Category: Out & About

Friday night was Nada’s leaving do – I’d been to the doctors in the morning, and had totally forgotten that it was that day, so I didn’t have anything to change into, or any makeup or anything. But I went anyway, originally planning to just stay for one drink. However, since I was still awake and having fun, I stayed longer. My Dad had said he’d call me at 9pm to find out about the doctors and everything. So I rang him from the pub….
Me: Hi Dad, I’m still at the pub, so I won’t be back when you were going to call.
Dad: Oh, OK. I’ll call you when you get home, shall I?
Me: Well, I don’t know what time I will be home…
Dad: Alright, I’ll try calling at 11, and if you aren’t there, don’t answer, and I’ll call you again in the morning.
Me: Right. If I’m not in at 11, don’t ring me before 10am tomorrow.
Dad: OK, bye!

So the evening continued, and fun was had by all, I think. Sue had to stop drinking in case she died, or so she said, but I didn’t think she was that badly off. *g* After we left the office ‘local’, we meandered to a couple of other pubs in the old town, and then back again. Some of the guys went off clubbing then, but since I couldn’t persuade anyone else to go to Spiders, I made my way home. I got in at about 1am, where I discovered I had an answerphone message:
Dad-on-answerphone: Hi, it’s 11 o’clock, and you’re not back, so I’m off to bed. I’ll call you in the morning between 9am and 9:30.
Me: Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!

*sigh* And he did. D’oh! Well, never mind. The cat was happy that I was awake that early. LOL.

Speedy update: Noxy visited for a week, much fun was had. Recurring sore throat developed into great big loss-of-voice plus nasty hollow-chest-feeling on Saturday, and has stayed that way – finally managed to get doc’s appointment for this afternoon. Shall babble more later. I expect.

Went to Jon and Al’s party after work last night. Hee, was fun! :-) More of a drinking and nattering thing than a crazy dancing thing, but all is good. Of course, I still can’t drink, but there was plenty of, well, atmosphere *g*. I love their flat, too – it’s in a converted warehouse. Extremely cool! I think I’ve decided to have my housewarming on 2nd March. Who wants to come? *g*

Oh, and when I got home, I started on sorting out the SPIKED Awards. Only to discover that because no-one has logged into the Hotmail account which held all the fanfic nominations for 30 days, all it’s contents have been wiped. Thank you soooo much, Hotmail! Grrr. I *think* I had all the fic noms done, but I’ve got a feeling there may have been some still outstanding. So, er, if you should have some fic nominated, and it’s not on the page, give me a shout asap. Cos now I’m back to ‘normal’ I want to get the judging started soon….

Bought stuff today. Specifically, jeans, cos my others are going slightly holey. And twoLordoftheRingsposters, shhh. Must go see that film again soon. Don’t think I can til at least next weekend, though. Damn work. Tcha.

So, the weekend was very good. Long entry coming up. Sorry ’bout that.

I acquired some birthday money (to the tune of £60), but I can’t decide how to spend it. I’m thinking of one of these:
1) Allaire / Macromedia Homesite – my fave HTML Editor, which is would be nice to have a full (legal) copy of.
2) Mememememe – splurge the cash on getting my hair done, plus massage, facial, and all that.
3) Computer desk, and chair, and possibly a new mouse, so I can get my ‘puter (and my bum) off of the dining room table / chair that I’ve been using.
Opinions, anyone? I can’t make up my mind….

Other birthday stuff I got includes a black “pashminetta” (damn big but light scarf), jewellery and candles from the parents, the Linkin Park and Alien Ant Farm albums from my brother, and a one-off designer mirror from Alison (she’s a glass and mirror designer; my birthday present to her is a domain and website for her business). And it’s not even my actual birthday til tomorrow. *g*

Had a pretty uncomfortable journey down on Friday – I left Hull on the 4:30pm train (the last direct one of the day) and it was full. My seat was at one of those four-seats with a table between, and since there was someone opposite me and beside me, I couldn’t stretch my legs at all, or even really move them much. For over 3 hours. Ouch, much cramp. The seats aren’t really designed for short people, either. Still the journey across London was nice and easy, and I even had time to stop for a burger and chips before I caught the Hastings train. That was much less crowded, but it was one of those where you have to slide the windows down and use the outside handle to open the door, and since they only close from the inside, it got very very drafty. I ended up walking up and down the carriage closing them from time to time. God knows why anyone else didn’t do one or two, cos they were all sitting there looking cold. Mad.

