teylaminh | Entries tagged with fandom: most haunted

Okay, both of these should (hopefully) be quite short.

( Days 13 & 14 )

Hungry now. I might do 15 and 16 as one post again tomorrow in a bid to catch up. 17 and 19 are both going to be long so I might spread them out with 18 over the course of the weekend. :)

We had something of a blitz on the flat yesterday. I cleaned the kitchen on Wednesday night (or it might have been Friday, I can't remember now) and yesterday Paul did the floors and I did the bathroom - which included, I should add, mopping the walls.

Yes, you did read that right...

We needed a new mop, as the one we bought when we moved in was one of those bits-of-rope-tied-to-a-stick types and has gone all stiff and horrible. So we got a slightly better one, and a squeegy type one for the express purpose of cleaning the bathroom tiles. It's too small a room to get the step-ladder out, but the ceilings are too high to reach on my own.

The amount of dust up there was terrifying... After mopping they were literally 2-3 shades cleaner, and the colour of the water afterwards was horrifying.

Still - cleeeean now! I need to dust the shelves in the kitchen tonight and possible have a little rearrangement in there, as I am questioning the sanity of keeping the stereo on top of the microwave... :|

Shepherd's pie for tea yesterday (and lunch today), using frozen mash from Iceland for £1 a bag, which turned out to be much better value than Aunt Bessie's and just as tasty. We stocked up on some frozen stuff while we were in there to avoid having to go to Asda for another couple of months.

Oh, I thought I'd broken the fridge yesterday, too... I was cleaning the wall behind the bin because it tends to get covered in a fine layer of crud (to put it bluntly), and I unplugged the fridge in order to wipe down the top of the plug, and when I plugged it back in it made no sound... Seemed to be fine a few minutes later, though. It doesn't help that for some reason, there's no light in there...

In other news, still no sign of my bus pass. On checking the details of my account on the website it quite clearly states three important things:

1. The transaction / process is "Completed", which means...

2. ...the pass will be sent "2-3 days prior" to the start date

3. The pass should be from "05/09/2008 to 02/10/2008"

All of which mean they should bloody well have sent it by now. I will give them one more day (i.e. today) before phoning them up to shout at them.

Y'know, I cancelled my Centrocard for this exact same reason. TWM have usually been quite good about sending the pass out. Clearly my address is jinxed.

( A little extra thing I meant to post about... )

Aaaand finally, I conceded defeat and put the heating on Friday night. Which is vaguely ridiculous, really, because it's only the beginning of September, even though the wind and rain would have you believe otherwise. *shakey fist* Stupid weather.

Current Mood: relaxed

Or I need to make entries which are about one thing instead of many. :P

( Cut cutty cut cut... )

Was that rambly enough for you?

PS: To any that may be interested, there's another open rehearsal for the choir in a couple of weeks. I'll scan the flyer tonight and post it...

Current Mood: busy

Hrm. Compared to last week, which was absolutely frelling insane in terms of work to do, and generally annoying in terms of everything else because I was knackered for most of it, this week is the exacty opposite. There is now nothing to do.

On the plus side, I've managed to scrape my flex up to a full day at last, so with any luck I'll be able to have a random day off at some point. And choir starts again tomorrow, so the flex-building will be quicker.

I feel sort of restless today. I blame the weather. August has been rubbish and it's like I've been waiting for the weather to improve without it ever happening, which makes me... not want to do anything. It's odd. I'm lagging behind on household stuff like cleaning the kitchen and doing the washing because a) I've been too tired and b) if the weather is poo I can't put said washing outside and it takes a week to dry in the attic, so I end up falling behind with it.

The sense of restlessness manifested at the weekend, really. We had a quiet one for the most part. Paul was out on Friday night to celebrate his last evening of cigarette freedom, and then out again Saturday afternoon to play pool. I started various things whilst he was out and didn't finish them: reading fics, planned to update some of my own, started watching series 1 of Most Haunted and gave up after two episodes... And yesterday was the same. I sat through the 'Stenders omnibus and spent the next couple of hours trying to subdue the boredom until I could cook tea.

( Ramble )

In other fandom-related news, Channel Four have finally pulled their fingers out to bring us the rest of season 2 of Ugly Betty. For some reason the DVDs haven't been released yet, so my plan of spiting them went out of the window. Never mind the fact that season three starts in about four weeks in the US. Ah, well, it was nice being up to speed for a while.

Also, someone has brought in some Herschey's mini bars from their holiday and yeah. America cannot do chocolate. Herscheys with fillings is okay (their "Crunch" equivalent was edible), but their bog-standard no-frills chocolate absolutely mings. It has this really awful aftertaste. They may excel at cookies, but they should leave the cocoa-based confectionary to the experts. Chocolate is the one thing that makes me glad to be British, and also a Brummie. *hugs the Cadbury factory*

(Note to self: send

doec some Real Chocolate. :P)

That's about it...

Current Mood: restless

Hee, Derren Brooown. :)

That was an entertaining evening...

We got the 3.49 train to Derby, arriving at around 4.30, and made our way to the Assembly Rooms to pick up the tickets. The last time we were there (some point last year, might even have been 2006), the entrance to the Eagle Centre from the subway was blocked off for redevelopment - they have now finished that redevelopment and it looks very nice indeed. The shopping mall has been extended (although it does probably mean that they've destroyed the shops out the back, including the funky comics/memorabilia-type shop and more than likely the huge Wilkinson) and they've put Debenhams and M&S there. I completely lost my bearings for a moment until I found Sainsbury's.

It looks very impressive indeed; if they ever finish rebuilding the bus depot to make it less of a concrete monstrosity, the city centre will look even more impressive. Which is nice, because at least if there's some decent shopping people might visit Derby for more than being a gateway to the Peak District... although judging by the posters at the station, it may well provide lots of traffic to London and hence Europe, as it goes directly to St Pancras...

Anyway, that was a little confusing at first, but I like it. Definitely want to go back there for a bit longer in order to do some shopping or at least have a better look around.

After that, we picked up the tickets and had a wander to suss out food options, also stopping for a drink in Coyote Wild. Eventually I decreed we should go to Baracuda because the one in Birmingham is rubbish (it's part of the same chain but due to its location tends to be more of a nightclub than a pub, at least as far as I can see), as the other option was Walkabout and/or the Wetherspoon pub - and, well, we have one of them around the corner from home. Barracuda was the place we went to last time where we had a sharing platter which comprised half a farm, and aside from that the food used to be really nice - vaguely Caribbean-themed with spicy sausages and burgers and things.

So, I was ultimately disappointed to discover that they've abandoned their interesting food in favour of a bog-standard pub menu - scampi and chips, steak, stuff like that. Bah. Clearly what the general public want is not interesting Caribbean-style food but boring stuff which you can get for half the price at the nearest Wetherspoon (which would have more choice, ultimately)... We had a sharing platter as it was the cheapest option, and even that wasn't too intersting, comprising onion rings, chicken dippers, breaded mushrooms and cheese-&-chilli bites, with some wedges. The cheese-&-chilli things were interesting, but everything else was fairly meh... It filled a gap, at least.

After eating, we played a couple of games on the gambling machine, then headed over to the Assembly Rooms. The programmes were a fiver (fairly reasonable, considering) and even though the tickets said "restricted view", the only thing I couldn't see properly was the screen at the back of the stage...

( An Evening of Wonders - don't read if you don't want to be spoiled... )

So, apart from the disappointment at Barracuda, a very pleasant evening. I will scan the programme later, and also get the Samsung phone software installed in the hope that Paul's phone will work, as I can't get mine to work properly any more, and then I can bluetooth the photos over and post them... There shall be some Derren-esque icons soonly. :)

( Some further pondering )

I mentioned some of that stuff before when I first had a proper look on Bad Psychics.Com, but it deserved to be reiterated. ;)

Must do some work now... photos coming soon.

Current Mood: pleased

And yet another update of yet another weekend, because I know how much you all love and appreciate them.

This weekend has mostly been spent watching Farscape and random films... or bits of them. Friday night involved Dark Star and an epically long dream that I will attempt to write up later, because I need to remember it in reverse, probably. I should've written it down on saturday morning as I think most of it has now fallen out of my brain.

Saturday we watched about 6 hours of Farscape up to "Through the Looking Glass", plus... something. Some of the 100 Greatest repeated thing on E4, number ones, I think, and then Rumblefish, most of which I don't remember due to being half-asleep.

Sunday, more Farscape, to the end of season 1 (I have about two episodes missing, it transpires) and halfway through "Mind the Baby", plus the final half-hour of Calamity Jane, most of Maverick and then the 100 Greatest Funny Moments on C4. Quite impressed that Most Haunted got a mention, although less impressed by Yvette being mean about Derek. She's never accused him of being 'schizophrenic' before. :(

Anyway, that was about it, really.

