As if falling back into Frasier, Farscape and X-Files wasn't bad enough - and also Buffy as Denise and I progress further through that re-watch - I am still periodically flailing about POTO. :P

I went to Denise's on Saturday, initially because we were going to continue the Buffy-athon, but instead I inflicted shared the POTO 25th anniversary concert (and latterly the 1925 silent film, just for comparison purposes).

POTO is a really weird thing. I fall in and out of it regularly, and the the only time I fall back into it is after actually seeing/reading some version of it. I finished "Whisper" in a creative flurry after my first viewing of the gala concert; "Freedom from Darkness" (my first proper POTO fic) and its sequels came from the germ of an idea after I first saw the show in Birmingham, aged 16; and my Mary Sue story / A-Level creative writing assignment was written following my first reading of Susan Kay's Phantom. When I'm not flailing about it, though, I kind of forget the power it has over me. I'll go for months - even years - without reading/writing fanfic or even thinking it about it at all. I still count it as a fandom, of course, and it's always there in the periphery of my mind, but until the point when it actually takes over my head again I tend to file it away somewhat as one of those frivolous fandoms of my youth.

Although if the recent rewatches have proven anything, it's that those so-called frivolous fandoms of my youth were more important than I gave them credit for. ;)

Anyway, the point is, it's the most horrendously addictive thing in the world. I can remember listening to the soundtrack almost constantly on several occasions in my teens and 20's, and nowadays, each and every time I've watched the 25th anniversary gala, I am overcome by the desire for MOAR PHANTOM.

That being said, because it's been 1.5 years since the gala concert and because I've watched it three more times since then - which isn't much in the grand scheme of things but if I were still a student I imagine that number would be more like 300 - I felt like doing an entry about some of my favourite things about the performance...

( POTO 25 Awesomeness )

I shall now come out of the cut to briefly mention this other, semi-related thing which I discovered on Saturday whilst we were watching the 1925 silent film, which commoncomitatus will also appreciate. I was IMDb-ing to find out where they'd filmed it, because the Palais Garnier interiors were so accurate (soundstage 28, apparently, where many of the sets still remain and which is rumoured to be haunted), and in the process of reading the trivia page I learned the following exciting nugget of information.

The ornate bed in Christine's bedroom is the same one used by Gloria Swanson 25 years later in Sunset Boulevard. Which explains why it was so bloody familiar!!

These fandoms are content to remain intertwined, apparently. :D

Okay, I think this is long enough. I might come back with exciting POTO screencaps at some other juncture when I have more spare time. Watch this space. :D

The last two weeks have been rather insane. I'll do a separate post later about this morning's work-related idiocy.

( Gigs and parties. )

So, that's that. The Killers gig has basically made me go a bit crazy fangirl, repeatedly listening to Battle Born and appreciating it even more than before the concert. It's my favourite album by far - as addictive as Day and Age and Hot Fuss, but less hit and miss, with just as many potential classics. As a result, I want to get the album's logo - a lightning bolt - tattoed on my person. I already have plans for an ouroboros on my right inner forearm / wrist, and I want to get the lightning bolt underneath it. Paul has not helped by suggesting we should both get matching lightning bolts.

It would be much more than just a Killers reference, however: it would be a memory of the gig, a sneaky reference to Rocky Horror, and a symbol of my love of thunderstorms. The ouroboros is a symbol of rebirth; the lightning bolt is for battle born, the wording of which is taken from the Nevada state flag (I want to visit Las Vegas; in fact I want to honeymoon there). I love the sentiment of the two together, a brand to mark the turning point I seem to have reached in my life at the moment. Also, they're one of the only bands Paul and I both like (though we like different songs and different albums: in his head there is nothing to top Hot Fuss, in mine they just keep on getting better) and the first Proper Gig we've both been to, so it would be nice to commemorate that experience as well.

Not sure when I will get them done, but hopefully soon. I'm feeling the desire for new ink really badly right now: mostly to get the ideas in situ before they fizzle out on me, but also craving the pain/adrenaline to reaffirm my own aliveness.

In that vein: I totally need some Killers icons.

Next entry: fee earners waste our time with pointless tasks out of paranoia that could have been avoided in the first place by not being skinflints.

