clo_again

Bwahaha, the Gladiators action figures are hilarious. Atlas especially; he looks like a chubby Disney character. I accept it might be hard to make action figures of characters who wear essentially nothing so all the joints show but surely they have better facial moulding tech these days? Heh.

I'm so ridiculously tired tonight. I thought I was just hungry but eating a bowl of spag bol hasn't helped. I might go sleep for an hou before watching the repeat of Law and Order: UK at half ten. I forgot it existed for a couple of weeks; clearly the Jamie Bamber factor didn't have the staying power.

Sleep. God yes. I don't know why I'm this tired now - I went to Lancaster today yeah, but it wasn't exactly strenuous to sit and drink tea with make_a_move, so it's not that - though I've been staying up til early morning lately just because I can. Maybe it's catching up with me more than it used to.

Today, on a total whim, I went to Lancaster to see Twilight. I started out thinking maybe I'd see something Oscar-nominated like ...Benjamin Button but Twilight's down to just the weekend showings now and I figured I might not get to see it cinema-ised if I didn't go now. Besides, how can I mock with authority if I haven't seen it?

I really enjoyed it. More in hindsight, because while actually watching it I kept going "WTF?!! No one talks like that!" but I keep thinking back and giggling because Edward Cullen is essentially a giant dork who can kill you while Bella wasn't nearly as much of a snot as she was in the book and Charlie was adorable.

Several things annoyed me though. Repeatedly. ( Read more... )

Oddly enough, although I didn't find...fine I'll fucking Google it ROBERT PATTINSON all that attractive most of the time (his hair was too hilariously distracting and his makeup too hilariously pale but the dorky humour moments were sweet), I did find myself thinking of Julian from LJ Smith's The Forbidden Game. I guess there are similarities but I totally wouldn't have pegged RP as my mental Julian (oh for them to make that a movie... *wistful*). Also Jenny gets way more points in the awesome stakes than Bella. Actually now I;m drawing parallels with Labyrinth... is there a trend these days that heroines once would've told the good-looking demons/vampires/bad guys where to stuff their undying love but now we're getting the "Oh I will love your undead ass forever!"?

Odd thought. I think I'll contemplate my book/DVD collection later.


Anyway, after Twilight I ambled around Lancaster to pick up everything I needed, like a collar & nametag for Casper so when he inevitably gets lost when we let him wander, whoever finds him can call us to give him back *touch wood*. When looking for a collar I tried a shop that I avoided like the plague for three years of university. It sells things for pets, like beds and dog leads etc. but... well, it has a giant stuffed horse in the window and I wasn't really expecting much, except I could see they had collars and leads hanging up so I thought I'd give it a shot.

On asking for cat collars I was presented with a whole basket of choice, in an entire rainbow of colours complete with rhinestones, holographic silver patterns and frilly edges. In the entire basket there wasn't one collar that Casper wouldn't have suffocated me in my sleep for making him wear and they were £10 each. I've never backtracked out of a shop so fast in my life.

I eventually got him a pretty, stretchy, safety-clasped red one from an actual pet shop. He is of course entirely ungrateful for it and spent all of Demons attempting to scratch off the bell and, when that failed, walking over my laptop keyboard as payback. Don't let anyone tell you cats are not evil.

~

It's decidedly odd being back in Lancaster though, especially on my own because it just doesn't feel like I'll be coming back to Ulverston instead of my room on campus. However, I think I mentioned before how beautiful the train ride to Lancaster from here is and this morning, with thick frost and the sun rising (it was half eight. I know, on a Saturday; don't die of shock) it was... gorgeous.

So gorgeous in fact that I tried to take pictures despite only having my terrible cameraphone and the train windows being dirt-encrusted. Then it was so pretty that I got carried away and ( there're quite a few )

At Grange-over-Sands station there's tall, arched windows that look out over beach and sea and mountains. It looks like a mural painted on, something out of Narnia. My picture didn't come out and you really have to see it to believe just how incredibly weird it looks. I'll have to stop one nice day and take a proper photo because really... how many train stations overlook beach and sea and mountains? Crazy.

However, after a really fun and pretty day I ruined the benefit of all the walking I did by caving to the lure of a Mint Choc cupcake from The Yummy Cupcake Company. So much for being good. *woes* I bought it from the market stall but that website just told me there's a shop now! That's top of my visiting list for the next Lancaster trip then. (Ooooohhhhhh... check out the flickr gallery. o_O)

ALl in all, a good - if uh, bad calorie-wise - day. Yay! And wow, this got kinda long. x_x Sorry y'all.

Off to Lancaster early tomorrow morning and then the new job starts Tuesday, so I might go MIA for a week. Except I probably won't, I'll probably be back to bitch about the new job by Tuesday night but just in case.

...I should probably go throw some clothes in a bag for Lancaster now. If I want to get any sleep tonight.

On Lancaster: "The sweeping drive that enters the university campus passes a duck pond, with its attendant 'duck crossing' sign. Apparently, this sign has been dug up and stolen by students multiple times to show off in their front rooms." - from here.

It is a very cool sign.

I'm googling Lancaster in search of more info on the rumours of Pendle's imminent demise, to distract myself from the fact that yelling at Andy's live scores does not, in fact, make him play better. Though not for lack of trying.

Walking out of Sainsburys about an hour ago, got a faceful of rain so hard that I walked into someone because I couldn't see where I was going.

