Still not quite back into the blogging frame of mind... Turned 37 during last week, too... Wow.
So, today was a bit mixed. Started out well enough, with a trip down the road to restock my cupboards and fridge, and my return to the flat coinciding with the postman's arrival. He had nothing for me - my two birthday cards arrived last week - but, returning home after my second local shopping trip, I chanced to spy the ParcelForce delivery man.
On my first trip out, I found a ParcelForce delivery card downstairs, alerting me to the fact that they'd tried to deliver yesterday (but I hadn't let them in because I wasn't expecting my buzzer to go at 5pm, so I didn't bother answering it), so I intended to stick around at home as much as possible, getting all my shopping done early, and locally. When I saw this guy returning to his van, carrying a package, I gave chase... In a way, it was kind of like those moments in movies where the hero sees his quarry in the busy streets, and drops everything to give chase... Only I didn't drop everything (£20 worth of food shopping? Are you kidding?), I didn't have to run far to catch him in his van and, at around 11.30am, the suburban streets of my locale were hardly busy.
Producing the delivery card was not enough to prove my identity, however, so he had to follow me back up to the flat - opening my front door was proof enough, thankfully! - before handing over my package... Which turned out to be one of this year's TransFormers Collectors' Club exclusives - Animated TransTech Cheetor.
He's pretty darned cool, but a couple of things let it down: The head mold is quite good, full of character, but the lack of black linework means it doesn't quite look as 'Animated' as it deserves to... and the socket for the neck's ball joint is far too near the chin, so he doesn't have the same extent of protruding chin as the artwork. Still, the Animated Blurr mold was an excellent choice - being, as it was, somewhat derived from the designs for TransTech Cheetor - and the colourscheme is a nice middle-ground between the Animated stylings and Cheetor's Beast Wars/Beast Machines appearance. I wasn't interested in yet another Classics Seeker, so I didn't bother ordering G2 Ramjet (the garish colourscheme was another dealbreaker) and wasn't sorry about that even after it sold out... This is one Exclusive that's definitely worth having, though.
Despite having received this package, I decided not to venture out again, though I still need to restock in a couple of areas of my fridge. Instead, I watched a couple of films from the collections I was given as a birthday present by a friend.
Charade, starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, is an excellent thriller... it seems to have served as a template to many more recent movies which have lacked both the charisma of Charade's leads and the complexity of its central double-cross. It's rare that a contemporary thriller will keep me guessing past the first five minutes. Charade actually kept me guessing right up to the end - it's a very involving story made all the more charming by the brilliant performances of Grant and Hepburn and, despite being an out-and-out thriller, it has a sense of humour that was perfect for its time and which is sadly lacking from Hollywood's more recent output. The oddest thing about the Cary Grant collection I got is that two of the three movies I've watched (from a total of four) aren't billed as Cary Grant movies - he's playing second fiddle to Mae West in one, and Doris Day in the other, and the DVD menus haven't even been altered from their respective collections.
The Seven Year Itch is - I'm embarrassed to say - only the fourth Marilyn Monroe film I've ever seen... I have caught Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and River Of No Return on TV while I've been home, and watched another movie from this same DVD collection - How To Marry A Millionaire - earlier this week. She was clearly a fantastic actress, above and beyond her breathy bombshell roles, and had good comic timing. One of the special features on the disc includes an interview with the writer of the stage version, who opines that casting Marilyn Monroe in the film switched the focus of the story away from the adulterous man (except he's not in the movie version, thanks to the censors) to the object of his desires. I'd have to disagree... Tom Ewell does a brilliant job, and makes me wish I'd been around to see the stage version.
I've been generally distracted lately, not really focussing on anything as much as I should, and it was only a matter of time before I was going to suffer for it... This evening, while serving up my dessert - a chocolate orange sponge thing straight from the microwave - I managed to spill some of its red hot sauce on my finger. I got it under the cold tap quickly enough to prevent any serious scalding, but there is a very red patch just behind the fingernail of my left index finger... and, while it doesn't hurt, it's not exactly comfortable...
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Not So Much A Recurring Dream...
...As a recurring situation within a dream.
Imagine, if you will, a disparate group of people who meet in the home of one of the group. They're not friends, as such, but perhaps share a common interest... Though no-one may know what that is, necessarily. Inevitably, tensions arise between some members of this group. Some members may actually be dangerously insane.
On at least two occasions, I've found myself dreaming of just such a group. In that group, there is one guy who, for the most part, remains silent. Woe betide you, however, should you try to gain his attention, or if he engages you. The first time I dreamed of this group, I was on the periphery, and not really noticed. I don't remember who was the focus of his attention - none of the other characters really did much - but that attention was threatening, edging toward violence.
