My Fuzzy Brain

Letter Character Meme

2008-10-02T17:21:49Z

tagged by gabrielladusult
She gave me a T

*Request a letter by commenting on this post.
* I will give you a letter.
* Think of 5 fictional characters and post their names and your comments on these characters in your LJ.

Trevor the Toad - maybe it's just the overabundance of HP fans on my flist but Trevor was the first T I thought of. Not so much JKR's Trevor, who we really don't know that much about other than his fondness for going off on adventures without Neville, but the Trevor in a fic I read. He was Grandfather Longbottom who had been transfigured by Augusta into a toad for his misdeeds. Transfigured Trevor ended up at a pet store where he saw Uncle Algie and did tricks to get his attention, and his escaping from Neville was all an effort to get to McGonagall to get changed back.

Tina, Hollyoaks - An annoying character from a terrible soap on here in the UK. I know it's a rubbish programme but still I watch. Tina is the doormat sister from a family of 6 kids. And she dresses like she's a housewife from the fifties. On rationing. Despite the fact that her sisters all have some dress sense (though some of their sense is 'slapper') as does their mother and their gay brother. I've been finding her super annoying lately not least because she cheated on her husband, and passed the kid off as her brother-in-law's (She was surrogating, that was legit) then when it all came out hid from everyone, cried and whined. Finally told the real father and has moved in to his place where she is trying to have a relationship with him (he is sensibly fobbing her off, because he knows that even though they have a kid together, she lied about him not being father for a year and these things need not be rushed). Oh and he's also her sisters ex-husband. And this is all in the space of a week. I know she lives in soap-world but still get a grip and stop being so wet already.

Treebeard - Lord of the Rings also known as Fangorn, Head Ent of Fangorn Forest, and possibly all Middle Earth. Treebeard is just cool. He is old and gnarly, in both senses of the word and has the coolest lines, my favourite? "I always like going South; somehow, it feels like going downhill." (although I don't recall bookTreebeard saying that, only filmTreebeard) Treebeard rocks!

Turk - scrubs, one of my favourite shows. JD's best friend and partner in childishness. I think of his last name being Turkleton, even though I know that's only Kelso... being obtuse? trying to be funny? Who knows why he calls him that. It's stuck in my mind.

and one more....

Timulty - Ozy and Millie the ultimate in innocent little brothers. Continuously embarrassing his big brother Avery, who is in constant pursuit of coolness. Ozy and Millie is a webcomic by D.C.Simpson about two fox kits, he is zenlike and accepting she wavers between 'decrying the world and trying to bend it to her will'. Avery is their fairweather friend. They are the accepting elder siblings Tim doesn't have. Check it out. See Timulty in all his cuteness.

And I'm done!

bronte7723 @ 2008-09-20T11:50:00

2008-09-20T10:51:26Z

ANd my SweetiePies resutls

You are a
Social Liberal
(63% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(30% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Democrat

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also : The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

bronte7723 @ 2008-09-20T11:42:00

2008-09-20T10:43:40Z

I gakked this from crumplehornedkiwi and I'm not American either

You are a
Social Liberal
(63% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(15% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Socialist

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also : The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

bronte7723 @ 2008-07-23T10:40:00

2008-07-23T09:45:29Z

It's been a while since I've posted here. I have still been spending a lot of time online, but I have spent most of my blogging time on a site called SparkPeople.
I have begun a lifestyle overhaul to lose excess weight and get healthy in general. I was looking at photos from my trip home to NZ over christmas, and I winced seeing my belly, especially knowing that I had sucked it in for photos. I am eating better, exercising more consistently and feeling great. SparkPeople have been a big part of that success with food and fitness trackers and forums full of others doing the same thing as me. In my time there, I have neglected the LJ community. I'm sorry for the neglect and promise to try and do better in the future.

I have been keeping up with posts (I love RSS feeds) and I'm glad things are mostly good for most of you.

A Hyperthermic Irish Captain and Fun in the Sun

2008-06-09T10:00:16Z

With the plan of walking the Thames Path, Marlow to Henley, on the weekend I called my brother on Friday. He lives in London. It takes me, with good train connections, about 45 mins to get to the centre of London. On the tube it takes him about 20 mins. Despite this seeming proximity, I haven't actually seen him since March, so I thought it was about time. I invited him to walk the path with us.
He declined on this basis - If we walked Saturday he would be up early and at the pub to watch the All Blacks test. If we walked Sunday, he would be sleeping off a night at the pub.
The reminder of the AB's game was all I needed to decide that Sunday was definately the day to go walking on.

