Diary of a Suburban Squeen

I have signed up to the Remix - yay! I like a bit of a remix. Dear person mixing me: have at it! I've got a load of fic all over the place - the full list up to six months ago or so is here; more recent stuff is under my fic tag here. (I also have accounts at AO3 and fanfiction.net under the username chaletian.) And I forgot to say on my sign-up, please don't remix Destroyer of Worlds, as that was a remix itself. Thank you!



In other news, chaps, I am feeling very pleased with life at the moment. These bullet points will explain why:

♥ The sun is finally shining! I was actually warm as I sat outside today, eating my lunch without a coat on. Yay sun! This winter has lasted forever.

♥ I just made chocolate and raspberry muffins, and proper orange and mint jelly FROM SCRATCH. I have recently discovered the concept of leaves of gelatine, and have made jelly and panna cotta (tasty tasty); I will not stop here.

♥ Dancing on Ice is bringing me joy. We want Laura to win, and are prepared to invest actual monies to see that dream become reality.

♥ Forgot to say, Katie and I went to see an am dram production of Hay Fever at the Putney Arts Theatre. It was actual hilarious. S - I thought he was dead! J - Oh, he's not dead, he's upstairs.

♥ New bedlinen on Sunday and a bit of a tidy. Bedroom is a haven of deliciousness.

♥ Fuck yeah, Roehampton Asda, you're awesome! I finally went to visit it on a bus, and bought two pairs of linen trousers, two cardigans, three tops, and about four vest tops. Also leaf gelatine, and a DVD of The Little White Horse, masquerading under the title The Secret of Moonacre. Asda is made of win. (OK, I know, Walmart, evil corporation etc etc etc, but on the other hand, new grey cardigan and gelatine!)

♥ I spent today consulting with another screening service and building them a little database. It's beautiful, if I say it myself. Colour coded and everything. Going back tomorrow to complete it. I do always like the opportunity to work away from the office. Far, far away... Actually, that makes it sound like I don't like my job/office, which isn't true at all, but I do like to swan around. Amanda and I are going to build a website for the service, and are going to take a day to wander around the various sites taking photos etc. It'll be ace!

♥ Post today: the new Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and my 1p copy of Noel Streatfeild's Murder While You Work. Yay! Also, Helen's lent me a couple of CS fill-ins and Streatfeild's The Whicharts.

Jizzy Chrizzy, I can't believe I subjected you all to such an epic essay on my transport decision-making! Ah well.

So, Saturday, eh? Well, I've been at work for most of today, trying to make sense of some foul research data that just made me want to kill people. And then I had a bit of a methodology crisis which I need to discuss with Prof, which made the whole exercise a bit redundant, so boo swizz, basically. Now I'm trying to copy all my music to my new laptop so I can actually sync my ipod. I am also doing some laundry. You can't say I don't know how to live it up.

In other news:

