So, let's talk writing...

I signed up for yuletide . \o/ It's after Bonfire Night, we can talk about Christmassy things now, right?

For those who don't know, yuletide is a fic exchange, but for small fandoms. Which I like the idea of, because some of my very favourite fandoms are, well, bijou? Cosy? Anyway, I have offered myself to write all manner of exciting things and if it all goes horribly wrong I shall be blaming novembersmith who, in the grandest traditions of the marmfish, will probably blame me...

Anyone else doing yuletide this year? Or any other kind of fic exchange? Any tips for a total newbie? I am super excited about it. I want my prompt now!

So, I am really going to have to try to finish That Damn Steampunk AU. Currently I am stalled a little, and mildly concerned that it is slightly chatchatflirtporridgechatEPICAIRSHIPBATTLEchat. Oh well. Could be worse.

It also has no name, and I can't call it SPAU for all time. It's a little like SPEW, for a start! Um, help?

It does have a kick awesome summery, though, if I say so myself. "In which Captain Kristopher loves his airship but needs a hobby and Prince Adam is unbalancing. Featuring sky pirates, political machinations, unexpected weaponry and Much Ado About Cogs"

And finally, NaNoWriMo people, how goes it? I am so proud of you all, and expect great things! I will be over here cheerleading like crazy.

Like this *\o/*

<3 Lal

ps. all y'all who had thoughts about blogging, I am in awe of your depth of thought. My flist wins at life.

So a few months the lovely kaiserkuchen interviewed me for her Thesis paper -  “Online Blogging & Young Women: The Use of Language and the Internet in Articulating Identity” and she sent me the transcript today. It's a really interesting topic that made me think a lot about me and online life and RL, plus seeing my rambling chattering put down in text form has amused me all day.

So I thought I would present to you selected highlights of The Story of Lal as Blogger, and if you want to chat about You as Blogger then that would be awesome, or if you would just like to ask me about anything I've said or why I use the word "like" so much, that would be cool too.

Also, it means I get to share my dreamwidth analogy with y'all. I am proud of it, what can I say! (--) means a pause, by the way. There are a good few...

Interviewer (Kaz!):When did you first start blogging and how did you even get started?

Lal: Well, I first started blogging properly just over a year ago (--) basically I was in a—I belonged to a Harry Potter fansite and the fansite folded, basically, and everyone switched to LJ. But I used to hang around and lurk on LJ before that, so to carry on and interact with the people I had met on this forum I got a Livejournal! And it was all downhill from there (laughs).

( Follow my progression downhill into the dark world of Blogs )

So, thoughts, fellow bloggers? This has mostly made me want to blog more. Can you start NaNoBloMo (where you blog every day for a month) halfway through a month? Or is that wicked cheating?

<3

So my poor kaiserkuchen is writing her thesis and needs something to cheer her up, and we all seemed to be in agreement after my last post that Winter Fashion is great, so I thought I would make a post about it! I am by no means any sort of fashion expert or Style Icon, but, hey, I like clothes, and I love to talk about them and most of all ILKAZ.

It is no secret that I love Autumn, I love the colours and the smells and Halloween (yay dressing up!) and Bonfire Night (yay fireworks!)

And it is even less of a secret how much I like getting out my winter clothes.

Let's talk coats, the most important aspect of your Winter Wardrobe!

I have a bottle green wool coat that I've had for 3 years now and still adore. It came from Topshop so it's still in pretty good nick.

I like that it's not black, and the collar and the buckles are great details. But there are so many pretty coats about this season. And there are lots of nice coats for guys, too. There is nothing more stylish than a man in a good coat... There are lots of cool military ones for both sexes, and lots of nice retro ones too, which I like because I am a retro kind of girl (only not the wanky 'oh it's VINTAGE" scenester type. I hope!)...

I especially like all the very old fashioned styled ones with nipped in waists.

Like this, or this cute blue one

Or the cool detailed, slightly Steampunkish ones like these

Or (Modcloth ftw) combine two great Autumn things into one with a plaid coat,


OMG SO PRETTY.

Wouldn't the grey one look so cool with some brightly coloured tights and a matching knitted hat? Red perhaps...

Speaking of coloured tights, I have a whole drawer of them (Verity tells me some people think this is weird. Go figure!) in all the colours of the rainbow. Pretty much. Apart from orange. I will not lie to you lovely people, Autumnal as it may be as a colour, I do not much like orange... Tangentally, what would be the American equivalent of Autumnal? Fallish? Fallen? Fell?

I love my tights, though, because they make non winter outfits (ie skirts) into something suitable for the Frozen Wasteland that is Leeds, November - February. I love my city, you guys, but goddamn it gets cold and windy. And I own a lot of black (what?!) and tights are a good way to brighten or add interest to an outfit. Plus, I wear much shorter things with thick wool tights than I would ever DREAM of without...

My current hearts desire is some cute grey wool tights, which are sassy and cute, but not cutesy. I am picky!

Like these, look how they just hint at being sexy without being, like, suspenders or anything like that. Plus, soft and warm!


My other two items on my Winterware Wishlist are a proper wool beret and some new gloves.

Now, I love all things French, and I love hats, so I should really get on and buy myself a beret already, am I right? People who know me in RL would certainly agree, because I go all ♥_♥ whenever I see one in a shop. I want a proper felt one, perhaps this adorable berry coloured one from H&M (my favourite shop in the world. About half my clothes come from there, and about 3/4s of the ones I wear regularly. Affordable and so cool!)

I would also love some new glove mitten (glitten?) things. I do have some kick awesome gloves that Nat calls my 'emo kid gloves' because they are elbow length, black and white striped gloves with black buttons down the side. But I used to have glovittens, and they were great because you can have fingerless gloves for doing fiddly things like getting your change out and texting, but still have warm fingers when you put the mitten bits back over.

