In which there are reprobates, The Stick of Insanity, and no sexy pictures...
So! Last weekend life was filled with reprobates. I felt that it deserved a journal post, and sat down to write it, when my home was suddenly invaded by adorable little demented children. They screamed. They climbed over me. They pulled my hair and poked my parrot. I think he's been scarred for life. I know I have been.
To make matters worse, my siblings have recently been possessed by an urgent need to keep me away from the internet.
It started a few weeks ago, when I was happily emailing pictures of Joe Flanigan to pigrescuer (to distract her from her "work", as any fellow stargate fan would). My little sister wandered over and started reading over my shoulder.
Ro: Ho hum, email from PR, *clicks*
Email from PR: Stop sending me sexy pictures when I'm at work!
Little Sister: *stares, wide-eyed*
Ro: *splutters*
LS: *looks from the camera on the desk to Ro, clearly coming to her own conclusions*
Ro: It's not what you-! It's just this person I know from the internet - I mean -
LS: *staring reproachfully* I knew that you talked to people online, but I didn't realise you took it this far.
Ro: It's not like that!
LS: I really don't think I want to know the details.
Ro: But it was just - they're not of me!
LS: *backing out of the room very quickly with her hands on her ears* No details! La la la, not listening, not listening.
Ro: *bangs head repeatedly on keyboard*
I tried to explain later on and when she didn't bring it up again I assumed she'd understood that the sexy pictures were of, (a very attractive and fully clothed), Joe Flanigan.
All was well until earlier this week, when my laptop keyboard's inability to type overcame me. I went along to a PC repair place, Little Brother and Little Sister in tow, because they both have unhealthy fixations on technology and insisted on tagging along.
Grim PC Repair Lady: It's probably a software issue. Do you frequent porn sites?
Ro: Wha- no! Why would you -
GPCRL: There's no need to be defensive. It's just that these issues usually develop from viruses which are often accidentally downloaded from porn sites.
Ro: But I don't visit porn sites!
Little Brother: Um, we're still here, and also, you are being pretty defensive.
Ro: I am not!
LB: Maybe a little too defensive.
Ro: *wordless outrage*
Little Sister: *very innocently* Maybe your computer caught something from the person who asked you to stop sending them sexy pictures.
GPCRL: *raises eyebrows*
LB: If I had a list of things I never wanted to know about, this would be number one. Oh no - wait, I forgot about the time Aunt F told us about her 'special' lingerie. But this would be number two, definitely number two.
The upshot of this was that after I'd explained everything my siblings decided that there was probably nothing to worry about, but that they'd keep me away from my computer for a while to try and stop any potential-sexy-picture-sending, just in case. This meant that I couldn't finish my post until today, but I've managed it at last:
emerald_happy wandered down to London and we met up last-last Friday in Camden, (and I was only about fifteen minutes late, which actually isn't too bad). Camden is always fun, but it's even better when you have Emerald to wander around all the markets with. She was very good about pulling me on to the next stall when I started drooling over shiny earrings for too long.
Em talked about mature, second-year-student-y things, (like having to look for a job next year), whilst I subtly tried to point out to her how awesome London is to live in and how graduates can always find jobs here. And by 'subtly tried to point out', I mean something along the lines of: "Em! Why don't you come to London after Uni! We have Camden! And...really good waffles!"
In a way I feel that I could have come up with better arguments, but at the same time it's just difficult to see what could be more desirable in a city than the general availability of really good waffles. We gave up on maturity, for the most part, and just squeed. A lot. I had a particularly good reason to squee, having been gifted with The Stick of Insanity by Emerald The Ridiculously Talented And Generous:
When we'd eventually combed the whole of Camden, we wandered off, (as all good reprobates must when they come to London), to Forbidden Planet, where shiny new books were bought, (by Em, because I'd already blown my money). It was at this point that things started to go wrong. We discovered that the tube line Em needed to use to get home was down. This was not entirely unexpected...
