So yesterday afternoon see's yours truly in the german market that's held here in Leeds every year about this time. After a brief look around the various stalls selling everything from pretzel to painted wooden toys, singing bowls to chocolates we headed off to the main attraction; the beer tent.

I have to say this was on of the best nights out I've had all year. The wheat beer and gluhvein flowed free and there was an unbelievable umpah band on. They started off with traditional german folk music and stein wavers but before the end of the night tghey had moved on to such classics as Amarillo, blue suede shoes and Living Next Door to Alice (Alice? who the feck is Alice?). I tell you, you've not heard the blues brothers till you've heard it played by five german men in leiderhosen! Along with this there was plenty of audience participation, particularly the oft repeated cry of Eins! zwei! drei! Zum wohl! (I think) and more of that wheat beer.

Head was a touch sore this morning though.

There's a phrase I've heard bandied about the writing communities. "Kill your babies." They say, obviously not in a real life extremely disturbed person way but in the way that once a story is written it is no longer yours and really you shouldn't have any further interest in it.

I can't do this.

I wrote a Whofic focussing on the character of Donna Noble (posted on Buffyforums) which seems to be getting very low readership figures and this actually matters to me even though it probably shouldn't. I mean I don't write for profit so it doesn't really matter if anyone reads it or not and I would probably still have written it if you'd guarenteed me that no-one would ever see it. The fact though that it is out there on a public site though means that it's submitted for public approval and I can't help but see the readership as some kind of tacit approval of what i'm doing.

This probably sounds pretty vain, like i'm in need of some constant ego stroking or something but that's not really at the heart of this; at least I don't think it is. Writing is a form of communication. It's an act of communicating the ideas that rattle around in your head to whomever might read them. If I don't submit something for public comsumptionm then the conversation is really with myself but once it's out there I like to know those ideas are reaching people and feel dissapointed when they don't.

So I guess I'll continue to obsess over the viewing figures until I write something new. Then I'll have a shiny new obsession to fixate on.

So, how many of the following can you remember?

Dempsey & Makepeace
The Atari ST
The Half pence piece
Betamax
The Muppet Show
Space Hoppers
Tony Head in coffee adverts
Space Raiders
Peter & Jane books
Streetfighter (Not streetfighter 2)
Airwolf
The Smash Aliens

1 point for each (no prizes)

So, not posted on here for a bit, reason being the unbelievable business of me.

For those that don't know, I work for a stockbroker and the last month or so has just been one long rollercoaster ride of constantly queuing calls, irate customers and just about a thousand other trials and tribulations. Yup it's been tough.

So getting to this weekend I was particularly looking forward to a proposed meet up with someone who I genuinely enjoy spending time with and just relaxing; getting away from all the stress and the headaches. However having just called to finalise it seems that this too has been postponed to some other time which is a real shame as I was particularly looking forward to it.

Ah well ce'la vie and all that, at least the current busy, busy business can't go on forever. At least...

Stolen from Dorians Kitten

I miss my old show.
When you see this, post another Buffy quote in your LJ. Let's see how long this can go on.

"No, I think it's just enough kill."

Keep it going people.

In response to a meme that Llywella13 posted (the idea of which is just to quote Douglas Adams in your post; a worthwhile thing in it's own right.)I just popped on to Wikiquote to find a good'un. I found this.

"Yes, it was an act of God. But which God?"

That's a quote from "The Lond Dark Teatime of the Soul" and as I read it I realised that it's an important question. Now i'm either an atheist or an agnostic depending on when you ask me but if I was to accept the possibility of one or more divine creators of this sorry world, which one of the usual suspects would be the best to choose? perhaps more importantly, what if I was wrong? I mean you'd look a bit silly if you find out there was an afterlife after all but instead of say, the bloke with the long beard there was a bloke in a short skirt with the head of a jackal or a lot of curly haired greeks sitting around drinking custard and turning their mistresses into cows, wouldn't you?

There's also the question of the rules. I mean you can't follow all of them. You'd never go to work for one thing (alright bad example)and you'd probably starve to death there's that manby taboo foods. How do you fit ritual sacrifices in with thou shalt not kill? Thou shalt have no other gods is out the window before you start as well come to think about it.

No, I think the whole thing is just too complicated. As and when the religious leaders of the world get together and decide exactly what flavour of deity I should be following and exactly what the rules are I might get on board until then I'm going to continue to avoid the lot of them and just use my own judgement. Popping off now to covet my neighbours ass.

