Rantings

pinksy » Blog Archive » Happy Hands Club

He he heh! Me being a geek, I just love this. Someone has way too much time on their hands (pun intended).

We to the cricket club again last night. Despite the bin bags at the window again, it turned out to be a very enjoyable night. I consquently have an ear worm in the form of Rammstein which simply won't go away. Also I think I must have drank a bit too much because I'm still staggering about a bit, which probably means a hangover will kick in around 2pm. I'm ashamed. I'm off to eat raw coffee ...

Had a letter from the hospital yesterday. It was telling me that I had an appointment today at 11:50am for another breast scan. Now, first of all I think that was a bit short notice, because not everybody would be able to take time of work just like that, mostly I was confused as I had had a letter from the consultant after I had surgery telling me that the histology showed the lump was totally benign (fibroadenoma) and therefore treatment was finished and no follow ups were required.

So I phoned them this morning to check and it turned out that there hadn't been any communitcation between the mammography unit and the consultant's secretary since before I had even had the op! Pah! Grumble-grumble-it-wouldn't-have-happened-back-in-my-day-etc-etc!

Ok, rant over. As you were, folks.

The meeting went pretty well. Everyone had only good things to say about the play and we all learned a lot from the experience. In general, I think everybody wishes we had been able to run the show for longer, as the Saturday night performance was so much more polished and professional and we could have made even further improvements.

From what I've learned from the experience, the only real difference between professional shows and amateur shows is that amateurs don't get paid, and in my opinion they probably have more of a challenge to achieve such good results as they have such limited resources to work with.

We also watched a read through of the opening acts of two pantomimes that WTG members had submitted for the Christmas show. We have to read through the full scripts and vote next week. We then begin working on the winner of the vote straight away as there are costumes to make/procure, sets to build, and lighting rigs to plan! Woo hoo! Bring it on!

It's only Tuesday, and already I'm excited about Thursday's meeting at Theatre Group. We're having the Post Mortem of the play we did at the weekend, Blue Remembered Hills by Dennis Potter. And as this is all new to me, I'm dying to know what the outcome is.

Our next show will be the Christmas pantomime, so I'm guessing that scripts will be brandished by everybody wanting to try their hand at directing. Not me, though. To new. To scary. Maybe in a few years time. :-)

I'm still really tired. Glands in me neck swollen. Feeling achey. Didn't sleep all that well last night, either. Bugger.

Found a couple of interesting and, frankly, scary articles on sleep deprivation.

Scientists Finding Out What Losing Sleep Does to a Body

The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Brain and Behavior

I am definitely having that snooze when I get home!

I don't know what's wrong with me today. I am so tired. I had a good night's sleep and yet I feel physically and mentally exhausted. My muscles ache and I can't stop yawning. I really just want to lie down and sleep the day away.

But I can't. I have eleven parcels so far to package and post (eBay sales) and then I have my therapy session this afternoon in town. Think I'll have a snooze when I get home.

... I feel pretty rough today. I didn't have a drop of alcohol, and I made sure I drank plenty of water last night at the party, and yet I feel really rough.

I really need to get some proper sleep.

The final night was brilliant! What can I say? If I thought Friday's performance went well, it wasn't a patch on last night's. It was by far the best and everything went (almost) without a hitch. At the end, the cast came on for a final bow and called Kate, the director, up on stage. It was Kate's first time at directing and she did a brilliant job. Then us lot up in the light and sound room got a call to the stage, and all the rest of the Washington Theatre Group who weren't acting. Everyone was given a job, you see, including front of house, fire wardens, set designers/ builders, etc. It was nice for everyone to get recognition for their hard work as well, as none of it would be possible without them.

After the audience had left, Mr Lisa made a quick getaway and hid behind a pint of beer in the bar while we had a bit of a photoshoot, Peter made a lovely presentation of a framed poster from the production which we had all signed, and then all the sets had to be dismantled and put away and the stage cleaned up, etc.

Once all the hard work was over we went off to Cat's house for the celebrations. Had a great night, and came away feeling like the group are more family than anything. Such nice warm people, and I'm blessed to have been able to join the group. For the first time in my life I'm feeling like an empty space is being filled. (Ok, gushy moment over).

I'm shattered now. Got home around 3:45 am, so needless to say, I haven't been up and dressed for long! Just had my breakfast before I'm about to catch up on my email.

Last night's performance went extremely well, and although I noticed several mistakes I'm pretty sure the audience didn't notice. They laughed in all the right places, and they gave a round of applause at the end, so I don't think we can expect more than that. :-) We made a bit of a boob up in the lighting room when we forgot to switch the banks over from one scene to two, so than when we put the red and orange flickering lights on behind the barn to simulate fire, all the lights started flashing like we were in a disco. Amazingly, the audience seemed to think it was all part of the show. LOL

As Cat said after the performance, "It always comes together on the night", and it did because believe me I really was nervous that things were going to go horribly wrong and we would be refunding everyone their ticket and programme costs. But then, I do tend to be a bit of a pessimist at times.

