...but I'm still not going to be around much. Of course, with not going through all my deviations I've got a backlog, and the backlog needs time to deal with, which I don't have. So, I will try to get through stuff from friends, and won't panic if I don't clear out the club stuff until the new year.

What's happened while I've been away? Uh... lots of stuff, actually. But not very much that would interest very many of you, so I'll keep it fairly short, and not really in any chronological order.

I'm submitted everything to UCAS, so my university application is now out of my hands. I'm applying to (in my order of hopefulness):
~York
~Birmingham
~Bristol
~City (London)
~Cardiff
to do a BA/BMus in Music. I fell in love with York when I went up there at the start of the month, and the course just looks... perfect for me. But now, I can't do much until I hear back from the universities. The horrible, anxious wait...

There was a recital which I did the programme for - i.e. I nagged everyone for their pieces and two people still didn't get to me in time. Grrr.

My bike was stolen from school while I was at a life-drawing class. To be fair, it wasn't locked, but it's still not nice, and it came at a really bad time. I have a new bike which is similar in style if a not-exactly-pleasant watery yellow colour, but the balance is all wrong, and it keeps tipping over when it's on the kick stand. Hrmph.

I got paid for that CD commission I did! At least, the first one. The second one was turned down, unfortunately, but that just means I keep the rights to a rather pretty picture, and can upload it here. It's not like I'm living off this money.

I then went and spent most of the money at the London MCM Expo... I don't usually go in October, but a friend of mine was upset I didn't tell him about the one in May so I promised him I'd go with him. I basically had a lovely time, stayed in my budget, met *DestinyBlue again and she'd printed off this on A3 and A4 watercolour paper - thank you so much, Alice! As always, it was a pleasure to see you again, and if I do exhibit I promise to let you know how it goes! And I got a badge of my drawn by her, which is now happily attached to my bag.

I also picked up a bunch of flyers with artists' work on them to stick in my Art coursework so I can annotate and comment on how they draw the figure differently. Oh, and this time I really splashed out with buying prints and stuff - I got £1 busts of Sebastian Michaelis (Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler, who was a v.v. popular cosplay this time around) and Fai D. Flourite (the first cosplayer of the day we say was this amazing Fai and Kurogane on the Central line!); split the costs of some lovely prints which were apparently done by the same artist - I'd be willing to believe all coloured, but the drawing styles were all ridiculously different, and I swear I saw a shounen-ai ANBU!NaruSasu picture _{which I bought because it was pretty} on... so many YouTube videos. I could be wrong, and it is a fairly standard thing... ANYWAYS, I also got a fluffy HikaKao thing, and pretty Hinata, and then I covered the cost for my friend of an implied so-fluffy-it's-Cushelle Kitty!Sasuke and Fox!Naruto print. (My friend is a guy, by the way. We were joking about all the yaoi and he complained that there wasn't enough ecchi. I think he was joking. He spent half the time asleep while we travelled, and hopefully next time he goes he'll feel confident enough to not rely on me, and to talk to people. I failed to convince him to get his photo with a stormtrooper.)

And... oh, I got a black Konoha-headband so I can cosplay as Hinata sometime again, and a large Akamaru plushie - so now my Kiba from last time has puppy!Aka on his head, and Shippuu!Aka at the right size. Oh, and some large posters too - a Kakashi Gaiden Kakashi and Minato (why so smexy, Yondy-to-be?) and Ouran Highschool Host Club... with fancy tuna! And then, on the way home the Tube was disrupted (of course) and in the course of planning our way out of a mess with three slightly older girls, they found out that they were all Merlin fans and actually knew each other from fandom groups online. I felt so left out, I never watched it.

Holy **** on a ****ing sandwich. That did go on. But on that vague reference, I've found a fellow Yu-Gi-Oh! the Abridged Series fan in one of my primary school friends. Hi to anyone else into the series. And OH MY FREAKING KIRA there was an amazing moment as I was hunting for the posters. I got stuck in the crowd, looked down, and saw this long black wig, stripy top and padded waistcoat at about waist high. I stared at it for two seconds, covered my mouth to mute myself and went "OMG It's a shiny Mokémon!" And then I realised that the accompanying adult with the kid was dressed as Seto. I had to get a photo. And I'm kicking myself for not getting a hug from Melvin.
[link] Has the other cosplay photos I took that stood out.

And I just had a lovely half term. I honestly spent most of it working on my competition entry for the Expo, which I'm not going to post until the results come out - I don't want to build my hopes up too much, as that's what happened last time and I didn't make runner up. I went to see Legend of the Guardians, which was a lovely film but I think it tried to cram a very good, long story into to little time. It was gorgeously animated though. And... bought stuff, generally procrastinated... I did get the essential homework done, although I've done virtually zilch by way of Art. Uh-oh.

Well... that took longer than I intended. Oh well, Expos are usually interesting.

Back to school tomorrow. DAMNIT. And there are a few problems arising in my peer support group which we'll have to deal with... oh dear.

How has everyone been? You've all been in my prayers.

Lover and prayers,
Lutra xx