- FT smells of bacon.
- OMG the fig jam I made is SO TASTY LIEK WOAH. Mixed with yogurt, it's my new favourite pudding.
- Fig man was not in Tooting today. Hopefully he will be back on Monday.
- balooky: you have one birthday present so far.
- It's time for me to hit the board up for money for hosting. Ugh. Hate it.
- I'm actually quite liking Nikita, but I'm struggling with Shane West as Michael - not because he's bad, but because he really reminds me of Austin Nichols, and the idea of Julian as a super-secret assassin is a bit hilarious.
- A confession: I do actually and really love One Tree Hill. Not even ironically any more. (Though I'm hoping Evil!Dan Scott will return, because that's OTH gold, right there.)
- Supernatural Season 6: not quite completely shit. Frankly, that's an post-apocalyptic angel miracle in itself.
- Went to Brownies, which is always a tiny bit hilarious. News from the front: (a) Elves won the quiz; (b) I now know more about Dutch Brownies than I did before.
- The Dutch equivalent of Brownieland is Bambilie.
- I am going to see My Chemical Romance in a couple of weeks. Actually quite excited about it. Na na na na na na na na na na na na na...
- Board meeting on Monday morning. Hopefully it will be good - plenty of reporting done for them, I've done all my action points from the minutes, we've got a new programme manager who might actually be half way decent, we're coming closer to resolving our prison screening situation; things are looking up.
- On account of board meeting, I have been devising a new transport plan. Oh yes. Usually, of course, I just get the 493 as far as Wimbledon, but this time, with my travelcard, I thought I might change it up a bit. 337 to East Putney then the District line to Wimbledon, anyone? Sexy, don't you think?
- I bought Gizzi Erskine's cookbook a few weeks ago, and have already cooked three things out of it (southern fried chicken, salmon and pea spag thing (tea tonight, nomnomnom), and passion fruit pudding - all very tasty) - this may be a recipe book record for me.
- Also made crumble out of some quince, but I think I might've been better just making jelly out of it. It was a bit too aromatic for normal consumption, and also a bit gritty, so I should probably have prepared it more carefully. Still, fairly tasty and an interesting culinary experience.
- FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGS.
- Also, Merlin tonight! With Arthur and Gwen hugging! Be still my shippy heart!
- Downton Abbey. Oh, Downton Abbey. A tiny bit ridic, but I'm rather loving it anyway.
- I have a voucher thing for tea at the Ritz. Must actually book a table. I love tea.

Goodness gracious me, I don’t even know where to begin! Much has happened in the life of the Squeen since last you were updated. So much, in fact, that I really can’t remember half of it; fear not, however, for none of it was terribly exciting. I did not, it grieves me to admit, triumph in any act of political significance that would see (or hear, I suppose) my name echo down history. I did not, despite ongoing if desultory attempts, pen a first novel of such virtuosic brilliance that I would shine as bright a constellation in the starry sky of English literature as Shakespeare and Austen and the Brontë gang. Nor have I saved the life of a beautiful child, scaled a mountain, or invented a time machine. Mostly I have sat around and read trashy novels. And made a bit of compote.

I have also, in no particular order, had a tiny jumble sale and forced various chums to buy my crap, seen Inception at the kino (vg), Anne Boleyn at the Globe (vvg, though I thought the very ending was slightly dodge), and Scenes of a Sexual Nature on the tellybox (v amusing, though fundamentally depressing by the end, I thought), spent a couple of days in Cambridge at my previous job, training up my successor for filthy lucre and having dinner with Emma, chosen a laptop to buy when filthy lucre is eventually forthcoming, booked tickets for Henry VIII and Henry IV Part One (also at the Globe), booked tickets to go and visit my parents on the weekend of my birthday, spent some time contemplating my forthcoming birthday, at which event I will be celebrating thirty of our earth years, read Bluestockings by Jane Robinson, about women’s fight for a university education (very highly recommended), and been on holiday in Norfolk with balooky, katherinea and pim2005, which was fabulous and supplied a new tea towel for the collection. Good times.

In current affairs, I am still fighting the good fight to get a pay rise, which hopefully will happen at some point before I actually die. My brother has become a homeowner (hilarious). I have not yet come up with any ideas to write for the Chalet School Big Bang. And I just had to go and water the balcony, which slowly succumbing to drought. La.

It's Friday evening, so I'm sure I can be forgiven for bullet-pointing!

♥ I made an actual, honest-to-god new recipe for our dinner! I am always in a rut cooking-wise, and though I do occasionally add new dishes, it's at a very slow rate. (In the past year we've had chicken korma, PCP, kedgeree and... yeah, that's about it.) Anyway, this was one off a Waitrose recipe card - sausage, potato and pea casserole. Tasty, tasty. We will have the leftovers for dinner on Sunday, possibly with, as Katie phrased it, a hunk of rustic bread to mop up the juices.

♥ We went to see Crazy Heart at the kino on Wednesday, which I enjoyed. Entirely concur with Katie that Colin Farrell's role should have been played by Christian Kane, but that's the lunacy of Hollywood for you. Not as stylised as recent outings, but I still liked the cinematography, and enjoyed Bad Blake's character progression.

