I've been promising this for days, and here finally is an entry about last week's trip to London Village.

We were due to go on the 7.50am flight from Plymouth to London City airport, but when I woke up at 5.00am and switched on the television news, I immediately began to wonder whether we'd be flying. A lot of snow had fallen in the south east overnight, and conditions looked pretty horrendous. But we went to the airport to check in on time, only to be told that they were awaiting news of the current situation at London City airport before checking anyone in. So we sat in the café and had a coffee and a toasted tea cake, and then at around 7.15am they announced that due to adverse weather conditions, the flight was cancelled. We did have the option to try and re-book, but having seen the forecast we decided to try the train instead. We got a cab straight to the train station and were lucky in that we only had to wait around 15 minutes for the first train to Paddington. We were also lucky that the cost was about half of what we'd paid for the plane tickets, which we would now have refunded - huzzah! The train was fine but bloody freezing for some reason, and after passing through the snowy wastelands of Berkshire we arrived into Paddington bang on time, just before half 11.

We got a taxi to our hotel as neither of us fancied lugging our cases around on the Underground and were chuffed to find that our room was already ready and we could check straight in. We stayed at the Hesperia by Victoria train station - I've stayed there before and remembered it as being nice, and my memory had served me well. It's right next to the station and so it's dead handy, and for a 4 star hotel it's excellent value for money as well - I'd recommend it!

After settling ourselves in and unpacking we ventured out into the cold and walked from the hotel up to Piccadilly and along Shaftesbury Avenue as far as The Rainforest Café, where we had some lunch. Mum had never been in there before - I think she enjoyed it! After lunch, we then walked up Regent Street (including taking a detour to explore Carnaby Street, which had amazing Christmas decorations consisting of inflatable pink fawns amongst other things) and then from Oxford Circus all the way along to the Christmas market opposite M&S and then back to Oxford Circus. We didn't do a lot of actual shopping, but I did buy some socks in M&S - two normal pairs and also a pair of mega fluffy ones which are the warmest things I've ever put on my feet and if I can't get them in Plymouth I'm going to scream and scream and scream until I'm sick!

We decided against walking all the way back to the hotel and instead got the tube, and then had a quick drink in the hotel bar before going up to our room and chilling out for a while before having dinner in the hotel's restaurant because it was too cold and we were too tired to consider venturing out again. It was a good decision - the food was awesome and as with the rest of the hotel, really good value for money.

On Saturday we were up early for breakfast and then we headed off to St John's Wood and the Lord's cricket ground, where we were booked on a tour at 10.00am. I'd done this once before, but this time was better because there were only five of us on the tour! We also went into the real tennis court this time around, and apparently one of the blokes playing was someone off of The Antiques Roadshow, but I don't know which one. I didn't know before, but the 'real' in real tennis isn't because it's claiming the other tennis is fake, but it comes from the Spanish word for 'royal' (as in Real Madrid). It's a very strange looking sport - you have to serve the ball up onto the roof and then when it comes down again, that's when it's in play. Apparently Federer's going to be taking it up when he retires from normal cricket. Heaven help Mr Antiques Roadshow, that's all I can say! We saw a most bizarre sight while we were at Lord's - the pitch was entirely covered with snow! I took a couple of photos on my phone - I'll have to post them at some point!

Anyway, after we'd done the Lord's tour we went back into the centre of London and went to the Museum of London, near to Barbican station. Part of it's closed until spring next year, but the exhibitions up until the great fire of London were all open and were really interesting. And it's free - how great is that? Because it's free, we're definitely going to be goig back once the new exhibition is opened.

I'd looked at the map before we'd set out and had spotted that St Paul's Cathedral wasn't far away from the museum, and as I'd never seen it even from the outside before, we decideed to have a walk down there. And what an awesome place! We had a quick look at the monument at Temple Bar first and then battled through the crowds and went into the cathedral itself. We had a look around the ground floor and also the crypt (where we saw the tombs of Florence Nightingale, Nelson and Wellington amongst others) but because we were tired after all the walking we'd done over the past two days we decided against climbing the stairs to the galleries. However, we got a ticket to give us free admission for the next twelve months because we gift aided our admission price, so next time we're going to head there first and brave the stairs up to the top!