So, one or two more tweaks to the way the lights are patched and tonight's performance should go without a hitch. The actors were brilliant, so well done to them all. Dennis Potter's plays are not always the easiest to do, but they pulled it off beautifully. The costumes and makeup was really effective, especially with the character Peter coming back with a shiner after a fight in a previous scene. Much thanks to Nigel for being so patient with a complete noob.

My mother and her friend will be coming to see the show tonight, and I'm hoping some other friends will too. Mr Lisa enjoyed it and I think he's coming along tonight as well. After the show we will be going to Cat's house for the wrap party. :-) Woo Hoo!

I'm getting nervous. Some of you may already know that several months ago I joined the Washington Theatre Group - an amateur dramatics group based at Washington Arts Centre.

Tonight will be the first performance for me. I'm not acting this time around, but have been given the role of assistant lighting and sound technician. It's pretty scary to say the least. I mean, we didn't even finish the tech last week and last night we had to blag it as we did a straight run through dress rehearsal, but all in all it turned out ok. I just wish my stomach would settle. I'm finding it very nerve racking to say the least.

We're putting on a production of Dennis Potter's "Blue Remembered Hills". Set in 1943 the story centres around a group of seven year old children who are all played by adults. It is quite a dark tale of children playing innocently, but whose innocence comes crashing down in a most catastrophic way.

Needless to say, I will be rushing home after work to make sure I have my script with lighting cues, etc all straight and legible, eat a hastily prepared meal, then I will be rushing off to get there around 6pm to make sure everything is set up and working for the performance beginning at 7:30pm.

I have only one word to say right now ... Yeeaarrgh!

Go and visit the blog of Dave the Sod and watch the March of the Emperor.

All I can say is "Heh!"

I made this template last night. Have previously used free templates from Caz, but wanted to try my hand at making my own.

I'm quite pleased with this for a first attempt. I think it may stay for a while.

I will be spending a little time playing around with my blog layout this evening, so apologies if it becomes unusable for a while.

Hang in there folks, I will return!

Received these in my email this morning, and I thought they deserved a special airing. Enjoy!

Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing who owns them or where they came from. If they're yours, please drop me a line and I'll remove them and replace them with a link to your website.

Mr Lisa has just pointed me to this review from the same venue.

Well, last night was the final night of the bank holiday, so we went out again, this time to see a band that a couple of friends of ours are in. I have to say they are one of the best local club bands I know of, and I'm not just saying that because they're friends. If you get the chance to see them, don't miss out on the opportunity ... you will not regret it. I have seen them many times and they always put on a really good performance.

So, last night we went to the rock night which is on every month at Durham City Cricket Club.



It pretty bog standard stuff ... lots of 70s and 80s poodle hair music, but about halfway through they start to play the stuff I like, with thumping base beats and attitude. Pity it doesn't last long because they're back to fecking Foreigner and Europe and Journey for the rest of the night.



Anyway, once again I was playing with my new rinky dinky little camera and thought it was time to name and shame.


Come one guys, what are you thinking? You think it's a good idea to save money by having curtains made that don't even close and have no blackout lining, and then put bin bags up at the window to cut out the light? Have you any idea how stupid it makes you look? Do you think I really want to go to this kind of establishment again?!

So, Saturday evening we went over to O'Neill's Irish bar in Durham to see a band called Malarky. They were quite good as cover bands go. Place was full, got most people up dancing after a few pints of Guiness.



So, I got to playing with my new camera again. It has a high sensitivity setting so that you can take pictures in darkened situations without a flash. Handy if you want to capture the atmos including lighting effects, etc. Of course, you do lose a lot in quality, plus artificial lighting together with red pub walls made all the photos have a red cast, but I'm quite pleased with what can be achieved in such a dim place.


My friend, Rick


Rick & Mr Lisa's pints going down nicely


The band, Malarky

But then I noticed this cash machine ...


... and the onscreen message...


... then this ...



Er ... guys! You lot over at Scott Tod ... I think it was the guy that was buying pints for everyone in the pub!

Well, in case you hadn't worked it out, it was my birthday on Thursday. Mr Lisa bought me a nifty spiffy new camera which does just about everything except make the coffee, so off I went to try it out on Saturday.

My sis and I went along to this month's "Blow" event, but taking pictures while trying to blow bubbles off the Millennium Bridge is more difficult than it sounds. I spilled soapy bubble mixture down my top, dipped my hair in it, and almost dropped my camera in the River Tyne.