♥ Continuing my earlier outrage, I was further incensed to see yesterday that Ed Balls had waded into the Jamie Bulger thing to say that Atkinson's comments had been "unwise". Fuck off Ed Balls, and grow a pair.

♥ Etsy. Oh, Etsy, Etsy, Etsy. I love you and all your beautiful, beautiful things. I want my pay rise chiefly so I can buy necklaces from you. But not even for you will I contemplate a vagina plaque. I do not think it would suit our decor.

♥ We are off to Hampton Court tomorrow. I am quite excited - I do like a bit of historic house visiting. Hopefully the weather will be nice, but who knows? Actually, let's see if BBC Weather knows. Ein minuten bitte... Boo. Rain all day. Ah well, an outing isn't British if it isn't tipping it down at regular intervals. I shall, however, be taking my cag. Also a tiny picnic, as I will be meeting Katie en route from her morning chores. Egg mayonnaise sandwiches, je pense, with a bit of bugel crisp action and maybe some oreos. A meal for kings. (Not the Kings, natch, they will be at home... oh lol.) And on Sunday I must, must, must tidy the radioactive fallout zone that is my bedroom because it's just shameful. I have tunnels. They don't quite have roofs, but it's not far off. I fear for my future.

♥ Work continues to be engaging, though apparently not so much for the new prog man who has disappeared off again. Strange times. Tragically, my afternoon was spent in mandatory training for the new patient management system (which I will not be using personally), along with a dozen or so IT-illiterates, including a slightly deaf, surely-near-retirement-age lady, who asked coquettishly stupid questions all the way through and maintained a near-perfect record of clicking the wrong thing. One aged volunteer was incapable of double-clicking ("Click it, and click it again. No, more quickly. Try again."), and the trainer had obviously had more than he could bear of the whole thing (ours was the last training session for the whole hospital before the system goes live). Painful. I left as soon as possible.

♥ I have now bought all of Katie's birthday present, and want it to be her birthday NOW so I can give it to her. Why isn't it April yet? Why? IT'S SO FAR AWAY!!

Well, it looks to be a beautiful day out there, today! It's so exciting that spring finally seems to have peeked out of its burrow etc etc. For a couple of days last week, I didn't wear a coat when I went out! (I did it a third day, but nearly froze to death whilst being forced to wait forty minutes for a 493, so I can't really count it.) Anyway, I'm still so physically and mentally exhausted by having job that forces me to work constantly while there (ah, I chuckle but it's SO TRUE), that I am, once again, reduced to bullet-pointing my life.

♥ Megan's party yesterday was hilarious, but so much better was chatting with the grown-ups afterwards. Also, delicious chocolate cake with orange icing. Mmm. And Hannah in the ball pit never gets old.

♥ Grandpa's in hospital with his prostate cancer being crap. Boo. :( (However, slightly shaming to admit, but please don't imagine me being super-sad in a corner etc, as I don't see him a lot.)

♥ PCT board meeting tomorrow. Bound to be frustrating. Have a load of print-outs that I need to go through.

♥ Two interesting posts about women things: one here from liz_marcs and one here from the ineffable r_scribbles. Also, I have once again made tentative inroads into my Women I Like On TV At The Moment picspam, which may or may not one day reach fruition.

♥ I need to have a shower, and go to Richmond to take a top back to Monsoon. Also to buy hot cross bun goodness in Marks.

♥ I bought more PJ bottoms in Primark. As I wittily tweeted, the combination of Primark and pyjamas (and their proximity to where I work) will be my financial ruin. However, this is, of course, mere hyperbole. My own nature is my downfall. That's the root of some classic literature, right there.

♥ Following on neatly from the above point, once more I am selling things on eBay, if anyone's interested in acquiring GGBP books (and a few random other things).

Oh, Dr Hilary, I think your feeble attempts at skating will be insufficient to win the day.

