The Time Traveler's Strife
Sorry I haven't been around for a couple of weeks, I've not been feeling great. I made a decision to come off my medication as I was fed up of the side-effects (always hungry, always tired). So the only medication I'm on now is prescription pain killers and it shows! Argh! But it's better than being a hungry zombie (aren't they all?)! So yes! I'm really sorry I haven't been around, I've really missed you all. I hope everyone is OK. I hate talking about my various ailments, but I don't want you to think that I'd abandoned you for no reason! I really should do a post that I can link to for any new readers, but in case you're wondering, I have this and this, although Wiki makes them sound far more exotic and deadly. I should show my workmates...(;
So, the long awaited pictures from the lrp! I present to you The Order of the Phoenix! Most of these people are on lj, but I won't tag them, just in case they'd rather remain aloof and mysterious! From l-r we have Severus, Harry, Mundungus, Dumbledore, Remus, Arthur, Sirius (behold my wig!) and the Ref. Lots of fun was had by all, the hard work that forest_rose and alan_mcleod put in really paid off :).
Here's Mundungus trying to sell us some of his illegal seeds.
Here's Severus and a bottle of something which smelled rather fragrant. Dumbledore was sniffing this all night, guys, ALL NIGHT!
Arthur is bemused by a pair of pliers.
Dumbledore and little baby Fawkes (and the mysterious smelling potion!)! Fawkes was completely my favourite thing of the evening. For most of the night there was a little glowing egg by the fireplace, but when our backs were turned he was replaced with the little chick that you see above. He peeped when you held him in your hand. Snape was uncharacteristically moved by this.
Really though, how much does he look like young Dumbledore :-O. He was so spot on in his portrayal of him too.
Sirius enjoying a bottle of Butterbeer. I hear the bars in Azkaban aren't up to much. All the bottles of ale had printed labels from The Hog's Head and The Three Broomsticks, it was a lovely touch.
Arthur and Albus in deep discussion.
So yes, a great night, thank you again to Nats and Alan for all their hard work and for inviting me :). So, what else have I been up to...
Playing lots of Rock Band with J and Marcus J. We finally got into the Hall of Fame. Our band is called Waaalt!, which seemed humorous at the time. Anyway, I took this picture with the intention of also capturing the boys on camera (although that didn't happen!), you see I'm always surprised by how much our on screen characters resemble us, when there's very little you can actually customise about them!
So here are Waaalt! in all their glory. I'm sporting an eye patch in honour of Mikhail from LOST and Marcus J is modelling a Geordie La Forge visor. J is trying to hide behind his fringe.
The Saturday before last the three of us were waiting for our friend Liz to finish work and I got rather snap happy. This building is in our town and it has always struck me as somewhat odd, but never worth immortalising in a photograph. Until now. So here it is in all it's Mock Tudor splendour. Seriously though, how bizarre is it? Why doesn't it have any substance behind it? D:
I also spotted this graffiti which made me laugh. Pear!
This, however, did not make me laugh. After we'd collected Liz we went for a meal, I spotted this monstrosity on the way out. Holy Shit. Mandrake Root Bonsai From Hell. He will eat us all in our beds.
I've included this rather goofy picture of me outside the restaurant so that you can compare it with the last photo in this picspam. Oh God. Also I'm wearing an awesome brooch which I wanted to show you. It's so heavy it has to go through three layers of clothes to stay upright, that's my kinda brooch.
Last Monday we went on a ghost walk. I borrowed a book from work that had all different trails you could follow in Derbyshire. Anyway, this one was meant to pass through a wood where a monk had killed himself. This building was very near the ruins of the abbey, we thought that maybe the corner of this house was an existing part of the building. I love these two wheelie bins at the front of the picture, it looks like they're posing! HAHAHAHA. This might be my favourite photo of all time, they're so cute, they even look like a couple.
