A Face In The Crowd

Tribute To Nine - A Wonderful Life

2007-04-27T12:21:41Z

Vid : A Wonderful Life - Tribute To Nine
Song : Wonderful Life - Black
Spoilers: All of Season 1
Made by : Me (jackzter)

A look back at some random moments in the oh so short but oh so wonderful single season of Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor

Doctor / Reinette Fanvid

2007-04-14T15:19:36Z

A fanvid I did to try and summon enough inspiration to actually write some fanfic. Inspired not by 'The Girl In The Fireplace' (though I do love the episode) but by rewatching Dracula. The TV version with Sophia Myles in it. Doomed woman involved with an aristocrat, loved by a doctor who is destined to get his heart broken. Sort of reminded me of something else. Plus the doctor in it is played by the same actor who plays David Tennant's son in the last episode of Casanova.

The result is a vid of two halves. The first looking back at the events of 'The Girl In The Fireplace' while the second half imagines what if the Doctor had gone back for Reinette.

Vid : Doctor Who Unbound - Return To Reinette
Song : Last Of The Mohicans theme
Spoilers: Season 2, Dracula, Casanova, Tristan and Isolde
Made by : Me (jackzter)
Pairing : Ten / Reinette
Premise : After the Runaway Bride, the Doctor decides to follow Donna's advice and find someone to travel with him. Reinette. However he finds he may have a rival for her love. A rival just as charming but far more deadly...

Random Wallpapers

2007-03-28T19:40:55Z

Three random wallpapers.

1. David Tennant / Casanova

Inspired by a Casanova music vid I did a while back and by rewatching the series over the past few days.

2. Freema Agyeman / Martha Jones

A reworked wallpaper done because time seems to be dragging now that the new series is but days away. Is it Saturday yet?

3. Deborah Watling / Victoria

A couple of variations done because I'm currently working my way through the brilliant Patrick Troughton episodes.

Sick Week

2007-02-22T14:15:47Z

I've only ever enjoyed being sick for a week once. That was back when I was nine years old and got chickenpox. Not the first week of being sick with the chickenpox either. That sucked as much as being ill ever has with the spots, the itchiness and the whole feeling like crap. The second week was great though. That week was when all the symptoms disappeared, I felt great but I had to stay off school for a week as i was still contagious.

As was my best friend at the time. I can't remember if he had given the illness to me or me to him but either way we both got to spend a week being sick and the next week having a holiday from school. Exactly what we did is lost in the mists of memory but I can remember having a great time that week. That and being asked by every single person we came across what we were doing off school.

It was actually the last time I had any significant time off sick for the rest of my school days. In the next nine years I had exactly three days off school. Not that those three days were for an illness. They were actually because I pulled a muscle in my neck by jumping out of bed too quickly. Something you wouldn't catch me doing now.

The point is after that bout of chickenpox I never really got really sick again. The odd sniffle, stomach bug or whatlike but never something to make me feel ill enough to be off school or work. Which suited me fine as I hate being ill. I know some people who actually seemed to revel in being sick despite their protests but I never understood that. Still don't.

However, becoming a parent seems to have totally screwed up my immune system. Now every sniffle my daughter gets I get and those bugs then seem to thrive in my system.
Such was the case last week when my daughter started coughinh and a day later I was laid up in bed feeling like death warmed up. A feeling tghat lasted all of last week and had me either in bed or on the sofa coughing up flem, blowing out snot and generally feeling terrible. Yet my Better Half, as always, didn't get a sniffle. She seems to have stolen my bug immunity since we got together. Which sucks as now my daughter has started school full time no doubt she will be bringing all sorts of bugs back here, Can't wait.

Patrick Troughton

2007-02-08T21:50:45Z

An interview done with Patrick Troughton on American radio I put up on Youtube. As it is a radio interview it is accompanied by a slideshow of Patrick pictures.

