It’s been a Doctor Who sort of week for me, which should surprise no one.

I’m still listening my way through the backlist episodes of the prolific Radio Free Skaro podcast. It’s been so entertaining going back to the beginning, in that gap between seasons two and three. They’re just so young and hopeful and uncynical, and so very in love with David Tennant’s Doctor and RTD as a writer. Heh. I think it’s kind of downhill from here. My favourite episode this week was #42, their retrospective on Douglas Adams and his work, which veered well out of Doctor Who territory but was, as ever, interesting to listen to.

Also listened to this week, while I was sorting the final boxes of things into my library, was the Big Finish audio of Shada, the infamous lost story of Tom Baker’s era of Doctor Who, which happens to have been written by Douglas Adams. The story was halted during filming because of strike action, and never completed. I watched the VHS release of Shada back in the day, which is an exercise in frustration. It starts out pretty well for the first episode or so, and then descends into stills, narration, and lots of talk about invisible spaceships..

(not many spoilers for Shada, lots for the first 3 episodes of the new Doctor Who)
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It’s the end of my ‘holiday’ March and I’m exhausted – between our big room swap and a family emergency which has led to many visitors, I’ve basically been cleaning house for a week. Seriously. How do real housewives do it? How did housewives cope before podcasts? And will I ever be able to listen to Radio Free Skaro again without getting mild asthma?

We have some lovely friends who have pitched in and helped, and while all this was going on, the baby learned to creep (like crawling but flatter and sneakier), has consumed half a bright orange eggbox spider (mmm, orange paint), and has basically proved that she can no longer be left lying adorably on a quilt. Time to reclaim the playpen! (It’s been Raeli’s soft toy depository for a long time…)

As March draws to a close, so does my two month of not buying books. I can’t say it’s been a time of deprivation – my to read shelves aren’t looking any lighter, and thanks to be being a bit heavy on the old Fishpond pre-order button, I have in fact still had new books arriving during this whole time. (the last of the pre-orders in fact arrived this week – Chicks Dig Time Lords – hooray!)

It’s been good, though. I never want to get too guilty about buying books – it is a pretty important part of my life and career, after all. But it’s not a bad thing to force yourself to think about these things from time to time. And as it turned out, it was a very good idea to let me catch up with all those pre-ordered books and start with a clean slate again.

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Jem and I had quite an adventure today! I’ve been licensed to drive for nearly a whole calendar, and this is the first time that me and my little car have gotten well and truly lost.

Visiting a sick friend, I set off for Glenorchy. Easy! I could go via the highways, I’ve driven that way before, all good. Also I used to live up the complicated hilly back end of Glenorchy, and I was pretty sure I could find the place.

Could I, ha! I missed the turn off to Glenorchy, kept on down the highway and finally found a turn off somewhere near Berriedale, crawled embarrassed back until I saw something I recognised (Northgate!) and then sidled around until I found something that resembled Tolosa St. Okay then but I was sabotaged by misleading street signs (if you’re on the right street and you see a street sign which has the same street name on it, you assume that’s the way you’re supposed to go, right?) but eventually made my destination in one piece. (I um had to practice turning around a LOT)

My hostess gave some helpful suggestions as to an easier route home, but I was convinced I could manage. HA HA HA. Eventually in the maze of complicated street signs and wrong way arrows, I resorted to the Dirk Gently method of following a car that looks like it knows where it’s going. The first one gave me the slip by lurching into a carpark, but the second led me beautifully all the way to the highway.

Douglas Adams, always handy in a jam! Thanks also to the Radio Free Skaro boys, who kept me sane and entertained on my much-longer-than-expected journey.

I’ve been inhaling old episodes of Radio Free Skaro (Torchwood and children? That’ll never work. And why haven’t we seen the 456 on the promos? Have they not CGIed it yet?) in between current episodes of Radio Free Skaro, while drilling away on my manuscript formatting. Scrivener, it turns out, has all kinds of lovely features to allow you to compile a document for final submission, but it’s taken a while to iron all the bugs out, and even now that it exists in a single doc (120,000 words eeeee) I still have to go through the whole thing, page by page, to make my chapter headings and numbers and page breaks all – you know, be consistent and tidy and in some cases, bringing them into existence.

I got halfway through the ms in a few solid hours, but was struck by the desperate need to move around and be active – this, coupled with the incursion of ANTS ANTS into the dining room which I usually work in, led to a mass tidying of over and under the dining room table, in order to clear space for Robie the Robot to do his vacuuming thing.

The good news is that my cleaning frenzy did throw up the copy of Power of the Daleks (I am so obsessed with old Doctor Who right now, I know my everyday state is ‘mildly obsessed’ but I’m in an active state right now, I suppose the obsessive bookbuying had to go somewhere) I had borrowed from the library and promptly lost. Still haven’t found our much-renewed library copy of Maisie Eats Lunch or whatever the hell it’s called, though.

I took advantage of the lack of sunshine to play soccer with Raeli! As part of my plan to incorporate more activity into my daily life, I promised her blithely that I would play soccer with her “every evening” which, I’m sorry to say, has led to far more “but you promised!” moments this week than is healthy for our relationship. Though you know, I *did* promise, and when she says that, I do haul myself outside to kick some goals with her. I love sporty Raeli! She’s so gung ho! She didn’t even blink when I accidentally kicked her in the face with the ball (I’m not good at this! I’m trying!) but then sadly came a cropper, tripping flat on her face. I had told her pink gumboots weren’t the most appropriate footwear, but she insisted. Possibly the fact that my own soccer kit is bright pink pyjamas and black leather boots compromised my believability.

Anyway. Only halfway through the manuscript. I was hoping to finish today! But on the bright side I do have a tidy dining room, a tired daughter and sore feet. Hooray!