Accessorize has the best selection of these kinds of gloves (they call them capped gloves but I like my smoosh words better) that I've seen. Like these, aren't they adorable?


They also have super sexy leather gloves, and normal ones with bows. Oh, Monsoon and Accesorise, why must you be so shiny, and yet so expensive...

I also wanted to talk about boots. Yay boots! Also, arg boots. Shopping for boots is like shopping for jeans (did I mention I'm picky) because you are going to be wearing them a lot and they have to fit just right. It took me about 2 years (no, really) to find the perfect pair and I plan to wear them forever. They are brown and have just enough heel. I also have some white material boots that I like to refer to as my steampunk boots and have absolutely no idea what to wear with. I'm working on it, never fear.

In conclusion, here is a what Autumn!Lal looks like, in coat and tights and boots. Do you love boots and coloured tights too? Talk fashion to me, darlings, I'm all ears under my snuggly hat.

(I'm all contradictions too, because I feel like I should make my next entry about something really deep/ungirly. I am so weird, y'all.)

( Coat love! )

Things to ignore in this picture, my face, the mess of cables on the floor, how yellow the walls look, my face, the fact that I am wearing red and green and look over Christmassy.

See, I have not thrown myself off the top of the Parkinson Building. I realise I rather freaked out at y'all then ran away and didn't post for WEEKS. Please accept my apologies. But people keep asking me questions like "What are you going to do with your life?" and I just don't know.

I'll keep you posted.

So, what have I been doing with my time, you may well ask. Well, I have been having terrible days like the one last week I decided that replacing my foundation was a luxury I couldn't afford. Plus, you know, all the days with conversations that went something like this  -

Dad: *makes plans*
Nat: *makes plans*
Dad and Nat: *look at me expectantly*
Lal: What I am bringing to this conversation is the ability not to curl up in a ball and cry. Go me.

I don't like talking about this too much here, because I am useless with sympathy and am incapable of talking about serious things for too long. I have no talent for unhappiness, it makes me feel self concious. I tend to rather make bad jokes.

*makes an abrupt change of subject instead*

Thank you, everyone, for all your reasons to be cheerful that you left for me. The theme seemed to be very much pretty boys and cake. I love that you know me so well! My flist is a Reason to be Cheerful, no doubt about it. I highly recommend the comments if you are feeling down.

And I have been having good days, great days too. I went to the Isle of Man for a week with Nat and was fed by my family and bought books by my friends. It's one of those things I may get round to blogging about properly, one of these days. They were all good days.

Or the day I met the lovely vandulocity for coffee in the arcade (I love the arcade, it makes me feel fancy!) and we had a good old fashioned marmfishy chat.

(A marmfishy chat - One that goes off on tangents, makes other people around you look at you strangely, includes many references to books, the internet, food and, of course, marmalade.)

Or the day that I got exciting post from Kaz *swishes around in her new earrings and drinks thai green tea*

Or any day that I watched an episode of Glee.

In other Lal related news, seeing as we are playing catch up...

My Dad is moving to South Africa! Which is exciting for him, and also for me. Just in time for the World Cup! I will be much more excited about going to visit him now. SA trumps the Isle of Man on so many levels, let's face it... Sunshine, glorious sunshine!

I am really enjoying living in my New House. Though it is not so new any more, seeing as I've been here 2 months. I still miss my lovely ladies of the Hessles, but my new housemates kind of rock, too.

There's Elliot, who I've known for about 3 years, but we only discovered last year that we are ridiculously alike and share a freaky psycic connection that means we KICK ASS at pictionary/charades/The Hat Game/Anything that requires you to be on the same wavelength. He does talk about maths a lot, but then no one is perfect.

Then there are two new girls, Jill and Eve. They are both so nice, I feel we are very lucky to have found them. We three girls watch cookery shows together and judge the contestants terribly.

It is Autumn! I realise this is not exactly breaking news, but I love Autumn. The fallen leaves are so pretty, and smell so good. And I get to break out my brown boots and my green wool coat and all my thick coloured tights. And I love summer dresses, really I do, but I love tights and knitwear and hats more.

So, that is me. Any news from where you are? How is uni, new uni people? How goes your writing, writers? (play! Remind me to sort out and send you the notes I made of YOUR BOOK *throws more confetti*) How is YOUR freak out going, dearest C? How is the thesis, Kaz? How the devil are you, everyone?

So, I've been a bit out of contact, I know. This is because RL decided to turn me upside down and inside out and I'm still not sure what's going on. Also, marmfish? My laptop hates Chatzy and won't work if I try and load it. I MISS YOU GUYS!

Basically I applied for a Masters in Applied Translation (French) at Leeds University and they said "Okay, that's fine. You have a place and we will send you your final confirmation when we get your funding confirmed."

So I was pleased and made plans for the next year of my life.

THEN The Isle of Man government didn't send Leeds University anything about my funding so I couldn't get that confirmed and so I couldn't get funding because I didn't have a confirmed place and when I got in contact with Leeds about it last week, they told me that they had given my place away.

THEY GAVE MY PLACE AWAY AND DIDN'T TELL ME.

So. Yeah. Then there was a lot of yelling and crying, and the uni were both unapologetic and unhelpful. And there's nothing I can do, except try not to freak out.

So, that has been my life, of late. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do, so please don't ask. It's all rather up in the air, but rest assured I'll keep you posted.

I am trying, now, though to focus on Reasons To Be Cheerful.

