Hello! I'm writing this on my borrowed teeny tiny laptop in my hotel room, feeling rather swanky. New job seems like it will be alright - the people are nice, there are lots of us in the same position and we have all been treated very nicely for our first day. This sort of stage is all training anyway - so tea and biscuits, pens and notepads, and explanations and nodding - lots of nodding.
I ate dinner in the restaurant all by myself tonight. I felt rather decadent and had a small glass of red - this was rather ambitious considering the food poisoning incident just over a week ago, but I got a bit carried away in the moment. It was rather fun, but odd, eating by myself. The waiter first gestured to a table in the middle of the room, and I was like no ta, can I have that little one by the wall? He laughed and said no one wanted to eat in the middle of the room, and I looked around and there we all were, single business folk, all at tables for one hugging the walls. I took a book downstairs with me but it was actually hard to manage, eating and reading. I felt a bit wrong, like I was somehow being rude to my floral table arrangement.
I did go for a short walk outside (the hotel is very central) and felt like I had landed in a different planet.. All of a sudden I was crossing roads like the green cross code man taught me in juinor school, while locals sauntered past me no doubt thinking I was rather strange. It's being in a new place I think, its regressed me. And I am scared stiff I will be run over by a tram.
Right, I am signing off now. Best get some sleep! More from the front line tomorrow!
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Sunday, 22 February 2009
I think I am becoming addicted to following celebrities on Twitter. Curses! Having avoided falling for reality TV, Facebook, gossip magazines and all else, why do I now want to find out whether Philip Schofield enjoyed his Chinese takeaway last night? Why do I care what children’s toy Jonathan Ross would like to turn into a movie (Pac Man) or what Alan Davies is watching on TV (TV Burp). Why should I worry about Stephen Fry’s mobile reception in Mexico? (Gosh I hope his signal stays ok).
Heaven forbid I start adding more…
Oh dear, just done so. Basically I am thinking of my favourite panellists in QI. Jimmy Carr’s twittering looks sadly dull from the initial page – looks like it is done by his website team on his behalf. I wonder how you unfollow if you have followed rashly? Damn idle thumbs… I can apparently ‘block’ people – that sounds a bit unfriendly. I just want a button that says ‘silently sidle out this way’.
I think I may have been lulled into a false sense of security with Twitter by Stephen Fry. His twitterings come across just as he seems on TV – funny, charming and intelligent – at least he is in 140 character spaces, which is all Twitter gives you. Perhaps if it was 141 then all would go to pot and the fantasy would crumble, but I still think he would tweet with aplomb.
Ah yes – ‘tweets’. Twitter brings with it its own phrases. A ‘tweet’ is an update on Twitter. A ‘twit’ is no doubt a person like me who updates Twitter and hasn’t a clue about why they are there in the first place.
I think Twitter is best for people who are out doing interesting things and can update on the move via their mobile. The point of Twitter is that your updates answer the same one question, which is always ‘what are you doing?’ So this can make interesting reading from people out and about. However the problem for me is that Twitter and my mobile are incompatible apparently (too old, I feel), so my main answer will always be ‘sitting in my room in front of my PC’. It really doesn’t vary much from that.
I’m not quite sure I like this ‘access all hours’ form of communication. Although it is nice to think that celebrities are also having Sunday dinner and moaning about washing up like the rest of us, there is no need for me to know this. I can tweet at one of these celebrities and ask them if they enjoyed their dinner, but whether they reply or not does not make them a friend. Although I would love to say to someone ‘Stephen Fry just tweeted at me’ as that would be the pinnacle of my Twitter world, and after that I would probably activate the ‘silently sidle out this way’ button.
I think I need to think on a bit about what I want out of Twitter – light entertainment, idle curiousity, networking for the book, freelance opportunities? I might leave it for a bit until I’ve made up my mind.
