shuffle along, join a parade

[pensnest]

I'm thinking very seriously of signing up for Yuletide this year. Never done it before.

What do I need to know? Any advice, anyone?

*

We have just had a lovely visit from a friend I last saw slightly more than 21 years ago, at my grand 40th birthday party!! We picked up B and his lovely wife S from the station, and spent yesterday afternoon and early evening drinking Gewurztraminer and nattering very happily about all kinds of things—B has an encyclopaedic knowledge of all kinds of stuff, including what many, many friends are up to these days. Then we watched The Music Man together, which was unexpected but delightful.

Today we took them into the city and showed them bits of it—including a visit to Dippy the Dinosaur, still resident in the cathedral until the end of the month. We left them there to go and inspect a house with Boy, then rejoined and had lunch at The Belgian Monk, well up to standard, and took them through rural Norfolk to the hotel where they're staying for a walking holiday.

It was so nice to reconnect and find the connection so strong!

*

We were supposed to be getting our cavity walls (ie on the 1920's extension) filled on Monday, but the truck could not get up the drive and had not come with the requested extra-long hoses. Grump. And it is proving quite difficult to get the outside of the oldest part of the house (solid walls - actually just the straight line of the northern wall) exterior insulated, because we can't find anyone willing to do it. This puts a distinct crimp in our intention of going for a ground source heat pump to replace the gas boiler. Grump again.

Comments

[smallhobbit]

I've done Yuletide for the last few years and enjoyed it. Different people will say different things but I think the most important is to enjoy writing and receiving something in a fandom where there aren't many fics.
Other than that, only offer fandoms you're happy to write in and don't request something in a fandom where you have very specific views.

[pensnest]

I had a look at the tag list and managed to find a few I thought I could have a go at - I imbibed Georgette Heyer at an impressionable age, so that would definitely work. Thanks!

[thissugarcane]

For yuletide, I second the don't offer something [be it fandom or character or pairing] you aren't sure and happy to write for, because that one "well maybe, that sounds neat, but hey, who knows!" offer? That's what you'll match on. ;) The other advice I'd give -- though ymmv on this one! -- if you do get a match and aren't feeling it, definitely drop out earlier than later and don't feel guilty about it; pinch hits are (relatively) easy to match early on! There's a no-penalty drop date for a reason.

:)

[pensnest]

I found myself thinking about possibilities in the wee small hours last night, and thinking how awesome it would be to have written certain stories, but then realised they were stories I probably couldn't write, at least not without a bunch of re-reading! So that's worth remembering. And thanks for the thought about dropping out earlier rather than later, if drop out I must.

[frausorge]

That sounds like a wonderful visit! - But very frustrating about the truck. I hope they are better prepared if/when they return!

[pensnest]

They are promising that they *can* do the job - and really, I don't understand how they can't get the truck onto the drive anyway. We had a CRANE in here! Hmph!

[watervole]

Where did you see the Music Man?

I have a soft spot for that musical, especially the final '76 trombones' parade, and I'd love to see it again if it's available online.

Keep looking... Someone, somewhere must be willing to do that cladding

But if you do go heat pump (which is really great, but yes, the more insultation the better) then unless you're building the house at the same time, you'll probably find an air source heat pump to be more cost effective and less disruptive to install than a ground source heat pump.

Unless you have a particular reason for the choice?

[minoanmiss]

Now I'm humming. :)

[pensnest]

So many possible songs to hum! I was actually in this show as a 17-year-old, and still remember rather a lot of it.

[minoanmiss]

OMG, teenage musical participation is the best. I still have Guys and Dolls memorized.

[pensnest]

I have a DVD - a Spanish DVD, for reasons passing understanding, but it has the English version and English subtitles so all was well. So I guess it probably came from Amazon.

The air source heat pump would be easier, but also about half as efficient as ground source, and with the government subsidy works out at a very similar cost to us. It seems a shame not to use the most efficient option, if we're going through the disruption of having radiators changed, etc. So that's our thinking. We hav to have boreholes as there is not enough land to do a horizontal one.

