The Cult of Ellen

I've got as far as lurking on LJ - some day soon I may even get back to posting! Life's pottering along much-of-a-muchness. I have some Rosetta Stone stuff and am learning Latin - it's sparking all kinds of associations among words I already know. I should have learned this stuff years ago! Anyway, knitting socks, doing some blackwork on shift cuffs. Even doing some writing and proofreading. Soon, a week in Cornwall for writing (may take the bodyboard if the weather's going to be good) and the BFS bunfight in Nottingham, Tim Minchin in Sheffield and Twelfth Night in Stratford. My brain's slowly coming back online - clearly doing not very much is paying off! Happy bank holiday weekend, everyone!

Oh, and I signed up on Twitter. Same username, occasional tweets. :)

For those of you who feel you lack enough angst in your life, this is superb. Thanks to alasdair1076 for passing the link along!

Another link: o_faolain points out something rather important for those of you who enjoy listening to live music. If you don't want to see live music disappear, go and read, then follow his link to sign the petition.

( Weekend update... )

Right, enough of this lj malarkey! It's time to force-quite WinZip Pro and try again to update that pesky zip archive for work...

Oh, but before I go, I have started a new knitting project - a cashmere lace shawl... More about that later. *beam*

Last night was my last dressmaking class. The moderator came in and looked at all my stuff, as well as other people's work. He ticked all the boxes. I passed.

( Farewell, adieu, o world of learning. Yes, it's a bit ranty. )

For those who are interested in such things, this is my pile o' stuff:

• 1 blouse, flower-patterned, cotton with lycra
• 1 kirtle, dark green wool with linen part-lining, handsewn
• 2 linen shifts, white, handsewn
• embroidery project: C16th blackwork on the cuffs of one of the shifts, folder with write-up and examples
• textiles project: naalbound hat & mittens in Asle stitch, felted naalbound bag in Oslo stitch, folder with write-up and examples
• sketchbook with original designs
• craft book showing pattern construction
• folder containing samples of sewing techniques

Yeah, it was a good year.

This morning I travelled into work by train, as usual, on a nice, modern train. And I listened to Fort Minor playing on my iPod, through my bluetooth headphones. While doing 16th century blackwork embroidery on a 15th century linen shift. And since getting into work I've posted up part 16 of my 25th century Firefly fanfic (over on the_proofreader).

Sometimes, my life strikes me as improbable.

Also: I am tired. I have left my phone at home, because I no can haz cheezburgler brain. In more dire forgetfulness, my chilli chocolate is also at home, not here with me. I am distressed.

For those of you on my f-list who wish to keep track of their story submissions, here's a good, free online tracker. Also: a Waterstones story competition. Prize: a place on an Arvon Foundation writing course. *wants*

So no, I'm not getting much work done today. In fact, I'd be getting more done if I were simply at home watching tv. Ho hum, never mind.

Several random things...

1. Lincoln was lovely. It was rather special to be able to camp in the grounds of the castle, and I really enjoyed bimbling around in my medieval outfit, making stuff and chatting and relaxing.

2. Must make a List for packing, and also acquire a TARDIS or a larger car. Packing is Not Fun^TM.

3. Nice to see folks at the Theatre Royal sale. I bought all their remaining fox furs and a couple of pieces of silk. And a blouse.

4. When running round like a loony, doing mad frantic last-minute sewing and having just written a clean, postable 32,000 word fanfic novella in 2 weeks, and being in the middle of hoiking stuff out to pack into a Fiesta to go away for my first ever reenactment event, that's the time my oomph will vanish out from under me, and I will fall into the Slough of Despond AND the Pit of Despair. I love writing, but the come-down's a bitch. Also, alasdair1076 is wonderful and I'm extremely glad he's my best friend.

5. ravenlas is a truly amazing man, and is very, very hot in a doublet and hose. *fans self* Truly I am a very lucky woman! No, I have no photos. This time. Next time, though... *grin* And he is wonderful with Aspergic kids.

6. Got a lot of work to get through this week. Posting this (and Correspondence Course over on the_proofreader) is not getting it done. So. I may be slow to reply to comments, emails etc.

7. RIP Audrey Chapman, a very brave and fierce woman. She had a hard life, and I hope now she has some peace. I'll miss her.

8. There is no number 8. Oh well. Tumty-tumty-something... nope. Gone. *shrug*

So I shall go too. Tea break's over. Back on my head.

I know I've been a bit lax in wishing people happy birthday lately (doh!), so here goes (in date order):

Belated Happy Birthday, thirstypixel, spindr, Fleur, and for last Saturday, Kate and ravenlas! And just to be on the safe side, Happy Birthday makyo for tomorrow!