In order to understand, you need to know that Em and I are cursed. Every time we meet up, the Universe kills a person. No literally, kills a person. One of us has been late at least half of the times we've met up because someone decided to throw themselves in front of one of our trains. It's getting to the point where I'm becoming familiar with the 'there has been a fatality' message. It goes something like this:
"Ladies and gentlemen, we apologise for the continued delay, which is due to a fatality at Milton Keynes. We are doing all we can to resolve the situation as quickly as possible. Please stop pestering our representatives because they don't know any more than you do and bear in mind that 'resolving the situation' does involve picking bits of intestine out of the tracks, so your patience would be appreciated, unless you're willing to come down here and help us pick up bits of intestine out of the track. No? I didn't think so. Thank you for your cooperation."
Either there's some kind of social problem with suicide-by-train going on out there, or the Universe really doesn't like me and Em meeting up.
Whilst Em was trying to sort out how she was going to get home, PR was engaged in a mad dash to meet us at Oxford Circus. We were worried that she and Em were going to completely miss each other since Em had discovered that she had to leave in ten minutes. We paced Topshop tensely. Eventually my phone buzzed. "I'm here!" said PR. I made vague questioning noises and then PR said, "I can see you!". A few moments later Em and I were hit by a PR shaped blur.
After dropping Em off at the station, PR and I found ourselves alone, (abandoned), on Oxford Street. Conveniently near a Starbucks, a Pret a Manger and a Cafe Nero, all within a few meters of each other. We were wondering how to decide which one to go to, and I (jokingly) suggested spinning my Stick of Insanity around and letting it choose.
PR decided that this was an excellent idea. She found a clear spot on the pavement and spun the stick of insanity and proclaimed Cafe Nero the winner. Passer-bys stared. I made 'I-do-not-know-this-strange-umbrella-spinning-girl' faces. We went to Cafe Nero.
Saturday was when hebe0 wandered down from Oxford. I was late, (as usual), but so was PR, (so that was all right :D), and we all managed to arrive and converge on Hebe at exactly the same moment. Hebe, far from being daunted, bore with the shrieking and intermittent stargate talk throughout the day, with only an occasional, "Children! Don't make me separate you!" :)
PR's already posted about what was the highlight of the day here.
There was lots more that happened on both days - it's always fun to hang out with reprobates - but this post seems to be long enough already. Back to the demented children, I guess. There are worrying noises emerging from my parrot's room.
To make matters worse, my siblings have recently been possessed by an urgent need to keep me away from the internet.
It started a few weeks ago, when I was happily emailing pictures of Joe Flanigan to pigrescuer (to distract her from her "work", as any fellow stargate fan would). My little sister wandered over and started reading over my shoulder.
Ro: Ho hum, email from PR, *clicks*
Email from PR: Stop sending me sexy pictures when I'm at work!
Little Sister: *stares, wide-eyed*
Ro: *splutters*
LS: *looks from the camera on the desk to Ro, clearly coming to her own conclusions*
Ro: It's not what you-! It's just this person I know from the internet - I mean -
LS: *staring reproachfully* I knew that you talked to people online, but I didn't realise you took it this far.
Ro: It's not like that!
LS: I really don't think I want to know the details.
Ro: But it was just - they're not of me!
LS: *backing out of the room very quickly with her hands on her ears* No details! La la la, not listening, not listening.
Ro: *bangs head repeatedly on keyboard*
I tried to explain later on and when she didn't bring it up again I assumed she'd understood that the sexy pictures were of, (a very attractive and fully clothed), Joe Flanigan.
All was well until earlier this week, when my laptop keyboard's inability to type overcame me. I went along to a PC repair place, Little Brother and Little Sister in tow, because they both have unhealthy fixations on technology and insisted on tagging along.
Grim PC Repair Lady: It's probably a software issue. Do you frequent porn sites?
Ro: Wha- no! Why would you -
GPCRL: There's no need to be defensive. It's just that these issues usually develop from viruses which are often accidentally downloaded from porn sites.
Ro: But I don't visit porn sites!
Little Brother: Um, we're still here, and also, you are being pretty defensive.
Ro: I am not!
LB: Maybe a little too defensive.
Ro: *wordless outrage*
Little Sister: *very innocently* Maybe your computer caught something from the person who asked you to stop sending them sexy pictures.