Anyway, sit down, everyone, there's a sorry story to tell. I made bol tonight and (ein minuten, let me have a little shudder) I forgot to add a bay leaf. Truly, Katie is sadly neglected. Plus she did all the cleaning and I sat and read a trashy romance. *shrugs*

Work's still joyful. New programme manager, which is... interesting. Time will tell and all that. I did a load of data cleansing on Saturday, which was actually quite satisfying, then went on to Pim's for a partay, at which I consumed more gin than was advisable. Katie and I then got several buses home across south London, which is always quite entertaining.

Also, last week, we went to see Cobra Starship! Woo! Hilariously awesome yet again, and got to have chatty fandom

(Interrupted to swear at the annoying face of Piers Morgan on the tellybox)

joy with yan_tan_tether, _emeraldgreen and wildestranger, and was reminded of my Holmes/Watson joy and sort of maybe pimped into the world of Adam Lambert (there were pimping posts which were a tiny bit intriguing - music pleeeeeeease!) and thus had to spend part of today on YouTube. No judging.

Hmm, what other news? Well, none, really. Katie and I are continuing our plans for a house with a bit of a garden and a giant kitchen and maybe a conservatory and living in Wandsworth where the council tax is less than half what we pay in the goddamn fucking London borough of Richmond. (I think we should have a space for growing rhubarb, Englebert. Also, as previously mentioned, an apple tree, raspberry canes, and a giant rosemary bush. Also maybe lavender, if that is acceptable.)

In other news, pim2005 makes me lol, and I ♥ her.

Darlings! *enfolds everyone in an effusive hug* Happy New Year to everyone!! I know I'm a bit late in the day, but I have been a bit non est on the old interwebs, so get your good cheer here! I hope everyone had a smashing Christmas - I spent mine in the parental abode, as ever, which was jolly nice, and I got a sewing machine from my parents for Christmas, which is awesome, though I have yet to play with it. Anyway, MANY THANKS for presents from people, especially those I haven't actually seen (sheep socks, xanantha? Sheep socks? We shall be having words, young lady! Also: klo_the_hobbit and katie__pillar: OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, YOU GUYS!! Best present ever! Guess who's going to see Green Day :-)) But enough of such flim-flam. Christmas is over and life is stern and earnest and, as it turns out, FUCKING FREEZING. England is like an ice box at the moment. I have taken to having a hot water bottle in bed. Last night (and you might want to sit down for this), I closed my bedroom window. I know. Such a thing has not happened since the Great Frost of '02. Still, I get to imagine being a Russian princess in a fur hat, so it's not all bad...

What other news do I have? Hmm. Work is still awesome (oh, SQL, my tiny friend). I'm going to a PCT board meeting on Monday, so that will be larky. I have discovered the Poundland in Tooting and bought clippy fake!tupperware and some more Vanish (crucial domestic details). I have baked bread and a coconut and lime cake this evening and, when the dilatory Sainsbury's person arrives, I shall make a spot of leek and mushroom pasta.

Later: Sainsbury's has been and gone; have made dinner whilst listening to Psmith; now depart to watch Chuck. Later, darlings! ♥

So, I've been a bit quiet recently, and will continue to be so: new job means no internet (or time) during the day, and I'm too tired/have too much stuff to do in the evenings. Or something. Anyway, meme! (Saving me from having to actually structure my thoughts or my head in any way.)

You know how sometimes people on your friends list post about stuff going on in their lives, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when were they working THERE? Since when were they dating HIM/HER? Since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy the topics below, erase my answers and put yours in their place, and then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration. One-word answers seldom help anyone out.

1. First name: Laura/Liss/Squeen/Miss Laura/whatever.

2. Age: 29 (fuck me, when did that happen?)

3. Location: London. Woo. I love London liek woah. I've lived here for just over nine years. More specifically, I live sort of on the Barnes/East Sheen border (like such a thing exists...)