This was the only remaining part of the abbey, which had been destroyed in the 1500s. I know what you're thinking, you're thinking "what's through the window, o_deanna? Please show us!"
This is what was through the window, and it wasn't quite what I was expecting! Sorry for getting my fingers in shot, I really was clinging on for dear life, the wall was so high. J made up some scary story about them being the guardians of the ruins.
I took this for the sake of scale as we were walking away, the window was HUGE. So, we carried walking and nothing else really lived up to the splendour of the ruins. The countryside was beautiful though, but ghosts were still very much on my mind. Imagine my horror then when I saw a hooded figure over by a distant pond. Everything about it looked odd, it just didn't belong in the scene, even the scale of it looked wrong, which was something I'd read in lots of ghost reports. I froze, what could it be...
Of all the things it could be I can't say I was expecting to be confronted with this! It was truly hideous, but as corporeal as you or I. We surmised it was either to scare herons away from the fish, or to scare fish towards anglers on the other side of the pond. But still, the horror!
At the end of the walk we finally came to the haunted woods and they really did have the most awful atmosphere. The wood is known as Hermit's Wood because of the building you can see above, which is actually a hermit's cave, built in the 1100s. It has a lovely story to it, which I will paste below."The story of Dale Abbey, or Depedale as it was originally known, begins when a Derby baker had a dream -- the Virgin Mary appeared and told him to go to Depedale, to live a life of solitude and prayer. At that time it was a wild and marshy place and the hermit carved out a home and chapel in a sandstone cliff.
Here he continued to worship in solitude until one day the smoke from his fire was seen by a Knight, Ralph Fitz Geremund the owner of the land. Intending to drive the intruder away, he rode over, but on hearing the hermit’s story he was filled with compassion, allowing him to remain and bestowing on him the tithe money from Borrowash Mill. This enabled the hermit to build a small chapel and home on the site of the present church.
After the hermit’s death, word spread of the religious significance of the place and following several attempts, Dale Abbey was founded in about 1200 by an order known as the White Canons because of the colour of their habits. The abbey remained until 1538, when it was dissolved and the greater part demolished by the command of Henry VIII."
This was the last point of interest as we walked back to the car. Apparently the tiny Church you can see to the left of the building was actually started by the hermit himself."The curious little church of All Saint's, measuring just 26feet by 25 feet, probably one of the smallest in the country, shares a roof with an adjoining farmhouse. The church dates back originally to the mid 12th century, altered in 1480, to give it it's present form. It contains a pulpit that dates from 1634 and the whole interior appears rather crammed with it's box pews and open benches. The farmhouse was once possibly used as an infirmary for the Abbey. For some time before 1820 it was used as a pub called the Blue Bell, the bar being used as a vestry, with a door into the aisle. It was rebuilt in 1883."
I accidentally dyed my hair black last week. Oh God. I've had it black twice before and both times it's cost me over £100 to get the dye out each time. It was meant to be dark brown D:! Well, I'm stuck with it now. o_deanna is not amused.
I'm still reading The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (I know! I'm a slow reader sometimes!) It's so fantastic but there's absolutely no fandom out there! At all! I'm shipping people like crazy with no outlet ;__;. Boo. I'm slashing the grossest people too, hahaha. Actually, I'm trying not to look too hard for stuff on the internet, I still have two and a half books to read and don't want to be spoiled. Sand dan Glokta is too awesome for words, best character ever.
Disturbing news now: I read about CERN's particle accelerator some months ago, but suddenly today I'm really freaked out by it! I'm absolutely rubbish at physics (oh Faraday, our love can never be) it was my worst grade at GCSE, but still, messing about creating black holes does not seem like a good idea to me! I think it freaked me out because I was reading about the alleged time traveller John Titor (I hadn't heard of him before today! Wow! Seriously, how had I not come across this? Even though most of his predictions have fallen through it's still an excellent story) and suddenly time travel seems a little more possible with this CERN experiment, which he even mentions...and argh! I know nothing will happen...but I don't want the world to change!