I'm dog tired this morning as a result of staying up until 1.00am, for which I blame Channel 4 entirely. Luckily I have to leave at 4.00 today to get to a doctor's appointment, though I probably won't get to see her until about half an hour after the actual time. She's thorough enough that she's always late, and also nigh on impossible to get a hold of for an appointment... but considering she's one of about three decent GPs in that surgery, it's hardly surprising. I frelling hate my surgery, as you may have realised. Especially the annoying receptionists.

Tonight I have to make posters telling everyone about Liz H's leaving lunch on 9th March, so that'll be fun.

I should probably sign off and have some lunch now...

Current Mood: tired

I have turned her lovely little picture of Yvette and Karl into this icon:

(I coloured Karl's hair; hope you don't mind...)

Current Mood: giggly
Current Music: The Corrs - Forgiven, Not Forgotten

...you look so much better when I'm pissed. Or, in this case, I look so much better ( when I'm blurred... )

Today was tedious except for randomness. Cynthia lost her phone over the weekend at the carnival and it's being held hostage by a random bloke. She phoned her phone this morning to ask him to give it back and he was meant to be meeting her at 5.00pm today outside JJB Sports in the Bull Ring. He'd also phoned her landline (which she gave him, let it be noted) and spoken to her foster daughter, informing her his name was Jamal. So cue lots of shrieking and giggling from Sandra and Amanda. Sandra has a shriek that can break glass, I swear. And then she started singing along to the ice-cream van. Badly.

Lunchtime was spent booking a couple of nights at the Rose & Thistle Bed-and-Breakfast in Derby (5th-7th September) so that's my holiday booked. :P

Liz Hawthorne returned quite randomly and a few days earlier than we were anticipating to regale us with stories of her trip to Florida. I hate her. I am insanely jealous. I want to move to America now. Does anyone want a roomie? I'm quiet and mostly tidy and I don't eat very much...

Meh, I don't think I can actually be bothered to watch Most Haunted tonight. I spent the afternoon trundling around town trying to find a birthday present, did all the washing up when I got in, and have only just sat down. Yeah, I think I'll tape it and watch it tomorrow. It's just not the same these days, anyway...

That's it. Over and out.

Current Mood: recumbent
Current Music: Evanescence - Fallen

Happiness Is...

...waking up to This Almighty Thunderstorm, about ten seconds after my alarm - more than enough to drive me out of bed and my brain has been pleasantly buzzing ever since (though the effect is far better when it's dark out...)

...running into an Inliner on the bus. Which, in itself, was fairly insignificant, but it reminded me that I've gotten to know too many new people to count these past couple of months (as well as adding to my LJ f-list substantially), and now have a group of acquaintances with whom to get regularly drunk with. Moreover, I have a group of acquaintances who like to spread gossip like little old ladies. Which, for some reason, is something I've never experienced before.

...two months, one week and a day. Not that I'm keeping track, or anything.

...waking up this morning without feeling dizzy or my head pounding, as I have done for the past two days running. So I can only attribute it to the heat. Stupid weather.

...chocolate. I bought a huge Galaxy bar last night and forgot how nice it is straight out of the fridge on a warm night.

...the OMGuber-squee cuteness of David W and Matthew on the final night of Most Haunted Live. Seriously. I think half of the audience squeed, too. And someone even texted in to say how sweet they looked. Honestly, MHOTP? So not making it up any more. They're bringing it on themselves!

...not being completely exhausted. Tired, certainly, but not mentally, physically and emotionally drained. I'm definitely blaming the heat...

...drag cabaret on Saturday. So this in itself is a reminder. This Saturday (25th June) at the Wellington, at some point during the evening, we'll be showing support for Marco, as I mentioned in my post-Pride post. Come and join us!

Quick update before Amanda arrives in the office.

I don't remember when I last updated, but anyway. This week has been weird. Wednesday morning I had off sick, and turned up at 11.00 figuring some hours were better than no hours at all. I went to bed with a headache and woke up with slightly less of one, tried to get up and felt really queasy and dizzy, so went back to bed. Woke up at about 9.00 and felt a lot better so called in to say I'd be late, and spent most of the day being light-headed and wobbly. I was the same most of Thursday, too.

Wednesday night was spent house-sitting (read: watching DVDs in someone else's house) at Paul's brother's new house, wherein nothing frellingwell worked. No, really. The remote control for the DVD-player refused to function, we had to steal a VCR from one of the kids' rooms, there was mould growing both in a coffee-mug and on the bread (word to the wise: mould doesn't flush), there was no spare toilet roll, and they have a grand total of one drinking glass, so we were drinking red wine out of mugs. Very classy, I'm sure you'll agree. Otherwise a pleasant evening, though.

Nothing much else to report, really... David was out having a meal with his family last night, so mum and I had the house to ourselves, after a trip to Argos/Homebase/Asda. I watched Tuesday's MHL and she came to join me. Not quite quality time, but it was quite pleasant, nonetheless.

So, yes. I should really update more often, then I wouldn't have to do insanely long posts to clog your friends-lists... (And I really need a more specific 'happiness' icon...)

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: thunderthunderthunderandraaaaain!

Write-up (of sorts) is over on the community, here. No photos, but some general amusement. The only stuff not mentioned is the journey down, which was decided uneventful other than the random thunder over Oxford Street...

Incidentally,

yoshithedragon might be interested to know that the rose he bought me on Friday (if he remembers...) has opened up overnight and now looks like this:

And it smells lovely, too. Thaaank you. :D

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Harry Potter theme music in my head...

If there is at least one person in your life whom you consider a close friend, and whom you would not have met without the Internet, post this sentence in your journal.

MOST HAUNTED LIVE TONIGHT! WOOHOO!!!

MGM last night was fun.

_ebb_ and

gracious1 both made a first-time appearance, and we happened to turn up, of course, on the Hill's karaoke night... which led to much amusement/torture for about three hours.

In a bizarre turn of events, it turns out

legs11 knows my flatmate Charlotte from last year, as he excitedly pointed out to me. The much-publicised Paul/Jos pool rematch didn't happen because Jos didn't turn up - we suspect he chickened out.

Gave

spikelover69 her very silly and very slash vampire pr0n birthday card, which she was very pleased with. We watched crazy drunken Brethren dancing. Green_Tao/Geoff stole one of the menu-holders to use as a photo album because his surname's Hill...

Other than that, Paul was determined to be antisocial for much of the night, which prompted Ebb and Amy to shout "That Yoshi and Cake or Death are so rude! We never want to see them again!" as they walked past us on their way home. Much amusement.

Anyway. Stuff to do, stuff to do. I'm bloody starving. Need to go in 50 minutes to meet

lone_gunwoman at New Street and then get on our bus...

Have promised to phone Paul when I'm in London and randomly squee at him...

Right. Food now, I think.

Current Mood: hungry

At least for a while...

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

It's. Finally. Arrived. Apparently must've just gotten caught in traffic as it's between two read emails from Friday...

Considering we've been moving furniture/books/miscellaneous junk all day, it would've taken a frelling miracle to get me out of this chair again... but that just managed it. I've never moved so fast in my life.

YAY!!!

Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: Juliana Hatfield - In Exile Deo

Tonight's edition of Most Haunted has reminded me exactly why I went to all the trouble to send those flowers in the first place. The hassle has been indescribably aggravating, from the sending to the letters to the obtaining of tickets for the show... and to see Yvette undergo a very similar experience (though possibly less traumatic given the pre-recorded nature of the weekly shows) in an equally horrible/active location, I remembered why.

Not for the reward that was received as a gesture in kind... but for the fact that she deserves it. Even if it's just a couple of scary stalker-type fans sending roses and gushy letters, she deserves it. The entire crew deserve it. They are doing an amazing thing with detriments to their own frelling sanity (and ours...) and it's about damn time someone told them so.

Would I go through all this stress and expense again, if I had to?

Hell, yes.

Current Mood: thoughtful

Today, as days go, wasn't too bad. The battery ran out on my MP3-er and practically deafened me in the process, but I knew that was going to happen sooner or later this week. Inline wasn't too snarky, I had some email tennises with some people, and supervision with Tina was fine, and she's going to get me access to CareFirst because she hadn't realised I'd not got it. I got through to the IT Helpdesk relatively quickly and they sorted out why my email wasn't working.

There was a bizarre piece of bizarreness when I phoned the MHLive ticket people to check if they'd got my email address right, at the exact second the bloke who answered the phone happened to be sending the e-ticket... which was incredibly impressive, to say the least.

One of our clients got arrested in the corridor at about 2.00pm, with much swearing and shouting. The two officers eventually called for backup because he was resisting arrest, and another four cars turned up - for one fourteen year old boy. Of course, that set Cynthia off being upset because her son's fourteen, but aside from that it was quite exciting.