Saturday morning I slept in a bit, Kick Off was at 8.35am, UK time. I didn't leave the house until then. Didn't matter, in my plans I had forgotten that the gym doesn't open until 9 on the weekends. My master plan was to spend the game on the cardio machines at the gym, watching it on the nifty screens mounted on top of each machine. I didn't make it in until just before half time,then had to go and grab my earphones, which I had left in the changing room, but otherwise it worked out great. I cardio'd for an hour, finishing just after Brian O'Driscoll ran inside to get warm after visibly shivering on camera under the cold NZ winter. Admittedly it had been raining heavily all game, so he was probably soaked to the bone.

Then I did a full weights workout. By the time I got home about 11.30am SweetiePie was just getting up, so it worked out great for both of us. I got a workout, and he got to sleep in without me interrupting his sleep because I was bored and would he just wake up already.

When we do the groceries (we walk to the store) we have a tradition of going to Subway on the way since we usually have nothing lunchy in the flat, and shopping on an empty stomach is a recipe for disaster. So it was off to Subway, then walking to the bigger store further away. It's further but the walk is pleasanter, and as my host sister would say 'Jeden gang macht schlank' or translated ' every step slims'

Sunday was the walking day. We were up in time to get the 10.18 train and arrived at Marlow just before 11am, before setting off up river, following the Thames. We had a months rain in one day last week and the river was flowing very high and fast. Just as we left Marlow it had broken it's banks flooding the path. We waded through and contemplated turning back and just having a picnic if that was to be common all the way. Someone coming the other way reassured us that the path was dry so off we went. That was the only point in the whole 8.7 miles where the path was flooded,

The day was gorgeous. 27 Celsius, and after a cool period the last couple of weeks it was especially nice. Not nice? The fact that in our rush to make the 10.18 train (the next wasn't for an hour) I hadn't had time to put on sunblock, and had forgotten to throw it in a bag. Luckily I had my big hat I bought in Florence, and my new sunglasses, so at least it's only my arms and not my neck and face that are red today.

I had packed a picnic, and only just enough water. We stopped at a pub for a break and I had some diet coke with ice. I loved that ice.

When we arrived in Henley we stopped for a drink (diet coke again) and a snack (bowl of chips) before heading home.
I am a bit sunburn sore today, I am skipping the weights and going to try a new step class, Power Step. I may not be able to swing my arms above my head, but it should still be fun.

Lazy Boyfriend Rant

2008-05-30T13:36:30Z

My boyfriend is annoying.
He always says how tired he is at the end of the day and uses as a reason not to do things at home like start dinner in a timely manner or put the washing on. (We mostly split the cooking, and he does all the laundry while I do all the dishes)

When I ask him about his day he can never come up with the goods on why he is tired. It gets frustrating since I cycle to work, where he walks a short distance and takes the train. We work the same hours but I'm on my feet more, and I also go to the gym each day, come home and get straight into doing stuff be it tidying up, starting dinner or other little bits and pieces that need to be done to keep a household going. What is frustrating is that he always makes out like I do nothing at my job, admittedly I am a Doctoral student and that gives me a lot of flexibility, but I still have to do work. I don't just spend all my day on the internet like he implies.

He doesn't seem to see the correlation to my helping him with his job - by putting all my dirty clothes in the laundry basket where he can find them- with my wanting him to leave the kitchen in a tidy state - stacking plates not leaving them in the sink, throwing away potato peelings, rinsing pots so the food doesn't stick horribly to them. To me they amount to the same thing, leaving things so others can do their job properly.

I just get really frustrated at having to carry the load, and whenever I try to talk to him about it he ignores me, then says something like 'I don't want to talk about it any more' - he never talked about it in the first place.
Then he says I'm nagging, when all I want is for him to take his fair share of the mess we create. I certainly didn't do it on my own. Apparently asking a second time, even hours after he said he would do the thing, is nagging.

Grr. Boys are so infuriating.

My Heart Rate Monitor Has Arrived!