The Baltic Flour Mill - a wonderful place to visit if you're near Gateshead and fancy visiting an art exhibition. Those clouds were looking quite ominious before we'd even got there.



The Pitcher and Piano where we decided to have a drink before the event started.


And here we are, spreading bubbly happiness to all!

Just as we were finished "Blowing" the heavens opened and the camera was quickly packed up and put away. I got utterly drenched and was not a happy bunny by the time I got home. At least it was warm rain.

Can't remember if I've already blogged this, but it deserves a second airing nevertheless:

http://www.wingtunes.com/public/songs.aspx

Lots of Lego Doctor Who videos

You will most likely regret following this link, but here it is anyway for any trainspotting type geeks out there:

http://ithrewup.com/mt/

I'm so tired I can hardly even think. I have so many things saved to blog too, but I just couldn't be arsed to do anything about it until now. My lovely little laptop died tragically in November last year and since then I've been using my ancient elastic-band-powered desktop PC to check my email and stuff, but it's so slow that I'd be nearly tearing my hair out if I tried to type up a blog entry.

Happily my super duper new turbo charged laptop is positively whizzing along as I type this, so you can now look forward to the humour of me trying to catch up! I have the Whitby Gothic Weekend to summarize and I just don't even know where to start with that one!

Maybe I'll feel better after a good night's sleep. In the meantime, here's a bit of fun over at Pinksy's blog. Made me laugh anyway.

Bo-Sco-Foe-Joe-No-Croe-Blow-Coe-Show-Row

Right, I'm off camping for the weekend. See you all when I get back.

Surgery went well on Tuesday with no ill effects from the anaesthetic. Recovered quickly and was sent home within a couple of hours of waking up.

The incision is bigger than I had expected ... about 1.5 - 2 inches ... but as the lump was half an inch across itself and it was quite deep I suppose that's only to be expected. No visible sutures, just steristrips and a dressing.

Trouble is, I'm not exactly small in the boob department and the weight of it pulling on my wound hurts like hell, so I'm having to wear an industrial strength 3-hook bra to hoist them up and hold them still so that I can move around and do stuff. The painkillers I've been prescribed are pretty effective but have got me off me head, so no driving for me till I stop taking them.

I have about a three week wait till hear the histology results. As the biopsy itself proved innocent I'm not expecting anything different from the whole lump. The doctor said there was a 1 in 1,000 chance of it being nasty, so no worries there.

I'm now attempting to do some housework, but there are only so many jobs I can do which don't hurt. I've already cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom. I should really try to tackle the living room, now.

I had my pre-op assessment yesterday morning. It went ok, nothing to worry about for me. Apart from being overweight, I'm fit and healthy, so everything is going ahead as planned.

So, the date for the op is 27th March - a week today! I am nervous, naturally, and I've told Mr Lisa exactly that. He has to be there for me ... not at work. I've told him in no uncertain terms that he has to get his priorities right and he has to be there to look after me at home. I don't want anyone else visiting me.

I'll be admitted at 8am, but I have absolutely no idea what time I will be discharged. I have to ring the hospital to find out what the procedure is.

I know I may sound like I'm making a big thing out out of this as I am only having a small lump removed, but it is a big thing to me. I will be putting my life in the hands of a stranger (the anaesthetist) who will administer a controlled poison in order to bring me to a state close the death. Then another stranger will be cutting into and invading my body. This is all, to me, utterly terrifying and I have to prepare myself mentally for the whole thing. On top of all of that, I still have a worry that the lump may not be innocent. I know I have had a biopsy and it was benign, but my consultant told me he would still want to have me back for another in May if I didn't opt for surgery, to make sure it hadn't changed. This, to me, means it could change, and may have already changed by the time it's removed, so I will have another wait after the surgery until I get the results back from pathology.


This is going to be a long week. I can tell.

Being a sci-fi nerd with my geek compass pointing torchwards and tardiswards, is it any wonder I have to do this?

Happy 40th birthday Mr B!

[waves in the general direction of Cardiff]

Ok, geek moment over. As you were, folks.

Thought I'd just mention the dates I have ... earlier than expected, too.

Monday 19th March I go for a pre-operative assessment.

Tuesday 27th March I have surgery, providing the results of the 19th are all ok.

Yes, I'm nervous, who wouldn't be? And yes, I will be back to work the next day, and I will be back at the Theatre Group on the Thursday evening. Just give me drugs!! I need painkillers!

As the sister of a mad cat woman, I know this to be true. See what you think.

Cat Proximity

Via John Scalzi

Enjoy!

Just a quick post to let you all know the results of my biopsy.

