planning the revolution

THE ONLY WATER

IN THE FOREST

IS THE RIVER

So, on Wednesday I managed to get myself packed and to the train station on time, which felt like a triumph. Headed into King's Cross, trying to work out whether or not The Ex-Flatmate was on my train or another. Eventually located her at St Pancras, and we grabbed some lunch and went and sat outside St Pancras Hotel where it was lovely out.

Afterwards we headed to the hotel to get checked in, before heading out to eat. Finally we took the tube to Leicester Square...and were super surprised to find that the theatre was right there.

Guys. GUYS. It was hysterical. I mean, super, super funny. And Much Ado About Nothing is pretty funny anyway, but the set was camped up, and a lot of the cast were dressed in Navy whites, and there were visual gags as well as the ones in the text. Tennant and Tate have bundles of chemistry, as expected, but the whole cast gelled really, really well. There is a scene where Beatrice has to call Benedict to dinner and the latter thinks the former is in love with him. Except, in this production, Tennant is pretty much covered in paint, and about a minute after she gets on stage, Tate looks up, sees him, and breaks character. It was very funny, but also really nice to know that they clearly enjoyed working together.

Afterwards we decided to go walkabout and ended up heading towards Trafalgar Square. As we walked past The National Gallery, towards the square, we passed VICTOR GARBER. ON HIS PHONE. IN A SUIT. It was like seeing spy!daddy in action; super, super weird. We made eye-contact as I tried to determine whether or not this was real life, and we just ambled past him. My friend was all, "Was that guy from Titanic?" which is not where my brain first went, but we did have a good three minutes or so of freaking out. It was GREAT. Seriously. Victor Garber. How odd.

So, yes, we ended up at the Olympic countdown clock in Trafalgar, then wandered down The Strand in search of a bar. We...did not do great. Eventually ended up at Covent Gardens where we had one drink at The Essex Serpent (a place I last frequented with daygloparker) whilst the staff aggressively blew out all the lit candles around us, save for the one where we were sat. Clearly eager to get home. After that we pretty much did all of the West End. Headed up to Piccadilly, and then up Regent Street. Got to Oxford Street and doubled back down the road where The Wizard of Oz is currently showing, but instead of heading back towards Piccadilly, ended up going in a different direction...that eventually led us to Soho. Nice. Also: creepy.

We ended up on Shaftsbury, where we flagged a cab and headed back to Farringdon. Whilst getting ready to go to sleep we flicked through the tv channels (nothing was on) and ended up falling asleep to what I think was Ugly Betty, but was really just too bright for us to handle.

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Next day I left Ex-Flatmate at the hotel because she was heading to Wales later that day, and I made my way to Holburn to meet hestia8, which I think needs to be a staple of every visit I make to The City. Had a lovely, lovely time eating cake and chatting, and dissecting the minutiae of things we have to deal with on a daily basis. Always a brilliant time.

Headed home afterwards, and made pretty good time. When the train pulled into the station, the heavens opened, and it rained so heavily I thought it was hailing (it wasn't). Despite having a brolly, the only part of me that wasn't soaked was my head. Got into the shopping centre where the bus station is, and the rain abruptly stopped. Yeah.

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Friday I popped into work to grab paperwork, then headed back to the sub-office, so although I'd been travelling since arse o'clock in the morning, I didn't actually start work until 10am. I literally got off the bus, picked up the papers, and got the next bus out five minutes later. The bus I took in would have left twenty minutes after the one I ended up getting. Exhausting! But I got to see Co-Conspirator and TC, so that was nice, and then I spent the day with my boss, and another co-worker, and I managed to get a lot done, so win-win.

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And then it was yesterday, and Hipster Who pulled a fast one on us, and six episodes of nonsense suddenly made much more sense than they had done previously. (The Space Pirates were still the worst.) I don't remember anything else that happened yesterday.

( Hipster Who finale. )

Yesterday morning, on the train, I started a huge TV round-up post, the kind I have not done in ages! Yesterday evening I deleted it because it was boring. So. Yes. I do want to do one, but I guess it will have to be once all the finales come in. I'm behind on a boatload of stuff, too.

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Spent a curious half-hour at work yesterday talking about new Who. Curious because I always find it odd to talk about fannish things outside of eljay, and doubly so when not talking to people who take things as seriously as I do. As in, they wouldn't care if they missed an episode whereas I would TRACK THAT SHIT DOWN AND NAIL IT TO THE WALL &c. My co-worker thought the plot of Saturday's episode (Amy's Choice) was too complicated? Have I just watched too much sci-fi type stuff to not be affected, or is that genuinely - as I felt - a load of tosh? My other co-worker thinks Amy is plain. I lol'd and stopped myself from elaborating on how very wrong she was. Because that is what I do.