I left at 5.00 to go and pick up my prescription. My surgery has recently opened a pharmacist in the same building to make getting your prescription easier... but I absolutely hate it. The staff are slow, even though there's always a Head Pharmacist in there, there's about three of them, but only one of them ever wants to serve you. Grudgingly. And it's tiny, so it was full of people.

Nevertheless, prescription having been obtained (the NHS are now charging £6.50 per item...), I wasn't in such a bad mood... until I started waiting for the bus. It was only about 5.45 by this point. Twenty minutes later, I was still waiting for sign of any bus, let alone one I could catch... Then I got a call off mum saying that she and David were at the The Dog, and if I walked down I could get a lift home... unfortunately, she thought I was at the Bearwood bit of Hagley Road, not the Sandon Road bit of Hagley Road (it's about an extra quarter-mile to walk), so I was decidedly aggravated by the time I got there...

And now I'm just frelled off with the entire world, for no feasible reason. I'm also very tired, which might have something to do with it, but being frelled off for no reason makes me frustrated, and I'm hungry, and I want everything to bugger off an leave me alone now, please.

None of this being helped, of course, by the fact that there is still no e-ticket in my inbox, nor my Junk folder. I'll give it until tomorrow and then call again Thursday, which I'm sure will piss them off, but I can't help being paranoid when the damn thing's in two weeks and I don't even have tickets yet.

Which reminds me: two of my people may not be able to go, so there's two Most Haunted Live tickets up for grabs (well, I presume, if I ever get them) if anyone wants them. If you live in London, that would also be a bonus... though quite frankly, by this point, I couldn't care less.

Current Mood: cranky

I need to phone back the MHLive ticket people... I'm paranoid they spelt my email address wrong. It's really not easy to spell 'teylaminh' to complete strangers, since it doesn't form any recognisable words. So, will do that later.

I am currently text-tennising with

izzles about MHLive. At this rate I'm going to end up with a list of people to get signatures from/steal/abuse/kidnap/generally annoy. I have to say, though, I'm paranoid that I'll end up squeeing loudly about every single MHOTP! moment, or laughing at things, and they'll evict me from the premises, VIP or not... ;) (But still. Guest list, dude.)

The cough I've been trying to fight off all week appears to have actually manifested into something and now I can't talk properly. Joy.

I woke up randomly inspired with little snippets of scenes for Orphan Eyes, though I'm not sure if they're for the prose or screenplay version. One was definitely movie-like; the other was a better description of one of the settings. ( More here; cut in case people don't want minorminor spoilers. ) I'm really considering changing the title, though. Orphan Eyes fit at the time when the plot was in basic fruition, but there's so many other threads running through it now. Er... suggestions? Anyone?

Now I have to go find an LJ help community who can tell me if it's possible to use I-frames in a layout. I think it's possible with the S1 style system, but I'll have to check...

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Still Kerrang...

I was having two conversations at once last night, one with

bizarre_imagery and one with

thefleshfailure, and some of the bits of conversation just need to be chronicled...

( Fliss!Randomness. )

( Eni!Randomness - lots of it. )

Bravo to anyone who survived all of that. It was hilarious at the time... I swear, one day we will destroy the world.

So, today I have been in an insanely good mood. The office has been nice and quiet and, aside from having the Distribution of Ultimate Death (6 kids...), I've even had very little work to do so spent the majority of my time mucking around on Inline... There was surprisingly little mickey-taking on there, even though Jonathan/unprouncable-name-guy outright outed us in his MGM post... still confused a couple of people though, which is always fun. Of course, the good mood was only elevated by my extreme nervousness about phoning Tor about the MHLive tickets... I went outside in my lunch break to do so and she was lovely...

Actually, the entire thing was disastrous, amusingly so. I phoned up and said I'd have the four tickets (Steve and Kate can go so I've only got to sort out the other one) and she'd give my name and details to the ticket company and effectively bump me to the front of the queue. So, five minutes after this call I remembered I hadn't given her my phone number, and had to call again. An hour or so after that, there was a voicemail message from Tor on my mobile saying she'd lost my address and could I phone up to give it to her - I phoned up and she'd popped out, so I had to phone again, so now, hopefully, it'll all get sorted.

And then later I managed to cut Paul off on my mobile. Oops.

So, yes. Randomness last night also helped with the good mood, though at the time I was in "I love eeeeveryone!" mode, as the Eni!snippet demonstrates... However, I was in such a good mood I've gone the entire day with no caffeine, so by home time I was half-dead. Ah, well.

Hee. It didn't hit me til at least 12.30 that OMG I'M GOING TO MOST HAUNTED LIVE!!! :D :D Juuuust a tad excitable about that. I've warned the office that I will be utterly unbearable for the next two weeks... possibly, this is not warning enough. Seriously. I was practically bouncing off the walls today.

In which case, I should probably stop typing... :)

Current Mood: jubilant

1. David is apparently now actually moving in, eventually. Should be entertaining... :)
2. I'm currently in a pleasant state of fuzz and not freaking out, which is somewhat a relief compared to my usual state of mind after first dates... Could it be I've finally got better at this 'human emotions' thing? Hm.
3. When

thefleshfailure and Vicky are down here for June (w/c 10th/11th), mum and David are considering going off to a caravan for a week and thereby giving us free run of the house. *smiles evilly* House party, anyone? ;) It'll either be mid-week before Vicky leaves on Wednesday, or if that's not possible the Friday before Eni leaves (17th). Like most of my latest parties it'll basically involve bringing lots of booze, watching Pirates of the Caribbean and/or random slashy things and composing silly drinking games. I shall have to think about this.
4. Getting quite excited about the prospect of Most Haunted Live. Plan for tomorrow is first to email Steve King and tell him the news and then phone Yvette's PA (!!!! - still in shock about that) and sort out the tickets. So, I'll most likely be there on the first night (7th May), holding a big sign saying "HELLO LIVEJOURNAL GEEKS AND RANDOM INLINE PEOPLE!" and grinning inanely - keep an eye out for me.

I think that's everything I was going to say...

Current Mood: miscellaneous
Current Music: Cher - Greatest Hits

Certainly not randomness on a par with teH uber-weekend of Random, but certainly close enough...

The day started ordinarily enough. Having had a shower for the first time in nearly a year (shooooower!) I was feeling a lot less arghish, and had consciously decided that the team manager wasn't going to annoy me, and nor was the stationery... so when said team manager continued to bring up problems, I just smiled sweetly and let him grumble and said I'd help and then conveniently ignored it, as it turned out Natasha was chairing it anyway (not Shafiq), so she wouldn't care either way.

So, then, of course, when Shafiq came upstairs to show us a report from a social worker that actually used the phrase "spaced out on waccy baccy", it kept all four of us in the office amused until at least lunchtime... and, apparently, most of Inline, though it then devolved into a random conversation complaining about the fact that managers have no basic grasp of the English language.

Left at 2.45 and headed down to get my hair cut and straightened properly (layers re-defined, front shortened so I no longer resemble Snape...) then back home to change pre-MGM. You know about ye faga of ye fangirling, which I'm still grinning over. Definitely proof undeniable that fangirling works. :D Will organise that properly on Monday once I've emailed Steve King to see if he can come. If not, I'll phone up and say a definite yes for the tickets, but due to lack of contactable people, would it be okay to take someone else? And if so, I'll be inviting people nearer the time, so keep an eye open. I have to go now; I've got three Inline people keeping an eye open for me, and, well, with a personal invite from Yvette Fielding, I can hardly refuse. (The full letter is posted over on

mosthauntedgeek, incidentally.

Anyway, off to the Flapper after that for the MGM, which was... incredibly sporadic. I was going to eat there but forgot they stopped serving food at ridiculous times and ended up only eating a bag of crisps all night, which could account for light-weight drunkenness. Chatted amiably with people from last time and some new people I'd not met before (evildead, very briefly, Dave/LFNY's housemate when he was very drunk, and Jonathan/unpronouncable-name-guy who I gave a CD to...) and a good time was had by all.

I somehow ended up in two separate doubles games of pool; first me and Steve J (who at first refused to play with me when I told him about the MHLive thing...) against Paul (

yoshithedragon) and Jeanette/Scooter, and then me and Paul vs Steve J and Mikey (

metalmikey666), though I forget now who won. This was highly entertaining and involved one incident of poking a random person at the bar in the back with a pool cue, one incident of bouncing a red ball off the table entirely, and Mikey coming up to me and saying "Now, pool is one of those things you can blag. I've never played pool before in my life...", as well as Paul trying on mine and Kiwi's glasses and forcing me to hug him whenever we walked past each other...

