Interests:

look around you

Ah, yes.... Look Around You: spooky British TV series, based on 'Tomorrow's World' and those 1970s Open University programmes - did other countries have something like this? Science programmes, often on TV in the middle of the night, with people in hideous, hideous clothing talking about how in the future we'd all have robot servants. 

Look Around You managed to perfectly copy that uncomfortable, slightly sinister 1970s Britain feel, where everyone is an amateur scientist building a rocket in their shed. (See also Nick Park and the Wallace and Grommet animations - it has a similar fascination for the amateur British inventor.) It has geeky, geeky jokes, and puts a great deal of effort into the tiniest details - you can see their version of the periodic table here. 


tea

Er... I like tea. I'm British. *g* (Okay, I know that's an untrue generalisation - my dad is British and he hates tea - much prefers coffee.) Not too much milk, no sugar (*shudders*). Hate lapsang souchong, I don't care what anyone says, it smells like drains. Like Earl Grey and Darjeeling, but English Breakfast or Assam for preference. Also, as was pointed out by the people of nicecupofteaandasitdown.com, dark (black, dark blue, bottle green) mugs don't work. Because the mug makes the tea look too weak, so the person making it will either make it too strong in an effort to compensate, or make it okay, but it will still look wrong, and the look will disturb the drinker on a subconscious level, making them feel that they have an inferior cup of tea.

I'll stop there.


yoga

Partly my effort to put something a bit more physical on my interests list (although 'yoga' tends to imply 'I don't actually like physical exertion of any kind', even to me). But also real. Last year, I went on a two-week yoga course in India (Kerala - or Trivandrum, to be precise), and it was mind blowing. We went to sleep every night to the sound of the lions in the safari park on the other side of the lake. Got up at 5am, and meditated for an hour in silence, whilst the sun rose and the birds started to sing. Drank hot, sweet, milky, spiced chai. Did 4-5 hours of yoga a day (!). Did our Karma Yoga - mine was sweeping the yoga platform by the lake. Learnt the power of om (seriously, it was marvellous for getting people to shut up and listen, because one person would start it, and it would kind of flood out until the whole group were in sync). Climbed a mountain and spoke to a yogi who lived in a hut halfway up - who gave me various predictions about my life. Walked barefoot in temples. Bathed in a holy waterfall. Did yoga on a beach on the very bottom-most tip of India at dawn, then swam where the 'three oceans' met (Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean).

Honestly, if it sounds amazing, that's because it was - and much more. The smell of jasmine and the feel of rice between my fingers... I really want to go back someday. India was the most amazing place I've ever been. I was floating for weeks when I got back - felt like my brain had caught a later flight.



Ahem. Now, icons. All my icons are belong to me, so they're pretty easy for me to explain:

 
Avenger 2.0. I had a lot of empathy for Felger - I would totally have run and hugged the Colonel, too, in that situation. *g* Or at any given opportunity, admittedly, but particularly then. It's been a very useful all-purpose icon, and I keep meaning to change the font to fit with my more recent ones.



Paradise Lost (duh). And my favourite swearword - because there's something funny and flat about it. That's kind of what I imagine the Colonel was thinking at that moment. Perhaps not that exact word, because it's a bit British, but words to that effect. Also, I loved that big, open field with the yellow flowers (that apparently was a nightmare to film, because they opened at different times, and not for all that long, so set -up was a nightmare for timing), and the blue sky. Pritty. 




Urgo, and one of my grammar icons. The rule is from Strunk & White's Elements Of Style (invaluable book about writing). There were 11 basic rules, of which this is one. A lot of people have said they like these (*does a little dance*). I think Jack is a grammar Nazi, hoorah - who else would correct the use of 'who/whom'? And why didn't Joe smack him? My theory was that Jack's mother was an English teacher who nitpicked his grammar and waged a lifelong war against the Science Department, thus prejudicing her son against scientists. I later discovered that RDA's father is/was an English teacher, so I wasn't far off. *g* Don't like what he's done with his hair here, though. Weirdly perfect. I prefer it messy.