T'eyla Minh

Legal Assistant day yesterday was quite good (other than the hour or so in the afternoon where everyone in South went to a team meeting and I had nothing to do - although I was helping Lisa out with a few bits and pieces). I didn't do very much really but it seemed to take all day...

Also managed to go to the gym AND swimming this week, which is an achievement on last week (snow notwithstanding; I would have done both if the public transport was in any way reliable). The gym was rubbish though - still full of new-year-resolution-y types so I couldn't get near half of the equipment, and several of the treadmills were out of action, too. Meh.

Yesterday I finally got the phonecall (or, well, I called back) about organising a start date for the new job. Apparently the CRB isn't needed after all as the process has changed, but the medical check has come back clear, so today I'm just sorting out notice period and whatnot with Sue so I can hand my notice in (hopefully) as of Monday - so potentially a start date of 4th March. (February is a blissfully short month!)

Today I was intending on getting an eye test, as the world has become significantly blurrier lately, except it'll have to wait until Monday now. I was going to get my 'spare' pair done as my main pair - I've not been able to wear them for two years because the last time I got my eyes tested it cost so frelling much for one pair of lenses that I could only afford to get my main pair altered, then kept forgetting about the other pair. As this pair are now looking a bit scruffy I had decided to get my red frames done as my main pair, then get two more sets - another spare/second pair and some prescription sunglasses. Since I've run out of money again, the plan changed to just getting the one set done and then getting new frames when I've got the spare cash for it.

Except, obviously, I couldn't find the bloody spare pair last night. I thought I could picture where it was but apparently I was wrong, so this weekend we need to turn the house upside down. Thankfully that will mean emptying some more boxes so we can start rearranging the upstairs rooms, but yeah, annoying. I can't see properly, dammit. :P

This morning, it transpires my job hunting could not have come at a better time. The WPO's are going to become part of Professional Support Services, thus no longer under the umbrella of Legal Services, which basically means they'll be offering a typing service to everyone. There may even be potential job losses, though having already lost four staff through "natural wastage" and me going hopefully quite soon, that might be a saving grace.

I suspect they may lose several more staff before the financial year is out. :P

( Just a bit of fandom stuff )

Right, over and out. Let's see how much fail my colleagues can cram into my next month of working at Legal, eh?

Icon from "The Reconstituted Corpse" - the reason I didn't manage to see this exceedingly obvious development before now is because I only produced that particular screencap this afternoon...

Anyway. Yes. I kind of wish I'd made this much earlier when I was still updating about work-related stupidity...

Yesterday was mildly ridiculous.

As a reminder, on Wednesdays I wear my Legal Assistant hat. Thankfully the network was up and running again (after being dead as a dodo on Tuesday), but we are still missing a laptop and Sukhwinder was due in, so I couldn't use her desktop. Naz said I could use Natasha's, as she wasn't coming in, and I'd no sooner got set up when Natasha arrived (heavily pregnant, in the snow), so I had to log out and give it back.

We then searched fruitlessly for the keys to someone else's pedestal so I could use theirs, to no avail. David happened to be sitting at that particular desk yesterday and suggested we should set up a base unit on one of the agile desks for me and Gaynor to use, and just label the desk accordingly as a non-agile agile desk. So I went to find Marvin to ask him - he agreed to find a base unit, but then there was no spare desk to use. He found me an old HP laptop (all of ours are Lenovo) and set me up on Lotus Notes, which subsequently took ages to load. Then the IKEN upgrade kicked in, threw a wobbly because Notes was still trying to load, so I restarted.

And then had to sit there for another half-hour whilst Windows updated. I finally got logged in around 11.15am, two hours after I got to work.

Aside from that it was a good day - Naz gave me plenty to do (though Jas was quite put out that she didn't get to "have a go" - her words!), including a police disclosure request, statement requests, creating a case plan and updating a bundle. Quite varied yesterday. Still don't think I could do it all the time, though. Notwithstanding the stressful morning (not being able to do anything is one thing, but when it's completely beyond your control it's horribly frustrating), I now finish work on Wednesdays absolutely shattered, presumably because my brain is working harder than usual.