Everyone I know has been marvellous, my new housemate Elliot bought me takeaway pizza and ice cream and watched 10 Things I Hate About You and Get Over It with Me (yay adaptations of Shakespeare into a teen format!), because even though he is a straight boy, he owns about a million chick flicks.

Nat made a Plan B and then a Plan C and then a Plan D (which has a lot in common with Alan's "KILL THEM ALL" plan)

Cat took me to Lush and we got hand massages.

Also, internet friends? ILGUYS.

Kara and novemberlauren threatened picketing and spammed me with cheerful songs, Rhonda threatened people's shins and Colline called me a gem.

I talked to Kaz on Skype in a serious business way for her thesis about blogging and then just randomly for about an hour about all sorts of things. Food, especially. I was on a high all day after that!

I have a New Icon! I love earning new icons! It means I get to open my 'Icons that I Save and Crave' folder, current content approximately 50, and pick a lucky new icon. London is Love.

I have a story that I like and it's really flowing! 5000 words of steampunk AU...

And Strictly Come Dancing starts on Friday!

AND I just had the following phone call.

Lal: Hello?
Nat: HALP I have lost a man in a forest! Oh no! There he is! BYE!


Tell me some good news, dearest flist. Tell me a joke. Tell me about your kick-awesome lives!

My LJ is ONE! *gives LJ cake*. More on that later.

You guys, I am IN a fandom. I mean, I have other fandoms, I love other fandoms, I write for other fandoms. But I've realised that I am in the marmalade_fish .

It's a weird thing for me, because I am usually a lurker extraordinaire. And I'm not a very good fangirl, in many respects. I could never be in a ship war. I can overlook adaptation decay. For me, fandom is more about getting to meet people who love what you love, being able to share that. Fandom is my Happy Place, and I've totally lucked out with the people I've met through it.

Which is why when there was a chance to go meet my fellow marmfish for a picnic, I couldn't say no!

Firstly I stayed up far too late watching American Idol with Kara, so the only sleep I got was on the coach. But I managed to make it safely to Victoria and meet Boo ( who had made us labels! Cute labels with pictures!) and then Play and then PR and then Van and Rav and Isi.

We trailed through St James Park holding our jar of marmalade aloft. God only knows what people thought we were doing. The lure of the marmalade netted us Emily and Evenine, who had arrived that morning from Australia!

And then we picniced, in between talking non stop about books and films and generally getting distracted half way through sentences.

We also read out Sarah's fabulous Half Blood Prince Parody. I was being distracted and so got stuck with All Other Roles, which meant I got to be Luna AND Filch AND Cormac. 

This is probably my favourite picture, in which Dumbledore (playwithfyr ) councils Harry (ravelqueen ) while indulging in an Eccles Cake. ( Lemon of Sorcery? )

And then we spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to get a picture of us all, battling the Great Evils of camera timers, falling over supports, PR running too slowly and General Smiling Fail.

But here we are, a merry band of marmfish, and a bonus Fake News Interloper (can you spot him?)( Picnic the first )

Then we went for a walk around Fair London Town, which included nearly getting run over outside Downing Street, navigating by luck and an encounter with this statue.
( CLIVE )

Van: Does that statue just say "Clive"? Who is Clive?
Me: It's-
Van: Wait, there's something else. I think it says... Clive the Man Whore?
Fishes: Fall about laughing
Van: So good they built him a statue.
Me: Um. It's Robert Clive. Clive of India? Never mind. I like Clive the Man Whore better.

We spent the rest of the day on The South Bank, then it was back to PR's for me, play, Rav and Boo. We got pizza (ordered under the name Fish), and played Guitar Hero and chatted until 3am, in our nest of duvets and sleeping bags and soft toys.

The next day we took turns supervising Play making cupcakes. It's not that we don't trust her, it's just that she encourages people to play with fire. Me and Play may have turned them into more half icing half cake creations, which we took to our picnic outside Foyles. Foyles is, in fact, a bookshop, the perfect bookshop, in fact. It had a window display of many lovely supernatural books including The Demon's Lexicon, and deckchairs and grass upon which to picnic. What could be better?
( Picnic the second )

And then, THEN, we went to the IMAX to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. With 12 whole minutes of 3-D! We had to rope two random people into joining us to get a group ticket. They were looking somewhat perturbed at the prospect until they found out they didn't actually have to sit with us.

Which was probably a good thing.

3-D Trailers: *Start*
Fishes: Ooooo!
Rav: *Clutches Lal's arm everytime something comes towards them*

HBP: *starts*
Fishes: OOOOO! Hi 3-D Hottest Waitress In The World!

Dumbledore: *touches Harry's arm*
Van: *Holds up a finger*
Lal: Score One for Innapropriate Student/Teacher moments!

Draco Malfoy:*glowers, prettily*
Rav: OH DRACO *reaches out for screen*
Lal: Remember Ladies, Draco Malfoy is not your boyfriend.

MUCH QUOTING FROM sarahtales 's PARODY LATER

Snape: *pushes Draco up against a wall*
Van: Twenty Two!
Lal: This would be the most hardcore drinking game EVER.

Burrow: *burns down*
Lal: I always forget that this isn't canon. It only happened in fanfic. Oh dear.
Rav: Wait, really?

Film: * Is generally funny, touching, perfectly teenager-y, beautifully shot and well acted*

Fishes: Discuss the hilarity of Wizarding Genetics. You get to look like you father! But with your mother's eyes! That's how genetics works, kids! Also, Final Count of 36 innapropriate moments.

Then we went and bought books. Well, I say we bought books, I stealth read books and Van bought erotica. Then we found our very own busker! Or at least one that seemed to fit with the marmfish agenda.

