Things

I'm having one of those "the TV is too loud and there are too many people in the house and everyone keeps talking" days...which is never a good thing! On the plus side, it's 20 past midnight and the house is good and silent now. Which is handy.

SO I'M GOING TO DO A SERIES. It will probably take a while to complete - I'm internet-less between September 13th-26th due to a mix-up at Sky and moving into my new house - but I thought I'd start it off now because why the blazes not. 

And the title of this exciting new series?

POP CULTURE CHARACTERS WHO ARE FLAWLESS*
*IN A PARTICULAR WAY WHICH I WILL SHORTLY OUTLINE

*tada*

Essentially, I'm a pop culture whore. I watch, read and listen to it. And then I dissect it to death. I read other peoples' dissections. I'm fascinated by meta discussions based on GIFs of one tiny blink of an eye which apparently reveal the innermost thoughts and feelings of a fictional character. I ship obscure ships just because I think they might work together. And occasionally, in the middle of an otherwise mundane task, I will remember just how fuming I am that the main character of an otherwise excellent Nickelodeon cartoon somehow is allowed to steal someone else's boyfriend, and it's morally totally okay. 

But more about that later, I promise.

When I say flawless, I don't just mean attractive, or funny, or successful, or badass. It's kind of hard to pinpoint, actually...maybe it'll flesh itself out as we go along. But mostly, I'm just saying I love this character for a variety of reasons. They make me want to simultaneously hug, high-five and bake a cake for them. I want to live with them. They are good people.

Hopefully that's enough to be going on with!

Anyway, our first entrance to the Flawless Pop Culture Characters comes (naturally) from the Whedonverse - Kaylee Frye of Firefly fame.

For the uninitiated, Firefly is a space-western mostly set aboard Serenity, a firefly-class spaceship. Kaylee is one of the team of smugglers/all round good guys that live on Serenity. If you're weirded out by the concept, good. Watch it anyway. It's a stunning show.

But Kaylee Frye? She is perfection. As you can see from the picture, she's feminine - she likes frilly dresses and parasols and speaks in a kind of girly voice. She's also a mechanic. This kind of masculine/feminine juxtaposition isn't really uncommon in television, particularly with Joss Whedon - think Buffy, who's also pretty, feminine and kills demons on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong, it's a good thing - upsetting the norms, challenging gender dynamics, blah blah blah. I always felt that Buffy ran the risk of feeling just a tiny bit tokenistic - look at me, I'm a strong independent woman, how new and important to make a big deal out of! Whedon himself makes no secret of the fact that that's exactly what Buffy is - a reversal of the "blonde girl in a dark alleyway trope." I feel that less with Kaylee - her masculine/feminine dichotomy is very subtly introduced and not really commented on, which is a good thing. I always felt like Buffy was slightly punished for her 'masculine' side - the fighting and the sex, particularly with Spike - but with Kaylee, it's a whole new world of totally fine, as if it ever wouldn't be. 

Which sort of brings me on to Part 2 of Kaylee is The Best - the sex. Again, to bring it back to Buffy, sex was almost always coded as a bad thing - particularly with Spike ("Last night was the most perverse, degrading experience of my life.") but also with Faith, bad girl extraordinaire and big fan of casual sex; Angel, the good vampire who turns bad when the sex thing happens; even good-guy Riley - remember the crazy haunted-house-fuelled-by-sex episode? And don't get me started on the whole penetration/blood drinking/sex parallels* Meanwhile, Kaylee enjoys sex. It's as simple as that, and there are no repercussions. And again you have that unexpected dichotomy, the pretty princess who's open and upfront about just how much she likes sex. Unexpected. And fabulous. Two of my favourite Kaylee lines: 

"Kaylee Frye: Goin' on a year now I ain't had nothin' twixt my nethers weren't run on batteries! 

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Oh, God! I can't *know* that! 

Jayne Cobb: I could stand to hear a little more."

Girl has needs and she's not ashamed of it. Kaylee has none of the (traditionally female) pretensions about talking about sex and I love her for that. 

Dr. Simon Tam: In all that time on the ship... I've always regretted... not being with you. 

Kaylee Frye: With me? You mean to say... as in sex? 

Dr. Simon Tam: I mean to say. 

Kaylee Frye: To Hell with this. I'm gonna live! 

This whole exchange is hilarious, mostly because Simon is being so ridiculous about it all. And instead of going for the heartfelt declarations of love as Simon does, Kaylee's like...damn, I'm going to shoot some reevers now. 

