*blows dust off journal*

[jadesfire]

Is there anyone still out there? LJ's been pretty quiet, and I've been even quieter, although I have been lurking in various journals over the last week.

So what have I been doing, since I haven't been here?

~ Last Wednesday, miss_zedem and I had a nice day out in Bristol, which isn't somewhere I'd thought of visiting before (it just happens to be more or less halfway between us) but I'd go to again. Lovely, lovely day.

~ From Friday lunchtime to Sunday evening I did 7 lots of singing, which was fun if exhausting. With Oxford City Singers I sang carols in the local shopping centre* and square, then we had our concert on Saturday night. For my church, I sang carols in the square, then lead the morning service, then did two carol services in the evening. Both of the evening sessions were the exhausting ones, the concert because we had an audience of 300 (squee!) and the services because the choir was small and my brain was fried. It all went off pretty well though, and my solo at the concert was fun to do, even though I only got one rehearsal and I was rather nervous about it. Once I got going it was fine though, and I'm already planning what I want to sing in the summer :)

*There's a video here if you're really keen - I'm the one with the tinsel belt in the front row ;))

~ I have been crocheting more than I knew was possible, although that's partly because crochet grows at a brilliant speed. It's definitely a craft for impatient people! I have 4 projects on the go right now, and I think they'll all get done by Christmas if my fingers hold out. And I thought writing by hand made my muscles cramp *ow ow ow*

~ I had a few days off last week and wandered round Oxford looking at the lights, the Christmas tree and the giant Menorah on Broad Street. It has lightbulbs rather than flames, but it's ten feet high, which probably makes up for that! Will try to get a picture of both at some point when the city isn't shrouded in fog.

~ I dropped out of reel_torchwood and the Podbang at amplificathon, due to lack of time and creativity, but I still plan to finish up sga_santa and get my Yuletide fic done. My new year's resolution for 2009 was to write less, which I've succeeded only too well at! It feels like there's a lot of activity over here without much time for creativity, which probably isn't doing my brain much good. The resolution for 2010 is definitely going to be to find a better balance.

Speaking of writing, is there anyone who could give me a super-quick typo-check on an SGA fic this evening? I won't have time for major editing, but I'd feel better if someone else made sure I haven't committed too many crimes against the English language!

The journal-silence has been down to a combination of the ridiculous busy-ness chronicled above and a continuing mental wobble, in which I convince myself that no one wants to hear what I have to say anyway, that writing in my journal is making a fuss about nothing and that if I enjoy it, I shouldn't do it. ...yeah, those last two don't even make sense to me. IDEK. I'm rather bleary and still slightly ill at the moment, so it's hard to know what I think, if I'm honest. But whatever it is, I'm fairly sure more coffee will make it better.

And just 6.5 work days to go before 2.5 weeks off \o/ It's going to be a busy holiday season, but as long as people let me sleep as well, it should be a good one :)

How's everyone doing out there? Hanging on okay?