Mike's musings

Frogs - and Rugby

We took the girls to see The Princess and the Frog today, which they enjoyed. As did we, in fact. Although the quality of the animation isn't up there with the best, the story was pretty good, the characters fun, the politics there to read if you wanted, the heroine much more convincing than almost any other, and the music _excellent_. In fact, we've ordered the CD.

On return, after some stern words of warning, Moo and I watched the rugby: England-Wales at Twickers. The girls did OK, in fact, and Moo is an absolute star for taking the girls up and letting me watch the last 20 minutes. And we won: some exciting rugby, though some rather disappointing errors. I had one of those "let's be honest, I'm never going to play rugby again" moments. You just have to face up to them from time to time.

Labels: films, rugby

A great film

It's been a while since I watched the marvellous Hot Fuzz. Moo's working late, and I get the chance to enjoy this genius yet again.

Labels: films

Piano and Avatar time

(backposting) I was in charge of the music for the final Communion service of the weekend, so chose the hymns and played the piano. It was lots of fun, and there were some stonking hymns. I think I must have spent too much time with those Methodists on ERMC, because I discovered that morning (having chosen them around a week earlier) that 3 of the 4 were by Charles Wesley. At least he was an Anglican.

The girls weren't going to be back home until the evening, so I decided that after a long hard week and weekend, I deserved a treat. Avatar 3D. Did the shopping first, thereby assuaging possible guilt, and then sat down to watch it, in a fairly full cinema. It's very impressive, and utterly believable, in terms of the visual effects. Not a stunning good plot or very complex character development, but a good film, I have to say, and I'm very glad I saw it in 3D.

Girls half woke up when they turned up in the car (well, Moo was very awake, particularly after her hour-long diversion given the closure of the A14), so I got to say "I love you", give them each a kiss and put them both to bed. Ah.

And great to catch up with Moo, too.

Labels: films, music

Being in charge

(backposting) We took Jo to ballet, and after that I took the girls out to a restaurant (well, I say that, it was a Frankie and Benny's), and then to Haverhill Cineworld to see Planet 51. They did very well (and no loo-breaks during the film, which is a minor miracle), though with about 30 minutes to go, I suddenly discovered that my lap was not my own. The film falls into the "mildly diverting" category, but I think they enjoyed it.

When we got back (and after a cup of tea), I foolishly agreed to take Jo around the village to drop off some cards that she'd refused to write before school finished yesterday. 2 were fine, but we discoverd that despite her protestations, she really had no idea where her friend Ellie lives. Didn't stop us driving around several times, and the tears, but I did my best.

Watched the first 3 episodes of the excellent Generation Kill. Really into it, I have to say.

Moo spent much of the day working, poor thing. But some big bids have come up, and she wants to have a good clear run over Christmas.

Very snowy here, and around -5 Celsius. It turns out that negative numbers aren't a big thing to Jo when explained with regard to temperatures. Worth remembering.

Labels: films, girls

A late night

(backposting) And our own fault, for a change, too. We had Victoria, Charles, Sennen and Jack around for supper and videos. The kids (Jojo, Miri and Sennen) watched videos and then failed miserably to go to bed properly for hours (well, Miri was fine...). And the adults had a beef stew (lovely stewing steak which I cooked for about 6 hours), and then watched Shaun of the Dead. Victoria just didn't get it at all. So we tried some Alan Partridge. Ditto. At least she enjoyed Green Wing. But honestly, you think you know someone...

Labels: films, friends

Skype

A good day at work: we had two Reference Group meetings to discuss the work we've done so far - and next steps - and I think they both went very well. We're now talking about what we might be doing in August next year, which suggests that people are really buying into things.

In the evening, after my usual sauna and swim combo, I had supper, and then talked to the girls on Skype, with video. It was lovely to see them (and talk to them), although Moo didn't look very comfortable at all, with the two of them climbing all over her.

My Dirk Bogarde season continued with the excellent The Blue Lamp, in which Jack Warner makes his debut as PC George Dixon (later to become Dixon of Dock Green). Good ending: using the tic tac at the greyhound track was a nice twist. The deprivation post-war (it was released in 1949) and the lack of cars on the street made it an interesting watch from a social point of view as well. More Bogarde to come!

