When my Mother retired last year the firm presented her with two day passes to The Sanctuary Spa. Let me first tell you that my Mother and I work for the same firm and so everyone looked to me for gift ideas... that's my sisters department. The spa day was also my sisters idea, the second day pass was the idea of my boss because she thought my Mother would like the company, and because she couldn't see me sitting around in a robe and flip flops all day, the second day pass was intended for my sister. However, somehow, I ended spending today at The Sanctuary Spa with my Mother.

And now for the Dollhouse reference. Any review, article or write up about Joss Whedon's 'Dollhouse' always says how much the facility looks and feels just like a spa, that's because a spa really is like the Dollhouse. Everybody is dressed in their robes walking around with a very docile nature or lounging on comfy couches around the Koi Carp Lounge, some taking a dip in the relaxtion pool or the exercise pool, there's even one room that reminded me disturbingly of the sleeping chambers and when someone asked me 'Are you ready for your treatment?' I wanted to laugh hysterically.

My day:

11.00 - Arrive, register, change, tour.

11.15 - A few lengths of the exercise pool, just to get the blood pumping, and just because I like swimming

11.45 - Head up to The Lavender Suite for my 'treatment'. I chose a full body massage with essential oils.

12.00 - Treatment begins with a lovely lady named Andrea, who leaves me to change into some fantastic temporary pants, helps me choose which oils I'd like and the proceeds to do amazing things to my body to make it relax so much that I wobble when I finally leave the room.

13.15 - Finally locate my Mother in the Koi Lounge, because we'd forgotten to arrange somewhere to meet after our sessions. After a rest, so that the Shea Butter I've been practically basted in has been absorbed into my skin, we head up to the restuarant for lunch.

13.45 - It is a bizarre experience to sit in a restaurant where everyone is wearing exactly the same thing as you. I dined on a Goats Cheese and Red Onion Tart for starters and Organic Pan Fried Salmon with crushed potato and spinach for my main. (Crushed is just a fancy way of saying mashed but with the skin still on.) It was all delicious.

14.45 - Returned to the Koi Lounge, intent on reading a little before my next session. I managed about six pages before I fell asleep with the book on my face because I was so darn relaxed.

15.30 - I wake up in time to attend my next session, The Sleep Retreat. This is where ten of us enter a darkened room and head to an assigned bed. We press a button on the remote and the bed starts vibrating, then put on some headphones and a very ethereal voice tells us to relax and enjoy our meditative journey. There was something about water and birds and grass and a hammock... zzz zzzz zzzzz zzzzzz

16.00 - Back to the Koi Lounge, I staked out a bed and a blanket and fell asleep for another half hour.

16.30 - Shower, change, sign out, leave.

I spent half the day wet and half the day asleep... it was surprisingly exhausting.

...

Snagged from geekgrrllurking

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My parents are ballroom dancers, in fact, that was how they met over forty years ago. So both my sister and I have dancing in our blood; we've both gone through the obligatory childhood phase of disco dancing, filled our teenage years with contemporary dancing, and experimented in our twenties with ceroc. In her thirties my sister has come full circle and discovered ballroom for herself, I'm still teetering on the brink of actually doing it myself.

Growing up we watched our parents at family functions, dinner/dances and parties. To my sister and I it was just something that they always did at these type of events and we paid them no real attention. But something was soon to change both of our attitudes towards that whirling, twirling, fancy footwork thing that they did to strange pieces of music. Strictly Come Dancing came to our television screens in 2004 and changed the public image of ballroom and latin dancing for an entire generation. They were using music that was in the charts, while still introducing golden oldies that your parents have on vinyl and classical pieces that you know you've heard in film trailers. The costumes were sleek and modern, not polyester and ruffles. The dancers had attitude and sex appeal, instead of plastered on smiles and far too much hair spray. It was... cool.

So the premise of the show was to pair a professional dancer and a celebrity with no previous dancing experience, eight couples in total. The celebrities were the stars who attracted the audience and the professional dancers did their best to whip them into shape and tap into their potential. By the end of the first series professionals Brendan Cole and Anton DuBeck were celebrities in their own right. (Brendan has since appeared on the West End stage as Billy Flynn in Chicago and Anton has hosted several shows for the BBC.)

