emeraldsword

Originally posted by cantarina1 at post

( Sherlock! )

Why do I always write these things in a hurry? I've got loads more to say but am just flat out of time, bother.

Christmas was pleasing. LOTS and LOTS of food, no snow (which means that the relatives are allowed to cross the road by themselves sometimes instead of me having to go across to push the wheelchair) and a really happy time. Had some lovely presents too - my friend has given me one saying 'Some doctors marrying consulting detectives, get over it' and then 'H8 is a bit not good' which made me ridiculously happy. Also got various books and the Red Dwarf 8 season box set, yeays!

Enjoyed both Doctor Who and Merlin, may manage a more fannish entry at some point.

Hope everyone had a lovely day.

faintly amused that I keep moving in with people who say that they don't watch much TV, only for them to spend longer in front of it than I do...

One thing that the riots have made me think about is the fact that basically, we have order as a society because that's what the people want. Civilians massively outnumber the police, and what we've seen in London and the other affected cities is that if a group is bent on causing chaos and disruption, they can do it. Especially in this media age when information can be spread so quickly. The only reason that we have any form of discipline etc is that society as a whole gives the police and the process of law some respect. People usually don't steal because society as a whole polices itself and the law enforcement officials are the external signifiers of that. It is not possible to have a world where there are more law enforcers than miscreants, and therefore we rely on the tendency of the majority to do as they are told.

Anyway, I realise that I haven't posted since I came back from the wedding. This is partly because I brought back a cold and have been complaining mightily about it. I tend to be very sanguine about more serious afflictions, but I very much resent sneezing and coughing all over the place. (Why yes, I get man flu - problem?!) It also gives me problems in that when I'm with my parents I have caring responsibilities for Them Over The Road (my 96-year-old gran and my demented auntie) who are effectively housebound in their different ways. Someone tries to go over every day to chat as it really does cheer them up, but my gran has a tendency to asthma and gets very worried about colds. I didn't go yesterday (sent my sister instead) but I went today and just didn't get too close. I did sneeze though, so she probably had an idea that I am begermed. They seemed more cheerful when I left though, so it may have been worth it (depending on whether or not she catches the cold, of course).

The wedding itself was lovely. Weather wasn't too bad, the ceildh was very pleasing and it was nice to get out and do exercise-y things. I've been debating over whether or not to go on a walking holiday of some sort but I'm not sure I'm really fit enough. Plus, the weather is vile here, so further north is bound to be atrocious (flood warnings over the north-east at least).

Right. Parents have been away (again!) so I've been holding the fort, and my sister's out today as well so I need to make sure that the place is presentable before parents come back. Most of it's fine but the kitchen could use a wipe-down.

SO. Since Saturday morning many nice things have happened to me (Friday was a horrible day and I have deleted it, so there). On Saturday, I went to a gig at Jodrell Bank with forthwritten and her sister. Seriously, gig under one of the biggest radio telescopes in the world, amazing!. Weather was lovely, I got to read things about physics, watch the telescope move and play a happy game involving spinning balls around a hole in order to reproduce the way that matter is sucked into a black hole (like those supermarket swirly things you put coins in...) Weather held up, in fact was lovely and sunny for most of the time, and it didn't get too cold, for which I was grateful as I hadn't really brought cold weather clothes. ALSO, at the end of the gig they moved the telescope round into target position and then projected a film onto it! It was SO COOL, really amazing! Forthwritten took a picture of me in front of the telescope, but I looked late thirties rather than late twenties so that one might not see the light of day. (That was the best attempt, too - she's a bit shorter than me so on the first one I had 870 chins and the third one I had 870 chins PLUS looked late thirties. I do not usually have 870 chins; I am trying to limit my number of chins to two, so as not to be greedy.)

Line up were Alice Gold, OK GO, British Sea Power and The Flaming Lips. I think I actually liked British Sea Power Best but The Flaming Lips captured my heart by regularly spraying confetti over everyone and also having MASSIVE BALLOONS, some full of confetti, that they sent out across the crowd. I think I must have been a cat in a past life because BALLOONS! I was the third most excited person in my immediate area, and the other two were both boys under the age of ten. The balloons were a bit of a snare because you kept thinking they were coming towards you and this time, THIS TIME, you would triumph and hit one but then they would get blown out of reach in a sad metaphor for life. One of the little boys cried about this and his mother went to the back, where the balloons were ending up, and found him one that he was then able to bat across the ground himself. And it was AWESOME and he was happy and I was happy and EVERYONE WAS VERY HAPPY! And the little boys learned a new word, despite their mother's best attempts to convince them that the word said was 'suck', so they were quite happy too. I also caught some confetti :-) forthwritten informs me that I will be getting a balloon and some confetti for my birthday this year. Had to come back here pretty promptly this morning because...

