![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
j4Leaving ProQuest didn't really feel like leaving at all. This is partly because it looks like I'm going to end up working there again (only part-time or freelance) fairly soon, while I'm looking for something else. There's a bit of a running joke that nobody actually leaves ProQuest, and I always said that when I left, I would really leave, and wouldn't be induced to return for love or money... but it seems that I spoke too soon. Lots of people jokingly said "see you on Monday" as I was leaving.
My cow-orkers adopted a badger for me as my leaving present! So I now have my own badger. I'm not sure what the adoption actually involves -- do they make it write me awkward letters ("Dear Janet -- I don't yet feel I can call you 'mum', though I hope in time I'll come to see you as such...") every few weeks?
I changed into my New Rocks at work, much to the amusement of my cow-orkers, and then headed off to London. Met up with
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
hoiho en route, and we had dinner at PizzaExpress before meeting up with other sparklykittens and wandering over to B-Movie. daneel_olivaw had got there before us, and was looking resplendent in his corset; I quickly went to change into mine, with help from julietk (who also looked gorgeous in very nice gold bodice-type-thing), and then the drinking and dancing could commence.And there was drinking, and there was dancing, and there were lots of pretty people. The music was mostly excellent, though I think I gave myself away as a sad nineties indie-kid by bouncing rather excessively to the Levellers' "One Way". Amazed to discover that I could dance in my New Rocks (about five-inch platforms). The drinking was good too, though I think I overindulged somewhat; it made a nice change to be able to actually buy PINTS! of BEER! in a nightclub, and while the prices were London pub prices (ouch) they weren't as bad as London club prices. And as for the pretty people... well, the place was full of them. :-)
marnameow looked beautiful in her corset (it was a good night for corsets, all told!), beingjdc looked as louche as ever in his velvet suit, and uon looked very shiny in glittery PVC stuff. Oh, and I didn't realise at the time that daneel_olivaw's pretty friend was duranorak -- would have said hello properly if I'd realised!Stayed at B-Movie till the bitter end ("Stand and Deliver" and all) before going back to
marnameow's, and thence back to julietk and no-livejournal-Pete's new house, where beingjdc, hoiho and I were crashing. The house is great -- it's big, it has very comfortable carpets, and lots of pretty (and NOISY) rats. :-) Oh, and a visiting cat, which was duly fussed-over by beingjdc in the morning.Went to
marnameow's for a fantastic breakfast, including marna-mushrooms and lovely buttery scrambled eggs. Mmmm. I'm afraid though I did get a bit distracted into playing Rez ... see, I wanted to show people area 5, so I had to do area 4 first, and then realised I had to do area 3 as well in order to unlock area 5; and then area 5 itself takes ages ... but you do get to see the s3xxy n3kk1d cyb3r-chyXX0r. (Rah!) After breakfast
hoiho and I went for an extended wander around Soho and Camden. Having quite comfortably danced in the New Rocks all last night, I decided that I could wander around London in them too, and indeed managed to do so. hoiho (who, incidentally, is Not A Goth) found the POINTY BOOTS he'd been looking for, and some tight lace-up leather trousers, and a lovely full-length leather coat; and I found (among other odds and ends) a birthday present for sion_a. Also accidentally bought some real chocolate, and later discovered in the Devonshire that black peppercorn chocolate goes very nicely with Guinness.Just before we headed back to the tube station, I decided (against my better judgement) to have Just One More Look at the New Rocks that I'd tried on the other week. "I'll just look at them", I said. After all, with
hoiho there acting as my conscience, I couldn't possibly be tempted to buy them, could I? ... So, I am now the proud owner of stompy boots with FIFTEEN-INCH PLATFORMS. Fifteen inches is nearly a quarter of my natural height.Was going to try to hide the boots from
sion_a, but in the end he picked us up at the station and there just wasn't any way to hide them. Sorry sion_a. I promise I will find somewhere more sensible than the front hallway to put them... perhaps on the table as a centerpiece and talking-point? :-)After a brief rest and change of clothes,
sion_a and I went back out to lark_ascending, crazyscot and Mike(-who-has-no-livejournal?)'s housewarming party. I'm afraid I didn't make myself very popular with Mike's teenage friends -- spoilsport that I am, I didn't like them throwing beer all over the place, I didn't want them borrowing sion_a's coat for a "leather nun" costume, and I also didn't let them tip green tomato ketchup over me. (It's times like that when I remember why I never went in the college bar, or to many undergraduate parties.) Other than that, however, the party was good, even if I was falling asleep with exhaustion by the end of it....
And now, after some sleep and a bath and some pain au chocolat ... money-related guilt. I did get the boots for £100 less than the advertised price, but still. Would anybody like to look after my Visa card and prevent me from using it until such time as I have some money and/or some sense? Failing that I really am going to have to cut it up, and forcibly erase the number from my head so that I can't use it online either.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-05-11 07:55 am (UTC)Well, that's what he'd have us believe, anyway!
Tight lace-up leather trousers
Gosh! Dribble.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-11 09:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-12 01:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-13 02:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-11 10:38 am (UTC)Quite sorry that you never did get to demonstrate your Rez skills to me in the end, but you were more than busy with other things. Maybe there'll be another time!
Boots at £100 off - even though you haven't said what they did cost, and I don't want to know, I don't think you should actually feel too bad about them if it turns out that they'll last you for as long as you want to wear them and if they do make you feel tall and powerful and wonderful while you do so. (If you can dance in 5" New Rocks, can you dance in stompy boots with fifteen-inch platforms?) Buying chocolate at £3.10 for 65g, according to that link, is something to take very seriously, though - or maybe it's just a sign that I don't have real chocolate in my life...
no subject
Date: 2003-05-12 01:26 am (UTC)Well, people walk on stilts which give them more rise than 15 inches, so I think I'm a long way from the limits of possibility yet...
