My So-Called Life
the random and not-so-random musings of a twenty-something history geek
My So-Called Lifethe random and not-so-random musings of a twenty-something history geek |
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| About Lizzie: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Lizzie is a fully qualified history teacher having finished her course at Canterbury Christ Church University. She's also a geek who was secretary of the University of Kent Computing Society during her three year BA at the University of Kent. She is very much in love with her shiny Husband, though she is sad that he doesn't glow bloo :( More about her on her website: http://carina.org.uk |
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| Sep. 4th, 2009 @ 12:08 pm Yesterday was a bad day for travelling... (for me, anyway) - long, contains angst! | |||
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I went up to London yesterday to see pot luck theatre* with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} no1typo. We ended up seeing Hairspray, which I hope to write about at a later date. I've been all writers blocked recently, even when I've had things to write about, and so this journal has been very quiet.Anyway, to return to this entirely uninteresting tale of Woe, for which Livejournal is famous and I just want to get off my chest... I should have known what the travel situation would be from early(ish) in my journey, when I drove onto the slip for the M20 (off the A249) and stopped. And stayed stopped for over three quarters of an hour after an accident on the M20 between the junction I was coming on at and the next one, which closed the whole carriageway for most of the time I was stopped, and two lanes were still closed when I finally got past. It wasn't really the best start, and very nearly made me late for picking up no1typo. After that things went mostly to plan (bar the overcrowding/traffic jams of a bus getting around London at 5pm :)) and we got our tickets, had dinner and wandered to the theatre. It was after the show that it all started to get interesting.First, as to be expected really at Theatre kicking out time, the traffic was solid for a while and it took us ages to get a bus back to Victoria - a number 38, which advertised Victoria as its destination and then kicked us (and the rest of the passengers) out at Green Park. By this time it was nearly 11pm, we were getting tired and Victoria was a dark and scary walk away across the park (yes, I know it's not far, but it was dark and scary. So we decided that, given we couldn't really be bothered to wait for a bus that may or may not come (and may or may not pick us up when it does come) we got a cab the rest of the way to Victoria. Where we found a train back to the place we had left the car was indefinitely delayed because of problems at Clapham Junction. After half an hour or so of waiting, we decided to get on a train to East Croydon, because at least then we'd be getting closer to the car and home and we could always get a train from there to Purley. When we got there we found that, again, the closest train for Purley, had it been On Time was still ages away and it was already showing as "delayed" (by this point, I was getting heartily fed up with signs at train stations merely saying "delayed"), which could mean anything for us and our wait. At which point we completely lost our heads and Definitely a mistake. All was fine until I hit the M25 (for reference this is my normal route home from my mum's) at which point it became mostly single lane because of roadworks, and to my utter woe the sliproad to the M26 was closed, meaning that the M26 itself was closed, meaning that I ended up going to the Darenth Interchange and straight on to the M2. The M25 was single lane pretty much from the point I joined to the point I came off at Darenth. Despite the fact that the route I ended up taking is only ~10 miles further than the route I usually take, it took me significantly longer to get home, because for the entire stretch of the M25 (which, I remind you all, dear reader, was single lane) I was at 50mph or less. Luckily the rest of my drive was ok, but I ended up nearly freezing myself with the aircon to stay awake, so it took me ages to thaw when I got home. So it took me forever to get home. The show finished at 10pm and I didn't get back until around 2am. It was a brilliant evening otherwise though :D *What I call it if you go with the intention of seeing a show, but are not bothered as to which one thus purchase your tickets for far less than you otherwise would from a booth like tkts in Leicester Square. (A list of what they have on sale today.) |
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| May. 1st, 2009 @ 10:44 pm A few hours in London | |||
