Livejournal links:
the_safehouse A place for all Professionals fans (primarily slash-focused)
discoveredinalj Slash, but gen-friendly comm for seasonal/festive challenges
pros_pearl A community celebrating the 30th anniversary of 'The Professionals' - slash/gen
ci5hq Story recs and discussion.

Some entries in this journal are friends-locked. Comment to be added.

( Other Stuff )

Jonny vs Dan... but ugh. I can't keep my eyes open (it's 1:30 in the morning here). But there's no FTA live broadcast & they'll only have the highlights tomorrow on Aussie TV, so I guess I'm stuck with Planet Rugby text commentary...

ETA: We won! 6 - 19. Would have been more except Carter had an uncharacteristically bad first half, missed two penalties. Cowan lucky to scored a try (set up by Sivivatu and McCaw), because from what I've read he didn't play that well for most of the game. Lots of dire mumblings from the commenters on PR about him - also Wilko, who apparently played a very contained game & England's backs didn't get as much ball as they should have.

I'm procrastinating again *g*. Decided I simply had to know how much a pint was in 1977 - 1981. I found The National Archives site, which has a database of items on the retail prices index from 1914 to 2004.

Unfortunately *deep sigh*, alcohol prices were only included from 1987, but I thought it might be interesting anyway.

( ooh, look, I can do tables naow )

I've been really bad about posting and answering comments lately, but I can at least report that I've been busy on Pros things in a behind-the-scenes way. A while ago enednoviel asked me if I knew when Pros first aired in Australia. I only had vague memories (some of which turned out to be wrong). Anyway I thought that maybe the National Library would have copies of TV Week for the period, so I wrote to them. They referred me to the NSW State Library and I eventually got around to getting a readers card and reserving a bunch of volumes of issues from 1979 onwards. It took me a couple of goes, and I still don't have a definitive date for the first episode shown because there were some issues missing, but my best informed guess at this time is that it was probably 'Old Dog, New Tricks' on 25 August 1981.

The list so far is underneath the cut. I might go back in a little while and look for repeats - I only went as far as 1983 and The Hatstand Express (1984) mentions that the show was back on air then. Also I should recontact the ANL now I know what I'm looking for & see if they have the missing issues.

( Air dates for The Professionals in NSW Australia )

Since I can't seem to be able to do a proper post anymore, I thought I'd try this meme:

1) Post a list of up to 20 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/bands [fannish etc.] that you've had an obsessive fannish love or interest in at some time in your life.
2) Have your f-list guess your favourite character/member from each item.
3) When someone guesses correctly, strike through the item and put the name of your favourite character next to it.
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B's away for the weekend. I've done post officey things, bought food (lamb roast *g*) and now I'm procrastinating.

I have fic to write - but I can't decide which to start on first. You'll have to help: should it be A, B, C, D, E or F? Without saying which is which - I've been having thinky thoughts about all of them - help me out, please :)
Poll #1456095
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

Which fic should kiwisue work on this weekend?

( Of course my procrastination involves pretty men and Pros-ish comparisons... )

OK, enough is enough... so, which fic should I be writing now?

OMG I would love to go to this, but it's sold out. Maybe B's friend Nix has tickets...

And MS gets a mention here.

(as jaycat said)

You know that Russian movie I went to see the other weekend? Well, I forgot to mention that Bryan Brown & Rachel Ward were standing in the queue right next to us. So I put her name into the Oracle of Bacon:
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*g*

Last weekend was grand. OK, so Australia lost the Ashes (well done, England!), but I could at least console myself with the All Black victory in the Bledisloe (points to icon) while my Aussie friends had to make do with a Socceroos win over Ireland (3-0 though, way to go!).

I didn't watch any of it, strange as it may sound. Instead, Saturday night a group of us went into Sydney to the "Russian Resurrection" film festival at the Chauvel in Paddington. A lovely meal at the Bavarian Beer Cafe near Fox Studios, followed by a brisk walk up the road to the cinema, possibly the best popcorn in Sydney (especially good 'cos most of it was nicked from my friend's bucket), choc top icecream, movie, and afterwards pancakes and Jamaican coffee. Mmmmm....

We saw one of the retrospective films, "Prisoner of the Caucasus" (or "Kidnapping, Causassian style") from 1967. It's a broad comedy, with lots of slapstick humour, involving an intelligent but goofy and very naive ethnographer, Shurik, who goes to the Caucasus to investigate local culture. "Customs, rituals... and toasts!" (as Shurik never drinks, you can imagine what this leads to). Shurik meets a lovely girl, Nina, "a student, an athlete, a Young Communist... and a beauty", and falls in love. Unfortunately a corrupt local official wants to marry her and involves Shurik in his plotting under the guise of furthering his research. Very cheesy, but also wonderfully funny, and Nina is gorgeous.

Here's a couple of clips from the movie. I love the first most of all. Nina sings a song, "pesnia o medvediah" which talks about polar bears, how they rub their backs against the North Pole and make the world spin faster so lovers can meet sooner:


And here Nina, who is by far the smartest person in the movie, attempts to escape from her captors:


Great fun!

This question is posted on behalf of a friend:

Do school buses in the US do pick-up/drop-down at other than designated bus stops? He wants to know how realistic the (often seen) scene of a bus picking up or dropping off a student right outside their front door might be.