On Saturday, I slept in for ages, and when I finally did get up, we went out to Finchcocks, where Alison had a stall at their craft fair. There was all kinds of spiffy stuff, but I had no cash, so so much for that. Heheh. On the way back, we drove through Battle, where I saw a Saxon soldier chatting on a mobile phone…. slightly surreal. *g* It was the Battle of Hastings anniversary, see, and they’d been doing the reconstruction. That evening, I went round to Clara’s to see her new place and meet her cats, and then we went down to the old town to meet Alison, and Debby and Beccy – friends from school that we haven’t seen since we all went in various directions 9 or so years ago! There was much hilarity and catching up. Some guy in the pub actually sent a rose across to Beccy, then sent his mate to ask her name. She had to tell him she was very much attached. Awww.

Sunday was the meet up with Daisy, The Cheeseman, ‘the child’, and Red. We had fun, meandering through the old town, drooling over leather and velvet clothing, and being tempted by the tattoo parlour. ‘The child’ is just adorable – very bright and energetic. Eventually the shops all shut, and it decided to rain, so we went home at 5pm-ish. That evening was the traditional birthday Chinese takeaway nosh-up, which me and Martin went and fetched. Far too much food for four people there. Yum! Then spent the rest of the time vegging out, pretty much. Watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, got pressies, generally faffed around.

Yesterday I started out on my journey back at 4:30pm. Got to London at 6pm. Now, during the rush hour, Kings Cross underground station closes down for, I think, all but one line. At any rate, the Northern line (that’s the black on on the underground map) doesn’t stop there between about 4:30 and 7:30, and that’s the one I take from London Bridge when I’m crossing London on my way between Hastings and Hull. Since my train from Kings Cross was due to leave at 7:30, I decided to take the Thameslink instead. And I’m glad I did…. the train goes right through the belly of the city, and seeing it like that instead of just travelling under it like I usually do reminded me of what I love about the city, especially the city at night. It’s fucking glorious, the streets, the lights, the river and the traffic going by, the contrast between the huge majestic older buildings and the sometimes run-down, sometimes high-tech, newer ones. I remember remarking in a bit of a pretentious moment that the city is a “symphony in grey”, but at night it’s all black-red brick, charcoal and orange from the streetlights, with the occasional expanse of marble. I’d lost sight of all that a year ago, living there in pretty miserable conditions. All of a sudden I kind of miss it. But I wouldnt’ want to live there unless I could really afford it. And it’s expensive. Feh.

It was a slightly surreal journey in a way – the train was very quiet, and relatively empty to start with, and a man sitting behind me had a radio or something that was playing that formless unchallenging jazz that often ends up as lift music. Heh. I think I will take that route in future when I’m passing through, even though it takes slightly longer. Definitely the better way of doing things. And then as I was leaving Kings X Thameslink to make my way to the mainline station, an announcement came over the tannoy that made me smile (imagine in a West Indian accent for most accurate effect):
This is a non-smoking station. Please extinguish any cigarettes, cigars, pipes, or illegal substances you may be smoking. Thank you.

So anyway, I got home OK. At 11:30pm. Where I had a mountain of email waiting for me. I’ll finish going through it tonight…. maybe…. because I now also have the first two eps of Buffy Season 6, and the first ep of Angel Season 3 to watch. Plus Andromeda which B taped for me. Heheheh. Wheeeee!

Back from Hastings…. details of the weekend and general updaty stuff tomorrow (technically later today). Not sure if this is going to publish, since I haven’t been able to FTP into any of my sites on this server this evening. Feh. But anyway, I’ve been messing around on Emode, and I’ve discovered that:
My theme song is “Dancing Queen”
I’m monster matched as a Vampire
and my parenting ability is on the Three Men and a Baby level.
Well, that sounds about right. Heheheh.

Some maybe-good-news. Becky from work was telling me that when she went to the RSPCA place, there was a cat there fitting Worf’s description. So I rang them, and they told me that the cattery that cat is in, is in quarentine for cat flu. Bad. :-( So I have to call back on Tuesday to find out if they’ve been given the all-clear, and then if they have, I can go in and have a look. And if it is him, I can take him home. Might bring him home even if it isn’t Worf. This cat was found in Hull in May – which doesn’t say much since he could have got that far easily. But his innoculations won’t be up to date now, so for all I know, he could be one of the ill ones. *sigh* Thing is, though, I reported Worf missing back in January, and they said they’d call me if they got any possible cats in. Which they clearly haven’t. So what if this isn’t him, but they have had him in, and re-homed him? Still, that would mean at least he was OK. Hum.

