Entry Twenty-four - TARDIS

I woke up this morning and literally slipped on a banana peel. I mean proper falling to the floor limbs akimbo (that's a great word, isn't it?) slipping. How often does that happen in the real world? And it's really not a-peeling (I'm sorry, I had to) to wake up and immediately have my toes all squished through with excess blackened banana remains.

I screamed until the Doctor came flying down the hall and burst into my room, sonic screwdriver in hand. "What? What's wrong?!"

I stopped yelling, my mouth still hanging open. We just stared at each other for a moment while he assessed the situation, apparently realising that there were no Cybermen hanging out in my room, and then we both burst out laughing.

"You left a banana peel on the floor," I said, still laughing.

He tucked the sonic back into his breast pocket, "Well I was hungry!"

"And you couldn't go to the kitchen to eat your banana?"

"Well why? I was reading!"

I rolled my eyes and didn't point out the fact that he's always hungry, or that there's a rubbish bin five feet away, or that eating bananas and discarding the peels on the floor of other people's bedrooms is just bad form. I was too busy laughing.

"You're making pancakes for that," I said, joking, but when I got to the galley a half hour later, all showered and dressed for a new day, there were pancakes. Banana pancakes.

***

I am sick of cold planets. We always go to cold planets, sometimes I think he takes some sort of perverse pleasure in making sure I am always freezing my arse off. And I swear, he's never cold, something about advanced metabolism... another superior physiology thing I wish I had. But anyway with planet Earth coming up on Christmas, linearly (as MySpace informs me), the Doctor promised me a warm Caribbean holiday. Mostly after this encounter:

Me: -noticing a door I'd previously never noticed- What's in here?

Him: Oh, uh, that's the transiductinal loop disengager... mumble mumble mumble...

Me: The what?

Him: You know, the trans-mumble mumble mumble...

Me: You have no idea what's in there, do you?

Him: No idea.

Me: No idea?

Him: Nope.

Me: Seriously, Doctor, it could be Narnia in there!

Him: Oh, well that's a bit unlikely...

Me: -rolls eyes-

Him: -laughs- Well it is!

Once I convinced him that whatever was behind the door was likely completely brilliant and he sonicked the door open it became clear that what was in that room was completely brilliant. It was, apparently, the room full of blow up water floaties. I'm sorry, that needs repeating, a whole room full of blow up floaties!

"I was wondering where all this stuff went!" he said, with so much glee that I couldn't quite help being gleeful myself.

"Doctor," I said, "we are so going to the beach."

"Brilliant! Caribbean? Ocean is green there, you've never been to Earth oceans in that area before, have you? Nah, only Wales for you, yeah? How about 3427? Great year. They invent the self freezing daiquiri that year!"

"Brilliant!" I said back.

And then we popped round to the most snow covered rock I'd ever seen, just to get Melganberry icees.

Entry Twenty-three - Vexibar, Paris, Mandizalinskasoso & Time Vortex

Blogging is like visiting home. I've always got the best intentions, and I always manage to get, well... distracted.

Anyway, though, I will try to get better.

After dropping off Ariella, the Doctor and I tooled around the Vexibar system for awhile. Cold planet, unsurprisingly. But beautiful. Women Wept was beautiful because everyone had frozen so immediately, with giant waves and everything... but what made Vexibar beautiful was that it was just completely still. Besides the dots made by our shoes and the square from the TARDIS, the whole surface of the planet was pristine snow. Untouched. Not every windy.

Here's us, or well... me and a foot:


And here's Vexibar:


There were expanses of tunnel underneath the surface that went on for miles and miles. Whole shops, and restaurants and home. It was very impressive. We ate at on of the restaurants but it was a bit difficult because the only thing on the menu that could be digested by the humanoid gastric system was this thing that was made out of the internal organs of a sort of sheep/goat like creature called an Arg. And smelled like the internal organs of a sheep/goat. I got two bites down. The Doctor only got one. We ate biscuits and drank Pepsi on the TARDIS instead.

