So I splashed out on skincare on Saturday. I started using this really great hair stuff from Lush and thought I'd try out their face stuff too but, well, not so good. I mean, it was fine, all natural, yadda yadda. But oh the difference swanky Clarins stuff makes! My skin has had the late winter blahs but perked right up once I started slatering on the good stuff.

Plus, its soothing, almost meditative, to massage in the milk cleanser every evening and morning. It smells so lovely, fresh but not flowery. And how often does one touch one's face? Touch it with care and gentleness? Its oddly sensual, given how simple a thing washing one's face is.

Tags: personal
Feeling: pleased
Listening to : Bach Solo Suite for Cello, No. 1

So, what have I been up to all this time? Well, as I did mention before my disappearing act, I've been hiking. or I was before winter really settled in. No reason to twist an ankle on the ice! I do miss it but, well, my gym is pretty bitchin and keeps me well entertained three or four times a week.

But my best hiking buddy- Maggie- is also my Opera buddy. And, in her own words, "ridiculously over paid" which means she scores us obscenely fabulous tickets for the Met. We've seen Massenet's Manon, Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and Cosi Fan Tutte, Verdi's Rigoletto and last Saturday Saint-Saens' utterly divine Samson et Delila. I'll upload some tracks when I get a chance. Some of my opera stuff is still in the UK but I'm going to be there in mid-March to collect my stuff from Oxford.

In other news, as I mentioned in my Friday post, I've got a new apartment. Its a very cute two bedroom in Brooklyn that I'm sharing with a dear friend. Its about an hour to work on the subway but I've been knitting up a storm and that plus reading makes the time pass just fine. And the seperation of work and home is really nice. Plus, primo people watching :)

More tomorrow...

Tags: opera, personal

Right, so my flist informs me of an important fact that I, in my new found sense of LJ responsability, must act on. Ergo,

Feeling: eaten too many cookies!
Listening to : Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts - Joan Baez

Wow! Its been a REALLY long time since I updated. Don't quite know how that happened. I started a new job where I couldn't scam internet time and then I moved in mid-December to a new place where I don't have internet at home. Guess those are my excuses.

Anyway, on to the update! Basically, life has been good. How's that? No real complaints. To quote 'The Man': "Sweet". I'm very into appreciating what I've got at the moment. Lord knows there's plenty to be dissatisfied about with the state of the world. I guess this is just a shout out to everyone and an apology for being out of touch. I promise to be better and maybe actually find the time to post something more substantial! *smooches the flist and assorted others*

Tags: personal
Feeling: hopeful
Listening to : my boss has NPR playing

Okay, so I'm watching 'Nemesis' and 'Small Victories', the season 3 finale and the season 4 opener of Stargate, respectively. Now, we all know that I have "issues" with Sam. Sometimes I like her, sometimes the way she's written pisses me the fuck off. As there's a fair bit of forced Jack/Sam fake heterosexuality on the horizon, I thought we should all do a bit of a reality check.

Exhibit A, Carter's hair in Nemesis. Notice the unfrilly if slightly overlong for a soldier hair.




Now, Exhibit B, Carter's hair in Small Victories. She's stuck on a random planet for NINE DAYS and her hair's all perky and curly and a couple of shades blonder!



Now, this is (a) obviously bad continuity editing between seasons and (b) a harbringer of things to come. Ick. Now, in Biblio's story Deja Vu Sam makes the observation that she has a "reverse Samson thing" going on where the longer her hair gets, the stupider she gets. See where I'm going with this? Oh, and her season four hair? Its suspiciously similar to her season 9 hair.



... Its even permed! Badly. Oh the horror!

Tags: stargate
Feeling: bitchy
Listening to : SG-1 401 Small Victories

Has anyone else seen the new ad for the KY self-warming 'massage gel and personal lubricant'? The wife character reads out the name and the guy is all like 'oh really...' And the tagline is something like 'see what happens'. Is this or is this not an invitation to anal hanky-panky? I mean really: would a little subtlety kill these people?

ps- huge apologies to everyone I haven't replied to or kept up with (which would be everyone). A crazy bat of a boss plus a killer attack of the flu have pretty much done me in :(

pps- three bombs went off in Delhi today but thus far it seems as though no one I know was affected. Jeez, my part of the world is just a disaster these days!

So, lilithilian requested photos of my trip. I haven't got ones of me and my mom yet but thought I'd post some pics of the place where we stayed. The Mohonk Mountain House was founded by a pair of Quaker brothers in 1869 and is located about 20 minutes from New Paltz, NY, in the Shawgunks mountain range just south of the Catskills.

I've really gotten into hiking recently and have done a fair bit of hiking in the area. Its accesible by bus from New York which is key as I don't know how to drive! I know, I know. All I can say is that I'm a true New Yorker: we don't need to know how to drive, we have subways!

Anyway, here's a picture to give you a sense of what the area is like. The combination of forest, hills, rocks and cliffs is great for putting together hikes over various terrains and for various levels of hikers.


The ridge in this picture is pretty characteristic of the area. The slope is really beautiful, nah? Lats time I was in the area, we climbed up to the top of one of these plateaus up a rockface- so cool!- before exploring the ridges and the forest between.

Mohonk itself is a sprawling complex of buildings with a hotel, a spa and lots of conference facilities.


There's a museum, stables and so on, all arranged around a gorgeous lake:


The weather was pretty wet but Mum and I werethere to spend time together as much as anything else so it was okay. And the mist winding through the trees has a beauty of its own. So, a good time was had by all. Though I do wish it would stop bloody raining. I'm going to be VERY grumpy if I can't go hiking tomorrow :(

Tags: the great outdoors
Feeling: at work
Listening to : Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No. 1

So the links for my Jack/Daniel e-zines from Yadda Press (aka House of Stargate PrOn) just came through. You thought work was keeping me from LJ? Ha! I doubt I'll surface for days aside from the odd bout of squee.

In other news, there was a horrible earthquake in Pakistan (no family members were hurt, thankfully) and my mom and I went on vacation for three days and failed to kill each other. In fact, it was actually a big lovefest. Gotta love the great outdoors! Have I mentioned that my hiking gear looks like it came straight out of Stargate Atlantis? Yeah, I have a blue Rodney-esque shirt and another one like Wier's red one and the hot little zippy things that Shep's wearing all the time. Obsessed? Moi? *snort*

Tags: jack/daniel, slash, stargate
Feeling: hot and bothered
Listening to : New York in the Rain and my mum dusting

Bwahaha! More icon love for moi :) How cool is sandrainthesun, she of the gorgeous art. She made me two more icons! Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet :)


comes from this picture and

comes from this picture

Wier being snarky at Caldwell and Da Boyz of SG-Wun in their leather trousers and browncoats *does happy icon dance*

Tags: icons, stargate
Feeling: ecstatic
Listening to : Stargate season one credits - again, SWEET!

How frelling cool is this? I threw out some Stargate caps for people in my last post and randi2204 made me an icon!



Isn't it gorgeous? I love how each member of the team is being totally characteristic: Ronan is pretending to be too cool for school, Teyla is amused, Rodney is bored (or futzing with the razorburn Shep gave him the previous night) and Shep is making goofy faces while he eats a PowerBar. SO perfect. *smooches the icon fairy*

Tags: icons, stargate
Feeling: pleased as punch
Listening to : This Woman's Work - Kate Bush