T'eyla Minh

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

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

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

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

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

The conversation in question went something like this:

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

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

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

Rewatches with friends are fun. :D

( A few thoughts so far... )

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

Ow.

We did the majority of the moving of things today, which resulted in a more spacious office and a nice, empty Railex cabinet, though it'll be even emptier when we get a new one... assuming they let us have one.  Productivity = good.  But still.  OW.  My legs feel like they've been squashed by a large object, and my back will definitely be murdering me tomorrow, plus I have an interesting bruise on the knuckle of my right little finger.

So, here's what we all did today.  Cynthia, Amanda and I moved furniture - two desks, two sets of drawers, the fridge, the Railex.  Amanda and I emptied the Railex pre-moving.  We have vaccuumed the dusty corners.  I have rearranged and tidied my desk.  Cynthia did some shredding and some sorting of files.  I set up Sandra's CPU for her, and also the spare one which has now moved into 'supervisor's corner' (heh) so that Tina H will be able to use it if she so desires, assuming it's all set up and intranet-ready since it was the one the temps always used...  We discovered a door behind the Railex, thought we'd uncovered a Secret Cupboard, and it turned out to lead into the corridor. :(  I have spent three hours sorting out the 2005 de-registration files into the cabinet, resulting in aforesaid bruise and leg pains, due to them being on the bottom two shelves.

And while we have been doing all of this, what has Sandra been doing?  Shredding.  Downstairs.  ALL DAY.

Only to come back up at lunchtime when Cynthia had gone home, Amanda had gone out for well-deserved fresh air, and I was eating my lunch and waiting for the pain to stop, and proclaim, "What's all this shit on my desk?" - which Amanda explained had been on her desk in the first place, and turned out to be a convening list that she was meant to do which she gave to me, and which I gave back to Cynthia a few days ago for some reason, so then the so-called 'shit' ended up on my desk again.  As usual.

Yeah, hello?  This desk here?  MY DESK.  Personal space.  Learn this, and I won't start muttering obscenities under my breath.  My desk may be messy by most people's standards, but I know where everything is, and I don't appreciate things being dumped on top of my keyboard when I have two clearly labelled in trays.

Other than that, it was an otherwise pleasant morning.  I changed the radio to Kerrang when I was on my own and nobody seems to have noticed yet, so hopefully I'll get to listen to some decent music for a while instead of bloody Galaxy all the time.

Yeah.  I go die now.

I have achieved an amazing amount of things tonight, all things considered... especially since I got about 5 hours of sleep last night due to a random coughing fit and Paul's phone making noises three times between 3.30 and 5.00am.  Bastard thing.

I have:

• moved my stereo from one side of the room to the other so it's now nicely positioned on the shelves/bookcase/cubic thing;
  
• tidied the shelves as a result so they're no longer full of crap;
  
• moved the assorted, aforesaid crap around a bit so it at least looks tidy;
  
• gone downstairs to help elevate the fridge-freezer;
  
• moved my Farscape DVDs and re-writable CDs into a more accessible area;
  
• piled up the Farscape videos in order of watchingness, to be moved back into the other room as they dwindle;
  
• hoovered;
  
• dusted, including the three inches of fluff behind the monitor;
  
• cleaned my keyboard.  I'd actually forgotten what colour it was;
  
• moved some other stuff around;
  
• and generally tidied up.

Mmm, productivity. I guarantee the tidiness will last a grand total of one day.

So, stuff this week: tomorrow, attempt to get more hours in than I did today; Wednesday, Chinese Christmas lunch and possibly going out in the evening, not sure yet; Thursday, nowt; Friday, meeting up with Aisha, Crystal, Rachel and possibly Gemma at Bella Italia; Saturday, going out for drinks with falling_softly and whoever else deigns to turn up; Sunday, opening presents, etc.; Monday (Boxing Day), going to Paul's and then on to Kings Heath to cat-sit.  Beyond that, no idea... possibly ice-skating at some point. Hopefully.  I want a nice, quiet New Year's Eve so you'll have to find someone else's house to trash this year, I'm afraid.

Only marginally quieter than last week, then, really...

So, didn't get online yesterday for various reasons, mostly because we made a start on renovating/re-furnituring my room.  Also a cabinet thing for the bathroom to store the towels better...

