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Aug. 23rd, 2025 08:05 pm
thisbluespirit: (agatha christie)
[personal profile] thisbluespirit
I've not been posting or even keeping up with people so much because I've largely been wiped out for one reason or another or prioritising something else with the reduced summer PC time - sorry. This will continue for a little while yet, until it is eventually replaced by my usual slightly less flakeyness.


* The other week I managed some flash fic/scribblets for AU_gust (AU August) on tumblr. I've only managed to tidy up and post one of them since, & there are 2 others to follow once I tweak them a bit, as well as 1 more that I don't know if is worth proper posting & a drabble I still need to type up. But this used up my posting energy for now, so they can wait.

Anyway, in a shocking attempt at pandering to what might pass as popular demand among my works, I committed another Miss Marple + supernatural fic(let):

Tea on Sunday (572 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jane Marple, Griselda Clement
Additional Tags: Ficlet, Alternate Universe, Witchcraft, AU-gust | August Writing Challenge, Community: allbingo, Community: 100_women, Community: 100fandoms, Miss Marple is a witch
Summary: Miss Marple's secret is out.


* In other writing, before summer got underway, I typed up the bulk of the longest continuous sequence I'm doing for the current arc at [community profile] rainbowfic, and then ever since have been scraping away at finishing it and editing it, and I am nearly there, although I suspect it'll still take another week or two before I have the first section ready to post. (I knew this would happen, so I also started two shorter pieces, but one of them, which is more or less done, has just been even harder to edit because tiredness etc. and the other one is still stuck at only two paragraphs, so that plan went well. Summer brain is not up to much. That was why I had to silly no-pressure AU ficlets my way back to life and even then summer rudely and immediately interrupted all over again). But there has been writing of sorts even so.

(The long sequence was one of the very first bits of this arc that I drew up, which is very funny because I essentially set up a sort of grand house murder mystery affair except that then everything changed so much that now my main characters aren't bothering taking part in the murder bit so am not sure if it will read ok (hopefully when edited) or if I committed Worst Murder Mystery ever as a result. I think probably I will also write a note on the header when we get there saying that One Day I Will Come Back, yes, one day I will come back, until then all 2 or 3 of you should go forward in all your beliefs about how people shouldn't wave a murder mystery at you and then literally run away from it, and I will eventually demonstrate that what is going on is in fact an Apocalyptic Overarching Plot, so there. And edit, of course.)


* I am currently listening to: a 1989 BBC Radio adaptation of Wilkie Collins's No Name I was delighted to find, starring Sophie Thompson as Magdalen, Jack May (as Captain Wragge), Eleanor Bron (as Mrs Lecount) & Robin Ellis (as Captain Kirke). I'm going slowly, but have just started part 3. It's very good and they're making excellent use of the epistolary bits, which is where radio has an advantage over TV. Mrs Lecount and her sinister toad have just turned up and Eleanor Bron is obviously a v good choice.


* I have watched some things, which, aside from what I've already mentioned, and a ridiculous amount of TV detectives, includes these:

The Tribe (1998), The Halfway House (1944), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), The Admirable Crichton (1957), Creation (2009), Cause Celebre (1988) & Eye in the Sky (2015), all of which were either v good or worth talking about anyway. (Creation and Eye in the Sky have brought me very nearly to the end of my Jeremy Northam's viable CV, so I'm a little bit in mourning now; I suppose a new blorbo will come along in time. Talking of which, I found that the iPlayer had the BBC 1970s All Creatures on it, so finally got around to seeing Suzanne Neve's episode of it, which would be the one thing I would certainly have watched with her when I was a child to see if I had shadowy feelings and indeed, as soon as she appeared, before even I saw her, the set was suddenly Significant in the back of my head, so yeah. I think I can prove childhood imprinting on all my top faves and that's what the thing is about, and why even when I'm so ill they reach me in ways that other people, no matter how much I enjoy them in things, don't unfortunately.)

(Hopefully I will get to talk about some of them properly, but I am happy to attempt such talk in comments if wanted, although sense is not guaranteed, and it is true that at least one or two I watched in a fugue state that all I can say is, well, it was good and I watched it very slowly in bits and there we are, but, yes it was good /o\)


* Also random funny thing. My old housemate N lent me a DVD (!!) of The Residence (was not joking about the sheer amount of detectives watched this summer), which I enjoyed so much I recced it to my Dad. A couple of weeks later we had this conversation:

Dad: I've been watching that medical drama you recommended, but it's not that great, really, so I've stopped.

Me: ... Medical drama??

