To keep track of whatever I post on runaway_tales . Look, original fiction! Ordered chronologically within the story's timeframe.

Lucille is Forgetfull
A Storm

Partly because I need somewhere to have links to them all, I'm going to start archiving the parts to my Mint Royale fic here. Just to make it easier on myself when I need to check things, mostly. Dated so it stays at the top - because I am blatantly stealing thieving_gypsy 's modus-operandi.




1 - This Is What Living Like This Does
2 - One Way Or The Other
3 - Those Who Favour Fire
4 - Long Way Down
5 - So Much More Than Everything
6 - Down To The Wire

I've been sorting out some photos and now I miss my cats :(



That's my Ernie, my big old pusscat who I've had since I was seven :) And here's Harry, who is a right cheeky monkey:



Showing off his whiteness :)

I miss my kitties! I can't wait to give them a cuddle at the weekend.

ARGH. I have about 500 words to go on this Early Film essay that's due in on Tuesday, which isn't really a lot but it's all taking so long I just want to jab sharp objects into my eyes. It's probably the messiest essay I've ever written because I don't even really know what I'm trying to say, I just know that I'm writing about the transition from the 'cinema of attractions' to narrative cinema and paraphrasing Tom Gunning all the time and arg. I actually have the potential to like this stuff, but they make it so dull. I can't be bothered with it, I just want to get it over with and then be able to spend the next two weeks talking non-stop about PIRATES PIRATES PIRATES. I'm going home for a visit next weekend, so while I'm there I'm going to pick up all the extras DVDs from the POTC films (necessary) and also, because I am also doing a presentation on it, my red bandana and piratey temporary tattoos (not quite so necessary). I bet I'll be the only person who'll dress the part for their presentation :P shame I won't be graded on it.

I'm currently dealing with a terminally stupid woman on ebay. I sold her some boots last month and she messaged me last week to say they hadn't arrived. I said ok, give it another week and if they still haven't arrived let me know and I'll refund you the money. She replied saying she hoped they'd arrive etc. and thanks for replying. Then I hear nothing for a week, at which point I get a rude (and very badly typed) message saying how disappointed she was at lack of contact and that the boots obviously hadn't been posted and demanding a refund. I bit my (metaphorical) tongue, decided not to point out that I couldn't exactly do anything until she'd told me they still hadn't arrived, but pointed out that I couldn't be held responsible for the postal service's mistake, and asking her to confirm the email address linked to her paypal account so I could send her the money. Nothing. Today I have sent her another message, again asking her to confirm her email address, as I can't send out the money until I have it. Still nothing. What's the betting in three days I will get a message in caps lock going "OMG WHY DONT I HAVE MY MONEY YET"? Some people are really just too stupid to be allowed.

In other news, bar chords are my enemy, and I wish people whos songs I want to learn wouldn't insist on using them.

My rent payment goes out next week, so I've just transferred the money into that account. This leave me with just the money I got for my birthday to buy food with. This makes me sad, it was meant to go on a holiday for next year :( Hopefully I can persuade my parents to give me a couple of hundred next weekend. Otherwise no one's getting christmas presents this year :/ Have I ever mentioned that I hate being a student?

It's been a very confusing week.

Anton came down on Monday. It was wonderful. Not as wonderful as Tuesday, which was my birthday and was awesome and lovely and the best birthday I've ever had. Yesterday night however was a bit of a disappointment - turns out that Gary Numan is CRAP live. Seriously. I never realised on the records just how samey the music is. Plus they played far far far too loud and we had to leave after an hour because our ears hurt and the bass was making me feel sick. It was awful. Plus there was hardly anyone under the age of forty there, and it wasn't like other gigs I've been too where everybody's enjoying seeing their favourite band live with everyone else, it all felt so elitist like everyone there was certain they were the biggest fan and no one else deserved to be in his presence. Not cool.

And then today, today oh today. Today I want with all my heart to be anywhere else but here because today Antony went home and I wanted so so badly to go to and never come back, not ever. And I can't because I'm still stuck here. And he's not going to put Solent down on his UCAS and that shouldn't make me so sad because it means I won't have to spend an extra two years in Southampton, but it also means that I have to do this thing where we only manage to catch odd days with each other every few weeks for another whole year. And that doesn't sound long but it is, it's so long and it hurts. It breaks my heart every time we have to say goodbye, and we have to say goodbye so much. I promised myself really hard that I wouldn't ever expect or even think about anything other than this eventuallity so that I wouldn't get hurt, but it didn't work because how could I ever not hope?

