You’ll be reading this some time after I’ve typed it. Why is this? We have no internet at Hazel House again. In fact, we have no telecommunications at all, as our phone line has also ceased to operate, and we still haven’t sorted out the television due to not yet having a licence. Let me start from the start, however.

( No consolation from the console )

( The Merry Ways of Windsor... )

( A Job Interview. Guess the outcome )

( Emo of Inactivity )

( St-st-stressed! )

(continues in next update)

There was a spider the size of my wrist waiting for me in the shower (in my room) yesterday afternoon. I undertook an escape mission to get him out of my room alive, and succeeded, although another small spider kept trying to crawl into the showerwater during my shower, requiring some constructive use of the shower curtain to keep him away. We have spiders aplenty down here! Still, I felt much better after my shower, and it's amazing what freshly-washed hair can do to one's self-esteem.

Washing up to the Loituma song can almost be fun, especially if you can co-ordinate your cleaning! Rather more aggravating is taking apart an old PS2, when you're unable to get the screws loose, and when the whole process may not work anyhow. We went to get some screwdrivers and other cleaning tools yesterday, but were perplexed by the local hardware store, and ended up getting a jewelry screwdriver kit featuring a screwdriver slightly too big for the PS2 screws, and one slightly too small. It also looked as if it was going to rain, and on the way back, we came across a recently-discarded pram in the undergrowth that was playing 'My Favourite Things' from 'The Sound of Music' over and over again to the weeds and bees of the verge. It was creepy, yes, but also very tragic, and I found something very distressing about the whole scene...*sigh*

The Fullmetal Alchemist OVAs have been entertaining us in the meantime, although we're still to see the Kids one, which I know will have the greatest impact on me, if I link it to the closing song of the movie, 'Lost Heaven' by L'Arc~en~ciel. L'Arc are a band I've come to gradually love. I first knew of them after I embraced the G.T.O 1st opening theme, 'Driver's High', and somehow found a copy of 'Neo Universe'. Someone at NAMSoc kindly gave me a CD containing all of their greatest hits, but it vanished after one play, never to be seen again. Since then, I've enjoyed any of their songs I've come across, with 'Ready Steady Go' being an obvious example. I bought one of their CDs, 'ark', at Amecon, which was being sold for only £6, and I love it. Not only because I now legitimately own Driver's High, but because of the 'dream music' feel to much of the album, which we nearly always use as accompaniment for our evening meals.

'Lost Heaven' is a typically melodic L'arc song from their most recent album, and it sums up feelings generated from the Fullmetal ethos either side of the movie. This may thus be slightly spoilery, but it's not going to deal in specifics.

( Heaven is lost...Hell is lost...All is lost, in the end. Change is constant. )

It rains outside. I can't see it, for the half-light from my bedside lamp is enough to paint the garden view into dark obscurity, but the gentle tapping of raindrops is enough, and it is soothing. It doesn't clash too much with the music I am listening to, the Fisherman's Horizon theme from Final Fantasy VIII. It's peaceful, and whilst far from perfect, I can find cause to relax, something so rare these days. Not quite yet, though, for I am approaching the end of a mammoth task, and quests demand completion.

1 hour later...okay, that'll do...I've just finished commenting to entries made since I left for Amecon. That took a while, and whilst I know that there is no need to devote so much time and effort into adding a few words to many long and interesting entries, I cannot help but do so. There's a reason my comment stats read Posted: 25,273 - Received: 14,754. I'm glad to have got it done though...it's been hanging over me for the past few days since Amecon, and I've done very little about it.

There is ( a reason for this, however )

So, a long LJ session has helped ease the angst a great deal, even if I have been sitting here for a long time now, with disc 3 of the FFVIII soundtrack on loop. I did stop for a dinner with Holly, which was healthy and lovely, however. I'm not going to type up my Amecon report yet either, because it'll take another few hours, and I still need sleep, even if I spent much of yesterday doing just that.

