You Can Tell You’re Getting Older….
.... when you can't even be bothered staying up for midnight on New Year's Eve.
We've had a quiet one in and having watched some crap TV, played on the Playstation, and eaten a very pleasant dinner, we're planning on being in bed before too long.
And I don't care at all. I've never quite seen the point of New Year - it always seems such an artificial thing to make a big deal of.
Oh well - have a great 2005.
Honoured
Oh dear - the New Year's Honours really do make it abundantly clear what a nonsensical and irrelevant institution the things are. Inevitable sportspeople and aging thesps aside, it's time to recognise the contribution of, for example, one of the civil servants who couldn't remember what had actually happened in the Blunkett/Visa affair.
Why on earth do they bother with this nonsense?
Marple II
Didn't watch the 4.50 From Paddington on Boxing Day, but really meant to mention that the week before's The Murder at the Vicarage had us in fits. We couldn't actually watch beyond the second ad break or so, because every time Janet McTeer came on screen we were so distracted by the work she's had done - huge lips and big staring eyes, all made the more obvious by the 1950s make up.
Really, seriously, what a very bad idea that was.
This coming Sunday is the last of the Agatha Christie: Marple programmes, and I do kind of look forward to it. A Murder Is Announced has always been my favourite Miss Marple. It's so fantastically over-blown: three murders, one attempted muder, and by the end of it no fewer than three separate residents of a small English village are revealed to be imposters. Happy times.
More Tsunami
I remarked to David earlier that the last news event I can remember which so totally dominated the news bulletins for so long was 11th September 2001. It's incredible that three days after the event you can still get a 30 minute news programme that reduces all other news to a couple of minutes at the end. But I think that just indicates the scale of what's happened, and what continues to be realised about it.
This evening's news had footage of some of the first landings on the closer in of some of the more remote island chains affected, and in many cases the devastation is total. It's like post-hurricane footage, and though common sense says that a tidal wave (or waves) could be as devastating, somehow it takes seeing scenes like this to make the actual force that can be generated real.
Donations from the UK are being co-ordinated through the Disasters Emergency Committee, through whose site you can also make donations yourself.
Jon and David’s Big Day Out
In a desperate attempt not to spend the entire break slobbing around playing games and doing not much else, we went out for the day today. A drive to the coast - to Deal in fact - blew the cobwebs out, then we tried to give in to David's desire to explore a castle, only to discover that Dover Castle is (very selectively) 'Closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in November, December and January'). With a view to seeing Battle Abbey we headed across Kent, only to get to Hastings late enough that there wasn't much light left, so we took a walk on the beach and ate chips instead. The beach did another good job on the cobwebs.
Now it's nice to be home and cosy.
Daggers Drawn
We went to see House of Flying Daggers last night, and I can safely say enjoyed it hugely. I think it benefits from us having seen Hero so relatively recently, because it's possible to appreciate the development in style of both storytelling and direction between the two. There are a few points of dissatisfaction, chief of which is that much of the latter half of the film builds up to a major confrontation between the Government forces and those of the House of Flying Daggers, which then isn't shown. Call me shallow if you will, but I really wanted to see the battling hoards. Fair enough it was a much more personal tale, and it's appropriate that the ending focuses on the personal, but I think it was a mistake to build up so much investment in that event and then not pay it off.
Otherwise though, pretty damn stunning.
Halo Again Again
Forgot to mention that having been introduced to the world of Halo when David bought Halo 2 on its release, and having decided to start over from the beginning of the first game in order to get used to it, I actually finished the second one the weekend before Christmas.
Yes, I know it took a while, but as previously established I'm not that much into shooty-shooty video games.
So Much For ‘No News’
Just before the break I remarked that I wasn't talking much about the news at the moment, but today it's difficult not to. I spent most of the journey back into town listening to coverage of the Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami, and it's extremely sobering stuff. It sounds like at least nine or ten different countries, including several which are entirely comprised of islands which may not even be there any more, are directly affected. The reported figure for likely deaths is 13,000 at the moment, but I don't see how it can possibly be that low - the impact is so wide I'd expect that figure to grow by four or five times at least.
The largest earthquake for 40 years, and it's hard to imagine, from the point of view of simply the scale and complexity of the relief that will be needed, how it could possibly have happened in a worse location.
Outta Here
Right, I'm probably going to be offline for the next couple of days, so have a good break everyone, enjoy what time off you have, and don't eat too much turkey.
See you in a few.
No News
It occurs to me that recently this has very much veered over the line into diary more than blog - I'm not linking much, I'm not commenting much on world affairs and news, and I'm dwelling very much on day-to-day life.
How dull must this be for you? I really need to find the time and energy to get things going properly again.
Anyway, a few phone calls and some dealing with emails apart, I've mostly been switching off from work today and heading into wind-down mode. I doubt there's much in the news I actually could be commenting on at the moment, apart from the almost inevitable analysis of the pre-Christmas shopping trends....