Then, after that, we spun round to an Earth colony, circa 230,000 to get a proper meal (he's never admit it but I am sure all the biscuits and fizzy drinks were starting to upset the Doctor's stomach). For the record; the crustaceans on Paris (Earth colony, named for the Earth city, now I've been to two Parises! Top that, Romanadvoratrelundar!) are brilliant! Especially with herb butter. What can I say, I'm not a huge lobster connoisseur, we don't have a lot of that in our council flat. And flourless chocolate soufflé? Yeah, the Doctor had two servings.

And the temperature on Paris is gorgeous! We got this amazing room at this amazing (great use of the word amazing there, yeah?) hotel thanks to psychic paper and the need for hotel inspectors. I've never seen a more brilliant room. It was HUGE and had two loos and a bed the size of one of those cars on the London Eye. We used it as a trampoline. And then it had about three balconies which were perfect for throwing water balloons (it's incredible, the things he keeps in those pockets). We had a bit of a relaxing time there, the Doctor read about six books and walked around the main city area about fifty times looking for trouble. I sunbathed by the pool of the hotel and told him to call me on my mobile if something came up. It didn't. Then we went on this waterfall tour were we had to go on this transport for about two hours both directions listening to muzak of Cats but the waterfall was so worth it. It's even bigger than Angel Falls, which is apparently in Venezuela and 979 m high. For the ride back we bought candy floss.

And then, finally (!), we ran into some trouble on Mandizalinskasoso (I had to ask him to spell that three times). It seemed that they were about to have the coronation for the young prince who was about to become king. There was some sort of weirdness going on involving the disappearance of the princess and a wily councilor , who seemed just a bit too eager to take the prince's place. As it turned out in the end the Princess was being held captive by the councilor who was planning on poisoning the Prince, forcing marriage on the Princess, and ruling the planet. Thwarted, of course, when I went snooping around (says the Doctor, I say... I was getting a tour from Prince Renard and took a wrong turn, I'll let you decide who was telling the truth) and heard the Princess banging her chairs against a metal pipe. Then the Doctor drank the cup of poison before Renard could (it was all very Tinkerbell... later I clapped my hands together and said 'I do believe in the Doctor, I do, I do!' He laughed). He was fine, of course, superior phyisiology and all, though he did give the royal family a bit of a scare.

We got front row seats to the coronation and the Doctor was convinced that Renard fancied me. I said he didn't, and the Doctor bet me five quid that he did. I lost, but I got a really pretty necklace in the process. Don't worry, I gave it back, and I'll pay up with the Doctor pays me for a bet we made in Scotland, 1879. And for another in Orleana, 3054.

After all that, we come to today. We decided on a Do Nothing Day, and this time we planned ahead and got a couple of pizzas from 1940's New York City (where Tony will work years from now) so that we really wouldn't have to leave the TARDIS. It's basically just a challenge at this point. There's no real reason to stay in the TARDIS all day long except to prove that we can. This is what I have done today:

-Read trashy magazines.
-Put them away properly so that the TARDIS will not be displeased, we all know how to likes to complain about me in her blog (:-P TARDIS).
- Snoop around the library.
-Found nothing worth reading (he's moved his 500 Year Diary).
-Started reading Jane Austen.
-Got bored.
-Made banana bread (BIG hit).
-Tidied my room.
-Tidied the console room.
-Tidied the galley.
-Got yelled at for tidying the console room (I'm sorry those Jelly Babies were at least 50 years old and deserved to become acquainted with the bin! Besides, Jelly Babies are completely disgusting).
-Hopped on one foot for a as long as I could while the Doctor laughed his head off (23 seconds).
-Timed the Doctor hopping on one foot for as long as he could (I gave up after five minutes).
-Watched the Doctor fix some sort of interdimentional gradient loop thing.


-Read more trashy magazines in the library and then fell asleep for 48.3 minutes (or so I am told, the Doctor makes a very good pillow).
-Realised the best thing to do on said Do Nothing Day would be to blog.
-Blogged.


