Today I had my first attempt at making sushi. Overall, I think it was a success. There was:

-Nori covered prawn and wasabi (HOT)
-Nori covered tuna and cucumber
-Nori covered prawn tuna and cucumber
-Sesame seed prawn

And now I am absolutely stuffed!

... and then the other half told me I was weeaboo, because I put on a engsub version of Fruits Basket.

*evil glee* Random viewing is fun.

- This song was No. 1 in the UK charts.
It's cheesy and twee and totally awesome in many ways!

So... it's been two weeks since I saw my family, and the very day I go see them I have a nose that feels like it's been stuffed with beanbag-balls. Oh, and it also feels like it takes up two thirds of my face. Just in time for me to have a job interview.

It's gonna look real good, me snuffling my way through half an hour of questions with all the information so gratefully imparted to me leaking out of my ears with the rest of my brain fluid.

On the plus side though, My green thumb is actually doing some good instead of looking like I dipped it in food colouring. I have SIXTEEN tomato plants growing. (Thats real tomato plants, not like the tomato's I've heard other people grow in their wardrobes), FIFTEEN bell pepper plants... corriander and basil pots growing well and a randomly sprouted Spanish Onion I planted just to see what it would do. My other herbs are, I hope, still germinating.

Today I decended into the madness that is fanfiction. My brain hurts from slashy um... goodness?
I will now go vomit. I love this part of the illness-ness...

So many of those I know... a few I loved... and a couple I've never seen.

Because my family are EPIC, we rang in the new year during our fifth round of Pontoon. Because thats just how we roll!

Also, 7 inches of snow at the other half's place of residence. This, to my juvenile mind, is awesome. Not only are the shouts of fighting families muffled by the sparkly ice crystals, but everything looks so pretty...

All I need now is my dog back so she can try to eat the snowballs I throw for her. Failing that, it's cat tipping.

So, 2010... we're off to a good start. Let's not fudge it up, eh?

Today I found out that last night there were people making the sweet monkey love outside my front door. My other half is outraged. I am amused... and desperately hoping I don't tread in anything undesireable when I next venture outside.

It's snowing like a guddun at the minute. I have my fingers crossed I'll see my first snowy Christmas since I was a darling little child (a loooooong time ago).

Also, I built a wardrobe. With no illustrations or distructions. I am truly amazing (and will continue to think I am despite the other half reminding me he figured out how the pieces fit together)

....

Still amused at the sexy times...

Last night as midnight rolled round and I played a little Warcrack, I found myself in horde territory. After being mobbe several times in the past I was a little wary about having my toon raeped again (damn belfs...) Luckily for me, I ran into a couple Taurens, and spent a goo half an hour having a dance-off. Add to that a random but ultimately hilarious conversation with the guild and what we have is an awesome evening.

Yeah, that's rock an roll baby!

As the title says. I nipped to my parents on Tuesday, only to find out my Grandad was in hospital after suffering a heart attack.

Cue worry and stress, and then we get a phone call... it wasn't a heart attack at all, just one of his arteries had decided it wanted a waistline without the aid of corsetry and he'd not been getting enough oxygen... so thank you GP who over-reacted... (quite possible hoping for more custom from our family...)

So anyway, I've been staying with my nan all week, which has been most interesting to say the least. (found out she's a Jeremy Kyle fan, so we've had lovely conversations about that whilst she'd been doing her knitting and I've had at it with a tapestry.

Long story short, me Granpappy is home, and back to full health. He's delighted in telling me all about the camera that was pushed through his veins from his wrist, up to his elbow, and the camera that has made a round trip of his circulatory system and pumped his artery back out to regular size. He was awake and watching the whole thing.

Also... I'm gonna be a godmummy tomorrow...

There's also been existential emoing about my lack of job/money and reply from companies I've applied to for jobs, but that is another story all together. To be honest, I'm whacked.

Yis. The urge to draw had me positively leaping from my bed with joy this morning.

