| Bullet points |
[Dec. 3rd, 2009|07:02 pm] |
- We begin moving out of our house in less than 10 days' time. Apparently I am more than halfway packed (as Andrew's Mum has been helping me) and Andrew is.... not.
- Strictly Come Dancing: Ali and Brian are so a couple-couple. They also dance prettily...
- I am filling in at the other Brownies at the moment. This means two Brownie Christmas parties this week. And the panto on moving day. Oops!
- I have managed to get some lovely malware/something nasty on not one but two computers and if it's a spready one then on three. Andrew is too busy to work on it so I am relying on lovely computer forum-dwellers to help me.
- I have joined the Doctor Who Christmas special-watching group on Facebook. I am both dreading it and looking forward to it.
- I'm sure there was more I wanted to ramble about but I can't remember things for five minutes at the moment. Hmm, is that any different from usual? Must be not eating enough chocolate...
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| Wherein Sal is an Auntie!! |
[Nov. 18th, 2009|09:47 pm] |
As of very early Sunday morning I am officially an Auntie. Although it's only a technical one as I have no idea when I'll actually meet the poor child that has been brought into the world by my sister and her Thing. They have named him Nathan, so although I've known a fair few trouble makers called Nathan, I shall choose to believe that he is to take after Mr Fillion. He is off to a good start as he is incredibly cute!
I have actually been given permission to send a card and because I'm sure a present will be too much I have dedicated a tree in his name in a woods in Cheshire. I hope that one day I can take him to visit his tree - it is at least something that will last...
I also intend to be a disgraceful aunt if I ever get the opportunity, regularly taking him to the Launch Pad hands-on gallery at the Science Museum and giving him lots of hugs. Here's hoping... |
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| Spammy McSpammy |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|11:09 pm] |
Not content with posting pictures of posing lizzids, I have just remembered that I put new autumnal icons on recently, courtsey of icon artisan ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) eyesthatslay. As Halloween has already come and gone, I'm using this spammy post as an excuse to show off my jack-o-lantern one.
Tomorrow night we are combining Brownies, Rainbows and Guides with fire once more. Which always sounds like a bad idea. However we are promised British Smores and hot chocolate! |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|05:21 pm] |
I may have been a little bored at work this afternoon (this morning I was re-arranging the shop) and I also had my camera in my bag, so when I noticed that the pile of lizards I'd been de-labelling seemed to be performing for me I couldn't resist taking a picture...
Tomorrow I might even take a picture of my freshly re-arranged shop... |
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| Where Sal finally breaks away from the Daily Fail...Mail |
[Oct. 13th, 2009|02:05 pm] |
I have finally got sick and tired of the Daily Fail Mail Fail publishing grammar, typing and spelling errors, dissing John Barrowman (what can I say, I'm biased!) and the bitchy, narrow-minded comments from readers. So I have gone hunting for another newspaper with lots of entertainment news. Bring on the Guardian. There may not be so many cute animals and gorgeous hot air balloon fests but at least I won't have to keep replacing my computer screen.... |
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| Braaaaaains! |
[Oct. 9th, 2009|09:29 pm] |
While Stumbling the other day I came across the perfect Halloween treat - Brain cakes!! It's definitely worth looking at the pics so long as you haven't eaten and aren't going to eat an hour either side of looking...
In tv news, I have watched the first six episodes of Glee and although I love the song performances, I dislike the dislikable characters so much that I no longer wish to watch. As I said to Andrew with regards to the songs, that's what You Tube is for!
I also watched the first episode of True Blood this week. It ended on such a cliffhanger that I'm downloading the rest as I type. It's rather interesting, but bearing in mind that I only watched the whole series of Moonlight a week ago, I'm worrying about my vampire watching...
In other other news, Andrew has still only got a temporary contract at work so we are packing our stuff into storage and just living wherever we're working. I have already had my first major panic about all the sorting, discarding and packing that I have to do. Naturally I got no sympathy from Andrew, but that was expected really. I have two months in which to do it and I'm dreading it, especially as we have already disagreed about the correct disposal of batteries. I just chucked them in the bin and got told off for not recycling them. He is right but honestly, I'm trying to make things easy! |
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| Glee |
[Oct. 1st, 2009|12:56 pm] |
Stumbling around the internet got me to a site with a clip from Glee - where they're singing Somebody to Love.
I'm downloading the pilot right now...
