T'eyla Minh

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. ;)

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.

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...

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.

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

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.

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. ;)

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*

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...

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.

That was a nice quiet weekend, for once. Paul's lurgy is taking ages to work out of his system so he spent the majority of the day taking tablets and sitting on the PC / using the DS. We popped out to Sainsbury's for some basics and stuff for dinner (chicken pesto pasta; I've perfected it with creme fraiche, although it has the unfortunate smell, whilst cooking, of old socks...)

In the evening we watched Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, as Paul had never seen it all the way through and I hadn't seen it since the DVD release, which was probably about 2002 or thereabouts. We had to start again, though, because a conversation somehow ensued about space travel, aliens, alternative universes, ghosts and everything in between, all from me saying that if I won the lottery I would spend it all on a tourist space flight. ;)

The ending is totally WTF, and even though die-hard Apes fans slated the Burton "re-imagining", I think it does have some good elements. The extras show just how much effort went into the make-up and also 'ape school' for the actors so that they could learn to move like apes, and there are lots of references to the original ("Get your hands off me, you damn dirty human!", as an example...) and various other things. There's a direct quote from Batman and it's full of some typical Burton elements. I personally enjoyed the way the spaceship was half-buried in sand in a very similar way to the Statue of Liberty in the original. Paul was having great fun slashing General Thade and his second-in-command, also. ;)

Sunday was much of the same. Lisa decided she wanted to make the front 'garden' (I use that term loosely) look a bit better because she's having a visitor over in a couple of weeks, so she went out to buy liner and pebbles. It looks much better already, though we're going to get some plants to put there as well. We should probably tackle the back garden again at some point; the bit we weeded and tidied up last year has gone wild and mad because of all the rain and desperately needs taming. I'm tempted to rip the trailing plant up and start again with actual flowers or something.

I watched more X-Files (I've started my re-watch, finally, though have not yet been inclined to use my 'X-Filter' to make posts... I don't think there's that many people left on it because of deleted journals / f-list purging... I've just watched "Lazarus" so there's still a long way to go) and EastEnders. At 9.00pm Alison rang me to ask me to email Danielle because she'd been locked out of her house. Other than that, it was an uneventful evening.

Oh yes, and we dyed my hair purple. Surprisingly, it actually worked. I'l post a photo later if I can find a good enough light to stand in; it looks vibrant red-purple in bright light and just dark purple normally. Woo, purple. It's a bit fluffy at the moment because of the provided conditioner, so hopefully it'll calm down once I wash it normally.

In other news, my Amazon order was apparently dispatched on Monday and it has yet to turn up. Stupid Royal Mail.

Last night was pleasant. Lisa came up to share our bank holiday dinner of roast pork with trimmings, and then we watched Cloverfield. ( Comments/spoilers )

Going to see Mary Poppins tonight, hurrah. And going to Pizza Express for tea to use up the voucher before it expires.

In other news, I have the longest file note known to man to tackle - 2.5 blue tapes, which equates about about 1 hour 15 minutes of dictation - so I'd better get on with it...

Another fairly sociable weekend, which seemed to invole an awful lot of films... I have rambled an awful lot in this one, so I've cut where appropriate.

I don't think I've updated in a while, so: on Thursday I made a seafood risotto using a recipe I got online by Jamie Oliver, which was actually as easy as he said it was. I decided to cook the prawns, salmon and scallops separately in a frying pan so as not to confuse things, which meant the risotto was as stodgy as a brick. Also, the recipe called for an amount of grated parmesan, but as our parmesan is powdered (it's generic 'Italian hard cheese' from Asda, in a plastic box) it ended up being ridiculously cheesy... Nevertheless, despite the fact you could build a house with it and my pans SUCK, it was actually very tasty.

