Hot Day

Last night I watched an episode of The Wire, which was really good. It's one of those shows which never became really popular but was very highly acclaimed. It's often been called the best TV series ever made. That's kind of a bold statement, but I definitely think it's the best crime and police show ever made. Over in the UK it's being shown three days a week on BBC2 at twenty past eleven at night, which is kind of a difficult time for most potential viewers.

On my way in to work I stopped off and renewed my bus pass for the next month. It is kind of expensive, so it isn't a great thing when I'm trying to save money. It was another really quiet and dull day at work, as it usually is.

The weather is really hot today. It is definitely the hottest day of the year so far. I personally prefer the cooler weather, because I tend to find that when it's colder it's easy enough to warm up but when it's hot it's a lot more difficult to cool down.

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

Last night I listened to the second part of Guards! Guards!, based on the Terry Pratchett book, and the second and concluding part of The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, which was a really good reading of the story.

Today I was up pretty sharp and went out to get my groceries for the week. After I had put them away in the fridge and taken out my rubbish I set off again to meet my mum in the city centre. We were there to get my Ridacard bus pass transferred to Direct Debit payment, but were told to wait until the card had actually expired. Also it turned out that the initial cost of transferring to Direct Debit was more than we had expected. So we had a look around the shops at the Tvs on sale, before heading over to the opticians for an eye test. It was just a check-up, like I have every two years. It turned out that my eyes were fine and there was no change to my glasses. After that we went along to Pizza Express for some lunch. I had a Diavolo pizza (a pizza topped with tomato, cheese, pepperoni, spicy beef, green peppers, jalapeno peppers and some tabasco sauce) it was really nice. After the meal we went our seperate ways and I bought the game of Grand Theft Auto IV for my Playstation 3 in the sales.

This afternoon I finished reading the novel The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carre. The book was published in 1963 and tells the story of Alec Leamas, a British secret agent in Germany during the Cold War, who has been running a spy network in communist East Germany. However, his spies are being killed off and, with his network completely destroyed, Leamas returns to Britain in disgrace. Broken, burnt-out, cynical and bitter, all Leamas wants is to leave the world of espionage and spying (in spy terms to "come in from the cold") until he is offered one last mission to set a trap to destroy the sadistic spymaster who slaughtered his network. However before long Leamas discovers that he is a pawn in a much crueler game. It was the third le Carre book to be published, but this was the one that made his name. A million miles away from the glamorous world of spies such as James Bond, this relentlessly downbeat book depicts a brutal, morally ambiguous world filled with casual violence, with very little, if anything, distinguishing the "good" from the "bad". Well worth reading.

Invisible Monsters

Last night I finished reading Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk. The story is narrated by a successful fashion model who is severely injured in an apparent motor accident. She is left without a lower jaw, and goes from being the beautiful centre of attention to being (in her words) an 'invisible monster' (so hideous no-one will acknowledge she exists). In the hospital she meets Brandy Alexander, the self-styled "Queen Supreme", who is in the process of having a male to female sex change. Brandy teaches the model that in order to find a new future she must completely reinvent her identity, and so the model sets out on the road with Brandy in search of a brand new past present and future. Along the way they try to kidnap the model's two-timing ex-boyfriend and take revenge against her treacherous best friend. Along the way she discovers some disturbing facts about her own past and family. This book is shocking, horrific, intelligent and frequently hilariously funny.

I was also reading a story from American Supernatural Tales called "What Is It?" by Fitz-James O'Brien about a man who is attacked in his bed by a (literally) invisible monster. It was quite an entertaining little piece.

Another thing I was watching a repeat of the first episode of a show called Life on Mars, which was about a police detective from 2006 who is knocked unconcious and wakes up in 1973, not knowing whether he is in a coma, whether he is insane or whether he actually has gone back in time. It was pretty good, actually. I'd always meant to see it when it was first on but I'd missed the first episode and didn't like to start it in the middle of the story.

I had another day at my course today and so I managed to get home early. On my way I renewed my bus pass and got the latest issue of Total Film magazine.

24

Last night I was watching a few episodes of 24 on DVD. That was pretty fun. I really like that show.

Today was another fairly quiet day at work. On my way home I stopped off and renewed my bus pass for another month.

There's a documentary on TV tonight that I'll probably be watching called Stanley Kubrick's Boxes, which is a look at his archives. Apparently saved almost everything relating to his films in countless cardboard boxes. It should be interesting.

Doctor Who and the Daleks

Last night I more or less passed out on my bed while writing my diary. I woke up with the lights on and my book and pen on the pillow beside me. I was feeling slightly hungover and terrified of the thought of how I might have hideously embarrased myself last night.

I went out into Princes Street and renewed my bus pass for four weeks, and once again looked for the book for this month's book group (this month's book is Northern Light by Philip Pullman, published as The Golden Compass in the USA) but again I couldn't find it, as long as I manage to get a copy and read it by the 28th of this month.

I was feeling depressed and decided to treat myself a bit by getting some DVDs in the sales. I bought a set called Doctor Who: The Beginnings, which contains the first three Doctor Who stories from 1963 and 1964: An Unearthly Child, The Daleks and The Edge of Destruction. I also got a DVD of Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks from 1988. That was the first Doctor Who story I ever saw when I was nine years old. Although I remember watching bits and pieces of the show before then. It's still one of my personal favourite stories. I can still remember my brother and I doing Dalek impressions, basically putting a bucket over the head and shuffling around, with the arms stretched out and screeching "ex-ter-mi-nate!" I've always preferred the older series to the newer one, which is still very good. I liked that the older stories were longer, and invariably split into several episodes, the stories in the new series often seem kind of rushed.