A brief recap of things of note.
Books Read in 2009
3) Imperium - Robert Harris
4) Dibs: In Search of Self - Virgina Axline
5) MASH - Richard Hooker
6) A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
7) The Marriage Bureau for Rich People - Farahad Zama
Films Watched in 2009
11) The Prestige (17/1)
12) Slumdog Millionaire (18/1)
13) Air Force One (24/1)
14) Frost/Nixon (25/1)
15) Magnolia (1/2)
16) Tea With Mussolini (8/2)
17) Bridget Jones' Diary (15/2)
Am still reading quite slowly so far this year, but have enjoyed the books I've read. Definitely recommend Imperium and A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Of the films seen at the cinema, I much prefered Frost/Nixon to Slumdog Millionaire. The latter was good, but not quite as great as I'd expected - although maybe so many good reviews meant that I expected too much. I just didn't feel as though it added up to a great film, despite so many good elements. I liked the beginning, when the children were young, but as they grew older I found all of them much less likeable and really didn't care about the love story so the ending didn't leave me feeling satisfied. Loved the end credits though!
I also recommend The Prestige and Tea With Mussolini if you haven't seen them. I don't recommend Magnolia - what a waste of three hours of my life.
Anyway. In other news, I have been absent from here of late because I've been quite busy, and when I'm not busy I am trying to get more sleep.
Let's see... three weekends ago I went to visit the lovely Lorna of Leeds, and we had a marvellously cultural weekend. We visited an art gallery and amused ourselves thinking up pretentious reasons why the modern art was good art, visited a museum and learnt about Leeds' history, and also ate lots of yummy food and watched Dawson's Creek For Great Angst. It was good to catch up on the gossip too.
Two weekends ago I went home for my mother's birthday. As it was rather an important birthday (but I won't embarrass her by saying which milestone it was) my brother and I bought her an iPod nano in brilliant blue. Teaching her to use iTunes was amusing. We also cooked her dinner - we were supposed to cook one course each but my younger brother was a flake so I made avocado and proscuttio salad, my older brother made a sausage pasta dish and I made gluten-free brownies for dessert. YUM. I booked the next day off work so I didn't have to rush off in the evening and we could have a walk the day after the big meal to add virtue.
Last weekend was St Valentine's day, as everyone knows, and I spent the day cleaning our flat like a mad thing because in the evening James' parents came to visit. We had a great meal out in the evening and then played anti-Monopoly, before giving his parents our room and we pushed the two couches together and slept in the living room. Yeah, really cosy. On sunday we drove to the Wirral, my homeland, because James' parents used to live there before they were married and hadn't been back for 20 years. We saw their first home in Oxton (they used to drink in the same pubs I have drank in) and then went to see Liverpool One, the new shopping development, because James' father is an engineer and was curious to see what it looked like. (We didn't actually look in any of the shops. He was too busy examining the design of the car park.) My favourite bit is where they've named the patch of scrubby grass on top of the car park Chavasse, after the parkland they built over. Um, yeah, totally the same.
In between all these weekends, I have been working, naturally, and sleeping, not enough, and exercising a lot because I finally screwed up my courage and joined a gym. I felt very bad handing over so much money (well, it felt like a lot to me) but I have been two or three times a week since then and aim to continue that way. I like to exercise, and this is so much better than swimming. Also, I have a gym buddy, a guy from the school finance office called Isti. We compare diets and fitness regimes and moan about our jobs. It's fun.
Plus, when I'm on the machines in the gym I've started watching a lot more early evening tv because there are 5 huge screens on the wall with subtitles so when I get bored with one I switch to something else. I'm quite involved in Come Dine With Me and Home and Away. Strangely, when I'm at home I never think to put on the tv, but I enjoy watching it in the gym.
At home I've been watching lots of The West Wing on dvd, and have nearly finished the first series. Predictably, I love C.J. and Josh and wish they were real people. I wish the whole thing was real - President Bartlett is the best thing ever.
And now my brief update has become not-so-brief, so I'm going to bed. I can't stay awake in work if I don't go to bed as early as possible.