The Final Fantasy soundtrack is one of many things I bought at the con. Another is the FMA wallscroll brightening the wall next to me, and another was the bundle of posters that was knocked away from me somewhere on the London Underground and never reached home with me. Alas. The Final Fantasy soundtrack is causing a great deal of ( nostalgia on its own, however )

I remember the days of playing VII and VIII, and equally the associated discussions. I remember conversations on MSN with Bethany (Anime Angel) over FFVIII's soundtrack and what it inspires, and I remember sitting and staring at the title screen to VII and crying at what it was. I wonder if XII will be the same. Somehow, I doubt it...but I still long to remain a child of wonder. This is why I hear the rain drum against night-laden window panes along to a romantic, whispering refrain from six years in my past, and I dare to dream again, if only for a short while. I don't ever want to lose the chance to do so.

It's just difficult to put into words.

Hello to everyone I've friended since Amecon, by the way. It's a pleasure to know you!

I'm updating from the Computer Centre at Royal Holloway. Gracious, but it's odd to be back here again, especially given the plce feels deserted compared to its student days. It's also quite hot at the moment, so that all campus is slowly baking under a blue sky. That and certain aspects of the local landscape give me the impression I'm in warm Europe. I'm reminded of Provence and the lakes of Bohemia. It's divine, although well above the optimal for me...then again, rural places shine in such an azure glow.

Travelling down on Saturday, for example. In the car, laden with my possessions, we passed across Middle England again, basking in the heat and occassionally resembling scenes from fictional rural idylls. The flat fields made a great setting for motorway travel, but it was the hills of North Leicestershire and the Chilterns which really reached out to me and whispered of countryside living. My mind conjured up scenes of large, remote houses, where there was little need to imprint personality onto a room, as they already had them. The radio danced with excited reports at the Rhythms of the World festival in Hitchin, and whilst I began to wish I were there, it was a pleasant journey. Travel always picks me up and paints silvery stars in my beckoning eyes. See the world, on the move, under the eternal blue and towards the untold horizon...yes.

( Rurality and the Summer Dreams of the Heathland )

The house itself is warming on me. My room actually feels more like my room now, even though I've added barely anything but my elegant bedside lamp. The windows to the garden mean that the sun hits me early in the day, and that the room is very warm by around 10 or 11. I basked in the heat this morning, having a lazy lie-in simply because I've been getting up early these past few days...it's just Holly, Brian and me there at the moment, so it's usually pretty quiet anyhow. Here's a quick run-down of things at the moment:

* The PS2 I brought with me has stopped reading discs again, which is annoying, as I'd just started playing Phantom Brave, and was trying to intoduce Holly & Brian to Worms. The CD drive Sony put in there is rubbish, and now I'm left with a stack of unplayed PS2 games and a PS2 that only seems to load screens half of the time, making playing any game a risk. I might buy a new (second hand) one, because I fixed the PS2 before, and it's back to being a useless black box...

* The oven is broken, and we won't be getting a replacement for a while. As such, food is generally whatever we can get. I made pasta yesterday, but without much to have with it, I soon felt blanded out, and later even felt slightly ill. Yet...I cannot live on toast and cereal...but at least the hob is operational.

* No internet for a while, hence me being here and missing the chance to go to Tescos through writing this oversized update. We'll have it eventually, but for now, life is free of google. In some respects, its refreshing, like going on a retreat. I have suddenly found myself with a lot of time on my hands, however.

* The local area is pleasant enough to walk through, although we do seem to have a family of street children at the end of the road. The pavement is an extension of their house, and there nearly always are a few members of the family outside on it. They almost rival the local cat population, seemingly dominated by two cats, one white, the other white-and-black, and the two don't get on. The ginger around the corner is very friendly, however.

* It's not as bad it may seem. It's just easier to write about what's slightly off than what is going as normal, because, well, it's normal. I could write about how the lights work fine, or how the toaster makes nice toast, but I'd then be here all day...

And finally...the ( Answers to the 100 Lyrics Quiz )

Although, I wasn't overjoyed with a few people who never normally comment on my entries pouncing upon that entry and then replying to other posts about the same entry. Don't love me for my lyrics, people (and that only applies to a few. If you tried the quiz, that doesn't automatically make you applicable to the above statement!)

'Til next time...