My friend just booked us tickets to see Nick Cave in November, hooray!
Right then, sorry for the lengthy post, I do have some fun things to share with you this week, I swear! Two bits of fanart and a Desmond/Penny fanmix on the way. In the meantime I will try to catch up with you all. ♥
So, the long awaited pictures from the lrp! I present to you The Order of the Phoenix! Most of these people are on lj, but I won't tag them, just in case they'd rather remain aloof and mysterious! From l-r we have Severus, Harry, Mundungus, Dumbledore, Remus, Arthur, Sirius (behold my wig!) and the Ref. Lots of fun was had by all, the hard work that forest_rose and alan_mcleod put in really paid off :).
Here's Mundungus trying to sell us some of his illegal seeds.
Here's Severus and a bottle of something which smelled rather fragrant. Dumbledore was sniffing this all night, guys, ALL NIGHT!
Arthur is bemused by a pair of pliers.
Dumbledore and little baby Fawkes (and the mysterious smelling potion!)! Fawkes was completely my favourite thing of the evening. For most of the night there was a little glowing egg by the fireplace, but when our backs were turned he was replaced with the little chick that you see above. He peeped when you held him in your hand. Snape was uncharacteristically moved by this.
Really though, how much does he look like young Dumbledore :-O. He was so spot on in his portrayal of him too.
Sirius enjoying a bottle of Butterbeer. I hear the bars in Azkaban aren't up to much. All the bottles of ale had printed labels from The Hog's Head and The Three Broomsticks, it was a lovely touch.
Arthur and Albus in deep discussion.
So yes, a great night, thank you again to Nats and Alan for all their hard work and for inviting me :). So, what else have I been up to...
Playing lots of Rock Band with J and Marcus J. We finally got into the Hall of Fame. Our band is called Waaalt!, which seemed humorous at the time. Anyway, I took this picture with the intention of also capturing the boys on camera (although that didn't happen!), you see I'm always surprised by how much our on screen characters resemble us, when there's very little you can actually customise about them!
So here are Waaalt! in all their glory. I'm sporting an eye patch in honour of Mikhail from LOST and Marcus J is modelling a Geordie La Forge visor. J is trying to hide behind his fringe.
The Saturday before last the three of us were waiting for our friend Liz to finish work and I got rather snap happy. This building is in our town and it has always struck me as somewhat odd, but never worth immortalising in a photograph. Until now. So here it is in all it's Mock Tudor splendour. Seriously though, how bizarre is it? Why doesn't it have any substance behind it? D:
I also spotted this graffiti which made me laugh. Pear!
This, however, did not make me laugh. After we'd collected Liz we went for a meal, I spotted this monstrosity on the way out. Holy Shit. Mandrake Root Bonsai From Hell. He will eat us all in our beds.
I've included this rather goofy picture of me outside the restaurant so that you can compare it with the last photo in this picspam. Oh God. Also I'm wearing an awesome brooch which I wanted to show you. It's so heavy it has to go through three layers of clothes to stay upright, that's my kinda brooch.
Last Monday we went on a ghost walk. I borrowed a book from work that had all different trails you could follow in Derbyshire. Anyway, this one was meant to pass through a wood where a monk had killed himself. This building was very near the ruins of the abbey, we thought that maybe the corner of this house was an existing part of the building. I love these two wheelie bins at the front of the picture, it looks like they're posing! HAHAHAHA. This might be my favourite photo of all time, they're so cute, they even look like a couple.
This was the only remaining part of the abbey, which had been destroyed in the 1500s. I know what you're thinking, you're thinking "what's through the window, o_deanna? Please show us!"
This is what was through the window, and it wasn't quite what I was expecting! Sorry for getting my fingers in shot, I really was clinging on for dear life, the wall was so high. J made up some scary story about them being the guardians of the ruins.
