Dragonborn
I recently exchanged Christmas gifts with my brother — a bit early, I know. I bought him Saints Row: The Third (and got a copy for myself at the same time) and he bought me Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that I have been waiting for this game since 2006. It doesn’t disappoint. Bethesda have done it again and I would possibly swear my imaginary firstborn to them if that sort of thing were still legal.
I received Skyrim on Saturday and have played thirty hours since then. It’s not enough. Supposedly there are about 100 hours of gameplay, but there are also endless generated quests, so I could (theoretically) play this game forever. The interface is such an improvement on Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and even on Fallout: New Vegas (my second-favourite of Bethesda’s games, which I have played about sixty-four hours of, according to Raptr) and I am utterly obsessed. It is such a beautiful game.
Oh yeah, and there are freaking DRAGONS.
This game reduces me to tiny fangirl noises. I am so thrilled by it I cannot even speak. 
For those who are also playing: I am a dual-wielding mage/warrior female Imperial badass. Who steals a lot of stuff. A lot.
Related (Skyrim) Links:
- Why have Bethesda put the entire continent in Skyrim? Amazing.
- The Life and Death of Lydia. The video killed me.
Penny, an update
My new(ish) Chinese hamster is doing very well. Contrary to the impression I had gotten from my research, she isn’t shy or skittish — she’ll happily run about her cage while my hands in there and is not shy at all in taking food from me. She’s not a fan of being held, but I don’t think I would be either if a giant tried to pick me up!
I’m a pretty laid-back owner who isn’t bothered about hands on interaction, so she suits me just fine. 
She’s a pretty poor Chinchilla substitute though, if I’m honest. It’s no slight against her; she’s a lovely pet. I just miss Magic and Gypsy terribly; sometimes it still surprises me when I walk into a chinchilla-free bedroom. Or when I walk past chinchilla toys in a pet store. As a matter of fact, walking past the dog things still upsets me, and it’s been over two years since both of my family dogs died! Apparently I take a while to get over dead pets.
Back to Penny! I took some photos of her last week, so here they are:
- Look how she's gripping my finger! So charming.
- Trying to decide whether to jump!
- Not happy about being woken up!
- Finally ready to go back to her freshly-cleaned cage.
- Peering out from underneath a bridge.
New Fanlisting
The latest addition to the Fangirl collective is the Michael J. Fox fanlisting. Thank you, Georgie, for letting me adopt it!
I was going to make a quiet exit from the fanlistings scene, but I could not resist this one. I also can’t seem to get rid of any of my other ones! So, I guess I’m still here. 
My Brother In Tweets
So, if you’re on Twitter, you might have heard how awesome my brother is. (more…)
Goodbye, Bunnies. Welcome, Penny.
I’ve had a weird couple of months. First I had to euthanise my male chinchilla, Magic, in July because he was suffering from root elongation and then I thought I had to euthanise my female chinchilla, Gypsy, in August for the same thing. Except she only had an abscess at the back of her mouth, which was brilliant news! And then she died after the surgery to remove it. Yeah. I wasn’t even at home when everything went down, I was off visiting my family in Hampshire. So I ran out of chinchillas and came home to a pet-free house, which was far too awful for me to put into words. I was (and am) still so upset about Magic that I couldn’t even blog about it anywhere for weeks. So this is me blogging it.
After some consideration, my boyfriend and I decided to get a small rodent (less commitment: chinchillas live 15-20 years and I just can’t do that again so soon) and eventually settled on a hamster. We were initially thinking of a big Syrian hamster, but I’ve had two of those before, and wanted something a bit different.
Meet Penny, the Chinese hamster.
We’ve only had her for four days and she is already getting quite brave. I’m very pleased with her progress! Penny is just a lovely, tiny creature who I’m looking forward to getting to know.