I'm also still ill, but I did receive £20 Marks and Spencer vouchers from my home insurance company yesterday. I'm not really sure why though! |
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| In which Sal doesn't have Swine Flu... |
[Sep. 21st, 2009|01:24 pm] |
I feel rather under the weather at the moment - I have one of my permanent headaches, still seem to have symptoms of hay fever and I keep feeling cold (although I'm toasty at the moment as I'm wrapped up in Andrew's dressing gown). According to the NHS website, if I had a massive fever it'd be Swine Flu, but as I don't I'm probably ok. On the other hand, some people are saying that they've had all sorts of symptoms but no fever. I've decided to go with the comments section on the symptoms page saying that you can have it but not feel too ill, you may have it without a temperature or you may just be panicking. Bearing in mind that I'm spending the week at Andrew's weekdays flat and I'm really run down anyway due to work, life, etc, I'm going to assume that the week of slobbing that I have planned is just what I need, regardless of whether the doctor ordered it or not.
Plus I'm not going to miss out on going to see the Paul O'Grady recording on Wednesday cause Mr Barrowman is on it and Andrew's promised me that we can go to the 45 years exhibition at the Mathmos store too!
Now back to my scheduled viewing of as much Supernatural that I can fit in, thanks to Andrew's landlady! |
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| Aww! moment of the week |
[Sep. 11th, 2009|05:36 pm] |
I've been Stumbling due to having read everything else on the internet and thought this was too cute not to post. From greatdad.com
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?"
The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:
"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."
- Rebecca - age 8
"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."
- Billy - age 4
"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."
- Karl - age 5
"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."
- Chrissy - age 6
"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."
- Terri - age 4
"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."
- Danny - age 7
"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss"
- Emily - age 8
"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."
- Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)
"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate."
- Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikkas on this planet)
"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."
- Noelle - age 7
"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."
- Tommy - age 6
"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.
He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."
- Cindy - age 8
"My mommy loves me more than anybody.
You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."
- Clare - age 6
"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."
- Elaine-age 5
"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."
- Chris - age 7
"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."
- Mary Ann - age 4
"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones."
- Lauren - age 4
"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image)
- Karen - age 7
"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross."
- Mark - age 6
"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."
- Jessica - age 8 |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 10th, 2009|11:07 am] |
It's too quiet on my flist so I'm just going to have to post a bad old lightbulb joke, having recently unearthed a book of them that was a joke birthday gift from a friend...
How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb?
- Fish.
Fish can also be spelt ghoti: gh as in enough, o as in women and ti as in competition...
That's all I have I'm afraid! |
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| Picture of the day |
[Aug. 20th, 2009|12:09 pm] |
These photos are just rather cool - and it must have been an amazing experience to be this close to such a massive creature.
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| The NHS - not great, but it's ours. |
[Aug. 15th, 2009|10:50 pm] |
I can't help but be dragged into the American universal healthcare debate as our very own slightly pants but rather convenient NHS is being openly mocked by some 'right-wing Americans' and one useless right-wing British MEP. I saw this article on Yahoo today and thought it made some interesting points, particularly as it's a Brit's view of the current goings-on...
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/blog/talking_politics/article/55620/ |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 14th, 2009|11:55 am] |
I have been at work this week, feeding myself to the midges on a daily basis and wondering if any parents would be upset if I returned their children to them after the holiday club missing a limb... I do enjoy it really though!
Yesterday Andrew sent me a link to the cutest duckling story around at the moment - a duckling who would have had to be put down after suffering a fractured leg if it wasn't for her owner/carer getting a cobbler friend to make a shoe for her so she could still walk around! See, it's cute!
And today, the Daily Mail gave me the story of the featherless penguin who has his own wetsuit! The favourite quote seems to be 'Ralph's really taken to his new suit,' said Helen Jeffreys of Marwell Wildlife, near Winchester, Hampshire.
'It's not inhibiting him in any way. He's just getting on with his daily business. All the other penguins were intrigued by his new clothes and they spent a good while checking him out. But when they realised it was still Ralph under the suit they seemed quite happy and don't really pay it any attention any more.'
And now I should get back to doing some housework. Hooray. Not.... |
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| Want to fry your brain? |
[Aug. 4th, 2009|06:38 pm] |
If the summer holidays are making you feel like your brain is atrophying (possibly this only applies to people who are technically on a summer break) then have a look at my latest Stumble - a video about imagining the ten dimensions. I think it's a beginner's guide to String Theory but it does have a comment at the end that this is not conventional thinking on String Theory. It is very interesting and now my brain is steaming gently. Oh, why do I have physics listed as a favourite on Stumbleupon??....
(Answer: because it's fascinating!) |
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| More stuff |
[Aug. 4th, 2009|05:49 pm] |
Even though I'm skirting round the edge of the Torchwood/Who Verse at the moment, my Barrowman-love has not diminished, so I became aware that Chris Moyles of Radio 1 was running a campaign to get John's version of I Made it Through the Rain into the charts. They were doing rather well during the week so John was on the show on Thursday morning (which I actually managed to hear on the way to work - yay!) Chris made John promise that if the song got to number 15 or higher in the chart on Sunday they would have a cookies, milk and pajama party (John was in bed in his pajamas on the phone - this seemed to pique Chris's interest).
