I toyed - briefly - today with the idea of attempting to follow the progress of my flat in more detail, with regular postings about what's happened and when... but then I realised that I haven't been blogging a great deal lately, so it'd probably just slowly fade out.
Still, there has been progress, and it's somewhat blogworthy (hell, belly button fluff is blogworthy to some...) so I may as well relate it here.
I have decided to have wood-laminate floor in the hall and bedroom, with carpet in the lounge and lino or laminate in the kitchen and bathroom. Wood-laminate flooring has been ordered (delivery expected on Monday, any time between 8am and 6.30pm). Carpet has been chosen, but not yet ordered. Bedroom furniture (bar bed) is on order (delivery expected 10th Sept). Beds have been investigated (though not exhaustively - just enough to have a vague idea that I'd like a double if possible, and preferably something with storage in the base) but nothing ordered. The gas boiler is being serviced on Friday.
Today, my folks and I tripped over to the flat to start ripping up the old (vile, orange) carpet to investigate the pits, hollow-sounding sections and occasional squeak. About three hours of that revealed that the wood board will probably make a better base for the wood-laminate flooring than the hardboard that had been laid beneath the carpet, as long as those boards that need it are more firmly secured with nails or screws.
We also discovered that whoever did the plumbing swept their mess underneath the floorboards rather than take it away (classy). There are piles of all kinds of crap that, frankly, are a bit of a fire hazard.
On which subject, it could well be that someone in the past (since the maisonettes were converted into flats) decided to pour petrol through the letterbox, as there is a large, oily stain to the wood spreading out from the doorway.
Still, some good progress was made and the more hardboard we pull up, the better idea we have of what really needs doing before the floor can be laid.
Aside from the shoddy work on the flooring, the most bizarre find today was a small plushie flying elephant, which had been stuffed behind the hallway radiator. It has a plastic hook on the end of a cord, suggesting that it was meant to be suspended on a pram or cot.
Annoyingly, we heard nothing from the window people last week until my mother paid them a visit. We had the impression that all was ready, but my unfortunate first choice of door had caused a delay. Not so. The door is on display in their window... the glass for everything else has not yet been delivered. Until that happens, I won't have anything like a firm installation date, so I won't be able to warn the neighbours and shops below that the windows are being replaced.
On a more positive note, yesterday I trotted around Harrow and Rayners Lane looking into beds, bathrooms and kitchens. A shop just down the road from the flat is putting together a couple of designs for the bathroom (one keeping everything where it is, another moving things around), and another local business will be popping by next Tuesday afternoon to look into the kitchen.
It would be very cool to use the local businesses wherever possible, because it's better to help them thrive than let the bigger chains put everyone out of business. Plus, there's the outside chance they'll actually be cheaper.
I'm going through phases, lately, where I'm either ambivalent toward the flat or just plain dreading everything to do with it. I want to choose all the decor myself (specifically avoiding anything my mother likes), and yet I'm either bewildered by choice or inspired by nothing, and would prefer someone else to make the choices. Simultaneously, I want to move in straight away, or not at all. That might seem strange, but I am full of such contradictions.
Saturday, 30 August 2008
Monday, 25 August 2008
One Hell of a Sequel
There really must be something in the rules about writers and directors working with properties they're fans of. Russel T. Davis and Doctor Who pale into insignificance when compared to Guillermo del Toro and Hellboy.
That's not to say they're bad films... just that it feels as though del Toro is so keen to show his audience how wonderful Hellboy is, he kinda forgets to make a worthwhile film to do so.
The first attempted - with some success - to introduce the cinemagoing public to Hellboy, a character created by artist Mike Mignola, and personified in the movies with great ablomb by the excellent Ron Perlman. Trouble is, the movie followed a rather dull formula. Rather than throwing the audience into Hellboy's world, it introduced a superfluous character to be our eyes and ears, to help us indentify with the characters. It killed off a major character so we'd know the bad guys were really evil (some were Nazis, but the main one was Rasputin... Most people wouldn't need much by way of hints to know they're supposed to be evil). It also had a terribly anticlimactic climactic battle, and a rather heavy-handed 'touching' moment at the end.
