Three days out of the last five I've been trekking over to my Mum's to fix her broadband. Every day, after an hour or so fiddling around, it works. Every time I restart the computer it doesn't work. Now the getting online is nice but I'm getting tired of the trekking (and a little tired of my Mother, who makes me look like a computer genius and insists on feeding me lentils every time I visit) and a little tired of TalkTalk, who freely admit it's all their fault but claim she's still tied in to an eighteen-month contract. After several increasingly acrimonious conversations in which they suggested she buy another router and I suggested they shove it, I phoned her bank and cancelled her direct debit. They threatened to charge her £200, I threatened to phone trading standards, they went very quiet and put me through to a chap that didn't speak English...
Anyway... My question is, who should I switch her over to? The most important criteria is hassle-free. Is it possible to have hassle-free broadband in the UK?

My kiddie gave me headlice just before Easter. A month later, I still have headlice. I have spent literally a weeks income on nasty pesticides - does anything kill the damn things? The only way I got rid of them on Jen was picking the little buggers off one at a time (I've got so much less squeemish since I became a mother) and even that doesn't work for me. I have so much hair and it's just exactly nit coloured. I'm one step away from shaving my head.

This week I have mostly been reading Life on Mars slash fanficton. This is more a symptom of the Philip Glenister crush than a love of the program. I thought by 27 I'd have grown out of crushing on people, but no. Anyway, here's some recs.

Cogs by echo_voice

Schrodinger's Cat by furblewig

The Sheriff and His Deputy by elfinessy

Flash of Light by elfinessy

Foolproof by severa

Stop Look Listen by bistokids

Don't mess with Mister In-Between by hellblazer06

Five kisses and sequel Aftermath by fandomatemylife

We Could Steal Time by dorcas_gustine

Lawman, Beating up the Wrong Guy by tigertrapped

Happy Birthday slackerace. Hope you have a lovely day and find some time to relax and/or party.


And happy birthday shapinglight, hope this gorgeous weather holds for your trip.

( Chapter Thirteen )

There may be a tiny bit more of a gap between this chapter and the next. I started writing the rough draft of 14 two weeks ago and so far I'm on sentence four. They do cover two pages, I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse... I'm like a sloth in winter, seriously. A dead sloth.

Got my bag back, btw. Maybe I should have a little more faith in human nature but the estate I live on is, um, not exactly what you might picture when you think of Oxford and the main hobbies here seem to be vanadalizing stuff so I was pleasantly surprised.

Bit of a reveal and absolutely no cliffhanger in this one. Beta'd as usual by the lovely slackerace.
Feedback is food... but you know what? I've read at least three good fics this week that I've yet to comment on, so I probably deserve to starve.

Previous Chapters Here

( Chapter Twelve )

And huge thanks to whoever nominated this fic and Let Nothing You Dismay for various stuff at the Love's Last Glimpse awards.

A short chapter, but I promise a longer one very soon. Previous chapters are here.

(And yes, I do know there's already been a chapter ten, but I made chapter one a prologue because it wasn't long enough to post as a part on its own on TSR and it made all my chapter numbers out of sinc and it's been annoying me for ages and... I'm just anal. This is a brand new chapter, not the last one reposted.)
( Chapter Ten )

Haven't been on line much either, which means I'm fanfic deprived. Fic deprived altogether, really, I've tried all the novels I got for Christmas and didn't finish a one of them because they're all crap. If anyone could recommend me a book that doesn't suck, I'd be very grateful. Preferably one by someone who isn't dead.
I've spent most of January re-reading my own small library and it's depressing how many of my favourite authors, outside fandom of course, died long before I was born. Re-read Emma, that's still a great book. So fantastic, in fact, I may have to send hate mail to the next person who compares it to anything written by a Bronte. Unless it's something like 'Austen is so far superior to the Brontes it's hard to draw comparison.'
And I re-read all my Reginald Hills. He's not dead yet, that cheers me up. A brilliant writer who I'd recommend to anyone. Well, anyone English, they're set in Yorkshire and the language might be impenetrable to an American. Great who-dun-its, but don't let that put you off if you don't like mysteries, this guy rises well above. Such a love of words. Here's a tiny little quote: It was, he acknowledged later, an attempt at comfort on a par with assuring Mrs Lincoln she'd have hated the rest of the show.
Then A Town Like Alice, which my Dad gave me when I was eleven and it made me cry for days then. Only hours, nowadays, but that's just because I can read quicker now. The guy might have had some dodgy political ideas but boy could he tell a story. If there's anybody left in the English speaking world who hasn't read Nevil Shute you should go and do that right now. (And it's nowhere near as depressing as I just made it sound.)
Skipped PG Wodehouse, read those last winter. Yesterday it was Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams, even the ( blurb ) of that book makes me giggle.
So that's what I like. If any of those are on you favourite author list I'd really appreciate you taking the time to recommend me something new.
My best Christmas present was a CD, the 30th anniversary edition of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, another thing my dad got me hooked on at a young age. Here's a little quote from that (Stephen Fry, I think), you have to say it out loud, and if you're American for 'Piers Morgan' read 'Condoleeza Rice'
Definitions - Countryside: The Killing of Piers Morgan

I haven't answered comments for my last fic. Mostly because I've had almost no time to get on line. I read somewhere recently I was morally obliged to reply to every comment but mostly the only thing you can say is thank you and I feel a little silly... Excuses. I really do have no time. But I do read and appreciate, so assume the thank you.

And I got some nominations ( which I've had to put under a cut because I can't fix the spacing. )

Big thanks to whoever put me up for those. Hope you're all having a happy new year so far.