Over and out.

For anyone who hasn't yet heard via Facebook or text message (not many!), here is the official announcement.

Paul and I are engaged. :)

The ring is actually a teense too big so I'm going to get it resized this lunchtime, after which I will post a proper photograph.

If you're curious, he bought it on a whim on the way back from his business course on Saturday, pretended he couldn't get the internal porch door open (it sticks sometimes) and knocked so I'd come to let him in, whereupon he was waiting on one knee in the porch. He was going to wait until April so I was definitely surprised!

So, there we go. I wouldn't get too excited just yet as it will probably be the longest engagement ever until we have any money. :P

I turned the three-day Bank Holiday weekend into four days by having Friday off. Initially we were meant to use this day for house-viewings but only managed to get one in, on the Saturday. Instead I used Friday to have a much-needed lie-in, and we didn't do anything except go out for a very nice curry at Pangaea in the evening.

( House viewing )

After that we went home via town, realising on the way there that it was Pride weekend. We had some breakfast in the Briar (having left too early to have any before), where we ran into Abi and Anna (ex-Inliners), who were fuelling up for the parade. Unfortunately I have been too knackered to enjoy Pride in about four years so we decided against it, instead popping into the Works (picked up a new recipe book, containing useful information on how long to freeze stuff, and some presents for a one-year old), and then into GameStation (three Wii games obtained - Wii Music, Super Paper Mario and a Star Wars game for Paul).

I spent the rest of Saturday catching up on EastEnders and watching How to Train Your Dragon, which was quite good, whilst Paul was out for Jon's birthday drinks at the Yardbird (I wasn't in the mood for a loud pub or going out again).

On Sunday we went to Jen and Dave's for Acacia's first birthday bash. We had bought her a harmonica (well, that was more for Dave) and a duck hand-puppet that quacked three different tunes (Frere Jacques, London Bridge and Old MacDonald, if I remember rightly). It took Paul and I at least an hour to figure out that the different 'notes' the duck quacked were not random; shamefully, Dave figured it out in about three seconds. :P

I had taken an antihistamine before going to Jen and Dave's because they have cats, except I foolishly bought Sainsbury's own the last time because they were half the price of Benadryl for twice as many tablets, and only realised they weren't non-drowsy about half an hour later. Thankfully the party didn't last too long and we were back home again by about 3.00. I pottered about online for an hour or so and then joined Paul in a two-hour nap.

Oh, I forgot to mention - our oven is broken again. As a first attempt Paul stuck down the bottom lip of the seal again in the hope that would help, as it appeared to be not heating up and circulating cold air, but after a quick Google search it transpires it's the heating element that's broken. It is actually very easy to replace oneself if the oven is set up in such a way as to be able to unscrew it by just taking the back wall of the cavity off, except (of course) with ours you have to go in from behind, which means disconnecting the electrics. So that'll have to be a call-out job (found somewhere online which will do it for about £120 all in, which is cheaper than a new cooker). Thankfully the grill acts as an oven also, so we've had to use that. As a result, however, we ended up ordering pizza on Sunday night.

I can pretty much guarantee that once we've fixed the oven, the next thing to die will be our fridge. The door seal is not looking healthy as it is, and this flat seems content to drive me mad before we get a chance to move. :P

( Fandom-Filled Monday )

Back at work today and it's a long time until my next leave. Once Paul's leave year refreshes in July I need to book my time off in September for a holiday, but I will probably need a day or two before then in any case... No choir tonight as it was a bank holiday yesterday and also half-term this week, so we're going to the gym instead, with our last personal training session tomorrow. Or, well, we're going to ask if we can drop to an hour per fortnight for a bit as £80 per month (£40 each) is more manageable than £160...

Ah, and it's now midday so I can post this. Huzzah.

PS: It has just occurred to me that I could use the Wayback Machine to retrieve my old Brinkster site, possibly. Hmmm. *scratches imaginary beard*

The majority of this was written at work, in the hope that my only task on getting back from choir will be to screengrab my picspam from the DVD's. (I have a feeling Google will not help me with this one.) Also I really want to give this pairing the attention it deserves, and thus would rather write this whilst I'm still mostly awake, and not brain-dead from the Bach. :P

ANYWAY, FANDOM NAOW.

