Another Mile on the Clock

My family have a strange way of doing things. This is particularly evident around birthdays and Christmas.

Most of the time, these days, every member of the family asks every other what they'd like as a present. It's not through lack of care, just the reality of our lives... We all live separately now, have our own lives and, while we probably communicate more (and better) that we did when we all lived together, we no longer have the same connection, the same sense of each other's interests and desires.

So, while it's pretty safe for anyone to get me a TransFormers toy, they can't be sure if it's one that I want, or one that I don't already have. It's equally safe to get me the latest book by Terry Pratchett... though even that has led to me receiving the same book twice. Clothes are essentially out of the question, because the clothes I buy myself are nothing like the clothes family will buy for me. I tend to get something Dragon-y for my mother, and either DVDs of a documentary series, science-y books or Benedictine for my father. Those are kind of fallback presents, though... I'd like to get something more interesting/less obvious. My sister... is a bit more complicated, but there are even fallback presents for her.

Whenever a birthday is rolling round these days, we tend to direct each other to our Amazon wish lists. This, at least, assures us that we're getting something that the recipient really wants, and doesn't already have.

Thus, for my birthday this year, I got two books from my sister (and niece and brother-in-law), and the Torchwood complete boxed set from my folks.

The former pair are a book on writing (or, in fact, any form of creative output) and a book on cooking (specifically Rachel Khoo's The Little Paris Kitchen), neither of which should be any surprise to anyone. The last, considering how much I loathed the TV series, might seem a little strange, even though I like Sci-Fi generally. Even considering the thoughts I've had on a reboot for the series, why would I want to own a boxed set of the stuff that I didn't like... and why would I ask someone else to buy it for me?

Well... as I start to watch the series all over again (beginning, as it happens, with the most recent series, Miracle Day), I hope to be able to provide an answer other than "research"... Certainly, having watched the first disc today, I have to admit that it's more interesting and entertaining than I remember. Still poorly written in places, still full of gratuitous nonsense (it is a co-production with Starz, after all... I had the misfortune of watching the first couple of episodes of their Spartacus series yesterday... It's overly talky, as porn goes, but the music is better than average) but I'm thinking (for the moment - this may well change) that I should have given it more of a chance when it was first broadcast...