Busy Bank Holiday

[jadesfire]

Yay for Bank Holidays! For the first time in 4 years, I'm actually taking this one off and at home all day. Of course, being me, I have a schedule of what I want to get done, but that's mostly to avoid getting to the end of another day off where I sort of potter randomly, get to the evening and think 'damn, I wish I'd done...' At the moment, I'm earning some money by copy-typing eighteenth century accounts of Tartars, which is surprisingly interesting, and not just in the comma usage.

It's absolutely pelting it down here, which makes me all the more glad that we went out on Saturday. Blenheim Palace is just about one of my favourite places to walk, and the more we visit Woodstock, the more we want to live there. The peace of the park was somewhat broken by a 'jousting and falconry' display that was going on up at the main house, and the sound carried really well over the lake. But it's still a lovely place to wander round, with wooded walks along the lake, open fields, and beautiful views. I always forget how big it is - you can walk for a couple of hours without doubling back on yourself.

Woodstock itself is a traditional English Village, with lots of Cotswold stone houses and little tiny shops. We love it there, and had lunch at a wonderful deli where everything is made fresh and tastes great. J had a craytish tails bap, shedding crayfish every time he picked it up. They also don't mind your lingering over a coffee, so we sat for a couple of hours, reading the paper and eating baklava. Mmmmmm.... On the way back to the car, we met the most gorgeous chocolate labrador puppy, who loved my Shaun the Sheep backpack, even when I accidentally dropped it on him. Lab puppies are so sweet, with that 'not quite grown into their feet' look that they have, and interest in absolutely everything. He was incredibly slobbery but very affectionate. I'm assuming chewing my sleeve was a sign of affection, anyway. It only doubled my dog-craving, allergies be damned. All in all, a good day.

The tardis_bigbang admin is well under control, so all I have to do is get my own story edited and nudge authors to get done as well. Because if you have more than one person checking an email account for replies, chaos ensues. I might start prodding at my sgabigbang story, I might tackle the beginning of "The Watching Years", I will tackle the story that miss_zedem prodded me towards the other day, and I might follow aeron_lanart's example and sign up for the occhallenge with Hugh. I'm also thinking that Hugh is a great character, with or without Jack and Torchwood, so I might see what I can do with some original stories with him. The thought of writing outside fanfic for the first time in years is scary, but kind of exciting. We'll see.

Also, while the house is quiet, I thought I might do some audiofic recordings. I've got a list of other people's stories that I can record, but I thought it might be nice to record some of my own as well. Any requests? (list at heretoutopia) And if you haven't read rustydog's beautiful post-Exit Wounds fic Steps, you can now listen to it as well. Download it here. Definitely recommended.

Other things to do today, to be crossed off as I go:

Finish typing

Audiofic recordings

Baking

Pilates

torchwood_meta rota

Re-organise MP3 player

Edit Big Bang fic

Email J + C [RL friends]

Hope everyone else is having a good day too - do drop in and say hi. I'm here all day :D

Comments

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

*puts in request for Doldrums and/or the Calming*

And the OC challenge sounds like a great idea!

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Stop doing that! I like having my brain to myself! They were at the top of my list...

I'm pondering it still - I'll only take it on if I duck out of the SGA Big Bang. I've learned my lesson about biting and chewing ;D

[entangled-now.livejournal.com]

Your bank holiday does sound very busy (I'm fairly sure the Tardis Bigbang admin duties alone would terrify me!) Though I have to be impressed with your plan to 'get things done' I feel quite lazy in comparison, though to be fair I have nothing pressing at the moment.

Though I suspect I'm about to get your weather judging by the sky.....

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Hee. The admin has been mostly fine - it's unwieldy more than anything, but I don't think I have much else to do on that front. And the list is more of an ambition than anything else. It's a nice thought :)

[unfeathered]

Hee, that's one good thing about living in East Anglia. Most of the rain dissipates before it reaches us. It's lovely here - sunny and hot. We might actually get out somewhere for a bit this afternoon. Which will no doubt make my hayfever even worse, but hopefully it'll be worth it. :-)

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Oh ugh. My hayfever's just getting started, but I have supplies so should be fine.

The sun is trying to come out here and the birds are singing, so it's not all bad :)

[crystalshard.livejournal.com]

*grin* Sounds like you're having a good day. Me? Coursework. *kicks coursework*

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

It's pretty good, yeah. Especially now I've stopped typing and can do what I want to do :)

*kicks coursework too*

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

Ooh, so much to comment on!

