A Study in Contradictions

I have absolutely no idea how that happened.

Well, I mean, I do. I vaguely think about things I want to post and then I get on the internet and forget all about it. I also planned to have finished some of the many and terrible WIPs I have on the go right now, but that, er, hasn't happened either? And then I just think of more things I want to write and I think my brain just sort of gets log-jammed with ideas.

Anyway, in the past month I have tweeted a lot, liked a lot of things on tumblr, finally got myself a TSN icon, totally made "wardo" as a verb happen, played through all three Jojo's Fashion Show games, had the sleep schedule of a mad insomniac and generally failed about the house in my socks and misbuttoned pyjamas.

I have had some on and off temp work, sigh. It's so depressing. The other week I worked for six days, standing up for pretty much eight hours straight every day, and in the end, I scraped past earning £200 *gets back under quilt and doesn't come out*

I also went to a wedding in Wales! It was... Are you going to call me crazy if I say it was very wedding-y? It was like the show-home of weddings. Nat's cousin is a professional cricket player and all of his friends are sportsmen and they all have very WAG parters and it was very... Wedding-y. Also I accidentally flashed my arse to a bunch of people but that's a story for another day.

Oh! Also I watched all of Band of Brothers and wept into my gchat window at daisysusan and there were pretty boys covered in dirt and heartbreak and it was amaaaaazing.

I've been trying to write this entry for like, five hours, and I'm being terrible at it, so, like, ask me things in the comments or whatever. How have you beeeeeeeen?

To make up for it, here is a masterful characterful study of Mr Rochester, by laliandra and moogle62

( ps no that is not my crazy wife in the attic shhh just come )

Hey you guys!

*waves at new people* Hiheyhello I'm Lal. Lovely to see you. How have your *checks the day* Thursdays been? I spent most of mine eating icepops in the park because I'm English and suspicious of sunshine. It may disappear at any minute! FROLIC HARD.

If you want to add me on Twitter you should because sometimes things like this happen in my feed

I am twitterpated! (thank you shiningartifact)

http://twitter.com/laliandra

TA-DA!

I blame Isi. She said it was good for procrastination and mild stalking, and I am powerless to resist such lures. Enchanted, ensnared etcetc

Um. Now what does one do?

Apart from make large eyes at mcollinknight . Kaz is here too. JOIN USSSSSSS.

If I am supposed to say what I'm doing, it's writing about the weapon that is deathly politeness, househunting and pining for my ebook of The Demon's Covenant which I was cruelly dragged from. WOE.

And that is surely more than 140 characters of what I'm doing. My life is so complex, y'all! :D!

See, I will still need LJ. You can just use twitter to remind me about all the things I said I'd post...

So, er, follow me? Or something?

So, I plan to do a proper round up of the last year, like I did before with pictures and things and I want to find a good writing meme (if not I might just make one up but anyone seen any good ones floating about?)

But for I am going to talk about Christmas!

How did it go for y'all?

I had a lovely Christmas. It involved not doing very much for the first coupla days, which was awesome because, OMG SO TIRED. I went to stay with my boyfriend and his family in Warwickshire, so leading up to Christmas I had so many conversations that went

Me: Oh, I'm going to stay with Nat for Christmas.
Other Person: Oh REALLY?!
Me: It's not a big deal! All my family are abroad! This does not make me a grown up!

until when people started raising their eyebrows at me I could barely managed a defensive noise. Until

Me: YES, I'm going to stay with Nat's family, ok?
Other person: Oh REALLY? Ooo!
My Most Excellent Housemate Elliot: But no, it's not a big deal, all her family live abroad. Please don't freak Lal out. I prefer it when she doesn't wander our house muttering to herself.

I knew I was living with him for a reason that wasn't that he says "Epic Win!" a lot, and makes falafel.

But yes, I went and was generally fed and spoiled by Nat's mum, who is a good Jewish mother and frets that we do not eat properly. She also got very excited at having a girl to buy presents for after years of just Nat and his brother, so I ended up with all sorts of cool presents including green nail polish and some very swanky purple gloves. Whenever I put them on I feel like a femme fatale or other things that suggest I should stop reading so much fic *looks sternly at AI*

I also got an extension cable with a fuse from Nat (amongst other things, she says quickly, before he cries misrepresentation) because he worries that my bedroom is an electrical fire waiting to happen. We are so rock and roll!

Anyway, I also saw some random famous people (members of a band called The Enemy) in a oub, bringing my celebrity total for December up to 3. I think I might have forgotten to mention that I met Tracey Emin. She was selling her wares in a fake flea market in the Tate Modern.

And I had a wonderful time and liked all my presents very much, although I think my favourite and present of my HEART was that Kara got an artist to draw the first scene of my AI steampunk story!

!!!

Which I might put up someday when I get round to, you know, getting on with the story. It is the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen and I kind of want to pet it and look at it forever.

Plus I got cards from various exciting places (I got yours today taurenova ! Happy Hogswatch!) and what I am counting as an early present from Kaz, a tag of my very own (I just like tags, okay?)

I also got a very excellent Yuletide fic!

