Given my plans to move in omg less than a year, I'm really, really, REALLYreally tempted to buy this mug.

I took this picture in London and, well, it just BEGGED for this. Loudly. Really.
( LOL! )

I want to go back and see it again, dammit. Want want want want want want want.

Hell, I just want to be in England again.

*is depressed*

They're finally up, and most of them have descriptions. Over on my photobucket account:

Blackpool and Poulton-le-Fylde.

Caernarvon Castle.

Cardiff.

Chatsworth and the Peak District.

Kendal.

London.

Manchester.

Shrewsbury.

Stratford-upon-Avon.

York.

Yorkshire Dales and Bolton Abbey.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think! :D

According to weather.com, it's 89 degrees in Lakewood.

According to my thermometer, it's 95 in my living room.

Consequently, I am camped out in my bedroom with my little window a/c unit chugging away. I'm going to end up paying an insane amount for power this month, but I don't care. I am, however, annoyed that I'm basically trapped in my bedroom by the heat. (Without even the Tennant to keep me company. Oh, did I just say that aloud?)

Ahem.

I'd been eating nearly nothing the past couple days because of the heat; now that I'm in a cool room, I'm hungry. No, I'm STARVING. But to eat would mean either 1. going into the kitchen and cooking, or 2. taking a shower and going out to spend money at a restaurant. Neither of which I really want to do. I could, I suppose, order a pizza, but that's way too much food for one person.

*grumbles*

I'll probably go get something to eat--maybe I'll skip the shower (because I'll just need another one when I get back) and run over to Taco Time and bring the food back here to eat in peace. That's a distinct possibility. Actually, that sounds really good. Taco Time soft taco.... yum.

At least I've got lots of good DVDs to watch on my laptop, and my cross-stitch bookmarks to work on. :D Anyone got fic recs for me? Pr0n a plus......

There's been a LOT of angsty fic around lately. What do you say we have some fun?

Announcing THE JUST FOR FUN FICATHON

Purely because I'm tired of angst, dammit.

Rules:

* Pick a prompt below. Or two, or three, or whatever catches your fancy.

* Write a fic. The only rule is that the fic must be FUN. Not necessarily funny, mind. Smut is perfectly fine, as is gen. Any Who or Torchwood pairing/grouping (though for mine own part, I prefer Doctor/Rose, Doctor/Jack, Doctor/Jack/Rose, or Jack/Rose--but that's just me). Just--no angst. Or very little--if it has a happy ending, we'll call it good.

* Post the fic, then comment to this entry with a link. Shall we say, by 14 September? That's a Sunday, and it gives you a month. But honestly, if you don't make the deadline, who cares? This is for FUN.

* I'll create a masterlist of fics for future reference, come 14 September. If fics come in late, I'll add them.

What do you say? Anyone interested?

( The prompts! )

There you have it, folks. Ready? GO!

Yes, dearest flist, I'm home. Well, I got home on Monday, actually, but it's taken me about this long to really get myself situated back into the flow of things. I've got most of my pics uploaded to Photobucket, and I'm working on my review of Hamlet (short version: OMG IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME ASFDJK;ASDFKJ;ADFJKDS; OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!), but for the most part, it's been just psyching myself up to slip back into the Real World.

I'm off to work today. Well, to a class. Never let anyone tell you that teachers have their whole summer off; I have a good two weeks of unpaid work to do before my contract kicks in. I'm paid for 183 days of work, which is to say, school days plus four extra "Learning Improvement Days". Anything I do outside that time--or on school days, outside the hours of 6:45 am to 2:15 pm--is unpaid. Given that I'm actually *teaching* for five of those seven and a half hours, and I'm not actually paid for my half-hour lunch break (I'm paid for 7 hours a day), I think you can see where I'm going with this.

But it's ok; God knows nobody becomes a teacher for the money! :)

I'll be out of here in about half an hour because it's quite a drive out to where Summer Institute is being held, and I need to buy gas. Which is down below $4/gallon now! I just about fell over when I saw that. It's gone down a good 50 cents a gallon since I left for England! I'm cynical enough to see it as a ploy by the GOP party leadership to get people back in time for the election, but that's just me.

So, I'll sign off for the moment--just wanted to let you all know that I did survive my trip home. And later on, I'll give you the full story of those two days. It wasn't pretty. For now, I'm going to finish my coffee, cuddle my kitty (who's apparently punished me enough for being gone for almost a month and is now in her Velcro Kitty stage; I'm sitting on the sofa with my laptop on my lap, slouched down so she can lie on my chest with her paws on my left shoulder. I'm looking over her back as I type this.