I suspect this will be the case for a couple of months when I've started the new job, too, having said that. CRB stuff is sorted, now just waiting on both that and the medical checks to clear, then I can hand in my notice. THEN, I can let people know and start organising a leaving lunch / drinks.

Oh yeah, and for some reason my fingers have started peeling, so now I'm trying to work out when I was stressed enough to have caused it. There was that photocopying-related stress last week, but I can't imagine that being why. Most odd.

( Fandom / Writing Stuff. )

Of course, work is conspiring against me by being uncharacteristically busy. :P The day definitely passes quicker doing Legal Assistant work, that's for sure...

In the light of "Jack in the Box" I am half-tempted to do a tag for Every Episode Ever Except Series 4. I have a little spark of inspiration for something, but I'm going to let it brew for a while and see if anything comes of it. If not a tag, then I suspect the "X Times" story will now cover all the episodes so it can go in there.

In other news: it's been snowing. On Friday we were released from work at 1.00pm - thankfully, we did actually receive the Inclement Weather Notice, which means I get credited back to 4.15 in any event (my negative flex thanks you, Mr Chief Executive). Paul and I were supposed to be going to Ben's leaving do at the Jeckyll and Hyde, and thus had been intending on staying at work until gone five, but instead we had one drink in the (very very crowded) pub and headed off to get the train an hour or so later. We decided to get the train because as we approached Colmore Row it was eerily quiet and we figured no buses were going to get through. We were on the train by 2.00pm, home by 2.45. I can't get home that bloody quickly on the bus on a normal day!

On Saturday we walked to Thimblemill Cemetery to take some photographs. Very pretty. Other than that, we've spent the weekend indoors in the warm, catching up on television and continuing the Jonathan Creek re-watch. (The current weather also makes me want to write a fluffy snow-themed story, but I think it would have to be a one-off, out-of-context thing. Rain features quite heavily in the tags, but seeing as "Omega Man" is set in June 1999, and I have Maddy leaving at the end of August of that year, there's no scope for wintry weather!)

This morning, the bus turned up on time, which saved me having to walk to the train station. It was also on time Friday morning after the first flurry of overnight snow. Why is it they can run the buses properly in this sort of weather but not all the time? The mind boggles.

( Tag Project Update )

Ho hum, boring today. This weather is delaying my New Job quite horrendously - I was supposed to go to Margaret Street on Friday lunchtime to sort out the CRB paperwork, but it got put back to Tuesday - if the snow doesn't clear I very much suspect it'll get put back again. I don't want to hand in my notice until all the CRB and medical stuff is clear, and I am starting to get a bit antsy now because I kind of want a start date, you know?

Oh, bugger, and I still need to text Sharn. I got her mobile number off Kemi but keep forgetting / being too scared to use it. COME ON, SELF, YOU CAN DO IT.

"Defying Gravity" came on my MP3 this morning - the Glee version, obviously - and reminded me I forgot to post about season 4.

I'm already an episode behind because we missed it on Sunday and I've been too tired since then to concentrate on anything except ALL THE FEELS resulting out of the Jonathan Creek fandom flail. Maintaining momentum on more than one fandom at once is nigh-on impossible. Anyway, a few thoughts under the cut regarding episode 1, and I might actually start watching them and tweeting simultaneously as of next week.

( Minor spoilers, but spoilers nonetheless )

I have so much stuff on Sky+ to catch up on: last week's Glee, two weeks' worth of EastEnders (the New Year week stuff was so long I ran out of time last weekend - I have about nine episodes to watch now), plus three brand new shows: The New Normal, Utopia and My Mad Fat Diary. Not to mention two seasons of American Horror Story, two seasons of Grimm and all of The River. Oh, and Ripper Street (for research!) and Victoria's Children and just not enough hours in the rest of my life now that I'm re-watching Jonathan Creek. Seriously. Can I have a month off work?

