So this is... Christmas, I guess

Heh.  Kitten went out about 5 hours ago and I haven't heard a peep since... Guess that agoraphobia's getting better then?  Unless of course she's gone next door to claim asylum, or been eaten by the foxes (bit unlikely as she probably outweighs our local foxes by a few pounds at this point.  Kitten is a heavy kitten at the mo.)

Of course, I don't have an icon for Kitten, but this one of her predecessor is about as festive as my icons get... Herself was a more conventionally pretty cat, who knew how to purr and didn't believe in chewing people's hands.  Kitten has a little black snub roman nose, and a smudge of white to one side.  There's nothing symmetrical or matching about her - there are white flecks all down one flank where the black fur patches that fell out after her hernia op grew back white, so she looks like she's been flicked with paint.  Considering Kitten thrives on chaos and destruction (she is become death Kitten, destroyer of christmas trees), it all seems slightly appropriate.

It's now gone 1am on Christmas Day, and I think I've finally wrapped the last present.  Probably.  There was much shopping today (yesterday?) and I bought far too many presents yet again.  The present-buying isn't even really about the rabid consumerism, as such; it's just another form of distraction to keep myself amused.  Christmas, for all intents and purposes, is practically over now, Christmas Eve usually being the last remotely pleasant day of the season, and as I don't intend spending another Christmas living here, I really don't want to go to bed and make it finally be over.  I've also spent far too much money, but hey, it was kinda fun wandering round aimlessly.  Present buying is an artform, to my mind.

Christmas Day this year has a 90% probability of being pretty much hell.. there's no way everyone will behave themselves, the way this week has gone, and even my usual Christmas Eve night routine has been totally wrecked.  The Doodle Dog has been sick and, generally, omens are not good...

But hey, I managed to find cashmere cardigans for half price today (mmmm, cashmere!) and, all things going to plan, this will absolutely be the last Christmas I spend living here.  Which means spending a hell of a lot less money next year, compared to my scarily spendthrift ways at the mo.  But it's not really viable, any more, staying here, and I have to finally do something about that.

But, hey.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night...

Xmas Who... and raunchy hoky-cokies!

Well, they certainly came up with the pretties this year...  The Next Doctor was absolutely gorgeous (the episode, not David Morrisey, who quite frankly wound me up so much in Sense & Sensibility that I pretty much couldn't stand him after that).  It had the usual RTD complete lack of regard for anything like logic or plot, but somebody had seriously been at the steampunk before they wrote this...

There was every steampunk convention you could think of chucked in, dripping in Victoriana and clockwork gears (although not quite as much as The Girl in the Fireplace) and Dervla Kirwan's villainess - Fabulousness.

Doing the usual RTD thing though, it was a case of rushing through all the boring plot building bits to get to the good stuff.  And the good stuff was seriously meaty - the visuals were amazing, and the grand plot reveals were pretty damn good - but I couldn't shake the feeling that it was slightly.. I don't know  - all style and no substance, maybe.

Certainly the most beautiful and visually impressive Christmas episode they've ever done - not up there with The Christmas Invasion in terms of script, or character or plotting (this script was never really going to come up with anything on the level of the Lion King one-liner from Invasion)  and maybe not quite as satisfying as last year's - but with just enough pathos to ground it.  But a plot this convoluted needed a two-parter to really play it out properly, and this ran by with blink-and-you-missed-it haste (in the hope that you don't see the cracks, and a cute shout-out to Blink. And Human Nature!). 

But, did I mention the gorgeous already? And even though slashfic does absolutely nothing for me, this was playing up to the doctor/'doctor' pairing to the point where even I noticed it...  Gawd, it was like watching that last  ep of Merlin again.

On to Strictly's xmas ep now, complete with predictably ridiculous scoring and Brucie's introduction of, er, Rachel and Vincent's theoretical raunchy Hoky-Coky, complete with demonstration.  Eek!

And, yay, today has been better than expected... wonders wil never cease.  For which I'm grateful.