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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| Jun. 20th, 2008 @ 05:59 am London (edexcel moderation day) | |||
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Why is it that the night before you have to get up super early it always seems particularly difficult to get to sleep? And last night I had trouble staying asleep too. Not funny, whoever's fault it is! I'm specifically looking at you, $deity! Anyway, I'm off to London today (have to be on a train in less than 50 minutes to be there on time) to my edexcel moderation day (yes, I'm marking for them again this year!), after which, assuming I'm not dead, I'm hopping over East London way to see kimble and barakta. I know I'm an old hand at this, as I remembered to ask for a receipt when buying my train tickets so I can fill in and submit the expenses claim there and then. *Awards gold star to self for being organised like that*It should all be quite nice, assuming I can stay awake :) Have a nice day everyone :) |
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| May. 22nd, 2008 @ 04:40 pm London trip, Science Museum, a giant moth and Willy Fogg | |||
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Hiding out here: CT2
( London trip (including the Science Museum) )Mostly feeling:  tiredNow Playing: Around the World in 80 Days (E4: The Temple of Doom) Last night I caught a Giant Moth. Ugh. ( Giant Moth (see? I'm not exaggerating!) ) Today I've been watching Around The World With Willy Fogg (theme tune), which was one of the blockbuster dvds that turned up recently. It's such fun :D I really enjoy 80s cartoons :) In it's honour I've made a new lj icon (see the one with this post :)) Phew. That was quite an update. I daresay there won't be another proper one for months now! |
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| May. 19th, 2008 @ 09:41 am London | |||
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| Off to London for a couple of days and a night. See you all tomorrow o/ |
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| Feb. 10th, 2008 @ 06:07 pm Charlton Vs Crystal Palace (at The Valley) - aka Lizzie's adventures in East London | |||
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I got a call recently from a family friend, John Morris. He was the only mormon who ever really kept touch with our family after daddy died and over the years he took me and Phil to lots of Charlton games (including the memorable 1998 playoff final at Wembley) because they were the team he supported and it was something he could do for us. As a result I became practically the only child in Croydon to support Charlton. Most of my schoolmates supported Crystal Palace. Oh the stick I got for it! Anyway, I hadn't been to a game in years when John called and asked if I would want to go to a game if he could arrange it. I replied in the affirmative and he got tickets for him, me and Phil to see Charlton at home against Palace on 8th February. I made arrangements accordingly - to stay with kimble and barakta at their place near Stratford so I could tube and bus it to Charlton.Found my way to where I was staying relatively easily - ben has turned his free (from a competition) Nokia N770 into a tomtom like GPS toy, so it guided me once I was away from my familar territory of the Blackwall Tunnel (I can get to that easily - from there though I get lost unless I'm going to Telehouse at East India Docks). I was made very welcome by kimble and shown all the shiny flashy lights and scrolly signs that they have set up. Some of the things would be so helpful in our hearing household as well as their are in their deaf one - a flashy light when a reminder comes up so I wouldn't miss it if I were afk would be amazing. I took down notes of which tubes and busses I needed to get to where I wanted to go and headed out.Made it to North Greenwich Tube Station ok, and boarded the bus I needed for Charlton in plenty of time - there was an hour to go until Kick Off. Unfortunately, it was rush hour and I ended up in the middle of a crowd away from any windows being squished and I missed my stop. Being unfamiliar with the area, and unable to see anything because of aforementioned squish I didn't realise until the bus thinned out a good half hour later. In the end, I had to ride the bus to the end of the route and then come back on the same one. I had ben tell me where to get off (he was following my route on a bus map because I'd called him in tears and unable to cope) but the driver failed to stop at the right stop and I ended up going one too far. *sigh* Eventually made it into the ground as the half time whistle blew. Phil and John were utterly amazing and lovely and had waited for me outside even though it meant they missed the first half too. Second half was brilliant. I'd been lucky and not missed any goals. The final score was 2-0 to Charlton and both goals were scored in the second half when I was there to see. Hurrah! I enjoyed myself very much and so John is going to see about taking Phil and I to another game in two or three months. Going back, John and