( Phase 1 in photos )

Next will be to complete the new wardrobe... thing in my mum's room so I can have her wardrobe and we can get everything else in place - and turn my wardrobe into an entertaiment unit. ;)  And then everything can go in.  The bed had 20% off, so I used the extra money I saved to get a matching mirror, some lovely Paris prints, and a new wall light.  When everything's in place I'm also going to re-paint and change the yellow voile curtains and go pale blue.  The ceiling and dark blue curtains are staying, but I've somewhat outgrown the yellow now, so I'm going for a Parisian theme...

The only casualty was my keyboard, which was being temperamental yesterday by refusing to work... but it's fine this morning.  Hurrah.  I really didn't want to have to buy a new one, especially because I like this one, full of crumbs and bolognese sauce though it may be...

My back is killing me, so it's just as well I have another week off work. :)

It's quite bizarre sleeping under the window (and so close to the ground) and I get an entirely new perspective. I slept with the voile drapes closed yesterday because the moths and other beasties were in full force (two daddylonglegses in the kitchen in the space of an hour!), but now I get a full view of the sky rather than the opposite buildings... and I could hear the rain even better, which was nice... I could definitely get used to this.

Anyway, I have nine hours of Most Haunted to watch...

My bedroom is driving me crazy.  I was going to swap the wardrobe and the desk, but that's actually impossible due to extension leads and the fact that I still need four plugs under the bed plus the eight for the PC, etc.  So it's a no-go.

However, I would very much like this bed from Ikea, a sofa by day and bed by night.  It doesn't go with anything else in my room, but I don't care.  I like it.  I have been pondering it and think I could possibly make it fit, as the bookcases under the current bed will easily stack one on top of the other.  Mum and David are hoping to do something to their room to create more wardrobe space, so I may be able to inherit her current wardrobe and get rid of the clothes rail, as well as getting rid of the futon, at least out of my room, as it's quite a useful thing, really... Hm.

I also want this bed (there's no better picture of it online, alas), but even I can tell how horrendously impractical it is.  But still.  Round bed.  Ooooh.

(Name the mis-quote and I'll make you a CD... one with better music than the stuff I listed in the meme.  I don't know why.)

One day's worth of LJ posting missed and my friends-list explodes.  Guh.  Apologies if I missed anything, but you all post such long and erudite entries that my brain couldn't cope...

Saturday

We went to Ikea to get new chairs and new drawers for my room (one that actually match the wardrobe...) and consequently spent the rest of the day putting together two of the chairs and beeswaxing them to make them darker.  Also managed to kill my hand by yanking the staples out of the bottom of the old chairs so I could take back the seat-covers I personally hand-painted.  We're forming a box of stuff that I may one day need when I venture into the Big Wide World and get a place of my own.  So far it's got aforesaid seat covers, a box of cutlery I bought at Uni, and a collinder.  Eh, it's a start...

We're doing the kitchen out, as I think I mentioned.  The reason this happened is because the fridge-freezer isn't big enough to accommodate three people's food, so David decided to bring his over as well, but it's one of those that's designed to be built into a unit, so we've replaced the cupboards and all the doors/drawers on the main units. It looks a lot better, but it also means we have to redecorate.

Eventually, we're hoping to move somewhere between Birmingham and Leamington (where David works), so doing the kitchen out will hopefully make the place more saleable.  The council are also finally fixing the frelling water leak, which will involve getting contractors out because there's two foot of concrete beneath the pavement and the water pipes are under that, which is about £2000-worth of repairs.  And obviously, we're not council tenants so will have to hope the water board's insurance will cover it.  But at least if it's fixed we'll have a frelling functional shower...

I'm not sure I want to move.  I like this house.  But another part of me just wants to escape, from everything; I'm getting the decorating bug again; I'm ready for the great adventure in the States... but at the same time, I hate disruption and chaos and would rather leave them to it...

Grah.  There are lots of thoughts in my brain, but I can't articulate any of them.  And I never thought I'd see the day when I had to admit to that. :(

Aside from that, we watched the random Queen tribute on Sky One prior to Dead Like Me (which remains one of the cleverest things on television) and contemplated on the final video they shot before Freddie's death... it's one of the most depressing things I've ever seen, and yet, at the same time... it's a blessing.  Only the good die young; there's a reason for that: so we don't have to watch them getting old, so the legend of their youth lives on.