I got the keys to my house this afternoon! She showed us around for about an hour, we signed stuff and now we have a house! She'd cleaned a LOT, it's loads bigger than we'd remembered because it's not covered in junk (though the garden is - the previous tenants left behind 20 black binbags full of rubbish which are to be taken away by the council). She'd also clearly tried to make it a home for us too - she'd put little tealights in tumblers on the mantlepieces and had bought pot pourri and stuff. Neither flatmate nor I like pot pourri but it's so very definitely the thought that counts! Three carloads of stuff later and my flatmate is all moved in. Her dad also came and moved five boxes of my stuff too, so that's very pleasing! It was all the stuff that I didn't have room to unpack when I moved in here, plus as much stuff as I could fit in with them, so this is all good. I have a suitcase and a couple of bags here so I can transfer clothes over at a later point, and I have an orchestra concert at the weekend so when my parents come for that, they will take the rest of the stuff over there. Very pleasing as it means I have a crossover between this place and the new one (which as yet does not have internet...) so don't have to do a mad clean or a crazed panic pack/unpack, instead I have five days to settle in. Hooray! And I can use the computer to phone round everyone to change my address before I have a phone at the new place. Very very pleasing!

There is other stuff that was less pleasing, involving a keyboard, a box of music and an unusuable cupboard, and other stuff still, involving a very dirty kitchen and a freezer full of food of indeterminate origins, but I am not thinking of those things today because I have a new house to move into at my leisure, I had a glorious weekend full of sunshine, nice people and BALLOONS and I have summer holidays. :-)

I have spent a very happy morning watching the royal wedding. My father is totally appalled and has spent the morning in the pub. My mother and I have been glued to the tv, my sister has displayed mild interest and versipellis has been reading her book.

I like weddings, and people riding round on horses playing dress-up, and so my desires for this were fulfilled on all counts! Everyone seemed very happy - even the queen smiled properly! Prince Harry reminds me in equal parts of Chesney from Coronation Street and Boris Johnson (we did get a little interview with Boris, who was entertaining). I very much liked the trees lining the aisle (maples and hornbeams - apparently very symbolic, according to my mother, but I've forgotten what it means), and the music was excellent. Guide me oh my great redeemer is a long-term favourite of mine (I want it to be sung at my funeral), the specially composed piece was glorious and Jerusalem! The whole thing was really nice. She looked fantastic too - the lace was absolutely gorgeous, as was the veil. Also loved the littlest bridesmaids - how adorable were they! Prince Harry seemed good with them too (loved him in the carriage teaching them to wave!) Other Harry highlights included him sneaking a peek at the bride while she was walking up the aisle and telling William what she was wearing. Harry seemed to be a little bit puzzled about why he was there, which enteratined us all.

My mother absolutely LOVED the fact that the lesser royals got bussed in! Big white minibuses with really obvious logos. Absolutely hilarious! And this afternoon, we will go over to my grandma's, we may get a little glass of sherry and the chance to relive the entire thing. Happy days.

so I have decided to copy all my old LJ entries to Dreamwidth. I didn't do this when I got the journal because, apart from the massive queues, I wasn't sure it was what I wanted. But, I've got nearly ten years worth of entries over there (seriously, I cannot believe it either) and I don't want to lose that, so *clicks import button*

Incidentally, I have loads (like, um, 14) of Dreamwidth invite codes if anyone wants one - I usually never remember to give them out and as I'm a bit half-arsed anyway it always seems a lot of hassle.

Anyway, I have a policy of reading people who post everything on LJ and dreamwidth over on dreamwidth, but I post filtered content over at LJ only because I haven't worked out if it's even possible to do that on dreamwidth.

Gloriously sunny today, so I have spent the day not working, which means I really should get my head down now *sigh*

OK, I'm late with this, but as you aren't supposed to do the actual census until March 27th, I reckon I've still got time (actually, time is what I do not have, but procrastination wins!).

1981 - I was not born. In fact, I'm not sure that my parents had even met at the beginning of the year. They started dating around Christmas 1981, married in August 1982 and I was born the following year.
1991 - I was seven for most of the year, so I started year three that September. That May, I must have taken the first ever year 2 SATS. I did quite well, though not as well in maths as everything else (I never did do as well in maths, it's why I don't like it). My sister beat me in maths when it was her turn, two years later. I started learning the violin and reading Enid Blyton. The two things were not connected. My sister was under the impression that you HAD to be seven to read Enid Blyton because of this, when she was told (a year later) that you did not, she started reading them with great enthusiasm.
2001 - I was 17 and sat the new AS levels. I chose physics, chemistry, biology and psychology. They were rubbish, being the first year was shit and I was really miserable. Move on! I decided to pack them in, save what was left of my sanity and do a second set of AS levels which I started that September. I had traded the violin for the viola, and had taken up the flute as well (not just 'taken up' - I had Grade 6 by this point). I have given up reading books in favour of attempting to pass exams, and so do not read any books except Harry Potter, of which there are currently only four and I read one a week, every week. In January 2002 I got my livejournal...
2011 - I am 27 and at university for the second time. Doing things twice seems to be a theme with me. I still play viola and flute, I still have exams but as these aren't stupid exams designed by the government and other people who haven't been near a school since they left at 18 and with a chronic inability to listen to anyone who has just so they can say that my school is up to standard, I am not too vengeful about them (also, I knew what I was getting myself into when I signed up for the course). I did an Eng Lit degree in between 2001 and 2011 so I went back to reading books and read quite a lot of hard ones in that time. At the moment, I'm mostly reading easy books because of attempting to pass exams. farosdaughter recommended Elizabeth Chadwick, who is indeed most pleasing. I haven't read Harry Potter for a bit but am eagerly looking forward to the last film.