Thrillers

Last night was really quiet and I spent most of the time just watching TV. I watched a couple of episodes of 24 on DVD which is a show which I think is a lot of fun, with Kiefer Sutherland running around trying to save America without even taking time to stop for a sandwich.

Today I went out to my parent's house as usual for a Sunday and had my lunch. I was also listening to the second of a three part radio adaptation of The Honourable Schoolboy, based on the spy thriller by John le Carre, which was pretty good.

I was kind of comparing Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Baurer in 24 to Alec Guiness's George Smiley in the BBC adaptations of the John le Carre books. Jack Bauer would probably have been shot at four times, crashed at least two cars, ran through most of Los Angeles and been captured at least once, before George Smiley got through his first hour of sitting and staring glumly into the middle distance. They are both good television oin their own ways, they're just completely different.

Mythology

Last night I was watching a few episodes of 24 on DVD. I was also thinking about my NaNoWriMo story for this year. I am trying to work out a background world for the creatures and spirits in the story. I'm hoping to create an entire society for these creatures along with it's own laws, history, myths and legends. Ideally I could create a whole horror mythology right from the ground up, although that is probably too ambitious.

It was another endlessly tedious day at work. I was really glad to get back home and I really hope that the rest of the week gets better.

Stardust

Last night was fairly quiet. I spent most of the time watching a bunch of episodes of 24 on DVD.

My mum came around quite early this morning and we wnet along to the Vue Cinema at Ocean Terminal to see the film Stardust, directed by Matthew Vaughn, and based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. The film opens in Victorian England, in a small town called Wall which is named after the long stone wall which seperates the country from a fantasy world called Stormhold. The story centres around a young man who crosses the wall to find a fallen star and bring it to the girl he loves, but who isn't bothered about him. He finds that the "star" is actually a woman, but he determines to take her to his girlfriend, in return for helping her return to the sky. However, a trio of evil witches want to find the star so they can kille her and thus restore their youth and beauty. There are also three princes who are each searching for the star, because she has a necklace which will allow one of them to become king. The film is hugely entertaining and very amusing in places. It stars Charlie Cox as the hero, Sienna Miller as the girl he loves, Claire Danes as the fallen star, Michelle Pfeiffer as a witch, Robert De Niro as a pirate captain and Ricky Gervais as a trader.

After the film we stopped at the cafe at Marks and Spencer and I had a cheese scone and a mocha coffee. Then we went back to my parent's house and had lunch (meatballs and pasta, in a pasta sauce with melted cheese).