So it's been a crap few days - although yesterday was fairly made of awesome - and the postal service is crap at the moment, so I'm going to buy the red iPod Nano I'm getting myself as a Christmas present a little early.

Thing is, I want it engraved... and suddenly as I come to buy it I'm not 100% certain what the engraving should be any longer, even though I've wanted the same thing for AGES.

So, plz to be helping. Poll! (// = on a new line, for instance 'iSquee//Music to fangirl to' - which is what I've been set on for literally years - would look like
iSquee
Music to fangirl to
when I get it on the iPod.)

Poll #1482448 iPod iNdecision
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

What should Bethan get engraved on her iPod?

What should Bethan get engraved on her iPod, take 2? (Please only vote for one phrase, even though there's two questions.)

(Hint: Someone suggest some Doctor Who, Good Omens, Stephen Fry/QI, The West Wing or Terry Pratchett quotes!)

My back really hurts. There's this lecture today which isn't compulsory but would be very useful for one of my modules, plus the careers fair is today, so I'm in two minds about walking into uni to do that. I'm hoping it's just a bad pain day thing as I really need to go to my practicals tomorrow. Stupid back.

Additional: Yep, back's properly gone. Nothing to do but rest until tomorrow now.

On the other hand I've got my Citalopram sorted out now so I don't have to worry about that running out.

1 deadline down this month 4 more to go. I hate the fact that there's nowhere in main building I can work that doesn't involve stairs because the MESci room is apparently only for 4th years (I'll check this tomorrow because it's a waste of a room if only 3 people can use it) and the downstairs library tables are always full of lazy people who can't be bothered to go upstairs to the study areas there. Grawr.

In other news, I actually cooked yesterday! I made pumpkin soup and it was very tasty. I might try the same recipe but with butternut squash at some point in the future.

Now this is some sleek web design right here.

Think it's crap? Well, what do you know? Havenworks was done by a professional webdesign web designer! Check out his pages for a consulting consultancy catering consultant and a news news information news website! (thanks to academichussy for pointing this monstrosity out)

I have not posted for aaages!

I've removed the blog element of hellypickles.com/wordpress because I really wasn't using it. Instead, I've put up loads of photos that I've had kicking around on my computer for ages. I'm going to try and remember to take my camera with me when I go places, I've got out of that habit.

They're not personal photos as it's a public site - the closest you get to seeing people is the back of Neil and Gareth in one shot. Stuff like that is going on Facebook, where I've set it to not show stuff to people not on my friends list.

Um, I did say I'd do some meme thing on here ages ago too, but I think I've lost it, so sorry to whoever gave that to me!

Am gainfully employed with C&G for at least 3 - 6 months, hopefully longer, pending end of trial period / review thing. Training is absolutely knackering - 9am til 3pm Monday to Friday, trying to memorise stuff and systems and I'm getting really worn out. 1 week down, 2 more to go, then I'm on a happy shift of 17.5 hours one week and 22.5 the next, 5pm - 8.30pm and 2 out of 4 Saturday mornings. I'm really looking forward to that, it's so hard to get going in the mornings.

I did absolutely nothing for Hallowe'en, not even carve a pumpkin or wear silly clothes. Must make sure I plan ahead better (and have money) next time.

I'm in Cardiff on the 7th, so see some of you then!

Assuming everyone else is doing ok?

Beijing has snowstorm-creating technology.

Moscow has snowstorm-destroying technology.

I sense trouble brewing over Siberia.

...!!!

Guess who forgot about NaNoWriMo, folks.

Oh, cock.

Screw the poor. Save the Kitties

 
The only good thing about last week's appalling mood swing into depression last week is that this time I'm on top of the curve, having a wonderful manic euphoric time. I managed to update the picture I've been working on recently, it's( here )

The Enormous La Cage Aux Folles Picspam, take two! This time, our focus will be twofold: firstly the Cagelles, the beautiful and multi-talented dancers at the La Cage Aux Folles nightclub, and secondly on John Barrowman’s Zaza. John gets a section all to himself because he’s damn pretty and there are lots of photos of him being damn pretty. Bless you, fandom.

(Also, a note: the Picspam Part One has been heavily updated since yesterday. Go, take a look, give me the hook, or the ovation... I’ll stop now. *shuffles off*)

NEEDLESS TO STATE, THIS PICSPAM IS ALSO VERY, VERY BIG. CLICK AT YOUR OWN RISK.

( And first off, Les Cagelles! )

So, now for the guy you all came to see – wait, wrong musical. ANYWAY. John Barrowman makes a wonderful, incredibly good-looking Zaza and his voice is, ahem, fantastic... but he’s not Roger Allam. *totally plays favourites* Luckily, he’s also John Barrowman, so I love him anyway.