Plus below the cut a few more colourised pics I did for it. The Babelfish ones blow mine out of the water but its fun to do so I enjoyed it. Might even try colourising a few seconds of Troughton just to see if I can.

Restart

2007-02-08T21:48:58Z

Nearly five months without an entry. My procrastination has reached new heights. As it seems has my ability to actually string a written sentence together. I somehow need to get my creative juices flowing again. Probably by writing that Doctor Who fanfic I've been meaning to do since I did the Doctor Who and Torchwood Unbound vids I did and put up on Youtube. Just have to start writing again no matter how rubbish I think it is.

Marshmallow Tardis

2006-09-27T22:36:02Z

Yesterday we ran out of bog roll.

That has nothing to do with the rest of this entry by the way. It is just the reason why I was in the local store at ten minutes to four yesterday afternoon. Which thanks to the Sunday trading laws which means it has to shut at four meant I was just in time to get replacement toilets rolls. With puppies on them. Anyway thats by the by because what caught my eye was not the vast assortment of loo rolls but the tardis. Not the full size one which would have caused me to explode with excitement but small ones, on the shelves filled with marshmallows.

Just part of the encroachment of Christmas stuff that is slowly taking over the store one shelf at a time. of course a little blue tardis doesn't exactly scream Christmas (unless you are on tenterhooks for the Christmas special) but I personally would love it as a stocking filler. Except that I wanted it there and then. Unfortunately I had just enough money on me to get the loo rolls. I actually considered for a moment trying to get to the bank and back before the shop shut but I knew that was impossible. Still I could always return lunchtime today to get one. It was as if they were going to sell out in less than a day.

They did. Almost anyway. I went back in today to get one and the shelves were bare. The very last one was actually being held by some woman in her twenties. Now it is entirely possible that she was buying it as a surprise gift for her son, daughter, niece, nephew, whatever. except i recognised the look in her eye that said here was a fellow Doctor Who fan and she was getting it for herself. And depriving me of my mini Tardis moneybox.

Fortunately we appeared to have something else in common. A non-fan other half. I don't know if the guy with her was her boyfriend, her husband or what but he was looking at her with a mixture of contempt and pity as if to say you aren't going to buy that are you? Recognise that look too. And she bless or curse her was so reluctant to put it back. She wanted it. Even tried to convince him it was good because it was filled with chocolate coins. Maybe he was a chocoholic. I don't know. I do know he would have been disappointed if she had bought it because it is filled with marshmallows not chocolate.

Anyway she very, very, very reluctantly put it back. I felt for her I really did. Not enough to stop me picking it up and buying it myself though.

Now I just need my dalek....

Autumnal Equinox

2006-09-26T22:43:43Z

Finally it's the autumnal equinox. The official start of autumn and the beginning of my two favourite seasons. That should mean snappily cold mornings, foggy days, rain, leaves falling from trees and a me much more happy with the way the weather is. Except it seems no-one has told Mother Nature that is what we are supposed to be having now. Or if they have she has told them to sod off and is still having her hot flushes.

Pick any day out of the last week and if you were plonked outside and didn't know whatmonth of the year it was then you wouldn't pick September. There have been one or two sort of cold mornings. They however haven't lasted all that long. Come 9am and the sun has blazed down enough so that outside it is hot and sticky. Hot enough so that you would be forgiven for thinking it is midsummer rather than almost October.

I mean there are signs here and there that autumn is coming. Certain plants are dying off and a few flowers are looking incredibly sad and wilty. But that isn't because of it getting colder just the plants not having the enegy to continue to bloom. Unlike the trees which are greener probably than they have ever been and looking a million miles away from being ready to shed their leaves.

I'm really hoping that this isn't an indicator of another mild winter. Given the way that energy prices have skyrocketed this year that would actually be good for my wallet but it would be bad for my soul. It needs a cold winter, lots of snow and just a plain simple wintery winter after seemingly endless winters which actually seem like a wet spring come early.