I'm complaining again. I'm sorry. I just want the man I love, and not to be where I am.

Without being too spoilery... might I just say...

AAAARGH

and

WHUT

and

AAAAAAARGH

and

AWESOME!

and

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

That's weird. Bye bye being a teenager! Hello third decade! Sheesh.

Still, I've once again managed to get an awesome birthday week lined up. I've been doing pretty well at that these past few years heh. This year I've got Doctor Who today (!!!), Anton coming down tomorrow, birthday + presents/cards and birthday meal on Tuesday, then Gary Numan on Wednesday. It is all very very exciting and I kind of wish it would hurry up and start XD (yes I want to perve over David Tennant, shush.)

Reeeeeet. Gonna get me some cereal and whale on this essay again.

I just drank a cup of really strong coffee in the hope that it would wake me up and make me able to concentrate on this Documentary essay. It's just left me feeling a bit sick.

Or maybe it was going into my kitchen that did that - it's filthy, which pisses me off because Ollie was meant to clean it yesterday which clearly didn't happen, and I'm next up to clean it (on my birthday nonetheless). If it's not been done before then THEY WILL KNOW ABOUT IT.

Also I've discovered this website which just makes procrastination easier. Sigh. (And also - awww!)

Still, next week I have lots of things to look forward to: Anton on Monday, birthday on Tuesday, Gary Numan on Wednesday - it cold be worse :)

I've just got not only permission but encouragement from my tutor to write about pirates for my next English essay. This is actually going to make 4000 words bearable - maybe even fun!

The actual question is about how and to what effect a recent text rewrites an older text, so naturally I'm going to talk about Pirates of the Caribbean as a contemporary rewrite of Treasure Island. I love my course some days. Do you know what this means? This means I get to spend a couple of days watching the three Pirates films. And it'll be actual school work. It also means that I have an excuse to immerse myself in pirate literature and histories and so on and eeeee! This is pretty much my perfect essay. Now all I have to do is get the dull-as-dishwater Documentary and Early Film essays out of the way so I can start work on it.

I am happy!

I'm supposed to be writing an essay for documentary that's due in on Tuesday and that I reaaaallly need to get a move on with, but... ah, I can't be arsed. So instead I'm gunna update because I haven't in a while.

Last week was EPIC FUN. Only downer was that Antony got very poorly the first weekend we were together, so we weren't able to celebrate our anniversary :( But we're having a kind of joint celebration on my birthday next week, so it's all good. Still - bugger me, a whole year. Over a whole year now. Makes me happy :)

Going home for the weekend was lovely, in spite of coach journeys between Southampton and Leicester being incredibly dull and time consuming. Greyhound coaches are wonderful though, if you ever need to travel between London and Southampton or London and Portsmouth I recommend them - lots of leg room, plush leather chairs, complementary newspapers... plus they're a lot nicer than national express. On my way back there was one girl who'd missed her coach and another man who'd accidentally booked his ticket to portsmouth instead of southampton and they let them on anyway. You'd be very very lucky to get that with national express.

Music Live was... interesting. Rather smaller than we had hoped, but I got a wicked guitar tuner for £7 that would have cost £21 in the shops so I'm a happy bean. And the guitar's finally in tune, yaaay! Though still not holding her tuning very well, due to being left untuned for several days with new strings on. Oops. Antony got some excellent recording gear, so hopefully in the Christmas break we'll get some recording done, and you can actually hear what The Canvassers sound like :)

I have hairdye. I got the LIVE Color XXL Red Passion because it was the brightest, but I'm a bit scared to use it now. I've never dyed my whole head before, and I don't have anyone to help o_0 Wait until christmas for jazzy new hair mebbe? Then I can get my mum to help. Unless Anton feels like trying to help me wednesday morning :P

He's down again on Monday, but only for three nights which makes me very very sad. Part of me really really hopes he chooses Solent next year so we hardly ever have to do the time apart thing, but shhhh, I'm not telling him that. That would be RIDICULOUSLY unfair of me. Just hoping the uni itself is enough to win him over heh.

Gah. I really should do some work. Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to research I go...

It is less that six hours until Antony gets here :D I can barely sit still. Might not be around much over the next few days, so have fun in my absence!

Eurgh, I've got a presentation to my Documentary seminar group in just under two hours, so I'm sat at my computer feverishly rehearsing. I'm sure my housemates think I'm mental, hearing me give myself a talk on Free Cinema over and over :P Ah well, practice makes perfect. I hate presentations, which is strange because I've always liked performing. I just don't like having to be me when I get up in front of people, I don't like proving my knowledge (and the lack of it) and I don't like little audiences where I can see people's faces (seriously, I get more nervous singing in front of Anton's parents in their living room than I ever did on stage in front of 200 people).