I'm a tad excited right now. I've recently bought a laptop from a workmate who's very computer savvy; actually that should probably read 'ive recently tried to buy a laptop...' because it has taken awhile for computer and cash to be exchanged. But whatever, the goods are finally here with me and as we speak I am connected to people from across the world without actually being connected to anything.

Now I'm not the worlds most up to date, technically aware, type of guy but the concept of being able to sit here, typing away without any wires coming out of this machine and other people in other locations being able to read what i'm writing is still a little bit surreal to me. Even more so is the ability to converse in real time with the good folk at Buffyforums with nothing physically connecting us but fresh air. I know you can talk to people on yopur mobile in much the same way but this is new and there's something about the written word that makes it all a little unreal.

Still life continues apace and i'm sure by the time I'm fully at ease with all this we'll have some new technology that lets us know what each other are thinking without the need for all these cumbersome words. Still, baby steps, eh.

By the way finished House season 3. Thought the middle was actually a bit better than the end but on the whole I still think it's great must see t.v.

So here it is; I've decided to lose some weight.

It's not before time, in fact it's probably quite a bit after time if i'm honest but the gut has just sort of crept up on me and it's taken me a while to get round to doing something about it.

So, yes i'm saying goodbye to the morning bagel, the saturday night take out and the friday lunch time fish n chips and for the next few months will mostly be eating salad and other such healthy stuff. Some people have suggested such wild ideas as cutting down on alcohol and regular exercise would also be helpful in this quest but I generally just put my fingers in my ears and go 'lalalalala' till they go away.

One unexpected benefit to this change of lifestyle has been the impact on my wallet. It seems that for just a few quid extra down the supermarket i can save myself quite a bit of expenditure in the staff canteen and the local eateries. For the first time in a long time this has meant that i've actually ended up the week with money still left in the wallet rather than having to call at the bank for extra funds.

In other news, I'm loving House season three. Just over half way through so far and for me the best things are the House/Tritter arc, House/Cuddy and the whole of 'Finding Judas' which i thought was an amazing ep. Also really enjoyed BBC3's re-run of Doctor Who season 1, although they aren't, as I had hoped, going straight on to season 2 which is a real shame. Hopefully this is coming later in the year.

Well today is my last day as a 33 year old. Come midnight i will officially be 34 which to be honest i'm not really looking forward to all that much. I mean 33 sound alright(ish)but 34? Well that's almost as good as 35 and that starts me thinking about 40 (eeep!)

At least I should score some good stuff in the way of prezzies mind you. I've given the folks a few DVD's to chose from with Dexter season 1, House season 3, Hustle season 2 and virtually any Spooks being on the table (but heavy hints at House perhaps having been dropped)I'd have liked some Whoage but that's still far too expensive to ask for. When will those box sets come down in price?

In other news I think I may have spotted something interesting about the Buffyforums Fic section. I've posted a few fics there now and it seems that the ones I post in midweek seem to get read at a lot slower rate than the ones I post at the weekend, sometimes never getting as many views. It could be just a difference in quality (And I just cannot judge my own work)but there does seem to be a pattern.

So, I had to go to the bank this lunchtime. Not a could have done with going to the bank type thing; an absolute had to go to the bank type thing.

So of course it rained.

It does this on a freakishly regular basis so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised; I mean it's not like I live in Arizona or Kenya or something but it still catches me out every single time. So here I was no coat my shirt clinging to my skin and my pants weighing about twice as much as when I set off. I decided to take shelter for a few seconds under a handy shop tarp and almost literally bumped into someone who, if possible was even more soaked than me. We had a bit of a chat, complaining about the continuing downpore and life in general and parted ways to brave the conditions once more.

The only reason I mention this is that on any other day we'd probably have passed in the street without a word, but there is something about meeting people in adversity, even if it is just a bit of rain, that makes you just that bit more open to complete strangers. It's as if that shared hardship gives you an immediate link that makes it that bit easier to relate to one another.

It's just a shame it can't be like that under normal circumstances really.

Well that was the holiday that was. I've had a wonderful week away in (sort of) sunny Torquay but now i'm faced with the prospect of getting back to real life. It really was a great week though; not action packed in the slightest, but really nice and relaxing.

It didn't start all that well as my train down to London (Where I met up with a couple of forum friends) was first of all delayed for and hour and then only travelled as far as Stevenage where it was all change and another delay. Apparently a fault with power lines was to blame.

However once I hit london i did manage to squeeze in an hour or so with the girls and a nice stay in a very comfortable hotel before setting off again. London's not quite as scary as i had thought so i'm thinking it will be worth returning to our nations capital for a bit more of a thorough explore at some point.

