T'eyla Minh

...in that, once again, we've run out of work pretty much everywhere. It's always on a Tuesday for some reason... as soon as I want to leave early, there's bloody loads. :P

I had one of those mornings today...

The bus driver, for starters, was a little over enthusiastic with the brake pedal for the entire journey... and also, the bus was incredibly full from Moseley onwards (glad I don't have to get the bus from there; Kings Heath can be bad enough some mornings) and yet the driver persisted in letting massive groups of people on when there were clearly no seats.

Nothing is as bad as the 101 in that respect, which would usually be full when I got on (about 10 stops from town) and then the driver would let full stops of people on it for the next four stops. It was usually a relief to get off, but didn't help that the bloody thing was always delayed...

So, after enduring the Journey of Certain Death, I proceeded to get off the bus and step in someone's freshly-discarded chewing gum. NICE. My shoe has been sticking to my foot-pedal all morning.

Swimming was random last night. I did two of my lengths in back-stroke rather than breast-stroke (which I still suck horribly at) and we spent rather too long regarding the ceiling upside down at the deep end... er, best not to ask.

I also finished annotating my choir music last night so at least that's done now. The last couple of concerts I've pretty much relied on memory because I always forget to take a pencil to rehearsal with me...

Here is a to-do list for the near future. I highly doubt I'll get any of the non-choir-related things done, but here it is anyway:

In no particular order:

• Draw out £20 for second concert dress instalment. Make envelope to put it in first.
  
  
• Hand in music form.
  
  
• Find Carols for Choir Book 1... (It was on the bookcase after all...)
  
  
• Saturday: listen to CDs, namely the new Katie Melua, Serenada Schizophrena, and Messiah in preparation for the concert. Edit: And MP3-ise the recording of Zadok the Priest to enable learning.
  
  
• At some point: start my Star Trek fanfiction page on the website, as I have a clear plan for that already.
  
  
• Make new LJ layout. I want to do either Jonathan Creek or Team Rocket from Pokemon... can't decide which.
  
  
• Start re-writing old Trekfic into prose format. Possibly get around to finishing that "Bohemian" four-parter...
  
  
• Finish Ugly Betty fic; upload next chapter soon.
  
  
• Tweak Phantom fic to desirable standard and post first chapter.
  
  
• Watch stuff on DVD and video, dammit. I still have nine seasons-worth of The X-Files to get through... (the repeats on Living don't count. :P)
  
  
• Christmas stuff.

I think that'll do for now.

Most of the above will inevitably be thwarted by the PC throwing a wobbly, of course.

I couldn't really be bothered to explain last night, and also just felt like using the Mastercard advert format... but anyway, here's what happened on Saturday:

We went to see Drew in three plays at Langley School (Dovehouse Theatre) - which incidentally looks like the Best School Evar - and had an adventure on the way home...

Alison had rung Ambassador Cabs and specifically ordered a six-person taxi in order to take home herself, Drew, Drew's parents, and me and Paul. A regular, four-person taxi turned up about 10 minutes later. Paul and I graciously let Alison, Drew and his parents have the cab, as the driver said that a six-seater would be another half-hour wait. He then said he had called through to send another one for Paul and I, and that we should wait there in case it turned up.

Which, obviously, it never did. After 15-20 minutes Paul rang them up and it became quite apparent that no such taxi had ever been ordered. The woman on the phone was very apologetic, said they'd been having trouble getting a car out to us (you don't say!!) and offered us a local taxi number, but given that the whole point of ringing a taxi was to get home quicker, it seemed a bit redundant, at that point, to call for another, wait for it, etc., so we decided we'd walk up to the main road (Warwick Road) and get the two buses that would take us home.

It was about half a mile up Kineton Green Road just to get to Warwick Road alone, and obviously by that point the buses were on rubbish, about-to-clock-off-for-the-night service. The next 37 wasn't due for 10 minutes or so, and it said it was only a 5 minute drive to Westley Road in Acocks Green, from where we could get the 11 home, so we decided to walk. No 37 passed us during the walk, so it seemed like a positive move...

Anyway, we also wandered into Acocks Green station at one point to try and get to the bus stop, only to find it was closed, despite all its lights being on. Shut the frelling car park, you idiots, or something. Anyway, the 11 turned up pretty much straight away, and we were back within an hour and a half or thereabotus, which wasn't too bad, considering. But yeah, it was about four miles, judging by how long it took...

