cosmic_llin | Entries tagged with family

So, I seem to have quite a lot to say at the moment on a variety of topics...

( Theatre! )

( DS9 Relaunch Novels - Worlds of DS9/Warpath/Fearful Symmetry (a few spoilers and mention of rape) )

( Huge - the most adorable and perfect TV show I never knew about )

( Life and Feelings and Stuff )

OK, that might be it for now... various fandomy posts to follow...

Current Mood: productive
Current Music: The Point of It All - Amanda Palmer

So,

mini_hannah,

silly_cleo,

carawj and I set ourselves a challenge to post more regularly, so here's my stab at it. Although I actually posted fairly recently. ;)

* Second draft of the novel is coming along bit by bit. I was stuck on a bit that didn't work because of things I changed late in the first draft, and it took me forever to figure out that the whole problem could be solved by the scene in question taking place indoors instead of outdoors. *headdesk* So now that's sorted out - onward!
* Also working on a new project, a website for kids... still in the planning stages, watch this space...
* Bit frustrated that I suddenly have a lot less writing time, since I'm back working in the office, which means three hours commuting every day. On the flipside that's three hours reading time, but it's not the sort of commute where writing is really possible, or I could alternate. I'm really not enjoying being in the office. Working from home really suited me and going in every day stresses me out and makes me unhappy. I'm going to try to find something else.
* But yes, silver linings etc, I achieved my aim of reading a lot in September partly due to my stupid long commute. It was only ten books, but three of them were the insanely-long Tawny Man Trilogy, which I quite enjoyed but which annoyed me in places. Before that I read some factual books, mostly feminism-related, some good short stories and a couple of new-ish fantasy things I'd been meaning to get around to. Next up are a couple of quick little Star Trek tie-ins before Snuff comes out this week.
*

silly_cleo and I joined a choir! It's lots of fun so far and I really have missed singing.
* We went to the Entertainment Media Show (Collectormania) the other weekend, which was a thoroughly disappointing experience, but at least I got my picture taken with some guy dressed as a Klingon? So it could have been worse.
* Spent yesterday having Yom Kippur dinner at

carawj's grandparents' house. I've been there a few times before but this was the first time I've been invited to Jewish Stuff, so I was very pleased (and nervous) to go. I had a nice time and now we have lots of leftovers, hurrah!
* Life shows no signs of getting any less busy - theatre trips, stays with my dad, visits from various friends and family, outings, innings... lots of fannish things coming up over Christmas... not going NaNoWriMo this year so I'm sort of looking forward to a bit of a quieter November than usual...

Current Mood: busy

So, I have reached that great and magical milestone. Quarter of a century. One box up when I next fill in a survey. I am twenty-five years old.

( Ramblings about my life, ahoy! )

Also, just to say, there are several things I intend to reply to, but they're all in tabs on my laptop, and my power supply is broken. New one should be arriving soon, and in the meantime, I'll try to remember what I was going to comment on!

Current Mood: contemplative

So, 2010, not so great for me in some ways. And probably when I think back on it, all the stuff with Mum is going to be what I remember most. Possibly, in a lot of ways, the worst year of my life so far.

But then, 2010 was also the year that I celebrated my first anniversary with

carawj, did Princess Laserquest for my birthday, was immortalised in a museum, went to a Prom and a folk festival, wrote most of a novel from scratch, saw more theatre and comedy than ever before, went to dozens of picnics, parties, games nights and food-themed gatherings, went to Russia for the umpteenth time, got back into Star Trek fandom, holidayed in Italy and Cornwall, came out to my Welsh family, and got closer to a lot of people I really enjoy spending time with. And you know, I'm really sad right now, but apart from the sad stuff, my life is pretty awesome.

In 2011 I hope for more awesomeness and less sadness.

carawj has already started the awesomeness off by paying for us to go to

vidukon as my Christmas present! *bouncebouncebounce* Also, I'm planning another Russia trip, hoping to take another exciting European holiday, determined to see lots more theatre, planning to write lots and lots, and looking forward to spending time with my terrific friends. 2011 is all fresh and new and I'm excited to fill it with memories.

Mum died on Tuesday evening.

I didn't get to see her in the end but I'm kind of ok with that.

No idea when the funeral is yet, or indeed if I'll be welcome. I hope I'll be able to be there at least for the service.

This is so weird, you guys.