In many ways, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army follows the same formula, but with more and greater spectacle thrown in. It opens with a scene from Hellboy's early days on Earth (allowing for a brief return for John Hurt as Professor Broom, and a quite clumsy setup for the story, though the puppet effects are cool), then cuts to the present day. The main bad guy in this film kills his own father - rather than someone else's - to prove the depths of his evil. There's lots of running around, shooting and big fights. The climactic battle is far more impressive (less CGI), and yet it's pretty much ruined because the result has been made blindingly obvious from the very beginning. Worse still, the 'touching' scene towards the end directly mirrors the equivalent scene in the first film.
There are also far too many brief scenes which seem to exist for no purpose - they don't advance the plot, they're not dealt with in any depth, and they're not returned to later.
It's far better than the first film, but it just seems as though del Toro wants to show everyone why (he thinks) Hellboy is so darned cool.
Still, Luke Goss was pretty good, and Ron Perlman was brilliant as always.
Before the film, I popped into Argos and took advantage of their 25% off TransFormers Animated figures, and picked up Leader Class Bulkhead. I really don't get why he's warming shelves at Toys'R'Us. For £40 (or £30 from Argos) you get a decent-sized, quite poseable figure that's full of character and has a decent collection of light and sound effects. His three spoken phrases are well-chosen and, while the lights in robot mode just do the usual (boring, pointless) flashing, in vehicle mode, they're cleverly arranged to set off his roof-mounted lightbar as his siren sounds.
Transformation is, I'd imagine, quite close to the Voyager Class version, but with a few extra bits here and there. The Headmaster gimmick is quite interesting, but adds only one spoken phrase to his repertoire.
Much as I dislike the design aesthetic of the TV show (though I'm beginning to think I'd like to watch more of it, and will be trying to find the pilot DVD), the toys have turned out to be very well-designed. Quality Control has been rather poor, and most of the models are lacking in the paint department, but they're cool nonetheless.
That's not to say they're bad films... just that it feels as though del Toro is so keen to show his audience how wonderful Hellboy is, he kinda forgets to make a worthwhile film to do so.
The first attempted - with some success - to introduce the cinemagoing public to Hellboy, a character created by artist Mike Mignola, and personified in the movies with great ablomb by the excellent Ron Perlman. Trouble is, the movie followed a rather dull formula. Rather than throwing the audience into Hellboy's world, it introduced a superfluous character to be our eyes and ears, to help us indentify with the characters. It killed off a major character so we'd know the bad guys were really evil (some were Nazis, but the main one was Rasputin... Most people wouldn't need much by way of hints to know they're supposed to be evil). It also had a terribly anticlimactic climactic battle, and a rather heavy-handed 'touching' moment at the end.
In many ways, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army follows the same formula, but with more and greater spectacle thrown in. It opens with a scene from Hellboy's early days on Earth (allowing for a brief return for John Hurt as Professor Broom, and a quite clumsy setup for the story, though the puppet effects are cool), then cuts to the present day. The main bad guy in this film kills his own father - rather than someone else's - to prove the depths of his evil. There's lots of running around, shooting and big fights. The climactic battle is far more impressive (less CGI), and yet it's pretty much ruined because the result has been made blindingly obvious from the very beginning. Worse still, the 'touching' scene towards the end directly mirrors the equivalent scene in the first film.
There are also far too many brief scenes which seem to exist for no purpose - they don't advance the plot, they're not dealt with in any depth, and they're not returned to later.
It's far better than the first film, but it just seems as though del Toro wants to show everyone why (he thinks) Hellboy is so darned cool.
Still, Luke Goss was pretty good, and Ron Perlman was brilliant as always.