Friday night was quite sedate for me, although Paul went out for drinks after work, came home (we had some more of the risotto and I still had to throw a little bit away - I think I'll halve the recipe next time...), and then went out again. I wasn't best pleased about this because I basically saw him (sober) for all of twenty minutes, but I did get the PC to myself for the evening. :P I had a play around on DOSBox and managed to get Simon the Sorcerer to work from the CD, though I am failing to get the Puzzle Pack to work because it was designed for Win 95/98 and will not install on XP or Vista, but is too advanced for DOSBox. (Although I think it might work with the SCUMMvm emulator, will have to investigate...) Got quite a way through it by remembering what I did last time but am now at a dead end again.

Paul rang me up at quarter to midnight to say he was waiting for a taxi, after which he talked bollocks at me for a while. Came home utterly plastered and hence broke his promise. :P

Saturday, we got up earlyish and went for brekkie at Wetherspoons, pottered around the house for a bit and then left for my mum's. I aimed to get there for 2.30 but hadn't banked on Hagley Road traffic (going through town is probably still bloody quicker than waiting for the 11 to turn up) and got there around 2.45. David was playing a Queen DVD and seemed to have convinced himself that Queen (circa 1985) were influenced by the Phantom movie (2004). Er, no, David. ;) Freddie was already dead by the time the movie was made, although I'm pretty sure the original musical and Queen influenced each other back and forth, judging by some of the videos...

( Random Phantom-esque theory... )

Aaanyway, at around 3.45 we headed off for the Barbecue of Doom at Quinton Church. The horrible thought did occur that my grandmother might have invited my father and not told anyone as a 'well-meaning' surprise, but then I remembered that even if she had, he would only have refused and/or had a strop when she didn't want him to bring Annabelle... So obviously, he wasn't there, thank anything. Nevertheless, the BBQ wasn't as bad as I think my mother was anticipating. The food was good (if cold, to David's chagrin) and there were some sane people at our table, not too many screaming children, and the weather was okay (at least it didn't rain...) We won a pack of playing cards in the raffle as by the time our number was drawn, the good prizes had gone. It was either cards or a set of golf tees. ;)

Back at my mum's, we spent a good hour or so arguing over what DVD to watch, before eventually settling on 300. ( STABBITY! )

After that we argued a bit more over what to watch next, despite it being midnight and everyone being tired. My mum, Paul and I all agreed on Harvey, which David then denied they even had, despite Paul suggesting it because it was on the rack. Meh. In the end we watched the beginning of Eddie Izzard's Glorious but gave up at around 12.30 and went to bed. David also wanted to watch the first 10 minutes (the opening sequence, basically) of the POTO movie, which prompted Paul to want to see the rest of it... I grudgingly agreed we could watch it on Sunday. ;)

In the morning, my mum cooked us breakfast and we went through the pile of car-bootable DVDs in the office, taking home a bagful, and there's also a pile in the living room of stuff I want copying... I forget now what we picked up, but I do now have a full set of Pirates DVDs, including the "lost disc" version of the first one.

Does anyone want a copy of the 2-disc Special Edition of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (that's the first one)? Because I now have two. I'm not sure if Lisa ever bought herself a copy, though, so will ask her as well. It's free, as ever, to a good home.

I've also borrowed a selection of DS games (Tetris, Brain Training, 42-games-in-one, and Barnyard on GB Advance) from my mum, as I'm bored of Pirates 2 and Monkey Ball. ;) Had a go at Tetris and Barnyard last night, but at least I have some entertainment for a bit. :)

On the way home we stopped at the cinema to see WALL-E. ( Review / Spoilers )

Sorry, I went on a bit, there. I was very impressed with this one. I need to make a list of stuff to see over the coming weeks, though. X-Files is out on 1 August and I also want to see The Mist and Hancock and Dark Knight - hopefully at IMAX if it's not too expensive... Also Mamma Mia. ABBA FTW, and Meryl Streep makes everything she's in brilliant. ;)

The rest of Sunday was relaxed. 'Stenders of the afternoon, and we did watch POTO of the evening. I think my hatred of the majority of it has mellowed since its release (this was only the second time I've seen it, for that reason) and whilst the same things still irk me (casting, majoritarily, and the fact that they moved the chandelier incident to somewhere completely different, for no apparent reason) I will admit that the visuals are mostly stunning. I already reviewed it the first time and mostly my opinions haven't changed. ;) You can find it in my December 04 backposts if you're desperate. :P But as a result I started to re-read the original novel, so yay. We got halfway through the insanely long documentary on the second disc before giving up at midnight, so will watch the rest of that tonight. Phantom documentaries never get old, even when they regurgitate information. The origins fascinate me.

And that, finally, is that. I apologise for the longness. Must remember to update more often, or actually do stuff in smaller batches. ;)

( Weekend )

( Yesterday )

Which brings us to today. Obviously, the PC is no longer broken, as I am typing an LJ entry. It didn't work this afternoon when I tried to turn it on but for some reason was absolutely fine a few hours later when Paul came home. Oh, and he managed to leave his keys at home today, as well as his (dead-batteried, admittedly) mobile. Cue me trying to get in touch with him via a very circuitous route involving 118 118 and attempting to send a text to his work email - I presume the latter was intercepted by the firewall, however. Anyway, I did manage to get through and he came home early to beat me going to choir and not being around to let him in.

More Carnivále later. Hopefully if the PC can survive a little bit longer we won't have to get a new machine just yet, so *crosses fingers* here's hoping.

That's everything. Must update food diary.

Aside from the tattoo-obtaining, it's been a generally pleasing weekend. The gorgeous weather has meant I've got lots of washing done in less time than usual, for a start.

Saturday was Laura's birthday, but I wasn't up to it. Instead, I sat around online and then decided to watch Anna and the King quite randomly. Mostly, I had convinced myself there was a scene 'missing' from The King and I which I thought was in A&tK and which apparently wasn't. Nevertheless, I do love the film.

Paul came back at around 4.00am after an eventful evening out during which someone with a out-of-date vendetta (and for no apparent reason) decided to pick a fight with him. Or rather, got his brother to do so, which makes it all the more pathetic. Luckily enough this happened right near the bouncers so nothing happened, otherwise it might have been quite messy...

On Sunday I watched The King and I after getting up early, having breakfast and cleaning the bathroom sink. Turns out my 'missing' scene was actually there after all. Somehow I was convinced the Siamese rendition of "Small House of Uncle Thomas" (i.e. Uncle Tom's Cabin) wasn't in the musical and remembered it being in the 1999 film instead (subsequently leading into the sub-plot about Tuptim's execution), but I was merely confused... Still, I hadn't seen either film in a while.

Hence, I spent the afternoon reading as much fic as I could find. A bit weird, what with it being essentially a true story, but the diaries of Anna Leonowens are only the basis of the story anyway, rather than the films being a true rendition of actual events...

Of the evening we sat and watched Tin Man, which was quite interesting... ( Spoilers )

So, I will definitely be following the rest of it.

That was about it, really... nothing much else to report. The tattoo is healing nicely but I can't lift my arm over my head, which is getting a little bit annoying... come on, scab - fall off!

Here we are, then, my final day of leave. As ever, I've had lots of time off work and achieved very little, although I suppose slightly more than usual...

We were supposed to rearrange the bedroom furniture on Saturday but that plan was scuppered by Paul having a cold and therefore not feeling remotely inclined to do anything energetic, which is fair enough, I suppose. Really we should rearrange it at the same time as redecorating, but I just had a must-move-furniture vibe going on...

So, Easter, then. On Friday night we traipsed to the Junction in Harborne because Heather had finally passed her driving test and wanted to celebrate. It took ages to get there because the buses were on Saturday service (which, with the 11, might as well be non-existent) and it was the other end of Harborne compared to the bus stop, but nevertheless, the pub was okay. Whilst there I spoke very little (the music was just that little bit too intrusive and the table was too wide, besides which Jen, Lisa and Heather had ensconced themselves into a corner before we arrived so we couldn't hear them at all), practically sat on top of the radiator because we were by the door and it was bloody freezing, and also tried some pistachios, for which I have now acquired a taste. That'll be a decent snack food, at least.

I was still feeling vaguely 'meh' for most of the night (in writing things down in my proper journal, I narrowed this down to the fact that everyone around me is doing all the things I want to eventually achieve, with Heather driving, Jen getting married in two weeks and Paul's mate Tor being pregnant - my body clock is tick-tocking quite substantially) but then it turned out to be PMT as the promised 'spotting' side effect of my new pills kicked in. Not sure if this will be a regular feature or not; at least with the others my periods were regular, so I hope these don't make them irregular again...

Anyway, Saturday we did mostly nothing, I think, except watch Delicatessen. Paul wasn't that impressed, but I liked it. I need to dig out The City of Lost Children again and re-watch it...

On Sunday I cooked a roast pork dinner (which is becoming my speciality; Paul's is roast chicken) and we're having the remains of that in a stir-fry tonight. And of course, I watched the dirge-like angst-fest of Easter Eastenders; I think right now, all the characters are getting right what they deserve: Lucy, Tanya, Ian and Max inclusive. I am following the emerging Phil/Shirley ship with some interest, mind you... The writers have this uncanny way of making previously incompatible characters seem perfect for each other without an obvious shift, which is nice. :)

Yesterday involved similarly doing nothing. We used another two-steaks-and-a-bottle-of-wine voucher to eat at Wetherspoons (must break that habit again...) and watched half of A Scanner Darkly before sleepiness kicked in. Given I'd already watched all of Annie and the majority of Prince of Egypt (which was a somewhat interesting experience given Discovery's 'Egypt Weekend', which I missed most of, unfortunately) I think three films in one day was more than enough to be going on with. Oh, and I think I also watched Mr Bean's Holiday just because it was on, which actually wasn't too horrendous. But possibly only because I like Mr Bean, in that clinging-onto-the-last-vestiges-of-my-childhood kind of way.

Back to work tomorrow, which I'm partially glad about. Being off work gives me rather too much time to think about stuff and I'll be glad of the distraction. Once I finish this entry and my lunch I need to make fairy cakes (change of plan from original idea) for work, but that shouldn't take too long. I only hope I managed to get a bit more sleep tonight than I did last night: I was awake from about 5.00 to 6.45 for no other reason than my brain refused to STFU, but at least I managed to catch up on that between 8.30 and 10.30... strange dreams included.

I suppose I should sign this off...

Before anything: Piece By Piece is looking up to be as good as, if not better, than Call Off the Search, but I'm only up to track 2 at the moment...

Weekend update:

Friday: Mrs Brown's Last Wedding was frelling hilarious.  About 25% of it was completely adlibbed by the lead and author, who plays Mrs Brown, and he had most of his cast corpsing and lost for words on many an occasion, as well as the entire audience.  The highlights were probably when he walked into the set (head first), decided randomly to twist the nipples of two of his male cast members, and the "blow job" joke, which went something like this.  Mrs Brown quotes a joke from one of her son's dirty magazines (having found them under his bed), something like "I feel like a prostitute on a bad day: all dressed up and no-one to blow", then asks what a blow job is, the answer to which is "about twenty quid"... she then later proceeds to offer 'extra blow jobs' to the plumber and his mates...

It did result in random hilarity in the curry house later when discussing who'd pay, as David annouced, "I think I have a blow job in my pocket"... honestly, it's just not something you want to hear at the dinner table. :P

Saturday
A fry/George-Foreman-grill up in the morning, followed by watching Catchphrase (horrible stupid new ones) and me losing horribly.  We left at 4.00 to amble down to Aisha's house so she could drive us to Harborne for the meal.  As it transpired, it was just me, Paul, Aisha and three of her Uni friends... all pleasant enough but frighteningly med-studenty...  The pizza was gorgeous, though.

We left at 6.30 to get to town to meet marz109 for her birthday celebrations, running into darkstar_1984 at the same time.  The night was fairly slow and attendees included temper!Paul, lucretia and her OH, Max, as well as broken_sticks, Kiwi and Abi's mate.  We went to the Gallows towards the end of the night until closing time, then everyone else decamped to Eddies No. 8 (next door) whilst we went home.

Sunday
Nothing.  Watching stuff.  We finished watching Disney's Aladdin, which took three days due to watching it in bed and falling asleep... also The Stepford Wives, which was brilliant.  Nicole Kidman, Glenn Close, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken.  Duuuude.  Also contained ( this brilliant and probably unintentional in-joke (spoilers under the cut) )

  I don't know why so many people didn't like it.  Also, the more I see Glenn Close, the more she terrifies me, and the more I know she'll be perfect when they get their arses into gear and make this damned Sunset Blvd. movie-musical... even though I think Ewan McGregor as Joe is a huge mistake.  But anyway.  *cheerleads for Glenn!Norma*

We ate and did more nothing, watched Red Dwarf series 7 (Extended Versions of three episodes) and complained that post-series 6 it was just trying to take itself too seriously as science fiction instead of laughing at itself... but on the plus side, the video has the entire Arnold Rimmer song at the end. :D  We also watched The Worst Witch (OMG so 80s) and didn't have time to watch Interview with the Vampire...

I'm taking Into the Labyrinth (both videos) to Paul's on Wednesday as it's been ages since I watched it, and, dude, it's got Ron Moody in it!

Anyway.

Today I was Hellish tired and eventually had to make some coffee just to give myself a caffeine boost.. luckily, I drink coffee so rarely it doesn't take much to pep me up again and the following two-ish hours passed relatively quickly.

I have Achieved Something^TM  in putting my uber-camp purple fluffy fairy lights around my wardrobe TV unit.  Looks cool. :)

( Brief review of 'Piece By Piece' )

I'm pondering, when I've starte re-watching every single episode of The X-Files (nearly 200, by my estimation), whether I should review them or put some thoughts on LJ, as I'll be coming at them from a more subjective, mature point of view... and I should probably filter them so non-interested parties can ignore them.  So if you want to be added to my soon-to-be-created X-Filter (oh, dear), let me know...

So, I saw The Corpse Bride this evening...

( Review herein - possible spoilers )

Go see it!  Honestly, two Burton films in the space of as many months?  I can live with this...

Also saw the trailer for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and it looks bloody amazing.  Can't wait. :)  rubytitania and venuselle, we have to organise a trip to see it.  Also saw the end of the trailer for Brothers Grimm, which looks... interesting.  And also Lassie, which looks shit and over-dramatic with horrible child actors.

( Some random whining under here, cut for your deliberance. )

Normal service will be resumed shortly.  Unless I happen to fall under a bus, or something.

I was going to attempt to do this at lunchtime but LJ was refusing to cooperate over the BCC servers, and I was far too tired last night after I'd sifted through the influx of comments.  So, this may not be as coherent as I'd like, but it's something resembling a review nonetheless.

( Sin City - Spoilers ahead )

So, there we go.  I would definitely recommend this one, whether you've read the graphic novel or not.  I know people are saying it's close to the novels in terms of design and story, but, obviously, fans of the novels would have to find that out for themselves.  Definitely go and see it.

In other news - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opens in July, yay!!  The more I see of the trailers and publicity shots, the more excited I get.  This one's going to be good, people.  I can tell.  Burton is definitely back on form, and with Johnny Depp at the helm it's going to utterly, utterly wonderful.  Yes, even with the terrifying teeth.  I can't wait. :D

I'm going to make a doctor's appointment.  Two issues of concern, health-wise, at the moment, but before I do make the appointment, I want people to let me know if I'm just being a hypochondriac...

( Health Issues. Nothing icky, but cut anyway. )

So, you should probably anticipate either an update on said health, or a long rant about the uselessness of my doctor's surgery/the price of medicine these days.

Oh, yes.  And today we had a Unit meeting again to discuss various issues, which resulted in us arguing for 10 minutes about something that wasn't even a problem because Sandra basically didn't listen to what I was saying, and because she and Amanda didn't want to do something that was in their frelling job description.  Cynthia was on my side, luckily.  The temptation to ask my agency to get me another position somewhere grows ever stronger, and I'm honestly only staying out of (misguided?) loyalty to a team that I can barely work with any more.  The system seemed to work just fine when I started nearly a year ago (Jesus, that's depressing...) and it's all changing. I don't like change, especially when the arrangements that were in place originally still work just as well as they did before.  I also don't like people interfering with my systems by rearranging the drawers so I can't find anything, or putting stuff in my in-tray for me to do when it's not completed and then complaining because it was wrong because they gave me the wrong instructions and then making out it was my fault, or giving me stuff to do that it's not even my job to do and then getting arsey when I say I won't do it right that second.

And breathe.

*exhales*

This week's going to be frelling aggravating again, I can just tell.  Not to mention the fact I need to work doubly hard to get everything done before I get more piled on me next week, which isn't going to happen when the forum's right there for me to play on...  So I apologise in advance to Paul for any ranty emails he may receive, and to the Inliners for any annoyed foruming...

I swear, this entry's taken far too long to complete.  My brain hurts, my eyes hurt, and I should probably go to bed.  Which is actually a very good plan, as it'll stop me finishing this post with a long, rambling nothingness about feeling trapped and wanting to escape, because I can feel it trying to worm its way onto the page, but I'm not going to let it.  I know it won't solve anything anyway.  So instead I'll end with this.

I am trapped.

I do want to run away.

But I can't.  Because for all the reasons I want to, there's the same amount of reasons I can't.

And on that piece of crypticness, I shall go.

Today has been about: waking up at 12.15 from a freakish dream that I must now attempt to remember and write down, momentarily; watching DVDs, namely The League of Extraordinary Gentlmen and Van Helsing.

( Spoilers for both under here. )

So, yeah.  Not exactly productive today, but at least I've crossed those two off my list.  Will attempt to remember dream now.

Went to see Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events today at the Odeon in Quinton, seeing as it was nearer than heading towards Dudley or Birmingham.  It was the only film showing there this afternoon, and when we arrived, the doors were locked.  About five minutes before it started, they finally let us in.

It would've been more enjoyable had it not been for the twenty or so annoying chavkids who descended upon first the front row, and then the row behind us, who had clearly been kicked out of the house by their parents and weren't interested in seeing the film in the slightest.  One of them actually fell asleep.  And cue two hours of chatting, sweet wrappers, mobile phones, seat-kicking, and general annoyance.

I was, however, very amused by the boy in the row in front, who couldn't have been more than about 9, with his grandparents.  He was singing along to the Dido and Abba songs (White Flag and Dancing Queen) that were playing before the trailers aired... I sense a drag queen in the making. :D

( So, the film. )

Not a very good review, sorry.  If I see it again at some point I'll try again...

Today has been taken up with that and the rest of my MH DVDs, so I'll sort the photos, etc. out tomorrow night, I promise...

Edit, 22.56: I also realised something else that really annoys me about the POTO movie, but I'll wait until I'm in a better state to articulate it... because obviously, I can never stop ranting about it... :)

UGC cinema.  4.20pm.  Screen 6.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.

It came.  We saw.  I conquered.

( A lengthy review/rant/ramble herewith. Definite spoilers. Definite fandomnity. Enter at your own risk. )

Phew.  I warned you it'd be long.  I wonder if LJ'll complain about it.

In a different vein, a film that is definitely on my to-see list is the new one from the director of Amélie, called A Very Long Engagement (I think) - it's also starring Amélie's Audrey Tatou, and looks utterly beautiful.  But before then, I'm still trying to find somewhere that's still showing Ladies in Lavendar, and I want to see that Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, or whatever it is.

I repeat: fandom is exhausting.