Busker: *sings song about an alien*
Fish: Do you know any songs about zombies?
Busker: Um. No. But here is something similar! *sings song about serial killer*
Fish: *cheer*
Other Spectators *notice matching Demon Mark Necklaces, edge away from Potential Death Cult*

Then he sang rude songs and blamed us. The rest of the fish blamed me. I am resigned to such things.

Then we had to leave for trains and coaches and the like, after group hugs and pendant hugs and tube shenanigans, I got to Victoria Coach Station. FIVE MINUTES TOO LATE.

Lal: *phones PR*
PR: Oh man, me and Rav are just about to go into the theatre. If you'd only phoned five minutes earlier...

So I got to sit outside the National Theatre for 3 hours. It was surprisingly fun, actually, because London is cool and interesting, and the theatre has a square outside it full of people reading and picnicing. Plus it is very pretty at night.
( I heart LDN )

And then we went back to PR's and me and Rav talked about language for three hours. PR mostly slept, then claimed not to be sleeping every half hour or so. So I did not mind missing my coach all that much. Especially because the next day I got to witness

PR: *runs into room where Rav and Lal are sleeping* I GOT IN!
Which was her way of informing us that she got marvellous A-level results and is going to her first choice university.

And I got to have Japenese food with Rav (student of Japanese) and find out that she has been to my friend from school's house, because he is a friend of a friend. How random is that? Marmalade Bonds of Destiny!

And then I went home, finally!

A Good Time Was Had By All.

AND THAT DATE WAS CARO'S BIRTHDAY!

I am so sorry bb, that your birthday story is SO APPALLINGLY LATE! I am made of fail when it comes to deadlines...

BUT ANYWAY. Here is your story, and I hope you like it. It's not NorthByNorthWestern (or isn't it?!) but it is very much Fake News and Relevant to Our Interests.

A Million Maybes AKA The fic where Jon and Stephen get drunk, watch Doctor Who, discuss parallel universes and in parallel universes they watch Doctor Who...

Warnings: Some swearing! And some horizontal shenanigans. References to other AUs that I love because I love them. AND A LOT OF GRATUITOUS DOCTOR WHO GEEKERY. :D

Dedicated, of course, to the most lovely Caro, with best wishes and best love and best hopes for the kind of kick awesome year you deserve.

With most heartfelt thanks to Colline for the beta-ing, and for universe number 3.


( “So what you’re saying is that somewhere, in another universe, there are other versions of me? Of you?” )

July was, looking back, fairly fantastic. Manic panic hectic too, but yeah, fantastic.

There was moving and graduation, which I've already talked a bit about.

There was my father, returned from many months travelling round South Africa (are middle aged people supposed to take Gap Years?!) dispensing wisdom, sarcasm and advice on accessories. He had many new stories for me to add to my collection entitled "No really. Really. This kind of thing just happens to my family."

Like 'So, the rental car broke down on the way to the Austrian Debutantes Ball..." or "So your uncle is setting up this virtual football shoot...." or "You remember her? Your grandmother's friend? The prostitute of some renown?"

No. Really.

And then I went to Bulgaria! It was gorgeous.

If, like me before I read the guide book cover to cover on the way to the airport, you know next to nothing about Bulgaria, here's what you need to know.



It's the country highlighted in red, on this random map I found. Just above Greece, and with a border on The Black Sea (called so because of level of danger, not colour). So far enough south to be wonderfully hot and sunny, and also for growing roses. They grow, like, 10% of the world's roses, and so also have a lot of honey.

We went to the coast, to a island town called Nessebar, which is ancient and beautiful and "redolent with churches", according to the guide. We lucked out, I think, because it was ridiculously little money for our appartment in the middle of a UNESCO World Heritage site, five minutes from the beach...

This beach, in fact, which I'm sure you'll agree, is not too shabby.
( *pines for beach* )


The appartment was the top floor of an ancient, wonky, Bulgarian house, accessed by a frankly ridiculously picturesque yard. And inside, there was a LOT of wood pannelling. One of the legacies of Bulgaira's communist past seems to be that decor is stuck between 1976 and Bizarro World. So yeah, wood panelling, floral prints and stuffed pheasants in the hall...

( This was just outside our bedroom! )

There was also a balcony where we spent most of our time, eating yoghurt and honey, or fresh cherries followed by fresh olives and an un godly amount of tzadziki. Food in Bulgaria is cheap and delicious, especially the fish and large, cheese heavy salads. And BAKLAVA! And we ate ice cream every day, one time at "The Ice Cream Saloon", which had enormous, crazy ice cream creation with biscuits and cream and edible glitter.

( OMNOMNOM )


What We Did On Our Holiday

Well, we swam a lot, on something like 5 different beaches. The first day was on a horribly tourist-y resort beach, that was sadly full of English people, sad because 1. that's not what holidays are about and 2. because...

Lal: Ohay, so this is my first time in a bikini. Goodbye bikini virginity!
Sal: Good bye what?
Lal: BIKINI VIRGINITY.
Wren: WHAT?
Lal: GOODBYE BIKINI VIRGINITY!
Sal and Wren: *laugh endlessly and mockingly*
Many English people around us: *laugh endlessly and mockingly*
Lal: OMG I hate you all.

It's hard to stay angry when the beach is like this, though.

