imhilien

July means winter Down Under and recently it has been cold. Last week I think it was, it dropped down to 2 c / 34 F one night and that was a bit horrible for me despite all the layers on my bed. I couldn't cope with colder temperatures than that. If it snows, don't go has been my life long motto.

My work has been busy as it's school holidays. In the gift shop they have I've got one of my landscape paintings up for sale. I also have some greeting cards with my art on for sale as well; I've sold two cards so far so that's great.

I feel sorry for Australia at the moment; New South Wales is having trouble with a bad Covid outbreak and Sydney has been in lockdown.

I've got book club on Sunday; the subject is books or authors beginning with 'C'. I might bring along 'Cold Comfort Farm' which is always good for a chuckle, as well as 'Chalice' by Robin McKinley which is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast; the heroine has honey-based magic.

My laptop's hard drive broke down a little while ago and it needed a complete replacement. I lost some files unfortunately because I hadn't backed them up, urgh. Of course this happened just before season 5b (5b!) of 'Lucifer' came out on Netflix so I had to wait a week before my laptop came back before I could watch the episodes. It started off a bit slow and then really got going. When he's not going through angst and anguish, Lucifer gives the impression he's actually a golden retriever in disguise who loves his Detective. Aww. I wrote some fanfic after the season final which is up on A03.




There is an English woman on YouTube doing vlogs of Babylon 5 and is getting quite excited as she's working her way through season 2. Heh heh.

Babylon 5: Season 2 - YouTube


There is a cold south-wester outside at the moment so am staying indoors as much as possible.

Well, although New Zealand has mostly squished Covid-19, there was a bit of a scare recently when two people were let into the country on compassionate grounds from abroad going down south and it turns out they were infected and hadn't been tested properly. That was an anxiety episode I didn't need that day. Testing at the border has been tightened up apparently and that's where any new cases are picked up these days (they then have to go into quarantine).

I still wear a face mask if I'm going on public transport for a decent length of time and try and keep some distance from people. My book club has started up again, so that's good. Art group is back on, though they clean the place to the nth degree at the moment and make sure hand sanitizer is on each table, which is OK. My board gaming group has started up again, though I haven't been back yet as it's at night with not much ventilation, lots of strangers etc, so I'm still a bit cautious about returning.

I went to the movie 'The Booksellers' the other day with a friend, which was good. It was about the rare book scene in New York (pre-Covid, of course). Was good to see a few book shops came with resident cat. :)

It's definitely winter here now, when I wake in the morning and it's below 5 degrees (40 F) I Do Not Like. About a week ago there were tornadoes in our region that sent a few trampolines flying here and there, ouch.

Still hunting for a new part-time admin job, a process made much harder of course now in these interesting times. Still, some of the job web sites are starting to list jobs again.

Season 5 (part 1) of 'Lucifer' is turning up in August, yay. I do want to see new adventures of my Chaotic Dumba** babies. Two new seconds of S5 footage were made available and the fandom went crazy, LOL.

Here are some fic recs set in the mid-90's when Windows 95 was released (I remember!). However, this version is an Eldritch Horror that wants to be Your Only Friend. 

1. Welcome to Windows 95!
Done entirely in realistic (and creepy) screenshots.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/24073393

2. Re: Windows 95
People talk about their experiences with Windows 95 (Eldritch Horror version) on a mailing list. Things get creepy.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/24853906

The weather is up and down. Last week it was nice, hot t-shirt weather but today it's back to wearing more layers.

I recently went to the Armageddon convention and went to hear Jason Issacs talk. He was nice and cheerful, talking about how tricky it was to film 'Hook' in Australia with its heat and having to wear layers of velvet clothing. I went to get his autograph after and saw that he shook everyone's hand who lined up to see him. He shook my hand too (squee!). We chatted for a few minutes and he said he was going to have a holiday down in the South Island, so that was nice.

I also went to hear a talk with Inbar Lavi, an actress who played ( Spoiler ) in 'Lucifer'. She was nice and said how she was looking forward to seeing more of New Zealand after this. She was a bit smaller than me (I'm 5"4) so acting with Tom Ellis must have been interesting because he's 6"3. She said the set was very professional and there was also a lot of laughter and joking. She gave her talk in a smaller hall than Jason's, which was OK as it made things more cosy. It was packed, though. There was a fan who asked a question who had to stand at the back as she was dressed up as a Weeping Angel from 'Dr Who' - very realistic. At the end of the talk we were all gathered together for a group selfie. I went and got her autograph afterwards. The person in front of me gave her some Whittakers chocolate and Pineapple Lumps sweets, which is very New Zealand. Yum.

I saw that the two actors from 'Wellington Paranormal' were there at the convention too, but I didn't have time to see them, unfortunately.

A new season of local quirky police drama 'Brokenwood Mysteries' started up last night. It featured a murder at a gathering of steampunk enthusiasts. Yes, the show's like that. :-p 

I feel sorry for Australia at the moment with it's fires in NSW and Queensland... it's not even proper summer yet. Smoke from the fires have arrived in the South Island and they say the North Island will get some too. :(

Well, I wrote fanfic that's my take on the season 3 final of Lucifer. :)

'Fallen Feathers'

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20103982