Heaven forbid I start adding more…
Oh dear, just done so. Basically I am thinking of my favourite panellists in QI. Jimmy Carr’s twittering looks sadly dull from the initial page – looks like it is done by his website team on his behalf. I wonder how you unfollow if you have followed rashly? Damn idle thumbs… I can apparently ‘block’ people – that sounds a bit unfriendly. I just want a button that says ‘silently sidle out this way’.
I think I may have been lulled into a false sense of security with Twitter by Stephen Fry. His twitterings come across just as he seems on TV – funny, charming and intelligent – at least he is in 140 character spaces, which is all Twitter gives you. Perhaps if it was 141 then all would go to pot and the fantasy would crumble, but I still think he would tweet with aplomb.
Ah yes – ‘tweets’. Twitter brings with it its own phrases. A ‘tweet’ is an update on Twitter. A ‘twit’ is no doubt a person like me who updates Twitter and hasn’t a clue about why they are there in the first place.
I think Twitter is best for people who are out doing interesting things and can update on the move via their mobile. The point of Twitter is that your updates answer the same one question, which is always ‘what are you doing?’ So this can make interesting reading from people out and about. However the problem for me is that Twitter and my mobile are incompatible apparently (too old, I feel), so my main answer will always be ‘sitting in my room in front of my PC’. It really doesn’t vary much from that.
I’m not quite sure I like this ‘access all hours’ form of communication. Although it is nice to think that celebrities are also having Sunday dinner and moaning about washing up like the rest of us, there is no need for me to know this. I can tweet at one of these celebrities and ask them if they enjoyed their dinner, but whether they reply or not does not make them a friend. Although I would love to say to someone ‘Stephen Fry just tweeted at me’ as that would be the pinnacle of my Twitter world, and after that I would probably activate the ‘silently sidle out this way’ button.
I think I need to think on a bit about what I want out of Twitter – light entertainment, idle curiousity, networking for the book, freelance opportunities? I might leave it for a bit until I’ve made up my mind.
Saturday, 21 February 2009
The Week of Up and Down
Highlights
I’ve got a freelance job, hopefully starting next week, which will mean glory be and halleluiah for the bank account. I am fully prepared to put my head down and work like an enthusiastic Trojan. Money! I am so excited I could almost buy fancy things right now* except I shall wait and see if the job actually materialises or disappears back into a thin mist.
Freelance job is also in another city, which means I get put up in a hotel and have an expense account. I am actually very good with expense accounts, and seeing it has been so long since I was frivolous I will probably question every time I have a glass of water. I doubt I will see much of the city, but to be out of my little room into the wide world will be a nice change. And no evening distractions means I can sit and write/edit the novel to my heart’s content in a hotel room feeling like a proper writer.**
Freelance job also takes me until April, and then me and J are off on a road trip to Italy to attend a wedding. We planned it last year and I have been fretting over the money side, but now it might just work out ok. Woohoo! As you can no doubt tell, I am rather pleased about that.***
I have arranged a meeting with the editor of a magazine for my local borough, and we are going for a coffee next week (hopefully before I am in another city!). She sounds nice in her emails, and I am hopeful to pitch an idea to her that I think will work really well. Cross fingers for me!****
I took both my cats to the vet for a check up (the ginger boy behaved very stoically; the tabby girl felt the need to complain every ten seconds) and the vet gave them a clean bill of health.*****
Lowlights
I went out for a meal last Tuesday and was struck ill with food poisoning. Oh it was as rough as houses. Put it this way, since Tuesday night I have only been able to eat 2 small bowls of cereal, 1 slice of toast, half a banana, 1 small bowl of plain pasta, and 1 small bowl of plain chips (today). I am feeling better; tons better, but still have no appetite. Great for a quick diet though, if the looking haggard and having no energy thing also suits.******
Footnotes
* Fancy things for me at the moment are as follows: Tights. New cat litter tray. A jumper (this is probably the top of the ‘oh my God, I have no clothes left that do not have a hole in the elbow, why moths why?’ list). Smart clothes to complete Lois Lane transformation from Velma, the speccy short one in Scooby Doo that always wears the same polo neck.