Actually, I'm lying through my teeth, but there was an honest to goodness urge to draw... and being as I didn't know what the mother-loving hell to draw I tried my hand at a draenei.

Yep, you read that right. I have fallen deep into the treacle jar now, and theres no escape!

We celebrated Bonfire Night last night, my family and I - though it was my dear ol' mum's birfday, so we had a totally valid excuse for setting for to 150 quids worth of fireworks...

There was no drama... and mother was most pleased with all the chocolate and flowers. She has a sponge/marzipan/merangue cake, decorated by yours truely.

I also spent the morning making strombolini, sausage rolls and garlic (with rosemary and chive) bread... all was successful...

So, short and sweet.

Also! I am 4 days into the NaNo challenge, and about to hit my daily word count, so yay!

I am also still traumatized by the video I was linked to a couple of days ago. My eyes, they bleed...

Well... my favourite holiday of they year is over... and I didn't do anything. Mainly because I was wrapped up in a cardigan, a blanket and a quilt shivering and sweating at the same time. (I think it's because on Thursday and Friday, I was busy trying to make flash elements work on a website - I hate flash sometimes - and I kinda forgot to eat...) Fortunately, I have a most understanding boyfriend, and so copious amounts of apple juice were on tap, along with films- some cheezy, some serious and a couple of not-so-scary ones. Our list was:

- Bram Stoker's Dracula (1st time I watched it. Made me cry.)
- Sleepy Hollow (Probably 1000th time I've watched it. Loves me some Johnny Depp)
- Shadow of the Vampire (1st time I watched it. Love Willem Defoe. Felt really sorry for the vampire.)
- Corpse Bride
- From Hell
- The Iron Giant
- Constantine
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Dracula: Dead and Loving It.

Didn't see anything after Shadow of the Vampire, unfortunately. I fell asleep and had fevered dreams about being back at school (thanks, I think, in part to a certain someone sending me a link to a video that was terryfying for all the wrong reasons)...

I feel much better today though, and so I may continue my Halloween festivities by watching the rest of the films whilst I do the ironing... because I am just that hardcore!

I have a folder full of scraps of paper with scribbles and scrawlings on it. All of them are ideas for something, be it a 3000 word short story, a full length 150k + novel, a comic strip or a graphic novel... I generally write notes, put them in the folder and forget about them. Until today. My ranom trawling of the internet and almost stalkerish lurking on many forums and blogs has led me to find something I'd like to give a try: A couple of anthologies: Two for YA and one for 7+ kids.

Considering I generally write about monsters, murderers and other dark and grizley things, I never thought of writing for children, even though I'm generally the one called for story time when I'm about. I think one to many creative retelling of the old fairy tales has made me a little bit unpopular with my sisters at bedtime though. Especially as said children were supposed to be sleeping and not huffing and puffing at one another like the big bad wolf... (I thought it was fun anyway!)

But I digress. The folder. I got it out and had a look through it and found one scrap of paper detailing a dream I had a few years back. I remember the dream, it was really sad and sweet, and all about the innocence of children. I think I might give it a shot- it seems right for the anthology theme, to be honest. I can still write the nasty stuff into it- a good story needs a fantastic villain! But I figure what the hell? I feel burned out on my paranormal series and quite frankly, would welcome a break on it. This one has me a little bit excited.

The worst that can happen is that it doesn't get picked, right? But I'll at least have the satisfaction of having tried.


In other news I have +3 Cooking, +70 Domestic Goddess to add to my never before kept score, for I have blasted my way through the kitchen, made it all clean, rearranged the cupboards for maximum food/appliance storage and made a mixed fruit bread pudding. From scratch, and I didn't burn it. It's already been eaten up. I'm under orders to make another one though, and I will take photos. ('cos everyone knows, if there's no pics, it didn't happen!) - I'm gonna make some dinner now. Late, I know, but I'm hungry and my internal body clock is definately not running on GMT.