Well, today was certainly interesting.  Cynthia was on leave and Sandra was off ill, which just left me and Zoe manning (or womanning, I suppose) the office, except then Zoe went to minute a conference, and I was left on my own.  Which was of the good, in a way, because it meant I got a good few hundred words of chapter 5 of Come Forward done without having to watch over my shoulder.  And also of the bad, because I was left answering phones, trying to find out where the hell Breda was (she's the Chair who's taking over all of Judy's old cases; she tends to just not turn up to conferences) and counselling a decidedly stressed social worker in the process...  Oy vey.

Other than that, it was uneventful.  Except then someone phoned up looking for Dawn, who we hadn't seen, prompting Zoe to theorise that there was a great hole in the sky sucking up all of our Reviewing Officers...

After that, I met up with last_dance outside Lloyds TSB/Pij, so we could go and see The Grudge, her being the only feasible person I could see it with.  I also wanted to get some photos of the Wheel with the Hall of Memory in front of it.

( Some photos; blurred but artistic. )

And then we saw the film.

( The Grudge; or, Why I Don't Do Horror Films In Cinemas. )

This was going to be far more coherent, but I'm tired.  Other films I'm hoping to see this season are: Finding Neverland, hopefully on Saturday; Birth, with Nicole Kidman, my theory being that she's not in a film with Johnny Depp yet, but I can watch two separate ones and pretend; Ladies in Lavendar, because it looks quite interesting.

Apparently the Phantom movie opens in December.  ( Some Phantom movie ramblings. )

So, yes.  I need to think about fluffy bunnies and happy things, for various reasons.

So, today I went into Brum to find birthday presents for my mum.  After extensive wandering (well, extensive considering how hot it was and my tendency to avoid the Bull Ring as long as is humanly possible...) I came back with:

~ a vaguely art deco-ish locket thing from Argos
~ a dragon statuette from Evolution with pretty blue glass wings
~ a Chinese good luck charm from the random Chinese shop that's sprung up in the Pavillions
~ some over-the-knee socks, some of which are for me...

Also had a look in Shelley's and failed to get anything in my size.  I'm clearly slipping.

Anyway, tonight Sky finally showed The Ring, so I watched it.  Have to say I much preferred the original Japanese one; far more spooky and intense.  Nevertheless, it still put my nerves on edge, was fairly attactively shot, and seemed to pretty much follow the plot of the original.  The 'ring' metaphor was cleverer in the original, too...

Oh, and before I forget, here's three efforts of the Greta Garbo icon.  I think I like the last one best...

... ...

I finally got to watch Road To Perdition tonight, catching it randomly on Sky Movies 7 (formerly Sky Moviemax 2...)  I really wish I'd managed to see it at the cinema, because it's visually beautiful.  Tom Hanks is fantastic as usual, and the boy playing his son is also very very good.  Wonderful film.  Everyone needs to see it.

I suck at reviewing, sorry...

It's actually quite ironic (or something) that I've been listening to Seether's Disclaimer II for the entirety of my MH obsession and most of the writing of Come Forward (up to chapter 3, incidentally), yet the lyrics to this particular song struck me as being very apt for my Sunset Boulevard fic-timeline...

( Lyrics herewith. )

All right, all right.  Angsty and melodramatic.  The tune's pretty, okay?  It was the line about the photo, is all.  It's a key part of the entire fic, and once I'd got that mental image, the rest of the lyrics just seemed to fit.  Oddly, there aren't that many songs that DO fit Sunset, so I'm especially impressed that something by Seether, of all people, should be so apt.

I'll shut up.  I presume I'm going to my father's tomorrow; he hasn't texted to cancel (my father understands text messaging; I'm somewhat scared by this...) so that means I have to get up early.  Joy.  At least I can distract myself with EastEnders.  Failing that, the evil of I'm Famous and Frightened is apparently showing live at 2pm, so I'll watch that if I get absolutely desperate. I gave it a miss tonight as soon as I realised they'd decked the male celebrities in kilts.  Keith Chegwin in a kilt was disturbing enough; I didn't stick around to see Handy Andy Kane in one...

Edit: Oh, and collie_wing, I got your postcard this morning! :D