Flexitime

Last night was pretty quiet again. I watched an episode of The Wire, and, when I had got to bed, I listened to the first part of a Lord of the Rings tape. The tape is of a thirteen part radio adaptation of the book from 1981. Each hour long epsiode is on one tape. So I listened to the first half of the first episode.

I got into work very early again, at about eight in the morning, and had another very quiet and pretty dull day. I made about an hour of flexi-time, so I am intending to leave early tomorrow. I left at around five. I was hoping to find a cheap tape recorder. I used to have one, but I've lost it.

I had some microwave Singapore Noodles, so that was nice. It makes a change from the usual microwave meals. I'm anticipating it being another quiet evening tonight.

Training Courses

Last night I managed to do some writing, which was good, and I watched the latest episode of The Apprentice which was another really funny one. Later on I watched an episode of The Wire. One of the things that I like about that show is how it is basically one story split into episodes. I read somewhere apparently that the creators of the series had the whole story worked out well in advance down to the number of seasons and the number of episodes in each season that were needed to tell the story that they wanted to tell. Also I like the way that it really takes you into the minutiae of the police investigations. As I posted a few days ago, I really think it is important whether it's a TV show, a book series, a comic series or even a movie series to know when to quit. Otherwise people lose interest and it kind of tarnishes the memory of the earlier installments. The key thing, in my opinion, is to always leave the audience wanting more.

It was another fairly busy day at work today. I'm on a training course from Tuesday to Thursday next week and I volunteered to go on a half day training course next Friday morning. I'm thinking of trying to get a half day that day. Which, if it all works out, would mean that I would only have one full working day next week.

I got home at around six and had a microwaved spaghetti bolognese meal.

REC

Last night I was watching a Spanish horror film from 2007 called REC, directed by Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza. The story involves a TV news reporter (Manuela Velasco) and her camerman who are doing a feature on a night at a fire station. When they get a call about an elderly woman locked in her apartment the TV people go along with the firemen on what is seemingly a routine assignment. However, when they enter the woman's apartment she viciously attacks them and bites one. It turns out she is suffering from a virus which causes it's victims to enter a kind of homicidal frenzy, and is spread through bites. As the police and military seal the building, and the occupants increasingly fall victim to the disease, they are soon fighting for their lives. The entire film is shot as if it's being filmed by the news camerman, constantly handheld and shaking and swinging all over the place. It makes for a very intense and pretty claustrophobic experience. For fans of horror films it's well worth checking out. There was an English-language remake out last year called Quarantine.

Today was another really dull day at work, with nothing particularly interesting happening. As often happens when I get bored at work (which is most of the time) I escaped into my imagination.

I left work fairly sharply and went along to the Cineworld cinema to meet my Mum. We were going to see a preview of the film Coraline, directed by Harry Sellick and based on a novel by Neil Gaiman. It was a model animation film about a young girl called Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) who moves with her parents to a dull old house with eccentric theatrical neighbours. However one day, a bored Coraline, whose writer parents are too busy to do anything with her, discovers a small sealed up door and that night dreams that the door opens and that she can enter through it into a magical version of the house where everything is fun and perfect and her mother - or "Other Mother" (voiced by Teri Hatcher) - and father or loving, doing and can't do enough for her, and where every single person has buttons instead of eyes. However, as the dreams become increasingly real, she soon discovers that the "Other Mother" is far more sinister than she guessed. The film was absolutely fantastic. I really enjoyed it. I saw it in 3D and it was really spectacular.

After the film I went along to my parent's house for something to eat and then went back home and topped up the credit on my mobile phone.

Autumn Sonata

Last night I was watching a 1978 film called Autumn Sonata, written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. The story revolves around a woman named Eva (played by Liv Ullmann) who lives in Norway with her husband Viktor (Halvar Bjork), and her severely ill sister Helena (Lena Nyman). When Eva and Helena's mother, Charlotte (Ingrid Bergman) a famous concert pianist, comes to stay with them it's not long before the tensions between the two of them reach boiling point. The main problem being that Charlotte abandoned her family seven years previously to pursue her career. It's an unremittingly bleak and intense drama. It was the last major film that Ingrid Bergman ever made, and she does give a really great performance in a role that had echoes with her own personal life (in the fifties she controversially left her family in the USA for Italian film-director Roberto Rosellini a move which pretty much ended her Hollywood career). Apparently though, on set the two Bergmans hated each other. Like many of the Ingmar Bergman films it is really well-made and very well-acted, but very gloomy.