As if that wasn't bad enough, the driver on the way there (from the same company) was useless too. He turned up 15 minutes early and was incredibly arsey about it and said he'd wait five minutes. Which was probably just as well, considering he didn't know where he was going. He interpreted my vague "it's off the Warwick Road" as "I know exactly where I'm going", and got incredibly aggressive when, after getting lost and apparently going down entirely the wrong road, we tried to tell him as much. Luckily enough he did then find the road, but it was touch and go for a while.

So, yeah. Don't use Ambassador. They're usually really good, so it's a shame.

On Sunday we had another long walk to the Selly Park Tavern - it would have involved getting the 11 on a Sunday and then going down the Pershore Road - again, no buses seemed to go past us on our 15-minute jaunt down said Pershore, so walking turned out to be the best option. We met joetimewaster and miss_scooter there for Sunday lunch, which was very nice indeed, played the ItBox for a while and then got a taxi home.

And of course, they sent a bloody six-seater. This was A-Cars, though, but still, it's hardly bloody surprising they can't send six-seaters when you want them, if they just go on normal hire. They used to do this in Derby all the time; they would ask how many people it was for and still send a people-carrier for two people. Taxi firms are utterly shit these days, unless you live in London. ALL Birmingham cab firms should learn some kind of Knowledge; I don't care how many bloody provinces there are, just LEARN them.

Anyway, rant over. This morning I had to finish the same two-tape dictation I mentioned on Thursday ("Russian") because our 'other' typist took it Friday morning at 11.20 and managed a quarter of the first tape, in five hours. Given that it should have been given back at that time to remain within the 24-hour turnaround, this is fairly crap. So, yeah, that was fun. Once again, clearly, common sense prevails; for God's sake, if you're going to take something, at least make sure you know you can finish it. You should know how long something will take you by now...

Now I must go swimming...

The weekend was nice.

On Friday, herringprincess texted me whilst I was at the pub asking if I wanted to go to the cinema. Unfortunately I was too tired, but instead Paul and I invited her along to see the Simpsons movie with us.

Due to the blogathon, however, we had to see it very early in the morning so Ali could get back home and start her posting. So we ended up seeing it at 10.50 at Cineworld.

( Review / Spoilers )

After the film we wandered back down Broad Street and discovered the Peace Gardens, which I'd driven past before without realising what they were. Quite pleasant, and at least it was a nice day.

Then we headed towards the markets to walk Alison to her bus stop, and Paul and I went to Maccy's for lunch (yum, grease), and a couple of pubs. Naturally, due to the good weather, the entire population of Birmingham was out in full force at any pub with a beer garden. Bastards.

We had a little bit of a disagreement on the walk back to the bus stop, whereby I sulked all the way home... We got off the bus at Blockbuster and rented three films for the week: Stranger Than Fiction, Little MIss Sunshine and Pan's Labyrinth.

Watched Stranger Than Fiction of the evening, which was also very good... quite different to what I was expecting, and the featurette on the GUI was informative, though we didn't watch the others. It's strange to see Will Ferrell in a more straight role where he doesn't have to shout to be funny. (Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but he does tend to do that Jim Carrey thing where, if there's no space for insanity, there'll be one scene where he just can't help himself [see: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind]...) I would review it, but I think one is enough for this entry.

Sunday we did nothing, really. EastEnders and the usual headache, plus putting the washing out to try in the late afternoon because it apparently wasn't going to rain after all...

Yesterday, I was at work without a cardigan (work cardy in the wash) and frelling freezing. All the other offices are fairly warm, except for ours. So I had to go and buy a cardigan at lunchtime... I was going to anyway, to avoid further lack-of-cardigan episodes, and at £6 from Primark (which was like a bloody zoo) I can hardly complain.

Oh, yes, I bought the MP3 player from eBay on Saturday evening, and now I'm just waiting on delivery. I need to update my Ugly Betty fic (nearly a month!) and start my new POTO fic. And that, I believe, is that.

I was going to post this last night but I forgot to email it home. Also, by the time I'd got back at 5.45 (having left at 4.30!) due to a crash on Alcester Road by the baths (hence putting a damper on swimming, also) it would have been full of ranting about stupid drivers...

Semagic has loaded on the first try so I'm taking that as a good sign and attempting to post this for about the fiftieth time.  If you read between the lines (literally), you will see the entry I've been trying to post since Friday bloody afternoon.  I would cut it, but there's a cut in it already.  I would also backdate and link to it, but nobody'll bother reading it if I do that.  So I'll inflict it on you here, instead.  Suffer.