Ended up also having a conversation with Laura (

spikelover69) about Buffy, amongst other things, and with Gautam/G-Dogg about Most Haunted... quite amusing.

After that we all went to Scruffy Murphy's to watch the Capones and debated whether or not to go to Snobs, and I left just in time to get my last midnight bus. All in all, quite a strange evening, leading at some point during the proceedings to my agreeing to go on a date tonight... so, er, more on that later. Still quite shell-shocked by both that and the tickets-offer. :D

So, yes. Which reminds me, I must text my father and say I'm not going tomorrow, as I don't know how drunk I might get and I'm thinking hangover+family=badness.

Current Mood: awake

Found on the doormat: a mysterious envelope, plain but for my address and a Stockport postmark.

The Antix Production studio is based in Cheshire. Which has a Stockport postcode.

I am now, to coin a phrase, shitting myself.

Fangirling? Terrifying.

Edit: It's opened... not so terrifying.

Tor has written back and offered me, Steve and Kate King, and Amy (

lone_gunwoman) tickets to the next MHLive. ;) I have to phone her up and say which day I'd like... :D

See, perserverance will get you everywhere. ;)

Current Mood: scared
Current Music: My own wibblings...

Mum and David are ripping the kitchen to pieces... so I'm hiding up here and getting ready to tape Most Haunted... or something that once was Most Haunted and is becoming... I don't know. Different. Anyway.

It turns out our main cupboard was built into the floor. Not onto it, into it. There's a big gaping cupboard-shaped hole in the ground.

As for yesterday - I can't be bothered to explain the disgruntledness, but suffice it to say it was to do with the fangirling and general aggravation.

There'll be photos coming at some point of the chaos my life random descended into yesterday and the... slightly less chaos it is now.

I got a 19p/hour pay rise to keep up with the general council pay rise. I'm now on £6.49/hour. Woo!

I'm sure I was going to say something else... I'll update properly tomorrow, I promise...

Oh, thanks once more to Eni for letting me complain at her in the midst of the chaos last night and keeping me vaguely entertained at the same time. 'Twas very much appreciated, and she is wondrous. :) (I shall similarly reply to both comment threads tomorrow...)

Anyway. Yes. *falls asleep*

Current Mood: exanimate
Current Music: Catatonia - Don't Wanna Talk About it

Finally got the website to cooperate and the flowers are due to arrive on Saturday. It's done.

Holy God. It's done. Methinks my icon should read "Kicking BeXy Arse" instead... :|

The message on the card reads, quite incoherently, as follows: ( Very short but cut anyway. )

It didn't give me much space.

So. That's that. Now there's just the rest of it to sort out.

bizarre_imagery, I need your lettery messagey thing by Wednesday, Thursday at the latest, because I need to get it all in the post on Friday morning...

Meep.

Someone remind me why I'm doing this again?

Current Mood: nervous

(X-posted to

mosthauntedgeek)

Spent this evening chatting with

bizarre_imagery on AIM whilst looking at various flower-delivery sites. Next appear to be the cheapest option, and have some very nice arrangements. I've decided on ( this one. )

herringprincess said, unhelpfully (:P), not to send red roses - but they're not red, and it's bright enough to make an impact. What do we think?

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Moulin Rouge - Hindi Sad Diamonds

It's been a while since I had a really Bad Idea. Time to rectify that situation.

Go here and vote, even if only on the first question/radio-button questions. Many of my Bad Ideas are brainstormed through someone (usually

sweeterthing :P), so I value everyone's opinions.

I am well aware, incidentally, that the 'stalker' option looks very tempting, and is most likely true. Please try to refrain from clicking on it if you can honestly help it. :P

Current Mood: quixotic

F.A.O.

bizarre_imagery,

We're eating quite late (just about to sit down) so I'm having to set the video for MHL:AAA - will probably watch the whole thing after the entire of MHL14 has finished, so I'll give you a full review/low-down at about 1.00am, if you can wait that long. :)

Sorry. :)

Current Mood: hungry

Didn’t get around to posting this one last night as it was later than I thought. Bloody Hagley Road traffic. Anyway, some thoughts on ‘Scape and thereby definite spoilers, beneath the cut.

( Farscape: Peacekeeper Wars – some thoughts. Click me, Eni. Cliiiiick meeee! :P )

So, now for today. There was some random excitement when a car driving a speed hit a parked car, lost control, and ended up on its roof right outside our building. Everyone in our office congregated in Liz's room to be nosy, and one of the TMs called the police. There was some miscommunication along the lines when people were trying to figure out what had happened.

"What's happened? There's a car on the roof??"

"No, there's a car on it's roof..."

Two fire engines and two police cars turned up, and then a bunch of firemen proceeded to stare at it and mutter a bit about how to right it again. They reminded me inexplicably of men doing roadworks, actually, in that it seemed to take 4 of them to do the work and one to think about it. I was about to head out to lunch at the time, but that was put slightly on hold while we waited for the emergency services to turn up. Crappy response time, guys. Seriously. :P After that we got bored as the car had stopped smoking and there were no casualties, so I headed out:

"Would anyone like anything that isn't a fireman?"

By the time I'd walked back the car was right side up again and most of the officials had gone. Well, it was exciting for a few minutes.

I tell ya, it's all go in Ladywood. :D

And now, a mini-rant: ( Something else that annoys me about the Phantom movie. )

Here endeth the rant. Yeah, I'm whinging. But... ugh, it's all I can do, and even if nobody else understands the importance of this movie, I do, and if I don't complain about it, nobody will. Except lots of people are, so I'm not the only one whinging over nothing. :P

Wow, long post. I shall go now. I'll work on getting MHOTP! screencaps when people give me more to find. Also, the MH interview I found last night keeps seeping into the periphery of my mind and making me snigger. If I ever see Karl Beattie in the street, I shall slap him for emotional torment.

Current Mood: pensive
Current Music: WDtW - If Only/Tire Tracks | Michael Crawford - TPotO | RHPS - Charles Atlas Song | etc

Layout, finally.

Quicker than most, all things considered. I've been using black backgrounds for so long I'd forgotten how annoying it was tweaking the style to make things clear... And I'm not happy with my link-quotes, but they're the best I can do, for the moment.

Yes, I do deserve to be smacked for this one. But, well, it's their own damned fault. :P

Current Mood: accomplished

Right, well, in a moment I'm going to e-mail everybody instructions on how to get to my house (except for those who I'm collecting, which is all... one of you. Err, unless anyone else wants to be collected. It'd be doable, if complicated.) as well as what time to arrive and what to bring, etc. Some of you I'm still not sure are coming or not, so I'll just send the details anyway.

On Saturday, we moved lots of furniture. Then we went out in the rain to Maskerade to find me a wig - I can hire one for a very reasonable ten pounds - and I finally got some red eyeshadow and discovered that they sell black feather wings for £25.50, which is about the same as they were on Hot Topic's site. But I'll check, because I think the Hot Topic ones were angel wings and not bat wings and probably marginally cheaper... in any case, I may have to get some. Wings! We got back from Maskerade and moved some more furniture, so those of you (all... two of you) who have already seen my house will be slightly confused upon entering the living room...

And on Sunday, obviously, I was at my father's, though most of it was blocked out by my latest Alanis-Spiderman-Evanescence-Cerys playlist and the Drama and Action of Eastenders. He's found a local amateur operatics group type thing, which meets every other Sunday, and asked me if I might be interested. I declined, for several reasons:

1) I don't want to join something with him, because... I just don't. It'd be more than a battle of wills. I'd want to frelling hit him in rhythm to get him to sing in time.
2) The inevitable embarrassment/heartache/annoyance/general arghishness if one of us got in and the other didn't. Especially so if it was me and not him.
3) I'm better than him. Well, in any case, I'm younger than him and my voice is more trainable and slightly more versatile (and, y'know, higher; I have the Sarah Brightman syndrome of everything sounding higher than it really is), which would act in my favour
4) He's had more experience than me, which would act in his favour.
5) Last but not least, he's had 23 years to try and spend time with me (especially in this kind of capacity) and he decides to do so now? Uh, no. Sorry. Not interested. Maybe back when I actually liked spending time with him it would have been a possibility...

I do want to join something; once I've stopped gallivanting around the country and can actually commit to rehearsals I'll look further into it. I don't think I ever told you this at the time, but just before I started uni last year, he was supposed to be directing a production of The Wizard of Oz and the last I heard until very recently, he was in the casting stages and looking for a Dorothy. And I said in jest, "I'll do it!" - and got laughed off. The most recent news is he's "lost interest" in it.

How can you lose interest in having that kind of power?? I mean, unless that's just me, but... *sigh* I'm beyond despairing. Really.

So, yeah. That's the latest aggravation.

