Words of Wood

Tomorrow is my LAST DAY at the primary school. This makes me really sad - I've fallen in love with the little year 1s (ages 5 and 6 for those outside the UK) who mispronounce my name and demand unceasing attention. They are the cutest things ever, seriously. To give some examples from the past few days: we had a discussion about what they want to do when they grow up and one of them wants to be Godzilla. I'm not exaggarating. Also, this exchange outside when they were playing with the sand:

Little Girl: Miss, my daddy might walk along the path past the playground. Can you tell me if he does?
Me: Um, sweetie, I don't know what your daddy looks like!
LG: *stares beseechingly* I think he might be wearing a black t-shirt.
Me: ...Okay, if I see your daddy I'll tell you.
LG: *beams and wanders off*

Aside from the children, both the teachers who I've been assisting have been wonderfully lovely in putting up with me and answering endless questions about teaching. Later I'll be making them chocolate brownies as a thank-you present, which I hope will go down well!

---

I can't be all sad about the end of term, though, because it gives me the chance to have a week's holiday in Cornwall staying at the cottage by the sea of the lovely lily_moonlight before I go back to Oxford. Going by past experience this will be a week of being over-excited about fandoms, which is always welcome!

---

Speaking of fandoms, I can't find a fandom for Iain M. Banks's Culture novels, which makes me sad :( Does anyone know of one? The only related comms I can find are completely dead. I'm also really getting into the show ReGenesis (biology! genetics! biotec! SCIENCE THAT IS ACCURATE AND REALISTIC!), anyone happen to know anything about a fandom for that?

On a more guilty note, I've only so far read ONE of the fics from sga_genficathon , which is pretty terrible going. But I've written about a third of my telyafen story, so I may actually get a submission into a fest for the first time this year. Ahem, make that academic year. Yup.

---

Lastly, thank you to treacle_tartlet  for the chocolate vgift! That made me very happy :)

--  Someone I know from the CSI:NY fandom came to stay with me over the weekend, which was very nice, since my parents are on holiday so I've got the house to myself (with my sister in occasionally, but she's usually out). I had fun showing her some of Herefordshire, and we took part in the Malverns By Moonlight walk for Macmillian - there were several hundred women walking along Malvern ridge in the dark, and it was really cool to be part of that. I can't remember the distance in miles, but it took us about two and a half hours. We didn't bring torches because I couldn't find them, but other people had them around us, and there was also an incredibly bright full moon.

--  I aquired and watched the pilot episode for Sherlock. It was pretty interesting just for seeing the difference between a pilot and a finished product - even little things like music which you don't often notice, but makes a startling difference when there's only some very generic bits to highlight especially dramatic scenes. Sally was better in the show (and Anthea wasn't in the pilot at all), so maybe they'll contine with the upward trend in the next season. Interestingly the case was solved by Sherlock much faster, right when he's first making his "who hunts in the middle of a crowd?" speech - but of course that cut loads of the drama (although I think most of the audience guessed then too). They also cut out a bucketful of Sherlock h/c from the script, sadly.

--  I've heard some things about Bones. I'm very glad I stopped watching it last season. Same with House, and CSI:NY. The last, especially. You fire your leading lady during the break for not sitting back and taking a pay cut while none of the men were being asked to, and then don't even give her a goodbye episode, or any real mention at all? Really, CBS???

--  (**CSI spoiler**)  Why is it that leading characters on US television seem to be mortally afraid of taking painkillers even when, say, they're in the hospital having lost a kidney after being stabbed repeatedly by a psychopath using a pair of broken glasses??? I know Drugs Are Bad, yadda yadda, but so is pain imho.

--  I'm trying to decide whether and how many Christmas fic exchanges to sign up to. Since at the moment I seem incapable of writing unless I have either/or a very strict prompt or a very strict deadline, it seems to me to be a good idea (I'm looking at sga_santa , holmestice , and yuletide). So I should think about what to put in the forms, which always confuses me. I mean, in eg SGA I'll pretty much write any pairing, but my pairing-fic always seems to end up as Gen-With-Cuddles (and h/c if I'm allowed). So I feel that I can't offer to write pairings because people then probably want some relationships in which the characters don't basically act as if they're asexual. I'm just not at all sure how I would go about writing 'normal' relationships - I'm wary of writing characters feeling certain ways when I'm only guessing based on other stories I've read or something. Or maybe I need a firm kick to get me out of my comfort zone. I need to think about this.

--  Stargate Universe starts again tomorrow! Many of you may not be, but I at least am very much looking forward to it :P Bets being taken now on who's dead...