**I have no idea why a proper writer should work in a hotel room. I fear it is another fancy delusion of mine. I suffer from a great many fancy delusions where authors are concerned. My favourite one at the moment is that all authors live in a rambling 17th century house with an iron bell pull and a front garden shadowed by trees. Although at the moment 'all authors live in a house' works for me, forget the trimmings.
***Bloody ecstatic, I think you’ll find. I can’t wait to spend some time with my J.
****This was a follow on from this post earlier. Patience is a virtue!
*****She also said that my ginger cat was very handsome and my tabby girl had beautiful soft fur. Yes I am a proud parent of two furry beggars, and was all happy and soppy for ages after that.
*****At the moment I am at the stage where I want to eat something but afraid it will make me feel horrible again. Like I have just spent the last hour wondering whether I should have a hot chocolate (tea, coffee etc are still a big no-no) or whether it will be a bad idea. Sigh. Still, on the mend!
I’ve got a freelance job, hopefully starting next week, which will mean glory be and halleluiah for the bank account. I am fully prepared to put my head down and work like an enthusiastic Trojan. Money! I am so excited I could almost buy fancy things right now* except I shall wait and see if the job actually materialises or disappears back into a thin mist.
Freelance job is also in another city, which means I get put up in a hotel and have an expense account. I am actually very good with expense accounts, and seeing it has been so long since I was frivolous I will probably question every time I have a glass of water. I doubt I will see much of the city, but to be out of my little room into the wide world will be a nice change. And no evening distractions means I can sit and write/edit the novel to my heart’s content in a hotel room feeling like a proper writer.**
Freelance job also takes me until April, and then me and J are off on a road trip to Italy to attend a wedding. We planned it last year and I have been fretting over the money side, but now it might just work out ok. Woohoo! As you can no doubt tell, I am rather pleased about that.***
I have arranged a meeting with the editor of a magazine for my local borough, and we are going for a coffee next week (hopefully before I am in another city!). She sounds nice in her emails, and I am hopeful to pitch an idea to her that I think will work really well. Cross fingers for me!****
I took both my cats to the vet for a check up (the ginger boy behaved very stoically; the tabby girl felt the need to complain every ten seconds) and the vet gave them a clean bill of health.*****
Lowlights
I went out for a meal last Tuesday and was struck ill with food poisoning. Oh it was as rough as houses. Put it this way, since Tuesday night I have only been able to eat 2 small bowls of cereal, 1 slice of toast, half a banana, 1 small bowl of plain pasta, and 1 small bowl of plain chips (today). I am feeling better; tons better, but still have no appetite. Great for a quick diet though, if the looking haggard and having no energy thing also suits.******
Footnotes
* Fancy things for me at the moment are as follows: Tights. New cat litter tray. A jumper (this is probably the top of the ‘oh my God, I have no clothes left that do not have a hole in the elbow, why moths why?’ list). Smart clothes to complete Lois Lane transformation from Velma, the speccy short one in Scooby Doo that always wears the same polo neck.
**I have no idea why a proper writer should work in a hotel room. I fear it is another fancy delusion of mine. I suffer from a great many fancy delusions where authors are concerned. My favourite one at the moment is that all authors live in a rambling 17th century house with an iron bell pull and a front garden shadowed by trees. Although at the moment 'all authors live in a house' works for me, forget the trimmings.
***Bloody ecstatic, I think you’ll find. I can’t wait to spend some time with my J.
****This was a follow on from this post earlier. Patience is a virtue!
*****She also said that my ginger cat was very handsome and my tabby girl had beautiful soft fur. Yes I am a proud parent of two furry beggars, and was all happy and soppy for ages after that.