Until next time.

Oh, PS. I asked the Doctor if Romana was his old girlfriend, he rolled his eyes and said no. I am not sure if I believe him. Exhibit A:


And, ahem!, Exhibit B:


The prosecution rests.

Entry Twenty-two - Jacowitz

When I woke up for breakfast Ariella was already drinking a cuppa in the galley and the Doctor wasn't anywhere to be found. This is not entirely unusual. Besides getting into trouble and saving planets I think that his favourite activity in the universe is TARDIS repair, which takes place pretty much anywhere within it's voluminous size.

I made eggs and beans and toast and served up two helpings. "I have to leave," Ariella finally said and I frowned.

"Really? Why?"

"I need," she sighed and then started over, "Jacowitz needs me."

I shook my head, "But we can drop you off right when we got you."

It was obvious that she knew I was going to say that before I said it, though with Ari that's just par for course. "I know that. I really do know that, but it's just... the last time I travelled with you I was so young. I knew I had responsibilities, but I couldn't quite fathom what that really meant. Now it's so different. Now, I can feel my people inside my head, I can speak to them, they speak to me. I'm connected with them and the planet. I know how they need me, and I need them."

I was a bit sad, but I understood. It all made sense and everything but that didn't mean I wouldn't miss her.

"I'll miss you too," she said.

I paused and then smiled, "It's a little creepy when you do that."

She smiled that brilliant smile of hers, "I try not to, you know. But it's hard for me, I forget. It's hard. I hear all kinds of things."

I blanched slightly wondering what it was that she meant by that. Plus, well I didn't entirely want her digging through my mind, there are things in there. Private things. "Yeah?" I said.

She laughed, "Nothing bad! Really. I just, well, you know, if you ever want to talk about things I'm always here, well, not here but I'll always be there. For you."

I smiled and nodded, I knew.

"Good," she said. I rolled my eyes, but smiled anyway and she laughed. "I'd say the same to him."

"Oh, why? What have I done now?" the Doctor said from the doorway, buttoning up the sleeves of his shirt.

"You missed breakfast," I said.

His face fell, "Oh, no, really?"

I laughed at how crestfallen he really looked, "I'm kidding. There's more eggs, the kettle's full, and I can pop more break in the toaster. More importantly, Ari has something to tell you."

He was halfway through pouring a cup of tea before looked at Ariella, "Oh," he said and put down the mug. "Okay."

"Oh, don't be like that, I'll always be here in spirit," she laughed and the Doctor put on the falsest smile I've ever seen.

She wrinkled her nose and then reached her hand out and touched his temple and they proceeded to have a kind of conversation apparent only as their expressions changed and ended when Ariella laughed. I felt a bit left out, actually.

But then the Doctor served himself up some breakfast and we talked about happy things while trying not to think about Ariella leaving us. Though, of course, it was inevitable. And we could always go visit her soon. So after we'd eaten, dressed properly (yeah that was all me, I like my breakfast in my jim jams), and played a rousing game of Snakes and Ladders, the Doctor put the coordinates for Jacowitz into the console and a moment later I nearly flew across the console room as the TARDIS jerked its way to Ariella's home planet.

We opened up the doors to chaos. We were in the throne room and Ariella immediately saw all her advisors present but there were masses of other people everywhere. It took me a minute to realise that they were all the slaves from the Antalusian ship, and then only because they were wearing the bracelet teleporters. They must have just arrived. An idea what was only supported by the unconcious Antalusians on the floor, who were already cuffed and being hauled into custody by some very cool looking rhino headed things.

Ariella sprang into action immediately with an efficiently that left both me and the Doctor impressed. Really, we exchanged grinny looks and everything. It wasn't like we hadn't seen Ariella in action before, we had helped out with a couple of Sontaran invasions not to mention Antalusians, but most of the time she was so calm and graceful that you'd forget how impressive she can be. She told her advisors to get the refugees to the hospital wing as they hadn't been treated properly, and to get them all a square meal.