It is Nest Building and it is the most adorable thing that ever adorabled. I will never have a bad day again because I can just read this fic! And it sounds just like the book, I mean, exactly, pitch-perfectly like the book :D:D:D:D

I do not think that anyone has guessed my Yuletide fic yet (apart from the people that I told about it :D). There are prizes! Alright, there are no prizes. But there could be? Or clues. There could be clues. 

And then I went off to London for two days to see the marmfish! We had so much fun, I cannot even tell you. Well, I can, and I will, as soon as I rescue my camera and upload my pics. Suffice to say, it was amazing and the marmfish remain amazing and I kind of miss them already,

And I do not have to go back to work for aaaaaaaaages because next week I am off to South Africa to see my Dad and two (TWO!) cricket tests. So you must all remind me to blog plenty before I leave.

Merry Between Times to you all!

( I have just gone through this and feel there should be some sort of disclaimer. You know like people put Warning! SPOILERS! Well I think this post should have a Warning! TANGENTS! I can only hope that what I lack in coherency.... You know the rest.)



As you may or may not know, I currently live in the lovely English city of Leeds, but I am not from there. Here. Anyway. Also, last year I did not live in Leeds, but the also quite lovely French city of Nantes. So I have come back to Leeds and have fallen hopeless back in love with it, in short, I feel like I have come home. I have a theory about why this might be, which I call The Duckling Theory.

Allow me to explain. I have moved around a lot. When I describe my parents as nomads but without the camels I am not kidding, by the time I was 5 we were on house number 5 and continent number 2. Apart from the first move from South Africa for political reasons, and knowing my parents probably because they felt like it, all these moves have been basically just on a whim. This, as you can imagine, did not go down all that well with Little Lal when given as a reason for having to leave her friends and her house and be The New Girl at school again. I made new friends and now realise that it was a pretty amazing experience, but I have been left with a frankly bizarre accent  and a sense of not belonging. Everywhere I have lived in my life I was dragged to, mostly kicking and screaming all the way, and none of the places feel like home. But Leeds, I went round the country looking at universities, and I chose Leeds, it was mine. Therefore, like a duckling looks at the first thing it sees and thinks 'mother!', I look at Leeds, the first place I chose, and think 'mother city!' When people say "Where are you from?" I have an answer. That may not sound particularily exciting, but to me having a hometown is amazing. I can only hope this made sense (and that The Duckling Theory becomes a widespread, academic term).

I love Leeds for lots of other reasons too. For a start pretty much the entire student population is remarkably well dressed. I spent the summer on my Isle, where most people's idea of high fashion is designer sportsware, so I makes me happy to see lots of people being both stylish and individual. With a few notable exceptions. *gets on soapbox*
People of Leeds, nay, of the world. Can we all agree that this skinny jeans thing has gone on far too long and collectively move on? Please. They are NOT flattering on most people, I'm including boys in this as well. If you are too thin they make you look weird and unwell with massive feet, if you are even a little bit curvy they make you look huge. There are many cuts of jeans out there, ones to suit everyone. Be original, diversify!
Also, shorts with tights makes me feel quite violent. But for the most part, everyone just looks cool, beause Leeds is a damn cool place.

I love Leeds even though today the weather went from for-October-almost-tropical sunshine to End-Of-The-World rain in a matter of 15 minutes. Hey, no one's perfect, and love is acceptance of flaws right?! It also gave me an oppurtunity to indulge in one of my favourite sports, umbrella watching. There are some amazing umbrellas out there that give me lustful and covertous thoughts. I only found out recently where the word umbrella comes from (the latin for shade, like ombre, which means shadow in French.) In a rare example of the French language being logical they call an umbrella un parapluie - for the rain. And weirdly in English we use their two other words like like this parasol - for the sun and parachute - for the fall (totally my favourite), but not parapluie. English fails at logic.

I love Leeds because I love my uni. It has the best Student Union, which is both a massive central building and an organisation. The building has shops and facilities and the organisation runs literally hundreds of societies and also helps students with any problem. I love my departments, who are filled with crazy but cool and enthusiastic professors. I love the uni library, the Brotherton. If you've ever seen the film The Mummy the library in that is our library. It's the closest I will ever get to Hogwarts...

Today I also realised I love Leeds because it contains people I love, but also hundreds of thousands of people I don't know. I walk along and look at people and that other bit of my brain, the bit where all the crazy is stored, wonders who they are and what their story is. They could be anyone. They could share my interests. They could be someone whose story I have read on lj, whose opinion I've agreed with or who said they liked my Havemercy fic. They could be one of my favourite online authors. Or not. I love that. Before I lived here I lived on The Isle of Man (haven't heard of it? Don't worry, no one has. It's a tiny country in between England and Ireland, part of the British Isle but NOT the U.K ) and it is about as far away from that as possible. I know everyone, and everyone knows me. I should say that I am the worst representative of the IoM ever. I tend to dwell on its bad points, the dullness, the narrow mindedness, the isolation, and not point out, for example, that it is remarkably pretty. Seriously, google it, it couldn't be more picturesque if it tried. But I can't make up stories for people I see in the street, because I know them already.

So if my last post was an ode to fandom, this is an ode to Leeds, to finding somewhere where you feel you belong, which is a lot more difficult than it is made out to be. It is a long and crazy loved up ramble, but I hope you've got something out of it, even if it is just finding out where the Isle of Man is...