By the time we'd been around St Paul's we were shattered and so I looked at my A-Z and saw that if we walked down to Blackfriars we could pick up a direct tube back to Victoria, which we could indeed have done, had Blackfriars tube station not been closed... The nearest one appeared to be Mansion House, so we walked along to that one and picked up the tube from there. It wasn't a long walk, but it was really interesting. Even though I'd lived in London for a while, I'd never really got to know this part of the city and even if I had, it's undoubtedly completely different these days. And it's a really good mix of new and old, parts of it put me in mind of Boston in that regard. It was fabulous, and I can't wait to go back and explore a bit more!

We ate in the hotel restaurant again on Saturday night because once again it was freezing cold and we were very tired. We had another lovely meal but sadly something mum ate didn't quite agree with her and when we woke on Sunday morning she wasn't feeling too clever. So instead of spending some time mooching around Covent Garden we chilled out in the hotel and then got the train back just before midday. We had a very smooth trip again (we upgraded to first class - leather seats, heeee!) and got in at around half 3.

The weather in Plymouth had gone wrong while we were away and we got back to lots and lots of ice. So much ice, in fact, that we couldn't get down to the garage because the path was impassable. We didn't have any food in the house itself so while mum took herself off to her sick bed, I ordered in a pizza so that someone other than me had to brave the wintry conditions. And then I spent the evening eating my pizza, drinking a couple of cold beers and watching more of my This Life DVDs.

And that was my weekend!

A recipe:

Eastern Salmon

(Serves 2)

2 x boneless salmon fillets
3 x dessert spoons of soy sauce
1 x teaspoon clear honey
1 x teaspoon Chinese Five Spice

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6/200C

Mix together the soy sauce, the honey and the Chinese Five Spice. Add the salmon fillets, rolling them in the sauce until they're completely coated. then place the salmon fillets skin side down on a baking tin and coat with the sauce. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through and serve with potatoes and vegetables.

DELICIOUS!

A hobby of mine...

One of my favourite hobbies is writing. I have loved creative writing ever since I was at school, and this shows no sign of abating even though I am now (unofficially) 24 years old. I don't write with any hope of being published because I know I'm not that talented, but I like to write for my friends and for myself. I mostly write angst with a hint of fluff, although my current project is bucking that trend and is fluff with a hint of angst. What I love about writing fiction is the escapism. I can be having a pretty cruddy or boring day and then if I sit down to do some writing, I can just lose myself in an alternative world for a while. It's a great way to pass the time, definitely!

A talent of mine...

I'm not good at blowing my own trumpet but I would list the following as possible talents:

1. I'm not too shabby at cooking.

2. I'm a pretty good driver (I should not have put that, should I - talk about tempting fate...)

3. Some people seem to like some of the stuff I write.

4. I can touch type accurately at rather a quick rate.

And I think that's it.

In other news, Widewell was ludicrously icy this morning but I managed to get to my car and de-ice it (me_unabridged - I used the little ice scraper you bought me last year!), and then I got out to the main road without too much drama. I had planned on turning left at the traffic lights as that's a bus route and therefore more likely to have been gritted but a fire engine and some traffic cones had other ideas and had for some reason blocked the road off, so instead of nipping up there, I had to go all the way down to the bottom of Southway and then back up Tamerton Foliot Road before getting onto the A386 at Crownhill. It was -1 according to my car's temperature doobry. MINUS ONE! That's less than zero! Colder than freezing! WTF??? This is Plymouth, it's not supposed to happen here!! *stomps angrily*

Dexter is still at Happy Hounds, but I'm picking him up on the way home from work. Mum and I had planned on doing the Christmas food shopping this evening, but she's had a dodgy stomach since yesterday morning and so I think we're now going to do it on Wednesday instead. I think I'm getting let out from work at 4.30pm so that should give us plenty of time.

I need to update about the trip to Londinium, but I may run out of time if I start it now, so that'll have to wait until I get in from work. Soz.

I've skipped a couple of days of this as I've been away (more of which later on, when I can be arsed have time), so here's day 18 - which is "Whatever tickles your fancy".

Today, I'm going to talk about something which has been in the news all weekend. Snow. Or more specifically, Plymouth's seemingly constant lack of snow.

We do get it occasionally, don't get me wrong, but the mega snowfall which happened in the spring of this year was a case in point. Everywhere got some. They got it in the south, in the north, in the east and in the west, and they even got it in some places in between. Our firm has offices in Taunton, Exeter, Plymouth and Truro. All offices were on practically a skeleton staff with the exception of Plymouth, as we had no snow at all. Not even so much as a flake. Tsk.