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Friday

Well, the afternoon didn't get much better.  The work was thin on the ground and was still being taken.  At one point Val popped her head around the door and said "Oh, you've got no work!".  I almost replied, "Well, whose fault is that?" but managed not to.

I had the journey home from Hell, too.  Not as bad as it's ever been, but unnecessarily annoying.  The bus took bloody ages to turn up, and was packed, and I had to share it with a screaming child, and the bus driver was doing that annoying stoppy-starty-brake-too-hard thing that really gets on my proverbials.

And then I nearly got run over by a woman with a pushchair who wasn't looking where she was going and just had to cross the road at the exact point I was walking towards the kerb to give her a wide enough berth to pass.  Her husband / partner apologised, but UGH.  When I have a small child I'm going to use my pushchair as a battering ram like everyone else does...

In other news, here is a meme from jackiesjottings.  She requested explanations for three of my interests and three of my icons.  You can comment and I'll do the same, if I remember...

( Answers for Jackie. )

I hope that answers your curiosity. :)  The majority of my icons are fandom-based (mostly Most Haunted, as you probably realised) and those that aren't are random photographs taken of various things.  They're also mostly mine, except for the four or so which are credited to other people...

I'm extending the meme: comment if you want to know about my interests / icons &/or if you want me to reciprocate. :)

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( Weekend )

( Monday, in more detail )

I also spent the majority of Monday night trying to post this entry via email from both Outlook and Yahoo, without success... at least as far as I know.  I also bit the bullet and posted the first chapter of my Ugly Betty fic on FFN.  It can be found here if anyone is remotely interested...  It seems to have gone down well, anyway: 10 reviews overnight, two of which consist of more than five words and most of which have all the words spelt right... ;)

I jest. Reviews are kind of like drugs.  And apparently it's very easy to relapse after you've detoxed.  MORE!!  MORE REVIEWS!!  MORE, DAMMIT!

Britian is woefully unprepared for bad weather. They managed to grit the roads adequately enough when it snowed on Thursday, but then decided that was the last of it, and, subsequently, when it snowed for two days in a row, panicked but didn't actually do anything about it.

It took me three hours to get home on Friday. I think that makes the top of my 'worst journeys of all time' list, although it's possibly only second to that disastrous coach-trip to Leeds in Febraury 2003...

( Click here for my tale of woe. )

Seriously, though, why is Birmingham - Britain, in fact - so rubbish when it comes to bad weather? I'm not just talking snow - even when it rains the traffic goes wrong. In this case it's like they were only prepared for one day of snow and then the second day completely blew their minds... I'm sorry, but four inches of snow is not a viable excuse for the state of affairs on Friday night, when there are countries in the world where the weather is much worse, a lot more of the time.

Get with it, Britain. If the scientists are right and there are only gonig to be two seasons (a short, harsh winter and a long, hot summer) then there is more of this weather to come, so frelling well prepare for it. Get some bloody snow ploughs. You have NO EXCUSE in the 21st century for the appalling state of the public transport system when there's even a little bit of snow, let alone eight solid hours of it.

Anyway, ranting aside, I did enjoy the snow for the period I wasn't stuck in it. Snow makes me very happy.

On Thursday night I forced Paul to have a snowball fight with me, which he enjoyed very much against his better judgement, and we built a snowman. The snowman's feet are still struggling to melt in our back garden as of this morning... I'll post a picture of him when we have the internet.

(Oh, that's another thing, we were meant to have the internet on Friday night, but Ben was also stuck in traffic so we called it off. Which is really bloody annoying, because I have three days off work and wanted to catch up on some of my online stuff. Bollocks. Anyway, I've probably lost quite a few of my online acquaintances through lack of internet, so a few more days won't hurt...)

On Saturday we had breakfast at the local organic cafe (very nice) and then did a little bit of food shopping. On Sunday, marz109 came over for a bit because she was bored and now has her driving licence. Paul argued with me over going to the pub because I didn't want to go out, and we watched the first episode of Life on Mars (and now need to record series 2 to stockpile it for later) before tea. Then he buggered off out, came back about 10.30 and we watched episode 2. ( Spoilery if you've not seen it )

At least I only have two days at work this week.

I WANT THE INTERNET BACK, DAMMIT!