I'm not going to get a good mark for this presentation, but it doesn't matter - it's 10% of the module, which makes it less than 1% of the degree. I'm cool with that.

I hardly slept last night. Nerves about presenting mixed with excitement about Antony coming down on Saturday make for one very awake Lucy :P Shoulda bought some of those energy drinks that were on sale in Somerfield yesterday.


EDIT: Got a First :D

I keep forgetting to post about Lovely Cheery Man. I've seen him twice now and I have to tell you about him. It's this asian guy who must live in Portswood like me, and the first time I saw him I was stomping along in a bit of a hurry, and when I passed him on the pavement he grinned at me and said "Cheer up!" which made me smile quite a lot. Then today I was in a really good mood, and when I was in Iceland I saw him again (though I didn't recognise him) and I ginned at him because he let me get through in a crowded aisle. He called after me "See, I told you to cheer up!" Little things like that make my day :)

Got a huge number of things to be excited about right now :)

First and foremost, SIX DAYS UNTIL ANTON VISITS. EEEEEEEE. It will have been four weeks (give or take a few hours) since I last saw him and I cannot wait XD And we'll be going out on a pubcrawl for halloween looking all cool as Alice in Wonderland characters (I finished my costume, pictures to follow) and then sunday the 1st is our first anniversary :) I actually can't believe it's been almost a year already. The time's gone so quickly. Still, with any luck this will be the first of many. We're going to go up to Winchester to look round the cathedral and see Jane Austen's grave, then in the evening we're going for dinner. It's going to be awesome.

Then on Thursday the 5th (woo bonfire night) I'm heading back to Leicester with him, and that weekend we're going to Music Live in Birmingham. I am looking forward to this more and more as the days go by. So many great musicians and beautiful instruments in one place <3 <3 <3 Trying to make my guitar skillz look slightly less amateurish (good luck with that, Lucy) so that I don't completely show myself up, but it doesn't really matter. Really hoping that Luna are going to exhibit, because I want to play with their guitar-pretties.

ALSO. My birthday is next month, for which Anton will again be coming down, and we're going to see freakin' Gary Numan. He's playing at my uni the day after my birthday and it was really too good an opportunity to miss so I bought tickets :D :D Going to goth it up, I think. And by then I'll have very very red hair (Meg, I haven't told you this yet but you're coming to mine sometime the week before my birthday and dying my hair. Just so you know.)

So happy this evening :) As I said, been trying to practice the guitar - I'm still shocking at it, but at least my ear is improving: I can tell when it's out of tune better. Unfortunately I still can't tune by ear to save my life, I don't have a tuner and the online guitar tuner is ridiculously hard to use. So my newly-developed sense of tuning is being plagued by knowing I'm out of tune and not being able to do anything about it :P Never mind, if I'm sweet and promise favours Antony will probably bring a tuner down with him.

There are only two small downers on my life at the moment really. I've got an essay due next week but which I want to finish by Friday, but considering I've currently been writing for about two hours and I'm well over a third of the way through that's hardly a worry. If I need to I can finish that in a day. The other is a presentation I have to do on Wednesday in my Documentary. I hate presentations and I hate this module, but I'm not stressing about that too much any more. Research and stuff tomorrow, write-up on Tuesday, get it out of the way Wednesday. Could be worse.

Life is good :)

So, we've finally moved on to complex narrative in Early Film, and these means one very important thing: I finally understand why B loves Lillian Gish so much. She's wonderful. At last, I've found something I like about early cinema! She weirdly reminds me of my cousin Liz too - I think it's a mix of facial features and the way she moves. It's pretty cool, anyway.

Continuing the educational theme, tomorrow I am off to the big library where I rarely venture in search of the history Myths and Legends section in the hope that someone, somewhere, has written down a fair few of the old seafaring superstitions, particularly the ones regarding death. I've found so many websites with them on, but not a single one I can reference in an academic piece, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed otherwise I've got a day to completely change the angle of my essay.

Sooo tired. Need to sew though. Really, really need to sew - I'm hardly going to have any more time before halloween.

