T'eyla Minh

So, I had a week off work. In that week, I turned 31, had family over for a very nice meal cooked by Paul (chicken liver pate, slow-cooked chicken tikka masala, chocolate and cinnamon cake), went back to Derby with Vicky, went to Alton Towers, met up with Eni, and then went to my mum's.

( Cut for length )

Actually, I was going to include the events of this week in this entry, but as it will have to be friends-only I think I'll post them separately. This is long enough already.

I'll put the majority of this under LJ-cuts to save your friends-lists, and because I'm sure nobody's actually that interested.  But anyway, here's an update of recent happenings.

Thursday
Thursday was mostly an ordinary day at work, and I got a lift home at 4.45 in order to get changed and go out again to see Sweeney Todd at the Alex, starring Jason Donovan and Harriet Thorpe (she of Brittas Empire fame - she played Carole, the mad receptionist).  I had absolutely no idea what to expect of the show, other than it was by Sondheim and therefore inevitably quite good.  ( Sweeney Todd )

This would have been a much better review on Thursday, or at least closer to the event, but I've not had the time...

Friday
So, on Friday, Paul and I headed off into town to the Art Nouveau Poster exhibition at the Gas Hall, which was pleasant enough.  This was to signify the start of a rather cultured weekend.  After that we sat on the steps of Chamberlain Square in the sunshine for a bit, and went to the Yard of Ale to waste more money in their ItBox.  A quick trip to Paul's to get his stuff, and then back into town to get food in the Briar, to discover that they've stopped doing the interesting-sounding nacho platter that they had in their menu for all of a week... and, of course, more money-wasting in the ItBox.  We really need to get over our gambling addiction...

I don't remember what we did in the evening...

Saturday
Saturday, I dragged Paul up to Derby for the day, which was very nice indeed.  It was a lovely day, and even though the city centre was as busy as usual, it was quieter around the edges.  Quite a nostalgic day for me, discovering new shops that had sprung up since December 2004 (my last visit, with Vicky) and others which had disappeared.

We had a wander around the Victorian Market Hall before lunch, where Paul bought me a ( new hat. )  Which was nice.  You can never have too many hats.  This brings my fedora/trilby total up to four: black corduroy with pink/turquoise ribbon band and buckle, turquoise felt, white fluffy knitted with black/gold pattern, new orange/black check.  I've also got another one coming from eBay shortly, as well.  Pictures of that whe it arrives.

We also went into HMV, where I bought him two CDs (anniversary presents, you see) and several DVDs: Terry Gilliam's Brazil, The Jacket, and Shirley Valentine for my mum, as all three were ridiculously cheap in the sale.  I should have bought the Wizard of Oz 3-disc set for £9.99 whilst I was there, as it's not on sale in Birmingham. :(

We wandered around the museum and art gallery, since I'd spent four years in the city and never managed to do so, and continued our cultured weekend.  The contemporary stuff was alternatively quite good and quite crap - the "Blue" paintings based on Mediterranean waves were really cool, as were the photographs of shoes in different locations (they were better than they sound).  The museum's mummy room is frelling brilliant, too - they have a mummy in there where the face, hands and one of the feet are visible and perfectly preserved.  The teeth are also bright white, which was quite scary, but they could well be fake...

After that, we went to Barracuda Bar for food, and for lunch we had an entire farm.  No, really.  ( Vegetarians, turn away now. )  We did quite well, considering, and didn't need to eat for the rest of the day.  Unsurprisingly.

After that, we went for a walk to burn off the calories and meat headaches, so I dragged Paul towards The Factory, where I took a couple of pictures on my phone.  They don't seem to have emailed, though, so I'll have to try that again later.  I imagine they're not that good anyway.

Finally, we ended up at Coyote Wild - another place I failed to get into at Uni, mostly because we got IDed on the way in and didn't bother afterwards, being pissed off that a predominantly student-orientated city wouldn't accept NUS cards as ID - and sat in there until 5.30 trying not to fall asleep.  We definitely need a Coyote Wild in Birmingham - they do flaming shots!  Including absinthe, served with sugar and a spoon!  Unfortunately, by that point the other market had closed, and also the Eagle Centre is being refurbished so I was completely confused to find exits missing.  Anyway, we went back to the station and managed to get straight on a train.

So, yeah.  A very nice day.  It seems the city is now realising the full potential of having students and graduates living there; it now has another Subway, a Benjys, and the 'pub strip' along Friargate continues to extend.  As much as I would love to live back there, Paul won't have any of it.  Well, except perhaps for six months or so, but I think we'd both miss Birmingham too much.  I missed Birmingham when I was at Uni, but all the same, going back to Derby still feels comforting and homely...

