Motetus

1. I had the most lovely long (and loud) weekend with ainsoph15 and poziomeczka. Our trip to Hadrian's Wall was the ultimate British Outing: attempt to have picnic in field full of sheep poo, get chased out by swarms of midges, end up in car drinking beer and metallic thermos tea. It was fun! I was a little disappointed that the beacons were small gas tanks and not Return of the King-style massive piles of wood, but it was still very pretty. My photos of the beacons are all rather crappy since it was so dark, but here is a nice one of Hadrian's favourite thing ever (aside from Antinous' arse):

( PHHOAARRR, WALL. )


2. Things I have signed up for!

Sutcliff Swap! Am hoping to end up drawing something from The Lantern Bearers, Frontier Wolf or The Shining Company because those three books = MY HEART. ♥ ♥ ♥ I've just started Sword at Sunset and really like the slightly more adult style of writing, but at my rate of one chapter before bed, I'll be finishing it long after the exchange is over.


Also, uh, this thing, which I've done a terrible job of promoting until now, considering I'm helping to run it...


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3. I have my parents staying with me this week. While I do love them, my patience does get a workout every time my mother rearranges the whole house ("I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU CAN LIVE LIKE THIS!!!" as the cookbook shelf is exchanged with the tea shelf) and the topic of conversation over dinner is how I don't have boobs (I wish I could phrase this more delicately, but they really didn't). And it means I'm unable to work on my Inception groping art, bah. On the plus side, my kitchen is stocked for the zombie/nuclear apocalypse, and they seem to be sticking to their own alcohol this time instead of depleting mine.

Unfortunately, they like Glasgow so much that they're talking about retiring here. GOODBYE GLASGOW, HELLO SIBERIA!

Yeah, I am an idiot. I got my first roll of film back and my reaction was: "what the hell is going on? I was using black & white film! THESE ARE IN COLOUR!" and was horribly confused and frightened for a good ten minutes. So, apparently you should read stuff, like what is plastered all over the box. I'm a clever girl, yes I am!

But hey, photos. Here are some shots from my weekend with ainsoph15 and our visit to Calleva that I'm putting up here mostly because I'm excited about my first use of the old film camera (lesson for next time: learn how to focus the damn thing), and not because they're particularly artistic or impressive, although maybe one or two people in Eagle fandom might get a kick out of seeing where Uncle Aquila goes shopping. ainsoph15's suggestion for the title of this post was "Calleva: We went here so you didn't have to" though that's maybe slightly unfair - while it is just mostly wall, there is a lot of it, and it makes you realise it would have been a big place, much larger than I thought it was originally. So, maybe visit if you're in the area, but don't start booking flights to the UK just to see it.

( This makes the Forum in Rome look like a sad little pile of bricks )

I really shouldn't be allowed access to Amazon when I'm in one of my hyper and excitable phases, because I do stupid things like fail to notice that the book I'm manically clicking on to buy is already in my basket and I end up ordering two copies. You would have thought I might have noticed the doubled price on one of the many confirmation pages, but no, I really am that stupid. I blame my contact lenses, they make computer screens really blurry.

Anyway, I now have two copies of Legionary: The Roman Soldier's (Unofficial) Handbook, which is a delightful little book for anyone considering signing up to serve Rome, full of military wisdom such as "We were against the cream of the Gallic army. The odds were a thousand to one. But he was a very tough Gaul" and useful tips for dealing with Jewish religious fanatics ("fight them on the Sabbath. They still haven't completely figured out what to do about this"). I could return the spare, but it was cheap and I quite like handing on books (plus none of my Friends/Family Who Require Birthday Presents are remotely interested in roman stuff), so if anyone wants it, it's all yours (for free, and I'll cover the postage too - it won't be much even if sent overseas). Any takers? ETA: Found it a home!

(the_little_owl, this was going to you until you inconveniently mentioned you already had a copy!)

So, the_little_owl has posted the first chapter of her Roman AU story - go read it, because it's awesome. And it's already got art from me - no, I haven't whipped this up in 10 minutes, I had an advance screening of the first chapter back in November - of the Gaul in an unpleasant situation.

( Somehow I doubt this Gaul is going to win any Best Behaved Slave in Show awards... )