Labels: family, films, work

More Dirk Bogarde

(backposting) Finished watching Hunted tonight. It's a great film, and I'm really getting into this Dirk Bogarde box set. The story's good, the acting is too, in places, and the ending is fascinating: much less resolution than you'd expect from a film these days, I think.

Labels: films

Sauna and swim - and expensive pints

(backposting) I've got into a routine, once I come back to the hotel, of going to the sauna - for 15-20 minutes - and then heading into the (room temperature) swimming pool for some lengths. Only managed 6 today (more like 20-30 for the past few days), but it's a good habit to get into.

Watched Eagle Eye on my phone tonight, having bought it in Heathrow on the way over, and ripped it. Loved it, I have to say. Good action, some suspense, and a fun plot. Not particularly believable, but I didn't care.

Finished off the evening with a €6 (nearly £6) pint in the hotel bar. And not even a pint. Short. Shocking.

Labels: films

Internet access

You take it for granted, don't you? But I've spent the day on a customer's LAN with a pretty draconian proxy and blacklisting policy (no User Friendly (humour), no Facebook (social networking), no IM, no IMAP, no SMTP..., and the hotel I'm in just has crap access. Slow, when it works at all. I've complained, natch, but don't expect much to happen about it soon.

Realised last night, after posting, that I'd completely forgotten to note that I watched a great film on the plane yesterday. Given that I was seated in cattle class on a 3 hour BA flight, it wasn't on the in-flight systems, obviously, but I watched the fantastic The Sleeping Tiger - a Dirk Bogarde masterpiece. I recently bought a box set of his classic films because I wanted to watch his brilliant Victim, but this is the first of the set that I've got round to seeing. Great drama, some good acting, and a good old plot, too. I really enjoyed it, and I'm glad that I've got a few others all ready for me to watch on my phone when I get the chance.

Labels: films, Internet

Oh, dear

(backposting) So, although Jo's ballet went well, there was something of a trauma afterwards. I was given the opportunity to take Jo to a party in the village at 1200. We headed off, with Jo in her Stephanie (Lazytown) outfit. And her silver shoes. Which don't fit her. They really don't. So she fell over and grazed her knee. Quite badly. So, a few tears. But she calmed down and we went into the Post Office. But as we came out, she realised that she was bleeding quite badly.

Melt-down.

And then we made it to the party venue. It was very quiet. And locked. So I called Moo, and Moo'd got the wrong day for the party.

More melt-down.

I carried Jo back, and we cleared up the blood. And then we took them to the cinema, just as something to do with them. We watched the vaguely diverting G-Force. I don't think we'll be watching it again, but it used up an hour or so, and was quite enjoyed. And then we went to a local Frankie & Benny's, which also helped.

The girls are really, really tired, poor little things.

Labels: films, food, party

Home alone

The girls are away at Kate and Mac's this weekend, so I'm home alone. We started off the day driving to Sainsbury's, planning a lovely fry-up. We got there at 0735 - the shop opening time being 0730 - but the café wasn't open yet, so we did some shopping. And _then_ we went to the caf&ecacute;. No fry-ups. And no clue about anything else either, it seems. But I bought a pair of trousers and a shirt for work. And some food for the weekend.

Got home, had a sleep, did all of the ironing whilst listening to the cricket. We've set them a good target, but, well, the pitch is holding up better than expected.

I've also updated my home laptop to karmic alpha 4, had an Indian take-away, and am watching Chain Reaction. Amusing and moderately diverting, but not High Art[tm].

Labels: cricket, films, food, geekery, girls

Ice Age 3

(backposting) Moo and I took the girls to see Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaur. We decided not to do the 3-D version, as last time we took them to a 3-D film (Bolt), Miri, at least, kept taking them off. It turns out that there are so quite scary dinosaur bits in the film, and a lot of cuddling ensued.