It's benign ... so far ... but some lumps can turn into something more sinister so ...

I have a couple of options: I can leave it be and go back in May to have another scan to see if it's changed, or I can have it removed and that will be it done with.

No doubt this will be surprising to some, but this hasn't been an easy decision. I don't like the thought of surgery even though I'm no stranger to it, and I'm all for taking the most non-invasive route where possible. However ...

... me, being the natural worrier that I am, will more than likely whittle away over the next few months wondering if everything is OK, and even if it does turn out to have not changed in the slightest, I'll probably still wonder if it could turn in the future.


For this reason I have decided to have it removed and be done with it. So what if I have a scar - I'll add it to my ever growing collection of scars. I will telephone the consultant's receptionist on Monday and let her know my decision.

Well, it's over. I had a mammogram, an ultrasound scan and a biopsy. I now have a swollen and bruised boob with a dressing on it, but I'll live! I get the result of the biopsy on Friday when I go back to see the consultant.

Right now I'm too tired to go into detail, suffice it to say it's been a long day and I'm glad it's over.

Nite, folks.

The appointments bureau phoned me yesterday afternoon. They said they had had a cancellation and asked if I wanted to bring my appointment forward to 21st, so I said yes. That means it's now next Wednesday. I'm pleased it's getting sorted so quickly. And I received my letter this morning with all the blurb about what to expect re: mammogram, fine needle aspirate, core biopsy, etc.

I feel remarkably calm about it all now.

Well, I have my appointment at the hospital. I had to ring up this morning to make the appointment, my GP having faxed a referral letter across to them yesterday.

It's for 28th February at 10:20 am. Now I have to wait 2 weeks in mental agony. LOL Why do we worry so much about stuff?

Well, I've been trying since 8am but I finally got through to the doctor's surgery only to be told that there are no appointments left today and did I want to see a nurse practitioner? No thanks, I'd like to see a doctor. I know nurse practitioners are great but they're there for all the routine stuff like stomach upsets and sore throats, to take the pressure of the doctors so they can deal with the more serious stuff. Well, I consider this more serious stuff, so the duty doctor is going to ring me back and hopefully he'll ask me to go down today.

UPDATE: Just got back. Doctor says it feels like a harmless lump and that it may be related to my cold, but because we don't know how long it has been there he can't be sure, so I'm being referred to a specialist at the hospital in Durham.

I can't sleep. It's just gone midnight and I'm worried.

I went to bed an hour ago and was lying there doing my usual health checks (as you all should do, men and women) and found a lump in my left breast. Now, I know I mentioned in my last post that I've been feeling a bit grotty, and have a sore throat and swollen glands, so it may be related, but I'm still worried.

Needless to say, I'm off to the doc's tomorrow morning to get it checked out. Worried? Not half! I'll keep you posted.

I cannot stress enough how important it is that you all check yourselves for lumps and bumps on a regular basis, and that goes for you fellas as well. From what I hear testicular cancer is one of those usually diagnosed at a late stage because blokes either don't check themselves often enough (if at all) or are too embarrassed to see anyone about it. If you find any lump or bump that wasn't there before, don't waste time and get it seen to, pronto!

I didn't go to Washington Theatre Group on Thursday as I wasn't well. I started feeling unwell last Friday with an aching neck and headache, but the aches and pains have migrated all over my body over the past week, and Thursday I had really sore ankles and hips. Weird, but I'm guessing it's some kind of 'flu.

Anyway, my Dad went along and met the people and it's a really small place with a tiny stage and auditorium, and a very small membership (around 15 whereas the People's Theatre had around 200!) He did say they were very friendly, though, and welcomed him with open arms. I'm thinking I may go along to that one to start with, till I get a feel for performing before I go along to the bigger more professional setup. It's all about self-confidence with me.

So, I'll be going to that one next Thursday. I'll let you know how I get on.

The Dalek Song

Mr Lisa surprised me on Sunday by telling me he had arranged for me to have piano lessons! Yay! I was always quite good at music at school, but I was given very little choice as to which instruments I learned to play, so I was given cornet and clarinet and told I was to be in the school brass band. All I really wanted to play was piano, but I was told no, so in my spare time at home I taught myself guitar from books and by ear, because we didn't have a piano, but we did have a guitar! I'm sure there's some logic in there somewhere!