2008-05-29T10:36:59Z

I got home from the gym yesterday and was disappointed when it wasn't in the usual package place on the stairs. Even better my SweetiePie had taken it inside. He will usually walk straight past mail.
I opened it up. It is grey and orange, I thought it would be pink, but I really like the orange way better.
I sat down with the little booklet and read through and entered in my data, age, height, weight etc and strapped it on. It picked up my heart beat no problem. I took it off and packed it in the snazzy little carry case that came with it. I am doing a weights session today, but I am really tempted to do some extra cardio tonight just to try it out. Otherwise I'll be strapping it on for my aerobics class tomorrow.

I'll try and get a pic of it up tonight

bronte7723 @ 2008-05-24T23:44:00

2008-05-24T22:45:42Z

In the last couple of days I have been hitting Amazon pretty hard with SparkPeople inspired shopping.

Thursday I was going to meet friends for our weekly lunch but a meeting ran way over. Later, after apologising for missing the lunch (I had told them that I probably wouldn't make it but would try), we decided to meet again the next day. In the process one mentioned that they had bought wraps, and then had some chips as well. I was thinking I couldn't have any if they did that again, not because I'm wouldn't let myself at all, but because I am absolutely terrible at eyeballing amounts and weights of food and wouldn't be able to track it properly. What did I do? I went on Amazon and found a pocket digital scale. It should arrive in a day or two.

Friday, I was wondering how to class my aerobics class, as high or low impact. I posted a message on the SparkPeople forums and reading the answers it seemed the best way to judge was via a Heart Rate Monitor. Back to Amazon I went, I looked through and made sure to get one with a Calorie counter and a decent review. I couldn't afford the one I really wanted, but the one I ordered should be fine until I can either afford a really good one, or wheedle one out of my brother.
My brother is not the type to spend money on me all the time, but he has on occasion in the past few years subsidised my exercise regime, helping me to afford better quality trainers, and paying for my shoe inserts to support my arches and enable me to exercise more.

So SparkPeople. Good for the waistline. Heavy on my pocket.

Groceries and dual names

2008-05-24T20:14:46Z

I stopped at the local world issues shop today, I was looking for flaxseed which I hadn't found at the supermarket. I was too early for the organic market and had a quick look in the shop proper. I found some small chocolate bars, packs of 6, each 14g and 77Cal. They are my favourite chocolate, 70% cocoa chocolate and just the right size to satisfy a craving without going overboard. I have hidden them in the tea tin. That way I won't see them even when the cupboard is open, and my boyfriend won't find them and scoff them so the're all gone when I really need them. I hardly ever drink black tea so it's not like I'm going to be coming across them all the time.
I then carried onto the supermarket. I hardly had anything in the trolley when I was nearing the last section of the store, the fruit and vege section. Then I loaded up the trolley
Peaches
Bananas
Apples
Pears
Kiwifruit
Tangerines
Courgettes (Baby Zucchini)
Carrrots
Beans
Peppers

plus potatoes, and two different tubs of frozen berries.
Yay me and all that healthy produce!

And on the way back I went to the organic market and found the flax seed. I could have found it much earlier if I had known it was also called linseed.
Live and Learn

A Week in the Life of Bronte, Volume Seven (Friday)

2008-05-24T08:23:29Z

The rules and Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

07.46 Breakfast, poached egg on toast

12.25 The lake on campus. I cross it every da, but usually over that bridge at the end, past the bridge there are usually lots of birds rather than the solitary one here.

12.40 Lunching with FussyEater and Strawberry Shortcake, we usually lunch about once a week. We're planning a couples weekend away right now.

20.30 Stirfry for dinner, Red and Yellow pepper, pork loin, beans, carrots and rice with a little soy sauce

21.00 I was tidying up and found this bag. We bought some cheap cardboard binoculars when we were in Florece, but I didn't notice what was on the bag until now. Mandragora, If it hadn't been in the crypt of a Catholic church I'd suspect it was a front for a wizarding apothecary.

22.30 Catching up with Mum. I usually talk to her and Dad about once a week. This was a long call, it had been over three since I last talked to them.

So there it was, my week. I kind of wish I had chosen another week, one where I would be in the lab and have a bit more variation in my week, and not just be at my desk prepping for my meeting for most of the week. Maybe I'll sneak those in for fun sometime.