Labels: films

Baptising Boo

Today I baptised Si and D's daughter, Boo. After some discussion, they decided to be brave and to include her nickname "Boo" in her baptism, making it official, so her name is now "Charlotte Phoebe Boo". I preached on Ubuntu theology, and "I am, because we are" (rather than the "I am, because you are", which I'd found yesterday online). We started with a clapping game, with 5 different rhythms, building them slowly on top of a simple 4 beat (thanks, Chris, for helping with this one), and I then talked about the catholic nature of our faith: not only was I baptising Boo into the universal church - not any local church - but we must remember that our salvation through Jesus Christ is not just an individual salvation, but also a catholic salvation. Christ died for us all.

We had a lovely afternoon eating, drinking, chatting and the rest, and the girls did really well. And now they're in bed, and we're watching Karate Kid.

Labels: baptism, films

Walking or Trekking?

(backposting) Well, the obvious answer is "both", because I walked to Castle Hedingham today to drop off a repeat prescription, and then walked back. And I also went to see Star Trek, which I enjoyed enormously. It was a little over-complicated, possibly, but I felt that it was entirely in the spirit of the show and the previous films, so good for them. I really wanted to see it on the big screen, and now I want to see it again! I suspect that Moo won't be that interested...

Labels: films, walk

A Quantum of Redundancy

Up at 0500 - why is that? Well, just woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got to say Morning Prayer in silence, on my own for a change. Which was nice.

The other two things of note for today are:

• my company started redundancy proceedings around my job today. That's how it works: they don't make you redundant, they make your role redundant. Anyway, it'll take a while, and it's not much fun, but that's the way it goes.
• Moo and I watched Quantum of Solace tonight. The girls were both asleep by 0630, so we decided to get out a film on DVD: something we've not done for ages. We'd not seen the latest Bond film, so thought we might as well do so. It's not the most, erm, plot-driven film, but it was mildly diverting, and Daniel Craig is quite rugged. And chiseled. Which was nice.

Labels: films, job

The first show

(backposting) Today was Jojo's first dance show: it was lovely. I cried at the end of her first appearance, I was so proud. I cried during the middle one, as I was nearly wetting myself with laughter. It was only a dress rehearsal, and was great. Jo didn't really get the fact that she should have been concentrating on remembering what to do, rather than (for instance) chatting to her friends or waving at me and Miri (or mouthing "where's Miri?" as she peered past the stage lights).

Moo managed to see all of Jojo's four routines, I'm pleased to say. I even managed to get one of them on video on my phone. Everyone who sees it laughs, despite the fact that it was one of the less, um, shambolic routines.

Miri managed the entire 2 and a half hours, and was a star.

Oh - and in the morning, we watched Monsters vs Aliens in 3D, which was excellent. Miri slept through some of it, of course, but Jojo enjoyed, as did we. I'd strongly recommend it: it was very funny, and had enough adult bits to be diverting.

Labels: films, jojo, miri

Cough, cough

(backposting) Woke up not very well, and went back to bed, where I slept for 2-3 hours: thanks very much to Moo for letting me to this (as she had to look after the girls while I did). We then went off to Freeport for lunch, and ended up not only buying Miri a new carseat (moving up to the >15kg type, and it was in fact 2, as we'll need one for Mel's car, too), but also going to see the film Bolt (in 2D, as we couldn't face the trauma around children and 3D glasses). We rather enjoyed it, and Jo got really into it (she burst into tears when it looked like the dog was going to walk away, and cried "the cat must tell him, the cat must tell him"), Miri called out "CAT!" whenever the cat came onto the screen (which was often), and clearly neither Moo nor I had tears in our eyes at the denouement, oh no.

Miri was a nightmare to get to bed last night, and Jo tonight. I got the short straw both times.

Labels: films, illness

03/12/2008
Originally uploaded by MikeCamel

Note the lack of move star princesses.

Labels: films, travel

Watching a film

Moo's away, and I decided to watch something silly, so chose Mercury Rising. Rubbish, but fun, too. Look how big the mobile phones are!

Labels: films

Travelling

(backposting) On my home this afternoon, after a useful day of meetings, though I made little of the advertised programme. I'm really enjoying the PS (Professional Services) work that I'm doing. Still unclear whether I'm going be be off to New York in early December: it's up to the customer, really.

