( so, i thought it was excellent. but why? and what did i think was less good? read on, dear friend, read on (if you like). )

cherry orchard stuff in a bit. also, i finished 'nation' this morning and i'm glad facebook embarrassed me into finishing it, because i really, really liked it in the end.

p.s. and we all know candide. well, whatever :p (a message, i think, that i shouldn't try to befriend the well-read. i still believe that, in general, people don't know about it).

very tired. going to sleep for as long as possible. both cherry orchard and torchwood finale were astonishing in their perfection. some thoughts on both tomrrow. now - that sleep i was talking about.

erin reckons that everyone knows what this is. so, here's a poll. please tick the appropriate option (in this you are 'i' and i am withnail)(voting that i am an idiot is the same as saying yes, you can't just tick that because you feel it's a more important issue that the 'candide' one).

Poll #1427839 candide
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

I have heard of 'Candide'

this sort of shit wouldn't have happened if harriet jones was still the prime minister. (still good, though i prefer the russell written episodes).

torchwood is good now, hooray! (last night i quipped 'torchgood', which anna appreciated so little that she suggested we could start calling my nice, new pyjama bottoms 'trousgood')(quipped is a good word. you don't hear it much. except in 'how to lose friends and alienate people', in which it crops up all the freaking time, until you wish that toby would stop 'quipping' and start tripping into large pits filled with sharp spikes). but anyway, that's not the point. the point is i have found the place that torchwood keep their promo shots! er, it's on the website. astonishingly.

and if you thought that picture of gwen leaping through the air was hilarious, well, there's one of ianto doing the same thing, which is pretty great. and some other terrible shots. (what's this, torchwood? for that matter, what's this?)

in other words, torchwood is good, but whoever does their photographing is not. worth looking at them all, i think.

i'll write more of my thoughts on the actual show when it's all over. in case you were worried. you weren't. but anyway, that's the plan rule the world.

argh. also caecillius is fantastic here. more! (one of the best things about new torchwood, aside from everything, is that there will be more tomorrow. until friday. but i think i'll be too tired to care by then.)

two, really inconsequential things.

1. is anyone else bored with Jamie Waylett being referred to as a 'harry potter star?' even though i glanced briefly at yahoo news today (and copy and pasted his name from that article), i couldn't honestly say whether he plays crabbe or goyle. ergo, not a star.

2. i find myself less inclined to quit in the middle of whatever book i'm reading if i've added it to my facebook virtual bookcase. it feels like a failure on my behalf, rather than on behalf on the book, i have to remove it. there's no option one can click to say 'started reading this book, but intend not to finish it', you just have to remove it forever. for this reason, i am currently proceeding with pratchett's 'nation' again (after our long time apart), even though it's not really what i want from a novel. (i deleted 'crime and punishment' though...)

2a. thanks to xkcd, i learned what unix 2038 was today (spent some time readingthe wikipedia page and watching the animation roll round, even though the very comic that had inspired me to do this pointed out that the problem would mostly likely never be a problem... what? work is dull).

one not at all inconsequential thing.
1. pret red pepper and goat's cheese soup: go out and get yourself some of this right now. siriusly. it's the most incredible soup i have ever had the good fortune to pay an mildly outrageous price for. also, pret give you free internet: anothr reaon why they are better than starbucks (who actually charge you for it. what's up with that, starbucks?)

oh, torchwood - that was pretty great. i did not expect great things from you, though i should have. i'm sorry. (though ianto should meet up with bob of 'and rose' and they can talk about how that line worked just as well last time, but oh - i did tear up, and THE TENSION, IT WAS HIGH, and jack, and it was just some pretty damn good writing. well done, russell)

i can't find any pictures of this promo shot except the 'secret' (n.b. this is not a secret) i saw it in, so i've just linked you to that, but i so hope this is the kind of torchwood we can look forward to at 9 tonight :)

p.s. getting up today wasn't as hard as i thought it would be. not so 'being asleep at 11 last night', which was impossible. plus, as it is hot, everyone has their windows open and guess what the people below us have? yes, that's right - a crying child! fantastic.