( And on with the show! Only champagne from now until the finale... )

And for bonus, some shots of John and his man. Because they are incredibly happy-making, and the original point of this picspam was to cheer someone up. ^_~

( So live and love as hard as you know how, because the best of times is now... )



And that really is a wrap, folks!




OH MY GOD IT'S DONE.

I went to see the MTD.

...

My parents are in Reading, K's out doing her Florence Nightingale schtick, the neighbours are in Durham, and the cats are out after uppity foxes.

I have an entire room full of saucepans.

Eeeheeheeheeheehee.

*ahem*

I’ve been tossing around the idea of doing a picspam of John Barrowman as Albin/Zaza in La Cage Aux Folles for some time now – ever since the promotional images started surfacing on the net, in fact. His run in the show has combined my current twin fangirl obsessions perfectly, even if he doesn’t make as good an Albin as Roger Allam. He’s good, yes, but Roger Allam pretty much achieved perfection.

Anyway. Like I said, I’ve been meaning to do the John-as-Zaza picspam for a while, and have finally been spurred into it to cheer an upset person on Journalfen’s Unfunnybusiness comm up. And while I’m at it, I figured, gorgeous men dressed as gorgeous women in sparkly outfits and with fantastic legs... like you can ever get enough, right? Plus, more people should know the genius that was the Roger Allam and Philip Quast run in La Cage. So this is not just the Johnspam, it’s the La Cage Aux Folles picspam!

I’ve divided it up into sections separated by LJ cuts, but be warned: THIS THING IS HUGE. Between the joint efforts of me, plum177 and niblick_iii, we must have acquired if not all the photos of Quast and Allam’s run on the net, then at least the majority. I haven’t used them all here, but I have used a hell of a lot.

And so, messieurs-dames, I give you... La Cage Aux Folles!



( First up, a few random Zazas that I’ve acquired photos of. Includes Grahame Norton, Douglas Hodge, the Zaza (and Georges) in the current Parisian production, and at least one whose name I don’t know. )

( Next, some shots of the supporting cast, all from various 2008/2009 London productions. Smaller section this time. )

( The first La Cages cast I ever saw, and the original reason for my obsession: Philip Quast as Georges and Roger Allam as Zaza. )

And that’s all for this post, folks! Second instalment: John Barrowman and the Cagelles!

Have just booked all my Eurostar tickets home for mid-November and also Collectormania. Since I didn't pay more than £33 for any ticket, and none of them are at bizarre times (going to attempt to avoid doing the 5:30am train ever again) I'm calling that good. :D

Now, to enquire at trains/Megabus.

My parents stayed over from Saturday evening til yesterday morning, and we had a fantastic time: Saturday night we climbed the Eiffel Tower in the dark and had a meal. Then, all day Sunday I showed them all around my favourite chunk of the city and also where I have my classes, we did a boat trip on the Seine and had another meal out, then in the evening we sat around and watched WALL-E together because they're all just as much Disney geeks as I am: my mother was the one who took my father to see his first ever Disney movie, Robin Hood, when he was twenty-one. My dad's family are strange... And then Monday we spent all day at Disney! They've absolutely plastered both parks with Halloween decorations, it's very cool. In order to get cheaper entrance tickets, I had to book them online the night before and then get up early to catch the Metro into the library and print them out, since I have no printer here. And while I was out my mother cleaned the place from top-to-bottom, scrubbed the bath, the sink, the toilet, the lot, even went out to buy the cleaning stuff to do it. About the only thing she didn't do was the vacuuming: I'd done that before they turned up. I owed my father £300 for the shenanigans involving lost cards in September, so although I paid for a lot of stuff it still felt like being spoiled rotten, and he said to forget about the last £30 of what was, frankly, an extremely generous rounding-down on his part in the first place - I think the total of what I originally owed him was quite a bit more than £300. And he then paid £35 for me in Disney when I wanted an all-year-round pass (it was less than another single entry to the park, and I figure I'll go again at least once before I leave) and they couldn't take my card.

The whole four days were mad, but brilliant. Mam and Dad seemed very impressed by my ability to find my way around, use the metro, etc., and did a fantastic job of never once treating me like a kid - something my father's long had a problem with. They also brought me scads of stuff: comics, books, DVDs, my TV and PS2, a clothes-frame so I now actually have somewhere to dry my clothes, basic-but-necessary-and-expensive stuff like soap powder, loo roll, painkillers, things like that... and food. Oh my God, the food. Tea, booze, longer-life milk, chocolate, bacon, bread, crisps, sweets, Marks and Spencer's chocolate and coffee-and-walnut cakes... and a TOP GEAR advent calendar.

There is no sign of greater parenting than buying your twenty-one-year-old daughter a Stig chocolate advent calendar, folks.

<3