( Day 08 )

I think this is so far my biggest word-dump (and my biggest picspam) in this meme, though I doubt that will remain the case. ;)

I'm thinking I might move the Movies one to May (equally alliterative) to give myself some time to recover from this one. And also because the concept of trying to fit 30 meme days into 28 actual days is quite painful.

Okay, this post has taken a cumulative seven million hours to post, but at least I got it up before midnight. :D

*awaits inevitable flail and capslock abuse*

Because it's summer, quite a few of our WPOs are missing, and as a result some of the work on the other side of our floor dates back from Wednesday last week. Which has the knock-on effect of everything else being urgent. We also have quite a bit on our side so our capacity to help out is limited. Meh. Plus Keith's bloody printer still doesn't work properly so that's just adding to the stress today.

In other news, I saw the trailer for Alice in Wonderland over the weekend, and ZOMG it looks AMAZING. Stick a search in Google if you're curious. I am currently more impressed by Burton managing to make Depp look scary rather than gothpaint pretty for the first time in forever than anything else, though the entire thing looks awesome. Also incredibly surprised that it's a Disney production... I thought they still weren't talking to Burton after Black Cauldron. Here's hoping they don't try and quash his creative vision with cute animals or whatever. A shame we have to wait until March, but at least there should be 9 to enjoy in September / October (IMDb doesn't give a UK release date, as per usual).

PS: If you disagree with my enthusiasm, I refer you to the 'contentious opinions' tag, which is your cue to be quiet. That is all.

Also watched I Am Legend on Saturday night, which was highly enjoyable. I like the fact that these days, "the future" is set only a few years from now - I'm also thinking of Children of Men as an example - and is either dystopian or the end product of humanity's mess-ups. It makes a change from old-fashioned sci-fi where "the future" was the 21st century. It also amazes me that Star Trek's First Contact Day will actually occur within most of our lifetimes, when it wouldn't have done back when the original series first aired. Admittedly I'll be about 70, but still. It makes you start to wonder if by 2076 we will actually have made 'first contact'...

Okay, I'm blathering on a bit. Must finish lunch, fix the bloody printer again (sigh) and get one with some work...

It's not often I do two of these in a row (pretty much) but I watched two more last night and they both warrant discussion, though for different reasons...

( Three of a Kind )

That's enough on that one. The sillness continued in the next episode, the ending of which I watched twice. ;)

( The Unnatural )

I shall stop there, because otherwise I will go on forever about nothing but the cuteness, and as much as the ending warrants it, it would get boring for everyone else.

*incoherent noises of joy*

Okay, I'm done. :)

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...)

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. ;)

Thanks to killer___queen's influence, I've finally gotten around to using that dye that was lying around the bathroom and turned my hair black again.  I was enjoying my brief stint as a red-head, but the roots were getting obvious and it was starting to fade anyway, so now it's back to black.  W00tah!

Will take photo when it's been straightened.  Before I combed it I looked oddly like Edward Scissorhands.

Only, y'know, without the scars and the terrified expression...

Edit: Why did it take me this long to see the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory trailer?? *Burtonsquee* (Well, probably because I stopped posting/reading in timburton and managed to miss the fifteen million links to it...)

Looks absolutely frelling amazing.

However, just one thing: anyone who tells you it's a remake of the 1970s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is not only lying, but wrong. It is not. It is, in fact, an adaptation of the novel by Roald Dahl, which the 1970s version with Gene Wilder was not. Yes, yes, we all know Burton made a mistake by 'reimagining' Planet of the Apes, but he's not doing that now. He's making a new movie; he's not trying to steal anyone's childhood memories. Honestly, I wish he'd done the adaptation of Matilda, because that film was appalling...

Tim Burton should definitely make adaptations of all the Dahl novels. Definitely. I've been wanting an adaptation of The Twits for some time now.

And the music's by Danny Elfman, so yayyyy!

Definitely going to be a Johnny Deppish year for films, though. Charlie, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and The Corpse Bride (very very excited about that, too...) all in the runnings so far. It seems to be a rule of thumb that Tim Burton+Johnny Depp=absolutely nothing can go wrong. So all in all, I'm very happy with Hollywood right now. :D