Phil escorted me to to North Greenwich incase I got lost again (or attacked, which I think at least was John's overriding concern), and made it back to Stratford where barakta met me to make sure I got off at the right stop for their place. Just as well - the crush on that bendy bus was as bad as the double decker earlier and I wouldn't have had a clue if she hadn't been there and would probably have ended up in Ilford!I was taken back and fed curry and felt much more human. Then we talked and spodded until very late (I can't remember when I last went to bed that late). It was lovely and so were they :D Coming back on Saturday was much easier than going (though I almost got my windscreen cleaned at traffic lights) and stopped at Bluewater for Krispy Kreme donuts to bring home and also had lunch. Unfortuantely, I also had a Lush shaped accident (the accident looked like this, this and this), but concluded due to general business and lack of parking (there were places being used as parking spaces that I didn't know could accomodate a car) that I am never venturing to Bluewater again on a Saturday unless it is a matter of life or death. Even then, it will depend on whose life is in danger... Despite the fact that Kimble and Barakta had been lovely, what I saw of the football had been good, and I'd got some nice things in Bluewater, I was more relieved than I can express to get home again. In conclusion, some notes on London Transport. 1) Busses at rush hour are horrible. Especially if you're short. 2) My foot is not the same as a brake. You have them on your child's buggy, please use them. My foot does not appreciate the fact that you apparently failed to notice the difference. 3) Bendy busses are the spawn of satan and must be stopped. I didn't know it was possible for a bus to be so crowded. It was more like a tube train than a bus (and busses jerk around way way more :S). 4) Driving may be expensive and complicated in London but I think I would rather drive in future than be half crushed and killed on a bus. |
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| Nov. 17th, 2007 @ 11:01 pm Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat - the review | |||
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Hiding out here: CT2
I went to London after getting up at godawful o clock. I was rewarded with a stroll down Regent Street, Theatreland to Trafalgar Square (covering parts of Chinatown when we got lost) and onto Strand where the theatre was located. On the way we spent legnthly amounts of time in Hamleys and Paperchase.Mostly feeling:  chipperNow Playing: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat: Close Every Door ( My review of the show - hope it is in some way informative ) Now I'm knackered and am going to bed. So so tired. Overtired. Sleep now (hopefully). |
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| Nov. 16th, 2007 @ 09:20 pm Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat | |||
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Tomorrow I'm off at the crack of dawn to London to see Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat in an organised trip. My mother in Law and sister in Law are coming too. We'll be seeing the Matinee and spending some time in London before coming back. I'm looking forward to seeing it and hope that Lee Mead will be singing and not an understudy. Remembered how much I like him when I saw him on Children in Need tonight, and, like a true professional he kept going even when his mike cut out twice! Even if he isn't singing it should be a pretty good show. I just hope it measures up to the previous 4 times I've seen it in the West End all when I was young - think Jason Donovan and Phillip Schofield)! If I have the energy I will post a write up or something here later in the weekend. |
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| Nov. 1st, 2007 @ 01:03 pm Eurostar IVT | |||
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I am currently in St Pancras station waiting for my third and final "journey" from here to the London tunnel as my part in Eurostar's IVT - preparation for when they open it properly to thr public in a fortnights time. Both of our earlier journeys were almost an hour late so I'm hoping this last will be on time because I'm tired. It has already been a long day - up at 5, gone by 6 then stuck in traffic so a 1 hour journey took over 2! Luckily we had left plenty of time or we wouldn't have made it. Even so, we had to run and barely made it even though the train was late! It's almost time to board now. More later if I can be arsed and if you all want to hear more! This killed some time anyway :-) |
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| Apr. 1st, 2007 @ 04:57 pm Barenaked Ladies, Hammersmith Apollo 30th March 2007 | |||
