Making Time

Last night was pretty quiet. I was reading my new comic books and I watched some of the movie Scream. I really liked Scream. It's basically about a masked killer slaughtering teenagers, but it had a lot of jokes and comments about horror movies in general, which seemed to influence pretty much every horror movie for the next ten years. The fourth movie in the series is coming out this month. It was a another quiet day at work. I was in work for about nine hours today to make up some time, but I managed to get in early so I still managed to leave earlier than I would otherwise have done. Tomorrow I am planning on getting in to work really early so I can leave at lunchtime and get a birthday present for my brother.

An Education

Last night I was watching almost the whole series of Smiley's People on DVD. It is very good and really faithful to the John le Carre book. It's much darker and a lot more bitter than the previous le Carre mini-series Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It's also a lot more exciting than the previous work, although that was also very good. The special feature on the DVD was a half-hour interview with John le Carre and the show's director John Irwin where they discuss working with Alec Guinness who starred in both shows.

This morning I set out early because I was going along to the Cameo cinema with my Mum to see a preview of An Education, directed by Lone Scherfig, and a screenplay by novelist Nick Hornby, based on a memoir by journalist Lynn Barber. The film is set in England, 1961, and tells the story of 16 year old Jenny (played by Carey Mulligan) whose life is pretty much entirely devoted to passing her exams and getting into Oxford University to study English. Until that is she meets a charismatic older man, David (Peter Sarsgaard) who seduces her with his glamorous and exciting lifestyle, and leaves Jenny with some very tough choices to make. It is a hugely entertaining movie, and very funny, although it is also very emotional. It is definitely worth watching.

After the movie, Dad came to collect us and we all went along to La Tasca, a tapas restuarant, in order to celebrate Mum's birthday which isn't until the 2nd November. It was really nice. After that we went back to my parent's house for awhile, before I went back home.

From Around Here

Last night I managed to get to 92 pages on the Script Frenzy screenplay challenge. It means that I have completed the challenge in eight days, which means it should be completed tomorrow. Aside from that I spent most of the evening reading stories in the Best New Horror book that I bought a few weeks ago. One of the stories ("From Around Here" by Tim Pratt) is about a displaced island god who searches for a new home in the USA while fighting evil supernatural creatures. Another one ("Pumpkin Night" by Gary McMahon) told of a man who brings his serial killer girlfriend back to life by replacing her head with a cursed jack o'lantern. The third story I read ("The Other Village" by Simon Strantzas) told of two Canadian women falling out while on holiday in the Mediterranean and one of the two finds a solution to her anoying friend in a strange deserted village. They were all pretty fun stories. "From Around Here" was fun and pretty exciting, "Pumpkin Night" was gruesome and genuinely creepy and "The Other Village" was a pretty fun Twilight Zone style one.

This morning I went out to get a birthday present and card for my brother (his birthday is on Thursday). I got a card and a £10 HMV voucher. Since he lives in London and I very rarely see him, I never know what he wants or what he's already got. At least with a voucher he can pretty much get what he wants with it. On the way back I stopped off to get my week's groceries. I also got the latest issue of Empire magazine. It was a twentieth anniversary issue this month with Steven Spielberg acting as guest editor.

Back Online

It has been an eventful few days. On Tuesday, it was my 30th birthday and so I went to my parent's house. I got a DAB digital radio with a CD player and iPod port built in, so that was really good, along with some books and DVDs. We went along to the Hard Rock Cafe to celebrate, and that was a lot of fun.

On Christmas Eve we went along to the cinema to see a movie called A Bunch of Amateurs, which was really funny.

Christmas Day was really good, and I got some more books and DVDs. The only real problem came when we were having out Christmas dinner and my Dad spilt his wine everywhere, including over my Mum's new carpet, which she was not happy about. Of course, we also watched the Doctor Who Christmas special.

I just got back yesterday and I was busy getting everything set up. I went out today and the streets were absolutely packed.