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Some friends and I are going to see Les Mis in July, and I went up to London to book the tickets in person at the box office at the Palace Theatre. I could have done it over the phone or the internet, but I had a theatre voucher and the easiest way to redeem it was in person, so I made an afternoon of it, and went on the train which, while not the cheapest way to travel, is by far the most relaxing (when things go right!). My trusty backpack and I started off from Canterbury West. Saw a cool new train being tested (saw loads more at Ashford, mostly unliveried, which means they must be pretty new :) They certainly looked pretty). At 10:40 the train was nice and quiet so I got a four-seat with table all to myself and spread out a little.     (Click to embiggen) I went all arty on the journey, both in to London and back to Canterbury, experimenting with my camera, getting lots of pictures of trees and things whizzing past while moving...     (Click to embiggen) ...and structures when we were stopped, or going slowly.       (Click to embiggen) I met red_pill at Charing Cross, and we wandered round "Theatreland" taking some pictures and looking for the Palace Theatre so I could buy the tickets. The Priscilla, Queen of the Desert title thing and giant high heel was especially cool. The picture doesn't really do it justice - it was all sparkly!  On our way back to Charing Cross, we accidentally ran in to the May Day protests in Trafalgar Square, but we escaped without being bludgeoned by the police or the protesters :)  Headed home at 2:50pm-ish. Long way to go, but a lovely day in London and nice to be out. More importantly I was going home with what I'd come to London to get :D   All pictures. I'm getting quite excited about going now :D If only I didn't have to wait till nearly the end of July! |
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| Aug. 2nd, 2008 @ 05:30 pm A trip to Greenwich Market | |||
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I went with no1typo today to Greenwich to have a wander around the market and we had a lovely time. We both arrived early because we did not want to be late, and had a starbucks with a pastry which was excellent (in my rush to be not late, I skipped breakfast), after which we went for a wander through the market. We saw many excellent and lovely things and I wish I could afford or have space for half of them. In the end I came home with a pair of earrings and two pairs of socks, which are just awesome:/dsc00071.jpg.html) /dsc00072.jpg.html) The giraffe ones are my absolute favourites. In the course of our wanderings we saw this shop with its retro 80s sign, had a peek at how the Cutty Sark was doing, saw low flying RAF rescue helicopter which landed near the Dome (I hope noone was hurt) and had a ride on the amusingly named "Wheel of Excellence" (here). The view was spectacular. It's there till some time in September, so if you're in the area I can recommend a trip on it. It's only £7 for an adult and I think good value for what you get :) It's no London Eye, but it doesn't really pretend to be in size, legnth of ride or price :) All pictures here. Sorry for the quality - I didn't take my lovely Panasonic to Greenwich with me, so took them with my phone's camera. |
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| Apr. 27th, 2008 @ 12:24 pm Wildwood, and a Phone upggrade | |||
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I went to Wildwood (again) the other day (this time with rahslowe and her sister, Hannah) and got some more animal pictures, quite different from the ones last time because most of the Animals weren't co-operating. Pictures here. Best picture was of an American Bullfrog, I'm quite pleased with it. Pity about the grass that kind of got in the way of my shot. The other thing that happened to me recently was a mobile phone upgrade. I was due for my upgrade a couple of weeks ago but put it off till yesterday, and had the weirdest and easiest upgrade ever (which is why I'm writing about something so mundane :p) My current phone is a Sony Ericsson W300i and I've been very happy with it for the most part, but it's 18 months old, scratched and generally looking and starting to behave like a phone that's 18 months old (unimportant bits falling off it and such). Anyway, I decided to pull my finger out yesterday and call T-Mobile (who I've been with for nearly 6 years now on contract, and four years before that on PAYG, and part of that was when they were still One2One). What can I say, I'm really happy with them, always had excellent customer service from them, and not had any problems with coverage - when I was first with them they were the only ones with signal covering my mum's house (necessary since I was living there at the time). I got through to customer services very quickly and asked about an upgrade. A very chirpy scotsman confirmed I was due, and said I was a high value customer to them, and as such he wasn't going to offer me any deals - I should just say what I wanted and he would make it happen. So I said I was after the Sony Ericsson W890i, which according to T-Mobile's website should cost me about £50. He said I could have it for free, then gave me a discount off my bill (£4 a month) without me asking. Win :D I was really surprised, but very impressed with their customer service, which for me was impeccable. So I'm writing this all down, to act as a record for just how pleased I am with them and why. My new phone should arrive on Tuesday morning. Mmm, shiny :) |