So on to Paddington station which, of course, was swimming in stufffed bears and back on the train to Torquay. Now anyone who's wanting a holiday that is filled with places to go and things to do, Torquay is not the place to go. It's a beautiful part of the world but very sleepy and laid back; no theme parks or fun fairs, no clubs or karaoke bars. A boat trip across the harbour was about as much action as I got, but that was kind of the point. An average day would be to wake up have a truly gut busting breakfast in the lovely family run B&B I stayed at and then wander into Torquay to grab a paper and a coffee, try (and fail) to do the crossword and then wander down to the harbour for a spot of lunch and perhaps a couple of drinks. After lunch a little walk along the seafront would probably be in order or perhaps the claiming of a quiet little corner to read my book and then it would be time for a nice evening meal and perhaps another couple of drinks.

Of course the tennis was on in the afternoons so I did take some time out to cheer on Mr Murray and I also managed to catch the Euro 2008 Semi finals. The one thing that i had marked time out as a must watch was the Doctor Who Friday night repeat as on the Saturday I'd been at a wedding and on the Sunday I was out with the girls. You can imagine how I felt upon getting back to the B&B only to find that said repeat had been cancelled to make way for hippies rolling about in mud whilst vaguely watching some band play. Stupid Glastonbury.

But anyway it was, on the whole, a really nice, totally relaxing week away that i would repeat like a shot.

Wow this has been a good day.

I've spent most f it mooching round the 'Flavours of Leeds' festival, which was basically a large collection of various tents selling produce from local small producers, restaurants, breweries and other such people.

I say mooching and I mean mooching. Every stall you went to had little tidbits of stuff to taste, from bites of cheese to samples of fudge and just about everything in between. Lots of alcohol too. There must have been about 7 or 8 different wine merchants that had stalls and each and everyone of them was more than willing to let you have a sip of pretty much their whole range. Then you have the local microbreweries, gin producers, a very nice vodka stall and a beutiful port stall.

So beautiful sunny and genuinely hot day + lots of free booze = slightly squiffy me. It wasnt all mooching though i did actually hand over some dosh for a few bits with Cheddar with cranberries & a lovely carrot, ginger and almond cutney being particular highlights. So I guess that's my bit done for the local economy.

It's always nice to give a bit back ;-D

Had a bit of a windfall today. I was expecting a package to be delivered to my workplace, because I've signed up for a joint phone/net package and you get one of those livebox things with it.

Anyway, I was not surprised when Colin the security guard called me over on my way out and told me he had something for me. I was alittle stunned however when along with the net thingy he presented me with a large box marked 'fragile' and 'this way up'. Upon getting said big box home I was even more surprised to find it contained 8 bottles of wine!

No ide why I've got these wines, maybe they go along with the broadband offer (nothing was said about it though) maybe it's a mix up. Whatever it is it's VERY welcome!

Well just caught the mid season trailer for Doctor Who. Wow! Wow! Wow!

Seems to be a fair bit of stuff from Silence in the Library the next ep (Two parter by the Moffmeister so you know that's gonna be good) but lots and lots of Rose! Yep she's back and she's looking badass with a flamethrower/grenade thrower thingy and a bucket full of 'tude.  More daleks too (Well it wouldn't be a NewWho season without'em) looks like they might have somehow managed to ressurect another old Who supervillain though because right at the end there's a shadowy figure with the bottom half of a Dalek and a top half you can't quite see but that looks to block out the light less than a Dalek normally would.

Has to be doesn't it?

(Trailer available on BBC Youtube site)

So the story goes like this. I'm on the late shift at work this week which means I need to get there for 12:15 to be logged on and ready to go at half past. Come Monday i'm having a lovely relaxed morning. Little bit of poker, some chatting with the lovely folkses at Buffy Forums and a nice big pot of coffee. However the morning went by all too fastr and before long it was time to get ready and leave the house. On tootling outside I then quickly realised that I'd forgotten something rather important. Keys? no. Work pass? Got it in my pocket. Wallet, trousers, mobile all safely tucked away. No what i'd for gotten was... My car.

You see I'd been round a friends for some drinks on the Saturday and had left the car their and grabbed a taxi home. Of course i was in no fit state on the Sunday to even think about retrieving it and at some point i've just ... forgotten i've left it. Cue lots of rushing around and a severley red  face.

In the words of the great philosopher. Doh!

This is a long standing belief of mine. These things are designed to make your life more frustratng as can be evidenced by the fact that every time I try getting on here lately my helpful computer decides to shut the page  down.