A Week in the Life of Bronte Volume Six (Thursday)

2008-05-22T21:43:54Z

The rules and Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

I warn you, today nothing much happened, except a 4 hour meeting where I couldn't take pictures. Then I forgot to take some for a while. Sorry

Now that my big sponsors meeting is over I should be having a more exciting day tomorrow, as I won't be spending it all at my desk

9.30 Ready for my meeting

15.05 Meet Yeasty Beasty - my plush Baker's Yeast, he came to my meeting too.

18.10 The fruit basket after a week of eating super healthy, It was really full and now I just have enough fruit for tomorrows lunch and a serving or two more. Yay me!

20.00 My kitchen scales. I have been on a healthy eating kick, and that includes my greatest weakness, Portion Control. I love my scales

20.10 My kitchen post evening clean up. I love to cook so I spend a lot of time here.

22.10 SweetiePie grabbed the camera, I was watching telly and he got me. What does it tell you about how forgetful in taking photos I have been today that this makes the cut.

Men.

2008-05-21T21:45:28Z

SweetiePie's team lost the Champions League on sudden death penalties. Now he's sulking because I don't take it seriously. I care that he's sad but I don't care who won. I giggled at the absurdity of it, he's not a huge fan anyway, not going out of his way to watch matches, but somehow my thinking it funny that the Captain lost his footing (it was a very wet pitch) and missed the goal mocks him in some way.
The more indignant he got the funnier I found it, and the sulkier he got.
He'd been out all night too, at a work thing, came in and changed the channel without caring what I was watching, not that I was watching anything seriously.
I care that he cares, but why does he think I have to care about the ruddy football?

A week in the Life of Bronte, Volume 5 (Wednesday)

2008-05-21T20:33:23Z

The rules and Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

8.35 I forgot to take a picture before I started, that glass was full.

17.25 My Supervisor pacing as he explains stuff, before a meeting with the sponsors tomorrow

17.40 Running late for my class at the gym, snacking on the go (It's an apple)

18.00 I made it in time, it was a Step class.

20.00 Dinner. Yes it is the same as last time. Yes I ate at the computer.

21.05 My smoothie, pre-smoothed. Blueberries, Raspberries, Yoghurt and flaxseed.

A Week in the Life of Bronte, Volume 4 (Tuesday)

2008-05-20T21:30:27Z

The rules and Saturday

Sunday

Monday

See what I did today,

Tuesday

9.20am MadScientist doing deadlifts at the gym. We get to the gym together a day or two a week. It keeps us honest on the days we're there alone

9.24am Me at the gym, I upped the weight today and was a bit wobbly

10.40am Getting my glasses out their brand spanking new spectacle case. Isn't it pretty?

11.00am My after workout snack

14.30 The how to store fruit and vege advisory I found and took home and stuck to the fridge. I'm not storing things right. Oops

20.30 SweetiePie had some work to do at home tonight and took my spot at the computer, yes that is a second monitor.

A Week in the Life of Bronte, Volume Three (Monday)

2008-05-19T21:50:17Z

The rules and Saturday

Sunday

8.45am My transport to work

9.03 Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day!

9.10am Pity I had to spend it at my desk

12.15pm Lunch

17.27 My officemate. Adolfo. See you tomorrow Adolfo!

20.45 At choir.

A Week in the life of Bronte Volume Two (Sunday)

2008-05-18T20:03:13Z

The rules and Saturday

I went for a walk to the supermarket and I saw...

I
13.05...Canadian Geese on the canal...

13.06... a boat going through a lock...

13.07...Swans swimming...

13.10...the canal ending in the River Thames...

13.15...and the supermarket.

15.45 Spoils of War

18.00 My Weekend To-Do list by the end of the weekend

23.25 SweetiePie is home!

Oops

2008-05-18T08:38:05Z

Darn, I forgot to take a picture of my Breakfast. Oh well today I am leaving the house, so it should be easier to find exciting pictures.

A Week in the Life of Bronte, Volume One (Saturday)

2008-05-17T19:09:05Z

Gacked from fitzette, who gacked it from someone else

Rules:
1. You must take between 6 and 8 new photographs per day.
2. Your WITL must be consecutive. No skipping days.
3. You must post your photographs at the end of that day, sometime after the last picture is taken.
4. Each photograph must have the time taken beneath and a title, with no other explanation.