This time, however, he decided he liked the look of my (nondescript, Timex Expedition) watch, and removed it from my wrist. I objected, wanted it back and so, by way of 'compensation', he offered me a bracelet that could have been made from shark's teeth. I recalled that he'd mentioned at a previous 'meeting' that this bracelet had been a gift from his brother, so I demurred... surely it had sentimental value?
He got up and left the room, seeking "a second opinion", since he felt his offer was wholly appropriate and generous but, in 'the other room', I could hear him ranting, eventually reaching the conclusion that perhaps he should just kill me.
Naturally, at this point, I started weighing up my escape options. I'd have to pass by that room to reach the exit, then there was a long walk (or, more likely, flat-out run) down the road to properly escape. I was basically terrified (though outwardly behaving as if I couldn't hear any of the conversation going on in 'the other room'), certain in my belief that, while I didn't know this guy, based on my previous encounters, he was perfectly capable of flipping out to the extent that he might actually do someone physical harm.
Over a very basic wristwatch.
Just because he'd taken a fancy to it, or simply wanted to assert his superiority.
In the end, I just woke up, but was left feeling uncomfortable enough that I didn't want to go back to sleep.
I did, though... and then got up earlier than I have in a long time (except perhaps last Sunday), showered, did the washing up, then started my laundry.
And it's not even 9.30am
Imagine, if you will, a disparate group of people who meet in the home of one of the group. They're not friends, as such, but perhaps share a common interest... Though no-one may know what that is, necessarily. Inevitably, tensions arise between some members of this group. Some members may actually be dangerously insane.
On at least two occasions, I've found myself dreaming of just such a group. In that group, there is one guy who, for the most part, remains silent. Woe betide you, however, should you try to gain his attention, or if he engages you. The first time I dreamed of this group, I was on the periphery, and not really noticed. I don't remember who was the focus of his attention - none of the other characters really did much - but that attention was threatening, edging toward violence.
This time, however, he decided he liked the look of my (nondescript, Timex Expedition) watch, and removed it from my wrist. I objected, wanted it back and so, by way of 'compensation', he offered me a bracelet that could have been made from shark's teeth. I recalled that he'd mentioned at a previous 'meeting' that this bracelet had been a gift from his brother, so I demurred... surely it had sentimental value?
He got up and left the room, seeking "a second opinion", since he felt his offer was wholly appropriate and generous but, in 'the other room', I could hear him ranting, eventually reaching the conclusion that perhaps he should just kill me.
Naturally, at this point, I started weighing up my escape options. I'd have to pass by that room to reach the exit, then there was a long walk (or, more likely, flat-out run) down the road to properly escape. I was basically terrified (though outwardly behaving as if I couldn't hear any of the conversation going on in 'the other room'), certain in my belief that, while I didn't know this guy, based on my previous encounters, he was perfectly capable of flipping out to the extent that he might actually do someone physical harm.
Over a very basic wristwatch.
Just because he'd taken a fancy to it, or simply wanted to assert his superiority.
In the end, I just woke up, but was left feeling uncomfortable enough that I didn't want to go back to sleep.
I did, though... and then got up earlier than I have in a long time (except perhaps last Sunday), showered, did the washing up, then started my laundry.
And it's not even 9.30am
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Two Journeys In Contrast
And so, after another overlong and unintentional hiatus (read: laziness on my part), it seems fitting that the first post is about shopping for toys...
After being unable to get to the nearest branch of Smyth's on Friday, I somehow thought it would be a good idea to make the journey by public transport yesterday.
Not my wisest decision ever.
My first mistake came via the necessity to visit my bank to extract sufficient funds for today's escapades. This took me to Harrow but, I believed, there were plenty of options available to get me from there to Brent Cross for my transfer onward. The most obvious option (possibly the only option from Harrow, these days) turned out to be the 186.
When I took my seat, I was shortly joined by a kid who asked how long it'd take to get to Brent Cross, and at what point in the journey we'd be going through Wembley. He must have sat next to me specifically to ask these questions because, at that point, the bus was all but empty. Unfortunate for both of us that, since it's been so long since I used anything like this route, I was unable to answer - though I ventured the estimate of about half an hour to 45 minutes to get to Brent Cross. As it transpired, I think we were both thinking of the 182.
The route was... circuitous, to say the least... and, with terrible traffic most of the way, it ended up taking something like two hours. I'd heard there were problems on the North Circular, but figured the journey on to Friern Barnet shouldn't take much longer... but there was about a 20 minute wait for the bus (while at least two headed in the opposite direction passed through), then the final leg got completely mired in roadworks, adding another hour to the journey.