The Hamster Crashes

2006-09-23T23:07:10Z

The big news splashed all across the front page of just about every paper today has been that Richard Hammond, one of the Top Gear presenters, has had a very nasty car crash. Nasty as in crashing at 280mph. Somehow he didn't die but was rushed to hospital with serious brain injuries.

The reaction to it reminds me of the reaction to Steve Irwin's death. Even though Richard Hammond survived a lot of people seem to have been hit as hard by this accident and have been watching or listening to the updates throughout the day. That includes me. It actually sort of surprises me how much my heart was in my mouth when I first saw that story splashed across the front of my paper. It happened yesterday but for some reason I had avoided all mention of it until I went to get the paper.

Strange that you can feel connected and that emotional about someone you don't even know. At least know in person. Like the vast majority of people who were upset at the news I only know him through the shows he presents on TV. Mainly Top Gear and Brainiac but I've also seen him in a few others which I've watched just because he was in it. That is definitely the case with Top Gear. Brainiac I love because it is all about science, sometimes questionable science but always funny, and I have always loved that. Top Gear though is about cars. A subject which should bore me to death and often has.

By no stretch of the imagination could I be described as a petrolhead. I really don't care if one car can go 0-60 0.25 seconds quicker than another one or if it can go around a test track a whole three seconds quicker. Driving a car can be in=teresting but watching someone else do that is as boring as watching paint dry. It really is.

Yet I watch Top Gear. I even watch the old ones on UKTV Gold when I catch them. Why? Because I love the camaraderie and bond between the three presenters.They make the show not just watchable but fun and get even a non petrolhead like me enjoying watching cars go round and round. Richard Hammond is a big part of that and from what you see of his personality he is a great guy. I'm hoping for his and his family's sakes he comes through this.

Soldier, Soldier

2006-09-23T22:44:36Z

A slightly out of the ordinary walk to school this morning. Nothing out of the ordinary with my daughter. She was still her usual non stop talkative self on the way there. Still running and skipping and asking to be carried on my shoulders when she got sick of walking. And I was enjoying it as much as usual so no change there. What was out of the ordinary was that halfway there we turned a corner to be confronted by soldiers.

Not that soldiers are something out of the ordinary in this town. Just the opposite. I live a hop, skip and a jump away from some army family housing so there are always soldiers coming or going in uniform. Plus there is a barracks not far away either and even more army housing so whether it doesn't matter where you are running into a soldier or two in uniform is just an everyday occurence. First few weeks I moved here it was a little bit of a jar but now I notice them as much as I notice anyone else.

This morning, however, it was different. Because there wasn't just one or two soldiers coming down the street towards us but a whole host of them. At least fifty, marching along the pavement in double file and all with whopping great guns in their hands. Not that they would have been loaded of course but still the first time I have seen a soldier in the street with a gun. or lots of them with lots of guns.

Anyway we quickly crossed the street and watched them march on by. Still have no idea why they were marching down that street at 8.30 in the morning. On an exercise, coming back from one, transport broken down or whatever. I just know that it was a shock to see them.

Monday

2006-09-20T23:04:28Z

Monday, Bloody Monday! To change and misquote a U" song. I suppose I could have quoted the Boomtown Rats and said I Don't Like Mondays! Both of which would be true.And untrue at the same time. True because my mind and body really have a hard time adjusting to the change back to weekday routine from weekend routine. Or more precisely the lack of a routine on a weekend. Mondays are always the day I feel tireder, I have more difficulty getting up and the day it takes longest to become fully awake. Which is sometime after noon usually.

Yet I can't help feeling that shouldn't be the case. After all the weekend is usually only two days long, Saturday and Sunday, while the week has five whole days of the same routine with a few little twists. So really my default routine should be the weekday one. Meaning it should be easier to snap back into that and that the weekend behaviour should be the one to have to get used to. Other people seem to do that and be all bouncy, bouncy come Monday.