You must post these rules at your first entry, then link back to it for the other six days so that people will know wtf you're doing.

Your post must say "A Week in the Life of [your name/username], Volume [whatever day you're on]."

Here we go. My Saturday. I warn you. It's not exciting.

9.35am Today's chore's. Tidy and clean the flat

10.28am My story is up on PS.net. Responding to reviews.

15.30 Cleaning the shower. I love my pretty rubber gloves.

16.35 Vacuuming with Henry

17.00 The remains of my late-afternoon snack

19:12 Dinner. Marinated grilled chicken, oven-baked potato chunks with steamed carrots and peas.

Sorry about the two food photo's in a row, but my day wasn't terribly exciting.

Pics for Dudley's Redemption

2008-05-16T19:47:20Z

Dudley's Redemption is going up at PS.net. I have a couple of pics to go with the house.

More or less what the house looks like in my mind. This is the front entrance.

Floorplan of Hestia's House. I'm not so good with the staircases. Sorry. And I can't figure out how to make it bigger without making it blurry. or Blurrier at least.

ETA: Here's another attempt.

I'm Back!

2008-05-14T22:09:26Z

I'm back from Italy. It was a great holiday. I overate, well who wouldn't in Italy with all that great food. I also walked my feet into pain every day so hopefully all the food was walked off.

Rome was awesome, we spent most of our time in the ruins of Ancient Rome, the Palatine Hill with the Emperors palace and residence, the Roman Forum and the Colosseum, and the rest of it at the Vatican.
I found the Colosseum more impressive from the outside, we walked down the street, stopped at the corner to cross the road, turned my head and it was there! At the end of the regular street, just there! When inside it was a bit... small.

We splurged on a tour of the Vatican Museum, it had the added benefit of jumping the 2 hour queue. We had a great guide who was really enthusiastic, a theology / art history PhD student based at the Vatican Museum who jokingly said she was there to snag a Swiss Guard. The Pinacoteca Vaticana was amazing, but I would have been quickly bemused without someone to explain and point stuff out. The Sistine Chapel was the big thing on the tour, the guards kept clapping hands "Silencio - Please silence" but it didn't do anything, everyone kept talking. God touching Adam was less impressive having seen it on T-shirts world over, than the fact that there are 3 feet between the two fingers, though it doesn't look it.
The creation of the universe was the most impressive. Working with a pigment on 1cm of stucco quickly drying and leaving a limited amount of time, With that he managed to get a multilayered look of black, pinky-red and silver all in the limited time.

I'm really not too good at describing stuff obviously.

In Florence we only did one of the big three museums, the Borgello a statue museum which had some pretty cool stuff. We had hoped to go to the Uffizi, a really important museum for renaissance art, given that Florence was the epicentre of Renaissance due to the funding of the Medici family and others like that. A lot of time in FLorence was just walking around and feeling the city.
I bought a straw hat. And some sandals, I had thrown my old sandals away at the end of our NZ holiday when they developed holes in the soles. My hat kept threatening to blow off so I went in search of ribbon. Really hard to find when 1, you don't speak the lingo, and 2, The shop i found the ribbon in was a bra shop, which wasn't where I was expecting to find it.

We skipped the Uffizzi so we could get to Venice before midnight, We sold our tickets to people in the queue so they could skip the waiting, In the queue was also an old friend from Selwyn, Jeff, whose name eluded me, while his brothers kept swimming into my head. It's little meetings like that prove how Kiwis are everywhere. To top it off we met some more later that day climbing the Basilica bell tower.

Venice was bitey. I was bitten many times, and having left my antihistamine cream at home I was scratching like mad. We looked at the budget in Venice. We had spent loads more than we had planned before the trip. Well more than Jon had expected, I was in charge of the money, but had been ignoring how much had gone out. We started being more careful, and bought some stuff for a picnic at a supermarket near our hotel. We were staying on the Mainland, because Venice is pricey so we were in a semi-regular neighbourhood. OUr first stop in Venice was the Museo Ebraica, the Jewish Museum in the first ever Ghetto. In fact the word ghetto comes from the area of Venice where it was. It was a tiny island which would have had up to 700 people living on it, with 5 synagogues, we were allowed to enter three of them and toured the museum before having our picnic in the Ghetto square.
We went round the Doge's Palace, the elected duke of Venice, who was barely allowed out of the city, and not out of the palace without other nobles. We took a waterbus out to Lido, the Venice Beach. It was pretty and we sat on the beach for a bit.

