skew_whiff (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
skew_whiff) wrote2012-08-01 04:55 pm
skew_whiff) wrote2012-08-01 04:55 pm
Entry tags:
A series of slightly more fortunate events
So, the good news is, I've finally moved into the actual flat I signed a contract for.
The bad news is, there's no phone connection, and the soonest I could get one installed is at the very end of the month. So my grand return to the internet is to be postponed for a few weeks more. I'm still sort of here, though, even if it's only via short trips to the nearest coffee shop with wifi once or twice a week. I get the feeling that not much has been happening while I've been away (give or takenewredshoes watching the BBC Robin Hood, which has been hilarious and I wish I could've experienced those posts as they happened), but I've been missing you guys!
What I've been doing in the meantime:
- catching up on books and DVDs. I raced my way through the whole of Season 1 and about half of Season 2 of Breaking Bad in a week or so - it's been a long time since a drama grabbed me by the scruff and refused to let go like that, but it's just fantastic. A little far-fetched at times, as these high-concept glossy dramas often are, but always gripping, and it does an excellent job of balancing the grim stuff (of which there's plenty, as you'd expect from a show whose main themes are terminal illness and the drugs trade) with humour and occasional explosions. I'm also well into The People's War, by Angus Calder, which is pretty much the best book about Britain in the Second World War that I've ever read. And I've read plenty. It's a huge thick book, but extremely readable, full of details, and I've already learned a heck of a lot I didn't know before.
- baking the occasional cake, with varying success, and compensating for the consumption of said cake with running, with slightly more success. I've been meaning to do Couch to 5k for ages, and finally got round to it - it's a challenge, and I don't think I'd have made it past the first week without the improvements in my fitness I've already made since the start of the year, but it does feel damn good to complete another half hour, and I'm confident of getting through the whole nine weeks. If I don't manage to snap a tendon first.
- writing. Not much to show for it yet, but I will have fic for you when I finally make my proper return. Maybe even with illustrations.
And while that's being beta'd, I'm always up for suggestions for other things! I've been poking a little at various WIPs, but I've not got anything else seriously under way.
- planning another holiday, this time to Amsterdam, for a few days at the start of September. I don't know much about the place and I don't speak a word of Dutch, but heck, that just makes it more of an adventure.
- watching the Olympics. Well, the opening ceremony, at least, which I was thoroughly impressed by. Beijing might have thousands of drummers, but we had live sheep, Kenneth Branagh, Voldemort being defeated by a fleet of Mary Poppinses, lindy-hopping NHS staff, Mr Bean, and JAMES BOND AND THE QUEEN JUMPING OUT OF A HELICOPTER. FUCK YEAH. I was also rather charmed that the crowd I was watching it with (I was at a public screening) were nationalistic enough to stand for the national anthem, but not enough to actually sing along.
Also, I think I've developed a bit of a weird crush on Bradley Wiggins. It's the sideburns. I honestly had no idea what he looked like, until recently, and I really wasn't expecting such magnificent sideburns.
So, yeah. That's pretty much it. I'm still checking in, now and then, so I may drop the occasional comment; but otherwise, see you in a month! (With any luck.)
The bad news is, there's no phone connection, and the soonest I could get one installed is at the very end of the month. So my grand return to the internet is to be postponed for a few weeks more. I'm still sort of here, though, even if it's only via short trips to the nearest coffee shop with wifi once or twice a week. I get the feeling that not much has been happening while I've been away (give or take
newredshoes watching the BBC Robin Hood, which has been hilarious and I wish I could've experienced those posts as they happened), but I've been missing you guys!What I've been doing in the meantime:
- catching up on books and DVDs. I raced my way through the whole of Season 1 and about half of Season 2 of Breaking Bad in a week or so - it's been a long time since a drama grabbed me by the scruff and refused to let go like that, but it's just fantastic. A little far-fetched at times, as these high-concept glossy dramas often are, but always gripping, and it does an excellent job of balancing the grim stuff (of which there's plenty, as you'd expect from a show whose main themes are terminal illness and the drugs trade) with humour and occasional explosions. I'm also well into The People's War, by Angus Calder, which is pretty much the best book about Britain in the Second World War that I've ever read. And I've read plenty. It's a huge thick book, but extremely readable, full of details, and I've already learned a heck of a lot I didn't know before.
- baking the occasional cake, with varying success, and compensating for the consumption of said cake with running, with slightly more success. I've been meaning to do Couch to 5k for ages, and finally got round to it - it's a challenge, and I don't think I'd have made it past the first week without the improvements in my fitness I've already made since the start of the year, but it does feel damn good to complete another half hour, and I'm confident of getting through the whole nine weeks. If I don't manage to snap a tendon first.
- writing. Not much to show for it yet, but I will have fic for you when I finally make my proper return. Maybe even with illustrations.
And while that's being beta'd, I'm always up for suggestions for other things! I've been poking a little at various WIPs, but I've not got anything else seriously under way.
- planning another holiday, this time to Amsterdam, for a few days at the start of September. I don't know much about the place and I don't speak a word of Dutch, but heck, that just makes it more of an adventure.
- watching the Olympics. Well, the opening ceremony, at least, which I was thoroughly impressed by. Beijing might have thousands of drummers, but we had live sheep, Kenneth Branagh, Voldemort being defeated by a fleet of Mary Poppinses, lindy-hopping NHS staff, Mr Bean, and JAMES BOND AND THE QUEEN JUMPING OUT OF A HELICOPTER. FUCK YEAH. I was also rather charmed that the crowd I was watching it with (I was at a public screening) were nationalistic enough to stand for the national anthem, but not enough to actually sing along.
Also, I think I've developed a bit of a weird crush on Bradley Wiggins. It's the sideburns. I honestly had no idea what he looked like, until recently, and I really wasn't expecting such magnificent sideburns.
So, yeah. That's pretty much it. I'm still checking in, now and then, so I may drop the occasional comment; but otherwise, see you in a month! (With any luck.)