Two fucking hours, it took me to get home.  TWO. FUCKING. HOURS.

( This may not be as sweary as it would've been a couple of hours ago, but I've cut it anyway because of gratuitous capslock abuse. )

TWO HOURS.  On a good day, I can be home in 45 minutes.

I'm so glad I don't have to do this much longer.  I know that all I ever seem to do is harp on about public transport, but there's not much else I can actually do about it.  If I complain to the "right" people, they'll try to make out that I'm insane, blind or stupid for missing all of the buses that have apparently gone past the bus stop while I was standing there.  It makes me sick that we live a society where the norm is to read a bus timetable and not think for one second that it might actually be accurate.  Also that it only takes my bus 20 minutes to get into town, but I still have to leave an hour before any scheduled appointment because the fucking thing never turns up on time.

Considering this is the mellowed version of what was stamping and shouting around my head earlier, you should all think yourselves (and your friends-lists) incredibly lucky that I ate food and calmed down before posting.  Seriously.

I was going to post about work, too, but most of the annoyance of today was completely swamped by the Journey from Hell.  I am tempted to see if a public transport complaining community exists, and if not, to make one.  I can't be the only one who's ridiculously unlucky when it comes to travelling by bus, can I?

For some reason, whenever I complain about being uninspired and unable to write, I manage to write something. The something being about four paragraphs of random Buffyfic for the end of "Broken Record", which I'm never going to get to use because I'll never get that far, but anyway. It's something.

So, an update.

Friday was boring at work. In the evening, Paul and I saw an amateur production of Little Shop of Horrors with Alison and Drew. Quite good, all things told. Audrey and Seymour were both good, though there were a few glitches with microphones and horrible accents. I think they may have stolen the Audrey II handpuppet from the production I saw in Leeds and painted it yellow... either that or there's a company somewhere that specialises in Audrey IIs...

So that was entertaining. It was by the Crossed Keys Musical Theatre Co., who apparently meet somewhere in Acocks Green. Am half-considering phoning up for an audition, but this may have to wait until Paul and I are in situ in Kings Heath, as it's nearer...

After the show, we dragged Ali and Drew to the Wellington, where Gobby Paul hurled some abuse at us, called us "the camp table" and likened me to Nana Miskouri. He also tried to make us get up and do karaoke as it was fairly empty in the back room. We left at about 11.30 (to a "T'ra, wenches!"), convinced that we could get a 45 on Bristol Road and then realising we'd have to walk half a mile to get one... luckily, the last one was at 00.13 so we were home reasonably early, and without the inconvenience of a taxi.

One good thing to come out of the evening was some confirmation that Asa/Vanilla is back from wherever he went off to at Hallowe'en, and our Pride Weekend is now sorted out. Vanilla's doing a show on Friday night so we'll be at that, then follow the parade on Saturday and most likely end up at the Welly again, and then Vanilla's on again on Monday night. God bless Council Tuesdays. :D

All this, of course, is money- and energy-dependant. I need to adjust my rainbow flares so that I can walk in them, but at least I've found my bandana from last year.

Saturday was quite sedate. I went home at about 5.00ish because Paul was going to a gig at the Market Tavern and I didn't have the energy for it. Instead, I stayed in, did some embroidery (nearly finished the blue!) and watched Hide and Seek, starring Robert de Niro and Dakota Fanning. Which was actually quite good, and at least I know now that Dakota Fanning isn't just another annoying child actress, as she's really quite good.

David fell asleep twice during the duration and subsequently missed the twist at the end... and didn't understand the film. He was, of course, wide awake again afterwards when he realised Independence Day was on. We're trying to educate him with some decent films, but it's just not happening. I suppose I should be glad we got control of the evening's viewing for once. Makes a bloody change. :P

I went back to Paul's on Sunday (horrendous journey there with buses being late), where we watched EastEnders and "Backwards" of Red Dwarf, then went into town to waste money in the Flapper's ItBox. I have learnt that I can play much better pool on American tables as opposed to rubbish little British pub ones. So there we go.

We watched a couple more episodes of Red Dwarf once back (or was it one?) whilst eating half of a gigantic cheesy-mash bolognese. We had the other half for lunch today.

The weather is horrible... possibly I'd be feeling better about it if I was wearing a hoody of some description, rather than a velvet blazer. Oh well.

Quite a nice weekend, really. I think next weekend should be quiet and sedate to save energy for Pride...