Birthday

It's been a fairly quiet couple of days, and I've not been out at all. Although I know that the rest of the holiday will be more eventful. It's my birthday tomorrow. I'll be thirty years old, which does feel kind of strange. It's kind of a depressing thought actually because you always hear about things like "100 Things to Do Before Your 30", and as you get older and realise that you've not actually done anything and that life has more or less passed you by.

Of course I'll be turning thirty and it's almost the New Year, maybe this will be the year that things turn out better, but who knows? A

nyway I'm going to be busy, so I probably won't be on-line again until after Christmas so I hope that everyone has a good festive season.

Out for Lunch

Last night I was watching a 1990 film called King of New York, directed by Abel Ferrara. Christopher Walken stars as powerful drug baron Frank White, who at the opening of the film is released after a long stretch in prison. He returns to his old territory in New York City and immediately takes over his old gang and begins violently wiping out the competition, while also regaining his influence over the city's political elite. This time White decides to use some of his ill-gotten gains to finance an inner city hospital. However as White deals with rival gags and trechery within his own team, as well as three cops (David Caruso, Victor Argo and Wesley Snipes) who are determined to bring him in, events spiral violently out of control. The film is extremely violent and very bleak. Christopher Walken gives a superb performance in the central role, often looking genuinely sinister with his ghostly appearance. In it's original release the movie was a massive commercial failure but since then it has become quite a cult film. Abel Ferrara is a very prolific, but often very inconsistent, film-maker however this is defintiely one of his better films.

I was only in work for a half day today. At around midday I went along to the Ellwyn House Hotel for Owen's 30th birthday (which is a little over a week away), there were about six of us there and I had a prawn cocktail to start, followed by a sirloin steak with stuffing, potato and sausages, and finishing off with a slice of apple pie and cream, with two pints of Kronenbourg beer. It was pretty good. I got home at around three.

Prince of Darkness

Last night I watched an episode of the 1990s series of The Outer Limits, the episode was called "Music of the Spheres" in which alien music becomes hugely popular among teenagers on Earth, but seems to cause them to develop a strange disease. It wasn't a very good episode, but it was interesting in a way because it featured early appearances by Kirsten Dunst and Joshua Jackson (from Dawson's Creek).

Later on I watched a few episodes of Mock the Week, before falling asleep on my sofa, and waking up in time to see most of the 1987 film Prince of Darkness, directed by John Carpenter. The film involved a priest (Donald Pleasance) who calls upon a university professor and a group of physics students to investigate paranormal phenomena at a run-down inner-city church. It turns out that the source of ultimate evil has been incarnated as a glowing green goo in a glass cylinder in the churches basement, and is trying to communicate with creatures in another dimension. The goo possesses most of the students, and the church is soon assaulted by a variety of paranormal phenomena, including homeless zombies (led by rock singer Alice Cooper). It's quite fun and imaginative, though. Incidentally, the writer of the film was John Carpenter, writing under the name Martin Quatermass, which he chose as a tribute to the celebrated British TV and film writer Nigel Kneale (whose work, and particularly his Quatermass serials were a big influence on the film). Kneale was very irritated by this, apparently, because he didn't want people to think he had been involved in the film.

Today I went to my parents house for lunch as usual. It was my mum's birthday today, and fortunately she was very happy with the present that I got for her (which was the book The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris - mum is a huge fan of Harris' books). On the way home I helped my dad dump off some old books of my brother's at the book bank.

I managed to get 2013 words done of the NaNoWriMo yesterday. I'm hoping I might get a fair amount done this evening as well.

Quantum of Solace

Last night I finished reading the novel Smiley's People by John le Carre. The book was first published in 1979 and forms the final part of a trilogy (the other two books in the series being Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy). When a Soviet ex-spy turned defector is found dead in a London park, world-weary George Smiley, one time head of the British Secret Service comes out of retirement to investigate. He soon realises that it was a professional assassination, and that the ex-spy was on his way to meet Smiley with some secret documents, which have are now missing, relating to Smiley's arch-enemy, the enigmatic Soviet spymaster code-named Karla, who engineered the devestation of Smiley's personal and professional lives. Obsessed with destroying his nemesis, Smiley sets out across Europe on a personal mission of revenge. It's a very well-written book, and probably the best in the series. Away from the glamour and action of James Bond-style spies, the novel depicts a bleak, murky, paranoid world of moral ambiguity, where literally no-one can be trusted.

I was off work today and headed up to the cinema to see Quantum of Solace, the latest James Bond film. The journey took ages because of road-works and even at the time I went, twenty past twelve, the cinema was packed. The film is a direct sequel to the previous Bond film Casino Royale, and takes up pretty much straight after that one ends. As James Bond (played by Daniel Craig), agent 007 of the British Secret Service, embarks on a dangerous, personal mission of revenge, he finds himself up against a powerful international criminal organsation. Like Casino Royale, it's a much darker kind of Bond film, with few of the trademark quips and gadgets. However, there is non-stop action, exotic locations and beautiful women (in this case Olga Kurylenko and Gemma Arterton). The movie is named after a 1960 Ian Fleming short story, but has absolutely nothing to do with the story at all, aside from the name (the story is a domestic drama of marital infidelity which is told to Bond at a party).

After the film I went to the shops to get my mum a birthday present (I bought her a book called Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris, it's the sequel to Chocolat, which I know mum liked, and it's pretty new, so hopefully she's not had a chance to get it out of the library yet). There was a sale on so I got a couple of John le Carre books for myself (A Perfect Spy and The Russia House). I also got a birthday card for mum and some wrapping paper. On the way home I picked up some milk and the latest issues of Radio Times and Empire.

I've just got the card written and birthday present wrapped, so that's all ready for Sunday. Also, of course, NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow!

Happy Halloween!

An Ordinary Day

Last night I watched the last two episodes of the third season of The Office, which I got on DVD on Saturday. I've really enjoyed the show, and I actually think it is funnier than the original British version. Aside from that it was a really quiet evening.

It was another average day at work. I spent a lot of time listening to my iPod again. I headed back at around half past five and stopped off to buy a takeaway sausage supper, which made a nice change (if not exactly healthy).

It's my mum's birthday a week on Sunday, and I have absolutely no idea what to get for her. I'll have to try and find out if there's anything she particularly wants next time I speak to her. She admits herself that she is not an easy person to buy presents for!

A Birthday Party

Last night I went along to my friend Alice's birthday party. It was originally planned to be a barbecue but, due to the heavy rainfall, the barbecue was cancelled and the party was held in her flat. The party was fairly busy, because apparently there were at least six people staying there. Alice is backpacking from Australia and so she lives with a number of other backpackers in the flat. The barbecue ended up being cooked inside and so we had some burgers and sausages. It was quite nice. I left after about three hours. The only person that I knew there was Alice, so I was quite uncomfortable. I always am when I am with groups of people that I don't know. I tend to get extremely nervous and kind of clam up.

I was back at work today. It was really quiet in the office today. There was no word about how the strike went, but then it is a bit too early for that. I had just arrived home after work when I had a phone call from my Mum saying that we were going out for dinner at a new fish restaurant at the other end of my street. I had about an hour before we were scheduled to meet and so I watched yesterday's episode of Mock the Week, which was very funny.

When I arrived at the resturant, Mum said that there weren't any tables available an so we went to an Italian resturant called La Favorita. I had garlic bread with mozarella to start and then a seafood pizza along with a hot chocolate sauce mashmallow sundae. It was a really nice meal.

Yesterday's strike was about a pay dispute. Basically, every year we are supposed to get a cost of living raise, but it has now been set way below the rate of inflation meaning that we are, to all intents and purposes, getting a pay cut. Basically, the Union just want a raise that is in line with the rate of inflation, so that we can maintain our standards of living.

Dad's Birthday

Last night I was watching Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, directed by Joe Berlinger, on DVD. The film is set shortly after the hugely successful release of the original Blair Witch Project which has caused worldwide attention and bands of film fans and curiosity seekers have besieged the small town of Burkittsville in Maryland where the film was set, searching for Blair Witch souveniers. While most of the townspeople are sick of the tourists, a few have decided to cash in on all the attention. One of these is Jeff (Jeffrey Donovan) who runs a Blair Witch website and also runs the "Blair Witch Tour" which offers people the chance to spend two days and nights at the locations featured in the movie. On the first outing he is accompanied by a Goth (Kim Director), a practising Wiccan (Erica Leerhsen) and a married couple of academics who are writing a book about the Blair Witch (Steven Barker Turner and Tristen Skyler). The first night they encounter a rival tour group, who they trick into going to a different location, and spend the night partying. In the morning they discover all of Jeff's expensive audio/visual equipment either missing or smashed to pieces and their notes completely shredded. They also have no memory of the previous night. They discover some of Jeff's videotapes have been carefully buried and so they travel to the cavernous warehouse where he lives to review the tapes and solve the mystery. However they soon find out that thir nightmare is far from over. The film was very badly received on it's release, but I've always quite liked it. I can remember the release of the two Blair Witch films really well. The original got a massive amount of attention at the time.

Today was my Dad's birthday so I went around to my parent's house a bit earlier than usual, and gave my dad his present and card. Then we all went along to a restaurant called Howies where I had a shredded duck spring roll as a starter and sardine fillets as a main course, along with a couple of bottles of Corona beer. Back at my parents' the new issue of Fortean Times had arrived during the week. The main feature this month involved Crystal Skulls to tie in with the release of the new Indiana Jones film.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

I went out today to buy a birthday present and a card for my Dad (his birthday is next Sunday). I bought him a card and a book called Don't Stop Me Now by Jeremy Clarkson. I also bought a couple of books for myself: A Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill and An Utterly Impartial History of Britain by John O'Farrell (which I thought looked like it would be really funny and interesting). I also bought a couple of cheap DVDs in the sales of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People. They are both TV adaptations of John le Carre novels and star Alec Guinness. After that I headed up to the Filmhouse cinema and picked up the tickets for the Film Festival that I had booked. I had a drink in the cafe/bar and checked them, and they all seemed to be fine.

I've finished reading the novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre, which was first published in 1974. A year after having been retired from "The Circus" (a nick-name for the British Secret Sevice) after an operation goes badly wrong, George Smiley is brought back into the fold because there is information that there is a "mole" (an enemy agent) working in the Circus for thirty years. Smiley is given the task of uncovering the mole, which means pitting his wits against his arch-enemy, the mysterious Soviet spymaster codenamed Karla.
The book depicts a far bleaker world than the Ian Fleming James Bond novels. A world of constant suspicion and paranoia, where, far from constant action and beautiful women, Smiley spends most of his time patiently interviewing his suspects and pouring over stolen files in dark, dingy offices and cheap hotel rooms. The book is very well written and very interesting. It forms the first part of a trilogy, followed by The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People.

Mirror

Last night I was watching a Russian film from 1975 called Mirror, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is a virtually plotless portrait of three generations of a Russian family. It is loosely autobiographical and merges past and present, childhood memories, semi-documentary elements, contemporary scenes and dreamlike fantasy. As with most Tarkovsky films this features astonishingly beautiful images, shot in long languid takes. The film was very much a family affair featuring Tarkovsky's wife and his mother as actors, as well as his father Arseny Tarkovsky, an acclaimed poet, who reads his own poetry on the soundtrack. If you let yourself go with the film it provides an astonishingly beautiful and genuinely haunting viewing experience.

Today I went out and renewed my Ridacard bus pass for another month. I also bought a gift voucher for my brother's birthday at the end of this month, and a card. My brother lives in London so we usually just give each other gift vouchers as gift, because we never know what else to get. On my way home I stopped off and got my groceries for the week. Among my groceries I got today's copy of The Guardian newspaper, which was giving away a free DVD of the original Godzilla.

This afternoon I was watching Godzilla, a 1954 Japanese film directed by Ishiro Honda. The film opens with the mysterious disappearances of several ships in the same area of the ocean. The disappearances are initially blamed on mines or undersea volcanos. However, when a research team visit a nearby island they soon discover the real source of the disappearances: A giant prehistoric monster, with a fiery breath, which the islanders named Godzilla, and which lives undersea but has been awakened by recent H-bomb tests and is now on the rampage. It's not long before he's headed for Tokyo, determined to stomp the city and eat the trains. The film was hugely successful in it's day, spawning endless sequels, cartoon shows and a big-budget Hollywood re-make. The film has a strong anti-nuclear message and is much darker than a lot of the later films, with a lot of emphasis on the death and devastation that the creature causes. The Japanese name for the film and the monster is "Gojira" (a combination of the words "gorilla" and "kujira" the Japanese word for "whale"), because the original conception for the creature was apparently to be a cross between a gorilla and a whale.

I was also watching a very good episode of Doctor Who this evening.

Golden Compass

Today has been fairly quiet. However I will be going out later this evening to see The Golden Compass with Michele, so that should be really good.

Tomorrow is my 29th birthday so that should be really good!

A Quick Visit

Last night was fairly quiet. I watched the last couple of episodes from the latest series of Peep Show on television, and that was really funny.

Work was very quiet today. Joe, Jackie, Alan and myself had been planning to meet up at lunchtime on Friday to exchange our Christmas presents. However, Jackie is ill and unable to make it, so we are having to arrange something different with her. It will almost certainly have to be after Christmas sometime, because I am going to be very busy this weekend.

After work I went up quickly to Emily's home to return her umbrella that she lent to me, and to collect some DVDs that I had lent her and that she was now returning. I also gave her my Christmas present for her and she gave me a couple of presents for my birthday and Christmas. It was very nice to see her, even if it was just a very brief visit.

A Day Off

Last night I saw a few more episodes of the original series of The Twilight Zone: I saw "The Grave" a Western ghost story starring Lee Marvin as a hired gun who rides into town to find his quarry has already been gunned down by a posse, but not before stating that if his pursuer ever comes anywhere near his grave then he will rise up and get him, "It's a Good Life" a very famous episode about a small town in Ohio which is ruthlessley controlled by a six year old boy who can read minds and can make horrifying things happen to anyone who displeases him, "Death's-Head Revisited" about a former SS captain who visits the site of a concentration camp he used to run where he is confronted by the ghosts of his victims and "The Midnight Sun" in which the Earth is rapidly moving into the sun and humanity is facing a horrible death.

I had the day off work today for Emily's birthday. I went up with her present (a copy of Collected Ghost Stories by M.R. James), and we walked down to the Standing Order for a meal. We were a little too late for breakfast so I had some fish and chips with peas and a pint of beer. After that we looked around at some of the shops befor going our seperate ways. We had originally planned to go to the zoo but it was far too wet to do that, which was a pity, but it was a nice time anyway.

When I got home there was a message from the police about my robbery. Apparently they have got the guy that they think did it and has, apparently, been responsible for several other similar robberies in the local area. They wanted me to call back before four so they could clarify a few points on my statement, so I phoned back on the number left but it came back with a message saying "number temporarily out of order". I phoned the police station several times without any answer. Finally I did get through at about ten to four and the woman who left the original message wasn't there and so I left a message for her. They'll probably get back to me sometime on Monday I'd imagine. At least things are progressing anyway.

An Eventful Couple of Days

It's been quite an eventful couple of days. Yesterday I went over and met up with Emily. We had some dinner and watched some TV and had a jolly good time.