Anyway, we bought a bottle of wine upon arriving back at New Street, and headed home afterwards.

Sunday
( Sunday was our anniversary. )

Quite a strange day, really.  It was nice enough, but I couldn't really shake the disappointment of our plans being scuppered by Bacchus' opening hours again (the first time being on my birthday, when we got there too late) or the annoyance of everythng getting ruined by football, as usual.

Monday
Monday was quite subdued, by comparison.  The morning was spent watching crap television, as usual, and I was in a grumpy mood for various reasons that I don't want to go into, and then we spent the afternoon like civilised people and played Scrabble.  I won four games out of six.  I rock.

Watched half of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind at Paul's before bed and had tinned bolognese on toast for supper.  Mm.

There was a random hilarity in the middle of the night (5.15am, to be precise) when Paul shouted "Fuck off!" to imaginary dream-people and woke me up.  Somehow, it seemed to also coincide with whatever I was dreaming out, which I now can't remember.  Apparently, in the dream, he was shouting to people across a road at the top of his lungs, and then woke himself up with the shouting.  I just remember some incoherent mumbling and then the swearing...

I went into town with him (he had to go to work) and went to McDonalds for breakfast, then wandered around trying to find shops that were open.  First, I went into Superdrug and got some disposable razors.  I'd gone in for hair dye, but didn't find that until much later in the morning in the little Superdrug on New Street.  I'll post pictures when it's done, if it works.  Also searched for said hair dye in Boots and failed horribly.  I was technically in town looking for some black cord trousers/jeans/similar and some sandals for the summer, and failed on both accounts. I got my grandmother a birthday card in WHSmiths (eventually, when it opened), and got myself a new purse off one of the stalls.  It's a bit smaller than my current one, but that one is slowly giving up the ghost, which serves me right for buying cheap purses, I suppose...

Then I went to look around Primark, which was nice only in the fact that it was empty and not like a jumble sale.  Didn't buy anything, though.  I was going to go around the Bull Ring, but got distracted by shiny things in HMV.  Unfortunately, I completely failed to get anything in the sales, and came out with four things at full price instead...

The Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical Box - 3 CDs for £8.99!  It has some songs I don't already have, and I'm a sucker for musicals compilations anyway...
The Corpse Bride soundtrack
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory soundtrack (both Elfman)
Alanis Morrisette's Feast on Scraps, which I've been eyeing for the past two years... still not reduced, but what the hell.  This will hopefully be my last splurge before the flat happens, other than upgrading my computer.

And that, I think, is that.

Today, I'm going to have a shower, change my bed, and, um, do nothing much else, because my back aches.  Tomorrow I will hopefully go through those bloody boxes in my room, because they're annoying me.  At some point, I also need to send off more application forms for inevitable rejection.

Maybe a couple of other posts later if I can be bothered.  I should say some stuff about the past year, and some other stuff, too.  And I have some interesting photos to post.  Brace yourselves.

Or, why BeX should go to bed before 5am...



Sunrise, at 4.30am.  It's just a shame I'm not far enough around to see the sun.  If I didn't fear insect invasion, I'd see what the view's like from the kitchen...

Edit, 15.39: I just remembered. I had a dream where I got my dissertation back (like I'd get everything else back - in my drawer, with tutor comments on the front) and Dave'd given me a "Ga" (I guess that's my brain's equivalent of an Fm) and there was all these things on it saying "Now, look, don't get me wrong. I liked this. But..." Laura (at work) dreamt she got a third. I'm hoping it's some unconscious response to that.

Maaaaa!!

(Then again, I've never been prophetic before now...)

I was awake at 5.00 this morning, or rather, I was still up at 5.00 this morning, and in that stage of sleep-deprivation where staying up all night seems a very plausible idea.  In any case, you can tell it's nearly summer here; the sun was already rising.  By June, it'll be light at 3am.  Not kidding.  And it's only in Derby, too.  In Birmingham, it's not light til at least 4.15... :)



The sun's off to the left, behind the building.

today, i picked up the leaflet for the derby ghost walks. there's two different walks - a friargate one and a city centre one, and they also do derby gaol sleepovers for the brave, but they're £35. the walks are £17 as it is.

so vicky and i have decided to go on the city centre one; i'll do the friargate one at another time, since they both sound interesting. and with any luck they'll be done by one richard felix, the historian from most haunted, so i need to get the second series DVD and be a great big geek and get him to sign it. (yvette fielding and derek acorah were signing it in woolworth's in brum when it came out, and i didn't know. bah. but poor richard and matthew never get a look in.) so, i shall be the single member of the richard felix fangirl squad...