GPCRL: *raises eyebrows*
LB: If I had a list of things I never wanted to know about, this would be number one. Oh no - wait, I forgot about the time Aunt F told us about her 'special' lingerie. But this would be number two, definitely number two.
The upshot of this was that after I'd explained everything my siblings decided that there was probably nothing to worry about, but that they'd keep me away from my computer for a while to try and stop any potential-sexy-picture-sending, just in case. This meant that I couldn't finish my post until today, but I've managed it at last:
emerald_happy wandered down to London and we met up last-last Friday in Camden, (and I was only about fifteen minutes late, which actually isn't too bad). Camden is always fun, but it's even better when you have Emerald to wander around all the markets with. She was very good about pulling me on to the next stall when I started drooling over shiny earrings for too long.
Em talked about mature, second-year-student-y things, (like having to look for a job next year), whilst I subtly tried to point out to her how awesome London is to live in and how graduates can always find jobs here. And by 'subtly tried to point out', I mean something along the lines of: "Em! Why don't you come to London after Uni! We have Camden! And...really good waffles!"
In a way I feel that I could have come up with better arguments, but at the same time it's just difficult to see what could be more desirable in a city than the general availability of really good waffles. We gave up on maturity, for the most part, and just squeed. A lot. I had a particularly good reason to squee, having been gifted with The Stick of Insanity by Emerald The Ridiculously Talented And Generous:
When we'd eventually combed the whole of Camden, we wandered off, (as all good reprobates must when they come to London), to Forbidden Planet, where shiny new books were bought, (by Em, because I'd already blown my money). It was at this point that things started to go wrong. We discovered that the tube line Em needed to use to get home was down. This was not entirely unexpected...
In order to understand, you need to know that Em and I are cursed. Every time we meet up, the Universe kills a person. No literally, kills a person. One of us has been late at least half of the times we've met up because someone decided to throw themselves in front of one of our trains. It's getting to the point where I'm becoming familiar with the 'there has been a fatality' message. It goes something like this:
"Ladies and gentlemen, we apologise for the continued delay, which is due to a fatality at Milton Keynes. We are doing all we can to resolve the situation as quickly as possible. Please stop pestering our representatives because they don't know any more than you do and bear in mind that 'resolving the situation' does involve picking bits of intestine out of the tracks, so your patience would be appreciated, unless you're willing to come down here and help us pick up bits of intestine out of the track. No? I didn't think so. Thank you for your cooperation."
Either there's some kind of social problem with suicide-by-train going on out there, or the Universe really doesn't like me and Em meeting up.
Whilst Em was trying to sort out how she was going to get home, PR was engaged in a mad dash to meet us at Oxford Circus. We were worried that she and Em were going to completely miss each other since Em had discovered that she had to leave in ten minutes. We paced Topshop tensely. Eventually my phone buzzed. "I'm here!" said PR. I made vague questioning noises and then PR said, "I can see you!". A few moments later Em and I were hit by a PR shaped blur.
After dropping Em off at the station, PR and I found ourselves alone, (abandoned), on Oxford Street. Conveniently near a Starbucks, a Pret a Manger and a Cafe Nero, all within a few meters of each other. We were wondering how to decide which one to go to, and I (jokingly) suggested spinning my Stick of Insanity around and letting it choose.
PR decided that this was an excellent idea. She found a clear spot on the pavement and spun the stick of insanity and proclaimed Cafe Nero the winner. Passer-bys stared. I made 'I-do-not-know-this-strange-umbrella-spinning-girl' faces. We went to Cafe Nero.
Saturday was when hebe0 wandered down from Oxford. I was late, (as usual), but so was PR, (so that was all right :D), and we all managed to arrive and converge on Hebe at exactly the same moment. Hebe, far from being daunted, bore with the shrieking and intermittent stargate talk throughout the day, with only an occasional, "Children! Don't make me separate you!" :)
PR's already posted about what was the highlight of the day here.
There was lots more that happened on both days - it's always fun to hang out with reprobates - but this post seems to be long enough already. Back to the demented children, I guess. There are worrying noises emerging from my parrot's room.