I have nothing to do at work again, as I finished my horrendously huge pile of typing and distributions, so I think I'll spend tomorrow sneakily working on chapter five of Come Forward when nobody's looking, and find something that looks like Child Protection typing to do whenever someone comes up behind me. I hate having my desk right by the filing cabinet, though I've got the instinctive minimising down to a fine art. :)

Right, email directions coming up, and then I'll book those bloody tickets...

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Robbie&Nicole - Somethin' Stupid | All Saints - Black Coffee | Cerys - Only A Fool | Les Mis

Do you remember about two years ago, when my journal was a terrifying haven of random Farscape crossovers?

Well, if you thought that was bad... you ain't seen nothing yet. And here I thought Green Dwarf was disturbing enough...

(And, yup, it's another new MH-based icon. Just a "general outpouring of love and affection for Yvette", to quote

sheldrake; that's what she looks like after being up for 24 hours and... not actually scared witless for once. But yeah. I'll take my geekiness away now. :P)

Current Mood: thirsty

I have entered new realms of ultimate geekdom. Every time I go to Asda, I promise myself I won't buy either more clothes or more books. So I come out of Asda with a(nother) new top and Derek Acorah's book.

Yes, you heard me.

The deciding factor in this was purely the fact that he mentions the Brannigans "Godfrey Parks" incident, and this amuses me for some reason. Honest.

Current Mood: dorky

So, after a random absence, I returnetheth to your friends lists with random pieces of news:

1) I am quite horrendously addicted to Most Haunted, in case people hadn't guessed that already.
2) I currently have nothing to do at work, but hopefully this'll change soon as a) Liz H should be back soonish and I'll be getting more than one set of minutes per week to type; b) CPAdmins are meant to be doing four meetings a week by instruction of Tina H, and my other job is to distribute them, so that'll give me something else to do and I might even get a chance to listen to music and zone out entirely whilst doing so; and c) if they're cutting back by getting rid of agency workers but are low on minute-takers, I could be working for the BCC on a permanent basis. Apparently.
3) I'm going out with Ben again tomorrow night; we're going to Ask on Hagley Road, and I'll update on that at some point. I'm not entirely sure when the transition from 'meeting up outside of work' to 'going out on a regular basis' takes place...
4) I just banged my little toe against the desk and now it hurts.
5) After nearly a full day of frustration, non-functionality, broken wireless aerials, and reinstalling of AOL 9.0, WE FINALLY HAVE BROADBAND AND A HOME NETWORK! Which means I can finally get online before 10.00pm and me and my mother can both be on at the same time. Huzzah!
6) In discussion whilst at Asda (where else?), I have been allowed to hold a Hallowe'en party, since it seems

falling_softly may not be able to. Naturally, I'll email/post full details of this if it takes place nearer the time, but for now I'll just say that it'll be BYOB and BYOF, I'll remove most of the more expensive/rare ornaments, but please be careful of the others, and the obligatory costume will be literary/movie/TV-themed. Everyone who reads this is, of course, invited, whether they're in the country or not. ;) It'll probably be on the Friday (29th, I think) as Hallowe'en itself is a Sunday.

Woo! Broadband! Hallowe'en!

My God, I'm so glad I'm not going to my father's next Sunday. Seriously. Today was actually marginally bearable until the last half an hour or so...

Item the First
An advert for Most Haunted - Unseen came on during the break of Will & Grace, informing me that it was back on Tuesdays, which I already knew, but thanks to general withdrawal from Yvette and her Intrepid Investigators^TM, I started squealing. And was then forced to explain what it was to my grandmother, but I'm getting my MH explanation down to a fine art, now: "It's a real life documentary thing. They go to haunted places in Britain to see if they really are haunted, and it's utterly awful but very addictive and I'm obsessed." This was also semi-relevant because she was trying to get me to go with her to some random old building somewhere on Friday night (the day when I'm semi-conscious and about ready to crawl into bed at 3pm...) which I plainly refused to do because... ugh, I hate going ghost hunting in large groups of annoying people, and, just, I don't particularly want to. So this led into a conversation about ghosts in general. She doesn't believe in ghosts. I do. So she asked me to explain why I did, and what they were, so cue me pulling all my random Derek-inspired knowledge from the depths of my brain, embellishing a little, and trying to explain the concept...

Ye gods. Never again. I mean, how exactly would you define a ghost without having to explain lots of other complicated buzz-words (like 'residual' :D)? It's not easy. And anyway, my reasoning is that I don't believe in Heaven or Hell, but there has to be more to death than just death, and if not one of those two, we have to go somewhere. I like to believe there's something after death, because otherwise... well, what's the point? Nobody lives forever in their mortal state, right? But what if you could come back on some other plain of reality and watch the time going past without you?

Sorry for the waxing poetic, there. I didn't give her all of that, just the Heaven/Hell thing. Personally, I find ghosts easier to believe in than the Christian ideals.

Item the Second
Dentistry, of all things. Here's the thing: I haven't been for a dental checkup since before I started University. My reason - lack of knowledge of where the dentists were in Derby, for one. But more than that, I absolutely hate and detest going to the dentist, and always have. When I was seven or so and my first baby tooth fell out, I was taken to the dentist that worked next door to my grandmother, Paul. He poked and prodded the offending tooth, and I cried, which annoyed him, so he yanked the damn thing out of there, which made me cry even more, and since then I was handed over to Miss Porter, a much friendlier dentist. To this day, I still can't stand Paul-the-dentists, despite the reasonably good job he did of capping the tooth I cracked in first year. Despite having the lovely Miss Porter-the-dentist for most of my going-to-the-dentist-regularly life, I hate going to the dentist. I hate getting my teeth scraped the most; fillings, etc, I don't mind as much, but it's the teeth-scraping I hate. It always feels like my teeth are going to break.

I'm also convinced I should've been given braces years ago, and wasn't, though I doubt they would've made any difference because a) I do have a slightly cleft palate (apparently), which forces my front teeth forwards, and b) I still suck my thumb to this day and the braces would only have gotten in the way and made me upset.

Anyway, the fact of the matter is, I've not been to see a dentist in so long that I'm a little scared to go to one now, not least because I don't think I can face the inevitable head-shaking and questioning, and because of teeth-scraping, etc. I would be perfectly happy to get my teeth checked out - I need the capped one levelling so it matches its neighbour, for a start - if they would put me under anaesthetic, which they won't, because I'm asthmatic. Hence the still putting it off.

So, what does this have to do with today? I don't entirely know how we got onto it in the first place, but the short version is that she kept on pestering me about it (and we've had this conversation before) and saying how I should look after my teeth, and that she'd make me an appointment with Miss Porter again, because I liked Miss Porter, didn't I, and if I told them I was scared, they'd be nice to me, and when are you going to sort it out, oh, I'll get you an appointment, and WILL YOU JUST LEAVE IT ALONE, FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!

*breathes*

And still it continued, until I couldn't stand it any more, turned the television off and made a point of banging things around to indicate it was damn well time for me to go home now, and ignoring her. "Oh, I've annoyed you now, haven't I?" Yes, why do you think I'm ignoring you. "Haven't I? Harry Potter?" (And that's another thing - please realise, I do not like being called that, I do not resemble him just because I wear glasses, I am not male and to inadvertently suggest so is very annoying, and this will not change the more you call me it. I am not going to come around. I am merely going to get more annoyed.) To which I said, "Just shut up," and started packing things up even louder.

She brings out the absolute brattiest worst in me, and I just can't help it, and I hate it. In my father's defence, he did back me up afterwards. The car journey back was spent in silence, more or less, with her sulking because I wasn't talking to her, and me slowing fuming in the front seat. God knows, I try to reason with her, to have adult conversations, but when I do, she makes some inane comment about how "clever" I am, or how "beautiful" I am, and how nobody else compares, and I just give up, because it's like talking to a brick wall. I have a low self-image; constant praising of me does not help in the slightest.

And to top that off, I had to explain the "Betty Crocker at Betty Ford" line from The Stepford Wives to my father in the car. Give me strength, or a pop culture dictionary...

I reiterate: I'm so glad I'm not going to my father's next Sunday. Seriously.

Current Mood: pissed off

Well, I was going to post about the aggravating day spent at my father's (I even wrote things down!) but I watched one of my favourite MH episodes (it happened to be on after I'm Famous and Frightened had finished) and it's mellowed me again. Also, I'm too tired. Tomorrow you get a lowdown of the aggravation...

I wandered downstairs at 12.30 (gah, sleeping late again; here the cycle begins...) to find my mother off work because of her cough and watching a film, which now I must see the beginning of, if only to see the ending in context...