And then I was only in Smyth's for about 10 minutes.
But the tribulations didn't end there... the journey back, whilst made by a different (far more sensible) route, was also hit by the roadworks (bizarre, really, considering the road had been virtually empty on the way out), and getting back to Brent Cross must have taken most of an hour, because the whole journey back home took something in the region of two hours.
So, that's five hours travel for 10 minutes of shopping. Nice.
Today, however, I had to set my alarm to be sure I'd get up in time* to get to ExCeL for the London Expo's 10am Sunday opening time. The journey couldn't have been simpler, and was even quicker than I had expected. Typically, though, it couldn't all be perfect. That mainstay of the London Expo - excessive queuing - reared its head again. Even with our pre-paid entry tickets scanned, and our bracelets attached, my old mate Paul and I had to join a queue for entry, which only started moving 10 minutes after the billed opening time of 10am. It moved pretty rapidly but, looking at the fluidity of Memorabilia at the NEC, I can't understand how the queuing was necessary at all.
Still, the show was pretty good... Not so much of interest on the sales front (I spent less than half the money I'd taken, and made only two purchases other than lunch!), and it seemed that T-shirts and anime plushies are the growth commodity at the moment - though a small (and fairly eclectic) 'Steampunk exhibition' was further indication that that strange fashion style is gaining popularity.
So I bought very little - a bunch of T-shirts from Genki Gear (some for me, some not) and a couple of transforming robots from FansProject (Crossfire/Causality CA-01 and -02) from one of the first stalls I visited. After that, I think I picked up one DVD (the first Eden of the East movie, following on from the events of the series, which I watched recently on DVD), had some lunch, then sat down in the main theatre for three panels - BBC3's upcoming The Fades (looks like it has potential, but I'm tending to be sceptical of the BBC's attempts at horror, other than Being Human), Futurama (five of the voice actors - very entertaining) and X-Men: First Class (the two writers discussing their movie, Bryan Singer's two, and various other topics).
After all that excitement, Paul announced that a friend from his workplace was nearby, and we went off to meet her. Dressed as Claire Redfield (circa Resident Evil 2), she was with a friend dressed as a mouse (and who didn't actually join us, just stayed sat by the wall, looking over occasionally), and happily chatted about Cosplay generally, and the plans she and her group have for the October show (rebranded Memorabilia London).
Sometime afterward, it occurred to me that Paul may have been introducing me to his girlfriend... but that seems unlikely based on the conversation as a whole... Who knows, though?
I did manage to lose one stall that had a couple of artbooks I may have been interested in, but I didn't get a good look when I found them because, by that time, things were getting crowded, so that saved me a bit of money. Other than that, the only notable thing was the appearance of a Crossplayer who beat 'Funny Bunny Man' hands down.
Gentle reader, 'Funny Bunny Man' was a skinny kid with short, curly brown hair, who'd dressed as a bunny girl for an Expo several years ago. He'd used sellotape to keep the costume in place on his chest. It was scary. Even scarier than the 'Guy Dressed As Female Cloud Strife From Final Fantasy 7' I saw at a later show. Today's gem of Crossplay was 'Cutie Fairy Guy'... Short-ish, not fat, but certainly not slim, wearing a purple corset, deelie-bopper antennae, wings stuck down to his back (as opposed to flapping about, hanging off his back) and comparatively tasteful levels of makeup. Really taking his Crossplay seriously, rather than doing it for a joke... and all the more worrying for it.
And if getting to the show was smooth, getting home was even better. Barely any wait for the DLR, the transfers (a different route for our return journey) were free of trouble, and we ended up getting home just over an hour later, having set a new record for most time (and, probably, least money) spent at a London Expo. Arriving mere moments after 10am, we had stayed till almost 3pm!
(*Actually, I needn't have set my alarm at all. My neighbours kept waking me up between midnight and 3am having noisy arguements, and the cleaning crew for the office next door started their hoovering at 6.30am, the perfect time for me to get up and start getting ready...)
After being unable to get to the nearest branch of Smyth's on Friday, I somehow thought it would be a good idea to make the journey by public transport yesterday.
Not my wisest decision ever.
My first mistake came via the necessity to visit my bank to extract sufficient funds for today's escapades. This took me to Harrow but, I believed, there were plenty of options available to get me from there to Brent Cross for my transfer onward. The most obvious option (possibly the only option from Harrow, these days) turned out to be the 186.