Insulation seems like a sensible thing to do anyway, particularly since this is quite a cold house - we knew there were cavity walls in the oldest extension but had thought they'd already been filled. And we had long talks about putting insulation against the old, solid walls but did not want the indoor disruption. It's annoying how hard it seems to be to get it done!

[minoanmiss]

Give yourself a couple of days to go through all the fandom options.

One thing I love about Yuletide is that the randomest things get nominated. You may find a book you read 20 years ago or a song you heard the other day.

[pensnest]

It is a fairly amazing list! I think it will take me quite a while to figure out what I can write, and then what I'd like to read. Biggles? ???? Hmmm.

[turps]

Good luck with Yuletide if you go for it. It takes me all my time to understand the h/c exchange that's based on tag sets etc, so am impressed by anyone who does the much bigger Yuletide.

That sounds like an excellent visit with your friend, and good timing in terms of seeing Dippy.

[shipperslist]

It takes me all my time to understand the h/c exchange that's based on tag sets etc, so am impressed by anyone who does the much bigger Yuletide.

Ahh, same! I often take a look and then back slowly out because I just don't understand the whole tagset/nomination thing. Other people's enthusiasm is lovely to watch, though.

[turps]

Ahh, same! I often take a look and then back slowly out because I just don't understand the whole tagset/nomination thing. Other people's enthusiasm is lovely to watch, though.

Ah yes, I've done the back out slowly thing too. But I also agree, watching fannish enthusiasm is fantastic.

[pensnest]

I'm edging cautiously towards it after the experience of writing for FandomGiftBox this year - I wrote a Mad Men story! I've never done that before, nor even thought of doing it, but it worked really well. So.... Well, we'll see.

[turlough]

I've never taken part in Yuletide but I enjoy keeping up with all the fannish activity around it. You've already been given the main advice I always see people giving to newbies. Other things I've seen is:
- read the rules,
- keep up with yuletide_admin and yuletide,
- IF you write a Dear Yuletide Writer-letter link it in both your signup form and in the letter post,
- Yuletide uses AND matching, not OR,
- Optional Details Are Optional.

Sounds like you'd a lovely time catching up with your old friend.

How frustrating! I hope you can find a contractor that will insulate your wall. It would be a great pity if you couldn't get a heat pump because of it.

[pensnest]

Optional Details Are Optional definitely sounds like a good thing to remember! My own wants are fairly simple (I think), and I'm not really in it for what I'll get, I don't think, but it's just So Big that I'm hoping to edge in to it sideways and see what happens.

If we can't get the wall insulated - or, if it comes to it, book the wall insulation and provide documentary proof that it will be happening - it could add quite a lot to the total for the heat pump because we'd need a 3-way electricity supply. Do Not Want.

[corvidology]

I think the main thing to remember about Yuletide as opposed to other exchanges is the 'and' matching.

Other than that, ENJOY!

[pensnest]

I should think I ought to be able to figure it out... the chances of having to write for (and disappointing) an actual friend will be fairly small, anyway!

[corvidology]

I avoided it for years because it seemed to involve sacrifices to the gods and incantations but once you get into it then it's pretty straightforward, more so than some other exchanges where you have to select a bunch of tags.

At its simplest: 1,000+ word story where you use all the characters your recipient selected (unless they tell you in their letter it's okay to pick) avoiding any DNWs they listed in their sign-up. Bob's your uncle.

If they put prompts/preferences/likes/loves in a letter, if they bother to write one, that's lovely but ADAO is the rule of the day.

[vae]

This will be my 12th Yuletide so let me know if I can help at all! there's also an active and very helpful Discord server, if Discord is your thing.

[pensnest]

Ah! Cool. I may well come and squeak to you at some point.... I don't do Discord, and probably shouldn't start.

[sperrywink]

Ooohh, good luck if you do decide to do Yuletide. My only advice is that if you are searching for fandoms to offer if you are familiar with the canon but haven't seen it in a while, go for the smaller canons to offer. Rereading a Georgette Heyer is doable, seeing 4 seasons of a show you barely remember, not nearly so much.

Glad you had fun with your friend and going about London and Norwich.

Good luck with the home repairs.

[pensnest]

That is absolutely true! At least with Heyer, there are specified novels (although... if it were a general "Heyer" tag I could pick my favourites, oh well).