News Archives: November 2009

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

No Spoilers

Adrian has caught some of the finer fireworks on camera...

***

Sunday's Doctor Who - Waters of Mars - is well worth catching if you missed it. Strangely, the worst bit about it was the Doctor. His presence added little, almost adding an unwelcome levity. Lindsay Duncan was strong enough to serve as the viewpoint character, and removing the Doctor would have given space to provide much-needed characterisation for the minor parts and a proper lead-in to the slightly arbitrary ending. Admittedly, there was a sort of b-story foreshadowing the next tale, but that foreshadowing's been going on since the start of the last series, so I doubt culling the b-story would have mattered much. Overall, though - good fun.

Posted by graham @ 09:07 pm

Monday, November 16, 2009

Long Time, No See

The problem with blogging is two-fold: If I have anything to say, I lack the time to blog; if I have time, I have little to talk about. Recently the problem has been the former...

Tonight, I unexpectedly find myself with free time. Monday should be game night, but Claire's taking her team at work go-karting, and another player has been floored (literally) by a bad back. So, I have a free evening to myself. There's no shortage of things I could (or even should) do, but I'm taking this as me time. Which means I'm going to spend most of the evening listening to pretentious, experimental music, and try and get some writing done.

What have I been up to since the last proper update? Most recently was Saturday's bonfire party. Claire's parents provided us half a tree to burn, which Andy turned into a fine bonfire. The rain gods were kind to us, and let us set off all the explosives. Pretty good selection this year. I think I upset Kieran by not buying any catherine wheels this year, thus avoiding the "will it actually turn?" amusement. A good selection none-the-less, though I could have done without the one that nearly hit Claire and I. (Before next year's party we'll figure out a better place to retreat to between setting off the fireworks.) Guest of honour was spaniel-pup Oscar, who was very sweet, affectionate, and playful. He obeyed Cisco's every command, and only got a little bit grumped at by the big dogs. Oscar even seemed to enjoy the fireworks, which is nice to see.

The other big news I failed to mention was the week's holiday we spent with Claire's family in Shropshire. Claire's mum rented a converted barn just off Wenlock Edge which we all used as a base. We tried to cram in as much of the touristy stuff as we could - Shrewsbury, Ironbridge (three times), Ludlow (twice), Much Wenlock, Offa's Dyke (missed it the first time we went to see it, so tried again another day), Church Stretton, Wroxeter, various castles, abbeys, and churches, and so on. A very lovely county - some day we'll head back to see all the stuff we missed. Halfway through I picked up a book on local folklore which kept me amused in the evenings. (Claire noted I've picked up my Dad's habit of "reading the interesting bits out". I took that as a compliment...)

Mid-holiday, I took a little detour to see the marvellous Porcupine Tree at the appalling Leeds Academy... 350 mile round-trip, lost in the Leeds one-way system (twice), and totally worth it. Support band "Engineers" sounded interesting, from the little that could be made out through the fuzz. I'll check out their CD at some point... By the time PT hit the stage, I'd found a better place to stand, and the sound engineers had tamed the bounceback. I won't spill the set list for those who haven't seen this tour yet, but "The Incident" is stunnning live, and the second set had a number of welcome surprises.

Right, writing. Now. (And, no, I'm not doing the NANO. Though I thought this might be reassuring to those who are struggling...)

Posted by graham @ 08:04 pm

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