At least those I'm around are. But not me. I find that the weekends are as easy to relax into as Mondays are as hard to get going again. Which is why it is true that I dislike them so much. Yet it is also that same reason why part of me also likes them. Because I know it is too easy for me to sit back and relax when I'm in weekend mode. Too easy to do nothing. Fine for a little bit but not for ever. So I need that Monday morning feeling to actually start back up and get doing stuff besides what i have to do. So thank you Mondays for sucking so much.

The Walk To School

2006-09-20T22:48:33Z

My turn today to walk my daughter to school. Something which is always a pleasure and never a chore. It just sets me up for the day and puts a smile on my face. That is because though it isn't exactly a long walk, only ten minutes maximum if we are taking it really slowly, it is always fun. We talk, we laugh, we sing all the way there about totally random stuff and it is great. Our little father/daughter bonding time which we both love no matter the weather.

Today we lucked out with the weather. At least I did. My daughter got half of what she loves on the way to school. Bright sunshine. I got two things I love. Bright sunshine with a biting cold to it. Not icy, icy cold but a cold with a definite tang to it that tells you autumn is just around the corner.

Of course my daughter wouldn't be told it was cold. When it comes to the weather she is much more likely to believe what her eyes tell her rather than what it actually feels like. At least at first. So when it is sunny it follows in her mind that it is warm. How could it be different? That is the reason she refused point blank to wear her coat.

"But it's sunny, daddy!" she told me as if I was an idiot for thinking she could possibly need it.

Then less than a minute after leaving the house...

"It's cold daddy! I need my coat!"

With me being to blame of course for her not wearing one.

And what did we do today for those ten minutes? Shout at the moon for still being in the sky when it was day, attempt to figure out why a car that passed us had a squeaky wheel (it has a mouse living in it was the conclusion) and sang the black cat song with lyrics made up as we sang. Definitely a great start to any day.

Blade

2006-09-20T22:33:09Z

watched the last epsisode of the first season of Blade The Series tonight. My reaction? Disappointment. Not with the actual show. That I loved. Even more so now than when I orginally wrote about it. This has definitely joined the list of shows which I will buy on DVD (hopefully) and rewatch constantly. probably the first new show I've loved this much since Who and Galactica came back.

So why the disappointment? Firstly simply because I reached the end of the season. Thats it. No new episode next week. I always hate that when I'm either enjoying a great book or a fantastic TV show. I just don't want it to end. Which is why i love great big doorsteps of books which take as long as possible to get through while still being immenssley readable. Or why I hate the tendency of british TV to have a season of six episodes. Thats never enough. Give me the American practice of 22, 23 or 24 episodes. Or 12 in the case of Blade the Series.

Twelve episodes that could be it. There is no official word on it's cancellation or renewal but my money is on that being it. Twelve episodes to rewatch and enjoy but no more. No more expansion of the characters, no finding out what happens next, no new Blade The Series. That is disappointing. Knowing you would have been hooked on a show for the next few years but having all that potential enjoyment and fun yanked from you. Which is fairly routine for a sci-fi fan but it still sucks.

Tired

2006-09-13T22:26:43Z

Strange day. I've either been in bed asleep or wishing that I was. Which is strange as last night I slept longer and better than I have in a couple of weeks. No tossing and turning for an age before I got to sleep, no waking up in the middle of the night and struggling to get back to sleep, no early morning. Went to bed early, fell aleep as soon as my head touched the pillow and didn't wake up until 8am. Which is a lie in for me on a weekday.

Yet I don't feel rested. Don't feel much of anything besides totally exhausted and I've been feeling that all day. I've even gone so far as to having a couple of naps during the day which is not something i usually do or can do. I occassionally try but my mind always knows it is day time and refuses to sleep or rest because of that so it is always a waste of time.