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| Apr. 14th, 2008 @ 09:40 pm Mum's birthday and Wildwood | |||
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On mum's birthday we went to Hampton Court Palace (click for pictures). It was a lovely day :) This week is part of the Easter Holidays for schools, and Sue asked me if I would like to go with her and three of her children to Wildwood. It seemed like a nice way to spend my afternoon so I agreed. Here are the pictures of what I did my afternoon :)  Wild Boar Piglets  Badgers  Polecat It was a lovely day :) |
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| Dec. 1st, 2007 @ 09:33 pm My first gather and a meme (in which I also bitch about my illness for a change) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hiding out here: CR5 2QG
Please note before I start that though it may not seem like it, I do not actually spend much time bitching about my depression, especially here.Mostly feeling:  exhaustedNow Playing: Savage Garden: Two Beds and a Coffee Machine I fucking hate my fucking illness. I woke up this morning in a good mood despite my inability to sleep properly (trouble getting to sleep and then staying asleep. 4am and I are becoming well aquainted and according to the pharmacy I can't have any over the counter drugs to help, so I guess I'd better speak to Dr K :/). I enjoyed the drive to my mum's (the weather was such that driving was really fun) where I abandoned Ben and then headed to my first CBB gather. Everyone was very nice and I had fun, but I came out ready to cry having made a really rather hasty getaway. I think I overdid it and to use a baraktaism (hopefully correctly) I think I just ran out of spoons at the end/did not have enough spoons to do what I was attempting to. Managed to calm down on the walk to the station and did not cry, but really really pissed with myself.The gather itself was nice. People were lovely and I met lots of new people (everyone) who were all very welcoming and friendly and we ate lots of varied food (Lizzie-friendly rockyroad [no nuts :D], crispy cakes, sausage rolls [turns out there is such a thing as too many sausage rolls]) and lots of other stuff. I spent lots of time hiding behind a lovely large cushion cos I was freaked and talked too much about many things, lots of which probably weren't appropriate. Next time I shall try to be more Sotto ;) Played some games - the present game and an articulate type thing but with CBB words. The team I was on won, but that was largely down to the scary Chalet knowledge of Xanthe and Liss, then I ran away cos I was tired and getting panicky. In all, it was really nice and I'd do it again, but maybe I should wait until I'm more betterer. Or something. Have a meme I stole from greenfurrymoose. Ben also did it and is pretty much the exact opposite.Your results: You are Deanna Troi
Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character are you?" quiz... Finally, and some of you know this already, Sue has asked me to be John's godmother and I said yes :D I am very proud and excited. It's even worth braving the incence of Catholic Church for! :) |
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| Feb. 21st, 2007 @ 08:29 am Espressions - Pictures of the finished articles! | |||
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I mentioned in this post how mum and I, and prior to that, Rah, Claire and I spent afternoons in Espression, Canterbury. Today I went to pick up the finished articles (that have been glazed and fired) from the shop and have taken pictures of them for your viewing pleasure. I also took a picture of the Vase I painted when I first went (the trip with Rah and Claire). ( The Vase ) ( Mum's flower dish ) ( My mug ) Anyway, to summarise: before and after. |
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| Feb. 15th, 2007 @ 11:05 am Espressions | |||
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Yesterday no1typo came to Canterbury and we had lunch in Burrito Bob's (excellent mexican takeaway and not nearly as busy as it should be. In case you live in Canterbury and you don't know where it is - it's next to Super Noodle on Northgate). From there we went to Espression which is just opposite Westgate Games. Basically you go there and paint pottery. Lots of different items at lots of difference prices, the price you pay for teh item is all inclusive - for the item, the paint and the varnishing/firing process. I went before with rahslowe and claire_tanner and did a vase which turned out beautifully. This time I painted a mug. Mamma painted a little flower dish. We had a drink (her coffee, me hot choc with whipped cream :D) and painted. What a lovely (and fairly cheap) way to spend 2 hours :DPictures of the unfinished articles here. In the evening we had Kudos. Nice day :) |
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sleepy
productive
satisfied
geeky
pleased
creative
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