T'eyla Minh

There was a new Jonathan Creek Chrismas special last night, namely "Daemon's Roost". I knew this was coming but only knew it was on thanks to Denise texting me to ask if I was watching - to which the answer, obviously, was yes, though admittedly with a combination of trepidation and excitement. Trepidation because I fully expected to be disappointed, and excitement because NEW JONATHAN CREEK.

My immediate reactions are already on Twitter but, as ever, this deserves a full write-up. So without further ado...

( Daemon's Roost - capslock warning )

Now that this is done, I have a half-drafted Year in Review Meme to post as well. Watch this space...

(PS: Apparently I haven't got any Creek icons on Dreamwidth. Derren will have to do instead...)

I didn't get to see this last night as it was Noel's birthday, so Paul and I watched it this morning. Probably just as well, seeing as I've had flu for a week and would probably have fallen asleep halfway through otherwise (because I'm ill, not because it was boring).

Anyway, I don't think I have quite as much to say this week...

( The Sinner and the Sandman )

One more week to go and then I can get back to indulging my headcanons. :P

Apparently the three new episodes, a.k.a Series 5, are due to be shown at some point in February. Not exactly sure when. In any case, given the latest news, at least it'll be over with quickly...

( Cut because of minor spoilers. )

I am tempted to livetweet the new series when it's on, as I suspect I will have rather a lot to say once the incoherent silent rage has worn off, and it might be helpful to have a point of reference. :P

In other news, Paul and I have made a start on marathoning all eleven seasons of Frasier. :D We're currently halfway through season 1 (because they're only short, of course) and it's really great fun finally getting to see all the early episodes I missed the first time around. I didn't start watching properly until season 7, and even then managed to miss a few episodes (including the finale) because of Channel 4 rescheduling it...

So obviously, I spent the weekend reading fanfic (Niles/Daphne was one of my first 'ships, of course, then latterly Frasier/Roz) and episode transcripts and prematurely rewatching the season 7 finale on YouTube because OH MY GOD THAT EPISODE. (Resolving seven years of unrequited feelings / UST: ur doin it perfickly.)

Also I am amusing myself by retrospectively ascertaining where my Niles-crush came from whilst simultaneously trying to fight it off with a big stick (I think it was just lying dormant all these years). I can't even blame the frivolity of youth this time around. :P

It's a relief, actually - with three separate rewatches (X-Files, Buffy and now Frasier) in addition to the Grand JC Watchathon (which I must get back on track with), I do at least have something with which to distract myself from the above-mentioned fail...

And I'm determined to do a Farscape marathon this year as well, as Lloyd was nice enough to get me season 2 for Christmas. Not quite sure when, though - maybe when we're a bit further through Frasier and have finally finished Twin Peaks (it transpires watching a mind-mangling David Lynch show on a 12-inch screen at bedtime is not the best idea; we've moving it to the big TV downstairs instead...) I might actually attempt proper episode recaps this time around, as it's another of those fandoms which will benefit from being Older and Wiser. :)

(Oh, speaking of the TXF and BtvS rewatches, Denise and I have hit season 2 of both now. Which means abduction arc / "Irresistible" (a.k.a the Episode That Turned Me Into A Shipper) / "Humbug" (first comedy episode); and Spike, respectively. :D)

I think this is quite long enough. I'll try to update before the Creekfail occurs, but I promise nothing. ;)

Have been somewhat busy this weekend so only got around to watching this one this morning - hopefully this recap will not be as insanely long as the last episode, for the most part because the action is dragged out over two episodes - and also because much of the decent J/M stuff is in part 2.

You may be pleased to note (or possibly not?) that I only have six screencaps for this episode - but I've made up for that in part two. :P

( Series 2, episode 4 -  )

So, yeah. This one is very light on 'caps simply because Jonathan and Maddy don't have that much interaction - there were other scenes of them together but I had real difficulty in trying to get decent pics. Fear not, however - the next episode has one of my favourite opening sequences EVER, plus a little glimpse at what cohabiting life would be like for them, and it's awesome. :D

Somewhat overdue an update - this is what happens when I have work to do.