Still seems very peculiar to reach September and not be going back to school. A lot of people I know are either still in education or going back this year, and it’s a funny feeling to still be doing the same things I always do while they’re dealing with starting new courses and getting their reading lists and all that fun stuff.

Still appreciating the September-y feeling, though. If nothing else it means I can break out my winter wardrobe again. The sundresses and shorts and things have been fun, but I’m always a bit more comfortable in thick tights and wool skirts and sweaters.

It’s been a good summer, too. Probably one of the best of my life. I did all the proper summer things – I picnicked, went to music festivals (Cambridge Folk Fest – The Burns Unit are amazing!), went to the Edinburgh Fringe, and to Cornwall where I surfed (ish) and ate pasties. I played croquet and went to a sci-fi convention and the Pride parade and outdoor theatre and barbecues. It’s been wonderful, especially in contrast to last summer which I spent mostly miserable, broke, and travelling up to Edinburgh as often as possible to see

carawj who was miserable and broke also.

So now it’s autumn again – 94 sleeps until Christmas! Before then I have plenty to look forward to – visiting and old friend in Nottingham this weekend, staying with my dad in Wales the weekend after, trip to Italy soon after that, Sarah Jane Adventures preview screening the day after I get back, Hallowe’en, Bonfire Night, and tickets to see Dar Williams in December… a couple of years ago I couldn’t have imagined having a schedule this busy – it’s almost too busy, I feel as though I hardly have time to breathe, but there’s nothing I want to let go.

In short, I’m a little bit exhausted and over-stretched, but generally life is good today.

Ack, I am exhausted. It's been a really fun few days though:

* Went and had Maids of Honour with

carawj,

silly_cleo,

jakera, and

jakera's very nice siblings. I'd never eaten a Maid of Honour before and it was very tasty indeed. And we were apparently just down the road from the scrapyard from An Unearthly Child, but we didn't go and see it this time.
* On the same day, did churchy things (quite interesting and not at all like going to chapel when I was a kid) and had nice brunch with

carawj 's family. Which was lovely! And her dad gave me halloumi. I like when people give me halloumi. :)
* Yesterday we went to karaoke again, it was awesome as ever! And lovely and cheap thanks to a combination of several discounts and offers.
* Over the last week or so, I've written about 13,000 words of original, not-fanfiction stuff. Quite pleased with this, wondering how long this level of productivity can last.
* My dad is coming to town. Which is lovely. His visit clashes with Pride. Which is a bit unfortunate. Not that he would have a problem with it, but now I'll have to juggle family things and friends things, but we'll see how it goes! He's passing through on his way to Easter Island, which is rather exciting.
*

carawj and I finished DS9 quite a while ago, but we skipped quite a few of the duller episodes early on, so now we're going back for them! Move Along Home looks a lot better when it's all you've got. Well, a bit better. Well... at least Kira's in it being feisty.
* I am sleepy. Early night tonight, methinks.

Oh! I almost forgot to say! Only a few days left until the Day of not-Classic Trek. There's still time to prepare something, it can be as little or as much as you like.

Three days into a new year already - gosh!

Christmas, as expected, was a bit upsetting and miserable, but had some lovely bits! Quite a few people got me presents to share with

carawj (thank you, those people, for cushions, teapots, spice racks etc! :D) and my brother got me a Davros cookie jar, so, awesomes. And then when I got back to London we had a little Christmas of our own and I had a stocking with jelly beans and bubbles and poetry and biscuits and it was very lovely. :)

As to my feelings on Doctor Who... mostly disappointment and betrayal. I might post properly another time.

So anyway... 2010, eh?

Where I am now is nowhere near where I imagined myself this time last year. And 2009 in a lot of ways was a difficult year, but it was also a year filled with loveliness and awesome, and one in which I think I've grown a lot and learned a lot of things about myself, so I'm counting it as a win overall. I have a lovely home and girlfriend and a wonderful circle of friends both near and far who mean the world to me, and if I don't have a job I love, I at least have one that pays the bills and lets me wear what I like and listen to my iPod in the office, which could be a whole heap worse.

I'm not sure I want to make a list of resolutions, but as a general thing I want to spend more of this year doing things that are important to me, and I want to make more progress towards my goal of making a living from writing. Although technically I do that already, it really doesn't count.

Today I'm sitting in our nice tidy flat, we've shopped and eaten proper food, I've been doing creative things all day and even if I haven't made the best possible use of the Christmas break, I have really enjoyed it. So I think this is a good way to start the year. *nod*

So,

carawj and I put up our Christmas tree on Friday night!

