You had plenty money 1922

everyone knows fashion changes really fast these days. some trends last longer than others. However, what's interesting is noting the really long lasting permanent ones. Best way is probably tv and train carriages and platforms.

tv: due to it being filmed several months before, it can be trendy but not so trendy that it's out of date by the time it hits. Often it has to develop its own trends.

train carriages and platforms: all human life is here. It's not like buses - you have rich, poor, unemployed, tourists, workers, schoolkids, mums, people making short journeys and long journeys. people dressed in all kinds of fashions and styles.

So the main trend I've noticed? piercings and tattoos. In years gone by, people used to remove their piercings to go to work due to dress codes, still incredibly narrow. A shop I worked at for all of two days in the mid-90s had rules on how many piercings you could wear in your ears, and a strong implication that you were only allowed nose piercings if you were indian or pakistani. lip and eyebrow piercings? right out.

These days, you only have to turn your head to see someone in a suit, or the female equivalent of a suit, with a bunch of piercings. upper age range normally being late 30s. The average american show (much slower moving and conservative than british ones) have the girl from IT in a very carefully turned out immaculate white shirt and pencil skirt with 1950s makeup, but with a bar through her ear cartilage and a lip piercing.

Tattoos? glance at their feet and wrists. Everyone just has them. no big deal.

yeah, yeah, move along. Been working towards this anyway due to oncoming running around in a bikini and a very short skirt all weekend for Discworld at the end of august. (all other females in costume : there's this thing called a corset. and long skirts. it's your own fault.)

Jogging, I started doing short runs yesterday (first field, starting as 40 mins, hoping to get it up to 30 mins) as I can't guarantee any weekend time until August. Hopefully if I add that to weekend runs through August it'll get rid of the holiday podge (damn you, diner and tea rooms) and sufficiently tone self up a bit more in time. Adding a few lunges and so on from one of those health and fitness mags. and cut out the seconds on top of that.

Poking hair as I hate that it's thinner than it used to be, and breaking like crazy. Health mag tells me that I want is protein - kerastase-type tablets should do - for the breakages, and zinc to get it thicker and encourage growth. Shall try it, since it can't hurt. Anyone know anything similar or works better?

Er...other stuff...

Got a free week night on thursday post going to the Wyeth exhibition in Dulwich, debating between Sister Act, 39 Steps and War Horse. Wavering towards Sister Act as it's limited run.

Poking my wardrobe to see if I can get a Victorian outfit from it for Tors and Andy's wedding at the end of the month. Putting together a new Conina top for Discworld, and apparently staplers are your friend when it comes to leather pinning.

Okay, we've just had the Van Gogh ep of Dr Who, where by several accounts they treated his depression pretty well.

Which makes me ponder something.

I get, occasionally, but haven't for years (got it mostly as a child) the type of night terrors which are a kind of sleeping sickness. Mediumly well-catalogued,and generally understood to be what gave rise to in medieval times the myth of the succubus/incubus, the black hag and in current times alien abduction. (Didn't turn off the tv as a teen once, it segued into a program about this condition and I started counting off symptoms on my fingers and went '...other people get this? Seriously, you're narcissitic enough to delude yourself into thinking it's alien abduction?') Essentially, you're partway through lucid dreaming, you think you're awake, you know damn well you're still in your own room, but you're paralysed. Add floating sensation, the feel like your body is expanding/contracting/doing some very weird shit, but you have no control over this. Sound is magnified but partly like you're underwater, and lights are either very bright or dark. It is utterly fucking terrifying. Oh, and you wake up completely fucking exhausted and it's not uncommon to go through a few days' worth.

So, not uncommon for sci-fi and fantasy tv to have this, or to be investigating this. However, every damn time it turns out to be mental control/aliens/succubus.

For once, I want it to turn out to be simply night terrors. If only to *not* pander to the alien abductees.

Was supposed to get at least a few things done last night that I'd been putting off - hair dye, jobs, etc, but got hit by the thing that's been plaguing me a bit.

'Dopey. Steadily more tired and listless plus head/jaw pain. Upchuck.'

Fortunately, this one happened in the evening so I didn't lose the day as I have done previously.

Had previously recorded dates in diary, so the fact that the pattern appears to every 3-4 weeks looks like it's tied to period.

Body, you are very fucking weird. Pre-period pain I get. Headaches and dopey I sort of get, even nausea (more likely in my case as 90% of my headaches tend to focus on jaw), but seriously, being sick?

:pokes at eye area: Also, blood spots are not appreciated. They're not very visible but they do contribute to that ghost look when you stumble in the next morning.

On a more amusing note, as I was working from home yesterday, I put face mask on. Five minutes in, window cleaner calls as this is pretty much the first week it's warm enough. Open door, he doubles over in a fit of laughter and says 'Looking good as ever.' I mouth 'I hate you so much' at him, which sets him off again. Bastard. No good comes of having a window cleaner who's known you for years.