By the time we had got back to Venice and down the Grand Canal I was super tired and hungry. It was a matter of feed me and I'll go straight to sleep like a child. SweetiePie fed me. I went to sleep.

The next day we went to the Museo Currer which is all about Venice's history and empire. It had some awesome maps of Venice, for all the century's it has actually changed very little in it's make up.

I'm going to bed now.

Good Night.

stuff

2008-05-01T16:08:03Z

I had a meeting with all my supervisors on Monday. As things went I didn't get raked over the coals, rather only had a couple of coals thrown at me instead. All things considered I can deal with that. I stll have a stack of scientific papers to get through while not falling asleep and actually taking stuff in so work life is not all peachy keen.

My story is mostly passed by my pre-beta (Thanks

crumplehornedkiwi) and started to be passed by my PS.net beta. We're holding off on posting till we have got through a few of them, and also more importantly I'm back from holiday.

Yup, holiday. Mind you this is after we spend Saturday celebrating Future-Brother-In-Law-the-Younger's 21st Birthday in London. FBILthe Elder is going to be staying at ours without us that night, while we appropriate his old bedroom at the family home since it's way more convenient for the airport. Musical homes that night.

SweetiePie and I are leaving early Sunday for a whirlwind tour to Italy, two nights each in Rome, Florence, and Venice. I've never been to Italy but it sounds awesome and I can hardly wait. Now I just need to get some cute and comfy sandals. My favourites wore out, to the point of holes in the soles, when we were in NZ over Christmas and I left them there for my parents rubbish collection to deal with.
So for those of you who care, there'll be radio silence coming from this direction for a week or so.

ANZAC Day and the start of summer

2008-04-27T19:34:36Z

I had a long weekend having taken Friday off to be able to go to London for ANZAC day commemorations. I got a ticket for the Westminster Abbey service in London. The service wasn't as good as a dawn service, but it was still good to be with other Aussie and Kiwi's though I am a bit jealous of my brother who was in Turkey at ANZAC Cove this year. The Abbey smelt like rosemary with lots of people wearing it instead of poppies, Rosemary for remembrance. It's harder to get poppies here for ANZAC day, it being months away from the UK's remembrance day.
It was a little unfair when we came to the singing of the national anthems. We could help the Aussies out with theirs, but they got stuck with the first verse of ours, not being able to sing in Maori.

I had taken a change of shoes with me, and changed out of my heels and into trainers on my way to the Natural History Museum and spent the afternoon wandering around. It was the last few days of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. Some of the pictures were amazing, like the one where a bear came over to see a guy who was photographing salmon and snuck up on him. It made for an amazing shot. My favourite though was an arctic fox in the snow, though it came up better on display than it does on the net

Saturday SweetiePie and I went to a barbeque, the first of the season. We arrived at two for a late lunch around three, and stayed playing games until 11. It was a really fun night.

Today I was a little hungover, but it mostly evidenced itself as lethargy. I was bleah most of the day, but perked up after gorging on chocolate cookies.

My evening

2008-04-23T20:37:54Z

I am slowly getting back on track at work. Slowly being the operative word.

SweetiePie is out watching the football and I have the flat to myself, I stopped in town for a couple of things, and treated myself to a punnet of raspberries. Mmm I've always loved raspberry's. It's probably a hangover from summers picking berrys for Christmas and Holiday money. We'd be up early to beat then sun and pick for a few hours until it got too hot, then had the rest of the day for playing. They never taste quite as good as they do when they are picked straight off the vine? bush? having been hanging in the sunlight which has brought out the sweetness. Unfortunately if you leave them in the sun once they have been picked they just go mushy.

I think I'm going to have a bath. I like baths.

I need a Hug :-(

2008-04-21T16:45:21Z

I have had a yucky day.