My apologies if I've missed anyone...

Last week? Busy. This week? Even more busy. This weekend? ravenlas' birthday treat is a trip to London to see Wicked and Spamalot. Yay! Next week? Almost certainly busy again. Ho hum.

If you want to see me, I am hereby declaring Thursday nights 'open house night'. I'll be home some time between 6 and 6:30, barring train problems. You're welcome to come round and visit. And if you tell me in advance you're coming, I may even be able to provide biscuits, sandwiches, hot drinks, mulled wine, yada yada.

No, I'm not available to come visit you, not this week or next week, and maybe not the week after. Sorry, that's just the way it goes. I have a Chinese exam coming up, a dressmaking course, and a writing/proof-reading career, outside of my full-time job. To say nothing of 4 siblings, several parents and assorted friends to make presents for. And that makes the run-up to Christmas rather busy.

Oh, and I have a wedding to plan. Btw, anyone coming to my hen do? ayrton_nix needs to know numbers, I think.

Especially for rhube: 5/Omega slashfic! Definitely nsfw. *big grin* The link will take you to my other lj, the_proofreader.

In completely unrelated news, I've been playing with my sewing machine, and so far I've made 2 sets of curtains for the sewing room and have done a couple of samples for my dressmaking course. It's a magnificent machine, and when the robots rise up to take over the world, I shall be on its side. Yay!

Plus, yesterday I made stew. Yum.

Tonight - Chinese (the class, not the takeout) followed by writing group. Hurrah!

My work PC - still quite new - is a wee bit buggered¹. It's probably a motherboard problem. Which means that I'm using my Tablet PC to get some work done. And that *gasp* has no internet access at work. It's also not on our network. Meh. *shrug* I'm using a colleague's PC to have a quick look at my email, but I can't sit here all afternoon reading LJ. Damn! So I shall be doing my best to catch up tonight, but between sewing an outfit for Tewkesbury and going to writing group (remember: at the Golden Fleece tonight), I may not have enough time...

I'm suffering from Doctor Who fanfic withdrawal...

Anyway, the Doncaster line (and station) were open finally this morning. Coming in, it was painfully obvious where the rivers had flooded. Some of the mud-lines on trees and hillsides were incredibly high. I'm very glad I got out of Sheffield and Doncaster last Monday when I did - could very easily have been one of the stranded.

Wot I did stuff: Friday - a spot of D&D; Saturday - drove down to just north of Nottingham so ravenlas could pick up a medieval tent (from Past Tents), lunch at VJs, paid off half the remaining balance on his wedding ring, knitted, watched Doctor Who *squee*, went to st3v3 and cfw's party (through a rainstorm with amazing clouds) and knitted some more; Sunday - saw friends, hung out laundry, took it in again (repeat for the entire afternoon), edited a story, started making my shift; Monday - helped put up said tent with much grump and argh and grr, continued with shift.

1. That's a technical term.

After the best part of a week at home, thanks to the coughing lurgy, I'm back at work. And today's commute was no better than last Monday's, making it 2 weeks in a row when I should just have stayed in bed. Last Monday, thanks to Notwork Rail's over-running engineering works, my train was cancelled at Doncaster. Then everyone from a packed 4-carriage Virgin train had to pile onto an even more packed 2-carriage Northern train. Oh, joy. This Monday, thanks to Virgin's incompetence, there weren't enough train crew, so they cancelled my train altogether. Meaning there were two train-loads packed onto the next Virgin train going south. People still fail to realise that the lack of paper tickets stuffed in the back of seats doesn't mean that there are no seat reservations. And rude, middle-aged women don't see why they should give up their (unbooked) seat to the elderly, infirm woman who actually booked it. And some guys just don't seem to realise that if you're standing in the aisle, you can actually put your bag down, rather than smacking me in the head with it every time you turn...

Big stick. Biiiig stick.

Still, I'm not really coughing. And the government information pack on the coming smoking ban arrived in the post today, making all of us (bar the director who is the only smoker in the company) cackle in glee. We're *so* looking forward to July 1st! Hah.

So, what did I get up to on my week off? Well, apart from sleeping and coughing, I went to my writing group and rewrote The Gallery of Frost a couple of times. I knitted 3 socks. I went to my dressmaking class and got my invisible zip sample done, and I handed in my podcasting article to Hub. I created my own podcast, and I potted up some plants. I did some laundry. I went and sat in the steam room at the gym a couple of times, which helped with the not-coughing. And I went to VJs and to clotilde's and saw people and that was lovely. I drank lots of tea, and read half of Alastair Reynolds' 'Pushing Ice'. And that's about it.