Before, when I was with them, they'd been in a sort of coma like sleep state. But now they were definitely awake and they were sort of panicky, but they were all corralled away to the hospital wing and Ariella began to make arrangements to have them taken to a planet called something like Samu where they could be educated and then taken into functioning society. It was all so quick that I hardly had a chance to register much of anything. And then Kit was standing in front of me.

"Rose!" he said, "It worked, thank you, everyone's free and everyone's safe. I don't know how you did it!"

I smiled, I was genuinely happy to see him (even if I definitely don't fancy him). "I didn't do anything, not really," I said, and then gestured vaguely, "It was mostly him."

"Oh, I don't know about that, couldn't have done it without you," the Doctor said, shoving his hands in his pockets in the way that he does and clicked his tongue a bit.

It reminded me of when we'd first met this bloke called Adam (he was very pretty but was pretty lame when it came to adventuring) and the Doctor let me impress him by telling me where we were so that I could deduct it for Adam. I wasn't as good at deducting things then. Now, I'm brilliant, if I do say so myself. But he didn't have to do that, the Doctor I mean, I wasn't all that interested in impressing Kit.

"Yeah, he probably could of," I said.

"Nah, she's just being modest," the Doctor said.

"I'm not," I said.

Then the Doctor opened his mouth to say something else, probably a cheeky remark repudiating what I'd just said, like he does, but Kit broke in then, big old grin. "Is this your copulation partner then?" he asked me and I think my mouth dropped about fifty feet (if that were possible). We were both silent for a moment and then Ariella started laughing from across the room. In fact she was laughing so hard that I thought she was going to hurt herself.

My mouth was still hanging open and Kit was looking at me curiously, I could not turn my head to look at the Doctor, I was sure he was right horrified. "Um, no, Kit, he's just... we're just mates, friends, we travel together, but it's not like that." Which was probably one of my less eloquent sentences. Basically I wanted to die.

It was at this point that I became aware that the Doctor was laughing. And Ari was shooting me very amused looks from across the room.

Kit looked a bit confused, but said nothing. Instead he just thanked me again and then I gave him a hug, which Ariella took a photo of:


And then he went on his way with the rest of his people. He'd go, get a meal and be looked at by Ari's medical team and then he'd be educated and get to start all over again. I knew he'd be brilliant. Once everyone was cleared out of the throne room Ariella, who was still giggling, came back over and jabbed me lightly in the arm with her elbow and laughed again.

I shook my head, "Get out of my head!" I said, but not offended.

She smiled and I smiled and shook my head again and then we linked arms and went in to tea, the Doctor trailing behind us. I love Jacowitz food, they have little crustless sandwiches, and brilliant fairy cakes, and banana donuts of course, and they make the best soup I have ever tasted, and this lovely juice made from Jacowitzian fruit called Horalb (but no wine due to an incident once upon a time that no one needs ever hear the tale of). It was a gorgeous tea, overall, and we ate slowly cause once we were finished we knew that it'd be time for us to take off in the TARDIS and Ari to go back to her job. But even the three of us couldn't prolong it forever and eventually the table was cleared and it was time to go.

Hugs were exchanged, and promises were made that we'd see each other soon (but those promises are always made and always broken). Then the Doctor took my hand and we went back into the TARDIS.

"Rose Tyler and pretty boys," he said doing that little sniffing thing he does and then grinned even though I knew he was just a sorry that Ariella was leaving as I was.

I rolled my eyes, playing along, "Need I remind you of a certainly lady known as Reinette?" He pulled a face, "I didn't think so."

He laughed a bit and the poked me in the ribs and I poked him back and then he took the TARDIS and spun it into the Vortex.



Things I Have Learned About Romanadvoratrelundar:

- She was (is) a Time Lord... or, what do they call a female Time Lord? Time Lady, perhaps?

- She was the Doctor's assistant while finding the Key to Time (still unclear on what that's meant to be.

- She could choose what she wanted her regenerations to look like (need to ask about this more).

- She regenerated for fun (?).

- Her second regeneration got along absurdly well with the Doctor's fourth regeneration.

- She stayed in E-Space to help rebuild it.

- She became Madame President of Gallifrey.

- She realised that the Mona Lisa had not eyebrows.

- She looked like this (thank you TARDIS):


and like this:


Until next time.

Entry Twenty-one - Earth (Ealing)

Several things to address this post.

1) I don't walk around trying to get myself into trouble. I could say a lot more on this subject but I wont, simply for the purpose that the Doctor reads this and will probably freak out if I describe myself just slightly more important than a red shirt, but there it is. He would do anything for anyone and I find it a bit absurd when he has a problem when I do the same.

2) Slightly... less depressingly, HelenW, Kit was the bloke on that ship above Jacowitz who helped out saving things. I didn't fancy him.

3) I am feeling the need to find out everything about Romanadvoratrelundar.

4) Not all days are adventuresome. Well... adventuresome, yes, not dangerous adventuresome. We had some camera fun the other day.

Here's the Doctor when we hid outside the TARDIS and then knocked:


Here's Ariella when we found a spun sugar bottle in the TARDIS's wardrobe. They break easily and it was hilarious:


And here's me after I stole the Doctor's spectacles. They're not actually prescription by the way, he just wears them to look more clever (like he needs that):


Then we were talking about all the people who we'd met throughout travels and how most of them we never see again, ever, and the subject of Sarah Jane Smith came up. We were talking about how brilliant she is and how she investigates and fights alien threats without guns and everything just like us. Ariella said she'd be glad to meet her someday and the Doctor decided this was the day and put in the coordinates.

He materialised the TARDIS straight in Sarah-Jane's garden. And what do we find? She wasn't in, which I suppose is not all that surprising, she is awfully busy as far as I know and it's not as if we called ahead. So we hung around in the garden for a bit, Ariella looked at her star some more and the Doctor and I assessed the neighborhood. Her house is HUGE, she must do very well for herself. Here's a photo I snapped.


But then, of course, the Doctor got bored and soniced his way inside and started making tea. Ariella and I were horrified. Ariella wasn't even entirely sure of all the Earth customs but Jacowitz isn't all that different when it comes to manners and she could deduct that it was certainly not polite to break into someone's house. The Doctor assured us it was okay though because apparently Sarah Jane had broken into the TARDIS. I thought that very impressive (that she'd actually managed to break in to the TARDIS and thought her even more brilliant than I had before... which is hard to do). So we made toast and tea and the Doctor was fiddling with the television's remote control doing something, when Sarah Jane came running into the kitchen with a poker from her fireplace. We all sort of paused at the same time. I hadn't previously been aware that she was home but the Doctor didn't look all that bothered.

"Doctor?!" Sarah Jane said and then dropped the poker, "Rose!"

I smiled and then got up for hugs. "I'm sorry," I said, "he broke in. I tried to protest, this is Ariella, she protested too." I introduced the two.

"I did say it wasn't goodbye," the Doctor said abandoning his remote control project and hugging Sarah Jane. After her initial shock she seemed very pleased to see us.

I'm not going to relay the whole conversation and visit like I sometimes do, mostly because this visit wasn't exciting or adventuresome or death defying. It was just pleasant, which I think sometimes the Doctor needs. I was really upset when I first realised that I wasn't the first person to travel with the Doctor and I certainly wouldn't be the last. I do have a terrible jealousy problem sometimes, it's not my finest attribute it's just... it's difficult to go from believing you're important to someone to realising that you might not be that special after all. But what upset me the most was that he never mentioned anyone else. I don't want to be forgotten.

He's gotten better though, I met Sarah Jane and thought she was brilliant, and I know about Romana and Susan and Ace and Grace and a myriad of other people who have graced the TARDIS console room and I guess the thing that I have to... come to grips with, so to speak, is that we're all special. And right now, it's me. Plus I don't really get the impression that he's going to just dump me off someday. I don't know, I just don't. But, I'm sure Sarah Jane felt the same way.

Anyway, she took us up to her attic where she said she kept all her stuff and we looked around, the Doctor seemed impressed with her collection but said to watch out for this crystal thing that she had building itself a computer. It was apparently some sort of sentient thing called a Xylok and he said they could be tricky.

She also opened this little safe thing she had and there was K-9 floating around in space, we all stared.

"How did you manage that? It practically defies physics!" the Doctor asked, it was literally like a little portal to a black hole K-9 was stablising or something.

"Greetings Master!" K-9 said, so he could apparently hear us, and then he called me "Mistress Rose," and I nearly squeed. The he rattled off a very complicated sounding explanation as to how there was a portal into space in Sarah Jane's attic and how he'd done it. I was still confused but the Doctor said that was brilliant. Ari just kept staring at the metal dog, and a Jacowitzian pendant she'd found across the room.

Then we all decided we were a bit hungry so we went out for a Chinese and then went to Sainbury's to stock up on supplies (we were almost out of biscuits and the milk had gone sour and we didn't have any jam that the Doctor hadn't stuck his fingers in). I got a bottle of this new soft drink called Bubble Shock but I thought it was rubbish. Apparently it's very popular.

Then there were hugs again and we climbed back into the TARDIS, Sarah Jane declined to come once again saying she had a lot going on with her life now and she couldn't just leave it like she once had. She tried to give Ari the Jacowitzian pendant back but Ari insisted that she keep it. She said it was a protection symbol and if Sarah Jane insisted upon being almost as reckless as the Doctor than she'd certainly need it. We all laughed at that. Then Sarah Jane went back to 13 Bannerman Rd and we went back into the Vortex.

Ari said she was well knackered, though not in those words I think she said something like "I'm quite tired now, if you don't mind I'll retire", and went to her room. I was tired too but I stayed in the console room for a bit, cause the Doctor looked a bit... well he looked a bit depressed actually. I wondered if seeing Sarah Jane had had the opposite effect from what I thought it should have. I'd wanted him to realise how well he'd done her and that he'd always have so many friends out there somewhere but maybe it hadn't.

I opened my mouth to ask him if he was okay but he spoke first, "I'm not going to forget you, you know. I don't forget any of them, couldn't."

I looked at him confused a moment, yeah I'd been thinking those things but I was fairly sure that I hadn't said them aloud, but then I realised. Ariella must've heard my thoughts and told him. I know that she tries very hard not to listen in on my thoughts or the Doctor's thoughts, but it must be very hard for her, and I know she can't always shut it off. I wasn't angry at all.

I sighed, "I know."

He opened his mouth again but then closed it again and I found myself half wondering what he was going to say and half realising it didn't matter at all. There'd always be things we never said. And that was fine. Someday I was going to die. Someday, he'd regenerate again. But that's not worth thinking of, it's too depressing. I am not sure anyone could live thinking about those things, not even 900 + year old Time Lords. Instead we just smiled again, not even forced mind, and hugged, like we do. And the TARDIS, apparently not wanting to be left out from our camera fun before, took a photo (bit blurry but we have to give her certain concessions):


I was pretty knackered myself then, but I decided I'd stay up anyway. We were both feeling Christmassy so I brought my (garish as he says) pink duvet from my room and we snuggled into the jumpseat and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas on the monitor.

Until next time.

Hacking

I feel a bit remiss in my hacking obligations. Not to say that they're obligations given the fact that I am not, well, obligated to hack into Rose's blog. But it is a little fun every once in awhile especially with how that much girl sleeps. It's too bad the Nyklus sleep too. Oh well. Oh, this is the Doctor by the way.

She, meaning, obviously, Rose, seems to be lagging in her blog posting too. Probably because she's having too much fun gossiping and ganging up on me with Ariella Lavizsia. But, some things.

1) Rose seems overly interested in discovering the the identity of a one Romanadvoratrelundar, who... I obviously never call that. She keeps dropping hints and asking. I think I am going to run a scan and see if Romana ever created a blog and jigger and poke her computer into letting her read it.

2) Rose seems insistent upon continually putting herself in danger. Now, I do realise that our particular lifestyle tends to lend itself to a certain amount of... well, danger. But there's no reason to put unnecessary emphasis on it. Kalab Ting was one thing, it wasn't her fault (just highly typical) that she fell through a weak spot in the flooring and got herself infected with Marwovies disease, but Jacowitz is another matter all together. The worst bit is she doesn't seem to think that she did anything stupid. Perhaps you, whoever you are (HelenW? Heather Little perhaps? It's not all 'Dalek Swan Lake' you know), can convince her otherwise.

c) She soooo fancies that Kit fellow.

d) Jackie Tyler needs to keep a collection of bananas at all times. Just in case. That's right, you heard me. You might do well with one yourself, they say potassium is quite good for elderly Earth women.

e) I am very good at karaoke, I will have you know.

f) I wasn't holding her face, Helen, I was squishing it so that she could move her mouth in the correct way to say the 'sssss' in Istamsislutinrev.

Anyway, though, I've just found a circuit held together with a red jelly baby, I don't want to know how long that's been like that. Off to fixity fix fix.

Cheerio! (see!? said I'd say that more often)

Entry Twenty - Bellalux 5

I've been so rubbish about posting lately, my apologies. But when travelling with not one but two amazingly entertaining companions it's difficult to tear yourself away. Especially when one of them will have to be going soon. :-(

Anyway, I woke up the other day, not unusually, to "Rooooose, wake up, it's time for Bellalux 5!" I felt like I'd slept for five minutes, and who knows maybe I had only slept for five minutes, but the Doctor was there poking my feet and it was about time to see this gigantic aquarium. Which all sounded well and good to me.

Still, I groaned, "What time is it?"

(And I only put in this conversation because his reaction to that question was hilarious) He wrinkled his nose and said; "I don't know, and I don't often say that. But really -"

I cut him off here cause I knew he was going to launch into how the hour tends to disappear in the TARDIS. No proper morning, no night, sometimes Monday, never Sunday. "I know, I'm sorry. Where's Ariella?"

He grinned like the little boy I am sometimes convinced that he is under those 900+ years. "We get to wake her up next," he said and we practically ran to her room. Then he flung the door open and I launched myself onto her bed while he yelled something along the lines of "Wakey wakey!"

I've never seen anyone jump so high. I almost died laughing. Ariella screamed and we all bounced of her bed laughing once she realised it wasn't the four horsemen of the apocalypse waking her up and rather just... well, her rather immature friends. She clutched her chest and said, "You scared me to death!" The Doctor point out that she was, in fact, still alive, and we both rolled our eyes.

Then finally, "Bellalux 5?" she asked.

We both grinned and said in unison, "Bellalux 5!" but he continued, "They have a glitter fish. It looks like an Earth fish, mostly, but like it's been dipped in glitter. The multicoloured kind, not silver. And it refracts light, they've got these lamps so that when it swims around-" he paused them and waved a hand, "Oh you'll see."

Then Ariella and I dressed while he set course of Bellalux 5.

The first thing that is notable about Bellalux 5 is that it's obviously a tourist planet. It seems that in the future, which we were currently standing in, they have entire planets dedicated to different things. Whole zoo planets and museum planets, and the lot. In fact, the entire Bellalux System was museums of sort. Bellalux 1 was an Art Gallery, Bellalux 2 was the history of the Human Empire, Bellalux 3 was a Botanical Garden (like Kew he said, only bigger, much bigger and with plants from planets I'd never seen), Bellalux 4 was a zoo, and Bellalux 5 an aquarium. There are other Bellaluxes, but I don't remember them all. Most of them are histories to other races.

But anyway, today was Bellalux 5. The Aquarium Planet with the glitter fish.




There were fish from every planet with symmetric aquatic life , even Jacowitz (Ari was very excited and told us the entire history of the Sarinya fish, which we both listened to with our faces pressed against the glass). It was snow white with a red pattern that looked vaguely like Chinese writing. And it was the size of my leg. I was about to say how pretty it was when it suddenly just changed colour. I gaped, it was now purple and black and then it turned gold and green and then orange. Ariella seemed very pleased by my gobsmacked reaction

I can't really list every single fish we saw (and its not like we covered the whole planet or anything), so I'll only say about the ones that were especially impressive.

Expressly, the glitter fish, which is really called a Istamsislutinrev, which I could not pronounce despite many attempted pronunciation lessons (much harder than Raxacoricophallatatorius).


We just called it the glitter fish.

But, first off, it was HUGE. It was like someone took two of the Doctor and stood him on end then gave it the body of a blowfish, puffed out. Then, literally, just as the Doctor'd said, it was like it was dipped into a giant vat of glitter. It was covered (even though, obviously, it wasn't glitter it was it's skin, it just looked like glitter), and beautiful; refracting light the way he'd explained. They had multicoloured lights shining on it so that the whole room lit up and it threw rainbows all over the place. The Doctor grinned like he'd just discovered the first glitter fish ever.

"It's," I laughed, "it's amazing!"

Ariella held out a hand to watch the colours bouncing off it, I watched them off the Doctor's face, and he just grinned.

We spent a long time with the glitter fish. I was long past being surprised that when the Doctor said something was incredible, it was. But I hadn't been prepared for the incredible light. Eventually, though, we had to move on and we went to the shark tank, which had some truly amazing specimens. The Doctor pointed one of them out as being an Earth Great White. It didn't look very much like one and I said so.

"Oh, well, you know. The Earth moves on, so does evolution."

It had a lot more rows of teeth, and I couldn't see any eyes and there wasn't a fin. Nothing like Jaws. Here's a postcard:


Ariella sat down on a bench and stretched out her legs, "It's amazing, there's just so much out there," she said, "I've travelled with you. Seen a lot, but I'll never see it all. I could never travel long enough."

"I could never live long enough," I added.

The Doctor was silent for awhile then looked away a moment before looking back and smiling. "No point in griping. We can see it now, Bellalux 5. Here we are. Glitter fish. Sharks. Anything else?"

My mobile rang then, and Ariella looked a bit surprised as I jumped up and chatted with mum for awhile. Told her all about Bellalux, promised to buy her a present. Then I rejoined them on the bench.

"How's good old Jackie?" the Doctor asked.

"Fine. She inquired after you, I said you were fine." The Doctor seemed a bit pleased that she'd wanted to know, but I'd never say anything cause he'd just deny it.

Ariella shook her head, "I can't believe that thing," she nodded towards his breast pocket where we both knew the sonic screwdriver was resting, "can make your mobile call through time and space."



"Oh, it can do anything," the Doctor said, "well, it doesn't blend drinks or hoover. And it jams a bit when it's around hairdryers. But, it's very good at resonating things."

"Like concrete?" I laughed. He laughed. In joke.

"Like anything! Watch this!" he went over to the tank, aimed the sonic at the grouting in between the glass, and switched it on.

"Uh, Doctor?" Ariella said, her eyebrows togther.

He didn't pay much attention, but Ari and I were on our feet. Then suddenly the glass plate came off. The Doctor frowned for about .3 seconds and then the whole room filled with water. We ran. "I guess I didn't think that through," he said.

"Never doubt his technology," I said. We reached the TARDIS laughing, and I was rather glad we saved the shark tank for last. We dematerialised before the guards even reached the tank. We spun back about a week though, cause I wanted souvenirs and the Doctor said we couldn't miss the little shop. I got mum a tiny snowglobe and a mug for the TARDIS.