To all those on my flist who are from the US I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Spooks has finally started up again and, though I missed it the day it aired, I did watch it a bit later. We are now up to episode three and it's on in a matter of hours. Better than James Bond, at least in my opinion. The spies of MI-5 are back and giving us a stellar show once again. To prove it, here's a video by JulietD001 to "Infra Red".

Veterans Day, Remembrance Day, Poppy Day...Any way you look at it today is a special day. It's a day for us all to make known that we appreciate the sacrifice of those who have fought and died for our respective countries. In America in seems that this holiday is forgotten, it falls by the wayside. People go to work and don't even realize that it's a special day.

I so admire how you celebrate this day in Britain. The fact that nearly every person wears a poppy for days and sometimes weeks before as an outward show of their remembrance is something that I hope we can emulate over here some day. In the meantime I'm celebrating in the US with a poppy today. So let's all remember the men and women who have lost their lives in service on this day of remembrance...Lest we forget.

In real life, when I'm not fangirling or watching British sci-fi on my pc, one of my hobbies is crochet. This weekend I gave a baby shower for a friend at church and crocheted her a baby hat and booties. She's expecting a boy and this varigated blue turned out beautiful. I just hope they fit. So here's my crochet show and tell.

( Two views of the crocheted hat & booties...behind the cut.  )

Four episodes of Merlin's second series down and each one has been better than the last. Tonight's absolutely blew me away. At this point I'd say the only one I've been slightly disappointed with was the first one, after that the romance, the magic and the character interaction has been completely brilliant. Barring the total absence of Morgana from at least one episode and the disgusting looking pig rats in this latest showing. Really, couldn't they come up with some better monsters? But overall I have loved this year's beginning episodes a lot as last year it took about eight episodes for the show to hit it's stride.

The romance has been amped up and the canon ships are starting to take shape as the writers begin to work out the relationships between the four main characters. But underneath it all Arthur is still a jerk and still thinks Merlin is an idiot, Merlin is still a long-suffering servant trying hard to hide his secret, Gwen is still a maid servant trying to find her own way in the world and figure out who it is she loves, and Morgana is just trying to understand her own gifts and figure out who she really is. And Uther, well, he still hates magic. I love this show. The only things that could be improved would be more Morgana...and less fragility, and weeping when she is on screen, Uther having a bit more to do with the plot than just being authoritative, and more of Merlin being smart and less comedic, idiotic and bumbling.

The best scene ever with absolutely no spoilers involved is this:


( A few more spoilery vid recs beneath the cut.  )

Just sitting here watching the 3rd season of Robin Hood on BBCA and scouring YouTube for Dancing With The Stars videos from this week's first episode of Season 9. The pro men's dance was brilliant and full of beautifully handsome boys while the tribute to Patrick Swayze had me loving Cheryl and Tony more than usual as they re-enacted the finale dance from Dirty Dancing. Oh and right now Guy of Gisbourne (aka the very hot Richard Armitage) is being his wonderfully evil self on my television screen, complete with sword fighting. Happy times. So anyway, here are vids of the two dances in question. Enjoy the pretty.

I've seen two documentaries in two days about the CIA. Totally irrelevant but it got me thinking about MI-5 and one of my favorite British TV shows. There's only a month left before the new series starts and I can't wait. Tonight I've watched two episodes featuring my favorite spy and searched YouTube for countless music videos. And so, I present a Spooks video selection.

( Spooks Series 7 vid recs...under the cut.  )

I was so sorry to hear that Patrick Swayze lost his battle with cancer yesterday. To honor his memory here is Time of My Life, the finale dance from his greatest work, Dirty Dancing, one of the formative movies of my teen years.

Here's an utterly brilliant video of a sketch put on by some wonderful cosplayers to answer that question. Ten meets his former selves and finds out what they're all up to now. I wish I could have seen this live. The video is by batfriend66 who apparently played Hartnell in the sketch.