Guarding Tess, it's called. I saw the last hour, maybe less, but it was really quite good. The basic plot is that a secret service agent, Doug someone (Nicholas Cage) is assigned with his team to protect the president's widow, Tess someone (Shirley Maclaine) - I'm horrible with surnames... Anyway, at first they just don't get on - she doesn't want the protection, she's stubborn, and he's at his wit's end. At the point I started watching, she went for a joy ride with her chauffeur, Earl. Turns out she also has an inoperable brain tumour. She's being protected solely because she's a public treasure, apparently. She gets kidnapped by Earl's sister and brother-in-law, and Doug figures out Earl's involved and gets her location out of him, thus getting there in time with the FBI, etc. and saving her life.

It's a comedy, done well, amusing but not overly so. It's easy and fun to watch, but honestly, given the way they developed the relationship between Doug and Tess (intentionally, I might add, despite my initially seeking it out in subtext because of my inherent Norma/Joe-esque radar in these situations) it's quite a... dangerous subject matter to explore in a low-budget light comedy.. Older woman/younger man is never really explored without there being Ulterior Motives (even in Sunset the implications are less than innocent; I just... chose to ignore them. :P) so it was quite refreshing in itself, just watching these two grow fond of each other... It was done so nicely, too. Just slipped in there when nobody expected it, nothing explicitly said, nothing admitted, nothing happening, just... there. Lovely. I can see quite a few people who weren't expecting it just going "But he... and she... and they... oh. Okay."

So... I need to watch it again. And I'm utterly ashamed to admit that not five minutes later, I wanted to write fic for it. I need help.

I also watched the first night of I'm Famous and Frightened on Living, and I think I can safely say my IQ has dropped about ten points in the process. I knew it wasn't going to be anywhere near as good as Most Haunted, but wow, I didn't think it would be that bad. I mean, really. It's utterly horrendous. Keith Chegwin, you may have been doing live television for over thirty years (wow, really?) but that doesn't mean you're any good at it. And no, I'm not just saying this because I'm biased as a MH fangirl. It really, really was appalling.

And I'm listening to the two hour IF&F Extra in the background, and I feel my brain trickling out of my ears. For the love of God, make them stop...

Current Mood: indifferent

fasterpussycat_ just made me co-mod of

mosthauntedgeek. Or, well, she asked if anyone wanted to be one, and I stepped forward, and she said she'd been thinking of asking me anyway.

:)

The little things...

Current Mood: peaceful
Current Music: As before...

Having wound down from the MH caption insanity (and my inspiration on that's completely dried up, so no more captioning from me for a while...) rumours are rife that series five will be the last one, which makes me sad. They can't end the series! They're not allowed to! They have fangirls to please, dammit! But, on the plus side, one of the upcoming investigations is in Swindon, which is where Vicky lives, and if I can find out exactly when they're visiting, I think I may be due a stalkage...

I have made

pandorasblog's CD and it'll be in the post tomorrow. I hope she enjoys it. :)

My mother has become an Anne Summers party host to get spare cash. Which should hopefully equate eventually to free, or at least discounted, cosetry. Hurrah. The lady who came to enrol her is completely nuts. :)

None of the pubs I've applied to have gotten back to me, the bastards. So tomorrow I'll have to do another search at the Job Centre. Just... ugh, I fucking hate job hunting. The only jobs I've ever successfully managed to get weren't based on application forms, but on actually talking to a real person who can see you and interact with you, rather than trying to guess your personality from some basic answers. One thing's for damn sure; I am not, repeat not working at McDonald's again. It's the most soul-destroying experience I've ever been through, and I'm never doing it ever again. Ever. I'd rather vacuum bloody office blocks.

*sigh* I want some money, please.

( Some ramblings about writing. This'll get long, and I'll complain a lot about nothing in particular. I suggest you ignore it. )

I would like a new brain now. I'll swap you for one that doesn't think so much. Just for a week, I want to live like someone who doesn't give a shit about anything and is quite happy being a pointless blot on the landscape, rather than living like someone who cares about far too much and is still a blot on the landscape. Or maybe just being without brain would be nice. I'll sell it.

For sale to good home: one brain + thoughts. Twenty-two years on the clock; well-used but slightly mangled. Would suit anorexic goth chick, but owner will sell to best offer.

Any takers?

Current Mood: indescribable
Current Music: Ang's playlist...

When I suggested a caption competition over on the MH geek community, I certainly didn't anticipate this. Though, given what me and

last_dance used to come up with for Farscape screencaps, it's hardly surprising...

I figure I owe an explanation for my actions, if possible.

For the record, I am completely against real person fanfiction, and real person pairings, mainly because I could never see the point, and because it's against all the laws of ethics in every way. Until MH. I don't know what it is about it that inspires this complete insanity in myself and others. I can't explain why we're applying canon rules to it, or why the MHOTP even came about. All I can tell you is it's harmless fun, we mean no offence to any of the crew members by it (we love them all, really...), and the moment it shows signs of getting dangerous or out of hand, I'll be the first to back away. Maybe it's because every single member of the team, past and present, is so individual that it's very easy to forget they're real people, and especially when they're in front of the cameras and under pressure.

So, honestly, I have no excuse. Real person fic continues to ick me out, but with Most Haunted, somehow, it's not as bad. If anything, it's bringing people together in the most wonderful, unashamedly fun way, and that's got to be a good thing, right?

Current Mood: crazy

Gah. I'm really sorry...

( MH is love! )

I'm really, really sorry. You can all thump me now.

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Triplets of Belleville soundtrack

I realised I haven't actually done a proper entry for a while, but then again, I haven't really done anything particularly exciting or worthy of note. My room is pretty much sorted, though. I'm starting to realise I have too much stuff to intelligently fit into the amount of space I have, and I definitely cannot buy any more videos because I have nowhere to put them, literally. All my shelves, drawers, and boxes are full. I also cannot buy any more clothes without throwing some more out, and I've already been through them once...

Job hunt is currently non-existent. I should probably go around Brum at some point and look in pub windows, and I have an appointment at the Job Centre on the 6th, with lots of scary forms to fill in in the interim. I only hope they're more bloody coherent than those damned Student Loan applications...

I am, as you may have noticed, rather horrendously trapped in my Most Haunted obsession, and I've been spending lots of time posting in

mosthauntedgeek, which is why it feels like I've done lots of posting recently. (To that end, look, another icon. At least I'm honest about it. :P Hey, is it my fault they force Derek and Ivvy to do adorable posed photoshoots?) Come Forward is off the ground, and chapter two is now written, plus I spent today making up a chapter plan for it, and I have to say, I think it's going to work. I wasn't entirely sure I could pull it off, but... you know, I think I might. I've also been watching the edited-to-half-an-hour repeats of Series 1 on Ftn, which are Mondays, and Wednesday-Friday at 9pm (Tuesday being the original MH-night, but is now Dead Famous night, which is pretty much the same thing, but with Gail Porter, set in America, and trying to contact famous people instead of random ghosts... Though I think Derek contacted Charles I once...) A fix is a fix in any form. Alas, I'm slipping into old shipping habits and watching Derek and Yvette's every move like a hawk...

As for

mosthauntedgeek, in the wake of the Derby live show, it's all non-stop action with screencaps - mainly for my benefit, and I think someone's going to shout at me for clogging the community up with random shippiness - and icons and CF updates and member questionairres. All good fun. I've also obtained an insane amount of random friends from the same community in the space of about two days, namely, (in no order),

izzles,

tengirlsago,

thescruffydog, and before that,

killer___queen,

pandorasblog and

lutonairport. And at the rate we're shipping, I may have to add

desired_destiny, too, as I've just noticed she's added me... (I wondered how long that'd take :P) Yay for complete and unabandoned geekness. :D

Hello to all the new people, incidentally, and it's nice to meet you...

I was also added, it seems, by

nessaelerrina, who has also added other Buffyfic authors such as the inimitible Kallysten and Eurydice (who wrote the fic I'm enraptured with, "Promise of Frost"), so I feel rather humbled. I apologise, in that case, for the decided lack of anything Buffyesque on my journal of late...

And, if that wasn't enough, I'm currently having a very interesting debate on

starsareageless, the previously rather arrid Sunset Boulevard community, with

fullofstarlight about the various pairings. It's here, if anyone wants to read my incredibly long and rambling, uh, ramblings...

Me,

last_dance and my mother are going to Alton Towers on Thursday, including a sleepover at mine the night before and after, so hurrah. I shall inflict MH on her and watch her suffer... Gah, see what I mean? Completely trapped...

Oh, and this is why I started this post in the first place, and my above comment on the lack of Buffyness is now completely redundent. My brain's going at a rate of knots lately; in the middle of writing chapter 2 of CF, I was struck with a random bit of conversation for the epic Buffyfic.

