Trabia Garden

I had a really lovely afternoon! It was an unexpectedly sunny day, so on a whim I went to Kensington Gardens to see the fairy village by the Peter Pan statue. Said fairy village is there because GISHWHES, Misha Collins's big ridiculous scavenger hunt, is going on this week, and one of the items is 'build a fairy house out of natural materials in Kensington Gardens'. I'm not participating, but I couldn't resist going to have a look.

I met some scavengers there, building their own houses! One had flown over from Germany to build a fairy house in Kensington Gardens; apparently she was the only non-US-based member of her team, so she'd gone, 'Er, well, I suppose I'm the closest.' She's planning to go to Wales and climb Mount Snowdon for another item tomorrow, so she didn't fly over exclusively for the fairy house, but I still have to admire her dedication.

(When I searched Twitter for 'kensington gardens' later, wondering whether anyone would be talking about the fairy houses, I found she had taken a stealthy photograph of me. (I'd love to show you photographs of the village, but I didn't have a camera myself, and participants aren't allowed to post their pictures publicly until the hunt is over. I imagine pictures will be everywhere soon enough!))

Later I met a couple of girls who'd come from slightly less far afield, and then a pair from another team came over to join us (one of them, for complicated reasons, dressed as Peter Pan). I can see that GISHWHES is a great way to make friends, because there's such an immediate point of bonding: lamenting how difficult some items are to complete. 'There's no kale anywhere! How are we supposed to make a throne out of it?' 'All the churches are closed, and I'm not sure I even know how to play "Carry On Wayward Son" on an organ.'

It was great to see the way passers-by reacted to the fairy village. Some kids tried to build their own fairy houses. While the GISHer from Germany was working on her house, a little girl came tentatively over to her and asked, 'Excuse me, are fairies real?'

It's a good thing it's too late to sign up for GISHWHES this year, because the people I met made it seem really fun. With any luck I'll be able to resist next year. I don't think I have the nerve to participate seriously.

It's been available for a couple of months now, but I have only just noticed this clip of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain at the 2009 Proms, on the Orchestra's official YouTube channel.

My brother and I are on it! Only for a few seconds (about 1.00 to 1.05), but there we are. I am the dark-haired girl sitting on the parapet and bobbing her head ridiculously as she plays (I had no idea I was doing that); my brother is the one sitting next to me and playing a blue ukulele (I am always confused when people say Sam and Dean don't look similar enough to be believable as siblings, because he and I look exactly nothing alike). I think it is fair to say that we kicked Ode to Joy's arse.

(Speaking of Sam and Dean: I have now caught up on Supernatural, and I spent the entirety of 'Sam, Interrupted' distracted by the fact that the nurse looked exactly like the hypothetical child of Genevieve Cortese and Jensen Ackles. It was weird.)


I'm trying to write Charlie Brooker/David Mitchell at the moment, but I'm struggling. Their relationship is a bit awkward and sad and ultimately doomed, and in attempting to portray it I have reached the unfortunate conclusion that I am incapable of writing angst set outside Silent Hill. Moving Mitchell and Brooker's relationship into Silent Hill, alas, would make this a very different story. Now that I think about it, it's probably been about two years since I last wrote any angst at all.

Also, there's the fear that, as I identify so much with David Mitchell, I'll attribute all of my characteristics to him without thinking and make him into a self-insert. Not to mention the worry that I am simply not witty enough to portray either figure convincingly. Guys, why do you have to be so difficult to write? It is very inconsiderate of you.


...hang on, why have I never seen this article on Peep Show before?

Mitchell reflects that, "it's a love story. Mark and Jeremy are effectively married to each other. A woman ought to come between them, but she would never succeed."

IT'S SO TRUE. Why is there so little Mark/Jeremy fanfiction? Why? It's a successful sitcom; there have been six series of it; we can see into Mark and Jeremy's minds and hear them having thoughts like 'Jeremy, could you suck this for me? ...Jesus, where did that come from?' and 'Maybe the tension will build to the point where we actually try to fuck each other' and 'She's not his one; I'm his one'; they have canonically kissed; the actors have described it as 'a love story'; there is almost no fanfiction. This is a lack that I cannot understand.