4. Occupation: I work in healthcare, and mostly faff on computers in a nonchalant auditing kind of way.

5. Partner: Meh. I am a lone wolf. A LONE WOLF, people. Also a functional mute*.

6. Kids: None. I sort of like the idea in the abstract, but I don't know how I'd feel about the reality.

7. Brothers/sisters: I have a younger brother. His name's Chris, he's 27, he recently got engaged to his girlfriend, which is quite exciting, because Bex is ace.

8. Pets: None. I'm not big on animals, although I have perhaps foolishly promised Katie she may have one real cat when we're old.

9. List the 3-5 biggest things going on in your life:

1. Work. I recently left my job in a private hospital to return to the NHS, which I'm quite excited about. It's quite a bizarre mix of uber-concentration at new things and boredom at not really having a proper thing to do myself. Also, I have no desk yet so my wheely chair is my kingdom. I have good feelings about this job, but I seem to be getting up very early to get there and I'm really tired! Early nights for me.

2. CHRISTMAS!!! I love Christmas so, so much. I love the lights and the music and the smells and the presents and being allowed to watch A Muppet Christmas Carol (this weekend! this weekend when we put up the tree!) and going home to see my family and parties and clementines with leaves and just the whole exciting awesomeness of it all.

3. Pop culture. I love pop culture. TV and films and (these days) comic books and all that. Currently obsessing totally over Merlin, which is so adorable. I am a full on Gwen/Arthur fan, because they are ♥. But I'm watching loads of stuff: Supernatural (one has to get through it, after all), One Tree Hill (Naley!!!), White Collar, The Mentalist, Castle (OH NATHAN FILLION YOUR STUPID FACE), The Big Bang Theory (Katie and I sing the theme tune; it's highly amusing. Also: Sheldon!! ♥ ♥ ♥), HIMYM (when Katie watches it when I'm there - NPH, how are you so awesome?), NCIS (although Ziva seems to have gone quite bland these days), NCIS LA for the lolz, and probably random other crap too. Oh, TV... ♥

4. Katie, Katie, Katie, my tiny darling. Katie (as I can't imagine people haven't guessed) is my flatmate and WAS PUT ON THIS EARTH PURELY TO STOP ME KILLING MYSELF FROM MY OWN STUPIDITY. That is all. And she totally gives me all the attention I need (A LOT), which makes me happy. And she is full of win and comic genius and is a SKY FAIRY!!!!!!

5. My hair. Of course. I think the roots need dying again and my fringe needs a trim, but my hair's generally so amazingly good at the moment I'm scared to do it myself. Hmm. Quandary.

10. Parents. My parents are brilliant and very funny, and also incredibly annoying and spesh. My mother went to Abbeydale Girls' Grammar, and my father went to Abbeydale Boys' Grammar, and they met in the sixth form, started going out, went to university together and got married. My father likes going out walking. My mother has this thing for ironing. When Katie's parents have dinner with us, it's very chilled and laid back and nice. When my parents have dinner with us, there's lots of talking loudly and being ridiculous and taking the piss out of everyone and everyone being drama queens (mostly my father).

11. Who are some of your closest friends? Well, if we take a list and organise it from 1 to 10, where 1 is my best friend and 10 is someone I secretly hate... Quelle ridiculous question. weird_bird is my BFF. katie__pillar is the tiny flickering light in the otherwise tragic gloom of my soulless existence. I have lots of other chums too, all of whom are ace, otherwise I would not be friends with them, as I am a bitch, and do not really make any effort to be friends with people who aren't ace.


* That is a hilarious NCIS joke.

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I am sure this will come to a massive shock to everyone, but I don't really believe in censoring reading for kids by the time they hit high school age (particularly American high school age, which I imagine this questions means, and which I think I am right in saying is about 14?). Partly this is the voice of experience - I never really had my reading censored (I started borrowing books from the adult section when I was 11/12), and I don't think I suffered in any way for that. I read what I wanted to, what I was interested in, and that worked for me. Occasionally, I read stuff from my grandparents' top shelf, which was 'racier' than stuff I got at home (but we're talking Jeffrey Archer/Harold Robbins racy here). I read teen and adult books that talked about sex and stuff, and that didn't faze me particularly. I don't know, I think adults can get extremely precious about "protecting the children", which by 14 or so is a bit absurd, because children can actually decide for themselves what they want to read.