To start with a slept in, not a big deal I don't have any specific hours to work but annoying, then I discover I have no clean underwear or bras and blow up.
Last night SweetiePie had a row over, among other things, his not having done the washing. I pointed out my lack of underwear, emphasised that it took than overnight to dry out bras and he said he would do some. When I went to get dressed this morning and I saw no bras on the drying rack I blew my top. I screamed a scream of rage I cannot, rationally, imitate. Then I rang SweetiePie and berated him, not a good move I know, but i wasn't thinking rationally. He hung up. I screamed some more then I rung my sister. My brother-in-law is just as bad and she claims worse. I had a good old rant. I still don't feel completely better, that'll have to wait until I have it out with SweetiePie.

The day got worse, I couldn't figure out what to do with my data. I saw my supervisor, he came down hard on me. Tried to do stuff with my data but keep on getting stuck. Grr. My hearts not in it at all. I just do not care about the work I'm doing and that leads to boredom, lethargy and reading a whole lot more fanfiction than I should.

I have choir tonight. I skipped it last week so I have to go. Morale in the choir is dropping and is way lower than when I joined so I'm not exactly looking forward to it. Our conductor is sapping our good humour and is so pernickity that we keep getting stopped and never really get to sing through a section.

I'm going home. If anyone has tips on how to house-train a man I'd love to hear them.

Dudley's Redemption part 5

2008-04-18T21:13:12Z

And I don't think many people are reading this, but I'll keep on posting. Anyone wanting to pimp my story to a wider audience (Thanks crumplehornedki)I would love you for it.

So here we go.

Chapter one

Chapter two

Chapter three

Chaper four

5. Daily Life with Hestia and Dedalus

Dudley finished scrubbing the loo and set the brush in the holder before flushing. Mummy insisted that the bathroom, and his bedroom, were cleaned every week and Hestia refused to let Mummy do it. She even did some sort of spell to stop Mummy ever coming up to clean, she could still come upstairs but she was unable to clean to for him. Dudley thought it was all unfair. Mummy didn’t mind cleaning, and Hestia or Dedalus could just wave their wands and it would be done so why did he have to do it.

He had chores around the house too. Daddy was still oddly calm, doing the garden and Mummy did the kitchen. Mostly he had to take the rubbish out to the gate and feed the cats. Hestia and Dedalus each had a cat. He often found one or the both in his room after school napping in a sunbeam. Flake liked to nap on this bed, and Polka had claimed one of his jumpers on the floor at the foot of his bed.

Dudley washed his hands and left the bathroom. He had homework to do. He had got behind. At Smeltings they had had designated prep time. He’d never had to plan any time for it and so had not left himself enough time to finish his assignments. He’d taken to sitting in his room with a book. He’s finished the Horrible Histories and now just pulled books off the shelf at random before reading the blurb on the back and either cracking the spine or putting it back. It hadn’t helped his schoolwork when he’d been caught on those Sharpe books. He’s watched the TV series with Sean Bean but there were so many stories.

After the Sharpe episode, as he thought of it Dudley figured he had to be a bit better about his homework. At Smeltings they’d had prep from 7.30 each night after dinner. Now each night after dinner Dudley came upstairs and did his homework until Mummy brought up a mug of low fat hot chocolate and a Rich Tea Biscuit or something she’d made during the day. It had improved a lot since she had let Hestia do the beating.

His work had been getting easier. The librarian, Mrs Forrester had said it was because he had been doing all the prep and it is easier to build on when you know something already. She’d started to help him with his essays; Dudley kept forgetting to use his apostrophes correctly.

Mrs Forrester had said he should draw up a plan on what he wanted to achieve that week. Hestia had brought him some chalk that he used on the blackboard that he had found behind the desks. He had set up a corner of the room like an office. He had the two desks against each other and both pushed up against the wall with the blackboard blocking view of the rest of the room from the desks. One desk was for his school work; Notes for essays, the next book for his English class, the next assignments. The other desk had the stuff he liked; the books he’d picked out at the library.

Dudley sat down at his school desk, looked at the blackboard and pulled out an essay he was working on. He was having to do everything by hand since he hadn’t been able to bring his computer with him. He discovered he quite liked the feel of pencil on paper though. Hestia only had pencils and quills in the house so he had used pencils to begin with until he had stopped in town to buy some biros. Quills were messy and awkward and he kept spilling ink on himself. Pencils were tidier and he could fix his mistakes. He still used pen for his final draft though.