It was another very quiet day at work, which was pretty busy, but not much really interesting was happening. I left at around six and bought a fish supper on my way home, which was quite nice.

Bioshock

Last night I was playing a demo of a video game called Bioshock where you have to fight violent mutants while exploring a submerged city. It was a lot of fun.

Today was a fairly quiet day at work, I had to get a new desk printer installed and it took all day to get it up and running. I had to phone them several times about it, but it eventually got fixed.

I got home at around quarter past six and had a microwaved meal of shrimps, pasta, cheese, spices and cherry tomatoes. It was really nice.

Lost Book Found

Last night I found a book called Incarnate by Ramsey Campbell. I'd actually bought it back in January 1996, but for whatever reason I had never got around to actually reading it, and I found it while I was rooting through a box of old books and videos. I started reading it last night. Ramsey Campbell is a British horror author who was pretty successful at one time. His stories often dealt with supernatural horror in a very realistic and well-described modern urban Britain. There was often quite a surreal and dream-like atmosphere in his writings so the supernatural elements became almost like a natural part of the city landscape.

Of course, today marked the start of another week at work. It was pretty busy but not quite as bad as it was last week.

I got home at around half past six. I had microwaved spaghetti and meatballs for my dinner, which I ate while listening to The Unbelievable Truth, a comedy panel show on the radio.

Documentaries and Video Games

Last night I was listening to the fourth in the series of short documentaries about Edgar Allan Poe, The Essay: Loving the Raven, in last night's episode there was an analysis of Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and his influence on detective fiction. It was quite interesting. I was also watching a documentary about a group of historians trying to live on a farm in the style of the Victorians. It was a pretty interesting show. I was also playing some of Fallout 3. I'd only been intending to play for about half an hour or so, but I got into it and ended up playing for about two hours.

It was a fairly quiet day at work but, since it was Friday, a lot of people left early. I was e-mailing my friend Joe a few times, mostly about the up-coming X-Men: Wolverine video game. He said he was going to give me a loan of the film Dark City on Blu-Ray DVD. On my way in I bought the latest issue of Radio Times magazine. I got back at around quarter past five and had a microwaved meal of beef and onions in an ale sauce with mashed potato. It tasted quite nice.

Through the Door, Beyond the Mirror

Last night I was listening to a documentary on the radio called The Essay: Loving the Raven, a series of programs celebrating the life and work of Edgar Allan Poe. Last night's edition was called "Through the Door, Beyond the Mirror" and featured Scottish author Louise Welsh analysing Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" and discussing his gothic sensibilities. It was quite interesting. Aside from that I spent most of the evening watching a bunch of repeated comedy shows, while writing in my notebooks.

I didn't sleep at all well last night for some reason and so I was tired pretty much all day. However, today managed to be fairly uneventful. I headed out to work and it was another fairly quiet day. The job that I'm doing at the moment isn't very taxing and so I do have a lot of time to think about other things. I e-mailed my friend Joe back and forth a few times, mostly about video games. On my break at work I've been reading a book called Hollywood by Charles Bukowski, which is pretty good. I'm a little over half way through it.

I got back at around quarter past five and had a microwave paella ready meal, which was actually a lot nicer than I thought it would be.

Light Problems

Last night was pretty quiet. I was playing Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on the Playstation 3. It can be quite overwhelming just how vast some of these games are. I do find with the role playing games that you really need to give them a long time to really get into the game.

This morning, just after I had made my porridge and coffee for breakfast, the light in my living room flashed off. I took about forty minutes and tried several different lightbulbs, until I discovered that the problem was the fuse, which I managed to fix. However, it meant that I was a lot later in to work than I had planned, which really annoyed me. I had planned to get in before nine, but it was closer to half past. It also meant that by the time I actually got to eat it my breakfast was stone cold.

Work was very quiet, as usual. I left at about five, which meant that I lost about half an hour of time, but I could easily afford to lose it, and I didn't really feel like staying in later because of this morning's mess. After work I went home and had a microwave Special Chow Mein ready-meal, which was very nice.

The Elder Scrolls IV

Last night I was playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion which I thought was a really good game, it's a kind of role playing fantasy adventure thing with all kinds of castles, dungeons, monsters, spells and all the kind of Tolkein stuff.

Today at work I was back in my old department, I'm there for a four week loan-out thing, and despite not having worked there for about five years, it very quickly came back to me. It was actually very easy, so it was quite relaxing. I don't mind working there for four weeks, it's kind of a break.

I got back home at around half past five and had a microwave ready meal of Singapore Noodles and a glass of apple juice, which I at while watching a repeat of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?

Late Night Documentary

Last night I was watching a documentary about the notorious "Black Dahlia" murder case from 1947. It was quite interesting. I remember reading a book about the case written by James Ellroy. It was turned into a film a couple of years ago. I don't watch many of the true crime documentaries, but I do sometimes and some of them are quite good.

On my way into work I bought the latest issue of Radio Times. It was another fairly quiet day again today, and from Monday I'm being moved to another department for four weeks. It's the department that I was working in when I first started at the company nearly six long years ago. I suppose it'll be a change. It's felt like a long week today, but then the first week back after a holiday always seems long.

I left work at around four and when I got home I had a microwaved cottage pie meal with a glass of apple juice. Later on I was listening to a reading of a short story by Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein) called "The Mortal Immortal" on the radio, which was pretty interesting.

Nostalgia

It was a pretty quiet evening last night, and it was another quiet day at work, as it almost always is.

It has been absolutely freezing cold here. I've had to have my heating on pretty much full blast in my flat for the past week so the place doesn't ice up.T

hings seem to have pretty much got back to normal very quickly after the two week break, which is kind of depressing.

I got back for around quarter past five and had some microwaved spaghetti bolognese which I ate while watching a repeat of a 1970s comedy show called Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, which is about a guy who returns to his home town after five years abroad in the Army and tries to reconnect with all his old friends and everything, only to find out that it's all changed since he's been away.

At the moment I'm listening to a radio show that I've not listened to in years, probably about eight years, even though I used to listen to it all the time, and the show hasn't changed at all. It's a new edition of it, it's not a repeat or anything. It's exactly as I remember it from years ago, which isn't surprising, but still feels a bit strange, because it makes me feel quite nostalgic. I like listening to the radio, particularly the music stations and the drama and comedy shows. I used to listen to the radio all the time but I stopped after I moved into my flat, and started again when I got my digital radio for my birthday.

At least it will be the weekend soon, anyway.

New Novel

Last night was pretty quiet. I started writing a new novel. I figured that it would probably be best to save a bit of money, so I thought it would be a good idea to write another novel. This new one is a kind of "cyberpunk" style science-fiction story set in a kind of futuristic city. It was actually developed from a short thing that I wrote for a writing evening class that I did about a year ago.

Today I was back at work and it was another very dull day. I got home at around quarter past five. On the way I bought some milk and a bottle of coke. When I got back I had a microwave lasagne.

Summer of Sam

Last night I was watching the film Summer of Sam, a 1999 film directed by Spike Lee, and set in New York City during the summer of 1977. As the city swelters under a record-breaking heatwave, the streets are being stalked by the serial killer known as "Son of Sam". The film focuses on a small Italian-American neighbourhood, in particular the popular hairdresser Vincent (played by John Leguizamo), who enjoys disco-dancing and constantly cheats on his wife (Mira Sorvino), and his friend Ritchie (Adrien Brody), a punk who loves The Who, wears his hair in spikes and sports a fake British accent. Ritchie's outlandish appearance and unconventional lifestyle soon cause tension in the tight-knit neighbourhood community. As the heatwave increases, the crime rate in the city rises and the "Son of Sam" killings continue, causing increased paranoia and tension. It's a very stylishly made film, using a variety of cinematic techniques. Spike Lee has a small role in the film as a TV reporter. I remember very clearly seeing it when it first came out at the cinema.

It was another fairly quiet day at work, as it usually is. On the way into work I happened to see my friend Joe going in the opposite direction. I hadn't seen him around or heard from him for a week or so, but he said it was just because he was very busy, which is fair enough. It'll be fun having a couple of days off at the end of the week. I don't really know what I'll be doing though. I was listening to my iPod at work this afternoon. I was listening to the Juno soundtrack again, which is really great, but I have to remember to get the iPod updated sometime. I keep meaning to but I always forget.

I got home at around quarter to six and made myself a microwaved lasagne for my dinner, with a glass of apple juice. It was quite nice, if not particularly exciting. I ate while watching an episode of The Simpsons.

I've been listening to the original radio series of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy on tape over the past few nights before getting to sleep. It's still really funny, and has aged really well, better than many other comedies. I was actually worried that the tapes wouldn't work, because I hadn't listened to them in years, but so far they work fine.

It's funny but I remember about a year ago when I used to go out drinking quite a lot, and because of various things I don't do it any more, or I do occasionally but not nearly as much as I used to. I actually don't really miss it. Most of the time I actually think I'm better off just staying at home, reading my books and watching TV. Besides, there are various things I'm probably better concentrating on, like my writing and other stuff, also I am still planning on emigrating at some point. I need to work out some kind of plan, especially because I've been feeling slightly down about my thirtieth birthday approaching, in many ways, like there was a stage I wanted to be at in my life by then, and I'm not there yet, and I am worried that soon it might turn out to be too late. maybe one thing I should try to do is relax more, have more fun and not get so stressed out about things.

The Stand

Last night was fairly quiet. I watched a couple of episodes of Peep Show on DVD and read some of a Stephen King novel called The Stand, a very long book in which most of humanity is wiped out by a deadly disease and the survivors find themselves being drawn into a supernatural battle between the forces of good and evil. It's a pretty good book. I read it before about thirteen years ago. It was turned into a TV mini-series in 1994.

Work was really quiet today. As usual on a Friday most people left really early, at around lunchtime, or in the early afternoon. By the time I left, at five o'clock, there were seven people, in a room that seats about sixty. I was listening to my iPod again (the Juno soundtrack, Tom Waits, Cowboy Junkies, Sixpence None the Richer, Lucinda Williams, Trisha Yearwood and some Neil Gaiman short stories), however someone was playing a radio quite loudly that was kind of annoying.

I had some microwaved macaroni cheese for my dinner, which was okay. It's the weekend now anyway so that should be fun, hopefully. although it always seems to pass far too quickly. It always seems weird that when you leave work on a Friday evening, it seems like a really long time before you have to go back and then, before you know it, it's Monday morning again. Actually, that's not weird, it's just depressing.

I don't have any plans for the weekend, besides the usual stuff.

Juno

Last night I was watching the film Juno on DVD. I saw it at the cinema back in February and really liked it. It's a really funny film, about a 16 year old girl, Juno McGuff (Ellen Page), who finds herself pregnant by her best friend (Michael Cera). Deciding to give the baby up for adoption, she tries to find the perfect adoptive parents through nwspaper adverts. The film features a witty and intelligent script, written by Diablo Cody who won an Academy Award for the film, and a very talented cast. It also features one of the best soundtracks I've heard in a long time. Even though it's not been long since I first saw it, I enjoyed it just as much a second time around. I've also got the soundtrack on CD and it is a constant fixture on my iPod.

It was another very ordinary day at work (are there any other kinds?) I had enough change for candy and coffee today, so I had my sugar intake for the day. I was listening to my iPod during the afternoon (the Juno soundtrack, Tom Waits and Sixpence None the Richer) and in the breaks I alternated between going on the internet and reading my book, which was My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith, which is very funny, and surprisingly affecting at times as well.

I got back from work at half past five and made myself a microwaved lasagne. The advantage of microwaved meals is that they are very quick and cheap.

Pulling Hard Time

I was reading another story from the Essential Ellison collection last night. This one was called "Pulling Hard Time" about a futuristic prison in which prisoners are kept floating in suspended animation locked in a virtual reality world where they are forced to relive the very worst moments of their lives in a permanent loop.

Today was really quiet at work again, I got back home at around half past five, and had a microwaved spaghetti bolognese meal.

