{ femgen posting opens on Monday, and I've yet to write even a word. }

Helloooo eljay! People who are still alive: you guys; me. It has been long enough that I have stacked up a list of things to talk about, but watch as this devolves into another episode of M Never Remembers What There Is To Talk About, this week with special guest star, me.

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I started the new job! Well, no, first I left the old one, and did embarrassing things like hug everyone and cry in public. But then I started my new job! It is...not what I thought it was going to be, frankly, and yet still great. I am at that point right now where I feel like my line manager and the lovely lady who is training me weren't expecting me to be up to speed yet. So they sort of gave me a bunch of stuff to do, and now it's done. And it's not that there isn't work to do, it's just that there isn't the time or the resource to train me that quickly. So I'm just trying to get stuck in, and learn the wider process, and then apply that knowledge to what I'm doing. It's an efficiency game at this point.

Everyone is so young. So young! I mean, like, in their 20s and 30s. That is young! I am used to working with the 45+ age bracket. It's very odd to be working with peers. I am not used to having to adjust myself socially. And sometimes I feel like that girl in the corner of the room that nobody talks to. Because I am, and because I am oddly situated in the room. But at the same time, everyone is pleasant, and helpful, and there are other new people, too, and it's okay. I need to become part of the woodwork, and then things will be less stilted. Half the issue - if there is any issue at all - is that after two weeks in Cambridge, I was left there to fend for myself, and then worked full time until I finished. So it's weird to go from that to a really empty induction schedule.

Things I will only be mentioning once: jesus, getting my IT access sorted has been an epic nuisance, and for something quite straightforward, it has been a colossal pit of nonsense.

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And then London set itself on fire earlier this week. Everyone else is talking about it in a more eloquent fashion than I am, so I don't have anything to add, but I will say that for all that happened, I'm glad the actual ruckus seems to be dying down. For a little while, it felt extremely televisual. How Don Delilo.

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Oh, hey, so: Spooks' tenth series will be its last, and my feeling is part nostalgic sadface, and part "yeah, okay, it's time". In the meantime, I am trying to write a Spooks-related big bang entry (not what you think; telling you right now), and I'm reading John le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. That's right: a book. An actual novel. My commute is so much more conducive to reading now, even if I can't get a seat on the train most mornings. I'm really enjoying the book, too. It's exactly my thing, and I don't know why I didn't get to it sooner.

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Next Wednesday I have the day off, but will be traipsing into The City anyway to see Betrayal, and then Butley. I have the whole of the week after that off, too, and will be spending some of that in the city, and some of that in Edinburgh. That impromptu decision might cost me in several ways but is going to be so worth it, as I'll be meeting up with one of my oldest eljay friends, noorie. Also, you know, Edinburgh. Am currently awaiting a skype call in which we will bash out the details, but my train tickets arrived yesterday, so that's totally happening.

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Other stuff? Everyone should be watching The Hour, if only for the delicious Anna Chancellor:

Also, in typical BBC fashion, there are ~spies. Seriously, it's my absolute favourite thing right now.

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And that's that. I mean, there's other stuff, but fuck if I can remember.