3) Imperium - Robert Harris
4) Dibs: In Search of Self - Virgina Axline
5) MASH - Richard Hooker
6) A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
7) The Marriage Bureau for Rich People - Farahad Zama
Films Watched in 2009
11) The Prestige (17/1)
12) Slumdog Millionaire (18/1)
13) Air Force One (24/1)
14) Frost/Nixon (25/1)
15) Magnolia (1/2)
16) Tea With Mussolini (8/2)
17) Bridget Jones' Diary (15/2)
Am still reading quite slowly so far this year, but have enjoyed the books I've read. Definitely recommend Imperium and A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Of the films seen at the cinema, I much prefered Frost/Nixon to Slumdog Millionaire. The latter was good, but not quite as great as I'd expected - although maybe so many good reviews meant that I expected too much. I just didn't feel as though it added up to a great film, despite so many good elements. I liked the beginning, when the children were young, but as they grew older I found all of them much less likeable and really didn't care about the love story so the ending didn't leave me feeling satisfied. Loved the end credits though!
I also recommend The Prestige and Tea With Mussolini if you haven't seen them. I don't recommend Magnolia - what a waste of three hours of my life.
Anyway. In other news, I have been absent from here of late because I've been quite busy, and when I'm not busy I am trying to get more sleep.
Let's see... three weekends ago I went to visit the lovely Lorna of Leeds, and we had a marvellously cultural weekend. We visited an art gallery and amused ourselves thinking up pretentious reasons why the modern art was good art, visited a museum and learnt about Leeds' history, and also ate lots of yummy food and watched Dawson's Creek For Great Angst. It was good to catch up on the gossip too.
Two weekends ago I went home for my mother's birthday. As it was rather an important birthday (but I won't embarrass her by saying which milestone it was) my brother and I bought her an iPod nano in brilliant blue. Teaching her to use iTunes was amusing. We also cooked her dinner - we were supposed to cook one course each but my younger brother was a flake so I made avocado and proscuttio salad, my older brother made a sausage pasta dish and I made gluten-free brownies for dessert. YUM. I booked the next day off work so I didn't have to rush off in the evening and we could have a walk the day after the big meal to add virtue.
Last weekend was St Valentine's day, as everyone knows, and I spent the day cleaning our flat like a mad thing because in the evening James' parents came to visit. We had a great meal out in the evening and then played anti-Monopoly, before giving his parents our room and we pushed the two couches together and slept in the living room. Yeah, really cosy. On sunday we drove to the Wirral, my homeland, because James' parents used to live there before they were married and hadn't been back for 20 years. We saw their first home in Oxton (they used to drink in the same pubs I have drank in) and then went to see Liverpool One, the new shopping development, because James' father is an engineer and was curious to see what it looked like. (We didn't actually look in any of the shops. He was too busy examining the design of the car park.) My favourite bit is where they've named the patch of scrubby grass on top of the car park Chavasse, after the parkland they built over. Um, yeah, totally the same.
In between all these weekends, I have been working, naturally, and sleeping, not enough, and exercising a lot because I finally screwed up my courage and joined a gym. I felt very bad handing over so much money (well, it felt like a lot to me) but I have been two or three times a week since then and aim to continue that way. I like to exercise, and this is so much better than swimming. Also, I have a gym buddy, a guy from the school finance office called Isti. We compare diets and fitness regimes and moan about our jobs. It's fun.
Plus, when I'm on the machines in the gym I've started watching a lot more early evening tv because there are 5 huge screens on the wall with subtitles so when I get bored with one I switch to something else. I'm quite involved in Come Dine With Me and Home and Away. Strangely, when I'm at home I never think to put on the tv, but I enjoy watching it in the gym.
At home I've been watching lots of The West Wing on dvd, and have nearly finished the first series. Predictably, I love C.J. and Josh and wish they were real people. I wish the whole thing was real - President Bartlett is the best thing ever.
And now my brief update has become not-so-brief, so I'm going to bed. I can't stay awake in work if I don't go to bed as early as possible.