Iron Man

Last night I was watching a Doctor Who story from 1982 called "Time-Flight" on DVD. The TARDIS arrives at Heathrow Airport, London, shortly after the mysterious disappearance of a Concorde plane in flight. The Doctor (Peter Davison) offers his help with the investigation and arrange another Concorde to fly them and the TARDIS along the same flight path as the plane that vanished. They find themselves flying into a "time contour" and travel back in time forty seven million years, where they discover the other Concorde. However, the Doctor soon realises they were brought there on purpose, and has to confront an old enemy. It was quite an interesting story, if a little technically ambitious for BBC special effects in the early eighties.

Today was a fairly average day at work. I found out that my friend Joe, who had intended to take a spur of the moment trip to Turkey last night, never actually got there. He discovered his passport was six months out of date. So now he's lost the money that he spent on the holiday so that was really bad luck for him. It was a good thing I didn't go along in the end!

After work I went along to the Cineworld cinema to meet my mum. The film we saw was Iron Man, directed by Jon Favreau, and based on the Marvel comics superhero. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is a world-famous billionaire playboy weapons manufacturer, who is captured during a journey in Afghanistan. While in captivity, he is tortured and forced to build a weapon for a terrorist group, however he turns the tables on them and builds a metal suit which allows him to escape. Returning to the USA, Stark decides to adapt the suit to help humanity. It was a really enjoyable movie with plenty of action. My mum liked it a lot, and she really doesn't like superhero films.

After the movie we went to my parent's house for something to eat.

Haunted

Last night I was watching a 1995 film called Haunted, directed by Lewis Gilbert, and based on a book by James Herbert. In 1905, England, a young boy named David Ash witnesses the accidental death by drowning of his twin sister. 24 years later, Ash (played by Aiden Quinn) is a professor of psychology, and is devoted to debunking paranormal phenomena, and exposing fake mediums, he is also the author of a popular book on the subject. Because of the book, Ash is being hounded by letters from a distressed old woman who lives in the isolated mansion of Edbrook Hall, and who is convinced that she is being kept prisoner in the house by evil spirits. Ash arrives to investigate and meets a young woman, Cristina (Kate Beckinsale) and her two brothers. It turns out that the mansion was owned by the parents of Cristina and her brothers, and the old woman (Anne Massey) was the family servant. However the parents are now dead. Ash, who is far more interested in investigating Cristina than in investigating ghosts, tries to convince the old woman that there is nothing happening, with the help of the old family doctor (John Gielgud). However a series of bizarre supernatural happenings soon shakes his scepticism, and Ash comes to realise that there is more going on in Edbrook Hall than he could have guessed. The film is quite slow to get going, but it does have a lot of atmosphere, and is at times quite suspenseful. I'm always quite surprised that James Herbert hasn't really caught on with filmmakers because his books are pretty popular.

After the film I watched some TV and played Resident Evil for a bit on the GameCube. Resident Evil is a video game where you wander though this big mansion shooting at zombie things. It's quite fun.

It was another really dull and quiet day at work. The start of another week. Although I did have a nice e-mail from one of my old Team Leaders saying that he really liked the story that I wrote and got printed in the staff magazine.

I got home at around half past five and as I was eating my dinner (a microwaved spaghetti carbonara) some guy knocked on the door to try to get me to sign up to a new electricity supplier, but I wasn't interested. I was actually quite annoyed at being disturbed in the middle of my dinner, especially by someone trying to sell me stuff.

Happy-Go-Lucky

It was another very quiet and very dull day at work. I left work fairly sharply, at a little after four and headed up to the cinema to meet my mum.

We were a little early and so we had a drink at a bar next to the cinema. The film that we saw was called Happy-Go-Lucky, written and directed by Mike Leigh. The film tells the story of Poppy Cross (played by Sally Hawkins) a 30 year old primary school teacher who lives and works in London. She loves her job, her friends and her freedom, and is constantly cheerful, happy and upbeat, come what may. The film follows her though a few weeks in her life as she goes out with her friends, discovers one of her pupils is being bullied at home, learns flamenco dancing and starts taking driving lessons with a miserable, angry and obviously unhinged misanthrope named Scott (Eddie Marsan). There is no real story to the film, but there are bits of it that are very funny. How you respond to it may depend on how you respond to a character like Poppy who is perpetually cheerful and good-natured.

After the film I went back to my parent's house for some dinner. The new issue of Sight and Sound magazine had arrived in the mail for me. The main feature this month was "Cinema of the New Europe" about the resurgence in Eastern European cinema.