pensnest: Brian in dance pose, Get Down to Camp Sparkle (Camp Sparkle Brian)
I said goodbye to my last sparkly person on Tuesday (Fleur, at Stansted), went home, and promptly fell asleep for three hours. I mostly couldn't bring myself to go to bed at Camp until all was quiet, so I suspect I rather needed that.

It was in fact a stroke of genius to have Camp Sparkle in Brighton. What an excellent city! From the Royal Pavilion's unbelievable over-the-topness (with added Dragons) to the I'm-a-kid-again fun of the Pier to the genuinely happy atmosphere of town on Saturday afternoon, I thought it was a lovely place. Our rented house could not have been more convenient in situation (alas for the remote car parking, but in the circumstances, cars were rarely required), although it might have been somewhat more convenient in bathroom allocation—for other people, that is. Getting the only ensuite in the place worked out quite well for us! Next time, more bathrooms.

Oh, and we got a free boob display from the street while we were having our Friday evening Feast. Which was novel.

I returned to find that my plants were thriving. The pumpkin is spreading like mad, the tomatoes are all growing healthily, and—and!—we have eaten our first home-grown courgette. Ten minutes from plant to plate. Admittedly, it was still a courgette, and there is a firm limit on how exciting a courgette can be, but it was an Achievement. I suspect there are going to be quite a few more courgettes in our near future, what with there being seven plants in the raised beds. Hmm.

Socks was *extremely* angry with me on our return! I've never heard her so pissed off, dear me. She seems to have settled down now, although she selects Beast's lap for sitting on in preference to mine. This is good, as she is going for the world record in shed cat hair, and he is actually willing to have the defensive blanket on his lap in the current heat, which I am not. It's a good thing Camp was last week, or we'd all have been walking around looking like beetroot.

Back to the gym yesterday for a swim, and today for actual work including assisted pull-ups, and pikes on the TRX. Blurgh. My shoulders will punish me tomorrow. And then, to my horror, I watched Say Yes to the Dress (look, I know, but it's as potent as chocolate, and I can only kick one thing at a time) and they were making a dress for a DOG. Not a real dog, one of those things that lives in a handbag, but still. For pity's sake, make me unsee this!

I took only a passing interest in Wimbledon's first week (although, go Murray!), but this is an awesome write-up. Serena Williams??? What? What? Seriously?

Also randomly, I have discovered that there is a thing called Fairy Barf Lichen. Of course there is. As there should be.

There is also—even more randomly—a piece by the very splended Greta Christina on How to Write a Sex Scene Between a Unicorn and a Rainbow. You should read this, because yes.

So, now I have a Five Words story to record, and two podfics in my near future, and a genuine desire to write something Very, Very Strange. We shall see.

/post-Camp weirdness
pensnest: clip of Mucha picture, caption A Very Nice Gel (Very Nice Gel)
Okay. So, a wasp stung me on Wednesday. I was recording a story at the time, so there were some mighty high peaks on the audio track. It's itchy. Gah.

Thursday, some fun singing Carmen, including a bit of, eep, sight reading, which actually worked out okay. Most of it is Much Too Hard to sing without instruction, but this bit was just challenging enough to make me pleased that I could do it. When I got home after rehearsal and a Tesco trip, I spent a few minutes in the back garden staring at the sky, and saw meteors! Yay meteors.

At some point this week I learned of the existence of Bridal Diapers. I… I… okay. Wait, no—not okay! Symbolic, surely, of the whole wedding-your-way-to-bankruptcy industry? No link is provided, because ew.

JR has dismantled our downstairs loo, which is currently sitting in the garage while the floor underneath it gets an airing. There will be actual DIY in the near future, methinks. Apparently the joint with the waste pipe probably needs an accordion-type fitting, as we'll have to move the loo forward a bit to make sure the screws actually grip. Meh.

Every so often I look at Neil and Eber Lambert's exchanges on Twitter. I am in love.

Torn calf muscle is much improved. I did a not-very-serious gym session on Friday, ie I did everything, but only one set of the exercises and 'lite' versions of the cross trainer and rowing programs. I'm still conscious of the muscle, but it's not actively painful or preventing me from tackling the stairs.

Have spent several hours this week making cards and listening to podfic. I now need more podfic. Is anyone going to record more popslash? (I'm determined to do a few more, but there is a limit to how long I can listen to my own voice.) Quarrelled with the iPhone about playlists, but the problem was solved when I enabled the 'book' lists, which apparently contained some of my podfic. Bah. What I say is, if it appears on a playlist, and you tell it to sync that playlist, it should damn well sync.

And today, I have found a Cat Fashion Show, featuring a number of very unimpressed cats. However, I will admit that I shrieked with laughter at Cat #10 (see slideshow). I hope the cats wreak horrible revenge.

March 2026

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