Not today. Again I fell sleep almost instantly both times and both times had to be woken by my Better Half who was sure if I slept too long then I wouldn't sleep tonight. Yet I still feel tired. More than that exhausted and I know that as soon as as I do go to bed today then I will be asleep in an instant. In fact I would be in the land of nod now but I have a feeling that maybe it is too much sleep that is making me tired. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow if I have less tonight. maybe.

Back to School

2006-09-13T22:14:11Z

First day back at school for my daughter. First day back but it feels like the first day ever again both both us and her. Not surprising really. She was there for one full term and then has had just over seven weeks off and away from it. Thats a lifetime for a three year old and she has gotten used to being at home, getting back into her old morning routine and generally just being school free for the summer.

Not that she hasn't missed it from time to time. Just that the missing it days were right at the beginning of those seven weeks. Once we got to the weekend just gone and she realised she was going back she wasn't too happy. Not because she won't enjoy it but because it is once again something new. Something she has to get used to again. Plus it being the nursery class there will be new kids just starting and kids she knew moving on because they are ready to start school proper. Something we will have top deal with come January but we are going to think of that nearer the time.

Today was about getting her back into the school routine. Not easy as it turns out. She still has the same reluctance to being woken up early and the same grumpiness when she is. And like her very first day at the school she burst into tears as soon as we got through the door. Loud sobs, big fat tears and a total reluctance to stop there. Took a five minutes to get her calm enough for us to go and she was still teary when we left. It was a job to keep from crying myself.

Two hours later when we picked her up she was all smiles. Enjoyed the painting, enjoyed the stories and had been dancing about like crazy to the music. Plus her little stalker spiderman obsessed boyfriend was still there for her to talk about on the way back. No doubt tomorrow she will be just as reluctant to get up and go as usual but that is her. I doubt she will ever be a morning person no matter what. At least she enjopys herself when she is there.

McDonalds is Evil

2006-09-13T21:58:49Z

I've come to the conclusion today that McDonalds is evil. Not naughty, not a little bit dodgy, not even just plain bad to the bone. It is evil.

It's not the food. I'm extremely partial to a Big Mac. Love them. So much so that it is probably a good thing for my waist and my health that I actually live in a town that has no McDonalds. Strange as that concept may be in a 21st century where McDonalds is everywhere we haven't got one and most likely never will. Not in the forseeable future anyway. Means the nearest one is in the nearest big town which helps in my resolve to limit myself to one McDonalds meal every couple of months or so.

So if it isn't the food then is it the staff?. No. For all I know they might be out back offering up puppies to the evil diety that is Ronald McDonald. After all clowns are evil. Just ask John Sheppard. But despite having an evil clown for a master the staff at McDonalds have always been friendly and fast when I've gone in. Well fast on anything except the fillet-o-fish meals. For some reason they always take five minutes longer than everything else. And since my Better half only eats those when we go to McDonalds we alweays have to wait for it. Still they always bring it over so no evil there.

No the truly evil people in McDonalds are the ones who decide which toy goes in the Happy Meal. Specifically the person who decided this was what kids needed to have...

Not the teddy. That is just stuck in there for it's cuteness to counteract the evil of the plastic thing it is holding. A little plastic thing that plays fifteen to tywenty seconds of 'Biology' by Girls Aloud. Not my favourite band though not evil in themselves. Not my favourite song by a long way though it is on my ipod because my Better half likes it. However play the same part of it ten or twenty times while you are trying to eat and you get sick of it real fast.

Thats what my daughter did. She loves the damn thing. Loves it enough so that by the time we got home she must have played it over a hundred times. Certainly enough to start melting our brains and cursing the day that song was ever written. By now we have lost track of the times she has hit that little white button on the top and sang along to the words now burned into all our brains. What I do know is that this thing must run on our suffering because the batteries in it surely can't last this long. Time I think for it to join the other annoying toys that have mysteriously disappeared from the house sometime in the middle of the night. Then all I have to do is get the song out of my head. That may take a little longer.

Advent Already?