( Beach, um, four? I think? )

A few nights later we were at a gorgeous restaurant eating delicious pizza, on a terrace with a sunset behind that was so perfect that it looked like we had been photoshopped onto it

( See! )

and I got my revange

Sal and Belle: *relate story of The Worst Day Ever, when they were on holiday in India. When it monsooned and Belle cut her head open and they went to a scary doctors and then to an internet café where a man was 'enjoying himself' and where they nearly left their passports*
Wren: I love that story! I told my parents that story!
Belle: Me too! I think it is the only time I've used the word masturbate in from of them.
Wren: Who even says masturbate? I usually just say wank.
Lal: Say what?
Wren: WANK.
Lal: *laughs endlessly*
Table of English People next to us: *laugh in a shocked way*

We shopped for Giant Hats and metal earrings and even pondered antique knives. We have electic tastes in sovenirs. We also went round ancient charches and ruins and a museum where I brought shame on my housemates

Lal: *runs back to everyone*
Lal: GUYS! There is a ROOM OF AMPHORAE!
Housemates: Oh no, Not again. Never come to a museum with a history dork.

Sunshine, ice cream and friends who love you even though you bring Great Shame on them. What more could you want from a holiday?

And then, to round it all off, waiting for me on the first day in my new house was my Demon's Lexicon pendant, made by the awesome playwithfyr Look! How cool this that?!

( Thank you Play! )

Like, Bulgaria or the new Harry Potter Movie or funtimes with my crazy family...

But not today!

Firstly,

Mission101!

And firstly, Graduation! It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be! My Dad, true to form, very nearly missed it by staying on the bus as it went right through town, which led to me, in full robed garb, standing on the steps of the university yelling "JUST GET OFF THE BUS" into my phone.

Speaking of robes. ROBES! Oh, my Bat Cape of Responsibility (copyrightmcollinknight ), I am not sure you were worth £20 an hour, but you were so very swishy. I swept about the place feeling very like Professor Snape. Or DDG Pansy. And I graduated in The Great Hall. It was awesome.

Obviously, I could not resist a bit of a swirl
( Spinny, swoopy Lal! )

Also, I have

2. Got my hair cut, finally. It has come to something when a haircut is a luxury.
16. Cooked gammon with honey and mustard glaze.
28. Read 'Never Let Me Go' by Kazuo Ishiguro. I borrowed it from my friend who has been extremely sceptical and occasionally condescending about sci-fi and fantasy. She loves this book. This book is sci-fi. Just because it doesn't say so on the back cover, just because it uses words like "darkly skewed" and "re-imagining", does not make it anything but sci-fi! ARG. Okay, so, this has turned into a rant. The book is very good, beautifully written and heart-achingly, bleakly real
And the entire Rough Guide To Bulgaria. Which was also surprisingly interesting! And informed me for our trip to churches so I could make serious noises about Byzantian vs Thracian. *history dorks about the place*
61. didn't lose the keys to my old house once. It's a miracle!
76. C.V updated and given out to about a million companies. Sigh.
87. Taken lots of photos recently. Yay!

And I have more words, from Flame, my sunbeam.

1. LOST BOYS
Once I played a lost boy in a production of Peter Pan. There was a lot of fake mud involved. I hear also that it is a sexy, silly 80's vampire movie. I might go put it on Nat's LoveFilm list, actually. And by put on, I mean, highjack without his permission. Obviously.

2. NICK (or as we call him in my neck of the woods NICK YO MAMA! RYVES) Nick! The esteemed protagonist of The Demon's Lexicon. My dear, my lasagna (christened so by the chat, for he is hot and layered and saucy). I know that your opinions, Flame, run a little different to mine, so here is my take on our boy.

I tried to be vague but warning! Possible spoilers for TDL!

I loved Nick from the get-go, despite his dickishness, his coldness and complete inability to relate to anyone. I sort of... got him. Or so I thought. So whereas some people were relieved by the reasoning SRB gave him at the end, I felt almost like the Nick I thought I knew, wasn't. If you see what I mean. But I eventually reconciled Nick with, um, Nick, in my head and still love him, borderline sociopath that he is.

And I know that you thought that Nick was painted as No Good because of his ways of picking up girls and generally being a bit of a Rake and a Cad and Flirt (or getting by on his good looks) but to me that wasn't a way that SRB made him mad, bad and dangerous to know (which is kind of is, but it's totally not his fault, kay!) but a way that she highlighted that he couldn't really connect to people. What we saw of Lianan, for example, shows us that this is not uncommon, that sex and flirting is one of the few interactions that they can actually do. Nick can flirt, joke with people, but that's about it. He can only really connect with Alan on any other level. Which is more sad that rakish, or so I thought. My two cents pence, as it were.

He is still entirely at liberty to try and seduce secrets out of me any time he likes...

3. BOOBIES - I am, as the terrible fanfic cliché goes, a girl with curves in all the right places. Or something like that. My friends used to put me to good use by positioning me to attract the barman's attention. This was after they had realised that sending me to the bar by myself is a terrible idea because I get distracted by other things and forget to order drinks. I used to accuse them of letting me be, essentially, the only girl in their group for what they could use me to get. The only downside is that sometimes, the punchline of my zombie!tee gets hidden...

4. AWESOMESAUCE- I LOVE this word! I use the word awesome, way, way too much. I blame the internet! Acesicles is another excellent word, by the by. I think the intenet has seriously Americanised some of my language, although I still like to put all the extra vowels back into things. I also say 'like' far too much. Awesome.

5. ♥ okay, so that's not a word, but it kind of counts because it's a symbol of erm-- something (: - Hee! It is a symbol of love! Or <3. I less than three you...

Aaaand finally a meme I stole from Colline

Ask me to take pictures of any aspect of my life that you're interested in/curious about -- it can be anything from my favorite shirt to my DVDs. Leave your requests as a comment to this entry, I'll snap the pictures and post them in the next post.

(Somehow, it took me 6 hours to finish writing this post. WTH?)

So on Tuesday it's Graduation! And I will be able to tick Number 45. off my list, Graduate with a 2.1. A 2.1! I am still overjoyed.

And I've already ticked off number 74., go on a girlie beach holiday. More on that another day!