Sunday

Today was a day of mixed emotions.  The usual dread of going to my father's pervaded, of course, along with a curious sensation upon waking.  I dreamt I fell asleep with the television on and awoke to Graham Norton interview Robert Picardo, and when I woke to sunlight through the window, I felt like I was back in Derby.  Quite odd.

In the car, I was contemplating the imminent task of broaching the subject of not going there any more.  He asked me if "anything had been said" on Easter Sunday when we visited my grandmother, because apparently ever since then she's been pretty much ignoring Annabelle.  So, obviously, I lied through my teeth and said no.  My ability to lie convincingly (don't worry, I don't lie to my friends; I have no cause to) is an unfortunate quality I picked up from him, but sometimes, it comes in handy.  And in the midst of this, I was thinking to myself, "Can I do this?  Can I really break this family up more than it is already?  Do I want that sitting on my shoulders for the rest of my life?"  Because... because sometimes, it's strange - I don't like my father, but sometimes, I feel a certain fondness for him.  Fleeting, but there, and very disconcerting.

But then he goes and opens his mouth and it all shatters again.  I think about what he's done to the family, and it makes what I want to do pale in comparison.  Two things stick out in my memory from today's car journey.  The first was when I told him why I couldn't go last week - that I was meeting a random online person.  The conversation went something like this:

Him: I thought you said you were going to lunch.
Me: I was.  With the random online person.  (Apparently, the two aren't compatible...)
Him: Oh.
Me: Yeah, I met her through livejournal.  She was coming to a tattoo-convention.  She's a tattoo designer.
Him: Oh.  And does she have any on her person?
Me: Er, yeah.  Quite a few.  She's also a learning assistant and a few other things.  She was going because her designs were at the convention...

I think he disapproves of absolutely everyone I know that he's never met.  He disliked frightened by default because of her sexuality (which happened to come up in conversation by accident once, and I think he was more shocked to discover I didn't keep it a secret and, moreover, didn't actually care); he dislikes izzles because she designs pretty things for pretty people (he's come to terms with my tattoos because there's not a damn thing he can do about it, but doesn't like other people having them).  Sorry, guys. You don't fit into his ideal view of the world, I'm afraid.  Bah, I don't think I'm even making any sense.  Sorry...

The other snippet of conversation was this:

Him: I think Annabelle wants to ask you about your friend in American and your aspirations to burger bars.
Me: It's not a burger bar, it's a coffee shop!  And there's nothing to tell; it's a plan, it might not even happen for another six years.
Him: She just wants someone to talk to; she's on her own in the house during the week.

Firstly: I have told him, and everyone, countless times that the plan is for a coffeeshop, which is quite far removed from a burger bar.  Secondly, if you could've heard the contempt in his voice when he said it... I nearly completely flipped.  Aside from the fact that it's so much more than just being a coffee-waitress (it's helping a friend run her business, and, God-forbid, being somewhere I want to be doing something I want to do, and still having time to write) but the fact that he implied it's a waste of time and money and my education.  Which, yeah, it probably is.  But that's not his frelling place to say so.  He's done nothing towards my education, knows nothing about my life or my plans or who I am, and therefore has no fucking right to judge me on my aspirations.

Thirdly, in regards to Annabelle being lonely - what did he expect, anyway?  He's working five days a week like the rest of us; of course she's bored.  I vote we find her a friend, one who'll seduce her.  Just for my entertainment.  Application forms to be sent via comment, please.

After going to Kwiksave we had to take an excursion to Christ Church in Quinton (where my grandmother's worked for about 40 years as verger) because he needed the rector to sign his remortgage form as he's a solicitor.  We sat outside in the car until the end of service, which was meant to be at 11.30, but as it transpired it'd started late and they'd only just started the service at 11.45...  Anyway, it was quite odd, going back there, realising how much of my childhood had been spent within those walls, sitting quietly through endless communions, funerals and weddings, attending Evening Guild events and day trips, and decorating the huge tree for Christmas... I miss that, sometimes.  I wanted to get out of the car, wander around the building, perhaps go inside... it's been so long since I was in there and I remember every square inch of the building.  It was a strange sort of nostalgia.