Firstly: in writing news, I've finished my latest Pirates story, "Oranges to Florida", inasmuch as it's done on paper but I have 6.5 hand-written pages still to type up. Once that's done I will give it another once-over before posting to FFN / plugging on Tumblr. I've been trying to keep the style consistent, but a recent bout of reinspiration has meant that the latter half of the story is more dialogue-heavy than the beginning (and indeed more than I envisaged when I started), as well as including more from Jack's POV in addition to Elizabeth's. (Also, thanks to starting to follow the Sparrabeth blog on Tumblr halfway through writing it, the ending went in a direction I hadn't quite intended because my head was full of meta and subtext and FEELS. I'm not complaining, though, because it ends with some bloody glorious angst. :D)

Paul and I have finally made some progress in moving around the upstairs rooms, although the plan did change a little bit. We're about halfway done now - the daybed and TV / video storage unit (ex-wardrobe) have switched rooms with the PC and cube unit (effectively making the larger spare bedroom the office rather than the box room). This has meant that Denise and I were able to commence our X-Files rewatch on Sunday as we have somewhere to actually watch the videos. :D

In the process of room rearranging I thankfully uncovered my Sims 3 disc so have installed that on the laptop. It now runs properly and has already eaten about 16 hours of my life; at some point soon I'm going to start creating my own (hopefully fandom) characters, and I'm already dreading the insanity that will inevitably ensue... I think I'll probably start with Jonathan Creek; if I'm successful in orchestrating a Sim!Harry, I will be sure to share the (doubtless terrifying) results. :D

After tweeting a random conversation about badgers at work this afternoon, it has also resulted in potentially re-starting the Grand Jonathan Creek Watchathon soon with cloudsinvenice. (Badgers = Jonathan Creek. So shall it be forever amen.)

The conversation in question went something like this:

Karen, who walks to work: I saw a badger walking to work this morning.
[Cue jokes about the badger going to the office.]
Me: Did it have a briefcase?
Maria: *has hysterics*

(We were all very tired and it was quiet in the office. :P)

As for the X-Files rewatch, on Sunday we managed to get through the first seven episodes ("Pilot", "Deep Throat", "Squeeze", "Conduit", "The Jersey Devil", "Shadows" and "Ghost in the Machine" - the fact that I still remember these without looking them up demonstrates how many times I've seen season 1). My intention this time around is to (a) finish all nine seasons, even though it's going to take a bit longer than last time, and (b) top up my original LJ episode reviews / recaps with different episodes. In all likelihood, however, I will just go on Tumblr and flail at the shippiness instead. :P

Rewatches with friends are fun. :D

( A few thoughts so far... )

Still not much to say about the actual episodes yet, as season 1 was a hodge-podge of "monster of the week" and early conspiracy stuff before the proper mythology set in, but I'll try and do an update every time we watch some episodes, at the very least. (I do, however, reserve the right to continually flail over "Post-Modern Prometheus". All my life.)

I am still two write-ups behind, despite having promised myself I'd get them done this weekend. Am busy tonight and also Wednesday (meal for Jade's 21st) so hopefully on Thursday I might get at least one of them done.

Anyway, last night was the long-awaited Easter special of Jonathan Creek, namely "The Clue of the Savant's Thumb". I really wish it had been on Sunday night instead so I'd have a day to recover - as it stands, I didn't get to bed until gone midnight last night thanks to obsessively refreshing both Twitter and Tumblr for fan reactions, and even then did not get to sleep until nearly two.

I probably shouldn't be abusing New Job's technology to be doing LJ entries, but as it's quiet and nobody is looking (shhhh!) I shall at least try and get some of this nonsense out of my head before I attempt (and doubtless fail) to sleep tonight. (Entry also finished at home much later.)

Because seriously, I need to vent this. cloudsinvenice and thefleshfailure may both wish to wait until after they've watched before clicking the cut...

( The Clue of the Savant's Thumb - quite obviously, contains SPOILERS and copious amounts of CAPSLOCK ABUSE. )

I hope the three episodes being filmed in the autumn are better - or that Renwick falls out with Sarah Alexander and finds some way to write her character out like everyone else. :P

Okay, hopefully now I've vented that I will actually get some sleep tonight. SO TIRED.

This is very, very long overdue, for which I can only apologise. We watched the episode in question on 24th February (a day late because on the Saturday I fell asleep at half-five, all the long hours at work having finally caught up with me) and the re-watch is temporarily on hold whilst I catch up with screencaps and cloudsinvenice catches up on her end of the re-watch. Just as well really, because my two weeks "between jobs" have been mostly unproductive. I'll do a proper write-up probably tomorrow about the non-uneventful side of my leave, and my last day at Legal. (Obviously, despite all good intentions to the contrary, I have done nothing but oversleep for a fortnight.)

Anyway, onwards.

( Series 2, episode 2 - "Time Waits for Norman" )

Right, thankfully the self-imposed hiatus means I can catch up on my screencapping, so I'll toddle off and do the rest of series 2 now...