But I have a meme! From elfmanfan (<3)

Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you. (Please note: If you simply wish to comment on something I've said but don't want to participate in the meme, that is fine. I will only give you five words if you specifically comment you with 'Words!')
Lal!Edit: Or you can give me more words! Or ask nicely. You don't have to yell if it is not in your nature!

So my five words were

SPAM THREAD, ENGLAND, NORTH BY NORTHWESTERN, DISSERTATION, BULGARIA

( Wordy McWordington )

And because I am enjoying singing a song of myself, I give you, another meme! Pick 5 of my tags or interests and I will explain them to you.

How have you all been while I was away, anyhow?

How is it July? This is my question to you all. What happened to June. And May, for that matter?

This is a somewhat rushed update/PSO/greeting because I have to go get the train to Derby soon. Why is that, you may ask (and if you know Derby, in tones of Great Bafflement). This is because I am staying there tonight and then tomorrow flying from there to Bulgaria for a week on the beach with my lovely (now sadly ex) housemates. A sort of farewell to uni, celebration and break all in one.

I hope to return to you tanned, but this is massively unlikely. At best I freckle, or go a sort of beige.

But still! So, this is also a post for you to keep me informed of any exciting chatroom happenings. I partly blame the chatroom for eating up all my time. On the plus side, I have found what appears to be my calling in life, the ability to write boomdeyada songs on any topic, given ten minutes or so. Sadly, I am yet to find a way to make this a skill that will pay the bill(z).

You can see some of my efforts in among the EPIC crazy of TDL musical post, over at Boo's...


And a quick Mission101.

I voted! European Parliamentary Elections. It was my first time, which was very exciting, but somwhat marred by the fact that the BNP (right wing fasist party, basically) won a seat in my district. I felt, all kinds of hurt and almost betrayed, because I have always been so proud of my local area and its dedication to intergration. Sigh.

I made Malteaser cupcakes, which are delicious!
( fun times with icing! )

I read - The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak. It was excellent, though rather heavy going in some places. And it wins the accolade of being only the fourth book ever to make me cry...

Garden Spells, um, I can't remember who by. Fantasy not packaged as such, basically. It was very cute and had some GREAT minor characters. A smart, sweet, unexpectedly interesting summer read.

I did two more crosswords!

I cooked for my Dad! (more Dad stories later, I promise)

I will miss you terribly! Caro and Colline, your story gifts will get finished while I am away. I have notebooks, I am prepared, also for all the other things I have been attacked with plot bunnies for *shakes fist at enablers* !

Love and marmalade <3 + [ ]

This time next week I will have moved out of my house, our lovely house at the end of our street. I've lived here with my three housemates for a year, and it's been crazy and stressful and wonderful and domestic and I will miss it.

I'll miss our kitchen where we have made hundreds of cupcakes (no really. Bake sales.) Where we have sat round our kitchen table and put the world to rights and where we have displayed our 200 odd beermats and our post cards and our flower-y lights.

I'll miss the tiny front room (though not the horrible and massively uncomfortable couch) where me and Wren watched Strictly Come Dancing obsessively and where we all watched movies and ate ice cream from one tub and which Belle turned into a Death Trap for weeks by polishing the laminate floor.

I'll miss the bathroom with it's collection of ducks and the poster of The Rights of Man on the back of the door, and the landing on the first floor where we have all sat on the floor and had conversations more often than is possibly normal.

I'll miss my room, with the Snippet Wall and big, old creaky bed and huge window. It's where I wrote my dissertation, covering all the floor and half the bed in papers. It's where I've sat and chatted with the marmfish til dawn. It's where I've practised dance routines and had all my housemates come and sit in bed with me, at the end of Semester One when we were all feeling fed up with the world. It's where a surprising amount of important things have been said...

Mostly though, I'll miss my housemates. They are all moving away from Leeds, onto bigger and better things, and I wish them all the luck in the world, but still. I'll miss my ladies!

I've never lived in Leeds without Belle. We were in halls of residence together in first year. I met her on my second day in Leeds and we've been friends ever since. She has put up with me loosing my keys, forgetting my chores and singing randomly to myself for three years. One day we are going to write a Mills and Boon book and make our fortunes. Once we accidentally wrote a period drama. She's the reason I have mimed 'producing an Emperor Penguin from behind your back' in public. Belle from Beauty and the Beast is a very fair comparison. She made us all timetables, ran the Tibet Society, organised Amnesty campaigns and still came out with a (completely deserved) First. Living here without her is going to be weird...

I lived with Belle and Wren in Second Year, in a tiny back-to-back terrace with no garden. Me and Wren lived in the attic and used to sneak into each others rooms in the middle of the night to watch our crazy neighbours across the street. We talk about dancing until other people despair, and run through routines on the street. We decided that in Final Year we were going to have a life, dammit, and not feel guilty, and made each other stick to that. Wren plays the violin beautifully, is music mad in general and sometime climbs mountains. She still kind of wants a pony. She convinced me to go to Reggaeton even though I was worried, and she was right. She often is.

I've only lived with Sal this year, which rather makes me sad. We are, in many ways, like the sister neither of us ever had. Mostly, by being on the same completely random wavelength. We can talk for hours and hours and not notice and not run out of things to say. We both kind of want to have a house full of cats. Nat once called her 'the stealer of my girlfriend's brain', because we don't make a lot of sense to other people when we're on a roll. Our birthdays are a day apart so we get to share. We defend and defy the stereotype of only children. She can draw and paint and make cakes shaped like cameras. She has the best taste in earrings. She is resolutely romantic, which is good for a conflicted cynic like me. She takes gorgeous and constant photos. I will miss her, not least because it will limit the opportunities to say "Hi! We're Sal and Lal!", and get confused between ourselves...