I have now finished two Torchwood novels, Bay of the Dead and Into the Silence. They were interesting and offered a nice glimpse into the further adventures of the characters. But as a whole they were a bit disappointing. I know the canon of the novels has always been in doubt and after reading these two I can say that I think I know why. It was quite similar to reading fanfiction. But at least they were official and the covers were pretty. And I have to say that I'm very keen to get The House That Jack Built as soon as possible. But first...a brief review.

Bay of the Dead was a bit disturbing due to the zombie attacks and all of the brutal deaths. The gruesomeness of the story outweighed any interaction that the Torchwood characters had in the book and it seemed like the writer seemed a bit scared of Jack and Ianto as a couple.

Into the Silence was a bit more to my liking. The story kept me guessing and was interesting in its development. All the characters got to play a major part and even though the story came largely from Gwen's point of view, we still got several references to Jack and Ianto's relationship. At least enough to keep me happy. It also had some really good passages. A few of my favorites were:

"Ianto and Gwen leaned on either side of him, and Gwen wondered if Ianto felt the same slight electric charge when his arm brushed against Jack's that she did. Probably. And probably a lot more. After all, their relationship was somewhat more intimate. For a moment her mind drifted, wondering not for the first time, how differently Jack would touch her from how he touched Ianto."

"The truth was like that: fluid and mercurial. There was maybe only one other person in the universe that understood that better than Jack, and he was a long way away, having adventures of his own. Jack could use some time with him right now. He was a man who understood hard decisions and had a core of loneliness that probably beat Jack's own."

Fandom has been pretty exciting of late as well. David Tennant and John Barrowman appeared at Comic Con and took the US by storm. I know it's been a while but it fell right before my trip and I never really got the chance to watch all the videos. But I spent last evening watching the wonderful You Tube vids that cos2mwiz so graciously posted and they are absolutely brilliant. And it was David's first con appearance so it makes it doubly exciting. Hopefully their will be many more. It did appear that the Ianto issue overshadowed the Torchwood panel just a bit, but it was handled well. And John kept the naughty innuendo to a surprising minimum this year. But then there was the famous kiss.

( A few of cos2mwiz's Con Vids and a few Jack/Ianto vid recs to go with them...Under the cut.  )

On August 24th in 79 AD Mount Vesuvius erupted burying the city of Pompeii in ash. That's 1,930 years ago today. Amazing that we know the exact day, isn't it? Even more amazing that we have the body casts of those who died there, caught forever in their final moments. Frozen in death for over a thousand years. History is a powerful thing.

I would love to go to Pompeii. I've been to Italy twice and never managed to get there. It's so far away from Rome that you have to get up before dawn to catch the train to get out there. I didn't have the energy the first time and the opportunity wasn't presented the second.

The Doctor, however, was aiming for Ancient Rome and wound up in Pompeii on Volcano Day. I've re-watched this episode tonight and here are a few excerpts to mark the occasion.

Firstly, here's the Next Time trailer as provided by doctorwhohd.


Scene 19 - The beginning of the destruction. "Don't go to the beach! Go to the hills!"


Scene 20 - Donna begs for the lives of those in Pompeii. "You can't just leave them."


And lastly, here's a best of compilation by Zientz.

I may be in my 30's but I still watch the Disney Channel sometimes. I hate to admit it but Wizards of Waverly Place is one of my guilty pleasures. And so for some strange reason I love this new music video that the Disney teen stars have done. It's got a very good message. Here's "Send It On" with Miley Cyrus, Jonas, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato.

I've been back from my trip to England/Scotland since last Saturday and I've been sick ever since. So sick I haven't even felt like logging on to the internet, much less posting. Today I went to the doctor and got some medicine and I finally feel like I'm getting back to semi-normal.