Still poorly, but not as bad as I was, I don't think. I've been trying to do some research for my essay on the Ancient Mariner (if anyone knows anything about it/has any articles about it TALK TO ME!) and my presentation on direct cinema. Currently looking like the essay will be easier, especially as it's only 2000 words. I'd still rather not have to do either though :P

I'm in the mood to knit something new (which I shouldn't really, the number of projects that need finishing). I want to learn to cable knit, but I haven't got a cable needle yet, nor do I have any really nice yarn. I think that can be my next treat :)

Right, back to research I go.

Ee gads, I'm tired. Thing is, I've hardly done anything today, but I woke up this morning with some kind of bug which is just draining all my energy. It's only quarter past seven, but I think I'm going to have a shower and get in my pyjamas and knit and watch films. Yay :)

Less than two weeks until halloween, which means less than two weeks until I get to see Anton again XD hate hate HATE being apart again, I swear it gets harder every time. Still, over halfway through this particular separation which makes me happy :) I'm rubbish at being by myself now hah. Still, there's a chance he might be moving down here next year if he goes to Solent uni, so that's something to hope for because then we'd be able to get a flat together. Otherwise I'll stick it out here and move to wherever he's at uni when I finish. So either way, definitely something to look forward to :)

Got lots of work to do, but head has been too woozy this weekend, which is really really annoying. Need to get on with it, and with my halloween costume, and find time to clean my room and do laundry and food shop and knit all the things I've promised people. Doesn't help when something in the house breaks every days! Still, plodding on as usual.

Biggest thing is the courage to call up the counselling service and get an appointment to see someone. It's strange because a lot of the time I'm fine, but I'm still getting the terrifying midnight panic attacks which are only getting worse. It's getting to the point that the night before last I was afraid of myself because I didn't know what lengths the panic was going to drive me to. Anton has asked me to talk to someone, and I agree, they might have some better coping strategies. Still, scary 0_0

I've just had the worst frickin' twelve hours I have ever experienced.

First of all, I got locked out of my room. No big deal, think I, we all have a spare key in the key pot downstairs. I try all the keys. None of them fit. I try them again. Still nothing. One of my housemates tries them, just in case I have suddenly turned into a key retard. Nope, they're not letting me in. This is all at 11:30pm. I try calling the landlords, they don't answer. We ring many locksmiths and only manage to get hold of one, who says it will cost over £118, which I cannot afford. I eventually get hold of the landlords, who laugh at me and say that I should have checked the spare keys before (incidentally, they were checked, I believe. But I only moved in two weeks ago.) The fact that it's a dodgy lock anyway is something they don't care about. They tell me to go to a particular locksmith on my road at 8:30am the following morning when they open, and they wil cut me a new key.

All the while, next door are having a huge, loud party. While I am on the phone in the kitchen ranting to Anton two people jump over the wall, proceed to piss against our back door, and then try to get into my house when I tell them to fuck off. Thank christ I'd locked it a few hours before.

Not having a room for the night, I sleep with Steph in her double bed. I say sleep, she sleeps, I don't. At 3am I give up and go downstairs, where I drink a lot of coffee and watch movies very very quietly for hours. I haven't slept a wink.

At 8:30 I set off to the locksmith, only to find out that they don't open when my landlord said. I have to wait in the cold for half an hour. During this time I am verbally harassed by a man who will not go away and keeps asking me for personal details. I refuse to tell him my full name or where I live. He also keeps asking me if I'm waiting for my boyfriend, and going on about when he was homeless in a really nasty way. When he tells me that I have 'nice kissing lips' I ask him to leave me alone now please. He moves a few metres away but starts swearing at me and saying loudly how awful some people are and how they've clearly done bad things in their life. A few minutes later he advances on me bearing his teeth, and I - getting frightened now - shout at him that I told him to leave me alone. He finally does. I might point out that not a single one of the people passing by or waiting for shops nearby to opened tried to intervene in any way.

Thank christ the locksmith opened a few minutes later, and made my key in literally two minutes. I am now back in my room, tired, upset and frankly at the end of my tether. I want Anton and my mum so, so badly.

A corset I ordered last week arrived this morning, which means I've almost finished my halloween costume XD Bought some beaautiful boots from a charity shop earlier for £20 which was more than I was planning to pay, but they're worth it. I'm officially excited. Just got to finish the skirt now!

Erm, lifewise, there's really not much going on. I don't lead a terribly exciting life down here :P

Started getting into True Blood - I feel a new obsession starting! There are a few things I could have issues with (mostly the titles - they gross me out. A lot) but then again I'm a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, so it takes a lot to bother me in this genre. This from now on will form my wednesday night entertainment, anyway. If you haven't watched it yet - you should! It's awesome but I don't know anyone else who watches it...