Terradyme: Trials and Tribulations

Sunday, December 31, 2006
New Year's Ketchup

I'm just back from seeing Happy Feet with ex-colleague AA in Reading's Vue cinema. If I'm counting correctly it's the fourth film I've seen this year.

The cinema was nice but there were far too many crying munchkins and the film was not the sort of thing I'd have taken my 2 or three year old to see: far too many scary bits.

I had a very nice Xmas at CM's with her son and her son's fiancee. We exchanged a few gifts and had turkey with trimmings and watched two banal episodes of Deal or No Deal which I will never watch again. We'd had our Christmas quiz at work the Wednesday before at work which was a laugh, so I had my fill of Xmas spirit.

I took the day off Wednesday to train up to Banbury to see the Gran. Unfortunately Virgin only saw fit to put on a 4 carriage train (one reserved for 1st class) for the 832 passengers and their assorted suitcases, christmas gifts, children and other unimportant items, so it was a tight fit. Gran was in good form though and we had a nice chat.

I took of Thursday as well and did nothing. Work is slow with the lady boss away in Greece for 3 weeks. I still have my final exam coming up next Tuesday so that's this week's plan.

Labels: blogging, cinema, uni, work

10:27:00 PM

Sunday, October 08, 2006
It's Ma'am like ham, not harm

Strange, one movie all year and then two in one week: AA and I spent the afternoon together, first taking in a showing of Helen Mirren's new film, The Queen, at the George St. Odeon. Only £5.80 with my student discount. It wasn't riveting drama, and was obviously a fictionalised account of the events during the week of Diana's death, but it was enjoyable enough.

After, we had a meal at Prima Uno's, after we found the Noodlbe Bar on Gloucester Green (my first choice) closed after 5pm. We had lousy service, even though the place wasn't *that* busy. I enjoyed catching up with AA, though, whom I hadn't seen since our day out in Bournemouth.

Labels: cinema, eating

8:42:00 PM

Friday, October 06, 2006
Not so wooden

CG and I had talked about seeing Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, since mid-summer, when I'd seen adverts for it in Entertainment Weekly. We were finally able to coordinate our schedules and illnesses to get together Wednesday after work for a showing at the Phoenix. We lucked out as that particular evening there was a Q&A panel after the film, with a few local academics, the BBC's environment reporter, and an American professor.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the movie was preaching to the choir. The general consensus was that the damage has been done and a slight but significant impact has already been done; any action we take now is to prevent any further accelerating of the damage over the next 50 or 60 years. Also, the US is the largest contributor and the furthest behind in any remedial action.

I was distracted throughout the movie; I kept thinking how different things would have been had Bush not stolen the election.

Labels: cinema, politics

9:37:00 PM