I had a quiet week this week. At least in terms of blogging. No posts since last Saturday – and then yesterday I suddenly had one of those WP notifications that said “you have a spike in your stats – 284 hourly views, average 11 hourly views”. Eh, what? Why? Where do those views suddenly come from? Mysterious!

Last Monday I met up with a lovely fellow fan. Ireland is small; there aren’t that many home-grown fans around, and so it was extra nice to meet Deirdre. We went out to dinner together – I had booked us an outside table at the “Schoolhouse Hotel”. (About the third time in the last 18 months that I have had dinner at a restaurant.) Deirdre and I hit it off and chatted away without any effort. And not even *all* about RA or fandom matters 😉. Meeting her reminded me that I am really missing the opportunity to get together with other fans and connect in RL – at the stage door or premieres, or on holiday. It’s almost two years since Uncle Vanya, and *that* particular opportunity was cut short. Here’s hoping for future occasions.
Anyway, let’s get into this week’s round-up.

- Gentlemen wear plaid, you could say… Astrovian posts a picture of RA with crew mates from an outing last week
- And astrovian again. Touché
- Rather than linking to all of the individual posts, here’s a link to astrovian’s tumblr. She has basically got the whole collection of all the little clips that have trickled out from the TSC set, and there were quite a few this week
- Riepu10 takes us back to 2014 and an interview with RA during TC
- Beautiful liar indeed. Gif by iviasha
- In case I hadn’t mentioned it until now: If you would like a steady stream of RA info every day, you should follow richardarmitagefanpage on tumblr. They are basically maintaining a continuous chronicle of RA news, with daily reposts of news that were published on the same date years ago. As an example, here is a link to a Sleepwalker interview from seven years ago
- Sorry, lots of astrovian content here, but this is too good to miss – a detailed look at how she creates her fabulous digital paintings of RA
- And the actual finished artwork. (Obviously also by astrovian)
- Here is a reader insert RPF that apparently started at the end of August but which has only come to my attention now. Haven’t read all of it, but liked the first part of it. Four parts available so far, written by linasofia. Here is part 1
- Jassy2101 has a close-up of the plaid shirt occasion
- Food for thought for Thornton doubters like me… A list of reasons why Thornton is the most relatable character in literature. By haly-reads
- No idea what this cross-over refers to, but just for a bit of Becker, here is this fan art by whatever-ten
Phew, just stopped before the unlucky 13!? Or maybe 13 would be fitting since it is Halloween 🎃 weekend? Frankensonja is not really planning anything for Halloween – except a little post tomorrow, so watch out for that. I am busy preparing for December instead. Yes, the December fundraiser is already in the works. This week I committed to a project for the Etsy sale which I am really excited about. I am also expecting a few parcels with items for the auctions, and I have to compile the list of items already received. The plan is to have the fundraiser go live at the beginning of December – or possibly the last couple of days of November – so to facilitate arrival of purchased/won items in time for Christmas. As usual, official announcements with dates and procedures coming soon in a separate post.
So, there we are. Get the pumpkin ready!
Sonja 👻
It was great to meet you as well Sonja, it was a lovely relaxed evening. Hopefully, we can do it again sometime. Have a lovely weekend.
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Ah, it was really delightful to meet you, Deirdre. And the best thing about meeting up in RL is that it establishes a stronger connection. It’s just nice having met a “familiar name” and now being able to put a face to it!
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Astrovian is absolutely right with #2! Yet another reason why casting directors should have their own Academy Awards category. Oh, Claude! Makes me think that I need to spend a bit of time with O8 again. RA really is delicious in that film. Thanks for the link to the Sleepwalker interview; I hadn’t seen that one before. Happy Pumpkin Day, All! 🎃🎃
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Casting is really an art, I agree. Funny that that is not recognised by the Academy.
RA is delicious as Claude. Just a pity that Claude is a douchebag 😂
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Really starting to look forward to The Seville Communion! Thanks fir the roundup as always, Guylty 😊
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A pleasure 🙂
And yep, I am beginning to get into Seville Communion, too…
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Maybe the mysterious circumstances have something to do with Padre Quart? #11 Hooray someone (using better arguments) supports me in convincing you 😉 Oh, dinner at a nice restaurant 😊. I hope your brother- and sister-in-law have recovered already. Have a nice weekend everyone.
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Hm, not sure whether Quart was really the focus of the mystery views. They all concentrated on my Home page…
With all my criticism of Thornton I have to admit that he is still quite the romantic hero… ❤️
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I’m so jealous about your meetup. Happy for you both, but jealous. Numbers here are bad—over 300 atm and rising. I see another long, dark winter in my future and I’m tired. I have been good for nearly two years now and still there’s no end in sight.
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IKR. It actually felt really special to meet up with a fan friend. It’s been such a long time, and I really miss meeting new people… Winter is coming 🥶 as they say. Not looking forward to another pandemic winter. The numbers are looking grim, despite vaccinations. Sigh.
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OT yesterday I almost watched The lodge, dubbed. Unfortunately my name is Laura, like the suicidal wife of The Dick, so I started to search frantically an english version- you know, being dumped by his voice, what a deal! I failed, and this ruined the movie, that is also very boring and annoying per se. Only you can understand my disappoint, ladies. Luckily I was alone
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😂 I understand perfectly what you mean. Very unfortunate. I’m in the same boat (with Astrov totally ghosting Sonya in *Uncle Vanya*). Still have no desire to watch *The Lodge* – just too scared of horror movies…
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How lovely that you both met up and yes I really hope there will be more RA opportunities soon. Thank you for the cracking round-up.
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If there are no live opportunities provided by Mr A courtesy of premieres and theatre runs, maybe we’ll have to think of private get-togethers 😉
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That’s a great idea, I would be definitely up for a a get togethRA.
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Maybe we can organise something next spring when things hopefully will look up again.
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Thanks for 6, that’s helping deepen my next post.
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