But I have conquered the evilness and so here I am posting away. The day out the other week was great if a little. erm, tiring. The weather held for us and it was a lovely trek around York punctuated by the odd game of pool and penny football and more than the odd J.D & Coke. We called in at a bookies as well and put a fiver on an accumulater each.  You know those ones.,you get to fill this form with either home wins, away wins or draws (on the footie). Mine came in as well so basically it was a free day out!

Since then there's been not much to report. The writing seems to have stalled mid fic again for no apparent reason, work is, well, work and all is much of a muchness. I did manage another night out on Friday just gone though which entailed sitting outside a pub right up until 10.30pm. Got to love this hot spell we're having right now.

What I'm not loving right now is how badly Leeds played tonight in the first leg of the play offs. I know there's another leg to go but 2-1 down and having toi visit the team with the best home form in the league make's it a hell of an uphil struggle

So err that's it really, not much else to say. Least i managed to bypass the evil computer and sneak on though.

You know; you wait ages and then two turn up together. Kind of like this really (No? Oh well please yourself.)

I only popped on to friend someone who'd friended me and who I know from the wonderful world of Buffy Forums. Slightly disconcerted that apparently i've only made three friend. I mean that's still three friends, right? That's more than some people get all their lives.

As for the rest; why do short weeks always seem to stretch out do long. I mean tomorrow, is for all purposes, a Friday for me and i've only worked two days but it feels like ages.

oh, and random question that's bugging me. What do rocket scientists say when their in the middle of something at work that's easy. I mean it's not hard but it's still rocket science . Errm yeah. Aanywaay.

TTFN

Well he posting once a week thing is obviously going well. Still that's me all over, make a promise then forget I've made the promise, remember when it's too late, feel guity. Rinse and repeat.

In my defence there's not an awful lot to report really. It's pretty much been work, sleep, work for the last fourteen days with those brief islands ot bliss we call weekends the only relief in the monotony. I'm puncturing the old routine by having a couple of days off at the end of this week though which, with the bank holiday on monday will give me five striaght work free days. Now that's the way it should be. On friday I'm heading to the lovely historic city of York for an old friends birthday drinks. That's drinks that start at eleven o'clock in the morning though so I think that Saturday will probably be a day of complete rest while it try and get the liver to work again.Might post again that day just to let you (I'm assuming somone is reading this guff) share my pain.

On the writing front i'm trying to complete a fic I've had  at the back of my mind for ages. In a nutshell it's going to be vampires on the London Underground (Which is brave, since I've never been on it at all) and if i can just get it right then i think it's going to be a good one. I've also been thinking about trying my hand at free verse although I find the idea of it a bit daunting. In a way i find the restrictions of rhyme and scansion to be a nice framework for the few bits of poetry I've written so far and having those crutches taken away is kind of scary.

Actually I hope i'm not too delicate come Saturday as that is now firmly ensconced in the weekly calendar as Who day. and season four is proving to be a hit with me. Who is always a bit up and down ep wise but the first four of this season have been pretty consistent really.  Might just comfort myself with a big old chinese while i watch it and then have an early night to sleep off the hangover. At least I'll still get a weekend after that.

Laters

Well this was in danger of being one of those start it up and then forget about it deals but as i've just come across the link in my favourites and remembered i went to all the trouble of setting this thing  up I figured i should probably  take advantage and post onece more.

So whats new? You ask. (alright you didn't ask, but i'll tell you anyway) The short answer is not a lot. The money has all been going on the house lately; what with the new bathroom, windows and general redecoration of the whole place which has left me a little low on the old funds to do anything too exciting. Thus there has been a lot of staying in and watching telly (luckily Doc Who is back on so good telly is back with us.)

My online life has probably been more active. The lovely folk at Buffy forums having been subjected to more of my attempts at writing fanfic. I recently finished a longish project that was basically a crossover between Bufy and Doctor Who called Stitches in Time which, although started enthusiastically enough, sort of ran out of steam. I stuck with it though and forced myself to finish with, i reckon, not bad results.(Go on, wander over there and have a look.) Speaking of online life, the aforementioned forum has brought to my attention the postings on another medium of a so called 'radical feminist' which seems to be shorthand for a 'whip their tackle off' man hater. I'm all for female empowerment (No truly, I am) but I really fail to see how labeling the whole male gender as rapists and other such misandry is accomplishing anything in regards to that. Extremism of any kind is rarely a good thing in my book.

Ooh and new coffee recipe as well. 6 parts After Dinner from Whitards, 3 parts Monsoooned Malabar and 1 part Mysore Chivu. Makes an exceptional Cafettiere coffee although i'm yet to try it as an Espresso.

Well that's it for now but i am going to endeavour to post at least once a week from now on. Promise.