a vintage year for scoundrels

What I did at the weekend:

- Cut my hair! Well, actually, I had it cut on Tuesday and I really liked it, apart from these two long bits at the front which were driving me mad because one of them flicked out and the other flicked under, as my hair does, so on Saturday I grabbed a pair of scissors and just hacked them off. Possibly I will regret this but for the moment I am v. pleased.

- Cleared out my flat a bit more, sadly I am so slow at this that by the time I have done the last bit the bit I did first will need redoing. I have sorted out a few things (mostly books) to go to the charity shop, but if any of y'all want them I am happy to post 'em to you instead, they are: a Pigeon Post mug like so (which I am only getting rid of cos I have two of them); The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt (full disclosure: I only managed sixty pages of this); Excession and The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks; Storm Front, White Night, Proven Guilty, Small Favour (hardback), Blood Rites, Death Masks and Summer Knight by Jim Butcher; and two stand-up comedy CDs, one Alan Davies, the other Mitchell and Webb.

- Finished The West Wing season two, ( spoilers! ) Annoyingly some rotter had borrowed season three before I could get to the library so I got the first season of Mad Men instead.

- Read Knife, by rj_anderson, which was terrific, I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who likes YA fantasy. I loved the characters, particularly Thorn: they all felt very realistic (er, except for the "being faeries" thing) and I loved how the faeries were neither twee nor gratuitously vicious, it made a nice change! I have a feeling that I read somewhere that there's a sequel in the works; I hope this is true.

What I did at the weekend:

- Cut my hair! Well, actually, I had it cut on Tuesday and I really liked it, apart from these two long bits at the front which were driving me mad because one of them flicked out and the other flicked under, as my hair does, so on Saturday I grabbed a pair of scissors and just hacked them off. Possibly I will regret this but for the moment I am v. pleased.

- Cleared out my flat a bit more, sadly I am so slow at this that by the time I have done the last bit the bit I did first will need redoing. I have sorted out a few things (mostly books) to go to the charity shop, but if any of y'all want them I am happy to post 'em to you instead, they are: a Pigeon Post mug like so (which I am only getting rid of cos I have two of them); The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt (full disclosure: I only managed sixty pages of this); Excession and The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks; Storm Front, White Night, Proven Guilty, Small Favour (hardback), Blood Rites, Death Masks and Summer Knight by Jim Butcher; and two stand-up comedy CDs, one Alan Davies, the other Mitchell and Webb.

- Finished The West Wing season two, ( spoilers! ) Annoyingly some rotter had borrowed season three before I could get to the library so I got the first season of Mad Men instead.

- Read Knife, by rj_anderson, which was terrific, I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who likes YA fantasy. I loved the characters, particularly Thorn: they all felt very realistic (er, except for the "being faeries" thing) and I loved how the faeries were neither twee nor gratuitously vicious, it made a nice change! I have a feeling that I read somewhere that there's a sequel in the works; I hope this is true.

Here is a meme nicked from everlasting_day, based on the new Doctor Who Magazine episode ranking poll.

Bold the stories that you loved, strike through the stories which you hated. Put the ones you haven't seen yet in italics. As for the missing episodes, if you've seen a reconstruction or heard the audio soundtrack, they should be counted as "seen".

( many stories )

persiflage_1 tagged me for the seven habits/facts/quirks meme:

A. List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
B. Tag seven people to do the same.
C. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag "whoever wants to do it".

(this was quite hard; I got stuck on five for ages. There are not really seven interesting things I can say about me.)
1. FACT: The first time I ever went in a plane I had a go at flying it.
2. HABIT: Whenever I cook pancakes (crêpe style, not American), the first one must contain banana, the second honey and the third lemon juice and sugar. THIS IS THE WAY IT MUST BE.
3. QUIRK: I am very strict about what order I read books in. Essentially it is the order I buy them in but there are also lots of exceptions that I refer to in terms such as "The Series Codicil" and "The Library Override" and "The Pratchett Exemption" and so on. This is entirely sensible and not mad at all in any way.
4. HABIT: I've been boycotting Radio 5 ever since they stopped broadcasting children's programmes in 1994. Admittedly this requires no sacrifice on my part as Radio 5 is full of sport and I care not for sport.
5. FACT: I was born in the grounds of a stately home.
6. QUIRK: I am incapable of eating breakfast whilst watching TV. Any other meal is fine; breakfast in front of the TV makes me feel sick and makes me eat even more slowly than usual. (An hour for one bowl of cereal is ridiculous even by my standards.)
7. FACT: My dad once had a lovely conversation with JK Rowling about Ford Anglias. OK this is not technically a fact about me, but it is a fact I like.