I've said this several times over the past couple of weeks, but: as much as I'm enjoying the flurry of creativity and feeling the need to nurture it as far as I can, it couldn't have come at worse time. Falling back into fandom is all well and good if you don't work for a living! I don't want to abandon all the JC stuffs now they've come so far, but I'm not sleeping properly and SO TIRED it's not even funny any more. Fandom-induced insomnia is better than work-induced exhaustion, but only just. :P

Paul has asked if we can make the JC re-watch more than one episode a week. I can sort of see where he's coming from because it's ridiculously addictive (and in any event we won't finish watching in time for the Easter special), but in order to find time to construct proper LJ posts AND find time to watch other things, I don't think it's even remotely manageable. I've been abandoning him every evening since the reinspiration struck to go upstairs and work on fic (also: the office is warm, dammit), which I feel really guilty about even though he's very understanding of my need to Get The Words Down, but I'm so knackered from the lack of sleep that that's literally all I'm doing with my evenings lately. Especially because it's frelling freezing right now and I don't want to move once I get warm. :P

In writing news: the tags continue to grow. I want to get some words down on the "Crooked Lane" tag today (as we have no work) - which cannot, will not, shall never be as long as the "Three Gamblers" tag (12,516 words, FFS!) and "The Day Before the Day" (almost the same again) because it comprises a conversation and NOTHING ELSE. There is no way in hell it can go over 3000 words. Right? Please?

Once that's done I will start giving thought to posting them somewhere. And work on the companion fic. And then doubtless include MOAR TAGS as I progress through the re-watch. Bloody hell, this show. I feel like it's taking revenge on me for all those cumulative months of not writing by throwing words upon words upon more words at my brain.

Yeeah. That being said, I'll start poking at that tag now. Over and out.

Just a quick reminder to myself to try and make one new icon per picspam as cloudsinvenice and I work our way through Jonathan Creek.

I already have an idea for "Jack in the Box" (the next one) and will probably look at the others tonight, although some may have to wait until I watch as there aren't many screencaps to choose from at present (more might be forthcoming as I watch the episodes!)

PS: I has a tumblr. It is the biggest, most distracting timesink IN THE UNIVERSE, but there are so many awesome fanstuffs on there it makes me desperately sad that it didn't exist in the early noughties when I had infinite amounts of studentesque free time. (It also makes Jonathan Creek almost look like it has a fandom that comprises people other than me!)

Anyway, add me if you're on there. I would say join, but you wouldn't forgive me. Over and out.

Perhaps rather predictable, and the first product of what will become the Serially Epic Picspam - the first occasion of which will appear this Sunday, hopefully, with my notes/review/flail of "The Wrestler's Tomb".

I think this icon might be in danger of being a little cheesy, but actually, I don't care. THEY ARE SO ADORABLE.

This morning I had one of those terrifying, synchronistic moments where my MP3-player gave me a song that was so poignantly accurate I simply had to vent it. Obviously, the manner in which I vented it was tweeting commoncomitatus (who is on holiday, which only makes it worse that I felt the need to destroy her brain with it, too - but yay for modern technology not leaving me in fandomic limbo!) telling her to Google the lyrics in light of the piece of fic I sent her last night.

And then, of course, all the people on the bus think I'm a weirdo for trying not to laugh at my phone.

The song is P!nk's "True Love" (from her new album - click the link for bonus Lily Allen!). The fandom, obviously, is Jonathan Creek. The worst part is the last time the song rolled around (because my MP3-playlist is alphabetical) I struggled to think of a 'ship to which it could relate. Then this morning I nearly facepalmed from obviousness.

( Fics are progressing... )

TL;DR: FANDOM FLAIL RARRRR.

Coming out of the cut for this. cloudsinvenice, when are you good to start the joint re-watch? GETTING ANTSY OMG. It occurs to me I've not re-watched them on the MAHOOSIVE telly yet either (other than occasional glimpses on Watch when it's on), so coupling that with the fact the PS3 upscales the DVD's, I'm even more excited. :D

That being said - anyone else care to join us in the Grand Jonathan Creek Watchathon? (I still need to download "The Grinning Man" and "The Judas Tree", but frankly everything after series 3 is moot anyway. I need to re-watch both series 4 and the recent specials for context and research purposes, but nonetheless I do not relish the idea of suffering through those six episodes of Carla. Meh.)