( Buffy/Giles type conversation, including definite spoilers for aforesaid fic... )

Of course, it's very rough. I didn't want to write random bits of dialogue before I actually got to that point in the story - and I've been looking forward to writing that part for ages - but I've also got a sheet of A4 somewhere with other random dialogue on to include later, and I had to get that down before it went away completely...

And that, I think, is everything. Wow, does this make up for the lack of posting?

Oh, and

last_dance, you can see the prettypretty Jack Sparrow poster when you come, because it's in a confined space and too close for me to get a decent picture...

Now I'm off to make Karl/Yvette icon to compensate for the Wrongness... :D

Current Mood: energetic

I present: my first mini-movie icon...

Derek/Yvette, incidentally. I don't know where exactly they are, but it was early series one when Yvette was a big wuss.

Gah. Stop shipping for real people, dammit. Stop it. Just stop.

Well, I'm back. Huzzah for that. I've nearly sorted all my stuff out, just got some general debris to shift back up to my room, which then needs re-tidying (although I've been trying to do that as I go along and been marginally successful) and some bits for the bathroom.

I really wish people would let me screw my life up on my own... I can't do three things at once. It's either tidy up the stuff from the hall, phone the job centre people about job seekers' allowance, or go into town to find a job. If I don't do any of these things, I'm going to get screamed at, so, y'know, which am I supposed to do?

*sigh*

Other than that, nothing to report, other than the fact that Most Haunted brought their three-night live investigation to various places in Derby the exact weekend I happened to leave. Grr. That being said, it was quite interesting, and Derek's possession by 'Charlie' Stanhope only added fuel to my Derek/Yvette shipping vibes. Talking of which, I extended the plot for my Come Forward idea... Everything as it was before under the cut, plus new bits...

( Come Forward + plot )

So, it has a plot, it has inspiration, and I have pretty much all the time in the world to finish it. All that's left to do is start it. I also had this little idea for it earlier where Yvelyn receives birthday gifts prior to a shoot - earrings from Mark and flowers from Alec, and is later seen wearing not the earrings, but one of the flowers... possibly. I was really, really trying not to portray Mark as the bad guy, but it seems to have ended up that way. No matter how adorable Derek and Yvette are (in RL, I mean), she and Karl are also too lovely for words...

Guh. Damn you, canon-based series.

Current Mood: grumpy

At least this time I'm not procrastinating-by-icon...

(Currently linked from my webspace because LJ's being an arse with my userpics at the moment... I'll be using this one myself, but feel free to steal it if you so desire...)

Spam, spam, spam...

(P.S.: I mean no offence by the icon. I realise it's probably the best footage they've ever caught, but... I just had to. :D)

Current Mood: creative

By a very random and circuitous sequence of events, I was reading though an old MSN transcript of a conversation had with Shilpa over the summer, to try and find a bit of a conversation had with Jenny-in-Georgia in relation to the Sunset at Tiffany's ending ideas that I'd pasted, since the conversation with Jenny has disappeared, because I came up with another ending and then realised I couldn't remember the first two... But anyway, I came across the following snippet of conversation:

Her: ooh have u been watching will and gracde?
Me: i never remember when it's on. and i have to be in the right mindset where i'm giggling inanely, which i'm not, currently.
Me: otherwise jack goes from being cute and adorable to cute and depressing...
Her: fair neough
Her: 9pm fridays
Me: right.
Her: just been moved
Me: i'll attempt to remember it...
Her: it was mucchly gd on friday
Me: also, i have to be able to fight nautica to the death. she's determined to make me a jack/karen shipper...
Her: noooooooooooooooooo!
Me: when ideally, i imagine i should be at LEAST jack./will...
Her: noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Me: no to both? oy...
Her: yes indeed will and grace is my one programme unshipped
Me: heh. blame nautica, not me. it happens without my even realising it.
Her: lol
Me: you know, i don't think i HAVE a programme unshipped...
Me: except possibly most haunted, but that doesn't count.

Also rather ironic seeing as I was reading truly appalling Karen/Jack fic not ten minutes ago. Procrastination-by-badfic is the worst.

Incidentally, I still haven't found the bit of conversation I was looking for, and consequently have a half-written e-mail still awaiting completion... and I'm not doing any more work 'til it's done, either. :)

Current Mood: rejuvenated

Well, I say 'bored'. I mean, of course, 'procrastinating and determined to finish icon set tonight if I die trying'. I think I may have to reinstall Photoshop, since it keeps closing for no reason... actually, I may time it in case it's some weird timeout thing...

Anyway.

( Most Haunted icon set that will mean nothing to any of you )

Hurrah for pointlessness! Now, to bed!

I am hereby actually obsessed with Most Haunted. I had a dream about it last night. Or rather, I had a dream about Derek Acorah... Um. I think I was with other people, one of whom was Aisha and I don't know who the other was, and we'd gone to see the show, which was done rather like an interactive audience experience thing rather than being filmed, edited, and broadcast as it actually is. Except we got there late and managed to catch the very end of it, and them finishing up. But then we managed to catch Derek as he was wandering back to some other bit of the set. And this is when it started to look very much like a theme park, because it'd got a souvenir shop and he was apparently assigned to work the tills that day...

So we followed him in, and it looked a lot like my grandmother's old house as we're leaving the set - there was a set of stable doors and then two steps down onto a patio, with a little flower garden between it and the grass... But anyway, that was a random remembrance. We followed Derek, and since it was a non-busy day (it was a Wednesday), he decided to give us a free psychic reading to establish if any of us had any psychic ability. The person-who-I-don't-remember wasn't psychic in the slightest, I was a little bit, and Aisha, it turned out, could be a medium she was so psychic. Then they had to go home because they had trains to catch, and since I didn't (maybe it was in Derby?) I stayed behind and chatted to Derek for a bit, and I remember telling him about the ghost cat we had at the house on Reginald Road, plus all assorted odditites (specifically, it walking up the bed and blowing in my mum's face, and the incident with the falling pipe box that seemed intent to kill me...) which he was very interested in.

And then - this is when it gets fun - he invited me to the next show, which was on a Friday in Newcastle, because he had two tickets to get rid of left over from some competition or something. Frell knows why that's relevant; it doesn't even make sense in the context of the 'theme park' vibe I was getting. Anyway, he invited me, and asked if I could make it. I said I probably could, but I'd have to get the night off work, and it depended on what time it finished since I didn't know anyone from Newcastle.

This bit seemed to be late at night - well, it was after the show, so that makes sense - so I was in a rush to get everything sorted, and part of me was hoping if I made enough excuses he'd offer to drive me in his snazzy white sportscar (well, according to the website...) but I knew that wasn't polite of me so I was desperately trying to sort things. There was this weird section with a hotel where I had to phone them on a special mobile phone that I'd never used, and when she asked for the number, I didn't know it; the receptionist girl told me the number was on the cover of the phone, and it turned out that to work out what it was, you had to find a word on the front (mine said "WAIL") and then take all the letters of that word out of the random letters on the phone - sort of like how you text, only not in any logical order - to find out what the ringtone was... it was confusing, but that's the best way I can explain.) So by the time I'd figured it out, she'd hung up on me.

And then, for some reason, in my mental unconscious map of Britain, I decided that Newcastle was really close to Manchester, so I could go and invade Eni's floor. So I phoned her up (on the special phone, and she still knew it was me, strangely) and we had a conversation that was something along the lines of:

"Hi, BeX."

"...Hi. Um, this won't take long and I'm in a rush, but I need somewhere to sleep on Friday night, so could I stay at yours?"

*long pause, where I can hear her scratching her head* "I suppose so, but why?"

"I'm going to be in Newcastle and you're closer."

And that's... nothing like it, but that's the general vibe I got from it. So, that being all sorted, I said to Derek that yes, I could come to the show on Friday. And he told me I'd get preferential treatment because they were front row tickets. So, yay for that.

Then there was this weird flashforward part where I was trying to figure out what time the last train from Newcastle to Manchester was, and trying to look on a map to remember the name of the station that was down the road from Eni's house so I wouldn't have to make her come and get me...

Then I was at the show, with Naomi, and it turned out to be on a Thursday, but I'd not had time to phone into work and ask for the night off - then, as it turned out, Steve and Sue were at the show, so I didn't have to. In any case, I apologised to them profusely and they said it was okay. All I remember of the show itself was, um, riding on an elephant with about five other people all sitting on top of each other, with someone on my lap, and then... doing a charity thing where I had to walk and talk with a boy from Zimbabwe with two wooden legs who couldn't see, then filling in random questionnaires that involved mis-pronunciations of the word 'transvestite'... and Becky Kelly, who was in my year at school, turned up completely at random.

Also, I remember buying pens from the souvenir shop that cost me £7.20...

