Officially a Woman

Not that I didn't always know it and feel it inside, and thanks to hormones becoming more feminine day by day on the outside, but I've finally got my gender recognition certificate, which means in the eye of the law I am a woman with all the rights, wrongs, priviledges and oppressions that all women have, so I can now marry a man, have a civil partnership with a woman, get sent to a women's jail if I break the law, all the pluses and minuses of being a woman apply to me and the law will back it up.

Additional
Now I just need to wait for my new birth certificate :)

The Wheel of Time Ends

Finally finished reading The Wheel of Time: A Memory of Light, it's only taken me 3 1/2 days too!  I didn't want to rush myself nor tarry too long as it's a monstrous read but one I was able to defeat in the end.  Much too early for spoilers, as I'm sure there's many others out there still to read this tale, but I will say this, it's quite a journey and well worth it.  Of course now the mind turns to thoughts of prequels and perhaps even sequels, after all there's is always that voice that asks, 'and then what happens?' but perhaps it's too early for that just yet.

An Unexpected Hobbit

Well after all the waiting (I booked tickets back in the middle of November, oh yes precious we didsies) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was unveiled to me and my friend Zoe today and it did not disappoint.  Crammed full of deadly orcs, villianous goblins, monstrous wargs and sizzling irishmen and the delectible Cate Blanchett, the film rollops along with all the fun and excitement of any of the sequel films.  One must not think of the Hobbit as a lesser work merely because it came first and it's not as long, the book crams its plot into its pages, so there's more than enough to go around for the duration this the first installment of the trilogy.  I don't want to go into too many spoilers here but there's something in this for die-hard LOTR fans as well as the newcomers.  Plus the fantastic scenary is a visual banquet for the eyes, much is made of the locations, there's a real sense of connection between the journey of Thorin's company and the one the Fellowship travelled upon, indeed much effort is made to link them up whenever possible, from Hobbiton to Rivendell there is a sense of homecoming for me as a fan of the Ring trilogy.  That said Hobbit has its own identity, it's own tone and it's own story to tell.  Much effort is made to recreate Gollum, one of the highlights of LotR, although here we see perhaps a happier Gollum, more care free and even happy and yet the danger of the character is never far away.  The ending of the first installment was more or less where I felt it might be after re-reading the book last month.  There's still so much of the journey to go and unlike our heroes I don't think the worst is behind them...

well that was November

and I completed NaNoWriMo for the fifth year running, despite a rather slow start, now comes all the editing to make the thing presentable.  I do try to edit the worst mistakes as I go along, but even so I always find some things that need changing/amending/deleting or even enhancing.  One story a few years ago I needed to swap quite a few scenes around because I'd taken a break while writing and put a logical error in it after resuming writing and I didn't notice it for nearly six months!  Plus a fresh look at a story after a little time away from it does add perspective.

Happy Birthday Benny

http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/quickinfo/many-happy-returns-775

renowned archaeologist, raconteur and barfly Bernice Summerfield 20 years young today, well at least her adventures are, and despite the release of the adaptation of Love and War last month the festivities continue in this special audio release :)

pilgrim's bounty

mostly done the holiday quests already :)

doing nanowrimo

it's coming along well this year, not quite so rushed as last year, taking my time a little more, as I don't want to lose any character moments in the rush to complete plot points

having a lie in tomorrow

with any luck I'll sleep through till Monday!

weird dreams last night

I dreamed that I was waiting for a lift to arrive in Newcastle but it was taking ages so I took the stairs instead, only to find some sort of warping in the fabric of space was making the stairwell wider and narrower, then when I got upstairs there was no door for the floor I want and when I went downstairs I ended up emerging out of a door next to Sainsbury's in Framwellgate Moor!
Then I dreamed that I still had my old Nissan Micra from ten years ago, and that I owned two homes.

river wrong

I should have realised with all the rain yesterday the river would be up high, but even I didn't think it'd have gone over so impressively, I've seen in higher, but where I normally park was totally cut off by the water.  I think I'll take the bus in tomorrow, as I doubt all that water will be gone by tomorrow morning.

grotty day

it's been a very rainy & windy day but not imo the month of rain in one day that was being bandied around the interweb last night, I hope it clears up soon as I have meetings to go to tomorrow...

World of Warcraft expansion pack The Mists of Pandaria is out tomorrow :)  I've got the deluxe edition pre-ordered as the extras really make it worth the extra imo :)

QI was good tonight

very funny & very vulgar!

so tired

*yawns*

weird naughty dream last night

all I'm going to say is that I was chained upside down by my ankles with Jason Momoa and Lucy Liu who weren't...!

nice lie in

up at 9a today, not 5am like yesterday :)

well that was a 1/2 boring day off

got almost all my housework finished (after not doing it for 3 months) and I made up for it with some WoW :)

day off tomorrow

I medically need it too, too back I have to go out to the post office, I'd just like to spend all day in bed!

big tea

a nice curry & a tiramasu, that's me stuffed full until next week!

shopping

went shopping after work, managed to resist the urge to buy chocolate, although I did buy 2 small tirimasu's.  got some shloer, trying the rose, it's ok on the whole although I do prefer the white grape