How high (? tall? thick?) would you like them to be?
For now I think fifteen inches is quite adequate. But then I haven't seen any taller ones yet...
When do they stop being practical?
I think they stop being practical a long way before 15 inches! It all depends what you can walk in, though. IMHO the 5-inch platforms are still within the realms of "practical", if I can walk round Camden all afternoon in them; not sure I could walk comfortably in anything much higher.
Of course, it's not just the height; my 7-inch suede platforms are probably more impractical than the 15-inch New Rocks, because they have mirror-smooth soles (very silly, and I keep meaning to get them re-soled!) and because they're just shoes on platforms rather than boots -- so they don't give the ankles any support. They're also quite narrow, no wider at the base than at the top (whereas the NRs flare out so that they're about an inch wider at the base than at the top), so they're not very stable. I did manage to line-dance in them, though. :-)
How high are your ceilings?
<grin> I've a way to go yet before I hit the ceiling; though I had to be careful of the lightshade.
I don't think you should actually feel too bad about them if it turns out that they'll last you for as long as you want to wear them and if they do make you feel tall and powerful and wonderful while you do so.
Thank you! That's the way I look at it, certainly. Although the point is more that I don't really have the money, so I am feeling guilty about spending it...
(If you can dance in 5" New Rocks, can you dance in stompy boots with fifteen-inch platforms?)
Well, I tried them on yesterday and managed to do two-steps-forward-two-steps-back dancing, just about. Which is all most goths manage. I'd really miss being able to dance properly, though, so maybe I shouldn't wear them until I really can dance in them.
Buying chocolate at £3.10 for 65g, according to that link, is something to take very seriously, though - or maybe it's just a sign that I don't have real chocolate in my life...
It's really, really nice chocolate. Really really. Worth the money. And you can only eat a little bit of it at once really so it lasts a long while. I'd rather spend £3.10 on 65g of truly gorgeous chocolate that will last for a few weeks than, say, the 8 Snickers bars that I could buy from the chocolate machine in that time for that total cost.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-12 02:33 am (UTC)It was generally a Very Good Party, though, I think, and the house is now well and truly Warm. Thanks for coming! (PS. Nice boots :-) )
no subject
Date: 2003-05-12 03:57 am (UTC)Oh, I know; and you don't need to apologise, they were hardly your fault! I'm just sorry they didn't appear to take any notice when I told them off. Still, they'll grow up eventually... or at least we can hope.
I basically told them that the way they were behaving was the kind of thing we all thought was very amusing at the age of 15, and one of them said "well, I'd rather be 15 than 23". I really hope 23 isn't his idea of "so old you don't know how to have fun any more" -- I remember 23 and I'm sure it wasn't all that bad in terms of "fun". And 25 just seems to get better and better. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2003-05-12 07:48 am (UTC)the most hilarious.
The leather nun gag was `rate' funny (though only because it was Rick), the
broken glasses were an unfortunate accident, Pinna took multiple ribbings by
the bucket load and was still laughing on the other side, and the channel 5
lovefest pr0n that was happening on the sofa at three in the morning (and
associated heckling by us) is still making me rotflmao.
And how is it that, after going to a party filled with poly / bi / goth /
compscis, the rowdy public schoolboys are the ones getting oppressed? I was on
best open-minded non-judgmental behaviour and everything.
Sorry about the egg-perry BTW, Ed
Today, Janet (
Sorry about the rowdiness, but you were right to say how you felt.
Oh, I know; and you don't need to apologise, they were hardly your fault! I'm just sorry they didn't appear to take any notice when I told them off. Still, they'll grow up eventually... or at least we can hope.
I basically told them that the way they were behaving was the kind of thing we all thought was very amusing at the age of 15, and one of them said "well, I'd rather be 15 than 23". I really hope 23 isn't his idea of "so old you don't know how to have fun any more" -- I remember 23 and I'm sure it wasn't all that bad in terms of "fun". And 25 just seems to get better and better. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2003-05-12 08:05 am (UTC)compscis, the rowdy public schoolboys are the ones getting oppressed?
Poetic justice in action, I'd say - it's about time we got our own back ;-)
Vicky
no subject
Date: 2003-05-13 03:17 am (UTC)The point wasn't whether it was funny or not -- I'm sure it was hilarious to those involved -- but that it involved manhandling other people's property without their permission. (I know you think this is a terribly boring thing to care about, but I'm just trying to explain why I was pissed off.)
Nobody minds what you do with other people who don't mind (without loss of generality). But when it starts impacting on people who do mind, then it becomes a problem. Well -- then you have to decide whether you care about offending other people. Maybe you'll decide you don't care. <shrug>
And how is it that, after going to a party filled with poly / bi / goth / compscis, the rowdy public schoolboys are the ones getting oppressed?
If you can't tell the difference between "getting oppressed" and "being asked to show a little respect for the people who aren't interested in your games", then it's about time you learned.
I was on best open-minded non-judgmental behaviour and everything.
Good for you.
Badger adoption.
Date: 2003-05-12 08:18 am (UTC)More info can be found here (http://www.careforthewild.org/appeal.asp?apid=13).
(Not a link to the adoption page, didn't know if you'd want the pleasant surprise of what had been got spoilt by knowing how much etc.)
If it is the same organisation, there are a couple of adoption packages, but the common elements are:
A personalised adoption certificate with a picture of the badgers.
A badger fact sheet.
A window sticker.
An update after six months.