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So on Friday benc and I headed up from Canterbury to my mum's just inside Greater London so we could buy one day travel cards instead of day returns with travel cards to save money, jumped on a train to London and headed to Hammersmith to check in to our hotel (Premier Travel Inn at Hammersmith - looks like a converted office block) and find somewhere meet dmc, Mich and Adam Horn & his partner (can't remember her name :( but they gave us a lift back to the Hotel after the show) and eat dinner (Wetherspoons - The William Morris) before heading to the venue for 7pm when the doors opened. On the way we got stopped by at least 4 ticket touts asking if we wanted tickets - never really seen 1 tout before, so was spoiled for choice - of would be if I hadn't had a ticket :P Got there nice and early, brought our murchandise (I got a black "I went to one of their concerts :D" tshirt while benc brought Boothby Graffoe and Vanity Project CDs & a download token for when the show eventually goes up for download and got our seats. The seated area where we were seemed really empty for ages, still not nearly full when Boothby Graffoe came on and did an excellent set including some contributions on instruments and backing vocals from some of the Ladies (Kevin first, then Jim, finally Ed). He did Baseball Playing Spider, a song about a drowning sailor ("Does anybody know how to sail a boat" perhaps?) and Bungee Girl.By the time they all went off we were well and truly warmed up and only had to wait 20 mins or so till BNL came on and opened with "One Week", straight into "The Old Appartment". Cue all the people who had not yet made it to the still fairly empty seating area all rushing in at once and spoiling my view as they wandered around finding their seats and stuff :( I have to admit, it pissed me off quite a lot. If they couldn't be bothered to turn up on time, why bother coming at all? </rant> I was delighted with the mix of songs on there, it was a great mix of old and new and two of my favourites from the new album made it on there - "Sound of Your Voice" and "Maybe You're Right" (my personal favourite of the whole night). "Brian Wilson" was fantastic and wound everyone up to fever pitch as they walked off. I wasn't a great fan of "Easy". It was better live than on the CD but I didn't like being taken down a notch from my uber fever pitch. "$1,000,000" followed and was amazing and wound us all up again. By this point everyone in the seating area was on their feet and stayed there till the very end. Brilliant ad-lib about oyster cards basically saying what everyone thinks of them and another one from Ed about how rubbish camera phones are :D Much better than the concert I went to on the Holidays tour in 2004, though I think I preferred the intimacy of the Shepherds Bush Empire over the size of the Hammersmith Apollo. Random thought: Liked the M*A*S*H referrences with some of their murchandise :D I'm sure I've left some stuff out. If you were there, comment and correct me. This is really a brain dump of what was there. Brilliant show :D Want to go again! When are they back? ;) ( Set List ) Other (better) reviews can be found here and here Cross-posted to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} barenaked_fans |
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| Mar. 30th, 2007 @ 09:06 am Barenaked Ladies | |||
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I'm off to a BNL Concert in support of new album BLAM at the London Hammersmith Apollo tonight. Very excited. Will update about it when I get back and am no longer floating near the ceiling. Yayness! Have this to keep you going: (Sung in Ed's bathroom apparently) |
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| Oct. 26th, 2005 @ 11:54 am Some piccies | |||
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Mostly feeling:
Some pictures from my visit to London and the IWM last Friday, for your perusal ;) It was actually wetter than it looks in some of those pictures. calmNow Playing: Casualty on UK Gold ( Aeroplanes! :D ) |
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| Oct. 21st, 2005 @ 07:42 am Ick | |||
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Mostly feeling:
Am on a train on my way into London. calmNow Playing: Moulin Rouge - Come What May I've been up since 5am and on a train since half 6. The weather is awful and I am fairly sure I will get soaked on my 15 min walk at the other end (if anyone is in the vicinity of waterloo and wants to lend me a brolly... ;)) Am tired but have a good feeling about today's trip to the iwm otherwise so far :) The real purpose of this entry is to ask anyone who sees ben today to buy him a coffee - he has a bad cold and slept horribly but decided to get up when i did and come see me off on the train (fool!) Then he went straight to work. So yeah, if you see him - coffee :) You will have my undying gratitude. Anyway, London ho! |
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| Jul. 7th, 2005 @ 07:37 pm Stuff | |||
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Mostly feeling:
I wanted to mention something on this journal about contemplativeNow Playing: Channel 4 News  my dad who would have been 58 today. This brings with it its own difficulties and grief but owing to the events in London today I don't feel that I can possibly wallow in it. Instead there is a teeny mention of this wonderful man, my father, Phillip Robert Overal, who is still greatly missed by his family. As for London, the dead and injured were just ordinary people doing ordinary things. They were people who were thinking about the weather, or work, or what was for dinner tonight and that is the tragedy that hurts so many people but I will not grieve for them. Instead I grieve for the people who are left behind and the years of pain they face. Despite the attacks today I still think ID cards are a very bad idea, as is the further removal of our human rights. That is the only way in which the terrorists will win. |
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| May. 4th, 2005 @ 06:45 am London | |||
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Mostly feeling:
Yesterday I went to London with the wonderful  bouncyNow Playing: Super Sekrit Moosik no1typo to get some Wedding Dress fabric from  The Silk Society in Berwick Street (off New Oxford Street). It's lovely fabric and the people in there are so incredibly helpful. Go there if you need fabric. It's excellent and the fabrics are really really lovely :D The inside of the shop is just like a treasure trove :DAfter the business was out of the way, mamma and I wandered towards Covent Garden and had a lovely drink in the courtyard, looked round the stalls and then went off for lunch. On the way mum pulled me into Bravissimo. Wow wow wow wow. We got measured and I got two new bras in my new size (36 FF! :O). THey only do bras for the larger of cup (DD up) which is a refreshing change for those of us with DD+ - they get increcingly difficult to find in ordinary shops. Anyway - GO THERE if you have large breasts. The bras are so supportive and comfy :D Thanks mamma :D Had lunch in Cafe Rouge and had a big laugh. Lots of fun. It felt really nice :) Ambled back to Victoria and headed back to Canterbury. Met up with ben, had chinese for dinner. Numnum. Mum's pics of teh day are here and mine are here. Work now :) This was an update brought to you by the latters H-A-P-P-Y. |
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| Dec. 4th, 2004 @ 10:06 am Who needs sleep... ;) | |||
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Mostly feeling:
Well I saw BNL[1] last night1[2] and I would just like to say, for the record... bouncy
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| Oct. 19th, 2004 @ 06:58 am Weekend | |||
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Mostly feeling:
An odd weekend all in all, but good fun :) peacefulNow Playing: Berlin: Take My Breath Away Saturday started very very early as ben had to be on campus for 8am because Library power had to go off for maintainance and so all the kit in the machine room had to go off too. So he went and did that, then we had coffee from Starbucks while Estates played around with the power before coming back so ben could switch all the kit back on again. Then we gathered bits and off I drove to London where I went to see Telehouse cos ben had some work to do there. I must admit it was very very shiny, but this wore off after about 10 mins and then it was just boring ;) Met some ANL people, which was quite jibbly and found their attitudes to me really good. Found people listening to my opinion on something and taking my comments on board and *that* was very cool. Anyway, after breaking some stuff (and 6 hours there) ben and I departed to have dinner with my mum and brother and *what* a dinner that was :D We had 3 courses, including Serrano ham for a first course! I haven't found anywhere in canterbury that sells this precious material :D Biiiiiiiiiig Chicken pie for main course and yumyums for dessert. It was unfortunate that we couldn't stay longer :| I like home visits. Sunday was ben's parents where we ate yummy spag bol and chatted and had a generally nice time. I got my birthday pressies from them cos I won't be seeing them again till after my birthday. I got 21 presents and £21. I can see a theme here ;) Lots of chocolate and nice smellies and a really cool book with piccies of Britain in the World War Two. Only downside to ben's parents is their cats who are great but have such fine fur that it irritates my chest and nose, so antihistamines are always needed when we visit ;) Hrm...I think that's about it. My life very boring ;) Ooh - quick plug. The Comspoc website is actually back up with new content! :D Must get dressed now and go to work...(much babysitting tonight :)) |
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| Sep. 6th, 2004 @ 05:44 pm I AM THE ANGEL OF MUSIC!!! | |||
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Mostly feeling:
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! excitedNow Playing: Phantom of the Opera (in my head :)) I'm seeing Phantom of the Opera tonight at its london Theatre in the Haymarket. I'm so very very excited. Only an hour and a half until curtain up \o/ Even better - I'm seeing Les Miserables tomorrow and having dinner with J :D I am very very excited and despite a late night last night and a demorolising day of work I AM HYPER! PH34R ME! *bounces around London* |
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