I took this for the sake of scale as we were walking away, the window was HUGE. So, we carried walking and nothing else really lived up to the splendour of the ruins. The countryside was beautiful though, but ghosts were still very much on my mind. Imagine my horror then when I saw a hooded figure over by a distant pond. Everything about it looked odd, it just didn't belong in the scene, even the scale of it looked wrong, which was something I'd read in lots of ghost reports. I froze, what could it be...
Of all the things it could be I can't say I was expecting to be confronted with this! It was truly hideous, but as corporeal as you or I. We surmised it was either to scare herons away from the fish, or to scare fish towards anglers on the other side of the pond. But still, the horror!
At the end of the walk we finally came to the haunted woods and they really did have the most awful atmosphere. The wood is known as Hermit's Wood because of the building you can see above, which is actually a hermit's cave, built in the 1100s. It has a lovely story to it, which I will paste below."The story of Dale Abbey, or Depedale as it was originally known, begins when a Derby baker had a dream -- the Virgin Mary appeared and told him to go to Depedale, to live a life of solitude and prayer. At that time it was a wild and marshy place and the hermit carved out a home and chapel in a sandstone cliff.
Here he continued to worship in solitude until one day the smoke from his fire was seen by a Knight, Ralph Fitz Geremund the owner of the land. Intending to drive the intruder away, he rode over, but on hearing the hermit’s story he was filled with compassion, allowing him to remain and bestowing on him the tithe money from Borrowash Mill. This enabled the hermit to build a small chapel and home on the site of the present church.
After the hermit’s death, word spread of the religious significance of the place and following several attempts, Dale Abbey was founded in about 1200 by an order known as the White Canons because of the colour of their habits. The abbey remained until 1538, when it was dissolved and the greater part demolished by the command of Henry VIII."
This was the last point of interest as we walked back to the car. Apparently the tiny Church you can see to the left of the building was actually started by the hermit himself."The curious little church of All Saint's, measuring just 26feet by 25 feet, probably one of the smallest in the country, shares a roof with an adjoining farmhouse. The church dates back originally to the mid 12th century, altered in 1480, to give it it's present form. It contains a pulpit that dates from 1634 and the whole interior appears rather crammed with it's box pews and open benches. The farmhouse was once possibly used as an infirmary for the Abbey. For some time before 1820 it was used as a pub called the Blue Bell, the bar being used as a vestry, with a door into the aisle. It was rebuilt in 1883."
I accidentally dyed my hair black last week. Oh God. I've had it black twice before and both times it's cost me over £100 to get the dye out each time. It was meant to be dark brown D:! Well, I'm stuck with it now. o_deanna is not amused.
I'm still reading The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie (I know! I'm a slow reader sometimes!) It's so fantastic but there's absolutely no fandom out there! At all! I'm shipping people like crazy with no outlet ;__;. Boo. I'm slashing the grossest people too, hahaha. Actually, I'm trying not to look too hard for stuff on the internet, I still have two and a half books to read and don't want to be spoiled. Sand dan Glokta is too awesome for words, best character ever.
Disturbing news now: I read about CERN's particle accelerator some months ago, but suddenly today I'm really freaked out by it! I'm absolutely rubbish at physics (oh Faraday, our love can never be) it was my worst grade at GCSE, but still, messing about creating black holes does not seem like a good idea to me! I think it freaked me out because I was reading about the alleged time traveller John Titor (I hadn't heard of him before today! Wow! Seriously, how had I not come across this? Even though most of his predictions have fallen through it's still an excellent story) and suddenly time travel seems a little more possible with this CERN experiment, which he even mentions...and argh! I know nothing will happen...but I don't want the world to change!
My friend just booked us tickets to see Nick Cave in November, hooray!
Right then, sorry for the lengthy post, I do have some fun things to share with you this week, I swear! Two bits of fanart and a Desmond/Penny fanmix on the way. In the meantime I will try to catch up with you all. ♥