By the third series popularity of the show demanded more couples, extending the length of the series. Among the new professional dancers to be added to the line-up was former World Champion Karen Hardy. I fell in love with this woman the moment that I saw her dance; she doesn't just dance with her body, she dances with her soul and it is incredible to watch. I read somewhere that when she retired from professional dancing she felt as though her life was over, but Strictly Come Dancing gave her a little bit of it back.

In the fourth series she was paired with a cricketer, Mark Ramprakash. At first so shy and reserved Karen was afraid she would never get any fire from him, but she did and they stormed through the series to take the trophy. I voted for them, a lot. If I'm honest I voted for her because she stole my heart.

Karen's husband Conrad has an account on YouTube and has posted several of Mark and Karen's fantastic routine's. I've chosen to highlight their Argentine Tango because it was slick and sophisticated and sexy. (It was also something that not even Karen had danced before.) Afterwards, check out their Salsa and their Cha Cha Cha and their Samba... just check out all their dances, they are made of awesomeness!

...

Snagged from geekgrrllurking

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Passion and Perfection

Unless I'm buying a new book from Amazon, or a new dvd from Play, or a new desk from Argos, then most of the websites that I visit online are related to television shows that I obsess over, or films that I am not so patiently waiting to see. In every show, and a few of the films, I'm always looking for the connection between two of the female characters. Whether it be maintext (Helen/Nikki or Rachel/Luce), subtext (Xena/Gabrielle or Idgie/Ruth), or animosity that could possibly be, deep down, read between the lines, true love (Sarah/Cameron or ... nope, can't think of a film pairing to follow that up with at the moment), I'm always looking for more than what I get to see onscreen and fan fiction is the best place to find it.

Whenever I get into a new fandom, and find a new pairing, my first port of call is P&P because there's a good chance that others have seen what I have. Archived in this multi-fandom website is fan fiction, fan art, fan videos and graphics for a plethora of shows and films and theatre; ranging from Star Trek: Voyager and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit to Fried Green Tomatoes and Loving Annabelle and Wicked even has it's own section. It's also great that shows like Birds of Prey, Women's Murder Club and Nikki and Nora, axed before they had a chance, are given new life by dedicated fans who have vision and loyalty.

The website has been around for a good few years now, providing some of the best that the femslash has to offer. Ralst, webmistress extraordianaire, has built a friendly, encouraging and creative community on an international scale that I hope she can look at everyday and be extremely proud of... even when the backlog looks overwhelming and she's struggling with real life and getting those last few hundred words of her latest story ready to go.

Now, let's go see what's new on the Passion Perfect lj community...
...

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Snagged from geekgrrllurking

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"I'd give up forever to touch you, 'cos I know that you feel me somehow."

That right there is the reason why I love 'Iris' by The Goo Goo Dolls. To experience a feeling so powerful that you would sacrifice everything for it. The idea that love can transcend all barriers; life and death, mortal and immortal, good and evil, are all just obstacles to be challenged. It's what we all dream about, isn't it?

According to stand-up comedian Michael McIntyre posh people can substitute any word in the English language to mean drunk. Hence 'gazeboed'; it could also be 'car parked', 'trampolined', 'pajamaed' or 'paninied'. I'm not actually drunk but I'm wearing the tee-shirt I got last night when I went to his live show at the O2 arena.

The first time I saw Michael McIntyre perform was in an eight minute segment at The Royal Variety Performance in 2006. I was in stitches for the whole sequence; from the fear of not being able to remember his chip and pin to the odd walks we adopt when trying on shoes or walking through a metal detector. He's one of those people who observes the little things in life that we're all to busy to notice but the moment he brings it up you relate to every single detail.

The first time I saw him live was at the Hammersmith Apollo in September 2008, we were there when they filmed for his DVD release, the fastest selling stand-up DVD ever. That was an evening of anecdotes about 'man drawers' (the place where half dead batteries, out of circulation currency, older model mobile phones, takeaway menus and the measuring tape live), various methods to induce labour (herbal remedies favoured by the women, curry and sex favoured by the men, and the true properties of ingesting sperm), and why when we go on holiday do we turn off every appliance in the house except the fridge? Why do we trust the fridge?

Last night he performed for an audience of 16, 000, it was one of the extra dates that had to be added by popular demand. We booked the tickets months ago, when it seemed like forever until the performance. But it was well worth the wait. Right now I don't recall too many details of the topics, but I do remember that I laughed so hard my cheeks hurt. There was definitely something about mens changing rooms at the gym, a hatred of Italian waiters flirting with his wife using a big pepper mill, a hypothetical debate between various herbs and spices about why the salt and pepper are so special, and an observation that playing snooker looks like you're tossing off an invisible man standing behind you.