When I took my seat, I was shortly joined by a kid who asked how long it'd take to get to Brent Cross, and at what point in the journey we'd be going through Wembley. He must have sat next to me specifically to ask these questions because, at that point, the bus was all but empty. Unfortunate for both of us that, since it's been so long since I used anything like this route, I was unable to answer - though I ventured the estimate of about half an hour to 45 minutes to get to Brent Cross. As it transpired, I think we were both thinking of the 182.
The route was... circuitous, to say the least... and, with terrible traffic most of the way, it ended up taking something like two hours. I'd heard there were problems on the North Circular, but figured the journey on to Friern Barnet shouldn't take much longer... but there was about a 20 minute wait for the bus (while at least two headed in the opposite direction passed through), then the final leg got completely mired in roadworks, adding another hour to the journey.
And then I was only in Smyth's for about 10 minutes.
But the tribulations didn't end there... the journey back, whilst made by a different (far more sensible) route, was also hit by the roadworks (bizarre, really, considering the road had been virtually empty on the way out), and getting back to Brent Cross must have taken most of an hour, because the whole journey back home took something in the region of two hours.
So, that's five hours travel for 10 minutes of shopping. Nice.
Today, however, I had to set my alarm to be sure I'd get up in time* to get to ExCeL for the London Expo's 10am Sunday opening time. The journey couldn't have been simpler, and was even quicker than I had expected. Typically, though, it couldn't all be perfect. That mainstay of the London Expo - excessive queuing - reared its head again. Even with our pre-paid entry tickets scanned, and our bracelets attached, my old mate Paul and I had to join a queue for entry, which only started moving 10 minutes after the billed opening time of 10am. It moved pretty rapidly but, looking at the fluidity of Memorabilia at the NEC, I can't understand how the queuing was necessary at all.
Still, the show was pretty good... Not so much of interest on the sales front (I spent less than half the money I'd taken, and made only two purchases other than lunch!), and it seemed that T-shirts and anime plushies are the growth commodity at the moment - though a small (and fairly eclectic) 'Steampunk exhibition' was further indication that that strange fashion style is gaining popularity.
So I bought very little - a bunch of T-shirts from Genki Gear (some for me, some not) and a couple of transforming robots from FansProject (Crossfire/Causality CA-01 and -02) from one of the first stalls I visited. After that, I think I picked up one DVD (the first Eden of the East movie, following on from the events of the series, which I watched recently on DVD), had some lunch, then sat down in the main theatre for three panels - BBC3's upcoming The Fades (looks like it has potential, but I'm tending to be sceptical of the BBC's attempts at horror, other than Being Human), Futurama (five of the voice actors - very entertaining) and X-Men: First Class (the two writers discussing their movie, Bryan Singer's two, and various other topics).
After all that excitement, Paul announced that a friend from his workplace was nearby, and we went off to meet her. Dressed as Claire Redfield (circa Resident Evil 2), she was with a friend dressed as a mouse (and who didn't actually join us, just stayed sat by the wall, looking over occasionally), and happily chatted about Cosplay generally, and the plans she and her group have for the October show (rebranded Memorabilia London).
Sometime afterward, it occurred to me that Paul may have been introducing me to his girlfriend... but that seems unlikely based on the conversation as a whole... Who knows, though?
I did manage to lose one stall that had a couple of artbooks I may have been interested in, but I didn't get a good look when I found them because, by that time, things were getting crowded, so that saved me a bit of money. Other than that, the only notable thing was the appearance of a Crossplayer who beat 'Funny Bunny Man' hands down.
Gentle reader, 'Funny Bunny Man' was a skinny kid with short, curly brown hair, who'd dressed as a bunny girl for an Expo several years ago. He'd used sellotape to keep the costume in place on his chest. It was scary. Even scarier than the 'Guy Dressed As Female Cloud Strife From Final Fantasy 7' I saw at a later show. Today's gem of Crossplay was 'Cutie Fairy Guy'... Short-ish, not fat, but certainly not slim, wearing a purple corset, deelie-bopper antennae, wings stuck down to his back (as opposed to flapping about, hanging off his back) and comparatively tasteful levels of makeup. Really taking his Crossplay seriously, rather than doing it for a joke... and all the more worrying for it.
And if getting to the show was smooth, getting home was even better. Barely any wait for the DLR, the transfers (a different route for our return journey) were free of trouble, and we ended up getting home just over an hour later, having set a new record for most time (and, probably, least money) spent at a London Expo. Arriving mere moments after 10am, we had stayed till almost 3pm!
(*Actually, I needn't have set my alarm at all. My neighbours kept waking me up between midnight and 3am having noisy arguements, and the cleaning crew for the office next door started their hoovering at 6.30am, the perfect time for me to get up and start getting ready...)
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