Though I lack your power, I will still persist.

To be fair, I do have my reasons for not having updated more regularly, although most of them fall into one of two categories: being distracted by games, and it being cold around here.

By that, I don't mean that it's cold in the north of England (although it is cold in the north of England - in that it's been cold enough the last few nights for there to be thick frost in the morning, then cold enough during the days that the frost doesn't melt, so now there's layers of frost and I didn't even realise that that was a thing), but that it's cold around here where my computer is. Even with the heating on, this little bit of the house is still cold enough to turn my fingernails blue. I'm currently wearing a snuggie backwards (like a cardigan or something), which seems to be helping a little (the sleeves cover my hands!) but not enough for me to want to stay here for long. The fact that it's taken me 2 weeks to come up with this solution probably says things about my state of mind, but I really do not care to disect that right now.

That said, it's not like I have anything much to update about. So I'm going off to be distracted by Final Fantasy VI again, over where it's warm.

For those interested, Christmas went well. I didn't manage to blow up the house, and no-one bought me alcohol.

I did get a pair of earrings, but they were part of a set that my grandad thought was just a necklace when he bought it, plus it had a bonus bracelet that he didn't know about until I opened it - and it actually fits on my huge wrists, would you believe it - so I'm actually pretty happy about that. I also got given two more necklaces from my Auntie, and a gorgeous-smelling shower set from my Mum.

Also, while I was making plans for making Christmas dinner the week before, my grandad realised that I didn't have enough trays/dishes to be able to put everything in the oven at once, and bought me two medium-sized ovenproof dishes (just the right size to be able to put them side-by-side on the same shelf in the oven, and our oven isn't all that big) and two incredibly tiny Pyrex dishes, which I didn't end up using.

The dinner itself was anti-climatic. I expected things to go disastrously wrong, but they didn't - the only thing that really went wrong was that the Yorkshire puddings got knocked while they were in the oven, and I had to make more. Oh, that and no-one was really used to having roast dinners, so everyone got full really quickly and there ended up being loads of food left over. It turned out that they all felt that there was no point in having a big roast dinner at Christmas if you don't want to - which is a fair point, but I kind of wish someone had said something earlier.

Oh well.

If you want a holiday card this year, please send me your details by one of the following methods:

• fill out my holiday card poll (either on Dreamwidth or Livejournal)
• screened comment on one of the two above-mentioned posts
• email (kittyofangels[at]gmail.com)
• private message
• DM on twitter

The last posting dates from the UK (as taken directly from the Royal Mail website) are:

• Mon 5th December - South & Central America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Far East (including Japan), Australia and New Zealand
• Fri 9th December - Eastern Europe, USA and Canada
• Mon 12th December - Western Europe
• Tue 20th December - UK

(If I do not have your address by the time mentioned above, I can still send you a card, but I have no idea when you'll get it. Adjust dates accordingly for holidays/celebrations before December 24th.)

Just as I promised in my last post, under the cut are my top 10 dances performed by professionals on Strictly Come Dancing since I started watching it in 2008.

( My Top 10 Strictly Come Dancing Professional Dances )

Zip file of all videos in this post.

Don't kill me, but I might have completely ignored the poll results and bought the orange leggings. And they might have arrived today. And they might fit completely perfectly.

To be fair, I'll probably buy a pair in three more of the colours (i.e. all but the yellow) at some point, because they're all of £9 each. Oh, who am I kidding, I'll probably get the yellow ones too for that price. For anyone wanting a comparision, the place I normally get clothes from only has one pair of leggings in my size, and they're £27.

There should probably be a photo of said leggings here, but I kinda want to post a photo of my Halloween outfit as a whole.

I did a test batch of the pumpkin pie on Sunday. I say "batch" because I somehow ended up with enough filling for 4 pies. Also, I think it needed a little more pumpkin in it.

Whoops, I just wasted an hour an a half looking at the slytherpuff tag on Tumblr. I should really go to bed if I'm going to be awake for the BSL cafe tomorrow.

I keep forgetting to update when things actually happen. Like when I started making little tiny hats for The Big Knit. Or last weekend, when I had to grill a cake (cool trick for if the oven stops working - just put the cake under the grill at the lowest possible heat, and don't forget to cook both sides of it). Or Wednesday, when I went to a BSL Cafe, which I then totally forgot to post about when I got home, because my hard of hearing badges arrived (my own design, made by Kool Badges):


However, I do have a decision to make, and therefore a question to ask.

Halloween this year falls on a Monday. My BSL class is on a Monday. Therefore, I think it is only proper for me to go to my class in fancy dress. (I also think it is only proper to take in a pumpkin pie instead of the usual cake, but that is another story.) I am going to go as a witch. This has the upsides of being able to make my walking stick look like part of the costume (a broom!), and being able to wear my black dress.

But the dress is short. Too short for me to feel comfortable wearing outside on a cold night without something covering my legs. Like leggings. And I have found somewhere (Yours Clothing) that does colourful leggings in my size. Only there are 5 colours to choose from, and that means making a decision and I am not very good at making decisions.

I have eaten more strawberries this month than I've eaten before in my life, and there's still a punnet of them in the fridge. I also have some merangue nests that need eating. I might buy some cream tomorrow to go with them, which might be classed as "going too far", but they are my strawberries and I do not care.

Yesterday there was an event in the town centre where there were stalls giving out information about mental health. I didn't get to spend as much time there as I would have liked (I especially wish that I could have done some painting, which would have been awesome), but I did end up with a bunch of free stuff: a personal alarm, a keyring with some bells on it, a book, an apple and an orange. What these things have to do with mental health, I have no idea.

Today I bought 3 tops for £1 each at the charity shop I volunteer above (I volunteer in an office for a charity, and said office is above one of our shops). I've never seen as much as one item of clothing in my size in there before, never mind three. The third (and supposedly biggest top, according to the label) didn't fit, but it was only £1.

Someone who shall remain nameless reminded me of my love for Muppet Treasure Island. Guess what I'm watching on Youtube right now?

The last few weeks, months have been hard. Or harder, I'm not sure. It's hard to tell when you can't remember which day's which.

In spite of (and partly because of) this, I'm trying to be nice to myself, but that's never been easy. I ordered a copy of Kingdom Hearts yesterday, because I'm pretty sure that was fun the last time I played it, even though I never got to play all of it. I can afford it (due to not having Sign Language classes to go to right now), it was at a reasonable price (I've seen it selling for that price, but not cheaper, in other places) and I ordered it from someone I've bought several games from before (I haven't had to spend any extra money to make them playable, unlike other used games, and hopefully I should be okay with this one too), and yet...

I'm being ridiculous, I know.

I keep trying to do things, set myself easy targets so I can feel better about being nice to myself. Of course, that keeps backfiring. Today's target was to make a batch of tomato sauce for freezing, which is a nice easy target that I can't do beacuse I hurt my right hand & wrist at some point last night and (unlike other times that I've hurt myself in my sleep) it is not getting any better.

Oh well. There's always tomorrow, right?

I still can't get used to having the internet on my computer. Being able to open webistes! Watching videos! Tumblr Saviour!

Not that I've been doing much of that. The computer's been in and out of the shop getting vaguely upgraded - unfortunately not much can be done for it because it's quite old, but it works.

Which reminds me: what IM services do you all use? I miss talking to people.