*takes in expressions* what?

in other news... um... nope, there is no other news. just when i have the ability to post something, nothing happens of any interest. ;)

i swear, one of these days, i'm going to get myself mugged...

i found a new route back from the station which is marginally quicker and almost as scary as going through the park. (naomi - it turns out we should have just followed the path instead of going along all those roads; the signposts just weren't very visible in the dark...) this is all well and good, however, it is not advisable to then attempt to find other random routes home when it's dark, especially when they're not pedestrianised. (i'm not idiotic enough to use subways in the daylight, let alone in the dark.)

so yes. one of these days, i'm going to get myself mugged...

moving on. there's something about certain bits of derby at night that makes the entire city feel really victorian. sadlergate, for example, when deserted and dark, and when you block out the music from some of the bars, dates back to the 17th century, but feels wonderfully dickensian sometimes. and then there's parts that look like london, like birmingham, like the middle of nowhere. and at night it's all heightened and everything's more angular and pretty.

whereas birmingham at night is much less pretty and far more terrifying. birmingham, i realised, looks wonderful in winter. maybe it's the light pollution or something. but last week when i was home, i walked to the off licence and all the trees were dead against the white sky and it was so cold and pretty and wow.

and i recall that manchester was all... industrial and develop-y, and didn't compare at all to birmingham. but maybe i'm just biased because of the 'who gets to be second city' argument. and the theatre was oh-so-beautiful outside and in. and blackpool makese me think of my childhood, walking down the main street as they turned the lights on (and they were shaped like chinese ladies in traditional dresses) and going on the big dipper and the racehorses ride, and a coastline that goes on forever in either direction.

and london makes me think of oliver twist and charles dickens and scrooge and snow-covered cobbled streets and big stone banks and judges in big white wigs, and wondering where on earth the end of oxford street is, if at all. and the underground is like a milk-bottle spiderweb of glorious desolation where you can get lost forever. the west end is a place i could happily spend my life, underground in a network of connecting tunnels.

but paris made me think of everything... of little pavement cafes and breathtaking views, and great architecture, and little garrets with blowy curtains and balconies overlooking monmatre, and shopping-til-you-die along the champs-elysses (which i can never spell) and going to the opera bedecked in satin and diamonds, and places where if you stand there long enough you could almost die from the sheer wonderfulness of everything.

why can't i live in a place like all these places? does such a place even exist?

ever had one of those moments where you're walking down a road you go along (semi-) regularly, when all of a sudden, you can't shake the feeling that it's actually somewhere else? just now, walking up to derby station along the last stretch of road, i got the immovable feeling i was in paris, and it was june 1998, and we were killing time til the coach picked us up.

it's all spring-like today, breezy and just warm enough even though i need a coat. and i can see blue sky. the feeling's gone now, drowned in growling trains, but for about fifteen seconds, i was in france. freaky...

actually, i think erik woke up. while working on an angstfic that aeryn waved at me at 2am (and which i subsequently ignored and came back to three days later only to find it didn't want to cooperate), erik woke up from his hibernation and hurled metaphors at me.

okay, explanation of the Muses follows:

first, there was erik. he's the creative one, who makes metaphors, originality, and most of my fanfic. occasionally, he'll lob the odd poem at me.

then, came aeryn. she writes my "farscape" aeryn-centric angst. i discovered this at 4am, when she vehemently insisted i write "dreaming of you" (and, although i didn't realise at the time, "nothing more you can do", the day before). unfortunately, she terrified erik into hiding. his hibernation was the result of this, and the fact that he was so pissed off at me for letting her in that he stopped talking to me. there's nothing worse than a petulant genius... hence, no erik, and hence the deluge of scapefic. (in actual fact, i had nothing to do with it. aeryn forced her way in without consent, i'll have you all know...)

now erik's back, he's not going to be too pleased to find out i now also have...

a johnMuse. he writes all my john-angst, what little there is, the random insanity, and keeps coming up with frelling parodies!! (not helped in the slightest by derek...)

john and aeryn work together on shippy angst, fluff, and sap - that is, when they're not otherwise occupied...

the basic result of this is:

i have two Muses for "farscape" alone. erik is therefore left to deal with all of the following:
~ deep space 9 fic
~ voyager fic
~ frasier fic
~ my ever-running pokéfic that still isn't finished
~ all my original works

i think i'd go into hibernation as well... anyway, welcome back, erik! now get finishing those frellin' trekfics...