Becuase this sounded rather amusing and would almost certainly have microphones there, I decided to contribute and bought the mp3 of the single despite the fact that naturally I already have the album on CD (see, I'm sad, I am!) I forgot to listen to the chart show on Sunday but still heard that the song had charted at number 14 and was the highest new entry of the week too. I am highly amused because my purchase will have helped! And now I get to hear Chris Moyles fanboy at the home of Mr Barrowman, which should be fun - although the thought of Mr Moyles in pajamas is not nearly as exciting as that of Mr Barrowman in them...
I am also trying to work out how to be able to afford going to The Hub 3 convention in October (maybe not, we may be moving then), La Cage Aux Folles in November (aha, that's my Christmas present then) and the SFX weekender in February, all of which have John in them. Thankfully he doesn't seem to recognise me at events yet...
In other news, I am working hard (too hard) at my country park, clearing tables, helping in the shop, restocking drinks and ice creams, litterpicking, checking loos and whatever else is needed of me (and eating too many cake bars, but they are yummy!). Today I was even doing market research! I am still working as a temp although I have been guaranteed a position as casual staff when they finally get round to sorting it out - the interview may be tomorrow but no-one has told me yet so I'm 'just' going into work anyway. Hmm, maybe I'll phone first thing just in case. I am also working on the summer holiday club (they must have heard me squeaking about how much I wanted to do that after all), which means I'm going in an hour early tomorrow to try out the activity trail for one of next week's sessions - I'm going to be leading a group of fifteen so I need to know where I'm going! It's a good job that I'm still on timesheets so can charge for all these extra bits of work I'm doing (these extra bits are also known as convention money - hee!)
As much as I enjoy the job, it does have one major downside - I currently have eight insect bites (and from at least two different types of insect) and they are VERY itchy. And the cream I bought isn't working properly. Although I must admit it's my fault for wearing cropped trousers and then going litterpicking amongst the trees. I've learned my lesson now and my camp trousers are being worn regularly!
And next week we have a staff 'fun' evening. I was in two minds about going but now I've heard that the catering staff are going and that alcohol will be available, I think I'd better go and bring my camera - although maybe those photos won't be used on publicity material... |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 1st, 2009|02:01 pm] |
Yesterday I litterpicked the red route of my country park - and I didn't get lost! Yay!! Well, I did go off the trail but I didn't get too lost. I'll just ignore the fact that I gave dodgy directions to a visitor later on in the day...
I am quite enjoying posting links to articles that catch my interest, but today I want to post quite a few... ( So I'd better put them under a cut... )
Ack, I made a grand announcement that I was off Torchwood for a while, but in my fangirling for John I watched the Comic Con Torchwood panel and it was very interesting. Although I'm still massively sad about the passing of the major character, I can at least understand why they did it and it was quite a brave move to make. It's worth watching the panel for the giggles too! This links to the videos on the Barrowmanfans community. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 28th, 2009|10:31 pm] |
I've just read a very interesting article on Afterelton.com comparing the major character death (just in case) on Torchwood and the death of Tara on Buffy. Once again, it is arguing that Tara's death, although heartbreaking, was fitting for the storyline but that the Torchwood death just... wasn't. The writer makes some very interesting points, especially about the contradictoriness in the COE story and the excuses made by RTD, and the whole pointlessness of the death in question.
Unfortunately, I'm afraid to say that this article in particular has cemented my opinions and I think that I will be not be visiting my Torchwood friends filter for a little while - I even find the stories sad because they're all wrong now. Thankfully I have added merucha to my flist so I will still be able to read her excellent stories, which are somewhat AU anyway so don't count!
If you need cheering up after COE, also check out the Afterelton.com Facebook recaps of all five days - they do make it somewhat better!! |
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| Yes, we can turn rats blue... |
[Jul. 28th, 2009|01:04 pm] |
Courtesy of the Daily Mail again, today's amusing article is about the blue colouring in M&Ms that can possibly help reduce the severity of spinal injuries. However the side effect is that it temporarily turns rats' skin blue. Unfortunately I just think it looks cute - and it matches my journal colour scheme beautifully!!!
The picture links to the article (I'm getting creative with my html!)
Apologies to anyone offended by animal testing. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 28th, 2009|12:04 am] |
Home alone and bored again - it must be Monday night. News came from Andrew at work in High Wycombe (aka The Other Side of London) today - the office is moving to Newbury (think Jonesie and her A-34s). I guess it's good that we found this out before we started looking at buying houses in High Wycombe though. However, as a contractor, he apparently doesn't get any relocation costs, although the FAQ on the company intranet says that all new permanent employees do, which he would be. So I've told him to go and fight his corner and have put a sword and a mace in the post for him... |
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