It was fun. We'd inherited a second-hand tree, and we hadn't really checked that it was ok, so we were surprised to open the box and find that it didn't come with a stand, oh noes! So we were like, what do we do, and then I remembered how we never had a stand at home and my dad just used to (and AFAIK still does) wedge the tree into a bucket using rocks of various sizes from the garden.

We don't have a garden to get rocks from, nor do we have a bucket, so instead we washed out the bathroom bin and used that, and wedged the tree in with the entire contents of the tins cupboard in the kitchen.

Of course, now we can't eat any tinned food until January 6th, but our Christmas tree stands up practically almost straight! And is sparkly!

And there's already a present under it because my dad got something for

carawj, which makes me super happy.

Saturday folk came over and we watched Christmassy movies and had mulled wine and nommy foods, yay! Then I spent Sunday going 'aaargh, aargh, too congested to breathe'. And now I'm back at work, but only for a week and an half before I have nearly two whole weeks off! No idea yet really what I'm doing with them... Wales folk, want to meet up? London folk, want to do things that we normally can't do on weekdays because we're always working?

Current Mood: chipper

Happy Turkey Day, everyone who’s celebrating it!

Well, I’ve officially given up NaNoWriMo for this year. Sorry, lovely NaNo people! I think it would have gone better if I hadn’t already had so much to do in November, what with visiting folk and having folk visiting me. I got a fair bit done in the first week and a bit in the second, and I really enjoyed going to the write-ins and found them helpful for getting stuff done, but I really need to work hard on the advent calendar stuff for my site and I couldn’t really do both at once. I might give it a go next year, though, depending on what else I’m doing! And I may well still go to a couple of write-ins anyway.

3_fries_short is coming to stay tomorrow! I’m jolly excited! We are going to watch Sanctuary and things.

In other news,

carawj and I have been watching a whole bunch of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and it’s strange, having grown up with it always on at home, been obsessed with it for a while in my teens and then abandoned it for a few years, to come back to it now and look at it with fresh eyes. I’m really enjoying it. I’m loving how much of a dork Beverly is, I totally didn’t notice ever before. She spends her free time looking after her plants, and she squeaks with excitement when she wins a hand at poker. And no matter the cause of death, she always wants to do an autopsy. To the point where she’ll wander the ship, complaining at people about not being allowed to do an autopsy. I am re-warming to Beverly a lot after going through a phase where I was cross with her for not being Pulaski... Pulaski is still my favourite, but Beverly’s very sweet!

And when I say Pulaski’s my favourite, of course I mean she’s my favourite of the two doctors, because of course Deanna is still my proper favourite of the whole cast. And I’m also loving how much of a cad Riker is. We watched the one the other day where he shags a random alien chick just so she’ll help him escape. And the one where he two-times Deanna and Ro. Oh, Riker, never change.

Ok, ok, I suck at the internet... and communication in general, lately, sorry guys. And I know I keep saying this in each of my sporadic postings, but I'm really going to try harder now to keep up with LJ. I haven't been at all, though, for months, so if you've said stuff I should know, link me!

( Updates about me )

Well, everyone else is doing it... and I wasn't going to, but I was told to. :P
So, without further ado:

( 25 Possibly Slightly Interesting Things About Me... )

1. OMG, how hot was Penelope Wilton back in the day? http://community.livejournal.com/dw_daily/16860.html
2. Yesterday was the Sarah Jane gang trip to the panto - the Sladen herself was magnificent, the rest of the show was... well, I've trashed it here: http://girladventurer.blogspot.com/2009/01/peter-pan-comparison.html Although actually I don't like some of the sentences in there, I might go back and edit... Anyway, the show wasn't much cop but I still had an awesome day!
3. Colin Baker should drag up more often. Not that I like it or anything.
4. I've had a weird sore throat for over a week now, and I'm starting to wonder if it might be tonsilitis or something.
5. Weekends are much too short.
6. Mum Update: She's finished with chemo for now, which is nice. She's on some hormone treatment that makes her legs act weird but is otherwise much easier, apparently. So we're waiting to see how that goes but it sounds like her doctors are quite pleased with her progress.
7. Must remember to give blood. Ooh, but if this sore throat is actually something, I might not be allowed... Well... I'll leave this sentence anyway to remind me later.
8. I need a Bonnie icon! It's ridiculous that I don't already have one.
9. Going to see Mandy Patinkin in concert on Tuesday, Sash got tickets! But aargh, it clashes with my piano lesson! Oops...
10. There is no number ten.