All of the women in Firefly are excellent...just excellent. To the extent that I feel bad splitting the cast down the middle, into women and men, because they all embody different aspects of humanity rather than gender, which is a beautiful thing to see. But Kaylee is by far and away my favourite. Not just because of her gender and its representation, but also her relationship with River, with Wash, with Mal...she's just a fabulous person. Which is why she's included on the list. So there.

*I think it's fairly obvious, but I could actually write a dissertation on sex and sexuality in Buffy. In fact, I really, really want to do it at some point. Watch this space.

Gotta get down on...

FRIDAY!
Is it Friday? I'm finally getting that annual summer problem of  having absolutely no clue what day it is...and I only broke up for the summer 13 weeks ago! I think it might be something to do with the fact that the sun has finally come out to play. Hooray! Without further ado, though, the blanks. Always important.

Or something.

1. My favorite grade in school was: easily, by a mile, my final year of sixth form. The work was hard, but I'd done enough the year before to know I didn't have to panic too much...I was super comfortable there, I had loads of frees, the teachers were wicked, the work was almost fun, and leaving was a seriously bittersweet occasion - so much fun even though there were lots of tears!

 2. My favorite teacher was probably my English teachers...nearly all of them, with a few notable exceptions because the problem with English is that it's fascinating and wonderful and excellent and perfect and marvellous but if the teacher makes it boring, then it's boring. So it takes a really good teacher to make it feel like a good student.

 3. The highest level of education I have completed the first year of my degree. You may have already guessed, but I study English. Surprise!

4. School lunches for me were a sandwich, a cheesestring and a frube for the vast majority of my life! Chips on a Friday. Sixth form was the best: trips to the Sainsburys down the road were a regular thing and we had a little kitchen for the common room, so we had stuff like cous-cous, rice, noodles, and even beans on toast a couple of times. Nom.

 5. The amount of money you'd have to pay me to go back to high school would be ooh, as much as I loved it I was ready to move on by the end! I don't know what you'd have to pay me...money. Lots and lots of lovely money.

6. A few things that will always remind me of going back to school are last minute plans for buses and schoolbags and that weird feeling you get knowing you're back to the old grind the next morning. Weird.

7. The first day of school was always part 'oh God not again,' part 'my God summer's been boring, get me out of the house!' Bit of a mixed bag, really :)

Nostalgia fest aside, have a lovely weekend everybody :)

Domestic goddess.

                               

Lime marscarpone ice cream, banana muffins with cinnamon frosting, and a truly delicious chilli, all in the space of about 3 hours. Tell me I'm not a domestic goddess. I dare you.*

*none of these pictures are mine, but they do look ROUGHLY the same so it's all gravy :)

Friday again?

It's the afternoon and I spent a significant amount of time last night sat in a carpark. Happy Friday, everybody!

1.  Over this labor day weekend I will be: it's labor day weekend? Okay, cool. This weekend I will be mostly doing nothing. Tidying my room. Bacon.

2.  With the political debates going on right now, my thoughts are: obviously media bias means I only see the cray cray stuff, but my thoughts right now? How can people tell blatant lies in speeches and be dangerously uninformed about medical matters...and still be in a position to run a country? It's baffling and bad.

3.  Today: I spent the morning feeling rather fragile...then I went and had lunch/chat at a friend's house. And now I'm here!

4. The best thing I've cooked recently was: last night I made a delicious chicken, bacon and cannelini bean thing with a load of veg and herbs and nom nom nom, it was so good. 

5. The last thing I bought was: two bottles of fanta, a bottle of squash and some vodka for my sister. Exciting, I know.

6. The best movie I saw this summer was:  2012 is such a vintage year as far as films are concerned! The Dark Knight Rises has to edge it for sheer awesomeness though.

7.  The best book I read this summer was: it's a thousand-way tie between everything on my reading list. None of it is really my cup of tea so I wouldn't say I've enjoyed it per se. Sadly.

Done, done and done.

A Freshers' Guide: Extra Bits

SO I know I probably don't have many readers who are going away to university this summer, but seeing as this time last year I was in that position (and now that I'm a seasoned second year...) I figured I'd point out a few extra things that you might want to take with you. Naturally saucepans, underwear and pens will all already be on the list, but there are extra bits and pieces that come in handy which you might not specifically need...but you definitely won't regret bringing them.

1. A tin of sweets and a door stop.

On my first day of university, I had a cheap ready-made lasagna for my dinner. I finished half and, jokingly, offered the other half to my new flatmates.
No less than 4 hands shot up to take advantage of a free half lasagna.
Conclusion: uni students like free stuff. And they like food.