If we're talking about significant snowfalls, rather than the odd flake here and there, I think the last one was back in the 1980s. I remember when I was a very small kid the family had to walk back from my grandparents' in Efford because of a bad snowfall (and my dad fell down while carrying me - thanks, dad!), I then remember two big snowfalls which caused us to be sent home from school, and I remember two more since then - one on a Friday in either 1985 or 1986 which left the city gridlocked when all the factories and the dockyard sent everyone home at the same time, and one a short while after that, which was on a Saturday evening and which resulted in lots of people having to sleep in Fiesta Nightclub. But nothing like that since, for some reason.

They get it on Dartmoor most years - not huge amounts, but enough to keep the kids off school and for them to be filmed sledding for all of the rest of us to watch on Spotlight. But normally when we're hearing about the country grinding to a halt because of snow, we don't have to worry. It's always a bit disappointig really - I like seeing the snow and although it's a pain to get around when it's fallen, there is still something magical. So every time when it happens and we miss out, I feel a bit miffed.

This past weekend I was rather excited because we were going to London and we'd heard that there would be a lot of snow around. And there was - it caused our flight to be cancelled, in fact - so for once, I actually saw some proper now, and it was all pretty and exciting and lovely.

Except that yesterday evening I heard that if I'd stayed in Plymouth, I'd have actually still seen some snow, because it was coming down for about an hour and a half yesterday afternoon! Anne (off of Happy Hounds) said that she went into Marksies and came out to find everything white! It's all gone now, though, but has left behind a legacy of ice and of course the roads have not been gritted so everywhere's gone all slippery and nasty.

It's typical though, isn't it. I spend year after year moaning on about how it never snows in Plymouth and then the one time it does, I'm away and I bloody well miss it!

Anyway, that's what tickled my fancy today. Snow. Or lack thereof.

A piece of art...

This is a painting that we have in our toilet (I don't know why it ended up there). It's by an artist called Kate Mawdsley and it makes me smile every time I see it. I just love the expression on the bee's face - he's so cute.




In other news, it's my birthday. Many thanks to everyone who left messages on Facebook! And thanks so much to the very lovely Chen for my awesome virtual gift. And for all the real gifts, as well! I love them all, especially soapy!Stig, Gnorman the Gnome and the fishies!

A thousand thanks also to Rachel - I cannot wait to get spending with my book tokens!!!

I had a good day. I was working this morning but finished at 12.00pm and nipped up into town to finish off my Christmas shopping. I got everything I needed, and so now I just have to get something for mum from Dexter and wrap that and Dexter's present and then I'm done - huzzah!

Then Steph came over to do my nails, and after she'd gone I went to the Post Office to send off some stuff which needed sending before coming home.

This evening, we're staying in and having pizza delivered, and then tomorrowe we're off up to London Village early doors. Our flight is meant to leave at 7.50am but I've seen the forecast for London and whilst we may take off okay, it looks as though there's a good chance it'll be nothing more than a pleasure trip and we'll end up coming back to Plymouth! Keep your fingers crossed for us?

And on that note, I'm going to take myself off to the sofa and curl up with a book and crack open a tin of Carling whilst listening to the end of Scott Mills. Huzzah!

A song which makes me cry.

I'm going to be generous today and give you two for the price of one. Because there are two songs which never fail to make me cry and those songs are You Could Be Happy by Snow Patrol and This Woman's Work by Kate Bush. I adore them both and refuse to choose between them.

So that's the meme done for today. What else is going on in the world?

Oh, I should post about the weekend. It was made of awesome.

I got the train early doors from Plymouth on Saturday and got into Manchester on time, which made a lovely change from last time! Our hotel was just up the road from the train station so I met Chen and we walked up to it and left our cases before going to Bella Italia and having a lovely lunch, served to us by Gloria the Waiter.

After lunch, we nipped back to the hotel and got into our room (which was awesome - City Inn is a great hotel!) and then went back out to do some serious shopping. We were on our feet for ages and were both in pains of agony by the time we arrived at a pub, but we had shopped quite well and I did manage to frighten Chen in The Disney Store by grabbing Kermit The Frog and shoving him in front of her face while shouting "ladies and gentlemen, it's The Muppet Show, yayyyyy!". There was also some flirting. We found an H Samuel and I wanted to show Chen the necklace I'm getting for Christmas, so we were looking in the window. This bloke asked me for my opinion on some necklaces and pointed out a few for me to compare. I told him which one I thought was best and I told him that whoever he was buying for would love it, before adding "And if she doesn't, I'll have it!" I have NFI where that came from, honestly! So yes, there was fright-making and flirting, and I think that constitutes a successful trip. We sat down outside the pub (in the cold) and I had a glass of wine, and then we headed off to the cinema.