Then we were united in our love of the Weeping Angels/Blink, so, you know. Weird.

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Am again working my way through S3 Ashes to Ashes before the finale on Friday. I have been obsessed this past fortnight, the hell.

--

Am trying to decide which is the more important: new trousers, new shoes, or tickets to David Gray in July. These are the issues I face.

Why was the Byzantium designed vertically? Or am I wrong, and is it spheroid not a disc/saucer?

Never mind. It crashed down, not flat.

We had the post-wedding family get-together this weekend so I was busy a) cleaning the tip that was my room and b) hanging out with my cousins. An excellent time was had, and despite The Ash Cloud of Doom that was apparently menacing other parts of Britain, we had an absolutely gorgeous couple of days. I have a few pictures to show but I'll share those once I'm back from the upcoming weekend's shenanigans - those being Denz's wedding. !!!! Insane. Although, after much searching last night, I finally managed to book a room at a Travelodge, so at least now I have somewhere to stay. Initially I was going to crash at Denz's flat (she'll be at her parents') but I realised that her family would probably need the space so I gave it up. Going to work on Friday will be interesting, to say the least.

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Things I had to explain to my grandmother last night: my wall of cards. She just couldn't understand liking an image in its own right. I have a poster of the men at lunch on a Manhattan skyscraper in the middle of all the postcards people have sent me in the last five years, and she was like, so, are they actors? Is it a cricket team? No, granny, it's just a photo.

And who are these two?

They're nuns, gran.

And why are there so many birds?

I don't know; people send them to me. Look, they're letters.

But why are they on your wall?

...because I like them?

And so on and so forth. She went to the other side of the room (she's staying with us this week and she had come up to talk to me before I went to sleep; she likes to poke around my stuff because my room is quite a bit different to my cousins' rooms - namely I have more books and DVDs and the like) and saw more cards, and then the whole thing started up again. Plus: plastic ducks. That was a conversation unto itself. Oh boy.

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Work is stressing me out a bit because there's a lot to do and one of my two not-bosses keeps handing me work to do that is a) her work and b) outside my remit. I'm happy to do someone a favour if it helps them out or whatever, but I have my own workload. It's an extremely visible workload as it is all over my desk. I can't say anything though because it would seem very petty, the tasks being quite small. But a handful of quite small tasks becomes a number of obstacles to my day and and and ARGH. Je suis frustrate. I'm going to have to speak to my actual boss when she comes in on Wednesday because this is getting ridiculous.

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I have been listening to a lot of songs by The Pussycat Dolls? Ugh, I don't know! They are good to walk to! Colour me shameful.

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GUYS HIPSTER WHO LOLOLOLOLOL. I don't even really know what that was but hey, next week's episode combines two of my favourite things! Also, I apparently now watch Ashes to Ashes every week, despite never having seen more than 20 minutes of Life on Mars and nothing prior to this current season. Whatever. It is so enjoyable! I am genuinely surprised how much enjoyment I get from it.

--

Almost time to leave for work. Who knows, maybe The Dad will give me a lift in again? EXCELLENT.

It has taken me two hours to get ready. Two hours! This is because I decided to take my time moisturising today (my skin is playing up something awful because of the weather) and then realised, shit, I need to straighten my hair. I really resent having to put effort into these things, but then the payoff comes when people talk to me instead of ignoring me. Plus, my hair looked like a crow's next yesterday. Goddamn wind.

Plus side: hair cut on Thursday, before the wedding on Friday/Saturday. Aie.

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Today The Sister and I are venturing into The City (aka Lon Don) to see three of our cousins. It is going to be wholly riotous and I am really more excited than I should be? Whatever. MY GIRLS!

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FUCK YEAH ELEVEN THIS WEEKEND WHOOP WHOOP. I am not even pretending not to be excited! I know it's sacrilege, but I was over Ten pretty quick? So. Bring on the trumpets, motherfuckers.

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I am still reading Paul Guest's Notes for My Body Double. How is it that every. single. poem is perfect? How is that even possible? No, really, how? I'll post some when I get back from The City.

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Ahahaha, I have been re-watching King Arthur which I was distinctly unimpressed by the first time. I don't know if it's because I KNOW it's going to be bollocks this time around but I am kind of enjoying it now? What a farce! Arthur is NOBLE and SQUARE-JAWED and Merlin is an old BLUE-SKINNED man and Lancelot is all GROUCHY and ANNOYED and pretending he has fathered everyone else's children! AWESOME.

( that Doctor Who show thing. )

And's that all I have to say.