I also had an idea about how to sort out an architectural problem that's arisen in one of our other projects, which is rather pleasing. It came up yesterday, and we had a party at which I sought out the relevant people, and it looks like it's worth a try.

Sat next to Lee on the plane back, and after some time sketching out an architecture and some business plans for a particular prospective customer in the UK, we settled down into the flight. Air Transat (hmmm) don't have a particularly good selection of films, and it's not helped because there are shared screens, even in "business" (and I use the quotes advisedly), which means that you can't choose what you watch. So it was the (frankly terrible) Meet Dave, followed (luckily) by the rather amusing, if ridiculous, Get Smart. Then some sleep.

Labels: films, travel, work

Blogging

I was going to blog on a real topic today: I was considering pro-life/pro-choice.

Unluckily, I started watching Office Space, so it'll have to wait. Sorry.

Labels: blogging, films

Lunch with the bishop

Met most of the rest of the deacons in the Colchester area with our area bishop for lunch. The girls behaved very well, and we were very impressed. In fact, we ended up buying Enchanted for Jo. When I say "for Jo", Moo and the girls had seen it (several times) over, and Moo had been singing its praises since, so it was for us as much as her. And, in fact, we're watching it as I type.

Labels: films

A TV day

(backposting) And that's "television", rather than any other abbreviation. Not during the day: I had a meeting with Lee, who's recently joined the company in the UK. But this afternoon, I went and bought Boogie for the Wii. I thought that Jo might be able to use it a bit - she can - and that Miri would get there in the end. And it should also be fun for adults when we have friends over.

On top of that - and rescuing me from a complete evening just playing the game - Polly and Lee very kindly gave me the Lethal Weapon boxset on DVD. All four films. I watched the first one last night: it's easy to forget how many quotes you recognise; how much fun they are; how young Mel Gibson looks in the first one.

Labels: films, wii

Ballet, new shoes

(backposting) After Jo's ballet (Moo left her, for the first time, and she was fine), we all headed off to Freeport, as Miri needed her first pair of walking (as opposed to "cruising") shoes. Don't I know some friends who have special outfits, let alone shoes, for cruising? That's a discussion for another entry - and probably another blog.

We had lunch at an all-you-can-east Chinese, did the shoe-shopping, and headed home for a quietish afternoon. Jo finished watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which I have to say is excellent. She particularly likes the squirrel episode, and we've now got a new phrase in the family lexicon: when Jo forgets to say "thank you", we say "Daddy, I want another pony". You have to know the film.

Before I went to pick Buster up from kennels, I changed Miri's bed from a cot to a bed. We decided that it's time. Moo was a bit sad (it's another "I don't have any babies anymore" moment), but it seems like a good plan. We moved the bed guard from Jo's bed (she really doesn't need it anymore) to Miri's, and at bed time, I got Miri to sleep in around 12 minutes, which isn't bad, given how disruptive her sleeping arrangements have been recently.

So, Moo and I settle down to watch the DVD extras on C & the C F, which are, like the film, excellent. We're just about to go to bed when we hear a "THUMP". We turn to look at each other, then both say "cat".

Then the crying starts.

Yes, poor little Miri had managed to throw herself off her new bed, head first. She was fine, but spent the night with Moo in our bed, while I went into the spare room (to be joined by Jo around 0320, of course, but hey).

Labels: films, miri

Cinema trip

(backposting) We decided that a fairly safe, less-stress option for the morning would be to take the girls to the cinema. Miri, of course, would be guaranteed to sleep, Moo (who's still pretty ill) could hold her and have her sleep on her, and I could deal with taking Jo to the loo in the middle of the film (obviously). We discovered that the Cineworld Braintree - our local cinema - was showing Ratatouille, which had to be pretty safe. Unluckily, we'd forgotten how loud cinemas are, and Jo really didn't like the "crashes". She did really well, actually, but doesn't really want to go back soon.

Took Miri and Buster for a good old walk today and used the new GPS bluetooth that Moo's given me (early) for our engagement anniversary on Wednesay (I won't be around). My phone supports GPS accessories by default, and it Just Works[tm]. Great stuff. Did about 3 and a half miles, and rather tired out poor Buster.