sorry for all the spam today (three posts in a day? well, that's what being back in england does to a person), and i know this is old and therefore people have probably seen it before, but i very (very very) much enjoyed this just now (it really hits its stride by series 3) and thought you might too-


new torchwood tomorrow! (please be good)

spent the less cogent hours of the morning watching little shop of horrors on dvd. it wasn't the first time i've seen the film version, but it was the first time i'd seen it for many, many years, and the first time i'd seen it since i'd seen/heard the stage version several dozen times. ( cut for length and spoilers for both the musical and the film )

sotired :( don'wanna go to work tomorrow. boo.

yes, that will be all.

jet lag=bad. slept for 12 hours, still knackered. stupid body is complaining that getting up now is ridiculous, but it is half past 12, body. i have to get up at 7.30 in just two days: get used to it.

in better news, winter's tale at the old vic was fantastic - at least, i think it was. i was pretty tired (and in the front row). fortunately the american/bohemium second half was v lively and therefore i stayed awayake*. i thought hermione really was cheating on the king to begin with, but then the play was pretty firm in it's 'no she wasn't' so perhaps i was just tired. going to take a bath and, as the monkees urge, wipe the sleep out of my eyes.

*clearly i was still pretty tired when i wrote this post. i did not stay away at all. that was the point.

post update: it's torchwood week this week! feel a longer warning would have been nice (i would have made space for you, torchwood, if you'd only told me. i would have braved those incredulous looks from people after telling them i couldn't go out on any day that week. instead i'm going out on two. at least, winters tale was good and i can therefore assume cherry orchard (which i will be watching instead of torchwood on friday) will be good, also).

hello world, i am back in england. alive and vaguely awake. was planning to sleep during the day, but then i remembered i don't do that, and i did manage to sleep a bit on the flight (with my head on a table and a child screaming what seemed like constantly - oh, they were good times) so - sticking it out. drinking caffinated beverages and theatre in another four hours... i'm sure i'll be fine. just realised i have to write this remix thing in another week - and i have... some... words. whoops - well, i'm sure it'll be fine. like me going to the theatre.

p.s. how good is commentary: the musical??? this is a rhetorical question, because, of course, it's fantastic. erin and i spent the last fortnight absent-mindedly humming bits of 'better than neil'. and other things - but there was a lot of commentary-ing going on.

my trip to america has been characterised by... not doing things. as it was too expensive and erin's dad is in one of his slightly poorer than when he is rich, we did not to go to chicago by plane, then after some thought we decided not to drive to chicago with friends of erin's to do the gay-pride-festival thing (i've refused to go in england, it seems silly to go in america) and shop and see frank lloyd wright houses (7 hours, man. not excited about that) and today we are not going on a multi-hour canoe/beer "float" trip (she woke up too ill to drive, i woke up too sleepy to protest). it seems a fitting way to end the holiday. instead we watched several hours of tom baker "pratting around in a long scarf" (which, as no one but me probably remembers, is the best way to get over any illness you might be experiencing) and now she's at work and i am revelling in this stolen internet connection - as much as i hate BT and everything they stand for, i'm looking forward to having consistent, non-stolen internet again (when we arrived there was one wireless connection entitled 'getyourowndamnconnection' - now there are two). and cheddar that has some bite to it. creamy is all very well, and i do appreciate the ridiculous cheese on everything lifestyle, but i long for tangy cheddar. it haunts my dreams...

not really. but still- why call your cheese 'extra sharp' when it blatantly isn't?

nothing really to report. met a good percentage of the people erin is related too (v nice), bought some new jeans (they fit perfectly) and converse (though not the kind i was after - normal converse seem to be a dying breed here), hands in dire need of that cream i threw away at the airport, but otherwise have had and am continuing to have a lovely non-worky time, styaing indoors mostly and hiding from the fantastic heat. tomorrow we are for st louis (no getting out of this one as i need to fly home thursday) and there to the city museum, the big arc and... dinner on the hill? is that a thing? i don't know. that's what we're aiming for anyway. and then a day of flying and potential 'seeing where i live from the sky'-ing.

in other tres exciting (british) news, guess who's back on the west end stage? yes, it's that guy from tu£sday! despite that terrible decision, i shall be going unless a major calamity befalls me. v excited.

