Flocked

[hils]

Ok, Merlin Meetup first.

Here is my mobile number for those who are going in case you need it for whatever reason

07933 145320

I'm getting into Kings Cross at 11:50 and meeting yavannauk and complicat there. We're heading straight to the pub and we're going to have lunch there so if you're a bit early you're welcome to come find us.

I should point out that I am not responsible for what happens when lou_angel and I meet. I expect there will be excessive use of the word 'nyargh' ;)

Now, onto something different. thisissirius did a fun picspam post as way of an intro to new people on her flist. I thought it might be fun to do the same.


Me

My name really is Hils. Well, it's Hilary but no one calls me that. Except my boss. Everyone else calls me Hils. Occasionally my dad comes up with silly variants such as Hillington

I'm an army brat (but I really hate that phrase). I was born down south, spent the first 8 years of my life in Germany before settling in Yorkshire. I very much consider myself a Northerner even though I don't have an accent.

My free time is mostly based around my fandoms but more on that later

Family

I have one sister, flickums. She is very camera shy so you won't see many photos of her but I do have a few that I have managed to sneak





My parents are awesome and very devoted to their two labs, Max and Fergus. The doggies are very much their surrogate children since me and my sister left home. They also have a kitty who gets less attention, apart from when I visit and spoil her rotten


Me and Dad-Ra


Me and Dad-Ra again


Mum-Ra


The whole family


The doggies


Kitty wrapped around my arm

Education & work

I have a BA(Hons) degree in Theology and English Literature. No real reason why I chose those subjects other than they were things I was interested in. My job has absolutely nothing to do with my degree.

I work in IT. It is simultaneously the most challenging and slackest job I have ever had. There used to be four of us in my team and we're now down to two. The computer system I support is being replaced. At the moment it's scheduled to happen in August but I fully suspect delays. Sadly when the system goes so does my job.

I work with Greg, who I have been friends with for years, and we ended up working together. He's a geek like me so it all works out well.

Friends

My friends are THE most important thing in my life. I have a wonderfully diverse group both online and off.

Outside of LJ you'll hear me talk about Ros. She's my best friend from Uni who moved away when we graduated and then moved back to York a couple of years ago. We generally have dinner together at least once a week and even though we're very different we get on brilliantly



jacqui_hw is my BFF and my flatmate. We met years ago in the Buffy fandom and even though we're into different things now we can still hang out, watch DVDs together and LOL. We share the same brain.



Derek and Matthew are a couple more of my uni friends. Matthew is very big and important and was awarded an MBE last year. Derek does very worthy work dealing with aid going to Africa.


Matthew on the left, Derek on the right

Greg, who I have already mentioned, is a friend of my old housemate Tom. We ended up working together in an admin job and then both got jobs in the same IT office. I'm able to squee about books and films and comics with. He knows of some of my fandom activity.


Greg at a random party I went to


Playing geeky board games

Dave, used to work with me and Greg before moving on to pastures new. Randomly he is my ex boyfriend. Things didn't work out and we worked out we are much better at being friends than a couple. I still see him but less so now he's left York. No photos of him sadly. LJ ate them all as they were stored on my old site which has now closed down

Helen is my oldest friend (in that I've known her the longest). We went to school together and more recently I introduced her to LJ and to fandom. WHEE!



Then, of course, there all my LJ peeps. I've literally travelled halfway across the world to meet some of these guys


lexalicious70 - My online big sister


richess. I think she's pretty much the first fandom person I met. She's certainly the first fandom person I met in RL and at my first convention too. She's my hunny


drbillbongo - My online wife


The Marauders! Me (Moony), Padfoot (padfoot_uk, Prongs (nam_melon and Wormtail (flickums

Hobbies and straggly bits

I love to read. Actual books as well as fanfic. LOL! You'll see through the year that I post lists of the books that I've read with a mini review. Mostly for my own reference.

I love to see films, but I don't go the cinema as much as I used to because it's really expensive.

One of my big passions is travelling. Here in the UK as well as abroad. I love seeing new places and things. Coupled with this is my love of photography. You'll see that I post a lot of photos whenever I go places.

I particularly like going to conventions. Some geek snobs might call Collectormania and the like signing events rather than conventions. Whatever. I've done both and so long as I get to meet the people I like I don't care what you call them


Probably the best con I've done yet. It was a Buffy con and a Caribbean cruise all rolled into one


Who'd have thought that when I used to lust after John Barrowman on Live and Kicking that I'd meet him one day when we were both a lot older. LOL


I met Superman


And Archie! You may call him Apollo but he will always be Archie Kennedy to me


I don't think words can encompass how happy this moment made me


Me and my future husband


My first ever convention


And the first time I ever met one of my fandom crushes. Yeah, I don't look too happy there ;)

And, of course, I play online WAY too much than is good for me. One of the joys of my job is that our network engineer rigged up the broadband so I can use my laptop while I'm at work which is why I post so much.

I love to write fanfic and make icons

Fandom

Fandom is pretty much the biggest part of my life. It's quite scary but at the same time it makes me happy so I consider that to be a good thing.



My involvement in fandom started with Buffy. I was a fan of the show before I got online. I joined a few yahoogroups (or egroups as they were called back then) and someone asked me if I wrote fanfic. Cue me asking what fanfic was. Well, it didn't take me long to get hooked and pretty soon I was writing it. It was het back then. I was a die hard Buffy/Spike shipper

Slash was a newer thing for me. Again it was the Buffy fandom. I accidentally stumbled across a Spike/Angel fic where there was lots of biting and it was incredibly hot. I never looked back after that.

After Buffy I was in the Pirates of the Caribbean fandom for a while. I read a lot of Jack/Norrington but only wrote one actual fic.

Then we have have the next pivotal moment in my fandom life: the discovery of RPS. It came when I was in the Lord of the Rings fandom. Jacqui told me about an article she'd read (which I think turned out not to be true) that said that Orlando Bloom's girlfriends had dumped him because he was spending time with Sean Bean. Somehow (I think it was caz) gave me a Sean/Orland fic and whilst it felt wrong it was so awesome I got hooked. I quickly switched to Sean/Viggo and they were my OTP for a long time.

Smallville came next. Discovered totally by accident when Jacqui bought the DVDs I was not expecting to like it. I suppose I didn't in a lot of ways but Season 1 is so full of gay thay I couldn't help but fall in love with Clark and Lex

Which brings us to Merlin. The only show (and I'm still amazed at this) that managed to out-gay Smallville. I love it.

So, that's me in a nutshell. Welcome!