Anyway, whenever the re-watch starts I'll announce it, and anyone with access to episodes is free to join the fun. :)

Okay. I really want to talk about last night's episode, mainly because I was flailing too much at the time... This will contain SPOILERS.

( Curse you, Sue. )

Unfortunately, it left me so emotionally drained that I didn't get any fic done last night, aside from a few lines when in bed of the Angstfic. I really need to start typing that up and turning it into proper words...

However, I did start another episode tag at work yesterday for "The Eyes of Tiresias", which in my head-canon comes before "The Curious Tale of Mr Spearfish" and henceforth that is the actual episode order. :P (I reject your chronology and substitute my own.) I need to change a couple of aspects but I think it should work as a good grounding for the Theory, in line with the "Black Canary" tag. Hopefully I can get that finished today.

I really want to re-read redux_08 again (the PotC:AWE rewrite) but am holding off until I get some of the JC fic out of my system, as I don't want to jinx it when I've made so much progress. I was intending to undertake the Redux after I'd had a Pirates marathon, but in capping for the Fandom Meme I essentially... already did that, albeit at 20x speed. ;) And anyway, it's a retelling of AWE so technically I don't need to watch that one, and I caught Dead Man's Chest on BBC2 shortly before seeing On Stranger Tides...

In other news, the house hasn't disappeared off the website yet (from either agent), but Paul did receive a call yesterday from Tom Giles & Co (who were initially letting it) to ask if we were still interested. He politely fobbed them off by saying it was too far out for us (heh!). Either we looked really interested (they didn't follow up at all on the Abbey Road property two weeks ago) or the landlord has told them he's let it through someone else and they're chasing everyone to find out who screwed them over. ;) I'm sure they can't trace it back to us in any event but yeah. I'm hoping our tactical moves haven't caused undue problems. I'll be glad when the credit checks are all done and dusted and we have proper confirmation that we can move in, as currently we're kind of in limbo...

At the end of the day, though, the landlord has said we can have it and, well, he has the final word, and chose to let it through someone else in the first place. Plus I trust Connells, a nationwide company, more than I trust an individual business in Oldbury who dither too long about their properties. Sorry, TG&Co.

Er, yeah. Anyway. I'm a bit out of sorts today as I'm sans-caffeine, thanks to another possible kidney infection from too much coffee and relief from house!stress, so I'm on the water again. I ate a tonne of dried cranberries last night so with any luck I can fight it off by the end of the week...

As wholly anticipated, the sharing of fic and rambling incessantly about Jonathan Creek over the bank holiday weekend has resulted in a fanfiction word-dump of epic proportions. Or, well, epic by my standards these days, anyway. ;) I normally have a writing flurry around February / March so it's a little late coming this year. :P

( This will probably get long so I'll cut it... )

In other fandomic news, I'm going to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides tonight at IMAX (60ft 3D piratical Johnny Depp, oh yeah baby). It's a shame Keira Knightley and Orlando Spoon Bloom aren't in it, as it sort of scuppers my preferred 'ship and I'm not really looking forward to Penelope Cruz's character as Jack's love interest, but apparently there's a lot of subtext to that relationship, in the latter part of the film, which reflects Jack/Liz, so... yeah. There's a post I have been waiting to read on sparrabeth about the subject, but I've been holding off until I've seen it and passed my own judgement.

On the plus side, Barbossa's still in it, and Ian Macshane as Black Beard should definitely be interesting - from the trailer it also looks like Keith Richards has made an apperance again as Jack's father, so let's hope he's better used this time. :D (His brief appearance in At World's End was rather overshadowed by the fandom's anticipation of his being there...)

Doubtless I shall review tomorrow, and with any luck the Pirates!Muses won't kill off my Jonathan!Muses in one fell swoop.