I am actually quite shamefully excited about tonight's EastEnders - they're doing a live episode in which they reveal who murdered Archie Mitchell on Christmas Day. As a result, I've remembered to watch the preceding episodes during the week so I can enjoy the live episode actually live, rather than as part of the Sunday omnibus.

I was also, equally shamefully, full of squee over last night's end credits, which comprised the theme tune and aerial photograph constructed out of fan-submitted videos of themselves singing the theme song. :D
And also the random influx of old characters: Carol, Sonia, Billy (I think it's even the same actor).

And enjoying the Phil/Shirley 'ship more than I should be.

Come to think of it, I haven't been this excited about EastEnders since the Kat/Alfie wedding crasher episode, which I actually taped because I was working and couldn't bear to wait two more days to see it in the omnibus. Though perhaps worse is that I kept the tape for some months afterwards because it was JUST. SO. GOOD.

Look at it this way: at least my favourite soap is highly unlikely to get cancelled, which is more than can be said for any of the so-called 'intelligent' shows I normally watch. Which is alas probably its only saving grace. It was my rebound show when Farscape ended and I've stuck with it ever since...

Anyway. I shall go and hide in a cupboard to hang my head in shame. T'ra.

Here we are, then, my final day of leave. As ever, I've had lots of time off work and achieved very little, although I suppose slightly more than usual...

We were supposed to rearrange the bedroom furniture on Saturday but that plan was scuppered by Paul having a cold and therefore not feeling remotely inclined to do anything energetic, which is fair enough, I suppose. Really we should rearrange it at the same time as redecorating, but I just had a must-move-furniture vibe going on...

So, Easter, then. On Friday night we traipsed to the Junction in Harborne because Heather had finally passed her driving test and wanted to celebrate. It took ages to get there because the buses were on Saturday service (which, with the 11, might as well be non-existent) and it was the other end of Harborne compared to the bus stop, but nevertheless, the pub was okay. Whilst there I spoke very little (the music was just that little bit too intrusive and the table was too wide, besides which Jen, Lisa and Heather had ensconced themselves into a corner before we arrived so we couldn't hear them at all), practically sat on top of the radiator because we were by the door and it was bloody freezing, and also tried some pistachios, for which I have now acquired a taste. That'll be a decent snack food, at least.

I was still feeling vaguely 'meh' for most of the night (in writing things down in my proper journal, I narrowed this down to the fact that everyone around me is doing all the things I want to eventually achieve, with Heather driving, Jen getting married in two weeks and Paul's mate Tor being pregnant - my body clock is tick-tocking quite substantially) but then it turned out to be PMT as the promised 'spotting' side effect of my new pills kicked in. Not sure if this will be a regular feature or not; at least with the others my periods were regular, so I hope these don't make them irregular again...

Anyway, Saturday we did mostly nothing, I think, except watch Delicatessen. Paul wasn't that impressed, but I liked it. I need to dig out The City of Lost Children again and re-watch it...

On Sunday I cooked a roast pork dinner (which is becoming my speciality; Paul's is roast chicken) and we're having the remains of that in a stir-fry tonight. And of course, I watched the dirge-like angst-fest of Easter Eastenders; I think right now, all the characters are getting right what they deserve: Lucy, Tanya, Ian and Max inclusive. I am following the emerging Phil/Shirley ship with some interest, mind you... The writers have this uncanny way of making previously incompatible characters seem perfect for each other without an obvious shift, which is nice. :)

Yesterday involved similarly doing nothing. We used another two-steaks-and-a-bottle-of-wine voucher to eat at Wetherspoons (must break that habit again...) and watched half of A Scanner Darkly before sleepiness kicked in. Given I'd already watched all of Annie and the majority of Prince of Egypt (which was a somewhat interesting experience given Discovery's 'Egypt Weekend', which I missed most of, unfortunately) I think three films in one day was more than enough to be going on with. Oh, and I think I also watched Mr Bean's Holiday just because it was on, which actually wasn't too horrendous. But possibly only because I like Mr Bean, in that clinging-onto-the-last-vestiges-of-my-childhood kind of way.

Back to work tomorrow, which I'm partially glad about. Being off work gives me rather too much time to think about stuff and I'll be glad of the distraction. Once I finish this entry and my lunch I need to make fairy cakes (change of plan from original idea) for work, but that shouldn't take too long. I only hope I managed to get a bit more sleep tonight than I did last night: I was awake from about 5.00 to 6.45 for no other reason than my brain refused to STFU, but at least I managed to catch up on that between 8.30 and 10.30... strange dreams included.

I suppose I should sign this off...

It's hot.

Already.

I am dreading August.  Gah.

Incidentally, you know you've watched too much EastEnders when you start to shout at the screen...  But honestly, Andy Hunter is hereby Evil and Must Be Destroyed...

I should... do something. Or something.  But it's so hot...

some things:

1) i did, in fact, manage to get to tesco's, and did, in fact, buy lots of shopping. £20.00's worth, in fact, which wasn't so good, especially since it included a rather copious amount of Things I Didn't Really Need, like raspberry sorbet...

2) i attempted to make mashed potatoes for the second time ever, and the first time was in about year 9 for food tech. the first attempt went decidedly wrong and ended up very lumpy and runny at the same time (don't ask.) anyway, i managed to make mashed potatoes, with minimum lumps, and i'm very proud of myself.

3) and! last night i made a chicken korma with actual chicken in it. okay, so it was a tinned sauce (and a very oddly-coloured, at that), but if you know how much i hated touching raw meat, you'd be proud of me, too...

4) katie will be pleased to know that i finally managed to watch thelma and louise on monday night, except i was probably too tired to appreciate it...

5) i am cursed with a horrible affliction. as far as i know, it's not contagious, but i thought i'd warn you anyway. yes, i have the dreaded Soap Addiction. see, after farscape finished, everything else had, too, save for season 5 of buffy (and i like how the beeb conveniently ended the current series of points of view just at the point that lots of people are going to have realised they've missed half of season 7 of buffy. sneaky buggers.), but i'd already seen that. so i had to fall back on something else once frasier finished (talking of which, i wish they'd hurry up with that, already...) and that something else was, regrettably, eastenders. but in my defence, it was all nautica's fault, and also the writers' for creating kat and alfie. it was entirely unfair, and i didn't stand a chance. when soaps do the Tortured Soul thing and do it suprisingly well, what else do you expect?

anyway, because of this, i ended up taping all four episodes last week. mainly because i missed three of them with lectures and work, and also because the omnibus makes my brain ache after the first hour. but also because it was a very the graduate style stopping-the-wedding thing and i had to know what happened. and it was very, very adorable.

as for keeping them on the video... i have no excuse other than: this is me, people!

so... yeah. i think i'm definitely incurable...

6) went to talk to carl about independent studies, since dave is still away, and he's convinced it's definitely An English Thing rather than A Creative Writing Thing, which i suspected anyway. it's just got aspects of creative writing because it's about a form of creative writing. duh. anyway, i need dave to come back, like, now, so i can talk to him about it. the original plan was that my analysis bit was going to be comparing/contrasting (who remembers that from GCSE?) two different buffyfics and possibly a fic from something else like 'scape or POTO, for a style comparison. but then i realised the entire thing is just, well, post-modernism, so i'm going to ask if i can do that for my analysis instead, that is, comparing post-modernism to fanfiction to see if i can back up the argument that it's a post-modern genre. (technically, i don't need to back it up. it is.)

so basically, it's all a mess at the moment. i'll just hand in my proposal and hope...

and now i have two and a half hours to kill before my lecture (bloody tutorials), so i suppose i should do some work or something...