The DVD is released in a couple of weeks, I think I'll go pre-order my copy now. See if we can make this DVD sell faster than the last one.

Michael McIntyre 'Live At The Apollo':
 

I love going to Sci-Fi and Fantasy memorabilia fairs. With a fistful of cash and a shopping list of needed trading cards, desired DVDs, craved after comics, obsessed about paraphernalia and the occasional wanted autograph just watch me go.

Some of my favourite moments have included meeting Carrie Fisher and Karen Allen; Harrison Ford's leading ladies for Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Catching up with Deep Space Nine's Chase Masterson, who I'd met a few years before and who threw herself across the table to hug me when she saw me. And I always enjoy being harassed by Stormtroopers from the 501st Legion, I just LOVE Stormtroopers.

There's always the chance for me to expand my collection of novelty Monopoly sets; I have a Lord of The Rings set, an Indiana Jones set, a Pirates of The Caribbean and a Las Vegas set amongst others. At each event I like to get another of the replica Harry Potter wands; to date I have Harry's, Ron's, Hermione's and Sirius wands. And then there's the impulse purchases that once you get them home you can't remember why you wanted it in the first place; what exactly am I ever going to do with those Xena and Babylon 5 collectible card games... I have no idea how you play it!

So when we found out that it was Expo 16 at the weekend, with the promise of all things film, television and game goodness, Dean, Katie and I decided to head over to Docklands and have a look. We knew that there was going to be some Anime there but panels with True Blood, Merlin and Star Trek gave us some hope that it would be a 50/50 split. Er, no. It was probably closer to 60=Anime, 30=Gaming and 10=Sci-Fi.

The smattering of sci-fi/fantasy/television/film memorabilia wasn't really worth the entry price I'd paid. But determined to get something out of the day I got autograph tickets for Terry Farrell and Nicole DeBoer, the two actresses who played the character of Dax in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Terry was the reason Katie had got out of bed that morning, and I have adored Nicole since I met her back in 1999 (at the same event where I met Chase).

After their little Q&A session on stage they got down to the signing. Well Nicole was ready, Terry was still trying to get back from the stage, but that gave me a few more minutes with Nicole. As I walked towards her she offered me a smile:

ME: Does that smile mean you vaguely remember me?
NICOLE: I signed your stomach once, of course I remember you. In fact about 20 minutes ago I was asked what was the strangest thing I'd ever signed and I remembered that.

We chatted for a little bit longer, which unearthed the memory of singing karaoke together ('Spice Up Your Life'), and then Terry arrived at the table and it was time to move on.

This was Katie's moment, so other than saying 'Hi' I let Katie do the talking and after getting her personalised autograph they had a giggle moment together.

KATIE: Thank you.
TERRY: You're welcome.
KATIE: Thank you so much.
TERRY: You're welcome so much.

Those few moments made the early morning, the entry fee and the endless queues worth it.

However, I still had to go to the nearest HMV and buy 'Prison Break: The Complete Series' just so I had something to play with when I got home.

(Oh... and what's with the 'Free Hugz' placards that all the Anime kids were wearing?)

...

Had some time on my hands over the weekend, so couldn't resist messing around with some captions.

Managed to not upload the new ones from 'Vick's Chip' with the last batch so here they are now.

Here they are: pics.livejournal.com/masque101/pic/000cgx2a/g21
 

...

I spent an entire hour today just sitting on a wooden bench in the Victoria Embankment Gardens. I was wasting time, so I found the nearest place of calm and simply stopped. I could hear the traffic rushing by on the Victoria Embankment, I could feel the trains from the District and Circle lines rumbling along beneath the ground, but with the grass and the trees and the occasional white cloud in an otherwise blue sky I had found a little oasis.

I just took some time to enjoy the unexpected warm weather, to observe the tourists writing postcards, businessmen avoiding the office, couples looking for an escape. Some time to reflect on life, love, and the fact that the train I was on yesterday evening caught fire!

...

Song/Artist: 'TSCC Opening Titles' by Bear McCreay

Fandom/Pairing: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Sarah/Cameron

Vidder: Masque101

 

The boredom of waiting for season two to be released on DVD proved too much.

So here's some more innuendo, wild interpretation and a little bit of cuteness.

First of the new: pics.livejournal.com/masque101/pic/000691k2/g21