Wow. Okay, the ending was weird. But the Derek-Acorah-inviting-me-to-the-show section was kinda cool. Also, I slept oddly on my right shoulder and now it hurts...

I need to make a Most Haunted icon...

Current Mood: sore
Current Music: The computer chugging.

Didn't have to make one; it already exists. :) It has been duly joined. Yes, I am a geek, and there's nothing you can do about it.

But before I explain why... more photos. On Thursday we went to Merry Hill, and came back with stuff. So, in the vein of

queenc2346's recent post, here's what I got...

( Clothes!! )

Right, now for why I'm a lost cause...

Most Haunted. For those who don't know: it's a series on Living TV that has acquired something of a cult following. It basically involves a team going to the various supposed haunted places in Brtain to find out if they actually are, taking along a spiritualist medium, a paranormal investigator, a historian, and various technical guys, with lots of digital cameras and special equipment. They've got some pretty good footage from some of them (an armchair being moved in a Dudley hotel, for one, as well as the medium getting possessed with more and more alarming regularity) but all of the footage is then studied by a parapsychologist and generally refuted as technical glitches/whatever. All in all, it's just... pointless. But fun, and quite interesting whether you're a believer or a sceptic. And very addictive, for several reasons:

1) It's presented by ex-children's television presenter, Yvette Fielding. She's also the executive producer alongisde her husband, Karl Beattie (who, for the record, proposed to her on air on something else they both worked on, which is rather sweet...) The fun with Yvette is that she gets very scared very quickly and screams a lot - though she's getting much braver - and it's absolutely hilarious... I mean, it's cruel to laugh at her, but it's all part of the entertainment... Lately she's actually getting more level-headed about it and trying to explain things in terms of what they could really be, rather than instantly assuming they're paranormal happenings, but she still clings to whichever male crew member happens to be nearest...
2) The medium, Derek Acorah, is a popular presence on Living TV and seems to have his own little fanbase... He's from Liverpool and wanted to be a footballer when he was young, until his grandmother or aunt, possibly, honed his psychic abilities. Whether you believe he's genuine or not, it's fascinating to watch...
3) Everyone has to throw tomatoes at Dr. Matthew Smith, the parapsychologist; we love to hate him because he's blatantly in the minority and he knows it. I get the impression he's only there so we can boo him...
4) My general interest in all things paranormal is what made me watch it in the first place; the longer I watched it, though, the more I started to care about the people involved, which is probably how it is for everyone else, too.

Anyway, over the Easter weekend, they did a three-day (seven-and-a-half hours) investigation to find the spirit of Matthew Hopkins, witch-finder general from the 1600s. It was really interesting. Funniest moment was on Saturday night at their first location, where Yvette, Derek, and Matthew (Smith) were wandering along a beach following Derek's psychic lead, and Yvette got stuck in quicksand; it took four strong blokes, including Derek and Matthew, to pull her out (one at each limb), dragging her out of her wellies in the process. They showed the clip four more times over the course of the night, including to Yvette herself later on, just to extend the embarrassment. Aside from that, Matthew and Richard Felix (aforementioned Derby historian) got into a verbal spat, and clearly had to be separated after Friday's argument, since they were never in the same room together afterwards... It's just so much more than a ghost hunt; it's fantastic entertainment in its own right, but only when you know the cast/crew/presenters well enough to care. :)

Long explanation, I know, but I'm probably the only one here who even knows what the Hell it is, let alone watches it... But yes. My lost-cause status...

See, I'm so used to watching epic, fictional, canon-based serieses, that I unconsciously apply the same rules to Most Haunted without actually realising it. The presenters and crew are the characters; it's 'canon' is just previous investigations/occurrences. And hence, naturally, the Inner Shipper, which is also a presence in and of itself (or herself, since it's blatantly female) takes over when I'm not paying attention, and before I know what's happening, I find myself shipping for the bloody thing. To reiterate: it's a non-fictional, reality-based investigative television series with real people in real relationships that I have no right to dabble in, and I am shipping for it. Specifically, I am shipping for Derek and Yvette, and, at the same time, Yvette/Karl...

The latter is fair enough because they're married and teh most adorablest couple evar. But the really idiotic thing is Derek is also quite happily married to Gwen, and despite the fact that I know this, that I know they're real frelling people, Nautica persists in trying to make me ship for them.

Y'know what? I blame the Derby Gaol investigation. It was in series one; in one of the cells, Yvette was overcome by random inexplicable emotion and couldn't stop crying (she was fine once outside the cell.) So Karl ( ran to the rescue. ) But before he was alerted by a crew member, Derek was on hand to ( lend a shoulder. ) It can be attributed to the fact that he's generally a nice guy and can't stand to see a damsel in distress, but that was the moment that Nautica prodded me and said "Oo!"...

In any case, in order to get her to shut the Hell up, I'm doing a new original story based on the Most Haunted premise. Details as I typed them up yesterday are under the cut. I want to start it now, seeing as my characters have names and I have a plot and I really, really like the idea, but I will wait until I've done my dissertation. Yes, I will. Or maybe I'll do bits of my original thing after however many thousand words have been written...

( Notes on 'Come Forward', including which character is meant to be whom... )

Honestly, it'll be better than it sounds. I just have to do it before my brain explodes...

And now I want to make a Most Haunted LJ community to out all the fans. Hm. Yes. I think I shall... *toddles off to community-create*

Current Mood: geeky

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. ;)

Current Mood: fangirl

bob monkhouse is dead... there goes a little bit more of britain...

anyway, on a less morbid note, have some randomosity:

~

translucent has converted me to being a predictive text user. although so far i've had to teach my phone the word 'frell', unsurprisingly, and it persists in using 'of' instead of 'me'. but nevertheless, it's considerably quicker and not as annoying and confusing as i first thought, and i'm going to kill her, because it gives me one less thing to complain about. ;)
~ just watched the first third of the three-night most haunted live, and am continually inspired to write an original story about similar characters... but i'll probably explain that more if and when i ever get around to writing it...
~ got the evanescence my immortal single. it's way better than the album version - the vocals and the arrangement in general is better, the video is pretty, and just wow. everyone buy it!
~ watched a mid-season episode of the 10th kingdom at random today. most of you probably haven't got a clue, but here's the buffy cast crossover version, which'll never get written, but is fun to do anyway...

virginia - buffy
tony - giles
wolf - spike (pointy teeth; major predator issues...)
wendell - xander
the queen - willow
snow white - tara (don't ask. that makes sense in context.)
troll king - riley (*snigger*)

and there it sort of falls apart because i've forgotten most of the characters. but yes... i definitely have some sort of incurable disease. ;)

Current Mood: shocked
Current Music: evanescence - "haunted" (live AOL session)

someone remind me to stop watching multiple Scary Things in one night...

first, i watched "most haunted", which took place at the station hotel in dudley, and, despite the ghosts therein being benevolent, the activity they caught is now making me go 'eep'... (said ghost moved a chair and the bed in one of the rooms, which wasn't visible until they speeded up the camera. it was really frelling cool, if a little unnerving...)

then, i watched "from hell", which is a recentish film starring johnny depp and heather graham about jack the ripper, and featuring Johnny Depp's Scary Cockney Accent, amongst others...

( spoilers, possibly )

anyway, i've finally got new glasses (x2) and i can see! it's a miracle! i was apparently going blind, which is never a good sign. ;) now i just have to make a hair appointment and dye it and i'm all set. oh, and buy many birthday cards... methinks i'm going to be busy next week...

Current Mood: paranoid

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Fandom for February: Days Thirteen and Fourteen
Not-quite-so-Spring Cleaning
I Need an LJ Subject Header Transplant
Pondering-y type things.
Derren Brown in Derby
Yet another pointless entry.
In response to bizarre_imagery...
To quote the Bob...
Randomly in a very, very good mood.
MHLive, etc.
(no subject)
Best Thing I've Seen All Day.
And yet...
Ups and downs and no in-between.
Various.
Randomness from AIM last night...
Random other life-esque news.
A Friday of All Randomness.
*gibbers*
*hides*
Yt ys done.
Bad Idea Update.
Vote, please?
Quick message
Farscape and Phantom and firemen, oh my!
Phew.
Weekend things.
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Oh, dear...
:D
Neuroses are not there for the provoking.
(no subject)
More random films...
But, on the plus side...
Bleh. Mood swings.
Dear Lord...
Bandwagon, meet my leaping feet.
It's been a while.
Iconing.
Update on general things...
More icon fun.
Oh, sweet irony, how we love thee...
One boooooored little geek...
Damn. Now it's official...
Well, what d'you know?
There is no hope whatsoever. I am hereby officially a lost cause.
ghostwalking
bloody 'ell...
meep...

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Rambling Verbosity since 2001

Entries tagged with fandom: most haunted

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