So firstly, how was the trip? It was awesome. There was not nearly enough time in some places like London, Stratford and Edinburgh, but I saw so much more than I expected. I did go to the Forbidden Planet in both London and Edinburgh. My swag includes two Torchwood novels, a Doctor Who novel and two Ten figures. FP in London had almost nothing and I was very disappointed. Perhaps I missed something, but the one in Edinburgh had so much more stuff.

I got to do everything on my London list even though it was definitely rushed and I felt like I was going to drop by the time I got back to the hotel. I only had two hours in Stratford and really only had time to visit Shakespeare's birthplace and eat lunch. I would've loved to have gone to the RSC and seen more of the town. But I did get my picture taken with David Tennant...Well...Sort of. :) 


The weather was perfect the whole time. It only rained a tiny bit. Edinburgh was marvelous and so lively, though not too crowded for it being the weekend before the festival. Scotland was so much more beautiful than I expected. My favourite part is so hard to choose. Over everything I think I would have to say it was the Stonehenge, Glastonbury, Avebury day. There is just so much history, myth and magic about those places.

( Some photos of my trip to England & Scotland )

My trip to London is fast approaching. Yay!!! I'll only be there a few days though and most of one day will be taken up with a trip to Stonehenge. I haven't even started yet and I feel rushed just looking at my plans. I wish I had a few more days there, but after London I'm headed up to Stratford and then on to Scotland for a quick tour. I'm flying out of Glasgow.

I've been doing my research and I hope to go to the Forbidden Planet in either London or Edinburgh to pick up a little Ten action figure in a brown pinstriped suit. I want to set him on my desk at work. I'm also hoping to pick up a Torchwood book or two. It's not exactly easy to get Doctor Who merchandise in Arizona, so I can't wait to track some down in its home country.

But back to London...Here's my list of must sees during my two and a half days I'll be there (keep in mind I am a history buff).
1. Tower of London
2. Westminster Abbey
3. London Eye
4. British Museum
5. Trafalgar Square
6. Buckingham Palace
7. The Royal Mews

I think that's all...I've been before, so I've already seen all this stuff, but I want to see it all again and make sure that the people with me get to see all the sights.

Other places I'd like to go...
Madam Tussaud's
Changing of the Guard
The Globe
Forbidden Planet
Disney Store (Covent Garden)
Rock & Sole Plaice (Fish & Chips)
Sherlock Holmes Pub

So I will have a busy few days. Now if only I can squeeze everything in.

An interesting question. I love vampires...not sure why. I think it's the romance that accompanies the modern stories of them. And so here's my list.

Mitchell (Being Human)


Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel) 


Lestat (Queen of the Damned)


Henry Fitzroy (Blood Ties) 


Lucien Lacroix (Forever Knight)

So Whovians...Let's take a look at fandom. What? Can't look right now? It's too ugly? I know what you mean. Things have totally imploded since the airing of Children of Earth and I personally am very glad that I am not on the T3 Newsletter staff, because that lot are bloody saints right now. The reaction that has followed the ending of COE has been shocking. Personally, I was sad, but it's TV. I can see why what happened happened. Though I may not like it (although I do think it made for top notch tv...barring a few disturbing scenes), I do understand it and since I'm not a writer on the show I realize that I have no control over what has happened and what has happened is now canon in the truest sense of the word and cannot be changed...Read that sentence again folks...you're not going to get a re-write.

So now you know my opinion and let me tell you, there are some interesting opinions out there right now. So here's a small poll. It's innocent and in good fun people so please don't blast me for doing this. But let's see who the Who fans blame for the tragedies that occurred in the last 5 episodes of Torchwood.

Poll #1430493 Blame Game - Torchwood: Children of Earth
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

Who's to blame for the ending of Children of Earth?

Because I have to go back to work tomorrow, haven't been able to finish a chapter on either one of my stories and am still having back problems, I'm taking time out tonight before bed to post once more about Robin Hood. A few vid recs to revel in the memories for a while longer.

( Robin Hood vids under the cut...and Guy too of course.  )