of the long AUs. And some of the shorter fics \o/ No promises on dates but I hope to post something before the end of the month. I made the mistake of getting some SOE books out of the library so maybe I will finally start work on that WW2 Spooks AU I’ve been thinking about forever.
At some point I intend to read and comment on Spooks fic because I know there is stuff about I haven’t read. Ditto Lewis (I still have to watch the last ep of that).

My Paralypmics tickets arrived the other day \o/ Exciting!!

Incidentally, I’m sure most of you know but just in case, Spooks has recently been recced on crack_van. I haven’t actually had a chance to go through the fics to see if I’ve read them (I’ve mostly been skimming my flist lately, I need to cut down on the comms), but they’re there if you’re interested.

So, hey! It has been a while since I posted a long ramble that covers about four different subjects. This has not been intentional, but a) things have been difficult recently and b) I got burnt out on fandom and the number of people who seem to only want to talk about a show to demonstrate how clever they are because they didn’t watch it/figured out the twist early/didn’t enjoy it so clearly anyone who did is wasting their time. WHATEVER.

Hopefully I have moved past paying attention to that mindset, but just in case I am trying not to engage with comments like that. I watch the programmes I watch because I enjoy them. Usually I’m fully aware of the quality or lack thereof (just read my numbered lists), but this doesn’t lessen my enjoyment. I can provide examples of this (coughcouchUltimateForcecough).

ANYWAY. Last week I had a week off work, which was lovely (even coming back today hasn’t been that bad). I met up with friends on Monday and we had a heritage day trawling round London looking at old buildings, and then I got rained on walking back to London Bridge, because I’d decided to go via Tower Bridge and when the rain really started, it made more sense to keep going than turn back \o/. I was very wet.

I also walked the 7 miles from my flat to my parents’ house, which was actually a good walk, even if I spent most of it not knowing where the hell I was. My parents think I’m insane. I also managed to go swimming, hurrah! And did more walking! And found out there might be a swimming pool that isn’t three sodding miles away, woo hoo!

I didn’t actually intend to spend my week off doing exercise, but hey. I did 80 lengths at the swimming pool and my arms do feel amazing.

A couple of times I took the laptop to the library and got online, as I am trying to get proper internet at home and wanted to do some price research. This is not as exciting as people think it is, because a) I am getting it so I can properly start selling cards/jewellery and do a proper photo blog, and b) having been using a PAYG dongle for a while, I know how much I am likely to be online in a given week, and it is not very much.

I also managed to do some wallpapering patch up (well, lining paper), which means that the big patches of unpainted wall in my hall and living room are painted \o/ I feel much better for that! And I am in the process of painting the kitchen, but there are bits and pieces (of work) that still need doing, and it’s only white, so that’s not a very fast process atm.

I watched The Baker (AMAZING, lj entry coming), Enigma because it happened to be on TV, the last episode of The Mentalist s1 because it happened to be on TV, some CSI:NY, etc etc. And the usual stuff that’s on at the moment – All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace (last one tonight), Scott and Bailey, The Shadow Line, Who etc. Oh, and Casualty, for the first time in months. And Emmerdale, but that’s miserable as hell atm.

I have recorded Case Histories, and there’s some five-night thing on ITV this week called Injustice with James Purefoy.

And then. I actually started writing again, rather than just opening my Word docs and adding a sentence here and there. It took me until Saturday to get to that stage, but I’ve been so tense lately I’m not really surprised.

Unfortunately, last night, while I was writing, my usb spontaneously died. While it was in use, which was new. And I lost everything. Not just the fic – there was fanfic to read on there, links for myself, research for fic, etc etc etc.

You may remember that my fic usb died on me about this time last year. Yes, somehow, having had to retype everything once, I am in the position of having to do it again.

And yes, I am aware I should have had a proper back up. I thought I did, but I’m on my work PC now and it’s not fucking here. So, fuck. More typing. Less working on the fic. More wondering if it’s worth retyping this stuff if it’s only going to get one or two comments when I do eventually post it. *sigh*

(and yes, I am aware I’m being a hypocrite given how long it takes me to comment on stuff – I had a folder on the usb purely for fic that I had to go and leave comments to, aaaaargh)

On the plus side, since starting to type this entry out, I have signed up for the internet. WOO! Except not because it’ll be about a month until I’m online, and also having proper internet access and unfinished fic will be annoying.

OTOH I will have a landline too, so that’ll be nice.