Anyway, on Tuesday I had my first lesson. It was great, not only because I get to do what I've wanted to do for about twenty five years but also because I know my teacher which makes it easier. He kept asking "Are you sure you've never played piano before?" because I basically skipped the first 10 pages of the book and went straight into the more complicated stuff. LOL

Well, that's that bit of news. The other is that, through a long period of personal change and revelation, the reasons for which I shall not go into here, I have decided to embark on a completely new path for me, and join an amateur dramatics group. Last night my Dad and I went up to the People's Theatre in Heaton for the new members night (which is held once a month) and got a tour of the theatre including backstage, lights, dressing rooms, wardrobe, etc, got to sit in on a couple of rehearsals for a while and were given an introduction to the many aspects of putting on a production. They also hold ACTS workshops every Tuesday, and have general auditions every week. I came away trembling with excitement! I wanted to join there and then, but my Dad is more level headed and suggested we check out the Washington Theatre Group as well. We're going there tonight. It's smaller though, and doesn't have the history that the People's Theatre has, or the same sized stage!

Anyway, I'll let you know what happens, and in the future if I'm in any productions and you're in the area, come and see!! LOL But be easy on me because this acting lark is new to me!

... Michelle Collins, aka Cindy Beale from Eastenders, is making an appearance! Could be a good choice, I reckon!

Can this be true? Actor John Simm, who plays DI Sam Tyler in the abso-bloody-lutely brilliant series "Life on Mars" is currently favourite to play The Master in Series 3 of Doctor Who. Excuse me while I have a major 'squee' moment.

Read the article here

Also appearing in Series 3 (from what I've heard) is Derek Jacobi (anyone remember I, Claudius?) and also (God help us) Timmy Mallet. The first person to say Wackaday gets hit over the head. With a pink inflatable mallet.

So, after the Doctor Who exhibition, we went over the road to the Millennium Centre. What a lovely arts centre! Stylish on the outside, stylish on the inside.

Also had my picture taken next to the water tower made famous by the Doctor Who spin off Torchwood. The Torchwood Hub is supposed to be directly beneath this tower under the streets of Cardiff. He he!





Lots more photos were taken, but I won't bore you with geeky details.

So, after we'd done the tour of Cardiff Bay we went back to Aunty Kath's and had time to chat and eat something before we had to get ready to go to the theatre. My Mam had bought an extra ticket online for Aunty, so we had to be there early to collect it from the Box Office. I'm not sure she really wanted to go to see a pantomime, but we all had a great time.

The panto was superb. One cheesy gag after another, lots of innuendo, a man in drag and a pantomime cow! What more could you ask for?! John Barrowman was hilarious, and on several occasions could hardly carry on with the show he was laughing so hard. Aunty Kath thoroughly enjoyed it, and after it was over we went round to the stage door to see if we could get an autograph and a photo. Aunty Kath said she'd never done this before and she was just learning how to be a groupie at 61! Heh heh! She likes JB, though, and is a big Doctor Who and Torchwood fan. Incidentally, it's reassuring to know that I am not the only one in my family that cried bucketloads at the last two episodes of Torchwood ... there were a few tears shed from the Welsh Contingent, also.

So, we got to the front of the queue and got our programmes signed. "Kath with a K", Aunty Kath said, and then, "The pantomime was great, but I bet you're shattered now, bless you!" to which JB replied "Uh-huh". I could hardly stifle the laughter because she'd come over all maternal on him, and I was wondering if she was going to then offer him a cup of tea and some fluffy slippers! Mr Lisa, incidentally, had vanished. I think he's actually quite shy and was probably terrified in case I got him to come and pose in a picture with JB.

I think we were some of the last ones waiting for autographs, and if we'd hung around longer we could have had our pictures taken with him, but we were all cold and it was late, so we decided to get back home and open a bottle of wine. The show had finished at least half an hour later than usual as it was the last one and they wanted to send the whole thing off in style. So, this is the only picture I got of JB on the last night.



To finish off, here are some of my favourite bits from the show:

JB - "I've never danced with a fairy before!"

JB to a small child from the audience - "How are you?"
Small child - "Petrified"
JB - Laughs. "Well it's not that bad. There are only a thousand people watching you and we're going to sing a song in a bit. Where are you from?"
Small child - "Erm ..." Looks into the audience. "Mum, where am I from?"

JB, upon seeing Dame Trot appear on stage dressed in the Welsh flag and a black curly wig - "I always knew my Mom was Shirley Bassey!"

So, as you can no doubt guess, I'm back home. And what a jolly good time we had!

We arrived at my Aunty's in Caerphilly around 10:30pm, and as we hadn't eaten since the afternoon, we had some soup and a roll and sat and drank wine while we chatted and caught up on family gossip. It must have been around 1am when we finally went to bed.

Needless to say I didn't get up bright and early the next morning which what I had planned to do. I had a list of places I wanted to visit and thought it was going to take up my whole day, but it all turned out fine. I just made sure I saw the best places first.