The rest of the day held the usual aggravations with the music channels, but I'm learning, slowly, to block it out.

Back home, I watched the final hour of Brief Encounter and yearned to watch Casablanca, and then watched In America, quite an interesting film.  This entry's taken about 45 minutes because my brain won't function.  Bizarrely, I'm not dreading work.  I think it really does keep me sane.

Time for bed, said Zebedee.

Functional stuff, for once.  Two new CD/DVD holders so I can actually see all my titles and so they're not falling over, and a new stereo, finally.  My old one served the purpose at the time - it was a vertical load CD/tape/radio with interchangeable speaker covers in blue, green and black.  The tape deck's been on the way out for a while and it's been to and from Uni, like most of my stuff, more times than I can count.  Also, the vertical load CD player wobbled too much and refused to play the end tracks on very long discs.

So I now have a snazzy new one, with pine-coloured speakers and blue inlay, and seven different display colours, which I'm having a great time playing with.  And it's sitting on top of the two new CD/DVD holders on the television unit being all small and powerful and actually filling my room with sound - there's a novel concept.  I've moved the telly and video over to the left so they're slightly nearer to the futon (I'm blind...), and because I've got rid of my old tottering CD-holder I've managed to move the wardrobe further into the room and now - get this - my door actually opens all the way!

Which is very good indeed. :)

I really have serious storage issues in here still, though.  I really need to either a) clear out more of my clothes or b) get a bigger wardrobe, and I'm loath to do that because the one I have is still relatively new.  And I've cleared my clothes out three times so far since I came home, which isn't the problem: it's the fact that I keep buying things that's the problem.

Eh, I'm sure it'll all work itself out eventually.

Anyway, after all that hard work I'm going to lounge around online for a bit until our pot roast is ready, and enjoy my fantastic new sound quality. :D (Before this, the speakers on my computer were better than those on my stereo... sad, really.)

Ah. Much better.  It's amazing how much difference being able to see the floor makes.  Also managed to clearn the sink and get rid of the terrifying green patch around the hot tap, hoovered, dusted, emptied the keyboard of crumbs, cleaned the gunk off my monitor (that's made quite a difference, too...) and generally tidied.  The sun is shining, and my room smells of Christmas because of the new air freshener (it's one of those glass Airwick ones, Berries and Spice scent.  Lovely.) but that'll probably last all of a week...

The fact remains, however, that I still have rather a lot of work to do, so back I go.  Currently proof-reading.

had a very pleasant day out today with angela and rachel, crystal and aisha. everyone got on well (for once) and we helped crystal choose new glasses...

also, i think i've finally told everyone The Jeremy Story. i've officially run out of friends. :P

the computer desk is now moved, and the video unit is in place. i've taken some photos, but it's just too much hassle to put them up. maybe i'll put everything in a proper webpage at some point...

frightened, your present is in the post and should, with luck, be with you tomorrow...

first things first:

alison has a livejournal, courtesy of me and my codeliness. so, hurrah to that.

on the moving-the-bedroom side of things, here's some more pictures...

( well, at least there's floor space now... )

so... i'm getting there. i don't think i'll be getting much done tomorrow, though, or at least not anything heavy-duty, because my back aaaaaches.

in other news: rachel called today to ask what i was doing on saturday, because she's leaving (some professional OT related thing; i should know, but she didn't exactly explain it well...) on sunday and wants us all to meet up before then. alas, i am meeting with angela on saturday at 12.00. i did tell her this, and advised her to phone crystal and aisha first to see if they could come, then tell me what was happening. so now i'm meeting that lot at 1.00, too.

here's the annoying thing/s: she always leaves it until the last sodding minute to organise anything. always. and then gets arsey when i can't drop everything to go out with them. and last week, when i asked if crystal wanted to come out to meet alison with me, she told me she was working until 2.00, and this week, she's not.

ugh. maybe i'm just overly paranoid, but it's annoying, anyway.

and all of the frelling dust in here has made my sinuses all blocked. yuck.

more pictures coming tomorrow, which i'll probably have to put on fahrbot before villagephotos becomes an arse.