I'm looking forward to moving, I'm living with a good friend in a lovely house. And I'll see my housemates again, they're coming back to Leeds to stay! Plus we are all going on holiday together in July. But right now, I shall mourn the end of being us four, in our house.

If you don't know what I'm talking about when I say North By Northwestern fic, then please, move right along and be about your business.


( If you do (Hi RBRians!) then feel free to click here! )

This post is especially for two fantabulous sets of ladies, the very shiny marmalade_fish , and the ever beloved Ladies of Spam.

My first fandom meet up was amazing! I had so much fun! I mean, I suspected that I would, seeing as I spent a ridiculous/insane amount of time with many of my fellow fishes in the chat. I wish you all could have been there!

I got the bus to London, which wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. Also, when I was waiting at the station...

Guy: *appears to be staring at my boobs*
Lal:*raises eyebrow*
Guy: No, sorry, oh god, I was just trying to see what the last line was!
Lal:*looks down at zombie bf tee* Oh, sorry. It says "He's a zombie."

Later I met hanelissar and had coffee and made excited noises at her, then we found altogetherisi and we all were a little dazed and delighted together.

The signing was at Murder101 club and was filled with many charming people, like playwithfyr , who made us a marmalade fish sign to attract fellow fishes, because we felt marching up to people and asking them their thoughts on lasagne might be a little too strange. And I met my fellow Sekrit Nefarious Organising Woman pigrescuer and also littlered2 , both of whom were sporting very excellent tee shirts, and lots of other super cool fun people whose names escape me (so sorry!).

The Author herself was very sweet, very witty and knew who I was, which still makes me happy to think about! The infamous 'they' claim that you should never meet your heroes, but that, my friends, is a lie.

In short, everyone I met was someone I could have talked to all night, and I was very sad when I had to leave. Like I said, I've never done anything like that before, and I feel all kinds of lucky to have stumbled across such a great fandom, Even if people keep blaming me for things on the chat...


VERY IMPORTANT ETA: The wonderful bryoneybrynn  is giving away a free copy of The Demon's Lexicon. Go here to enter!


Also, for my other lovely ladies (and anyone else who wishes to hear my dulcet tones), I present my AudioSpam, in which I say 'um...' a lot, and showcase my terrible language skills.

Here!

I hope you like it bbs!

I have nothing much to do at the moment, besides write and bake and generally doss about. So now is clearly the time for Acts of Spontenaity!

So tomorrow I'm going to London for the day to go to the meet up and book signing of a certain Miss Sarah Rees Brennan. I, um, may have mentioned her around here before. Once or twice...

It's going to be AMAZING. There are many excellent and cool people in her fandom and I will get to meet some of them! Anyone on the le flist going? I will be the girl in the zombie boyfriend tee shirt and expression somwhere between dazed and delighted.

And then I actually get to meet one of my favourite writers! I am very prepared to blither like a complete idiot.

It does mean that I have to spend a slightly ridiculous amount of time on coaches, be in London for about 7 hours and get home at some god-forsaken hour.

But I don't care! I've never done anything fandom-y before, ever.

Oh, this is how my housemates took the news.

Lal: In conclusion, this may the geekiest thing I have ever done.
Housemates: *burst out into hysterical laughter*
Lal:...

So, RL and fandom collide. Will I survive the impact? Will I be able to say anything more than "awbhfzhk" to Sarah? I'm looking forward to finding out!

I am going to try and be organised today!

First OoB: IT'S JUNE. Which means it's Book Day, aka the release day of The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan (sarahtales ).

Do not walk, run and go and purchase this book! DO IT! Ahem. Seriously though, it's the best book I've read all year, and I have read many books, many of them excellent. I can't think of a single reason why not. Also, the fandom is kickass, and you get to be a marmalade_fish .

I fail at summerising, so here is the book in 20 words, according to Miss Rees Brennan " Fencing. Fighting wolves with bike chains. Torture. Demons. Magicians. Ravens. Books. Families. Rooftop chases. Lies. More lies. Love." If you need more convincing I will explain why any one of these things is impossibly awesome.

Second OoB: My brain twin mcollinknight has returned to us from Kenya! So I am Order of Businessing in her honour. She built a school, people, I have no words for how sparkling she is.

Third OoB: SUMMER. HOTHOT SUMMER. I am so happy that it is hot and sunny. I love Leeds in the summer, because of the park.

( It was sunny a second before )

Everyone goes and plays and sunbathes and meets up and barbeques. It's brilliant. What did I do in the park? Well firstly i wore a very large straw hat. But I also had a range of fun activities
( I love my notebook! )
Eating ice lollies, reading the paper/doing the crossword, reading The Demon's Lexicon, again, and writing Jenn's birthday story.

Which brings me to my Forth OoB: Namely, it may seem like I haven't been writing a lot but, um, I've been hiding it away! I've been doing bits and dabs of writing for a cute AU, which kind of borders on RPS, and I didn't know if all y'all would be okay with that. But, well, I'm enjoying it, and I like what I've written more than anything I've done in a long time, and so if you would like to read it, I am going to unlock it/link. There is kissing in the rain, the throwing of inanimate objects and boys being hopeless! But also, it uses real life politicians and pundits, so if you feel uncomfortable with that, cool, I'll warn, and I really, really don't mind if you don't read it.

OoB Five: Mission 101! Holy crapola, this is late...

I have

• made Thai Green curry from scratch.
• made Eccles cakes, which are a northern tradition, and very yummy, pastry and dried fruit affairs. I love making pastry!
• Completed The Guardian crossword, in ten mintues flat! 4/10
• Begun an address book.
• Ginone for drinks with people from French and a photo exhibition with Melinda.