The fillum we'd decided to see was Paranormal Activity. I'd read mostly good reviews, and they were spot on. It was one of the scariest films I've ever seen - very much in The Blair Witch Project mould and if you enjoyed that, it'd be right up your street. Every time it went to night time, I muttered "oh no", and I was really relieved when it finished. But I thoroughly enjoyed it - if you're looking for a good old scary film, this is for you.

After the fillum had finished we headed to Old Orleans and had a lovely meal and some cocktails in there while looking at the Craig-alike on the next table.

We'd both been shattered earlier on and had revised the original plans we'd had to hit Canal Street, but after sitting down in the cinema and the restaurant we'd got a second wind and we nipped back to the hotel to change before going out. The hotel was just hop, a skip and a jump to Canal Street, so we hopped and we skipped and we jumped and we ended up in Churchills again. It was mega busy but we managed to find somewhere to sit and we dodged the attentions of a very fruity guy who I think may have been called Ahmed (but it was hard to hear over the strains of Lady Gaga) and who would not leave us alone until I actually physically pushed him away and said "enough". After he'd gone, we had fun watching a guy in a black and white dog blanket shirt who was singing into a microphone fashioned from his own fist (don't mock, we've all done it). We also enjoyed perving over the guy dressed in gold hot pants. When Lady Gaga was played for about the 5th time we realised the time was going on for 3.00am and so decided to make a move, and we hopped, skipped and jumped back to the hotel where I crashed out on my bed and Chen put a 'pin the tail on the donkey' game onto the wall for me to wake up to on Sunday morning.

I woke before Chen a few hours later, and how I didn't wake her when I saw what was on the wall, I'll never know, because I was giggling away to myself. Chen woke in time for breakfast to be delivered (additional charge of £3.50 - so cheap!) and then I won at pin the tail on the donkey before opening a couple of presents (an amazing magic mug and a cross-stitch of The County Ground, which must have taken forever and which I just LOVE).

After checking out of the hotel we walked up to Albert Square to have a mooch around the Christmas market. It was good, but it was far too crowded for my liking and the ratio of food stalls to craft stalls was weighted too much in favour of the food stalls really. After a while we gave up on the market and headed back to The Disney Store, where Chen exacted revenge for Kermitgate by pulling the cord on some little thing and then holding it up towards me. I thought it was going to be singing but couldn't hear anything so I leaned closer and then it touched my ear and I realised it was vibrating, which made me jump half out of my skin!

Lunch was taken at the Hard Rock Café, and then sadly it was time to get our bags and say our goodbyes before heading home. My train left on time and despite being delayed getting into Birmingham New Street, I got in on time as well. Dexter was there on the platform to meet me (with mum), and I grabbed a burger on the way home before eventually falling into bed just about the right side of midnight.

It was a stonking weekend - a million thanks to Chen for being so awesome and for being such great company. I cannot wait until we do it again!

So, that was the weekend. What else...?

Argyle have sacked Sturrock. Kind of. He's still there doing something, but Paul Mariner (who has weird glasses) appears to now be in charge of the team. Except it's all going a bit pear shaped to be honest. Two days ago it was reported that Argyle would soon have a 46,000 seater stadium. I thought this was a tad strange because they're lucky if they get 10,000 in these days. Yesterday, it was announced that because Argyle haven't paid their debts, they're now the subject of a transfer embargo. Mariner said he was relaxed about this. However, he also said there were positives to take from the defeat at Preston on Saturday, so he does seem to have a mind which works in odd ways. Anyway, today we've been told that if (and it's a big if) England are successful in their 2018 World Cup bid, Plymouth will be one of the host cities. So it's a bit of a roller coaster ride down here at the minute, football-wise!

The buses appear to have gone tits up. Yesterday, it took me nearly 90 minutes to get home. Today, it took well over an hour. And the bus driver was obviously trying too hard to make up time because he approached the Manadon Flyover far too fast and then had to stand on his brakes to avoid a collision and I almost fell right off my seat. I don't know whether it's connected, but for some reason my left leg is now hurting really badly and I can barely walk. Ouchies.

And finally - tomorrow is my birthday (24 again) and I am working until around 11.45am and then I'm going to finish my Christmas shopping before coming home and getting my nails done - huzzah!