Before the film, I popped into Argos and took advantage of their 25% off TransFormers Animated figures, and picked up Leader Class Bulkhead. I really don't get why he's warming shelves at Toys'R'Us. For £40 (or £30 from Argos) you get a decent-sized, quite poseable figure that's full of character and has a decent collection of light and sound effects. His three spoken phrases are well-chosen and, while the lights in robot mode just do the usual (boring, pointless) flashing, in vehicle mode, they're cleverly arranged to set off his roof-mounted lightbar as his siren sounds.
Transformation is, I'd imagine, quite close to the Voyager Class version, but with a few extra bits here and there. The Headmaster gimmick is quite interesting, but adds only one spoken phrase to his repertoire.
Much as I dislike the design aesthetic of the TV show (though I'm beginning to think I'd like to watch more of it, and will be trying to find the pilot DVD), the toys have turned out to be very well-designed. Quality Control has been rather poor, and most of the models are lacking in the paint department, but they're cool nonetheless.
Saturday, 16 August 2008
Making Room(s)
Having popped down the road this morning to get my new passport photos sorted, this afternoon, I ventured to MFI with my mother to start checking out furniture in person and getting the rooms planned out.
While the first port of call was the kitchen display (I walked in, looked at the one right in the entrance, loved it, pointed at it, and said "That one!"... but later changed my mind having seen some of the others), we looked at the bathrooms (I have a very roomy bathroom, so I can probably do quite a lot there) and bedrooms before settling to order some bedroom furniture (minus bed). I'm having some nice sliding-door wardrobes with lots of space-saving gadgetry, but we ordered 2 sets of wardrobes (frankly, quite excessive except as extra storage space) and it turned out when my mother rechecked her measurements that there's only room for one wardrobe. She'll be heading back to MFI during the week to cancel one of them... Good old 7-day cool-off period.
She feels it's a waste of space to have nothing there, but we shall see. I'm sure I'll figure out what I really need there.
So, I have one wardrobe, a chest of drawers, a bedside table (minus bed) and a spinny storage unit/mirror on their way... Due to arrive just after my 2-week holiday (spinny thing sometime after, due to delays with stock), but I'm sure I can take time off if necessary.
We need to get the floors sorted out before that stuff arrives, or it'll be rather pointless setting it all up, but my folks reckon they can make a start on that during the coming week. I'm intending to have wood flooring in the hall and bedroom, laminate in the bathroom and kitchen, and carpet in the lounge.
Of course, it's not all going to happen immediately... Quite the opposite, even though the furniture I ordered today worked out at about a third of its list price thanks to a sale. My guess is it'll be one room at a time, over the course of a few months, once the windows are sorted.
Fine by me.
While the first port of call was the kitchen display (I walked in, looked at the one right in the entrance, loved it, pointed at it, and said "That one!"... but later changed my mind having seen some of the others), we looked at the bathrooms (I have a very roomy bathroom, so I can probably do quite a lot there) and bedrooms before settling to order some bedroom furniture (minus bed). I'm having some nice sliding-door wardrobes with lots of space-saving gadgetry, but we ordered 2 sets of wardrobes (frankly, quite excessive except as extra storage space) and it turned out when my mother rechecked her measurements that there's only room for one wardrobe. She'll be heading back to MFI during the week to cancel one of them... Good old 7-day cool-off period.
She feels it's a waste of space to have nothing there, but we shall see. I'm sure I'll figure out what I really need there.
So, I have one wardrobe, a chest of drawers, a bedside table (minus bed) and a spinny storage unit/mirror on their way... Due to arrive just after my 2-week holiday (spinny thing sometime after, due to delays with stock), but I'm sure I can take time off if necessary.
We need to get the floors sorted out before that stuff arrives, or it'll be rather pointless setting it all up, but my folks reckon they can make a start on that during the coming week. I'm intending to have wood flooring in the hall and bedroom, laminate in the bathroom and kitchen, and carpet in the lounge.
Of course, it's not all going to happen immediately... Quite the opposite, even though the furniture I ordered today worked out at about a third of its list price thanks to a sale. My guess is it'll be one room at a time, over the course of a few months, once the windows are sorted.
Fine by me.
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