Anyway, in other news, I'm selling my soul (or, OK, GGBP books) on eBay if anyone's interested. Buy stuff from me! This time, it's an aid of going out next week for my work leaving thing. Because next week is my last week! Thank fuck! I've mostly enjoyed this job, it has to be said. I like (most) of the people I've worked with, the job itself has been often tedious but occasionally interesting and challenging, and I've had to learn stuff, which is always a bonus. I think I'm a better administrator than I was when I started. So, y'know, progress is good. On the other hand, they screwed me over a bit and the uniform made me want to kill myself, and the challenge is mostly gone, so I'm glad I'm leaving. Looking forward to the next job, too! I've got three weeks of that (well, two and a bit, plus the fun of NHS induction), and then two weeks of holiday, which I am really looking forward to - I do need the break.

I've been stressing quite a lot recently: largely because of work, and also because of my ongoing inability to budget my money effectively. So, I apologise to my chums who've had me ringing them up expressly to rant about work, and then adding some feeble request about their own lives! I am going to try and chill out and not obsess over being slighted by HCA and enjoy life and be sensible. A fine plan. Let's see if I can stick to it.

In fanfictional news (fascinating for everyone), I have embarked upon my long planned Merlin fic on the old rex quondam rexque futurus theme. I do, of course, use the word "planned" loosely: I had a vague idea, wrote the first part, and now find myself trying to actually plan the rest of the story. I sort of know what's going to happen. IT WILL BE FINE. In other fanfictional news, I wrote Dean and Jo and internet porn, pimped it, and then (this is unheard of), DEPIMPED IT. Yes. You heard aright. I depimped a fic. It wasn't right, and I will probably rewrite it. I've also read a load of fic recently, and will rec the good stuff shortly. I also need to get cracking on the SGA bigbang. Also, I am, once again, regretting that sign ups for Yuletide passed me by. Every year I think I'd like to do Yuletide, because there are loads of small fandoms I love and would be happy to write in, but I never do anything about it. I suck.

Small break there: I went to fetch my dinner. I'm eating parsnips. Yum. I have to take total parsnip responsibility in Fangirl Towers, as Katie doesn't like them, but that's fine by me, as I am heavily pro-parsnip. You're never alone with a parsnip, I always say. I am also wearing leggings. I look fucking absurd, but who cares? I am alone. (I interrupt this fashion update to inform you that I put a little honey on my parsnips when I cooked them, and they smell delicious. I AM A PARSNIP GENIUS.)

So, what other news do I have? I went up to Sheffield last weekend to visit Grandma, which was very nice. She's mad as ever, but it was lovely to see her (and Rosie, and my parents), even if it was quite a fleeting visit, most of which seemed to be taken up with preparing meals. But we had a jolly time nonetheless, and it's not so long to Christmas, really. Journey both ways was hideous though. There must have been some sort of M1 hoohah on the Saturday morning, because the driver came off just south of Derby and toured the back streets of Derbyshire AS IF THE COACH WERE CROSSING MOLASSES IN JANUARY. Jizzy Chrizzy, I thought my bottom would fall off by the time we finally crept towards Meadowhead. And, natch, M1 into London on Sunday evening was foul. I swear to god I'm getting the train at Christmas...

Anyway, there's my news for the time being. I'm off to read a Mills & Boon set in the Norman Conquest. Good times...

Fucking, fucking hell, work is so godawful at the moment I don't even have words. I am stressed and upset and want to stab people and DIE. In happier news, Evil Dan Scott turned up trumps on OTH, I made risotto, have had a glass of wine, and watched Tim Minchin on last Friday's Jonathan Ross, so feel marginally less shitty. Would feel better but I'm fairly confident tomorrow will be as much if not more of a shitfest as today. Mostly I just want to cry and throw things, in my time-honoured toddler-tantrum way of dealing with adversity. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.