Right then, we're on to series 2. As much as I have lamented the fact that this show is so short, it will at least make the re-watch less of an epic marathon...

( Series 2, Episode 1 - "Danse Macabre" )

Next week will be "Time Waits for Norman" - I don't have many pictures for that one, for reasons which will become apparent... Once we get past the halfway point of series 2, however, I anticipate things will start to get very interesting indeed...

Click here for "Time Waits for Norman"...

Well, actually, we intended to be productive, but it got scuppered.

On Friday we had Lisa over for tea, as she was belatedly bringing over Paul's birthday presents. I cooked her a fish curry with brown rice (because we are healthy) and then we sat and watched Moon. It ended up being quite a late one - I think I went to bed around 1.00am...

On Saturday we went out to get some supplies and stuff for tea (including some very nice steaks from the butcher which were a bargain at £3.50 each) but then didn't manage to do very much else because I had a(nother) migraine - my own fault really, as I'd had two glasses of wine and a bottle of cider the night before. I did try and fend it off before bed by having some water, but no joy. It persisted all day and was the annoying sort of migraine where I forgot about it until I did something silly like bending and straightening, which would make my head pound incessantly. So we didn't manage to go through any boxes on Saturday.

We watched Jonathan Creek at six as usual (actually, the migraine might have been a good thing as it subdued me somewhat; I'm wary of my squee not ruining the episodes for Paul!) and then I pootled about on Little Big Planet whilst Paul cooked dinner. Then we watched The Artist, at least until the last half-hour or so when Paul fell asleep. Obviously. :P

Oh yeah, and in the morning we made some pineapple sorbet - initially this was to get rid of some accumulated egg whites in the freezer, then it transpired not to need any egg whites after all. I need to give Katie the recipe later so I'll post it here too. It tastes amazing. :)

On Sunday, therefore, we were still intending to go through boxes, except I was struck with the Ovary-Kicking Period of Doom and spent the day not doing very much at all. Namely, sitting on the sofa with my wheat bag and catching up on EastEnders (I'm finally up to speed now after being persistently a week behind since Christmas), playing a bit of Red Dead Redemption and doing my JC write-up. Chicken stir-fry for tea and then the evening spent being distracted by Tumblr, as usual. I got a few words of fic down but nothing particularly substantial - I want to get the tags done and dusted pretty sharpish as I need to print them off for Eni for her birthday. (The post-ALTAF angst is still not cooperating, either. Grrr.)

I also seem to have acquired several plans for my two weeks off work. ( Cut for length. )

This week I'm only in work three days (yay!) because we've booked off Thursday and Friday. Normally for Valentine's Day we book a meal somewhere but we're both skint; my other plan was to have a day trip to Stratford, but trains are just as expensive, so instead we have a vague plan of going to the Sea Life Centre as I have a 2-for-1 voucher that I think is still valid... Then I'll probably cook that monkfish that's been in the freezer for ages, as I'd been saving it for a special occasion - which will work out much cheaper than going for a meal as all I'll have to buy is Parma ham and Arborio rice (for the samphire risotto).

Which reminds me: we've been engaged a year as of today! That's really gone quickly. :)

Oh yeah, and the other thing that happened this weekend was I finally bit the bullet and added Sharn on Facebook, she added me back, it's all good. I feel silly for worrying about it now. Socially Awkward Penguin, thy name is teylaminh. She asked for details of my leaving do, so if she could come that would awesome. I apologised for delaying so long in getting in touch and she admitted to being just as guilty, so yes. The internet is magic, and I should not be so paranoid.

Okay, there's nothing to do today and this entry has only taken me up to 11.00am. THIS is why I can't build flex, dammit. (I even got up early today in an attempt to fool the snow, then it took me half an hour to leave the house due to tired fuzzy-headedness and I missed the before-eight bus by a matter of seconds so was still late. I don't know why I bother.)

We went to see Les Misérables last night. Pretty awesome.

( Les Mis Thoughts - contains SPOILERS )

Overall then: highly recommended indeed. First entry on my "fandom: les misérables" tag!

I have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea to go and see a three-hour long, emotionally draining musical after my Legal Assistant day - we didn't get back until midnight and today I'm exhausted. Definitely worth it, though.

( That other fandom, you know, the one I've barely talked about lately... )

My leave date is now confirmed as 22nd February, with my new start date as 11th March, and I've sent an "unpaid leave" request through so hopefully payroll will get the hint and I won't have to argue with them later... The next month is going to be very very tight indeed, but at least March payday is exactly four weeks from February's, so with any luck the new job will make the month fly past...

Okay, I think this is long enough.