:sigh: tonight, I need to get shit done.

COLD. Seriously, cold. Have yet to remove leggings in office. Weekend was fucking freezing. Oh, and it snowed this morning. Not much more than about an inch, but you can tell people are now used to it since all they did was eyeroll.

Sulking slightly because Owl City is still #1, but very amused at Glee's version of 'Don't Stop Believing' slowly edging up the top ten. That and the fact that the original is apparently one of the best-selling singles of all time in total sales.

Being a bit amused by twitter. As ever, being followed by people I don't know due to random phrase usage. Including one ballerina due to a swan lake mention. Who's quite funny. But seriously, what is with all the american atheist twitters following me? I can't remember the last time I mentioned the fact that I despise religion aside from the JP2 self-harming revelations when we were taking the piss out of him.

Query for the exercise people : does doing more sit-ups do anything for your general core strength? I know it firms up your abs, but wasn't sure if it's any good for the rest of it. (brought to you by Heather trying to figure out a way to force herself to sit up straight. My posture is fine as long as I'm not sitting down) In other body-related news, moobs reduction surgery is on the rise, mostly related to obesity/weight issues. AUGH. If it's a weight issue, surely it's considerably less painful/traumatic to just fix your diet than go under the knife? I think this is one area of cosmetic surgery where women mostly only get it for non-vanity reasons.

Oh, and success: Weirded out the new office eyecandy as I was constantly glancing at him last week to figure out who he reminded me of. Turns out to be a cross between Alex and Ben Daniels (him off The State Within and Law and Order UK. The man has an Olivier. Does he have no shame?).

so far, have not attempted to savage any passers by or work colleagues out of hunger, so at least the special k is filling me up.

Yesterday, there came the wail from IT of 'everyone getting this message, disconnect from the network and run your virus scan NOW' ... which turned out to include half our team. Then told everyone else to run it anyway. So that was somewhat amusing. The virus whatsit got rid of it on the infected computers, but it turns out everyone else had a couple of trojans lurking in user profiles that weren't their own, which tended to raise the cry of 'who the hell is joss01?'

This tourist guide to the tube speaks the truth. you will need no other map, tourist people.

Oh good god. I've just seen an ad for American Apparel, advertising '25 different one piece bodysuits available now'. WHY? Why would anyone want to resurrect these incredibly uncomfortable things? The poppers would come undone when you least expected it, or stuck, or would take ages to do up. And why do you feel the need to wear one of these anyway? What advantages does it have over a bog standard top?

Went hunting for old notebooks to find the notes on the nano ideas. On finding them, have got the upstairs downstairs notes (which was 1920s, not edwardian as I'd previously thought and a lot soppier - good god, valet boy, you were a *doormat*) and the psycho exploring officer (who is too bloody normal and what, precisely, is with this plot/character development? Plus some weird details which make no sense unless you knew the universe I was working on in another completely unrelated story.). can't find the girl who disguises herself as a boy to go soldiering, but am pretty sure I can remember how that one went. Slightly peeved that I don't have it since I remember there was some decent dialogue in those notes. What is odd is that I can find my recent notebooks, I can find my old notebooks, but not the ones from a year ago. Middle period of the last few years missing. Suspect there is an Eater of Notebooks. Like the Eater of Socks, but more into spiral bound cheap wood pulp than cotton and wool.

Looking at the 80s mining strike circle village one... gah, it looks a great idea, but I think falling back on the ones where I have some idea of the characters would be best this time. Because at least then I can write the dialogue. So, toss-up between 1920s upstairs downstairs, psycho girl chucked into the exploring officers, or girl disguising herself

Got back yesterday in time to be amused by mum hyperventilating a bit - she's doing the Macmillan Coffee morning thing on friday and had just got advance warning that the local Pathfinders group had got wind of it. The person who used to organise such things died a bit ago, so when they heard about it, they went 'ooo, they're starting again!'. Which ups her numbers by about, oh, 30 or 40 people.... food is not a problem (baking has been pretty much non-stop). It's the tea, coffee and crockery. Cue frantic ringing of the neighbours and pathetic bleating for spare mugs.

Trying to decide whether this Jay-Z/Rihanna track is bad or not. Chorus is decent, the first bit's good, it just goes on for-fucking ever and what was good starts to get really tired. Fuck it. This is not worth my attention, give me the latest Madonna and Mika and Chipmunk, for I must BOUNCE.

PK tech girl

Not as such. only in the fact that I'm blonde. Been watching more Farscape. Pondering buying S3 & 4. And it's quite odd watching a series by random out of order eps as the whim strikes you. two eps of S2 here. 1 ep of S1 there.

Turns out I do have a ticket for Mission Starfury. Now to get around to the hotel thing.