Who, me? Owned by a cat? That's ridiculous.....)

Wish me luck in surviving 7 hours of class on the new, revised math standards for middle school. Bleah......

I'm here!

Yes, my dearest lj friends, I am finally IN STRATFORD. telltale and I are here in our room at the Grosvenor, ready to go out for a night on the town. And then tomorrow is The Day!

I can't believe this. I've been waiting for MONTHS for this, and it's here! Woot!

sensiblecat is on her way with her hubby and daughter, and she's bringing my big luggage with her (thank goodness, as having that with me on the damn bus would've SUCKED). Until then, I'm stuck in what I'm wearing. But that's okay, really, because I'm wearing a comfy shirt and jeans. Oh, and did I mention I'm IN STRATFORD?

Life is pretty damn good right now. :D

Ok, I'm going to try to make this relatively quick, as it's 11:30 pm and we're off to Stratford in the morning.

So far I have been to:

* Blackpool (what a disappointment, really; now I understand Peter Carlisle's line, when asked if he was depressed, "No, but I've only been here for two days." Of course it would've been more fun had it NOT been pouring rain and freezing.)

* Poulton-le-Fylde: a lovely little village near Blackpool.

* Downtown Manchester

* Kendal, and through the Lake District (pretty! And I saw bunnies! FIVE wild bunnies! We decided they're Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, Peter, and Benjamin Bunny.)

* Bolton Abbey (and through the Yorkshire Dales)

* Cardiff

* York

* Chatsworth (and through the Peak District)

* Caernarvon Castle


Tomorrow, as I said, we're off to Stratford, and on Monday, 4 August, at 7:30 p.m. GMT, I WILL BE SITTING IN MY SEAT IN THE RSC WATCHING THE PRETTY MAN PLAY HAMLET OMG. That's the DAY AFTER TOMORROW.

*dies*

But! The best part? I EVEN DROVE. I rented a car and drove larielromeniel and telltale out to both Chatsworth and to Caernarvon over the past few days. Admittedly, I rented an automatic, but I do think I'd've been ok with a manual; I drive a stick shift at home. And driving on the left becomes strangely normal after an hour or so. I've had a BLAST with it, in fact. And the ladies haven't seemed terribly traumatised by the whole thing, so I think all must be well. :)

After Stratford, we're off to London to meet up with buckbeakbabie. We've booked a sightseeing tour and the Jack the Ripper walking tour (which looks absolutely FABULOUS). I've got loads of pictures, as you might guess, and I'll be u/ling them after I get home. I fly back on the 10th and get into Seattle at 10:50 p.m. It's going to be VERY weird being back in the States after 25 days here.

There is no question about it: I AM MOVING TO THIS COUNTRY DAMMIT. I am, I am, I am.

Off to bed now... just wanted to check in with y'all and let you know that none of us are dead, despite the whole "drive on the left side of the road" thing. (I'm immensely proud of myself for having done that!)

Title: If You Love Someone
Author: aibhinn
Character(s): Ten
Spoilers: Journey's End
Rating: Teen
Summary: Post-Journey's End, the Doctor goes to a familiar spot to think.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Not making any money. Please not to sue me.
Author's Note: Written in the restaurant in question (actually, the seat in question) on Cardiff Bay this afternoon. I've not tried my hand at post-Journey's End fic yet, so here, somewhat late, is my offering. A bit angsty, not surprisingly.

Follow this link to my fic journal!

Thought I was DONE with the damn jet lag. But two days in a row, I've woken up at 1:30 a.m. and not been able to go back to sleep.

Lissa = NOT amused.

Aside from the rain and wind and general ickiness of the weather, Blackpool was fun! I got pictures, yes, of course I did. Fans of the show, did you know that Funny Girls is a real drag club? It is! Photo evidence tells all! *g* I can't upload them until I can manage to get internet access on my laptop, though, I'm afraid.

We also went to the little town where sensiblecat grew up, and I got some lovely pictures of the 750-year-old church there. We had tea and sat and chatted; it was quite lovely.

Tomorrow, loriel_eris comes down from Glasgow; I'm so excited! It'll be a lot of fun. Sunday we're off to Bolton Abbey for the day, and then on Thursday, we hop a train for 3 days, 2 nights in Cardiff. Wheee!

Ok. I'm going to try for some sleep now. Got the jaw-cracking yawns going on, so maybe I can doze off again.

