A happy Halloween to all who celebrated. I stayed in, lit a candle, and watched The Crow. As is my tradition. I try not to watch it too often, I don't want it to lose its power, you know? And the closing narration made me cry, as always:

"When the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever"

Continuing the Halloween theme:
Rama Lama - the infamous Emmy-winning routine from So You Think You Can Dance? season 2. Creepifying and perfect. Seems like the right mood.

I have discovered White Collar, thanks to a positive review from marcicat . It's a delightful show, with great charm and wonderful interesting characters and fun twisty plots. And Matthew Bomer is wonderful, as he was in Chuck. Seriously, check it out.
My favourite White Collar fic so far is: Kate, Short for Kevin by moonythestrals
Barty is getting sicker. He is at the vets, possibly suffering from anemia. He hasn't been eating and looks miserable, sitting in his cage as he heals. I am worried.

Urgh, got completely blindsided by a heavy cold a couple of days ago. Only now just coming out of the fug. I was definitely running a temperature, my head felt thick and foggy and I was thinking things that do not make sense. Plus my throat felt rough and my stomach was all unbalanced. Thankfully, I have dosed myself up well on orange juice and pain pills and cold meds and progress has been made. Now if I can only get a decent night's sleep I may actually be in good shape when Anthony and I head off to his Mum and Lee's house for a few days over Easter.

Granny P isn't doing too well. She's got tetchy with the hospital staff and even got mad at Mum, which never happens. Chatted to Mum today and she's resigned to it being the end. We can't see Granny recovering from this. She is 95 years old after all. Family is rallying round though, Mum's cousin Nola has been emailing everyone with the news so Mum doesn't have to deal with it. Also today is Mum's birthday and she and Dad are off fetching a piece of fireplace that didn't get delivered. The builders are making progress on the house, I can't wait to see it real soon. We had a lovely bright conversation and we laughed together a lot.

I watched ER's last ever episode yesterday and felt very emotional. It was a perfect ending. I loved to watch earlier series when I was supposed to be revising for my GCSEs years ago, also so much more exciting than British medical shows. It's an end of an era and it was beautifully done. Life goes on at County. Thanks for everything :)

Granny P isn't getting better. She's back in her care home, but she's not eating. Mum doesn't know what to do. If Granny said she was ready to go then treatment would be stopped, but Granny says she wants to get better though she isn't doing anything to help herself. Mum had a wonderful prayer time with her, which was a comfort, but it's so difficult for her. Granny P is fading, we all know it. But this feels grey and hard and painful for everyone. Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts.

I keep oversleeping, which is addling my brain and making each day feel slightly surreal. Everything feels more offkilter than usual. It's most perturbing. My body clock is usually utterly reliable.

Power Rangers RPM is turning out to be quite delightful. Flynn is adorable, I want to find him someone special, probably outside the team. Also Ziggy and Dillon work well together and I kinda want someone to write a fic about them. I'm looking forward to how Dr K could develop.

RIP Mark Hallett. Best known for portrayed Lorne in the series Angel. He always made me smile whenever I caught an episode. I cried when I read the news. He was 33 years old. Another one gone far too soon.

It's pretty well established how often I get ill and how much I hate it. Thankfully, the germs held off until after Christmas Day this time round and I woke up at John and Lynda's house yesterday with a scratchy sore throat and feeling terribly sick. Last night and today I haven't been able to stop blowing my nose and the past two nights have been hellishly free of sleep. I'm really hoping this will all be cleaned out of my insides by the time I'm in Cornwall on Wednesday. Gwyneth's been great and given me cold meds and pain pills and soothing tissues. I hate being ill at other people's houses - makes me feel very inconvenient. Anthony's coldy too and therefore pretty drippy. We did get some good DVDs at a Woolworth's shut-down sale, he got The Brain of Morbius (kickass Tom Baker Who serial) for only £3 and I got the Best of Gladiators for the revived series for just over £2. Yay for shiny newness :) It helps take my mind off the sickness.

I'd forgotten just how much my back cramps could hurt. Wow, am I in pain. I think I'll be using a hot bottle on it any minute as the pain pills don't seem to be doing any good. Thankfully they should be all over before I start doing my latest run of full days at work (when the freshers will be around). That's a good thing anyway.

starandrea's fourth book has arrived at last and I am enjoying trying to figure it all out lol. It inspires me muchly :)

It's been one of those weird weeks thanks to the cold I've been battling through. It's made me all out of sorts cos half the time I've felt fine and better and the other half I've felt feverish, sneezy, and doped up on the cold and flu meds I've been taking lol. So it hasn't always been entirely pleasant! I'm really hoping it won't last too long cos I'm away all day tomorrow with the Living Room team, we're gonna be thinking about and planning the term ahead as times are a'changing. Living Room is having an overhaul, woot!

Criminal Minds is back, hurrah. If you haven't seen the premiere of series 4 then do so immediately. It's a terrific Hotch episode and contains one of the most perfect Garcia and Morgan exchanges ever seen in any of the series. It's also one of the only procedural shows I'm watching right now as I've held off from watching any of the Law and Orders or CSIs for a while as I feel like I've been watching way too much depressing TV recently, you know shows stuffed with truly depressind and disturbing stories in (especially SVU). It was definitely bogged me down. Time for a change. Hurrah for the sparkliness of Strictly and Dancing with the Stars, absolutely what the doctor ordered.

I am hot and uncomfortable and my back aches. The hormones are driving me more nutso than usual. I hate that I'm going to be this way for my friend's hen party tomorrow - Jess who I've known since she used to date my brother and then later, gloriously, found the man she knew she wanted to be with forever. Also, I still have no details of when we're meeting up tomorrow or how we're getting to our destination.

But my mood has been much improved by an academic bringing me a muffin. And by losing myself in fabulous old nonsense shows like Team Night Rider (DVD release please so I can wallow), McGyver, and Knight Rider. Nothing beats some old fashioned heroism lol. Also Anthony and I are off to see Speed Racer at the cinema - pretty looking film. Yay for the funness.

The weather has really warmed up here so naturally I have a cold. I am dosed up with vitamin C drinks, cold & flu pills, and hot tea and am sleeping with a sweatshirt over my pajamas. It's practically second nature to fight colds now lol. One day I shall donate myself to medical science and find out why I catch so many colds. I quarantined myself in my room last night cos being ill makes me cranky and I would have said something regrettable to the others. I am hoping I'll be able to curb this at work, especially since my contract is officially up this month and the bosses aren't telling me how much longer they're gonna keep me on for *waits impatiently*.

I am combatting my cold and feverish head with copious amounts of tea and medications and healthy doses of fandom - saw my first full episodes of SGA and loved it. To make things even better starandrea's book arrived yesterday! I did my happy dance and am loving reading her fascinating work again. I feel so proud and happy that I've been part of this journey with her, yay.

The All-Stars show was love last night. Got to see 'American Dragon' Bryan Danielson and Doug Williams, but was most excited that once again was graced by the wonder that is Robbie Brookside and Frankie Sloan. Anthony is most amused by my excitement at seeing them. He understands that he shares my heart with the many lovely men of my fandoms lol. And the All-Stars come back in April, how's that for fast return? Looking forward to it already.

Belated Merry Christmas to one and all. I hope that however you celebrated, it was marvelous.

It's been a weird Christmas here. My Grandma who has cancer has taken a real turn for the worse, one of my aunts has to be with her 24/7. We're popping up for a visit tomorrow, possibly for last goodbyes. It all feels very diminished.