So, after breakfast, off we toddled to the Red Dragon Centre in Cardiff to see the Doctor Who exhibition. As we walked up to the entrance I'm guessing my face must have been a picture, because Mr Lisa said "the words 'kid' and 'sweet shop' come to mind"! It was certainly a visual feast, even if it was quite a small exhibition. Very enjoyable. Here is a small selection of photos I took:

Are you bored yet? There is more to come. Watch this space.

Right, this will be my last entry until Monday as I'm switching off the pooter and getting my stuff ready to leave at 4pm. As we will be returning on Sunday evening and going more or less straight to my parent's house for dinner I'm not even going to try to make time to write an entry until Monday at the earliest, but hopefully I will have lots of pictures to upload, so watch this space.

Right you Taffs ... be prepared to be invaded by the Geordie contingent! ;-) There's lovely, boyo! Haway the lads. Er, etc ...

I have to admit I'm getting pretty excited now. Yesterday I visited my parents who had just had a weekend in Paris, so they didn't know about my plans to go to Caerphilly/Cardiff tomorrow. I told them about the panto and said it would have been nice if I had three tickets, then I could take my aunty who we'll be staying with. I said I'd already bought a "just because" gift to take down with me ... rose and violet creams from Hotel Chocolat and a bottle of pink champagne ... so my Mum offered to buy an extra ticket! We did it online there and then and have to pick it up from the box office before the performance, and it's for a seat in the row behind us, so not too far away. It will lovely having my aunty coming with us!

So, Saturday ... the plan is to go out early to start exploring all the redevloped areas of Cardiff (eg the Bay area was all seedy docklands when I was last there over twenty years ago) and to visit the Doctor Who exhibition, then home to eat, shower and change and back to the Theatre for the show.

So, a busy weekend ahead of me. Here's hoping that JB is over his throat infection and able to deliver the goods for the final performance. :-) [major squee]

I was making a list of Dr Who related places to visit while I'm in Cardiff, and look what I found! A Doctor Who exhibition which is on currently at the Red Dragon Centre! Wahaay!

Mr Lisa is going with me. Yay! That means no coaches, we can go in the car. Also, he wants to go on Friday instead of Saturday, which means that we can go exploring round Cardiff. I know I'm such a nerdy geek, but I want to go and see some Doctor Who/Torchwood film locations while I'm there.

Squeeee!

I never thought that I would ever begin a blog entry by talking about the weather, yet here I am, breaking with tradition by asking what the weather is like in your neck of the woods.

So ... what's the weather like in your neck of the woods?

It's been really freaky here. Yesterday we had torrential rainstorms and the sky was so do dark we were working in twilight for much of the morning. Then, in the afternoon it stopped all of a sudden and the sun came out. This is was obviously intended to lull us into a false sense of security because no sooner had our spirits started to lift and the winds came. Gale force winds which knocked you off your feet and made a hell of a mess of your hair.

Seems they had blown over from the west where some folks have died in accidents caused by hurricane-strength winds. All very scary stuff and what the hell is happening with our weather anyway? Who did we give permission to mess with our weather? How dare they?

Wherever you are and whatever you do, if possible stay indoors and stay safe.

On a lighter note I have in my possession a pair of tickets for the pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk, in Cardiff for the very last performance on 27th January which is next Saturday. As John Barrowman is in it, and he's my latest obsession, I really really want to go but I'm a bit strapped for cash. Driving all the way there is going to be just too expensive - I reckon £80+ in petrol alone, so I will have to get the coach if it is only going to be me travelling down. Thankfully, I have a lovely aunty in Caerphilly who will put me up, so no overnight hotel bills to fork out for. However, Mr Lisa hasn't decided whether he wants to go or not, and if he isn't going then I need to book a coach ticket and I have to do that at least 7 days beforehand, which kind of means I have to do it today, and he won't make a bloody decision! Yeeaargh! I get the feeling he's deliberately stringing me along as he knows I like John Barrowman and would love to see him live in the panto.

Bloody men!

Hope you all had a good Christmas! Did Santa bring you everything you wanted?

I'm still pooterless, so currently hijacking Mr Lisa's laptop for now. I don't have long to update you all.

Me? I got the latest Terry Pratchett book, "Wintersmith". Also, the complete boxed set of Farscape Season 3 (Mr Lisa got me Seasons 1 and 2 last year), the complete Life on Mars (Yay! Can't wait for a Series 2) and the complete boxed set of Doctor Who Series One (the one with Christopher Eccleston). A geek's paradise!

Speaking of which ... wasn't the Christmas Day Special of Doctor Who great?! I was pleasantly surprised by Catherine Tate as I don't usually enjoy watching her on telly, and Sarah Parish as the Empress of the Racnoss was just superb. Also on Christmas Day was the Doctor Who Confidential Christmas Special which went behind the scenes of the Doctor Who concert which was held at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff in aid of Children In Need. Just wonderful.