It's off to bed for me (midnight here, and an early start tomorrow), but just a note to remind you all--PLEASE if you haven't done it, go vote for the final winner for the first round of doctor_rose_las. (And it's VERY strange typing that on a British keyboard; the double-quote key is above the 2, where the @ symbol is on an American keyboard! In fact, they're switched.) Voting closes at 10 pm Central time. Only 2 reunion stories to read, neither of them spoilery for the end of the season. Please, PLEASE! :D

Ok, bedtime for Lissa. Nighty night!

Sorry it's taken me so long to update, but I have made it safely to sensiblecat's home here outside of Manchester. It's lovely and gray and raining and beautiful! Yesterday we took a long walk round the village and ate a lovely lunch at a cafe; today we're going out to the school where she works and then out and about on a bit of a wander before meeting her husband for dinner on the Curry Mile.

I did manage to sleep on the plane (actually, I sacked right the heck out and had to be prodded awake for breakfast), so the trip itself was no trouble at all. And now I'm fitting right in. Yay! I'm all a-twitter. :)

You probably won't see much of me because there's a bit of a problem with getting my laptop to recognise the wireless connection here, so I'm only able to use one of their computers, which I don't like to do too often--I feel like I'm imposing. But I'm here and I'm safe and it's ALL exciting!

I'm in the Atlanta airport, where they have wifi (yay!), so I can play around online a bit before I get onto the plane. That's not for an hour and twenty minutes or so (that's when boarding starts); it's now 5:00 or so here, and pushback is at 7:55. I land in Manchester at 9:20 a.m. GMT on 16 July. This means I am REALLY REALLY REALLY close to being back in the UK!

I've made it to the final round of doctor_rose_las, and voting is up! We had to write our favourite reunion scene. PLEEEEASE, if you're so inclined, go here and vote for your own favourite! There are only 2 to read through.

Now I'm off to turn on some music so I don't have to listen to stupid politics on CNN anymore. :P

Bathroom: clean (including changing the litter box)
Kitchen: clean
Living room: clean (barring a few knick-knacks to put away)
Laundry: finished and put away


As far as packing goes, I've got all my toiletries together and will now be searching out the most efficient way to put clothing, shoes, toiletries, and other items (no, joely_jo and sensiblecat, I'm not saying more than that!) together, while still making sure I'm following The Rules. Luckily, I don't have much in the way of liquids that needs to be carried on, so that will make things easier. Meds, toothbrush, hairbrush, clean underwear and shirt, plus my port-a-puter, iPod, and books for the flight; that's all that I really NEED to carry on. Oh, and my sound-cancelling headphones and neck pillow. The rest can go in my checked luggage.

Now comes the fun (hah) part: deciding what clothes to take!

Absolute essentials include:

Jeans (easy to wear, easy to coordinate, comfortable, lots of pockets)
Good quality socks
Walking shoes (newish, high-quality, and broken in)
Skirt, coordinating blouse, slip, and sandals, for the RSC (and for church)
Short-sleeved shirts
Camisoles and tank-tops to go under the above if it gets chilly
A lightweight jacket, ditto
Underthings

Plus some Girl Stuff^tm, including makeup and things not generally talked about in mixed company.

Already got money, id, passport, and boarding passes in my handbag (I originally typed purse, but I suppose I'd better get used to using the British term!). I think I'm set! :)

Now to *do* the packing.

OMG I get on a plane in 33 hours!!!!!

"The TARDIS's systems"

or

"The TARDIS' systems"

When I was in school, I was taught the latter was correct, but when I was in university, I was required to use the former in my papers. What's your preference?

Ok, this cracks me up.

My friend alueua sent me a mix CD of songs she thought I'd like, and which fitted the theme of "Lissa going to England to watch David Tennant play Hamlet." This was one of the songs.

(The following copy-and-pasted from this site.)

Oor Hamlet (aka The Three-Minute Hamlet) was written by Adam McNaughton of Glasgow, Scotland. It was recorded on McNaughton's album Words, Words, Words which is apparently long out of print. Here's what McNaughton has to say about the song (taken from the liner notes of that album):

"The first 'act' of Oor Hamlet was written when I was reading the play with a fifth-year class at Cathakin High School. It then lay untouched for a year, until I saw a letter in 'Sandy Bell's Broadsheet' which I felt overstated the case for singing more ballads in folk clubs. The writer, Sheila Douglas, had made a comparison between the plots of the ballads and the plot of Hamlet. This proved to be the stimulus I needed and I finished off the 'poem' very quickly. Even before I sent it off, however, I realized with slight amendments and additions it could be sung to the tune of The Mason's Apron."

( The Lyrics. )