And that's me. Phew, that went on a bit, didn't it!

Today is day 15 of 30.

And today I have to talk to you about a fanfic. I've been thinking about this on and off today and it took me an age to decide what one I'm going to talk about. In the end, I went for one that I don't think anyone else on my f-list will have heard of, simply because it was the first piece of slash I ever read. It was F1 slash - Michael Schumacher/Mika Hakkinen, and it was written by a girl called Nikki, who I've sadly lost touch with now (not the Nikki from Bridgwater but another Nikki). She'd written it to begin with as a stand alone fic and there were a few of the girls from the F1 forum I used to visit who had already read it and who were talking about it on MSN one evening. I'd never even heard of slash before, and when they told me what they were on about I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to read it because I didn't know if it's be my "bag". Anyway, I gave it some thought and decided to give it a go. And was instantly hooked. We all hassled Nikki a bit and after a while this fic turned into something of a monster, and even had its own soundtrack. And it was inspiring. As I said, I'd never even heard of slash before, but these days, I genuinely struggle with writing anything else!

I didn't get a chance to do this yesterday, so today you get two for the price of one. You lucky, lucky people.

Day 13 - A Fictional Book
This a tough one but I've decided to look at the books I've read over this year (I'm currently on numbers 43 and 44), and recommend one of those. And the best book I've read this year is Unsticky by Sarra Manning. I bought it for some holiday reading but never got around to reading it in Mallorca and then I kept putting off reading it for ages. But once I started it, I just could not put it down. It was awesome stuff!


Day 14 - A Non-Fictional Book
This one's easier. I'm going to pick a book called Emma and I, by Sheila Hocken. Sheila was a blind lady who lived in Nottingham and the book is the story of her relationship with Emma, her guide dog and how Emma changed her life in so many ways. I've always loved dogs but my mum didn't like them and I didn't think I'd ever get one. Then one day mum decided to read this book and it made her realise that there could be positives about having a dog and she and dad took the decision to get Jessie, our first puppy. So this truly is a book which changed my life!

I'm back from my trip Oop North, and I had a fantastic time once again. I'll do a longer post about it all this evening as I only have five minutes left of my lunch break now.

Winter is definitely upon us. The amber warning light was on in my car this morning and looking at the forecast for the remainder of the week, I'm thinking I may even get to see the red one! Eek! I just hope it doesn't snow when I'm in London next weekend!

What else did I want to say...? Ooh, I know! Ryan Giggs. WTF? Okay, give the bloke a lifetime achievement award, but sports personality of the past twelve months? Bonkers! Still, at least it meant Twat Button didn't win. Ha!

Okay, there was other stuff I was going to ramble about but now it's 2.00pm and so it's time to get back to work. Here's hoping I stay awake until 5.15pm...

Once again, today is a "whatever tickles your fancy" day...

So...

Today, I'm going to talk to you about Gloria the waiter. Yes, you read that right. He's a waiter. An actual waiter. Called Gloria.

I'm in Manchester - I arrived at one o'clock this afternoon. After finding our hotel, the first thing Chen and I did was go for some food as we were both hungry. We happened upon a branch of Bella Italia and in we went. We were served by a very friendly waiter, who was more than slightly camp but who was very lovely and who tried to help Chen out when she had a coughing fit by slapping her back heartily.

Anyhoo, the food was ace and so was the service and so when the bill arrived I wanted to know what the waiter's name was.

And written on the bill were the words 'Server - Gloria'.

I think it's fair to say that hilarity ensued.

I'm now just waiting for Chen to finish her wee (TMI?) and then we're heading back out - this time to the shops and then to the cinema to watch an actual film. I think it's called Paranormal something or other and it's meant to be scary. We shall see...

A recent picture of me.

I hate having my photo taken (with a passion), but when I had my hair done about a month or so ago I decided to take a quick piccy with the webcam, so here it is...




No tittering at the back please, I know it's not good.

Anyway, my hair's a bit different from that now because I had something done yesterday but I'm planning on surprising me_unabridged with it when I get to Manchester tomorrow, so that's remaining top secret for now.

I am off to Manchester tomorrow (in case you hadn't guessed). I leave Plymouth at 7.25am and am due to get in at 1.00pm, and then I get back just before 11.00pm on Sunday evening. Happy days, I reckon! I cannot wait!

I should have done this yesterday but ran out of time...

This is a photo of me which was taken over ten years ago (with apologies for the poor quality):