Oh Lancaster. I do love you. Just not right now.

There's some lovely little snippets of hotness here, from all different fandoms. Nifty.

I'm starting to wonder about my obsessive-dreaming of Lancaster. Last night it was that I got there and had forgotten the letter I have to show to get my keys. Before that it was that I got there only to find there were no cupboards left for me. At this point it's going to be a relief just to get back and *be* there, *finally*. No matter how much I remind myself that you get cabin-fever if you spend too long in Lancaster, right now it's infinitely preferable to *anywhere*.

Okay so maybe if someone offered me free tickets to Australia instead I wouldn't exactly turn them down but... almost anywhere.

Found out a nasty little loophole-y trick of the post office today; apparently if you're sending a package under their smeggy new guidelines, you'll get charged more if you tell them there's a letter inside it. I mean, what? I thought they were judging this on size and weight, not content. 'Letter', 'large letter', 'package', I thought they were just titles for the sizes but apparently not. Thankfully we have lovely post office people -- last year one of them sent a parcel for me even though I was almost a pound short -- and when the lady was asking me today what was in it, I said "Letter-" only to get "No! Don't tell me that! It'll cost more if there's a letter in it."

Which to me makes no sense at all. Why should it make a difference if that few grams of weight is a letter or say, a pencil? Or a cd or notebook? It shouldn't at all. The Post Office FAQs are about as much use as a dead dodo but at least I know not to put 'letter' on the little contents stickers in future, just in case. Honestly Royal Mail. Do you have too much time on your hands, that you have to come up with these pointless diversions?

I should be writing up articles for the uni newspaper now. Reallyreally should since I promised R I'd have them done yesterday. Should probably go do that soon.

edit: Okay, so under the Royal Mail's list of prohibited items is 'filth'. That could cover anything from literal filth-mud, to moral-filth to things I haven't even thought of. WTF?

Then again they also list 'Indecent, obscene or offensive material' and I've sent and received slash by post before, so you know. Whatever. ;)

Here in one piece, with the only drama being me managing to lose my monitor cable somewhere enroute, though I have a sneaking suspicion it's still coiled neatly on my desk at home. Brief panic ended when I found the cable from my printer works as a good substitute and the only drama is me having to cope without a connected printer until the 'rents can post the other cable up to me. If that's the only thing I've forgotten, I'll consider myself lucky. Unfortunately I'm not sure until I've unpacked and um...yes. I wish I had a digital camera to take a picture of my room right now. Disaster area? Doesn't even begin to cover it.

So I'm going to go and unpack a little and try to set the desktop up for the Lancaster internet. It may take a while and I'll need to unplug the laptop from the network point to do it, so I'll be back later, regardless. If the main computer doesn't work, at least the laptop seems just fine. :)

It's good to be back. Even if my door closing 'by itself' when the doorstop lost its grip did just scare the pants off me. Sigh. Such a doofus.

Back later! :D

I admit, I was only frustrated earlier because I'd turned down a beautiful pair of dragon-design trousers the other day, and an absolutely gorgeous fluffy denim jacket today - both on sale, both affordable - on the basis that I had other things I wanted to buy more and couldn't afford all of them. Only to discover that I couldn't find the other things I wanted and could've afforded the pretty, *pretty* clothes but it was too late to go back for them because they'll have gone by tomorrow. Not exactly the worst dilemma in the world, apart from a certain wanting-to-kick-myself-for-being-stupid factor but combined with lack of sleep and parents driving me beyond crazy and wanting to be back in Lancaster to the point where I was willing to *walk* there, it all sort of added up to a horribly frustrating day that should've been filled with fun and shopping. By the time I got to Borders, I wasn't even in the mood to buy anything because I was so fed up. *sighs* I need to get back to uni and away from the parents, because they're winding me up something awful. The amount of police helicopters I'm blowing up on GTA III to vent my frustration is increasing by the hour (I think I'm on at least eight or nine by now. I actually got a wanted level of five today for the first time, and that should not make me as happy as it did. I knew buying that game again was a bad idea) and as infinite as their supply of helicopters seems to be, there is a limit to how many can be blown up before it just gets dull.

But, computer-based rampages failing me, I bought one of the Top Gear DVDs off play.com with the money that I hadn't spent on the beautiful jacket and I've literally just this second seen the wonderful words "Finalization is complete" due to the blank Sony DVDs I bought today that actually work. Ah, bliss. Plus I have what, maybe... thirty six hours-ish before I'm back in Lancaster? My day has improved (though I'm still mourning that jacket. Sigh.) I even resisted the Doctor Who magazine in Borders, though I had a giggle when a huge guy in a leather jacket leaned past me and I stepped out the way, expecting him to go for something tough and manly, like the car or sport magazines, only for him to grab the same Doctor Who one I was flicking through soley to admire the pictures of David Tennant. What do they say about books and covers? Hhhmm, I wonder if he wanted it for the Tennant pictures too?

Right now, I'm still trying to clear the Sky+ box by DVDing everything. I couldn't face DVDing the Roger-Nalbandian match and it was taking up too much space to keep, so it's gone. Which cuts the time I have to spend recording stuff down considerably but still, might be tricky to get everything done by Saturday morning. At least I can sleep all day Sunday if I want. ;)

I love BBC3 for having no adverts. Think I'll have a nap while Doctor Who's recording. Mmmmm. Regular sleeping hours. What are they again?