Today was my Mum's birthday. She was very happy with the Stephen Fry book that I bought for her, and she's already started reading it.

I went to work today and it was an extremely dull day. One of the crucial computer systems froze up during the morning, but it was fixed by the afternoon. I left at around half past five, early for me even for a Friday. On my way home I bought the latest issue of Radio Times. There was a letter waiting for me that was a citation to appear for jury selction at the High Court on November 12th, the same day I'm getting double glazing fitted. I can't say that I'm really looking forward to that. I was only home for an hour or so before I headed off again to meet Alan and his friend John at The Crags. It took about an hour for me to get there, and we weren't at The Crags for long. We went to The Mitre for a drink and then to a bar called Olivers, which Alan's friend manages, and had a couple of drinks. I was feeling kind of depressed for some reason. I have to say, it is true that there has been barely a day of my life when i have not wished I was someone else, or, simply enough, dead. We went to the Subway for a while, before I headed off on the long walk home.

Sunday Afternoon

Today I went along to my parent's house for lunch as usual for a Sunday. Lunch today was tacos with mince, tomato, spring onions, grated cheese, mushrooms and salsa sauce. It was very nice. The afternoon was pretty quiet, for the most part. I sat around reading the supplements for the Sunday newspapers. Next Sunday we are going out to a restuarant for lunch to celebrate my mum's birthday which should be nice.

Saturday Afternoon at the Movies

This morneing I went out and bought a book as a birthday present for my mum. The book was Making History by Stephen Fry. Mum was saying last week she wanted to read one of his books, and it should be very funny if it's by Stephen Fry. I also bought a card and some wrapping paper. On my way home I stopped off at the supermarket for my weekly groceries.

After a very quick lunch, I went out to the Cineworld cinema. The bus took ages to come, probably because there was a big football (soccer) match at the nearby stadium. I saw the film Saw IV, directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. The Saw films concern an ingenious serial killer, nick-named "Jigsaw", who abducts people he believes don't value their own lives and places them in lethal traps. In order to escape the victim has to do something extremely painful, either physically or psychologically. This film takes off directly after the end of the previous one, with the discovery of a new killer apparently imitating Jigsaw's methods. While two FBI agents attempt to solve the case, a cop is forced to play his own lethal game. This was probably the weakest of the Saw films. Despite a few effective scenes and plenty of blood and gore, it really seemed kind of bland.

After a quick bottle of Budweiser at the nearby McCowans Brewhouse bar, I went back to the cinema to see Eastern Promises, the new film from David Cronenberg. This film is set in London, and revolves around a midwife, who attends a young Russian girl who dies in childbirth. Discovering the girl's diary, written entirely in Russian, the midwife sets out to translate it with the help of her Russian uncle. In the book, she discovers a leaflet for a nearby restaurant, which it turns out is a front for a Russian mob Family. The dead girl was a victim of their human trafficking schemes, and the gangsters want the diary back by any means necessary. The movie, which stars Naomi Watts as the midwife and Viggo Mortensen and Vincent Cassel as two of the gangsters, was very good. The script is well-written and suspenseful, with some great performances. David Cronenberg seems to have almost completely moved away from the so-called "body horror" films that made his name.

It was a nice afternoon and, because of my Cineworld pass, it's like a full afternoon's worth of entertainment for almost free, except for the beer.

Another Night Out

Last night I went out for my friend Joe's 21s birthday. We met up at a bar called The Crags, and there was me, Joe, Joe's girlfriend Jackie, Alan, Joe's two brothers, his eldest brother's fiance, his sister, his sister's boyfriend, his parents and a couple of other friends of his. After that we went on to a bar called Doctors, which was near a hospital. After that we more or less split up. Joe had only intended to have about three pints and he ended up having about eight and some shots. I got home at around two in the morning.

I went out to my parent's house today for lunch (it was chicken stuffed with brie, with peas and a baked potato). The new issues of Fortean Times and Sight and Sound had arrived, which was good!