*****At the moment I am at the stage where I want to eat something but afraid it will make me feel horrible again. Like I have just spent the last hour wondering whether I should have a hot chocolate (tea, coffee etc are still a big no-no) or whether it will be a bad idea. Sigh. Still, on the mend!
Monday, 16 February 2009
DVD or Ditch: The Lost Boys
My quest to purge the house of unnecessary VHS tapes continues – will ‘The Lost Boys’ make an upgrade to DVD?
This 1987 film showcased Keifer Sutherland as a bleached blond vampire, introduced the two Corey’s, revealed Jason Patric to the world only to seemingly whip him away again forever afterwards, and references J. M Barrie’s Peter Pan in the title. What’s not to love?
When this came out I had posters of Corey Haim on my wall. I remember distinctly he was wearing some sort of white chunky knit cardigan, but that was allowed, that was cool. For a time I followed his movie career until it became clear I desperately needed to watch a film with a plot, but lets rewind to when anything was possible…
I still enjoy the soundtrack to The Lost Boys. ‘Cry Little Sister’ by Gerard McMann leads into a spooky ethereal chant that is perfect for this film. And ‘People Are Strange’, a cover version of The Doors classic by Echo and The Bunnymen (thanks Forest Pines!) illustrated the vast number of crazies frolicking around the fictional town of Santa Carla. I particularly remember the Beverley Hillbillies careering past in a supermarket trolley. Santa Carla is like 80s Camden on acid.
And now the movie begins again… and my eye refuses to budge from David (Keifer) and Michael (Jason). Um… they’re not bad looking, are they? Now this must be the perfect movie – something for every age. When a small teen I could fancy Sam (Corey Haim), grown up me appreciates David and Michael, and give it another thirty years and I’ll probably be quite keen on the grandpa.
The story goes as follows – two brothers, Michael and Sam, move with their mother to Santa Carla, murder capital of the world. They live at their grandpa’s, a strange old man with a fondness for taxidermy, and their mother starts dating Max, a video shop owner. While out at the boardwalk (the place to hang if you like watching sweaty rock saxophonists, or enjoy stealing comic books), Michael falls for a girl called Star (Jami Gertz). She is somehow with the mysterious David, who lurks around the boardwalk with his gang of long haired leather jacket wearing dudes. David challenges Michael to a few dares, Michael realises they are all vampires and he is soon to join them, unless Sam helps him. Sam enlists the Frog brothers (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander) – basically the Goonies but with wooden stakes – to kill the vampires, and save his brother.
This film is just as good as I remember. It is an R rated comedy/horror film, and it stands up well in both respects – the horror is of the gore-splatter variety (death by stereo!) and there are some cracking good comedy lines - the funniest being when Michael is hovering outside his brother’s window saying he is not a vampire, and Sam yells “what are you then, the flying nun?”
It is a relatively short movie, and yet it gives us a love triangle, an older romance, a twist, a plot, rivalry, friendship and plays on the idea of loyalty. Not bad in 93 minutes – now if you go to the cinema to watch a film you might as well pack a lunch (The Dark Knight – 152 mins, The Fellowship of the Ring – 178 mins, Casino Royale – 144 mins).
While none of the character development goes particularly deep, they are all developed enough to make us believe in them. It turns out the characters we know least are the lost boys themselves, but we’re not really supposed to know them, only their leader, David. He’s not quite J.M Barrie’s idea of Peter Pan, but he is definitely the star of the show. Keifer Sutherland plays David with a delightful understated menace, a knowing cruelty almost, yet at the same time there’s an air of vulnerability behind his actions. This lifts him from the two-dimensional presence of his gang, and gives the film a depth of quality that perhaps wouldn’t have happened without his casting.
The 80s does not seem a kind decade to clothes. Sam wears some truly hideous outfits, the worst being some sort of long white lounging coat as he strolls around the boardwalk. And as for Max – his shoulder pads are so wide that most of the time he looks like he is trying out for American footballer of the year. I am amazed he can fit through the door of his video store. But the vampires look good, Star is rocking her gypsy boho babe style and Michael can certainly do a steamy smoulder. This film definitely gets upgraded to DVD!