Dude, seriously... this is the very first conversation we've ever had. Not even my LONG TERM BOYFRIEND tells me he's horny after a brief "hello howz u?"

You've obviously been through my profile since you're asking me about the photo's there... asking which one's me, telling me you like both (seriously, way to keep your options open) and then  hoping I'm the one with big tits...

Big tits? Seriously? Are you taking the piss? Not only are you insulting my friend who's also in the photo, but you've completely disregarded my relationship status, and insulted both me and my previously mentioned LONG TERM BOYFRIEND by asking me for my contact info and wanting me to prove I'm a natural redhead! You aren't endearing yourself to me at all! Especially if you think I'm the kind of girl that will jump at anything with a dick, which is what you are implying.

Just because the moral standars of the human race has sunk to the gutter, doesn't mean I'm gonna cyber/phone sex on the the first conversation... or even the 50th, or the bazillionth! It's not happening. Credit me with a) some standards, b) some sanity and c) some bloody intelligence! You think I want an STD on my computer? No thank you!

Also, asking whether "down there" is au natural or pruned is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU! Only two people in the world know about that sort of thing, and neither of them are saying anything. Unless it grows in a garden or plant pot, topiary is private!

Jeeze... why would you even ask for things like that? It's creepy and just a lot weird.

Also, buggering off because I won't have the sexy talk with you is just insulting, even if you did say I was beautiful, COMPLIMENTS DO NOT ENTITLE YOU TO SEXY TIMES!

Damn you, facebook! You're pretty much the only way I can keep track of people! I would quit you so fast otherwise!

I have a book. It differes slightly from the 1000's of other books I have in two ways. The first being that I wrote it. The second being that it is one of a hundred other books that I've actually finished.

Now, when I say finished, I mean the first draft. Oh yes. I'm coming to the fun part: the editing of said book. See, when I started writing this one, I promised myself I wouldn't fall into the same trap as I did in my youth: sending it out to agents as soon as the last word was printed. I shudder to think what that poor man thought when faced with that rambling, untamed and untrimmed monster... in my defence though, I was a teenager and everything I wrote was literary genius.

Hmm... skip forward a few years, I'm in my last year of uni and I start writing this... and shock of all shocks... I finish writing it. It's been sitting in a ringbinder for the last year. Truth be told, I'd forgotten about it... but now I've got a stack of red pens and have begun the editing/rewriting. Soon, my lovely pages of typing will be a mass of red scribbles, rewritten sentences, an chunks of cut words. Maybe I'll even throw a bit of plot in there.

(Basically, it'll look like one of my high school essays.)

Fun times ahead my chaps! Four chapters down, another thirty odd to go!

The ingriedients for this Recipie to Certain Disaster are as follows:

1 mountain bike that has sat, barely used in a shed since Christmas.
2 safety pins
2 1/2 miles of hilly road (give or take a few hundred yards)
2 miles approx of canal side towpath
1 one truly out of condition idiot (yours truly)
1 (mis) appropriately curled down dog turd.

Prior to this half baked cake, some preliminary work is required. These include:

10+ years of studiously avoiding as much physical exertion as possible.
A lifetie of hermitude, where the most strenuous thing done is turn the page of a book/tap on keys/pick up a pencil/ (for best results, count your typing speed as strenuous excercise. Also, you will be right on the mark if most of your waking activity takes place sitting on your ass)

Once these preparations are complete you are ready to get on that bike, even thouh it's been a good five or six years since you traveled in anything but a car, and tell yourself it will only be half an hours journey and that it'll be plain sailing once you've got yourself a rhythm.

And now, if you're anything like me, you'll get about 1/3 of the way to your appointment before you start telling yourself what a bloody fool you were, your hips start to scream at you and plot your demise and your throat starts closing over. It's at this point that you'll realise you've forgot your bottle of water. It's all fun and games at this point.