Went sorting through the envelopes of photos I have from ... about five or six cons' worth. eeep. Now pondering whether I may have too many photos of Mark Sheppard. I've been told it's impossible to have too many of Nathan Fillion or Christina Hendricks, but the question is whether this holds true for Mark Sheppard. (and now wondering whether it's worth braving the stage door scrum on tuesday for Cage aux Folles. Admittedly I'd like one with Simon Burke.) Been informed by Pooks that I *will* be dressing up for Rocky Horror on Thursday, but I seriously have nothing even remotely suitable beyond a pair of fishnets and some ankle boots. I have nothing sparkly or boa-like.

Pondering what's realistic for losing weight before Hub 3. (about six weeks' time.) Due to camping and too much dessert, am now at that inconvenient size 13 rather than a 12, which means hotpants are a tad worrisome. I've been completely unsuccessful in motivating my arse out the door after work for jogging, but have started jogging at weekends. Made a start on the resolution to have no desserts at lunchtime at work. Going to test willpower against having seconds of dinner. And no, self, you would not be able to cope on the Special K diet.

I've had a pair of scales in the bathroom my whole life, so weighing self in the morning has been automatic and probably led to me being *very* realistic about my weight - I weigh more than I look due to my build, aka hello to the leg muscles, consistently been between 10 and 10 and a half stone since puberty at 10, no matter what height or size I was. The only time I've been below that was when I dipped below 10 stone last autumn when I was jogging for an hour 2-3 times a week and an hour and a half each weekend, which was on top of my 4-mile walk commute.

I know for a fact that weight varies during the day due to water intake and meals, and if you're female you vary over the month due to your cycle. So what I'm curious about is precisely how much. Like, is there a major difference between directly after breakfast and directly after lunch? How much water weight did I lose on the two mile walk in the afternoon vs. the morning walk? Beginning of the period vs. end?

Gah. Does anyone know any sure-fire ways to make you sit up straight aside from wearing a corset or waist cincher? Bloody office chairs make it far too easy to slouch. And as we know, bad posture = back pain (and with me, the knock-on of shoulder and wrist pain)

listening to the 2-CD version of the Dreamgirls soundtrack. And once again, it really does prove that aside from a couple of tracks (oh the joy of the different remixes), there is normally a *reason* why most soundtracks are cut down to 1 CD.

ah, youtube. reminding me that a track is *not* as good as I remember, thus saving me from hunting it down in my cd collection.

:pokes womb: so far today, you have only been twinging and vaguely achey, thus not needing the heatpads. You may live.

According to Ri, someone she met at a party is involved in the casting of Going Postal. Moist is apparently an unknown, but Adora Belle Dearheart is down to Michelle Ryan, Claire Foy, and someone she can't remember. Foy apparently tested better but I've only seen her play scared bunny/wet (George's gf in Being Human pilot, Little Dorrit). Personally preferring Michelle Ryan for ability to play Random's alter-ego.

Craving Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Princess Diaries 2 fic. Priscilla, I've found four bits on yuletide. Want more. Not sure where to get it. PD2... I suspect there's half a tonne on the Pit o' Voles, but I have allergies. and am really bloody lazy - sifting for that one fic per page that doesn't have exclamation marks, Please R&R or mary sues in the subject is more than fangirlkind was meant to bear.

Pubmeet peeps buttonholing me to ask what's going on with Alex. Me 'I don't bloody know!'. Suspect them of living vicariously through gossip.

http://s3fm.co.uk/permanentbedtime - Shipping forecast and the end music for Radio 4. you are feeling verrrrrry relaxed. Slightly dangerous for work-time.

Someone stuck up a photo on facebook of me in Ursula Andress outfit from a 007 night a few years ago. Would be interested to see what I'd look like now in it, since I've been doing the jogging.

note to all hoopy froods : you have 1 week to locate your towel. http://towelday.org . it will also be the Glorious 25th of May, the foundation of the People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road, so wear your lilac with pride. All zombies must bring their own shovels.

...sod. First bloody day of my period, as far as I know. And I forgot my sodding mooncup. Had to beg a sanitary pad off Shely and am hoping like hell it doesn't start. Gah. How the fuck did I used to wear these things? Uncomfortable scale = high.

Watched Eurovision on extremely jerky internet version of iplayer because apparently it registers as content that you need a code for on Virgin cable. bastards. kept getting static images. Graham Norton appears to have the sufficient bitchy qualities necessary for commentator. A worthy successor to Sir Terry. Norway? he looked like Zac Efron and the song was yawn-worthy. Meh. Also, we so did not deserve 5th place - song *boring*, though admittedly the Leona Lewis clone scrubs up nicely and has a good voice. Which begs the question of why they didn't just send the original. Admittedly not as freaky as Denmark's Stars in Their Eyes Ronon Keating impersonator, but he at least had a decent song.