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edit: I lied. OMG OMG OMG TRAILER!

So, I just watched The Happening which, whilst maintaining Signs' weird humour choices, was actually pretty good. I sat here all freaked out. It was marvellous. It's not exactly anything new, but I like me a good post-apocalyptic scenario. The thing about Mark Wahlberg is that whenever I see him I now think of Mark Wahlberg talks to animals. It's not that I took him all that seriously before the sketch, but it was so spot on that I can't deal with his voice any more.

Zooey Deschanel, by the way? Totally a wonder in this film. She played against type for most of it, and I loved her.

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New Doctor, blah blah etc. It's a shame that the fandom is as crazy as a fork in a microwave; I'd be more inclined to sympathy otherwise.

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I really don't remember having done anything today. I had two arguments about meals (yeah, and people wonder how I ever managed to succumb to that bullshit; idk, maybe because I hear it two or three times a day? Fuck); I caught up with Criminal Minds (the cop episode was a bore; the Director Skinner in a Car episode was brilliant); I watched some CSI: NY whilst ironing (the end scene where Lindsay and Danny go to see Mac was the most gleeful thing ever); and then there was other stuff which was wholly inconsequential. Much like life in general.

--

Ugh, I need to read a book this year already. Yuletide was great but the screen is totally bugging my eyes, yo. Other things I need: new spectacles. Or, you know, new eyes. There's an idea.

--

Basia Bulat did a session with Daytrotter aaaaages ago and the first track she performed was one that she's planning on putting on her new album. PEOPLE. I NEED THIS ALBUM TO BE OUT NOW. That song just burrows into my brain and makes me feel like I'm being chased down a street by Evil Leaves. I LOVE IT.

Ah, see, I knew it was too good to be true (also: it didn't make much sense). Bryce Dallas Howard joins T4, replacing Gainsbourg.

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So it's probably time to update already. Friday morning was just one long bore. I have never understood why the English exams are always scheduled for the afternoon, but I was in the library until 11.30 and then I went for lunch with T and her friend J; they'd both had a 9am exam. Went back upstairs to my desk after that but then The Flatmate arrived so we hung out in the library cafe instead. She tested me on quotations whilst she had some lunch and then finally it was 2pm and we left for the Union. She's been doing work with the SU, filming various events and the woman she was working with taught her how to edit the clips, so whilst I was in my exam, she was off doing that.

The exam was odd. It was a basic 2-part exam, 1 hour for comprehension, 1 hour for argumentation. The two poems our tutor chose for the compare and contrast were really strange. ( boring. )

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After the exam, I sauntered out to the SU - the exam was held in the Sports Hall so we were right next to the Union - to find a couple of my classmates sitting on one of the benches outside the pub. I sat down to wait for The Flatmate to turn up and we ended up sitting there for a couple of hours whilst people relaxed post-exam, and drank.

Around 6pm we left for the house, but when we got there The Flatmate decided she wanted a sub so we headed straight out again for Pw. to go to Subway. When we got there we ended up in The Mitre for a couple of hours so it was after 8pm when we finally bought food and headed back to the house. Then we cornered T and watched the Lost finale, most of which we spent being traumatised for reasons not entirely connected with the show. Do we have to wait until January for the next season? Après we watched the episode of X-Files with the subliminal messages. "Kill. Kill 'em. Kill 'em all." Hilarity!

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Saturday I spent watching X-Files and then walking in, around and back from town. The Flatmate and I watched Doctor Who and were happily creeped out. ( minor spoils. )

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Yesterday I spoke to The Mother for the first time in a fortnight (re: going home shenanigans, ugh) and then to The Sister who has the last of her AS exams today. The Flatmate and I went out at 3.30pm to discover the other half of the local park and ended up walking a mile or so towards another town before heading back. It was a nice day, actually. I think that I'm going to wash my face again and then go for another walk today. I'm enjoying the activity, which is new. I mean, I've always liked walking, but I like the energy it gives me. Am lacking in that in most other departments currently.

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Isn't this picture fantastic? People have been talking about the second season recently, and I finally caught up (after a year!) with the finale. I'm excited!

After our long walk yesterday, The Flatmate and I watched The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances (Doctor Who), and I know it's a couple of decades earlier, but Nancy's coat is gorgeous. 1900s dress pre-70s is sort of smashing.

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Let's finish how we started off: Thandie joins the cast of Roland Emmerich's 2012. Huzzah! Girl is also playing Condoleezza Rice in Oliver Stone's Bush biopic, W. Thandie gave a great interview with The Guardian last week. You can find it here but I doubt you're as interested as I am, heh.