This 1987 film showcased Keifer Sutherland as a bleached blond vampire, introduced the two Corey’s, revealed Jason Patric to the world only to seemingly whip him away again forever afterwards, and references J. M Barrie’s Peter Pan in the title. What’s not to love?
When this came out I had posters of Corey Haim on my wall. I remember distinctly he was wearing some sort of white chunky knit cardigan, but that was allowed, that was cool. For a time I followed his movie career until it became clear I desperately needed to watch a film with a plot, but lets rewind to when anything was possible…
I still enjoy the soundtrack to The Lost Boys. ‘Cry Little Sister’ by Gerard McMann leads into a spooky ethereal chant that is perfect for this film. And ‘People Are Strange’, a cover version of The Doors classic by Echo and The Bunnymen (thanks Forest Pines!) illustrated the vast number of crazies frolicking around the fictional town of Santa Carla. I particularly remember the Beverley Hillbillies careering past in a supermarket trolley. Santa Carla is like 80s Camden on acid.
And now the movie begins again… and my eye refuses to budge from David (Keifer) and Michael (Jason). Um… they’re not bad looking, are they? Now this must be the perfect movie – something for every age. When a small teen I could fancy Sam (Corey Haim), grown up me appreciates David and Michael, and give it another thirty years and I’ll probably be quite keen on the grandpa.
The story goes as follows – two brothers, Michael and Sam, move with their mother to Santa Carla, murder capital of the world. They live at their grandpa’s, a strange old man with a fondness for taxidermy, and their mother starts dating Max, a video shop owner. While out at the boardwalk (the place to hang if you like watching sweaty rock saxophonists, or enjoy stealing comic books), Michael falls for a girl called Star (Jami Gertz). She is somehow with the mysterious David, who lurks around the boardwalk with his gang of long haired leather jacket wearing dudes. David challenges Michael to a few dares, Michael realises they are all vampires and he is soon to join them, unless Sam helps him. Sam enlists the Frog brothers (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander) – basically the Goonies but with wooden stakes – to kill the vampires, and save his brother.
This film is just as good as I remember. It is an R rated comedy/horror film, and it stands up well in both respects – the horror is of the gore-splatter variety (death by stereo!) and there are some cracking good comedy lines - the funniest being when Michael is hovering outside his brother’s window saying he is not a vampire, and Sam yells “what are you then, the flying nun?”
It is a relatively short movie, and yet it gives us a love triangle, an older romance, a twist, a plot, rivalry, friendship and plays on the idea of loyalty. Not bad in 93 minutes – now if you go to the cinema to watch a film you might as well pack a lunch (The Dark Knight – 152 mins, The Fellowship of the Ring – 178 mins, Casino Royale – 144 mins).
While none of the character development goes particularly deep, they are all developed enough to make us believe in them. It turns out the characters we know least are the lost boys themselves, but we’re not really supposed to know them, only their leader, David. He’s not quite J.M Barrie’s idea of Peter Pan, but he is definitely the star of the show. Keifer Sutherland plays David with a delightful understated menace, a knowing cruelty almost, yet at the same time there’s an air of vulnerability behind his actions. This lifts him from the two-dimensional presence of his gang, and gives the film a depth of quality that perhaps wouldn’t have happened without his casting.
The 80s does not seem a kind decade to clothes. Sam wears some truly hideous outfits, the worst being some sort of long white lounging coat as he strolls around the boardwalk. And as for Max – his shoulder pads are so wide that most of the time he looks like he is trying out for American footballer of the year. I am amazed he can fit through the door of his video store. But the vampires look good, Star is rocking her gypsy boho babe style and Michael can certainly do a steamy smoulder. This film definitely gets upgraded to DVD!
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