And yesterday? Well, the wonderful John Barrowman got hitched, of course, to his long term partner of 16 years, Scott Gill. Some nice photos to be found here, including some rather lovely pictures of JB in his kilt (swoon). It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling and makes me proud to be British (which is a rare thing in itself) to know that same sex couples are entitled to just the same rights as everyone else. And quite rightly so.

Speaking of JB, I can now own up to my little jaunt last month when I went in search of an unusual Christmas gift for Mr Lisa. As I had been keeping it a surprise for him I couldn't really write about it in my blog in case he reads it. I don't think he has so far, but you never know. Well, let's just say I got him a signed and personalised copy of JB's CD "Swings Cole Porter". Damn that man has a good voice. Also, I got myself a nice photo of JB autographed and personalised for me, and my picture taken with Captain Jack himself. He was so patient and polite while I fumbled and got lost for words, a real gent.






Right, I think that's it for now. I'm going away for New Year (Whitby) so I may not update till I get back. In the meantime, here are some photos from the last Whitby Gothic Weekend.

Apologies if you're getting bored of hearing about him, but for those of you who can't get enough of him, don't forget to tune into Radio 2 tonight at 7:30pm for Friday Night is Music Night, where Mr Barrowman himself will be singing a selection of songs from our favourite musicals, along with a festive selection of carols. This is a recording of the BBC Christmas concert which took place on the 18th.

If, for whatever reason, you can't listen to it on air, you can listen to it for up to a week after, at the BBC website, here.

Well, I eventually sat down to watch the first part of the Hogfather last night. Now, I have been a fan of Terry Pratchett for years and have been reading his Discworld novels since I was a teenager (yes, I'm 38 now, what an oldie), so following the storyline was a no-brainer for me, but Mr Lisa had problems understanding what was going on. Did anybody else have trouble following it? And if so, do you think the producers kind of assumed/relied on most people having read the book first? Bear in mind that PTerry himself had a hand in the production, so the whole thing could have become somewhat self-indulgent for him.

Thoughts?

Is it because you are looking forward to getting lots of prezzies? Is it because you get to spend quality time with your family? Is it because you get to eat and drink as much as you like without anyone nagging about your expanding waistline/heart/teeth*?

* delete as appropriate

Nope, none of the above for me. This year it's because the Christmas Special edition of Doctor Who, "The Runaway Bride" is on TV!

Me? Sad? Whatever gave you that idea?

I found my mobile. Or rather, Mr Lisa found my mobile hiding under one of the seats in the car.

My laptop is still well and truly broken, though. So, this is currently being typed at work, and sometimes I can get my ancient fossil of a desktop PC working well enough to catch up on email and stuff, but for the most part I feel pretty much crippled.

[sigh]

With much thanks to Dan's Movie Digest for these items:

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) is considered to be one of the worst movies ever made. It is so bad, that it is actually fun to watch. The filmmakers were probably too embarrassed to renew the copyright, so it’s now in the public domain, free to download.

and

Actual English subtitles used in films made in Hong Kong

I have lost my mobile phone. Not only that, but it's either switched off or the battery's flat. I've been trying to ring it to find out where it is but nothing. I just keep getting through to voicemail. :-(

Not only that, but my laptop died a couple of days ago. When I switch it on the lights come on, but that's it. The hard drive won't spin up. I do have a copy of Knoppix on disk, and thought if I could boot up into a disc version of Linux I'd be able to repair or recover info from the HD, but it won't even boot from CD ROM drive, even though that's what it's set to do in the BIOS. Yesterday I took the HD out and put it back in again, thinking maybe it was a dodgy connection. I switched it on and got as far as the big windows logo on the black screen, and it froze. I've never got past that.

Now, what's worrying me the most is that I have all my website files on there, including my FTP login info, and so I can't update my site to say I'm not taking any more orders till after the New Year. And I've just got an order from someone who wants it before Christmas. There are also all the wages on there, because I use the Inland Revenue P11 calculator that comes on their CD. And I haven't backed up the wages for about three months. Yeeargh! What am I going to do? I am in such deep doo doo right now, I feel sick. And I had just bought John Barrowman's Aspects of Loyd Webber off iTunes, as well. Downloaded but not listened to all of it yet. Now it's gone.

Ok, calm down, Lisa. You need to phone the guy at Tyne Computers and see if he can help. Maybe it's just a loose wire or something. Yeah, that's it. A loose wire. Everything will be fine. I just need to keep telling myself that. Everything will be fine, everything will be fine, everything will be fine ...