And I tag: agapi42, eponymous_rose, ghost2, hhertzof, queenthesixth, silly_cleo and wondygal


This week I have been mostly watching... The West Wing. I finished season one on Wednesday and had to know what happened next, even though I sort of already knew due to spoilers and whatnot, so I zoomed up to the main university library and borrowed season 2, which was on three day loan, hence how much I have been watching it. I do feel slightly worried that despite the dialogue being fantastically witty and intelligent, the bits I laugh at the most tend to involve someone falling over or getting hit with a door. Hmmm. I am less keen on the bits where they are all "rah rah patriotism" because that is really not my sort of thing at all, but it does do a good job at convincing me that it matters to the characters, even if it doesn't to me. Also CJ is the most awesomest ever, but that is a KNOWN FACT and does not really need to be stated.

Also this weekend I watch the Something of Boris* Quantum of Solace, which was very entertaining: ( very mild spoilers, but cut to be on the safe side )

*this is a large part of why I didn't see it in the cinema; I couldn't be sure I wouldn't get to the window and announce cheerily "one for the Something of Boris, please!"

1) I've already mentioned this on Twitter, but apparently some Gloucestershire libraries have started to play background music. I'm trying to see the possible advantages of this, but failing. If you want to listen to music in the library, what's the chance that they're going to be playing music you actually want to hear? Given that it will probably have to be pretty anodyne so as not to offend anyone. And it will mean that anyone who wants to listen to their own music on their headphones will have to crank up the volume to drown out whatever's already playing. I admit I am biased because I really don't like listening to music while I'm reading, I only do it if I am on a train or something and needed to drown out other background noise (I am pretty sure that because of this the Master and Commander soundtrack is the most played thing on my notpod), but I do think this is a bad idea. I am disappointed in the county of my childhood. Luckily the library I used to visit is not included in this new scheme. *clings to Up Hatherley library and its loveliness*

2) Whilst I was on my travels on Saturday, I found the first season of The West Wing on video for £2 - I've been meaning to rent it for a while but since this was ACTUALLY cheap as chips I bought it instead. Four episodes in and I remember why I liked it, the characters are great, the dialogue is sparkling and the whole thing has a great pace and rhythm to it. I especially liked the way that, in the first episode, ( spoilers up to 1x04 ) Obligatory fashion note: v. late nineties, sadly, all shapeless jackets and such. But I remember that it gets better. (I have seen season 4 and most of season 3, I think, but then for convoluted reasons best summed up as "Channel 4 is staffed by MONKEYS" I went straight on to season 6 and got all annoyed because I didn't know what was going on.)

3) A scooter shop has opened near me, I went past it on my walk home last night and now I kind of want to buy one. I can't drive and am not safe to be let out on a bicycle, but zipping around on a scooter holds a certain appeal. Très chic! Though in reality it would be raining and I would be rubbish at it. Bah, reality is overrated, BRING ME A SCOOTER.

4) Listened to Broadcasting House on Sunday morning and David Starkey was going on again about how all these silly wimmin historians are ruining Proper History and how good it is that a new book of Man History by a Man Historian is coming out. No-one even questioned him, gah. Maybe I should email Feedback, though it's not on at the moment. In more positive Radio 4-ness, I really enjoyed listening to A Fine Defence of Enid Blyton on Sunday.

5) My arms are sore from gardening. This weekend I cut half the lawn (by hand, with shears, as neither of my lawnmowers work) and dug out loads of deep rooted weeds. Garden is still a mess but I am beginning to make a dent in it. The bit I can see from the window, anyway. It is very satisfying, but I have been slightly neurotic about being out there ever since a random massive dog ran in there a couple of times. (The owner chose to glare at me for the temerity of being in my own garden on a sunny day rather than try and summon his animal.) Since I am a bit scared of dogs* this was rather alarming. If it were truly my garden I would put a fence up at the back (there is a drop there at the moment), but it is the landlord's.

*I am only scared of loose dogs, I hasten to add. Dogs on leads, otherwise under their owners' control, or clearly minding their own business are fine, it's only ones that are rampaging about with their owners either nowhere in sight or uninterested in/incapable of controlling them that alarm me. I think this is quite reasonable. Dogs are big and strong and have sharp teeth whereas I am small and feeble, uterly wet and a weed, as they say.