Skip forward, and that 1/2 hour has suddenly become 2 hours, you're late for your appointment and very close to a coronary... food is on the agenda. You eat, you feel better, you try to get back on your bike and realise your ass feels like either aliens have probed it. Repeately, or someone borrowed a pneumatinc drill and has been pounding your particulars for a good three hours.

The journey home is horrendous, but luckily you have a friend on the way who you can spend a couple of hours with, talking nerd things, drinking refreshing life giving ambrosia (squash) and generally remembering what cusioned seats feel like.

So... now I'm home. I set out at 1.00pm and got back at 7.45 pm. I have sat, eaten a delicious mild pork curry cooked by my dear old mum and I've stopped feeling sick. I actualy feel better for doing some excercise. I rode and walked along a beautiful stretch of the canal, felt my lungs filling for the first time in ages and knew my blood was rushing through my veins properly... not like the River Ankh for once (you get +10 bonus points if you guess the reference). I know I'm gonna sleep well tonight, and tomorrow I've gotta go out again or I'm gonna ache like a salmon-a-batch.

And now, I am off to make my WoW work. I am having withdrawal symptoms.
Jeez... epic update is epic...

edit: The aforementioned dog turd is optional and purely for the locals entertainment.

overwight jittery cycling girl + one slimey camoflauged turd + one extremely narrow canal towpath with crumbling barrier = much hilarity to the sure footed boaters of Englands waterways.

I've finally done it. Five years of resisting (and by resisting, I mean just not being bothered) I have taken the leap and plunged myself into World of Warcrack... oh boy.

I am now a Draenei Shaman...

Other news, I was forced to stay in bed for an entire week thanks to the amazing pyrotechnic display of my vision, and the dwarves mining for gold above my eye. The doctor tells me it's stress induced migranes... and that they may reoccur every few days to once in a blue moon. No one really knows for sure. I have bright pink pills though, which makes up for it.

Now... time for me to go flower picking!

There was a fox in my garden this afternoon. At least, it's head was. The rest of it's body was in the field behind our massively dilapidated fence. I dunno if it saw me watching it or not, but it took off down the field pretty quick when it had finished nosing about.

That's the first time I've seen a fox in daylight... and the biggest fox I've ever seen, thus, it was worth a journal in itself.

Note to self: make sure bins are secure tonight.

I am totally hardcore rock and roll, I am. I've stayed up late talking to my fella and watching Poirot on the telly. That is how totally awesome I am!

However... my fella, who I hate! hate! hate! right now, is talking to me - or rather gloating to me - about how awesome the musical "War of the Worlds" is. Knowing that I have been frantically hunting for my version of it, he tells me this! DISHONOUR!

However, because I am lacking in sleep, I am feeling somewhat nostalgic and am reminded of one of, if not the first proper conversation I had with him, before we were together. Hell... it was just after my previous relationship ended.

Steven Speilberg's War of the Worlds had just come out... Or is was shown on TV. I cant remember which, but we both sat talking on MSN about it. Bear in mind that he'd never heard the musical before this. We both loved the train... felt the build up to the massive fight scene was a little more disappointing than anti-climatic... and the All American Happy Ending was just a little too contrived. Also that the screaming girl was very annoying. (Personal opinion. Neither of us can stand screaming children). Mostly, we agree that should their be a third incarnation of the film, it should most definately be set in Victorian England and (my preference only) Johnny Depp should most definately be in there somewhere... even if he's a martian!

Then I told him about the musical and he, knowing that I have lost mine and am craving like a crackwhore for that shit, is playing it and telling me about the Thunderchild.

Serious hate for that boy. I will have revenge for that!

The moral is that life seems to repeat itself in rather smaller cycles than I originally thought. We've been "married" for nearly three years now... and once again we are sitting into the early hours talking about War of the Worlds... I can't help but feel nerdily content with this.

THIS IS HOW HARDCORE WE ARE, DAMNIT ! ! !