Catch up

Apologies for the absence of blogging recently - life has been very manic, both at work and at home.

Last weekend, we had a number of university friends come to Bristol for a spot of festive shopping (where I got loads of ideas for presents, then, as today has been the first day I could go in to actually buy the items, I go into town and discover that everything I like has sold out... Panicing? Not yet...), carols and music at our orchestra Christmas concert, and then a very cold, but nonetheless enjoyable day out at Caerphilly, where they had a medieval festival (though sadly very much reduced as a result of the atrocious weather that they'd had the day before) and Christmas market. We had a fun lunch in a pub where the waiter was (without meaning to be rude!) obviously hired on a 'positive action' programme. The first couple of times he came up were ok (he came to check the food order that we'd placed - 9 people meant that there was a lot of food!), but the popping up every five minutes to check that the food was alright, and to give us "Mr Pepper"... started to get a little bit creepy! The castle itself was gorgeous, and I'd like to see it again, in warmer weather. All in all, a good, if exhausting, weekend.

This weekend we had a very lazy Saturday and Sunday day, but busy evenings - Saturday, we were over at Oldland for the orchestra Christmas Party - a very silly, fun evening. Then, Sunday evening, we went out to see the Golden Compass. This is one of those films which has been hyped a lot, right from the first moment that it was announced (and even before - the books have generated a lot of coverage, mainly from the rabid-Christian types who don't like the idea of anybody even thinking of querying their beliefs, let alone writing a book which might be read to impressionable young children... (NB - Disclaimer - I am not claiming that all Christians are like this. Just the complete nutters...)) The cast list is amazing; Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Ian McKellan, Christopher Lee, Derek Jacobi and Freddie Highmore (and yes, I know that Freddie is still only a kid, but his name on the credits is now enough to make me want to see a film!) all making an appearance (even if Mr McK and Mr H are only in voice rather than appearing on screen). The graphics are fantastic - the daemons are gorgeous, and the scenery is beautiful (both real and imaginary - the scenes of the Scandinavian country - it isn't clear whether they are going to Norway or Sweden - particularly the going up the fjords and the docks, brought back very vivid (and happy) memories of the honeymoon). Some of the concepts could have done with more work - the idea of the daemons being souls are really only mentioned in the introduction, and not really covered in the film - and there were a lot of ideas and people which could have done with going into in more depth - the film felt like it was skimming over the surface. However, the acting was fantastic, particularly from Dakota Blue-Richards, who plays the lead - at age 12, and not having done any screen acting (at least, nothing that has appeared on IMDB...) before, she was breathtaking. She had to do a lot of acting against bluescreen (particularly everything that was done with the bears), and that in itself is very impressive. I'm looking forward to seeing more of her! Overall, I wasn't as blown away by the film as I'd hoped to be, but it is still definitely worth watching, and I'm looking forward to the next film.

Also, since I last blogged, Heroes has finished... I've left this till last deliberately in order that anyone who hasn't watched it, and doesn't want spoilers, can stop reading now ;-)








A finale which answered most of the questions, but left enough hanging that I'll want to watch the next series (even though indications from the US are that the second series is rubbish). Sylar's meeting with his mother was brilliantly done - his final hope for redemption being rebuffed. There are queries hanging over Peter's need for his brother to fly him away from New York when he already had that power - my theory is that Peter, at this stage, is unable to control his powers enough to be able to use them more than one at a time (we know that in the future, he can, but that is a different Peter, one who has had more time to practice using his powers). I really enjoyed this - not as much as some of the episodes (particularly the mid-season break one, which had cliffhangers for all the characters), but the writing was great, the acting brilliant, and I am still of the opinion that this is, overall, the best TV series to grace our screens for a very long time (yes, even beating Dr Who - whilst DW had some great episodes, it was not consistently good, as Heroes has been)

Time flies like an arrow

And fruit flies like a wheelie bin...

(Heroes spoilers below if you didn't see last night's episode...)

I can't believe that it is Thursday already! Work has been manic (tender hell continues unabated - deadlines are coming thick and fast), and we are in the final stretch of the wedding planning.
I now have:
Cheese cake paid for
Final photography bits paid for
Banners from Gerald ye Herald paid for (still need to arrange delivery, though)

Tonight I'm meeting with Graham, who is going to talk makeup at me (I'm not very good at it. I know I need it, but I know so little about what looks good that I definitely need the help of an expert!)

I still need to do final arrangements on:
Florist - need to pay
Finding ivy (real or fake) to decorate the hall
Collect shoes (should be ready next week)
Meet with Tracey (our co-ordinator) at Tortworth to go through final arrangements
Contact South Glos registrar and inform them of the slight change in the wedding service
Finish stitching the final seam on my dress (Sarah H has very kindly done three of them, but I wanted to put a bit of work in as well!)
Arrange my hair and nails - I'm not having a hairdresser on the day (wearing my hair down and 'au naturel', so I don't need anything fancy), but I'm going to have a haircut the day before and sort my nails out.