(It turned out he'd found The Resident on one of the back Freeview channels, so I emailed him a trailer of the 2025 Netflix detective show that I magically got lent on DVD as if it was 2015 or something. He found a pirate source and then lost it again, but he definitely liked what he watched so far a lot better than the Resident).

thought i'd try one of these

Aug. 22nd, 2025 09:16 am
mercurios: baby yoda being held (baby yoda)
[personal profile] mercurios
the following are this week's questions from [community profile] thefridayfive 

1. Have you ever stayed in a hostel? If so, where? Did you like it?

i have! i've stayed in hostels both here (when i worked in torres de paine, i had to stay somewhere in puerto natales) and in the states (the first time i stayed in one in south lake tahoe which i loved, one in san francisco; and the second time i stayed in one in los angeles when i visited for a week)

corner hostel in puerto natales - because of WHEN i went, i mainly saw people coming in to work in the park, but other times i did see people on their full trekking gear coming from different parts of the work. had a french roommate with whom we bonded just because another roommate snored ALL night and it was impossible to sleep. it was kind of funny though lol.

mellow mountain hostel in south lake tahoe - this one holds a special place in my hear because it was where i went to live the first time i travelled to tahoe, after my original accomodation fell through. met a lot of awesome people there, and had the same roommates the entire time, which was also great. sadly the next year we couldn't stay there because they got picky with the long stays, WHICH WAS VERY LAME OF THEM. i still love them, take me back.

the urban hotel in san francisco - well this one was actually booked by one of the friends i went to san francisco with, and had no idea it was a hotel. this place is NOT a hotel lmao. it was great though, because we only paid for two and there were three of us hehehe. only one bed in the room but at least the rooms were private. bathroom wasn't. and we were right in front of the chinatown gate.

melrose hostel in los angeles - couldn't find a link to this one, i stayed here with a friend in los angeles the last time i was in the states. it was fun! only-women room, the terrace was great, you couldn't smoke there but it always smelled like weed, amazing. the only thing was the long-ass stair to get there (the entrance was street level but the front desk and rooms were in the second floor lmao and i was carrying TWO big-ass suitcases.

UNHONORABLE MENTION to the banana bungalows hostel in los angeles, in hollywood boulevard (FIRST RED FLAG) - i stayed here for just one night while waiting for my friend and ended up switching to melrose. i hadn't even checked in and a girl came out running because someone had left with her bag, which was supposed to be in custody?????? i-

then some lady staying in the same room as me kept turning on the ac everytime i turned it off lmao bitch. i didn't even shower there and left the next day. honestly it was probably not a great idea to look for something that close to the walk of fame (which is not even that great! but i literally forgot that while i was looking for places to stay, my brain was only thinking 'cheap'). the website makes it seem like a great party type of place and it's not even my vibe, i have no idea what i was thinking okay

rest of the questions under the cut )

nothing's off limits

Aug. 22nd, 2025 01:51 pm
pensnest: cartoon Mycroft, caption 'never mind your usual trivia' (Mycroft never mind trivia)
[personal profile] pensnest
I am charmed to discover that there is a fandom on AO3 for Cautionary Tales - Hilaire Belloc, and that I am therefore not the first person to post such an item. \o/

rocking the microphone*

Aug. 18th, 2025 03:14 pm
pensnest: Drawing of woman in fan-like headdress, caption Get yo freak on (Victorian Freak On)
[personal profile] pensnest
Cars seem to be getting colourful again. For quite a while you could look at a car park and see serried ranks of black, white, and all shades of grey from charcoal to palest silver, but hardly any colour. Now, when I go to the gym, there are reds (Mazda red is The Best Red), blues, and some outliers. There were four green cars this morning: a Mini in a nice hunting green, something flashy in 'dark lizard', something that looked like mint green with milk in it, and something like a melted lime Opal Fruit Starburst. And a yellow. And we've seen an obnoxious purple which is something very flash, maybe a Lamborghini.

*

Well. We had an all-day rehearsal yesterday for my mixed chorus, and the day before that there was Ruffmead Fest, the mini music festival in someone's back garden. I had initially baked for this, cheese and rosemary shortbread biscuits, which sounded nice but... came out of the oven in think, pitiful smudges on the baking tray and crumble when I breathed on them, let alone tried to pick them up. So I made devilled eggs instead.

And I performed a poem.

* there was no actual microphone, although the hosts had thoughtfully provided a cardboard one

I can't remember if I ever put this up on my journal before, so I shall included it under the cut. As we no longer live in the Victorian era, when the minor transgressions of small children (like chewing bits of string) were punished with, well, death, I thought a Modern Day Matilda would be appropriate. There are a few phrases directly attributable to Hilaire Belloc, and the discerning long-term reader will also notice that it draws from my earlier take on this theme, The Story of James Lance, who Told Lies, and Came to a Sticky End.

I think I shall put it on my AO3, but am a bit at a loss as to fandom.

Read more... )

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