I didn't drink champagne on Mum's birthday. I was busy and poor and in the middle of exams. I might make that a different goal, IDK.

So I'm feeling very summery in a dress I got for free, with the summer stretching out before me, full of potential. I'm pretty damn happy right about now.

So today I had a French Exam. Which was my last exam. Which means

I HAVE FINISHED MY DEGREE!

*flails with glee/panic*

I am off to pay my library fines, have some chocolate and try to wrap my head around this.

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!

EEEEE!

So it turns out Finals are hard. Who knew?

I think all my fevered brain can cope with is a music meme!

1. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter.
2. List (and upload) 5 songs that begin with that letter.
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions.

The lovely scrtkpr gave me the letter 'I'. I've realised I pick songs because either they remind me of good times, plus they produce a really good scene for a movie in my head. I'm not alone right, other people make stories for songs, right? Right?!

1. I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You by Black Kids - This was a song that I danced to like an idiot in dingy indie clubs, yelling out the numbers with Lil. Plus the lyrics are sneakysmart and I love the cute synthy bass line. (in this scene our hero watches the girl of his dreams and knows she would be happier with him. Oh unrequited love.)

2. It Hurts to See You Dance So Well by The Pipettes - Hee! I just realised what a pair of songs these are. But anyway, I want to be a Pipette! They are all 60's girlband harmonies with funnier, feminist lyrics and they wear a lot of polka dots. (Girl realises that funny friend she always went dancing with was the one for her, but now he's moved on?)

3. Is It Any Wonder by The Shortwave Set - Not Keane. Though that is a good song too. I just really like this, all rains of piano and timpani thunder, with a dreamy vocal. I think I love this song because it creates more of an abstract mood, all pensive and sweet. And it reminds me of First Year of uni, all NBNW-ish cold rooms with thin walls and strange and strangely fun housemates.

4. In The City by The Jam - I was brought up on The Jam, my Dad is a huge fan. The Venn Diagram of my parents' musical tastes had a very small intersect, so I got a varied musical education, to put it mildly. And I like the spikiness of this. (OK, so clearly this is a stop motion type montage of friends going round a city centre, looking at the sights and messing around and generally laughing at each other.)

5. I See You, You See Me - I usually hate so much pure emotion in a song, but this so, so lovely. I think because it is fragile somehow, and kind of dark in places, and all at sea about love and yet saying that is okay. It's someone who doesn't really understand or usually believe in love, falling hopelessly. (this one has such a clear story. Really. I think that's probably why I am so fond of it. Shall we say it wraps up our dancing duo's story?)

Ok, so I'm only supposed to do five. But I have a shortlist of 21! So I'm adding a few bonuses

It's Not The End Of The World by Super Furry Animals - I have a bit of an on-off thing with the Super Furrys. I tend to forget about them and then have a song come on and go "wait! I love this song! Why don't I listen to them more?" I think this is actually a good example of all the things I like about them, gorgeous arrangements with sweeping strings and unashamed brass and random glingly things. And the fact that you can hear the Welsh accent so strongly. Lovely. (To me, this is a packing up and moving on kind of a song. Our heroine is sad to leave this room, this life behind, but she knows that she has to start a new chapter and move on. So she puts the last thing in the box and smiles.)

I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked by Ida Maria - This is a song of summer memories. It was just everywhere last year, in between my travels and watching festivals on the television in our new house in Leeds, sitting on the back step reading or watching the Olympics. It was a good summer. And the song is funny and cute and come on, that is a brilliant chorus. And Ida Maria is mad and unusual and I really like her voice. (Bad, bad friends with benefits, awkward knocking into things undressing and laughter filled flirting, all cut together)

I Only Want To Be With You by Dusty Springfield - Mum's music taste this time, and one of my all time great loves, Dusty Springfield is completely marvellous and I kind of worship her. Anyway, this is so sweet and happy! Which is a nice note to end on.

Hope alls well with all y'all! Want to play along?

For Kaz, who art awesome, for the occasion of her birthday, I present a tale of love, friendship and the throwing of inanimate objects, narrated by one Anderson Hays Cooper, Esq. Edited by Mlle Colline, and set in her fantabulous universe of NorthByNorthwestern, of which a working knowledge is helpful but not required.

WARNINGS! Swearing (it's got RAHM EMANUEL in it ppl) and gratuitous references to Shakepeare, food, history, punditry and politics (it's written by me, and I am a DORK)

I HOPE YOU LIKE IT BB!

( CLICK FOR FIC! )

 

Hey!

I haven't updated in a little while because of ARGDISSERTATION. But that is done now! So I bring you some 5 things memes, plus a really, really late Mission101 update. 

Take a meme, if you like. I am feeling meme-ish and in a picture taking mood, and they are pretty fun ones!

5 things that have made me happy this week

( Boom de yada! )


Five things I would take with me in a fire.
( Plus the Precious Laptop )


5 things I keep in my handbag( I'm not sure how they all fit, to be honest )
Mission 101
In the last month I have

Baked a delicious malteaser cake!

Completed the crossword 2 times!

Handed in a piece of work I started more than a month before the deadline.

Read TDL! And Red Seas Under Red Skies! And The Thief! They were all absolutely brilliant, I would highly recommend them all. My books of the year so far, get out your monies if you can.

I saw The Official Secrets Act. I know, again. And The Specials! Who were surprisingly awesome.

Raised £35 for The Motor Neurone Society by dragging 4 of my friends along with me to a fundraiser quiz supper thing which was £7 each. The whole night raised over £1000, which is excellent.

Taken lots of pictures of the Isle of Man.

Watched the sun rise after staying up all night reading.

That's all folks!