So there really is one easy way to make people like you: wait till everyone's a little bit tipsy, whack out some free chocolate, and boom. Instant friends for life. I can still remember the apple cake a friend offered me in the first week of university. Considering I'd lived on Crunchy Nut and peas up until that point, it tasted like heaven in a bowl.

Step two to making BFFLs - doorstop. Leave your door wide open. Makes it easier to get into conversations at the beginning of the week; by the end of the week you can compare how trashed your rooms have got, and use it as a convenient stop-off point if you're too drunk/hungover to make it to the end of your corridor. Plus, bonus: if your room starts to smell a bit funky, you can air out all those nasty smells for the whole corridor to share!

Conclusion: who needs a personality?! If you want friends, the dual-fire cannon ball of a tin of chocolate and a door stop is quite clearly your surefire method of success.

2. Anything even vaguely fancy dress you own.

Trust me. You'll need it. And when I say vaguely fancy dress, I mean vaguely: if there's a jungle theme, take something orange. A stick of eyeliner later and you'll pass for a tiger. Take a binbag and a white bedsheet, too: there will be a toga night at some point in your life. There will also be a 'anything but clothes night.' Failing that, you can use it to throw away your rubbish. Handy! Don't forget Hallowe'en is within your first term - if you're not planning on going home, plan ahead! Your first day is probably one of the two times a year you'll actually be driven to uni, and thus probably the only time you won't have to carry everything you own.

Alternatively, adopt the motto of the Eric A ground floor scrooges: "nunquam concinnatis."

Never dress up.

3. Duct tape, scissors, hair grips, tweezers and the hallowed bottle opener.

You don't think you'll need it? You will. Our fridge looked much like this by the end of the year:

But more importantly things like duct tape and scissors come in handy all the time. You honestly don't realise how much you need them until they're not constantly lying around the house. 

Also...you're really gonna need a bottle opener. And even if you don't, someone else will. Trust me. 

4. And a personal choice...

Not taking a wine glass to uni was the worst choice I ever made. Not because I was a massive wine drinker back then but because you can be drinking Frosty Jacks or White Lightening or something similarly lacking in class...and you still look classy as fuck. I drink ribena from a wine glass, cider from a wine glass, and occasionally (when the budget allows) even wine from a wine glass.

Either that, or a mug. There's nothing better than a bunch of students drinking spirits from a mug, okay?

Oh god the budget.

This year has been kind of a washout. Not just in a weather way (although it's raining pretty hard right now) but in terms of DOING EXCITING THINGS. Admittedly I've had V (aces) and work to break the monotony a little but I am YOUNG FREE AND AWESOME and I feel like I should make the most of that!

We've all been kind of keen to plan ahead for next summer: part of the reason we've done less than normal is because of a lack of foresight, planning and money. So thus far, the plans...

1. The Party Week
Apparently there's a limited shelf-life for crazy drinking holidays. So apparently we're doing one next year.
The plan: go somewhere cheap and skanky. Spend a week drinking, dancing and sunbathing to our hearts' content. Stay trashy, San Diego.
The budget: Last night's initial discussion came away with "if we can all put aside £500 including spending money, that would be good."
I definitely have £500 to spare.
Definitely.

2. The Festival
After V this year, we fancy something a little more low-key and unusual, but it'd still be nice to get a festival experience in.
The plan: Shambala Festival in Northamptonshire, with a self-proclaimed "over 200 diverse musical acts across 12 live stages, world-class cabaret, an amazing array of workshops, stand-up comedy, inspirational talks and debates, jaw dropping circus and acrobatics, interactive theatre and nationally acclaimed poetry all housed in beautifully decorated venues." Highlights of the 2012 show (aka anyone I'd actually heard of) were Billy Bragg, Molotov Jukebox, and a host of intriguingly named obscure bands, such as "DJ Yoda & The Trans Siberian Marching Band" and "The Story-Telling Yurt." Who wouldn't want to hear bands like that??
The budget: Tickets this year were £119 for a four day festival. Add to that an extra £30 or so for food and drink and the total price is about £150. Not bad.

3. The trip of a lifetime
When they announced at the end of LeakyCon 2012 that there would be a Leaky in London next year, I was genuinely so excited I could barely breathe. When my long-time internet friends from all over the globe announced they might just be able to come too, I nearly died of happiness. Upshot: Leaky 13 could be a brilliant, brilliant time.
The plan: A four day Harry Potter convention in London. Another day or so exploring the sights of the capital. A trip to the Harry Potter studios in Leavesden. A wander up to Edinburgh for some more sightseeing. Possibly a trip to Durham cathedral to see where some of the scenes were filmed. Maybe a quick stop off at my house in York. Maybe Cardiff for the Whovians among us. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS AND VERY EXCITING.
The budget: :cries: Leaky tickets alone are £150, £200 if you want a LeakyCon Lit pass (which um, I most definitely definitely do.) Then there's London hotel rates. Trains up and down the country. Hotels all over the shop. I really have no idea. But I'm going to shoot at £400 if we keep prices niiiice and low...