Happy Birthdays to agentxpndble and londonronnie. Many hugs.

It’s all B’s fault, really. Or rather, the kids at the school he was teaching at during the last week of term. On the one hand, he didn’t get sick until after term ended, which is good because he’s casual & hasn’t had that much work over the last couple of months. On the other hand, he did get very sick & is still not over the cough, 9 days later. Also, he passed the bug on to me (thinking about it, even if I’d been able to afford CQ, this would have put the trip in the bin anyway, so I guess I should – what? Count my blessings? Or something).

No, I don’t know which variety of virus it was – they’ve stopped routine testing for H1N1 – I did go to the medical centre on Wednesday, when I knew I was coming down with whatever, because I needed a certificate for work (why wait until you really feel like crap, I say), but I wasn’t sick enough for them to be interested in doing one.

Thankfully, after 3 days of feeling awful (cough, fever, aches, the works), swallowing cold & flu tablets & taking temperatures and sleeping lots, in between mainlining TV (repeat viewings of Ultraviolet & Apparitions, plus Heroes and CoE – the last left until yesterday afternoon when my brain was functioning again), I’m feeling heaps better. If only my stomach & rib muscles would stop aching!

Anyway, this here is a postponed post – I was working on it before the lurgy hit:

( PMS Drill display last Sunday )
Hope everyone at Close Quarters is having a great time :)

P.S. the All Blacks won the first Bledisloe match. \o/
P.P.S Yahoo mail is playing up – grrr! So if you’ve sent me anything in the last few hours, I haven’t got it yet.

I had a fairly lengthy rabbiting-on thingy written about the warnings debate. But I've just followed flist links to a couple of fairly recent comments that have me open-mouthed and flailing at the WFTery of the commenters. So I deleted a lot of thinking-out-loud stuff that, while not directly related to what the said idiots were saying, seemed a bit inappropriate to bring forward now, and I'll keep this short (if you want to know the background, unfunny business on journalfen has been following the story, and the original post from impertinence is linked, together with the warning: Very explicit discussion of sexual assault and the nature, anatomy, cause & effect of triggers. Is itself triggery., in metafandom, which has current links and will no doubt carry more tomorrow.
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ETA2 Am also happy to answer more specific qustions about fic content.

Back at work *blah*. Haven't posted pics (no time). Away reenacting this weekend.

BUT I just wanted to ask whether any of you have seen "Castle", with Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic. Because I just watched a couple of episodes with the bloke and it totally pinged memories of "Remington Steele" (Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalest).

I can't believe it - I'm here at Heathrow, waiting out the hour or so before my flight boards - and another trip is practically over! Apart from the 22 hours flying back to Sydney, that is. But I got aisle seats this time! And I managed to fit everything into my backpack & sundry bags (chestercity2, your gift proved most useful). I've had a wonderful, busy-busy time. Didn't catch up with a couple of people who were laid low by lurgies of one sort or another, unfortunately. Better luck next time, hey? *Big hugs* to people who invited me to stay a night, or more - I really appreciated it.

I know I've been rubbish with trip related posts but I will post some picspams when I get home. For now, here's one I took in the Exeter underground passages (waves to foxcat - I think the effect has something to do with the tunnel strip lighting, but I'm not sure how:

I'm just waiting for byslantedlight to struggle free from temp-y work place (although I'm not sure how 4 drabbles in a morning counts as work *g*) so we can head off for Nattercon. And maybe there'll be a Skype call from B before we go, if he isn't out and about (I keep forgetting that I'm now 9 hours behind not 9 hours ahead, and it's Friday night in Sydney right now).

And whee! for just being here, after thinking and planning the whole thing for weeks - it was absolutely lovely to see byslantedlight at the P&R as my coach pulled in, knowing we've got days and days of meeting and nattering with our Pros mates. byslantedlight was fabulous as always and organised an evening out with alicambs, which was great fun, even if Ali and I did go off talking in a foreign language from time to time (there was definitely Bablyon 5, and a little Ultraviolet, although I don't remember too much Stargate at least from my side of the table *g*).

( Continued under the cut - Day One - Sydney to Cambridge )

So tonight was supposed to be my night for packing, but I still have clothes on the line thanks to a rainy Sunday - and I'm dithering about how much warm stuff to take. Last time? Lessee...

West Stowe & Ely - long-sleeved t-shirt & a jacket in case of wind
Duxford - t-shirt & jacket combo again
Camden & London & Norwich were mostly short-sleeve days,
Coventry - brrr!!!

And I can't believe how much black I seem to have accumulated since then! Black cords, black shirts...

Oh, god, I'd better check that the camera's charged.

OK, the Bodie Weekend thing is off and running on various lj's, and I think I've seen most of them if they've been cross-posted to the safehouse, ci5hq or teaandswissroll. This contribution isn't strictly Bodie - it's a picspam from "A Night on the Town", a pastiche song-and-dance show that Lew did in 1983. The main attraction for fans is Lew - he looks gorgeous throughout and sings well, if not brilliantly - but the whole thing drags a bit. They needed a better plot to hold all the pieces together IMO.

Lew and Anne Reinking have great chemistry. My favourite segment, however, is the one in the New York speakeasy, where Lew sings and dances along with Elaine Paige. My second favourite segment is the Paris one at the end, because the ensemble performance in that one is kick-ass.
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