The gig the other day was outstanding, by the way. Got there way too early, met up with the very cool Sarah and Rob, and hung out in The Street (it’s a café-bar) and then The Crypt itself, where the gig was happening. And it was just like going back to school (well, OK, 6th form). They were using the old back entrance that was the only entrance when I used to go there, and inside – exactly the same. Tiny, dark, slightly sticky, with fake-fur seat covers. Fabulous. :-) The support band were Farrah (who have their own tour diary on their site), and they were most excellent. Took the crowd a couple of songs to get going – there were probably no more than 100 people there, but like I said, it’s a tiny place. We were halfway back in the crowd, just out of the way of the moshpit, and that was only 5m from the stage. And even though the stage is only a foot higher than the floor, the bassist had to watch it jumping around in case he conked his head on the ceiling. Heheh. Anyway, Four Star Mary came on at 9:30-ish and played an outstanding set. Fantastic time. And afterwards, I picked up a copy of their single, and got my album cover signed. Also got to say hi, shook all their hands and got a hug from Tad. Very cool, friendly set of guys. I’d most definitely go to see them again. Would’ve been worth the 12 hour train journey, even if I hadn’t been going to see the family as well.

Um. And speaking of train journeys, I really do spend a hell of a lot of time sitting on trains. Obviously it has a lot to do with being carless – everywhere I go that’s any distance, I take the train. Except for the Wolverhampton/Glasgow thing when we hired a car, of course. But generally, it’s the train. I take the train to and from work every day, and I did when I was in London as well. But I spose it’s still cheaper than running a car. *sigh* Damn, I want a car.

Off to the 4*M gig in very short order. Feeling the lack of net access at the parents’ place *g* – but I’m back home tomorrow afternoon.

Spiked and Skewered is currently down (as is The SPIKED Awards) – apparantly, they’re using too much bandwidth. Don’t know quite yet what I’m going to do about it. So anyway, the sites are down for the time being. Bah. Oh, and I forgot to mention, Soulstar Graphics has now become Raw Addiction Graphics. Much better. And greener. Soulstar Fanfic will be following with its new incarnation soon.

So, then. Cricket was good. I went over to Nada’s on Saturday afternoon/evening, to make the whole Sunday am meeting-up easier (since I live miles away from everyone else). The Saturday evening plan was to eat chinese, and go to see Shrek at the cinema. But the getting of the chinese took longer than anticipated, so we watched Dungeons & Dragons on DVD instead. It wasn’t terrible, but I’m glad I didn’t spend the money to see it on the big screen. Ended up starting off to Edgbaston late on Sunday morning, because of the incompetence of the minibus hire people. And because they’d screwed up, they were therefore stroppy and rude to us. Lovely.

So anyway we didn’t get going til nearly 9am, instead of 8am. But never mind. It was a good day, even though we only actually saw about an hour of cricket in the end. But we got on telly (apparantly – several people said they saw a bunch of Mexicans there, so that must’ve been us), we had a good laugh…. and while I was sitting there in the lunchbreak, there was a tap on my shoulder…. I turned around, and it was Anil – my old flatmate from London, who I hadn’t seen since the day we moved up here! Talk about coincidence. So that was cool, and we had a catch-up chat…. he’s now thinking marriage and babies with his g/f, Tash, when she finishes uni next year. And hopefully they’re going to come up and visit us in a month or two. Yay!

Random: saw a girl on the train, the other day when I was coming in to work, who was reading the Watcher’s Guide. And it just made me wonder, does she go online, visit any of the sites that I visit, and all that. If I’d gone up to her and asked her if she’d read Saber Shadowkitten, say, would she know who I was talking about? Or even, does she write fanfic, or have a site (or more)? Or is she simply a Buffy fan who doesn’t have net access, or does, but isn’t involved in the ‘BuffyWeb’? Guess I’ll never know. But it made me wonder.

My ticket for the Four Star Mary gig in Hastings came today. I have my train ticket (for the day before – not getting stranded and missing it this time!), I know where it is (The Crypt – my old stamping ground, though it’s changed a bit in the last few years from the looks of things), and if all goes well, I have people to go with – not that I won’t be going if that falls through. I’m all set. Third time lucky, I bloody well hope.

I avoided watching Buffy tonight. Why? Because What’s My Line 1 was on. And I just couldn’t bear to watch it, and see Spike and Dru in all their original wonderfully evil glory. It’s pathetic. I am, that is. I mean, I like hero!Spike, I like where he’s gone this season (except for that cringeworthy phase when he was practically grovelling at Buffy’s feet – eeuuugggghhh!!! That was nasty). But Crush…. my S/D ‘shipperness came screaming back – not that it ever really went anywhere – and now I’m jonesing for dark and delicious S/D. I want to see them together again, both at full strength and deadly and…. guhhhh…. [It’s just a TV show, it’s just a TV show, it’s just a TV show] So strange as it seems, I can’t bring myself to watch them as they were back in season 2, all the while knowing that Spike didn’t choose Dru in Crush, despite all those fabulous electric moments between them in that ep. *sigh* I’m pathetic. I’m obsessed. Oh well.