Mummy was in rhapsodies about his studying. She’d only seen him in the holidays for years, and Smeltings didn’t give homework over the holidays. Not like Harry’s freak school. He’d always told Daddy that he had feet of essays to write. Dudley didn’t know what he meant by “feet”, but it sounded like a lot of work.

Mummy kept saying how proud she was. Had she always gone on and on like that? It had never seemed so bad in the past but he was used to being away during most of the year.

Daddy was better; he seemed to be in his own happy world. He never yelled at anything anymore. He didn’t say anything about Dudley being a nancy-boy swot if he didn’t stop reading so much. Dudley didn’t do anything to hide it either. But there was nothing else to do. He’d looked for that telly Hestia had said was in the Playroom in storage. It had been covered by a dust sheet. It was a really old boxy thing that sat straight on the floor and was older than Dudley. It was so old you couldn’t sit any closer than six feet to it or you’d get radiation poisoning or square eyes or whatever that old myth was.

Dedalus had levitated it downstairs to the living room. Dudley had managed to tune it in but only for three channels. Even when there was something decent to watch it meant sitting downstairs with his parents and that would be weird even if Dad wasn’t acting so strangely.

Dudley was finding he didn’t mind school, not the school parts of it anyway. He still didn’t like the mid-morning break, lunchtime wasn’t so bad if he stayed in the library, and that wasn’t so bad now he was reading faster. He found he was reading more difficult books as well since he had started reading in his lunch hours three months ago.

Dudley has re-entered the sixth-form year. Hestia had said it was something to do with not drawing attention to him leaving and to have no link between his old school and his new. Changing the year would make it harder to find him as well. It meant that in theory he was repeating a year but he was still finding it tough work in class. At Smeltings no one cared if he didn’t say anything in class but at the comp they made it part of the grade and called on him if he didn’t volunteer any information to the discussion. The first time the teacher had called on him he had umm-ed and ahh-ed his was to an “I don’t know”.

After that he had attempted to keep track of the conversation but he hadn’t made any real progress until he had done the homework properly beforehand. Then he had at least knew what was going on. It still taken weeks before he had voluntarily entered the discussion.

School was a lot more interesting if he prepared the way the teachers asked. After English had worked out so well and become interesting he had started doing a proper job for the rest of his classes. Except General Studies, but no one bothered to do anything for General Studies. It’s not like he had anything else to do at home so he may as well prepare.

Dudley looked over his notes for his English essay. They had been reading short stories which he found easy as he could read it over before having to take notes. He didn’t understand most of the stuff they read in class they first time around. He had been working harder than ever before. The essay he was currently working on was to examine the motif of the story and suggest situations where the same point could be made. This one would be tricky.

Dudley rushed through his breakfast, (poached egg on toast), grabbed his lunch and raced out the door. He’d slept in, which meant his mother had made his lunch without his input. At least she had stopped giving him salad only sandwiches but he still didn’t get his choice of flavours for his yoghurt or crisps. It was all he got now. He might get cake or scones with his hot chocolate in the evening but the Smeltings nurse still held sway with his mother when it came to his lunches.

He made it to his first class with a minute to spare, collapsing into his seat. The moaning went relatively quickly. At lunchtime he made his way as usual to the library. He pulled out the book he had nearly finished, and flopped onto the waiting reading sofa. He finished it and looked at his watch, ten minutes to the first bell, fifteen to get to his next class, time enough to find a new book.

As usual he started with the new book rack. There was a couple of textbooks and a few of the subscription magazines and a new Asterix. He grabbed that one, he didn’t need the pictures to make a book interesting to him anymore but he still liked Obelix and Dogmatix. Turning to leave for the checkout desk something caught his eye. There was a book on the shelf with a picture of a man in grey robes carrying a big stick, and sporting a very, very long grey beard and a pointy hat. It reminded Dudley of the wizard who had collected Harry last year and brought in that weird little hairless man and made their glasses hit them on the head.

Dudley picked it up, The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien. He turned it over the book of the century it claimed and “The English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and those who are going to read them” He turned it over again. It did look like that old guy who came for Harry. The bell rang and Dudley put the book back down and picked up Asterix and his school bag and turned to go get it checked out.

He took two steps, then without really knowing why, turned again grabbed The Lord of the Rings and carried onto the check-out desk.