Labels: films, GPS, illness, Jo, walk

Title post time

Today I took Miri and Jo to Halstead for the 1000 communion service. It was the day that they were due to announce to the congregation that I'm going to be serving my title there - God willing, obviously - and I thought it would be good to be there. Added to that, Moo wanted to do some cleaning, and that's a lot easier without the girls around. A good service - great hymns - and I sat next to the kids area. Jo found a 6 year-old girl to boss around, and played with her, while Miri cuddled me for most of the service and crawled around for a bit. John, my training incumbent-to-be invited me to the front, and I did a little introduction. I enjoyed the service, and although it would be good to see a few more young people there, it appears that the team is doing lots of work with younger people, most of which takes place outside standard Sunday worship, which is probably the way things work best. So, I'm looking forward to being involved in some of that, too.

Walk with Buster, Moo, Jo and Miri. Then swimming with Jo.

Finished watching If.... Great film. I'd not seen it in ages - 20 years plus, I guess - and had forgotten most of it.

Did the ironing in front of the TV.

Jo continues to be lovely.

Labels: church, films, Jo, miri, title

Canons B1-B43

(backposting) I read all the Church of England's "B" canons today, in preparation for a weekend at London Colney with ERMC. They are all about what services should - and must - be celebrated within the Church of England, what's allowed, and what's not. My Dad's Liturgy, Order and the Law is pretty much the definitive guide, it seems, and I've inherited something of an interest. There is certainly relevance to what we can and can't do within the Anglican Cathedral in SecondLife, although part of the question we're looking at is exactly which of the canons are relevant, and which aren't: these are the Canons of the Church of England, remember, and SecondLife is international, as is the group that comprises the Anglicans on it. Insisting, for instance, that all services are conducted in English might be inappropriate: but what languages _should_ be allowed? The doctrine behind this insistence is that all attending should be able to understand (hence Welsh is allowed in Wales in certain circumstances). Most of the members of the Anglican group in SL have English as their first language, but not all: and would we want to restrict ourselves? So, these are the sorts of questions we need to tackle.

Did all the ironing, watched Samuel L. Jackson's fantastic performance in The Negotiator, went to bed around midnight.

Labels: church, ERMC, films, secondlife

Toronto

(backposting) Off to Toronto today. A later flight than usual, so no need to pack last night, but things got a little frantic in the end. Someone was coming to pick me up at 1000, and I ended up packing rather later than I'd intended. And I could _not_ find the book that I needed to take. I was aware that I'd not seen it for a while, but was pretty sure that I'd left it in my suitcase, but when I opened it up, it was nowhere to be found. Moo (and even Jo...) helped look for it, but I had to leave around 1010 without it, rather more stressed than I'd intended.

Easy drive to Heathrow, where I checked in, with an upgrade voucher meaning that I'd get to go in Business Class. Flight fine - watched Surf's Up, most of Sunshine (until it got a little too scary) and Ocean's Thirteen. Landed, through customs, went to pick up my hire car, opened one of the secondary zipped up compartments of my suitcase, and there was the book that I'd been stressing over. Oh, well.

Usual hotel, all well, food, evensong, bed.

Oh, I'm re-reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, as I've not read it for a while.

Labels: books, films, travel, work

Postmodernity

(backposting) A large part of the week's work is to be engaging with issues of postmodernity in its various flavours, so Ian and Richard started us off with general descriptions of the (alleged, in Richard's case) state of postmodernity. Richard is very eloquent, and refuses to believe that there's any such thing, despite taking many intellectual positions which are hard to imagine being possible in a non-postmodern world. It doesn't help that he tends to argue against what he sees as postmodernity: as a completely pluralist, non-critical academic movement, which believes in a clean break between the modern (then) and postmodern (now), despite this being almost the exact opposite of how most people with a postmodern bent would describe it. Heigh-ho. I refused to get too drawn in...

In the afternoon, another Ian, this time for the Moot community, gave us a very interesting talk on Fresh Expressions of church, and how they relate to our current (overwhelmingly consumerist) society. He made the point that we should really be talking more, and preaching more, about the dangers of consumerism as a creed, which I have to say resonated with me strongly. In the afternoon, Cathy led us in a discussion of high and popular culture. Although it didn't grip me, we came up with some important points, and it's to be a theme of the rest of the week.