John is sorting out:
Belts from Stagman

And I think that I'm pretty much getting there!

Watched Heroes last night - still excellent. The tension is still high, and it is interesting how the different threads are starting to come together. There is so much that needs to still be explained, and so much for us still to discover (I'm waiting to see what will happen with the kid - both his parents have this special gene, so he has to have some sort of power as well :-) ) The glimpse of the future last week has left me desparate to know how things get from now to then - how far in the future was it? (How quickly did Hiro learn to speak English...!) We also got to see the "making of" showing how they did the stopping time effect - an incredibly clever mix of CGI and patience - making actors keep so still for so long (particularly child ones) is a feat in itself. Plus the end result looks beautiful - incredibly realistic, and means that the tiny amount of CGI that they do add in only adds to the realism, rather than detracting from it.

Off to Bonny Scotland!

Long weekend ahoy! Heading up to Scotland to stay with lovely friends and go to the Edinburgh Fringe. Can't wait! This is only the second time I've been to Edinburgh, and the first time didn't really count as it was for a trade show, and I saw very little of the city outside of the hotel we were staying in and the conference centre that the show was taking place in. Oh, and the airport. Seven hours thanks to delayed Easyjet... (with colleague complaining for the *whole* seven hours...!) So this is going to be so much more fun, and if the weather up there is as nice as it is down here, it is going to be fantastic (hey - it would be fantastic even if it rained...)
Watched Heros on Wednesday night - another brilliant episode! Still being introduced to the characters, but we are now getting more indepth ideas about them. I love the way that even the timescales don't really tie up - you can't ever really be sure that you are watching the "Now" all of the time. I didn't really miss a huge amount by not being able to watch it last week - John was able to give me a recap of the important bits, and there was also a good fill-in at the start of the episode. I just hope that they can keep on upping the gain - I really don't want this to turn into another 'Lost', where it just loses its way half way through.
Had an extra session of TKD (beware - links on the TKD page don't work if you are using Firefox...) last night - though it wasn't really a proper work out session. Miss Burridge (our instructor), plus one of her students, took part in the World ITF Championships (competing for Wales, due to the politics of TKD, about which I know very little, and do not ever want to get involved in!) Miss Burridge is now World Champion in patterns! We're all really proud of her (and of Bradley, who got Bronze in both Team Power and patterns) So we had a little party, and then went down the pub for a bit more of a party :-)
And the aim of learning Norwegian on the train is starting to come together - I'm getting bits and pieces, mostly by using a visualisation technique (turning the words into something recognisable, and then creating a picture - e.g. the phrase "Your Welcome" is (phonetically) "Ingern awshaak" - for that I imagine a German walking over a Welcome mat into a shack. Hey, it works for me ;-) ) Still a long way to go, particularly for the phrases that I can't turn into pictures, but I hope to be able to have enough to get by in 3 1/2 weeks' time...

Ooops

Woke up this morning and realised the problem with mid-week TV programmes - I forget about them. So I've now got to hope that Heroes turns up on Replay... {sigh}

But I have been doing a lot of reading this week. As well as Harry Potter, I've also read this week; "First Among Sequels" - Jasper Fforde (not as laugh a minute as some of his earlier books, but still absolutely brilliant!), "Desolation Jones" - Warren Ellis (a graphic novel - darkly funny, and sick in places...), "Small Gods" - Terry Pratchett (evening read - something I don't have to think about) and finished "The Dilbert Principle" - Scott Adams (another non-thinking evening read). And I've started "Day Watch" - Sergei Lukyanenko, which is brilliant already - following on from "Night Watch". I'm reading this one on the train, which means that I get approximately 20 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening - it makes the books last a bit longer!

And I'm very {headdesk} at work at the moment - I have loads to do, but it all entails being able to access the shared drives. Which are locked at the moment for moving them to a new server (we filled up the old one...). It's been going all day and part of last night (it stalled last night over an encrypted file that no-one can now find!). BLEAGH!

TV Programmes...

This week and last saw the last two episodes of Jekyll and the first two episodes of Heroes.
Jekyll
Wow! Second to last episode was fun - lots of in depth flashbacks. It did feel a little stretched out at times, and I was left with the feeling that they could have actually compressed it and added it to the final episode. However - I am so glad that they didn't! The final episode was fantastic - a brilliant build up at the beginning, and then kept me on my toes all the way through. Expected twists didn't happen, and (sometimes *very*) unexpected twists did! Very much enjoyed - I shall definitely be getting the DVD when it comes out.

Heroes
An interesting start to the series. I'm glad that they ran the first two episodes back to back - I enjoyed the first episode, but it had such an introductory feel (obviously!) that it didn't leave me going "what next?" However, the second one *did*. The ending was explosive, and my jaw hit the floor! Some nice character twists, plus a few moments of complete "eeeuuuurghh!" and being grateful that I had already finished my supper! Shall watch this with interest - I am just hoping that it can sustain and increase the excitement throughout the 23(ish?) episodes - I still remember the disappointment as Lost tailed off into a soap, rather than an adventure series.