Stuff in my head:

* Happy birthday Els! Hope you had a wicked time.
* Urgh I feel so ill. I've been trying to shake off this horrible cold all week, and I just feel so drained and limp and fuzzy. Had a funny turn on the tube this morning, the Piccadilly line is very airless. I know that it's my own fault really for working too much and eating rubbish at stupid times of day. Day off tomorrow. I think I shall have a long lie-in and just lounge around the house. Maybe tidy my room a bit. I rearranged it and it looks good, but very messy.
* On Wednesday I interviewed for an amazing job. I should hear this week. Please cross your fingers for me if you have a second to!
* Today was the Elisabeth Sladen, Tommy Knight, Daniel Anthony signing at Borders! It was a terrific day. I did badges! There was food! I gave The Sladen a letter that some of my Kitezh kids wrote her. Other cool stuff. Possibly longer post later.
* Really missing Kitezh lately, actually. Feeling a bit emotional about it.
* I am sort of worried about Christmas. Fear it will be all forced jollity and people going off to cry in corners. Also, I have no money for presents.
* I don't like having two jobs. It makes me feel like I'm always rushing. Again... hope I get this one I interviewed for t'other day. It's in Ealing! Which, shockingly, looks nothing like TV-Ealing, since TV-Ealing is actually Cardiff...
* Oh self, stop moaning! You live in London, you have your own (small) steady(ish) income, your friends are great, the SJA is on every Monday, and your hair is cool. Blessings. Count 'em.
* In fact, self, why are you still up? It's half three! Being crazy-wired for no apparent reason is not a good enough excuse.
* Love and hugs to Penguins and associated persons!

Feeling considerably cheerier and less dramatic today!
Partly because I've got a temping assignment and some shifts at the theatre - I feel a bit safer. And also, the temping assignment is the same really nice one I was on before I left (the girl they had in the interim was rubbish, haha!) and so I feel a lot less like going away to Wales just threw all my London stuff upside-down. Finances are still a bit wobbly, but hopefully I can get things back on track.
I just need to accept that this is going to be a weird time, and make the best of it.

A challenge for you, flist: I need to find a song about a woman who is ditzy/annoying, but secretly awesome. Upbeat would be best. Some of you may guess what I need this for... Any suggestions gratefully received!

Current Music: Suddenly - Xanadu Soundtrack

Well, Mum's starting chemotherapy tomorrow. From what I gather, there's about an even chance that it'll go well, in which case she could be around for another couple of years, maybe more. So, not exactly good news, but certainly not the worst. I'm somewhat encouraged.

Anyway, in other news, the new series of the Sarah Jane Adventures has started! I watched the first story - I felt that the script and the direction could both have been better, but on the whole I was pretty pleased. *sigh* I love the Jacksons. And there were some very sweet moments.

I'll probably be in London for a week or two, from this weekend or the beginning of next week. So if anyone wants to hang out, stake your claim now, everyone wants a piece of me! OK... what I mean is that I'll have to do lots of shifts at work to make up for all the time I'm missing, so I'll be boring-busy instead of fun-busy...

The man who was supposed to sell me a snake sold it to somebody else! Dammit! So now I have a vivarium and no snake to put in it. Next stop, Gumtree, I suppose...

Woah, I can't believe I haven't updated this thing since July.
A lot has happened since then, and maybe I'll blog about that another time.
I'm back in Wales right now, for the first time since June. When I phoned my mum the other day, she told me that she has been diagnosed with cancer. They're still doing tests but it looks very serious.
So.
Seems a silly time to start posting on LJ again, but there we go.
I think my life is going to get weird now. I want to try, as much as possible, to keep my normal life in London going. I'm looking into transport costs for travelling up and down. It looks like I may be spending a lot of time here running my mum's business while she's in hospital, but I still want to get back when I can. It's funny how I've only lived in London for four months, but it still feels more like home than here right now. I don't want to just end up stuck here forever because some bad shit happened. But obviously I want to spend time with my mum while I can.

Also, I haven't been following my flist at all this summer, since I've had no home internet for quite a while. I'm online again now, so if you've been doing anything exciting, or even if you haven't, mention it now, I'm interested!