2006-09-08T23:38:26Z

Seven days into September and my local supermarket have begun the march to Christmas. Actually they started three days in but that move was very subtle. Well as subtle as they ever are when it comes to pushing Christmas in September. Last Sunday that was clearing the shelves of the Back To School stuff three days before the first schools were due to go back to school and replacing it with tins and boxes and special packs of various chocolates and sweets. None of which actually had the word Christmas on them, not so far as I know, but definitely aimed at getting the idea into peoples heads.

Still they were out of the way by the freezer section and it wasn't in your face so it could be forgiven. Today though they cranked it up a little. Right by the entrance, unmissable by anyone wanting to get into the store was a great big display of Advent calenders. Chocolately goodness to eat while you count down the days in December until the big day. Except it's September. And as much as I love chocolate and getting an advent calender to count those days down I don't need it nearly three months from when I am actually going to need it.

If they follow the path they took last year then the mince pies should be hitting the shelves soon. Mince pies which will have a use by date before even December. They did last year so it was a case of buy early then realise the bloody things have gone off so buy again later.

Cooker

2006-09-08T23:24:51Z

Chilli! So easy to cook, so familiar to my taste buds but oh did it feel good to cook it today and god did it taste great.

Yes the new cooker finally arrived today. Well it has been only six days. Maybe five if you count that fact that i ordered it late last Wednesday night and it wasn't processed and confirmed until Thursday morning. Thats a lot better than if I ordered it via Argos and having to wait up to 28 days. Six was long enough but possibly a whole month? Neither my stomach or brain could take that. Besides if it went the way of the last time I ordered something electrical from there we would end up calling them after three weeks and being told they didn't have it in stock after all. I'll take the faster delivery and cheaper price from Currys thank you very much.

They even phoned up yesterday to give us a four hour window in which it would be delivered. That actually translates as being morning or afternoon but it does beat just been given a day and no time. Besides from experience I know that they always deliver at the earlier end of their estimate. Which today today was 1.15 from their window of 1.15 to 5.15. So no waiting at all really.

As well as cooking I also got to install the cooker myself. Not that i would have objected to the delivery guy hooking it up just the price it would have cost for him to do it. £50. Fifty bloody quid for five minutes work at something as simple as changing a plug. Well probably a little more difficult since everything comes with a plug attached and you never have to change them anyway. Still it is just a case of power off, three wires attached to the cooker, three to the to the cooker point, power back on and hey presto cooker ready. Simple.

Well simple now. When we got the last new cooker four years ago I had to have my stepdad do it because I was worse than useless at DIY or stuff like that. Necessity and a few tips from him along the way have elevated me to the slightly better from useless. Enough to know enough to do the simple fixing jobs and enough to save me £50 today.

God Blimey Man!

2006-09-08T22:50:01Z

God. Blimey. Man.

The three words the women in this house have been saying the most often today. And for just the two of them they have said it enough times.

of course the man they are talking about is me. At least that is the case with my Better Half. 'God Blimey, man!' has somehow become her default phrase over the past few months for her to use when she is annoyed at me. Not really angry but just annoyed at me for something I have done. or not done. She does get days when everything and anything raises her annoyance levels with the nearest adult around. Which is usually me. No big deal. Everyone gets that way from time to time including me. I just don't have the excuse that I'm 'gushing with blood'. Her words not mine.

Today though I noticed that my daughter had begun using the phrase. Only she used it not just with me but with her mum, her friends, the cat ibn the garden, her toys. In fact just about everything she was annoyed with today. Which was a lot of things because a night where she was constantly waking up and wanting to get up left her feeling very grumpy all day today. A fact she made sure everyone knew about.

Not just with the 'God blimey, man!' phrase. She has the special grumpy look, the stamping around feet and the storming off to her special place act down to a fine art by now. It looks like the terrible twos which have stretched into the terrible threes are going to head into the terrible fours and beyond as far as that temper of hers is concerned. Fortunately she has that incredibly sweet and happy flip side to make up for it. