teylaminh: (Photo - Atget mouth door)
We went to see Les Misérables last night. Pretty awesome.

Les Mis Thoughts - contains SPOILERS )

Overall then: highly recommended indeed. First entry on my "fandom: les misérables" tag!

I have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea to go and see a three-hour long, emotionally draining musical after my Legal Assistant day - we didn't get back until midnight and today I'm exhausted. Definitely worth it, though.

That other fandom, you know, the one I've barely talked about lately... )

My leave date is now confirmed as 22nd February, with my new start date as 11th March, and I've sent an "unpaid leave" request through so hopefully payroll will get the hint and I won't have to argue with them later... The next month is going to be very very tight indeed, but at least March payday is exactly four weeks from February's, so with any luck the new job will make the month fly past...

Okay, I think this is long enough.
teylaminh: (NBC - tower light)
So, on Friday night I went to see Dark Shadows at Giant Screen with Paul and my mum. It was very enjoyable indeed, thank you. :)

Incredibly spoilerific thoughts under here )

Hm, that ended up a bit more philosophical than I expected...

In other news: on Saturday we had our "Classical meets Romantic" concert. Frankly, I was quite glad when it was over with. I don't especially like singing in Town Hall anyway (the changing facilities are a pain, and the choir stalls are cramped), and everything felt a bit under-prepared because we were focusing so much energy on Equinox back in March. I'm pretty sure there were sections of the Beethoven I hadn't seen before during rehearsal. I personally didn't feel it went that well, but I was also really tired on Saturday anyway (post-squee comedown from Friday night).

There's too much going on at Symphony Hall this month that I want to see: Karl Jenkins on the 27th and Dracula (the Legosi one) with a live orchestra score on the 29th. It also transpires Katie Melua is touring and appearing there on 12th October; I did a search for tickets last night and there are only the back few rows of the Grand Tier left - or you can get them through touts for upwards of £85 (they retail at £32.50!) I wish I knew about this stuff sooner. :( I think Vicky's bought me the new album for Christmas anyway, so I won't have heard it by October in any event, but it's still irritating.

I also need to find money from somewhere to book Phantom for the UK tour - it hits Birmingham in March 2013 and tickets go on sale next Monday (ten months in advance). I am utterly skint and they cost as much as going to London. It's been 15 years since the last tour (I saw it in Birmingham in August 1998) so I want to see it on that basis, as it was something of a rite of passage and the start of an up-and-down love affair with the fandom when I was 16, but it's so expensive and I'm worried that by the time I have enough money to afford it, there'll only be rubbish seats left. :(

Ho hum.

Some good stuff )

Okay, that's long enough I think. ;)
teylaminh: (SB - Betty - Oh you!)
We've made a good head-start this year on actually Seeing Films We Want To See... and there are two new Tim Burtons due this year so hopefully it will continue (Dark Shadows in May and the stop-motion animated (!) remake of Frankenweenie in October).

We went to see The Artist at the Electric on Saturday. Just as well we booked in advance as all three showings were sold out. It was horrendously expensive, though, as we decided to book a sofa and it came to just over £25. I'm sure those sofas were £10 originally. You should at least get a free drink included! Anyway, it did seem the ideal setting for such a film, and the audience actually wanted to be there - I anticipate if it's on beyond a week anywhere else it will be mostly full of ignorant kids who actually aren't interested in the film, or haven't realised what it is.

Anyway. Thoughts - with spoilers, obviously. )

This weekend has gone much too quickly. Before the film on Saturday Paul was at his business course again and I tidied the bedroom a bit (dusting / hovering) before going to meet him at the cinema, then we went to Wagamama for tea. Sunday was very lazy indeed because we were both shattered.

Back to the gym today, so let’s hope it doesn’t kill me as I haven’t been since October. :(
teylaminh: (Christine - I can't escape)
We went to see the new Sherlock Holmes last night, on Orange Wednesdays at Cineworld. Orange Wednesdays are the only exception to my rule of only seeing films at IMAX or the Electric (thanks to AMC fail when we saw Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and my being generally opposed to Cineworld's ethos) and there seems to be a direct correlation between how busy the cinema is and how bloody quiet it is, as both times now we've seen a film there on a Wednesday evening in a packed auditorium where everyone shut up - as opposed to half-empty auditoriums where noisy bastards feel a need to fill the silence.

I wouldn't go there normally considering it's now £6.85 for a single ticket at peak time (with an extra few quid on top if it's in 3D)! I don't mind paying a tenner for IMAX because, you know, it's a 60-foot screen; we saw Sherlock... on Screen 12, one of Cineworld's smallest screens. I mean, it's still bigger than Screen 1 at Odeon but, you know, for nearly seven pounds I expect better when the film hasn't even been open that long.

To prove the point about why I dislike their treatment of films: they're showing a Luc Besson film entitled The Lady, which is only on Wednesdays at lunchtime. We're several editions behind on Empire presently so I've not heard of this, but Cineworld's treatment of it alone makes me think it would actually be quite good, if I had time to see it. According to Cineworld logic, only unemployed people want to see arthouse films. Which is about as ignorant as Jeremy Clarkson's presumption that only poor people use public transport.

Plus they were obviously sore about Vue obtaining the rights to the POTO 25th anniversary gala - and thus lots of money - considering their sarcastic 'summary' of it on their Twitter feed. :P

Anyway, gripes about the company aside, here are some thoughts on Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. I think actually I should have bought the first one on DVD already to re-watch it, as I'd kind of forgotten HOW AWESOME it was. Thoughts under here - contains spoilers, obviously. )

Right then, here's the separate cut with my POTO-related ramblings, which I want to keep apart from the film thoughts because they're only semi-related... In which Erik is vocal again. )

Fandom makes me crazy, apparently. But I think we already knew that.

In other news, I was supposed to re-start gym attendance this week but being insanely busy has put a damper on. Paul's Monday nights have now been reclaimed, as Broken Amp is going monthly rather than weekly, but he was at Alex's this week, then I had choir on Tuesday and we went to the cinema last night, obviously, so I need a quiet end-of-week before going out to the cinema again on Saturday for The Artist at the Electric.

We booked to see it at the Electric thinking it wouldn't be on elsewhere, and naturally, because it stormed Cannes it's on everywhere. Still, it will be interesting seeing it at the Electric and for once I don't mind them showing a mainstream film. :P (Even they've relegated it to Screen 2, though.)

I also want to try and catch Hugo in 3D at the IMAX whilst it's still showing. It's nearly Oscar season so there will hopefully be some good stuff in the pipeline (although War Horse is being trailered to death), but even if there isn't, the new Tim Burton endeavour, Dark Shadows, opens in April or May. It looks gothalicious so I am very much hoping for an IMAX release. 60-FOOT GOTHIC JOHNNY DEPP, HELLO. :)

Right then, I think this entry is MORE than long enough, so I will sign it off. Apparently with my LJ these days you get nothing or you get epic spam. Sorry.

Pirates 4!

Jun. 3rd, 2011 12:47 pm
teylaminh: (PotC - Pirate!)
Well, I thoroughly enjoyed that, thank you. To quote my Facebook update: two hours of swashbuckling awesomesauce. :)

Before I post proper thoughts, though (perhaps 'review' is too strong a word), something else.

Indications the Fandom is Getting to You, number 42 (I haven't been counting, I just think it's appropriate...): your MP3-player mocks you first thing in the morning.

I turned it on as I was walking down the road to find it halfway through the last song I'd been playing (I listen to my entire tracklist in alphabetical order as it's more random than the bloody randomiser), which happened to be Brandon Flowers's "Jilted Lovers and Broken Hearts" (OHAI song title!), and which also happened to contain this line: "you're flying away // while I'm stuck here on the ground". I didn't know whether to giggle or cry. ;)

This was swiftly followed by Catatonia's "Johnny Come Lately" (I wish I was joking, really), which commences thus: "I'm sorry you couldn't make it // You could have seen him, so weathered and dated" - GAH. That's like... the end of the Doomfic, if Joey's plan didn't work. (The rest of the song not so much, though. :P)

Thankfully I managed to get a Metro this morning and my music was merely background noise, so I didn't have time to think about the rest of it. :P

Aaaanyway, Pirates 4 thoughts under the cut. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - contains spoilers! )

I do believe that's everything. If you are planning on going, don't expect it to make any sense in relation to the previous films. It's almost entirely a standalone story, though a lot of that is due to the absence of Will and Elizabeth. If you prefer those two to Jack, then don't bother. If you want a jolly bit of oceanic adventure with some occasional slapstick, silly pirate voices and one-liners, and you go in expecting exactly that, you will not be disappointed. Don't try and over-analyse it in terms of your preferred mythology, 'ship, character or plot point; just enjoy the ride.

I think that's quite long enough. Now that I've got that out of my system (though I shall probably do a PotC marathon at some point and re-read [livejournal.com profile] redux_08), we return to your regularly scheduled Jonathan Creek madness. Over and out.
teylaminh: (Farscape - Stark - hidden talents)
RIGHT THEN. Now that I've finally managed to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 all the way through without interruption from ignorant pissheads, I shall provide a review / thoughts... I intended to post this last night, but obviously our internet was down again. I swear Virgin Media just know when I have stuff I want to do…

HP7pt1 - probably contains spoilers )

So yes, that was quite enjoyable. As for trailers, Mars Needs Moms looks quite cool. In terms of upcoming films, I really want to see Black Swan, and The King's Speech to a lesser degree. It's Oscar season so a lot of good films are coming out. :)

Before HP7, incidentally, we went to Darren & Andrea's on Saturday afternoon / evening, as Andrea was building Paul a website for his and Richie's weekly acoustic night, Broken Amp. We had a go on their XBox Kinect, which is the weirdest thing ever... I think I still prefer the Wii, as you need even more bloody room for the Kinect and it's exhausting. AND TERRIFYING, as it watches you. Darren made us chilli and then we played four rounds of Scrabble and watched a bit of the run-up to the Comedy Awards before heading home. It was a pleasant, sedate evening.

On Sunday evening we invited Lisa up to share our roast dinner, as we had a gigantic pork shoulder joint from Asda. It was £7.00 for just under 6lb of meat!! It was quite possibly the best pork joint I've ever done: the scratching was lovely (apparently!) and actually crisped up, and the meat was just falling off the bone and coming off in those lovely tender stringy bits like you get on hog roasts. OM NOM. Obviously there's still loads of it left. I'm going to make some soup tonight to take to work, and will probably have some more nomalicious pork for tea. :)

Embroidery Stuff )

So, as I say, I meant to post this last night, but had no internet. Which was especially annoying because I didn’t actually sit down at the PC until I’d done the washing up, put washing in, made soup for work and eaten my dinner, which was about 7.30pm. So instead I uploaded the embroidery photographs to post later, and finally got around to installing Sims 3.

Oh, dearie me... )

I have some work annoyances to post, but I'll do them in a separate entry, as this is quite long enough...

Epic Update

Sep. 4th, 2010 02:01 pm
teylaminh: (Edward - butterfly)
Okay, I have music meme stuff and embroidery stuff to post, and in regards to the former I will just be re-starting where I left off, because I think my last meme post was on 27th August and I don't feel like doing that many in one go... I also have some other bits to update about.

Music Meme and Embroidery Pics 21-23/?? )

My week off is almost over and I have no idea where the time went... In brief:

Saturday - I made my first ever curry! We went to a nearby supermarket and got £15-worth (a full carrier bag) of spices in order to make said curry, followed by a trip to Moseley Farmers' Market for sausages, cheese, local ale, wine, etc. Spent rather too much money, but meh. Anyway, I've now rebagged all the spices (including a 1kg bag of garam masala - I'm going to be making a LOT of curry now...) and my kitchen smells divine. :D As for the actual curry, I did spiced fishcakes to start with a coriander chutney, followed by Anjum Anand's "Punjabi Chicken Curry", which was lovely. I forgot to put the chillies in, and also I put in too much water so it didn't quite go as the recipe stated and I had to thicken with cornflour, but it tasted delicious. Definitely going to make that again. :)

Sunday - I think I had a migraine. Can't remember.

Monday - went to visit [livejournal.com profile] jackiesjottings in Oxford, which was a lovely day. We had to change at Milton Keynes, where the structure they laughingly referred to as a bus station consisted of three portacabins and some pavement, with only a cricket ground nearby to break the tedium. It was about a 15-minute walk from the actual bus station in the city centre and thus not worth the effort. Milton Keynes is poo; everything is square and all the buildings are identical. Give me an organic rambling city any day.

As for Oxford, it was beautiful. I wish I'd been clever enough to go there for uni, really. Something about the surroundings inpsires you to Be Academic. We wandered around several of the colleges, found lunch in a quiet pub, and were briefly followed around by a strange-but-friendly cat. Photos are here.

Tuesday - nowt. Recovering from the day before!

Wednesday - we went out to see Avatar in 3D at the IMAX, having missed it the first time around. Review / Spoilers )

Thursday - more nothing. Did some more embroidery.

Friday - we were supposed to see Toy Story 3 but neither of us were particularly in the mood. Spent the afternoon searching for shoes for Paul as he's at a wedding today, then he went off to stay over at the bride's mother's (don't even ask, it's the weirdest wedding ever - Paul is a "bridesmate" for starters...) and I came home and watched Marie Antoinette, which we'd picked up at Blockbuster in the cheap sale DVDs rack. Quite an interesting film... Internet was deaded all last night (in addition to cable telly being half-b0rk all day yesterday and again today - you suck, Virgin). I stayed up til about 2.00am in order to knacker myself out before attempting to sleep, otherwise I wouldn't have managed it. Surprisingly, I actually had a fairly good night's sleep, although did have a very odd dream this morning that Paul had briefly come home before going back out to the wedding again...

Today - nothing much at all. Got up 10.00ish after finishing my current book ("Loves Music, Loves to Dance" by Mary Higgins Clark) and have pottered on t'internet since then. Should probably straighten my hair and get ready soon as I have to be at the same wedding's reception at 6.00. Given I hardly fit into any of my clothes any more, I have no idea what to wear. Meh.

Tomorrow - chillaxing and enjoying the last day of my leave. I should have booked another week. Hopefully I will be having another week off after my birthday anyway.

And that's it.
teylaminh: (Photo - Sunset orange)
Okay, it's taken two days to do this thanks to lack of internet at work and Virgin Media being poo (as usual) last night. Two entries to post, one friends-only because it's about work. I would backdate but then nobody'll read them. :P

I'm still alive, and also still reading my f-list, in case you were wondering. I'm just being a little bit hermit-like in general lately. Also I'm absolutely skint so haven't really been doing anything particularly interesting. However, I have seen a couple of films recently, and my LJ is long overdue a good old rant, so here I am: updating with two film reviews and a moan. :P

Firstly, last Tuesday (2nd March) we went to see The Lovely Bones - spoilers under cut )

Then on Sunday, we went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D... Rant and review - spoilers again. )

I do worry, sometimes, that Tim Burton is losing his magic touch. His latest films still retain his special mark of genius, but it's not quite so obvious as in his early work. Where The Corpse Bride was clearly a triumph of stop-motion technology, for example, it falls down on the enchantment and timelessness of Nightmare Before Christmas. I think the answer is that he needs to produce more original work (like Nightmare and Beetlejuice) rather than re-inventing old stories. That's where his talents lie; he's an artist, not an adaptioneer. But that being said, I do think he has the best approach to musicals that I've seen thus far, and I'd like to see more of that.

Anyway, that's more than enough. We shall now return to our regularly scheduled not!posting.
teylaminh: (Chicago - cell block tango)
It's been a while since I updated. I've not been feeling very updatey, really. Here's what I've been doing lately.

Watching Stuff )

This week at work has been much more bearable than last week, not least because we have heating / a working lift / electrics, and there's been plenty of work to do. I'm trying to make up some hours because I need to take 1.5 flex days before the end of January and currently have 0.14 of an hour. Don't think I'll manage it somehow. (I need to take 1.5 days because Legal's 8-week flex allowance is three days total rather than two, and if you take two days in one four-week period you must take one in the other, ditto for 1.5 - I took 1.5 flex days before Christmas, so am rather stuck.)

Singing Stuff )

Aaand finally... Money Stuff )

Anyway, that'll do. I think I've not been updating because it would be mostly doom and gloom. I'll come back when things are looking up. So... probably in about five years. Bye.
teylaminh: (Photo - Atget mouth door)
I've barely had time to think this weekend...

On Saturday it was the concert. It did feel like we'd spent so much time rehearsing Sea Drift that Sea Symphony barely got a look in, which was also exacerbated by most people in the choir having already sung it once or twice before. Not so good for us young 'uns who've never seen it before. I think there was one bit during rehearsal on Saturday I'd never actually seen before in my life; thankfully, Vaughan Williams is fairly easy to sight-read, and there are several repeated themes within the piece...

The concert itself seemed to go okay. Only bad thing was that Paul couldn't attend because our bedroom ceiling was leaking. Presumably the leak from last year (which is now fixed) found a new way through. He didn't want to leave it because it was right next to the smoke detector (or possibly even coming through the smoke detector), which is hard-wired. He phoned the landlord but obviously, nothing has yet been done about it...

That wouldn't have been so annoying if I hadn't traipsed all the way to Symphony Hall on Friday to get him a ticket, and it was £21 we could have saved. Bah.

On Sunday I met up with Vicky (from Uni) because she was in Birmingham and wanted to give me my Christmas present. Paul came with me so we could go to the cinema afterwards, thus I spent almost the entire time we were out paranoid that the flat would catch fire (from a potential spark from the smoke detector - how's that for irony?) or the roof cave in.

Vicky and I had a bit of a natter in the Squeg (I needed breakfast) before she and her mum and nan went off to the German Market, and Paul and I made our way slowly to the cinema. We played on the ItBox in the Squeg first, then went into Cyber Candy to check it out (bought some terrifyingly sugary Jolly Ranchers, a rather disappointing fake Kinder Egg, and some strawberry Pocky! They sell American cereals, too, like Count Chockula and Froot Loops, but they're like £6.70 a box...) Then we had some food in the Windsor, and made our way up to the cinema.

Very little actually showing at any reasonable time, obviously. 9 appears to have finished (great...), and everything else was on at stupid times. The Fourth Kind was only on at 11.30pm (er, okay) and I don't think Saw VI was on the list, so the only remaining option was Up in 3D, whcih wasn't on until 4.00pm (we got there at 3.00). So we went down to the Figure of Eight to kill some time.

Film Review )

In other news, Paul has agreed to go on the big wheel with me this year (preferably at night so he will hopefully freak out less, though it's unlikely, and so I can take some photographs of Birmingham by night), though he tried to make a deal that he would only do so if I would see Paranormal Activity at the cinema. Thing is, I DO want to see the film, just NOT AT THE CINEMA. The sensory overload will absolutely kill me, and I won't sleep for about two days. I was bad enough after The Blair Witch Project and The Descent. The only horror films I make an exception for are the Saw series and anything foreign with limited release, out of principle. Otherwise, it's a no-no on horror films in surround sound. :P

After the cinema we had another drink in the Briar Rose before heading home, finally getting back just before 8.00. I watched the EastEnders omnibus and the end of I'm a Celebrity..., we had some dinner, and went to bed.

So, rather a busy weekend. And yet more busy weekends up until Christmas, so don't ask me to go anywhere. :P
teylaminh: (Google - Home)
I should have Fridays off more often. :)

Initially, I had booked Friday off in the event that my mum had some form of hen party / event / get-together. It was supposed to happen last week (because David's office people stag thing was happening on the 11th) but most of her office people were on holiday, and then it ended up being somewhat cancelled due to lack of interest. Booo, office people.

So instead, my mum popped over with my wedding outfit and wrist-corsage and fascinator, and Paul's button hole flower, and the traditional present-from-the-groom-to-the-bridesmaid to me from David, which is a lovely necklace and earrings set that matches the design of the jacket I'm wearing.

It then transpired that David had forgotten his keys so we drove to my mum's to let him in (arriving just as he was ambling down the road, luckily), and since everyone was too tired to go out again, we ordered in a selection of Thai starters / dim sum and gorged ourselves silly. Also plenty left for me and Paul to take home for our tea on Saturday.

We watched Derren Brown's first 'Event' programme ("How to Win the Lottery"), which was... really quite bizarre, and then a bit of the David Blaine "What is Magic?" show (I much prefer his street magic to his Crazy Endurance Stunts) and then got a taxi home.

Oh, yes, during the course of the day I got around to watching Order of the Phoenix, which was pleasant. I'm probably the only person left on the planet who hadn't seen it until now, but I'll cut for spoilers nonetheless... )

We then proceeded to go nowhere and do almost nothing all weekend. Bliss! I've FINALLY started up doing some embroidery again as I wasn't too knackered to attempt it, though unfortunately I may end up having to stitch photographs of it together rather than scans, as since installing the new printer there's no room to scan it on the frame, and I'm not taking it off the thing every time I want to scan it. We'll see how it goes; if photographs fail, I'll just have to scan the whole thing when it's finished instead, though that does rather destroy the point of the scans... we shall see.

In the evening we watched Hancock. Comments / Spoilers )

Sunday was very much of the same. The reason I should have Fridays off more often is that for the first time in ages I woke up on Sunday and didn't feel like crap, thus enabling me not only to cook Paul a proper full breakfast (literally the first time in absolutely ages) as well as my own (bacon and cream cheese on toasted bagel, yum), but tea later on. More of this, please, and less of the crippling headaches / stomach cramps, mmkay?

For tea on Sunday we had some burgers which my mum had picked up for us from Asda when they were on offer (£3.00 down to £1.00), with sun-dried tomatoes in them. OMG delicious. And there are two left. :D

Back at work today and it's somewhat quiet. Hopefully most people are now back off leave so it might pick up for the rest of the week. It's bad enough having to stay late Tuesdays, without having to endure the extra hour without any work to do...

Meh, I shall post this and flee. Will NOT have pasta for lunch, as I think three days in a row is rather excessive, even if it IS delicious from the new pasta place.
teylaminh: (JC - Jonathan - eww)
Bit of a quiet one last night. I escaped from work at 3.30 because I was insanely tired (but had no caffeine, as I've not been able to get to sleep the past two nights), we had dinner fairly early and then Paul went out to watch the football at Alex's. Whilst he was out I ended up watching (finally) Howl's Moving Castle, which I'd taped over Christmas.

Some thoughts. )

Paul returned shortly after it ended (it's quite long, much more so than I was expecting) and we settled down to watch the kick-off of Derren Brown's The Events on C4, where he predicted the lottery numbers - all six correctly. On Friday he reveals all; apparently it took him a year of intensive work. It should be noted that his predicted numbers were totally not the numbers stuck to the lamp-post in the advert... the entire thing's very mysterious right now, what with the backwards website (retsehcnaMdetinU.com) and "It will be you" messages. I suspect that all of this has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual programme, and as ever Derren is just messing with our minds.

Went to bed after that, and I think I must have nodded off before Paul came in only to wake up shortly afterwards, as I can definitely remember him asking if I was okay because I was trying to get comfy...

Whilst I'm here, I'll share my dream from the other day. Can't be bothered to filter it, but I just want to share the trauma. Dream: Teeth Trauma. )

Grah. *shudders* I HATE HATE HATE teeth trauma dreams. I had one when we last stayed over in London (February) which I now can't remember, but I was paranoidly checking my teeth were intact for about two hours after I woke up. Awful. This one wasn't as bad, I think because it provoked that reaction within the dream itself, but on thinking about it afterwards it was fairly horrible...

Okay, I think that's everything. I have tomorrow off (initially in case there was a hen do - still not sure if there is, but a day off is a day off) so will get around to watching OotP and probably SLEEP a lot.
teylaminh: (Daffyd - Wide Eyes)
Bit of an up-and-down one...

I spent most of Friday (because it was fairly quiet) constructing an LJ entry which never saw the light of day. On re-reading this morning, I'm somewhat glad. I was exceptionally cranky on Friday, frelling exhausted and fed up of the world in general. I think perhaps it's just a weird effect of my current Pills, whereby they stop any and all "wimmins" but still occasionally sting me with PMT just to remind me that my hormones are as angry as ever. Also, Paul's (lack of) job situation is exceedingly stressful, as evidenced by the fact that over the course of the weekend my fingers have started peeling.

Anyway, just be glad I didn't post my rambling angst. There are days when I feel like I'm going slowly insane, but perhaps it's best not to share these things with an unwilling audience.

So, on Friday night Paul did his usual trick of having "two drinks", whereby I ended up leaving him six missed calls and a snarky text ("How long does it take to have one drink?! I'm hungry!") because as ever he had stayed out longer than intended and left me hanging on to eat until he got home. The way this is supposed to work is that he just outright tells me that he's going to be late instead of fobbing me off with "two drinks" so I won't moan at the time, so at least then I can just have some food and leave him to it. It's getting kind of boring now, having the same argument every single damn time.

The weekend )

Aaand back at work today, somewhat quiet, hence the entry. Actually not as tired as last week, thank goodness. Apparently everyone was tired last week - I blame the bank holiday.

Over and out.
teylaminh: (JC - cockroach OTP - J/M)
I think this office has something against me. Not content with breaking my chair, on Friday my monitor had lost some pixels - just a line or two at the bottom, across the task bar. This morning they've spread to incorporate my top left hand corner and most of the title bar.

Thankfully IT are going to order me a new one, and it doesn't affect my actual working area too badly... yet.

Weekend )

At some point this weekend we also attempted to watch the final episode of Psychoville on replay, only to discover that despite putting every other bloody episode on there, the BBC have decided not to put the last one on there. I suspect this is because the DVDs have just been released. Hopefully it'll be on the online iPlayer somewhere, though. Stupid BBC.

We decided to watch a film and, after several minutes of perusing the On Demand films without success, decided on the awful-sounding Deadgirl, whose summary actually made it sound worse than it really was. Comments / spoilers )

On Sunday morning Phil turned up to fix / replace our kitchen light (so at least we can now cook properly in the evening), without any warning. We knew he was coming at some point this weekend, and he happened to turn up just as I was getting out of the shower. He then borrowed Lisa's chair to turn off the fuse in the porch, resulting in her shouting irritatedly up the stairs at us... A bit later on when Paul popped out to get cigarettes, he thought Lisa was blanking him, but it turned out later she just had her headphones on and couldn't hear him, and also that she was annoyed with Phil for not warning us when he would turn up, as she was in her nightdress when he arrived, rather than annoyed with us... though we probably should have warned her nonetheless.

We decided to go to Wetherspoon's for Sunday dinner because I couldn't be bothered to cook. So, five minutes before we left, my body decided to punish me for no apparent reason with crippling stomach pain. So I barely even managed half of my roast pork before we had to go home. I ended up having a fitful nap for about an hour or so (thankfully some of the pain had subsided by then) and we watched telly for a few hours. I caught the last hour or so of the shot-for-shot remake of Psycho (not as bad as anticipated; Vince Vaughn should do more serious films) and we started watching a docu-drama on Peter Sellers that we taped about two years ago and forgot about, starring Geoffrey Rush. Always an underrated actor, IMHO. Didn't finish watching that, as I was tired, except then thanks to my nap I didn't actually nod off until around 1.30...

Paul also has a bad stomach this morning so it's obviously something we both ate. I suspect it was the remaining sausages from the fridge. I felt somewhat ill halfway through eating mine, and Paul finished them off... There was nothing in our Experimental Tea which might have poisoned us (it was basically just chicken, tomato and onions) so that only leaves the sausages...

Still a bit grumbly this morning. I wouldn't mind, but I've been good all week - no takeaways, sandwiches with brown bread, and mostly real food with vegetables included. Stupid body.

Bit of a hectic week coming up. It's my mum's birthday tomorrow (need to finish stuff tonight and wrap presents) and we may or may not be seeing her then, depending on what they're doing... I have half of Thursday off as flex, so will be going to get my hair cut at lunchtime, then Paul and I are going to the Bodyworks exhibition at the O2 on Friday (£28 for the coach tickets - yay National Express), then I'm going to We Will Rock You on Saturday afternoon (mum's birthday present) with her and David, then we're going to La Fibule for dinner in the evening.

I do believe that's everything.

No, wait, fic stuff... )

Right, THAT is everything. ;)
teylaminh: (Photo - Atget mouth door)
So, on Saturday night we went to see a delightful piece of cinema entitled Antichrist... Commentary and spoilers, though it's only on until Wednesday if you live in Birmingham... )

Small things have been irritating me this weekend. I have ordered a new printer from e-Buyer (£80 all in for the printer, USB cable and spare cartridges, plus £10 delivery charge), and did so on Friday night in the hope that next day delivery would result in getting it on Saturday. Obviously, they don't deliver on Saturdays except for an extra charge, and it wouldn't have been until this weekend. So it's arriving on Tuesday (note to self: remind Lisa so she is hopefully in), which is still okay because I ordered it so I could copy some CDs for my mum. Except then I forgot my bloody password, and the 'changed password' link they emailed me didn't work, so we had to set up an account in Paul's name to bloody order the thing. Thankfully there was no hassle with PayPal, and I didn't have to contend with the Lloyds TSB cardsafe thinger, which I've literally had to change the password on about sixteen times because I didn't remember which one I'd used. I think the first time it turned out that by 'Password', they meant 'Mother's Maiden Name', but I've had to change it so many times I've run out of memorable passwords - there are only three or four I use for most things. So anyway, that entire thing was aggravating.

Then I was generally annoyed by Cineworld being crap with their screening times and extortionate prices (and the fact that we wouldn't be able to see it off peak because they're only showing peak-time screenings).

THEN, on Sunday I got annoyed with the sewing machine, whilst trying to adjust Paul's new trousers. For starters, the bobbin clutch wheel is completely stuck closed, and I don't have a screwdriver with a narrow enough shaft to try and loosen the screw, which I think may help - though if not I have no other solution. Thankfully I then found a bobbin with black thread on it - though my other solution was to use my JML travel sewing machine just to create a bobbin - except I think it's different thread to my main reel, so I absolutely could not get the stitch tension right. In the end I gave up and tacked them by hand, but I'm going to buy some better quality black thread tonight, make a bobbin from scratch and try again. It's annoying because when I made my tie-backs the machine was working perfectly.

Meh.

It seems the root cause of my annoyance is just Things Not Working, to be honest. Which is entirely understandable.

To top that off, this morning MS Word ate a memo I'd typed before I had a chance to save it, after I'd deleted the tape. Thankfully the file note was still intact. Bloody thing. I assume it was a temporary network fritz (as usual), but still annoying.

Reet then, nothing else to report. Hopefully we will be able to see Coco Before Chanel (preferably without morons in the cinema) before it ceases to show anywhere... Also hope to be back on track with sandwich-making for work this week, as we were very bad last week. We are also back on track with Real Food, as I made a beef bourgignon last night and we're having chilli tonight...
teylaminh: (Derren Brown - blank)
We went to see Public Enemies last night. It was... okay. Considering we had to hang around Broadway Plaza until 8.05 to see it only to be vaguely disappointed that it wasn't mind-blowing didn't help, and nor did the fact that I kept getting distracted by little irritations, like the fact that they hadn't quite managed to cover up Johnny Depp's finger tattoos, or that the make-up in general was really heavy-handed in places.

More )

I've been tired and irritible all week. I think the downpours all week haven't helped in the slightest, nor has the fact that we still don't have a functional kitchen light. The washing up has piled up, I'm falling behind on laundry (because I can't put it outside to dry and obviously the heating isn't on to dry towels, etc. on the radiators, though I have been sorely tempted the past couple of days...), and as much as I'd love to blitz my negativity into cleaning or whatnot, I just don't. have. the energy.

TGIF indeed. A quiet weekend hopefully.

*crawls under rock*
teylaminh: (MH - little boy lost)
I have no idea what's going on with my nose lately. I think it's left over cat-allergy from Sunday night because we went to see Pauls' mum. The antihistamine successfully prevented my eye from flaring up (which was just as well considering the cat is affectionate / clingy to the point of looking offended if you stop stroking him; it's quite cute, he lifts one front leg as if to wave at you and attact your attention...) but I started sneezing after a few hours. It was also quite chilly on Sunday night, which didn't help... I took a Benilyn night-time cold tablet before I went to bed (good quality of sleep, hurrah) and was a bit sniffly yesterday too, then made the mistake of wearing the same top when I got in as yesterday, which was obviously covered in cat hairs and drool, which set the sneezing off again.

I was incredibly bunged up last night, too, and still a bit this morning. Which, in the middle of the current global swine flu panic, is making me somewhat paranoid. To be honest, I blame the quite awful weather of late, and the fact that the temperature can't seem to find a happy medium to stick to and went from Swelteringly Hot to Actually Quite Cold in the space of a day once that heatwave finished.

(Just managed to drop my coffee cup onto my keyboard; thankfully the lid was still on and there doesn't appear to be any damage...)

So, I am a bit tight-chested today, which isn't very fun. :(

Paul went out yesterday because his mate Alex is back from Gran Canaria (permanently, apparently)... I was going to go with them originally, until Alex did his usual trick of inviting more random people along, including Tony, who scares the Hell out of me. Paul assured me he would be sober this time (the first and last time I met him he was incredibly drunk and generally the kind of person I avoid like the plague as a result) but meh. I was also feeling kind of horrible last night so couldn't be bothered.

So instead I finally got around to watching The Libertine, which Noel bought me a while back for either a birthday or Christmas and which has been on the DVD rack along with all those other DVDs I never get around to watching. Possible spoilers )

Not much else to report except that as a result of Paul going out (and the tight-chestedness), I didn't get to sleep until about 1.30am. Bah.

Weekend

Jul. 13th, 2009 11:43 am
teylaminh: (Default)
Fairly eventful. Before that, though, I just want to share that last night, I dreamt we got five numbers on the lottery (admittedly the draw was done by buses pulling up to a bus stop, with their numbers corresponding to the lottery numbers) - what a shame to wake up and discover it wasn't true. :(

Went to see my mum on Saturday. We were going to have paella for dinner, but on arrival they'd changed their mind and were going to take us out to the Kings Head (formerly Quantum, formerly Kings Head) in Bearwood. Quite possibly the most expensive meal I've ever had, but also hands-down the absolute best I've had, too.

For starters, David and I both opted for the seared scallops with pea puree and crispy pancetta. Very nice indeed. Paul and my mum both had the chicken liver parfait with cumberland sauce, which was also delicious. I think I heard the waiter say the scallops were Michelin starred...

We had different mains: David had the steak (which looked delicious, though he wasn't inclined to share it. :P), my mum had the tuna, Paul had half a lobster, and I had the lamb shank. There was seriously enough meat on it to feed three people. And it was gorgeous.

Despite having half a sheep for my main course, I still found room for dessert in the form of a lemon tart with orange syrup, which was just as good as the savoury dishes. Quite often I find restaurants are let down by their sweets, but not so in this case.

Despite being expensive, however, it was very good value for money (especially given the size of my lamb!), and I would definitely recommend it. Their bar menu looks impressive, too... We put in the customer satisfaction cards to enter their monthly draw and try to win a meal for two...

They also do a good value set menu Mondays to Thursdays which also sounded very nice...

Got back and managed to catch the Killers live at T in the Park on BBC3, which was fortuitous. :)

On Sunday we had breakfast at the cafe in Tesco at Five Ways, en route to the cinema. I was still full of lamb and lemon tart, but managed a couple of vegetarian sausages and hash browns. I am now on a mission to find said sausages, because they were very nice - mostly potato, leek and carrot, I think, actual vegetables rather than quorn... I tried the little Tesco in the city centre, in the hope that said sausages were perhaps their own brand, but they didn't appear to have any vegetarian sausages at all... I've kind of gone off most breakfast food (at least at breakfast), you see. As such I've stocked up on croissants and muffins and want to find some veggie sausages because I think my constitution will cope better with those than full-on meat-filled ones.

After breakfast we went to see Bruno, which was even more gratuitous than Borat and about as entertaining... it had its moments Spoilers ), but seriously, one of these days Sasha Baron Cohen is going to get his head kicked in by angry racists / homophobes / religious nutters. There's one point where a chair comes very close to landing on his head, which is mildly terrifying. I quite agree that half of the time these people fully deserve to be baited in such a way, but I imagine there's only so far you can push before they turn violent...

The rest of the evening was spent watching the 'Stenders omnibus and fighting off tiredness, then watching the latest installment of Big Brother and finding Clue on ITV3.

So I've not really had time to think this weekend. Hopefully next week will be a quiet one.

I need to book some tickets to We Will Rock You tonight, before there are none left...
teylaminh: (MH - little boy lost)
Right, can get back to 'proper' updates now.

Firstly, the slightly overdue Coraline mutterings and related ramblings... Contains Spoilers )

Sorry, that went on a bit.

This next one will be shorter: Paul finally convinced me to watch Rebel Without A Cause last night (I did want to see it, was just never in the mood) and I quite enjoyed it. For those who don't know - and perhaps Eni might be interested in this - the scenes at the abandoned house are actually the same one from Sunset Boulevard - the exteriors, at least. Not quite sure about the interiors, as it looked to me as though the entire layout was reversed. Still, it was quite exciting to see it in colour. :D

It also inspired a sentence, of sorts. A throwaway comment from Joe, either in his voice or just in his narrative style, about how one day that house might be abandoned and kids would use it as a castle... because SB is all about the inter-referential fun.

Fiiiinally, my bizarre dream. Not enough to properly warrant filtering it, so it's public. Caged animals )

I do believe that's everything. I had another jaunt to Acock's Green this lunchtime to get more food colouring paste for Alison's birthday picnic cake, and thankfully the trains did not conspire against me for once. Rather, my own stupidity did, as I managed to go the wrong way out of the station and added 20 minutes to my overall time. Boo.

Need to pick up some other bits of shopping tonight, including lime marmelade...

Over and out.
teylaminh: (Edward - butterfly)
The frame arrived this afternoon, so I've done a bit more of my embroidery. Scan 2/? )

Yesterday I ended up watching The Water Horse and The Colour Purple, both thanks to Sky Movies, as the usual terrestrial fare for Bank Holiday Monday was useless. Today I got out the DVD of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory because I missed it on Sunday due to cooking dinner. As much as I enjoy the film, the constant Americanisation really starts to grate after a while. Not just the mentions of 'candy' where they mean 'chocolate', but the monetary unit being dollars. It seems to be set in this bizarre Anglo-American hybrid of a place which can't decide where it wants to be. Other than that, though, I still love the little references to previous films (Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood; even the TV Room glasses are somewhat reminiscent of Nightmare Before Christmas...) and the general visual prettiness...

Trailer for Corpse Bride on the DVD so I might watch that tomorrow. I'm actually quite overdue a Tim Burton marathon, though it will involve digging out the videos from upstairs as I don't have a full collection on DVD as yet... Hm, perhaps at some point. I'll add it to the never-ending to-do list.

It's mine and Paul's anniversary on Thursday (four years) and we're going to a local tapas restaurant called Byzantium, so that should be nice. Paul also has a four-day weekend from Thursday so hopefully we might get a bit of spring cleaning done...

Nothing else to report. Over and out.

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