p.s. yahoo says it is very hot in england. like 'extra sharp' cheese, this is a misnomer - 32 is deemed pleasantly cool in missouri. hmm, just tried to spell cheese with a z there. clearly have been in america for too long.

yahoo says - SPOILER will happen in a children in need special.

i say - i see you have not backed up your sources (plus you claim the name of the actor who plays the fifth doctor is peter davidson): this means you probably invented your story. if it's true, that's great, but it isn't, is it?

so, basically i wrote-

( I Forgive You (The Remember the Axons Remix) - Who, obviously )
( Millipede (The Bones of the Hand Remix), Who )
( The Once and Future Wizard (The Dreams of the Seer Remix), Merlin )

p.s. this is a pretty awesome idea: write or die, though i suspect if hanson (which i read is one of the unpleasant sounds in question) were to come on i'd just get even more distracted. mmm bop, da ba doowop :)

things did indeed look better after sleep. or, at least, having previously realised the mysteriou beeping sound was coming one of the two smokealarms, i further realised that (though there were no chairs high enough to reach it), i could move the tv stand, stand on that, pull down the firealarm and.... hide it in the garage. success! (one exclamation mark -i'm still a bit tired) to repeat, in case you're worried, there are two. so we're fine. 'friends' has taught me that you shouldn't throw the bastards away, so i didn't try that - but it's a weird cultural divide. all in all, i think battery operated is better. at least when they're going crazy you can take out the battery and just risk death.

barclay cards still not working. that's not good. stupid pin sentry reader. why do you exist?

in america. not dead. haven't slept for what is now comfortably 24 hours. still surprisingly perky - flights fine. watched v average movies and read v average book. currently have tea. good stuff. downside: message from tfl saying they can't remove money from my account - suggesting there is no money in my account, suggesting the real bt will be cross with me. barclays won't let me rectify the situation yet. i hope things will look better on the morrow - and by look better i mean, i hope barclays will get over this sulk. there's always expensive telephone banking... sigh. ALSO THERE IS AN ANNOYING BEEPING SOUND COMING FROM SOMEWHERE ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am too tired for subtlety. and normal amounts of exclamation marks - none, ideally.

drabbles all revealed, but i have THINGS to say about mine, so i'll leave it for now.

off to america! what idiot thought it would be a god idea to book a flight that left at 8.30?

oh, right. yes, no, i remember. man, i hate organising trips. i think at the time i thought - 8.30, that's so reasonable, and the tubes will be running and i'll get into america at a nice time in the evening and all will be well. sometimes i hate my past self - and she doesn't write interesting letters.

hmm. anyway. if i don't write again i probably am dead in the oean but let's face it = i'll probably write in about 16 hours once i've arrived. assuming i'm still awake, which i probably won't be, so i'll probably write about in about 24 hours.

see you all in that different time zone.

edit. time - 7.05am (aka still too early). too basic mistakes already. firstly, having reached check in (no problem), i was asked where i was staying. i blustered in the hugh grant-esque manner in which i am planning to spend the next 2 weeks and said that i knew i just didn't know now and they let me in. found some internet - under an enormous sign that would have appeared with that sort of 'aaaaaaah' heavenly sound if this was a film (in which i would be played by hugh grant) and found erin's address. that was mistake number 1.

mistake number 2 was more basic, and i discovered it as i opened my bag to fish out my diary and a pen, in which and with which to write down the aforementioned address. had i really thought it would be all right to take my tube of betnovate in my handluggage? how curious. it was not all right - now everything is a little more steroidy than i would have prefered and i am forced to throw away the betnovate in order to prevent such a thing happening again. bother. i considered throwing away the toothpaste too, but it seems more secure and i can't stand the idea of cinnamon toothpaste, or whatever wacky flavours you americans favour this season.

about to go through into the departure area now. not long, actually, before i get on the plane. the first plane, obviously. annoyingly if i were going to vancouver i could have swapped to a slightly later flight which would still have got me in way in advance of my second flight and b e given a check for 300 euros. i guess that was my third mistake, but an excusable one. kirk katy out.