The evening held clips (one clip from the body of the film, then crucifixion and lead-up) from three films about Jesus - or not. They were:

• The Gospel according to St Matthew (English title), by Pasolini
• Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ
• Monty Python's Life of Brian

Although I know the third, I'd never seen any of the others, and they were certainly thought-provoking (though I'm unconvinced that either Jesus or Pontius Pilate spoke Latin with a modern Italinate accent...). I'm glad to say that we didn't watched the 7 minute scourging scene from the Gibson version, which is supposed to be extremely harrowing.

We started singing today: a piece of Christopher Tye, which went pretty well for a first off, though the tuning was shocking. That'll fix itself as people get more happy with the notes, I think. We had a good mix of singers, including some new faces to the group, which was excellent.

Also started singing some madrigals - hope to do them at the Review.

Labels: ERMC, films, music, postmodernity, singing

Squeaky toy

Last night, after watching some of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, we went upstairs to go to bed. I stood on a squeaky toy in the bathroom, and don't think I'll ever live down how high I jumped. Moo says that the particularly special thing was the fact that I was naked (or "nudey-rudey" as Jo would say) added some poignancy. Without wanting to spoil the film, it's about a very big snake...

Got my Wii age down to 41 yesterday.

Today it's 28! I rock, clearly.

Labels: films, wii

Hot Fuzz

Hot Fuzz, with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, is another great film from the makers of Shaun of the Dead. We've watched some of the extras, and we're on the first of the commentaries. It's one of those films (like Shaun of the Dead) with lots of references to other films. It's also hilarious - watch it. Lots of (gratuitous) violence and (gratuitous) bad language, and some major, major British actors.

Labels: films

Christianity at the Movies

Because I'm a soft, bleeding-heart liberal with no backbone, I'm uncomfortable with blanket condemnations of anything. And films ("movies", for non-British readers) are one of those things that we Christians sometimes leap to condemn very quickly: when it suits us, anyway. It's difficult not to think about condemnation when the papers here in the US are full of the death of Jerry Falwell - a founder member of the so-called Moral Majority over here.

I feel that, like many texts - by which I mean pretty much any type of interpreted object - films are very slippery. They move, and change, and - for some reason I'm not quite sure - they seem to morph into different things more often than books, for instance, do. A film seen twice or three times is a different kind of thing to a book read twice of three times, it seems to me. I tend to react differently to viewings - more than I would to multiple readings - possibly because of the immersive quality of films, and probably also because of the use of music. So, films change their meaning - in as much as anything has meaning, of course - their referents are more difficult to pin down. This means that a film may "mean" one thing to one person, and quite a different thing to another - and that this significations are quite liable - and likely - to change between viewings.

I'm not going to try to suggest that some films - like some books - are not morally compromised: this is a particular danger and power of any medium which is so immersive. Nor is the opposite danger to condemnation not something against which we should guard: March of the Penguins is _not_ an advert for creationism. But we should be careful.

Sorry for a rather random post, but that's just what came to mind.

Synchroblog

Today is a "synchroblog" on the subject of Christianity and movies. If you've liked what you read here, or, more particularly, if you didn't, and you'd like to read some other opinions, please visit one of the other participating blogs:

• Adam Gonnerman pokes at The Spider's Pardon
• David Fisher thinks that Jesus Loves Sci-Fi
• John Morehead considers Christians and Horror Redux: From Knee-Jerk Revulsion to Critical Engagement
• Marieke Schwartz lights it up with Counter-hegemony: Jesus loves Borat
• Mike Bursell muses about Christianity at the Movies
• Jenelle D'Alessandro tells us Why Bjork Will Never Act Again
• Cobus van Wyngaard contemplates Theology and Film (as art)
• Tim Abbott tells us to Bring your own meaning...?
• Sonja Andrews visits The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:Christ in Spaghetti Westerns
• Steve Hollinghurst takes a stab at The Gospel according to Buffy
• Les Chatwin insists We Don't Need Another Hero
• Lance Cummings says The Wooden Wheel keeps Turning
• John Smulo weaves a tale about Spiderman 3 and the Shadow
• Josh Rivera spells well with Christian Witchcraft
• Phil Wyman throws out the Frisbee: Time to Toss it Back
• Sally Coleman rushes up with Making Connections- films as a part of a mythological tradition
• Steve Hayes ponders The Image of Christianity in Films
• Kim Paffenroth pondersNihilism lite