Ok, so who watched the Royal Variety Performance last night? And I defy anyone to say they didn't swoon when John Barrowman did the last number at the close of the show. That shameless Torchwood plug halfway through was a bit cheesey, but I can live with that.

However, I was quite disturbed by Barry Manilow's performance. So much so that I had to fast forward it (I was lucky I was watching it an hour behind everyone else due to the wonders of Sky+). I couldn't help but think that he'd had so many face lifts he no longer looked human, nor could he stop smiling as his face has been stretched into a pained rictus. Now then, that's just given me a good idea for a new monster in Doctor Who ...

10th December 2006

As many of you will already have picked up on the grapevine, an autographed script for the third episode of Torchwood, "The Ghost Machine", is currently being auctioned on eBay, the money going to Cardiff & District Samaritans.

While I think the Samaritans do wonderful work, I am personally very surprised that the current bid is so high. Someone is either very caring, and their conscience tells them it is their responsibility to do their bit for charity, or they are barking mad and have too much disposable cash (or a credit card, as the case may in fact be). Given the nature of the human race and my overdeveloped cynicism, I think I have a pretty good idea which it is.

What do you think?

UPDATE: 12th December 2006
The auction has ended, the winning bidder getting the script for a measly £565! ;-) Good show, Cardiff Samaritans ... let's hope the buyer coughs up the cash ...

Woo hoo! I'm so pleased! My current favourite programme is to continue for a second series, the BBC have just announced today!

"BBC Three's Torchwood is back for a second series but this time it will premiere exclusively on BBC Two as confirmed by Jane Tranter, Controller of BBC Fiction, and BBC Two Controller Roly Keating.

Starring John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori and Gareth David-Lloyd, Torchwood has captivated audiences and smashed records.

It attracted an audience of 2.4 million viewers for the broadcast of its first two episodes - securing the highest-ever audiences for a BBC Three programme and the highest-ever ratings for a non-sport programme to air across all channels in digital history."

Click here for the full press release

Yippeeee!

Women: Know your limits

You can read about it here and here. Ohdearohdearohdear.

Via John Scalzi

Thanks to John Scalzi

Ok, so I've just finished watching Torchwood on BBC 3 ... did ANYONE understand that reference in the conversation between Jack and Ianto at the end about the stopwatch, because it has me completely confuzzled ...

This is from Dave the Sod's Blog, and is uncannily accurate. You choose a sequence of eight colours and it gives you a kind of personal profile. If you try it, hop on over to Dave's blog entry and leave a link to your blog with the results. Go here to try it.






You are very ambitious and because you seek and need recognition, you try in your own way to impress people and you want to be looked up to - to be both popular and admired. You feel that there is a gap which separates you from your fellow man, or woman as the case may be, but this anxiety is an unnecessary one. Keep on the way you are going and you may surprise yourself.

Enough is enough. Nothing seems to be working out as you would like it to and it has got to the stage where you feel as if you can't be bothered anymore. The way you feel is that it would be great if you could be cut off from everything and take it easy - be it only for a short time.

We are all conditioned by our environment and as such we respond to people's perception of ourselves, but you feel that conditions are not right at this time. You are experiencing certain reservations that are precluding you to develop a particular relationship, business or personal, that is being offered. It is 'make your mind up time' - the decision is all yours, but whatever decision you make, it will be the right one.

You refuse to relax or to give in and you are endeavouring to keep exhaustion and depression at bay by keeping active. You are experiencing a relationship or a situation which is not satisfactory but you feel powerless to change it. You have that 'need to be needed' but you do little to achieve the sense of belonging that you need. You try to disguise your feelings of insecurity and so you continue to resist this state of affairs - and as a consequence you are experiencing tension and stress. Your depression makes you irritable and impatient. You have that urge to get away from the situation, either actually or mentally. You are finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate.

The stress that you are experiencing at this time is due to the present situation - a situation of your own making. But trying to ignore it, hoping that it will go away, will only aggravate it further. What you need to do is to slow down - to relax and re-think the situation and by going slow, you may be amazed to find that most of your problems will resolve themselves.

Whitby Gothic Weekend is only 3 days away. I still haven't finished sorting my outfits.

I ordered a made-to-measure corset/cincher and (rather foolishly, I suppose) decided to lose a bit of weight before I go. I lost 7 pounds in a week (yes, really!) and by the time the bloody corset came it was just a bit too big! Aargh! I'd forgotten about that! I am so annoyed! So, now I look like a barrel in it because, it doesn't tighten up enough to actually accentuate my waist. Bummer.

Oh well. Check back after the weekend for some photos. The Damned are the headlining band this time, so should be good.

How on earth he could manage it in freezing cold water is beyond me ...