* My first thought was "UK has a bank holiday for Cinco de Mayo?" But I looked it up and it doesn't seem to be celebrating anything in particular - "early May" - is it just a holiday for holiday's sake? (That would be perfectly fine, very nice in fact!)

* Hee, I wish the things breaking the peace around me were falconry and jousting. The park and the village sound lovely. Is there a chance you might move to Woodstock someday?

* You have a Shaun the Sheep backpack! ::loves::

* I think Hugh could definitely hold up a story on his own. Yay!

* My audiofic request would be "Five Ways Jack Came to the Rescue" - and I would think you could count it as five separate fics for points purposes, right?

Thanks for the rec. ::blush:: Have a lovely day!

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Wiki has various theories as to what the Bank Holidays are for. We get one at the beginning of May and another in the middle, as well as one at the end of August. Days like Good Friday and Easter Monday, Boxing Day and New Years Day are Bank Holidays too. It's just...a thing...

We would love to live in Woodstock - there's a good bus service to Oxford and elsewhere, and it's small enough to have a good community feel, while being big enough to be interesting! Hopefully one day...

Shaun is years old now, but much loved. He's also remarkably useful as a bag!

I'm not sure about the audiofics. If I wrote them as one story, don't they count as one story. Mind you, I could get points for Gen, Jack/Hywel, Jack/Zoe and Jack/Hugh as well....hmmmm...we'll see :)

The rec is well deserved - keep up the good work! And you too!

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

I know I read a discussion about Five Things fics at some point, but for the life of me I can't find it. It seems like they were saying if they worked as separate stories and were recorded as separate files, it would be five fics - but then, they do count chapters of very long stories still as one fic, so maybe not. Hmm.

I've had this page open too long and now my brain is seeing my puppy icon licking your kitten. :)

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

*butts in* There was an Act of Parliament passed in 1871 called the Bank Holiday Act (I think) by the then governer of the Bank of England. It was supposed to bring everything into line, and also give bank workers a rest. It got revised sometime in the seventies, with a new financial services act, and that's how we ended up with eight in England and Wales.

*realises you've probably got most of this from Wiki*

*goes to look*

Ah, okay. One thing they don't mention, which may or may not have anything to do with it, is that by closing trading for a day it gives the global markets chance to even out. This matters less now, cos everything updates immediately, but in 1871 it was kind of necessary... While I'm telling you useless finance facts, here's another one - most finance institutions insist that employees take two weeks holiday as a block at some point in the year. The reason being that if you're doing something you shouldn't be doing, it won't get noticed in the space of a few days, but will almost definitely show up over the course of two weeks.

Ahem. I'll go away again now...

[ladyharkness.livejournal.com]

I feel sort of lazy now. My day has been 'recover from Friday, Saturday partying and Sunday at Collectormania'. I am utterly whacked and yet.. you're sort of prompting me into doing things. Hmmm. :)

I'm rather excited about The Watching Years you know.

Hope you get everything done.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Hee. The weekend was sort of one long holiday, and most of today has been 'sitting in front of a computer' type work, so don't feel too bad :)

I'm nervous about finishing the series, if I'm honest, which is possibly why I've left it so long. But ideas are stirring so we'll see what happens...

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

You should do "waiting" it's just gorgeous. Although only a drabble, so I'm not sure if it's allowed. Ooh, or 'Absent Friends' or "the first time" or.. never mind, shutting up now.

You totally could do the OC challenge thing with Hugh. Absolutely!

[hllangel]

Big Bang is driving me nuts.

I just noticed a 38k incomplete draft in the email that we never got a complete copy of. Grrrr.

Have emailed the author to see what's going on.

WHY do they do these things to us?

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I think these things are designed to drive the mods nuts...although I seem to be doing a good job of driving you nuts right now...sorry! I seemed to have missed a lot of stuff *hides*

Still, you'd think people would take some responsibility for their own fic...

[hllangel]

I found this one because I was looking at an older version of the spreadsheet and noticed that there was a 38k fic with an author that I didn't recognize. And believe me, I almost know the list by heart.

Seriously, though. 38k, called Volcano Day, Jack, Doctor, Rose. I want to read!

Of course, I want to read anything that has Jack in it. Except for that one...

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Ah...I actually know about that one...there's another email from the author withdrawing the story and saying why.

I was gutted too...

[hllangel]

Forward me the email?