And the sum of it all...a mere £1050 smackeroons. I think I'm going to have to do a lot of extra shifts this year.

I think I might give up wine. Every time I would have spent a fiver on a bottle of wine (around twice a week), I'll stick it into savings. That's £10 a week, which is £520 in a year. That plus the earnings from my job and not going out as much and maybe toning down the amount I spend on food...things might just about work out.

Fuck me, I spend a lot of money on wine.

All over the shop.

We went to V Festival.
We did festival things.
We got muddy. We got neon-y. We got very, very drunk.

It was wicked.

This was home for 4 days. 

And this is me and my best friend, Vin de Pays. At €6.20 for the equivalent of four bottles, I cannot complain. At all.

Essentially I had a wicked time, and I got to see three of my favourite artists EVER EVER EVER live which was awesome: The Killers, (who covered Don't Look Back in Anger, which was INCREDIBLE) Newton Faulkner and Ben Howard. Arghh, it was just really, really good, even though clashes in taste between my friends and I meant I had to endure Tinie Tempah and David Guetta...still, I feel like we navigated the clashes quite well. I had a couple of friends from uni there as well, and it was great to catch up with them too.

After that, (and this is all by way of explaining yet another extended absence,) I headed back up to York for my sometimes-job as a drinks waitress at the racecourse. It was a four-day meeting, the longest I'd ever endured. With Wednesday being the Ebor Festival opener, Ladies Day the day after, and the Betfred Ebor day on Saturday - known for its popularity with the travelling community - I was expecting a big day but bloody hell. I don't think I've ever had a more tiring 4 days, navigating the packed out crowds on the champagne lawn and trying to serve three customers at once under either pouring rain or blistering sun...occasionally both at once. 

SEE WHAT I MEAN?!

It didn't help that five minutes before the gates opened on Saturday, the cleaning staff were enthusiastically telling me all about last year's Ebor Day, including tales of staff being bottled and warning us "not to provoke them." So basically, I was terrified before we even started, although it was exactly like any other day at the races: champagne flowing from bottles, money flowing from pockets and mud flowing in absolute rivers after the rain of the day previous.

Basically, thanks to sleeping in a tent in a field for four days and then wandering up and down another field for four days, my entire body is broken. Also, I never want to see mud ever again. 

Not that I'm a drama queen or anything...it was totally worth it for the money! The tips were fabulous, the people I was working with were lovely and so were the vast majority of the customers, so I can't complain! I imagine I'll be heading back next year, if only to break up the long stretch of the summer months. 

And finally...here's a cheeky fill in the blank Friday, just to round things off nicely.

1.  My favorite thing to do on Friday is: Fill in the Blanks! 

No, not really. My family and I have a relatively longstanding tradition of heading down to our local pub for dinner on a friday evening - it's cheap, allows us to catch up on our respective weeks and also gives us time to create the all-important to-do list for the weekend.

And if 'side-passage door' has been on there for the last two years, well, who's really counting?!

2.  This Friday I am: who knows! Whatever way the wind blows me, I will be having wild and exciting times in my life of being a floating wildflower on the breeze of life!

This is a fancy way of saying "lol who knows" but don't tell anyone.

3.  The best thing about a weekend is: I don't know, between my sparse university timetable and my evening-and-weekends job I haven't had that Friday feeling in a very long time...weekends don't really mean anything special to me any more!

4. Now that summer is almost over, I'm feeling: Quite sad. I feel like I've wasted a very long stretch of time doing not alot. But I've got a lot healthier and had some fun times, so I guess it's not all awful.

I should really start reading at some point though.

5. The best thing I did this summer was: Go to V Festival!

6. The thing I'm looking forward to about autumn is: wearing lots of layers, the beauty of a warm shower and a warm bed, getting back to university and of course, the new season of Doctor Who. (Pond Life starts tomorrow! I am excite!)

7. If I had to be stuck in one season for the rest of my life, I would choose: Ohh this is so difficult! It's a toss-up between autumn and spring, for definite...probably autumn if I absolutely had to choose, but anything warm-ish and pleasant will do for me! 

Well.

This has been a post.

Goodnight.