flossatronha

1. Had a little London Moment at all the trees and the bricks and the ice in Battersea Park today. I never want to leave you, London! Mum pointed out where her family's narrowboat had been moored when she was a kid and they lived on the Thames. Kinda jealous of that... living on a barge is so romantic (ignoring the whole get-rid-of-your-own-sewage thing) but these days the waiting list for a mooring is something like 50 years.

2. My xmas stocking was pretty awesome: it included the ADAM LAMBERT ALBUM (now on its seventh play since yesterday), The Fall Of The Kings by Ellen Kushner (this book is FUCKING BRILLIANT so far), an ancient copy of Confessions of an English Opium Eater, and a giant dictionary of vampires. (And a whole bunch of candy.) Yay presents! Still haven't got my mother a New Years gift though. Tricky!

3. Yuletide! My Yuletide gift was SO AWESOME! It was an Uther Doul/Brucolac fic from China Mieville's book The Scar, and was totally grotesque. Just what I wanted! Now I feel pretty guilty because the story I wrote was done pretty last-minute (on a night train because I realised I'd be away from the internet on the submission date) even though I'd had the idea for a while, and I had to tweak the ending to make it gen instead of slash. But the recipient seemed pleased, so it can't have been that bad. Oh, and I did a Yuletide Madness story on christmas eve! That fic is fucking crazy. I don't know what I was thinking. I took a cheesy and ludicrous b-movie fandom and then added, like, serious epic mythology to the end. Whaaaaat.

Ladies.
Gentlemens.
I AM BACK. IN THE LONDON. Sadly I am not at my house but at forced family togetherness time at my grandfather's, because even though we are all god-hating atheists my mother would never pass up the opportunity to use christmas to trap me in one place so she can explain in detail why I am a failure. Thankfully there is wine! And I am writing a lot. Over 2000 words today because of the looooong train journey. (And wine.)

The old High School crew (plus Edinburghers... hello Dan and Shirley and Kapil) reunited for a liquor-filled holiday at Claire's Islay house. Islay is very cold and bleak at the best of times (their main export is whisky and people... and presumably sheep products?) but it was super wintry and we only went outdoors for very brief stretches of time. Mairi wore an amazing red cape and a lot of matching houndstooth to stave off the ice, thoroughly outclassing us all. It was very fun! Although on the last night I apparently said some very insulting things to the guys while drunk, which is making me guilt-ridden. Sorry, boys!

My only sadness is NO GRACE, who is back in the country but did not join us in Islay, meaning by the time I am back from London Christmas I will probably only have, like, a day before she returns to Boston on new years day. But a day is enough time for us to view Sherlock Holmes with Claire, so good good.

Internet note: I did manage to submit my yuletide story in time but I am very very very unsatisfied with it because I forgot the deadline and had to write it in one evening, ON A TRAIN. Oh dear oh dear. Hopefully my yuletide recipient will not be too miffed. ???

1. SNOW SNOW SNOW. The one downside of this is that if there's a snowstorm in the Highlands tomorrow (signs point to HELL YES), there's a possibility that the ferry to Islay will be cancelled we won't make it to Partyhaus at Claire's Islay cottage. Which would be sad because I'm looking forward to seeing all my highschool buddies (and finding out how much Claire has changed since moving to India).

2. Latin test in the LAST HOUR OF TERM tomorrow. I get the train to Scotland straight after. Things I have not done yet: packed; studied for the Latin test. Should probably get on that. Also, I haven't written my Yuletide fic. I guess I'll do that on the train tomorrow night?

3. So I finished my essays and got them handed in (ten minutes before deadline), which wouldn't have happened if I hadn't I spent the week preceeding the deadline becoming an expert in all things Adam Lambert. But come on, guys. Adam Lambert is fucking awesome.

4. Tuesday: ended up skipping afternoon class to spend the whole day with this girl I met at the Star Trek screening, eating cupcakes and talking about books. Then we traded books and went to a book shop. She is pretty rad! I've never met anyone who is more of a fan of YA urban fantasy lit than me. We have exactly the same outlook on reading, writing and the YA scene, it turns out! Cool beans.

5. "Where The Wild Things Are" is a really good movie, although I would not take a child to it. I got very sentimental and cried, like, all the way through (Ash & Ed were nonplussed), and there were a couple of moments that really freaked me out. But in all it was so intelligent and charming! Watch it, guys. It's incredibly hipsterish (Arcade Fire soundtrack?!) without being tongue-in-cheek or ironic at all, which is a pretty unusual combination.

6. You know sometimes you see something on Go Fug Yourself that is batshit crazy but you'd totally wear it anyway? Perhaps this is just me. IDK. But I would wear the fuck out of this crazy ensemble, even if pale blue is totally not my colour.

7. Housemate Jess hasn't slept in the house for, like, a week. The rest of us feel spurned. She returned yesterday for half an hour to get clothes and matches (!?) and vanish once more. Maybe she has a secret double life as a masked crimefight?

8. There is a trailer for Iron Man 2 on the internet. RUN, DON'T WALK.

IS THIS WHAT A CONNIPTION FEEL LIKE?
I THINK IT IS.
HAVE TO HAND IN THESE TWO ESSAYS IN ONE HOUR, AND ED'S PRINTER IS TAKING ELEVEN BAJILLIONTY HOURS TO PRINT THEM OFF AT AN AGONISINGLY SLOW PACE.
MY HEAD MAY EXPLODE.

IF I SURVIVE THIS ESSAY DEADLINE I AM GOING TO BREAK AND WRITE SUCH A FUCKLOAD OF SPARKLY KRADAM IT WON'T EVEN BE FUNNY, BITCHES. IT WILL BE 40,000 WORDS OF INTERNAL MONOLOGUE DESCRIBING STAGE COSTUMES AND YSL-FOR-MEN SNAKESKIN BOOTS. REPRESENT.