Labels: films, synchroblog

Weird meme

Thanks to Sally for tagging me. Here are 6 weird things about me.

1. despite being a complete spelling fascist, I find it very difficult to spell the word "weird", and had to look it up and correct myself when I first wrote the heading for this post
2. "both sides" - if I burn myself, or hurt myself, on one side, I tend to react by doing the same to the other side. Moo calls this "both sides", and it's often an unconscious thing. I know that it's actually related to low-grade OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), but Moo still calls me "freak boy" (OK, it's not the only reason)
3. the title "geek" is a positive one for me
4. I have a little piece of gristle on the top of my right ear that led schoolmates of mine to call me "Spock"
5. I can read Latin (well enough to read the Vulgate and Harry Potter, at least). I don't write or speak it very well, but could probably brush it up if I had to do so
6. I cried at the end of the final Lord of the Rings film. Not because it was the last one, but because it was _moving_. Oh, and when Boromir died in the first one, obviously. Neither of these has led Moo to feel that she's wrong in calling me "freak boy"

Labels: films, me

More recovery

(backposting) Still with the temperature, but no hallucinations today. Which was nice.

Oh - yesterday was Moo and my 14 year engagement anniversary. I gave her some very random books and bits and pieces, including this book, which is hilarious (and not what you may think):

Moo gave me three DVDs

• Scooby-doo - watched this today, and enjoyed it despite myself
• March of the penguins
• Ultraviolet

I'm being very good, and only checking work email once a day. How's about that?

Labels: films, Moo

If you're going to San Francisco...

... be sure to check with your boss whether he actually _did_ arrange an upgrade for you. Oh well, paid a small fee for some extra legroom, which helped, had a bit of a sleep, read, listened to some music, and watched the excellent film The Queen, in which Helen Mirren really stole the show. Rather a lot funnier than I expected, too.

So, it's 0207 tomorrow (or 1807 here, depending on your view of time), so time for a freshen up, then hopefully meet some colleagues for a beer and some food.

Labels: films, travel

Back at ERMC

(backposting) Last day of holiday (not counting weekends), and I had a nice lazy day, sleeping in to 0915, which is pretty good, but less amazing when you realise that I didn't actually go to bed until around 0115 this morning, due in part to watching some of the excellent and funny The 51st State (also known, it appears as "Formula 51"), which I look forward to renting and watching in full in the future. Put the bins out, printed out my essays and the materials for the weekend, all that kind of stuff.

Then off to London Colney for an ERMC weekend on "Judaism and Mission" and "Ageing". Not, you might gather, the most consistent of topics. Had a decent drive - despite some frankly disgusting weather - and arrived in plenty of time to make a rehearsal for some Taizé music that I was going to cantor. I ended up part-directing it too, and it went very well. I was even asked if I'd done any Taizé recordings, as I'd had one of the members of the course in tears (of joy: I checked). I was also surprised to discover that I apparently have the ability to glide. This will be surprising to anyone who knows me as a clumsy git [tm], but there is a particular style of walking with head "on top" (Alexander technique showing through there) and very balanced which allows for a certain amount of grace. When moving around in church, I think I adopt it subconsciously (it works very well in a cassock, thinking back to the days when I processed around a lot), and I'd done so while moving between positions this evening.

A session on ageing, and then to the bar. Sarah ended up trying to volunteer me to have a charity back wax. Then chest wax. Then leg wax. I'm not interested. Quote of the evening:

"But what about all those poor children?"

"If those poor children really want my leg hairs, I'll shave them myself, and they can stuff whatever duvets and pillows they want."

Labels: ERMC, films, quotes, singing, sleep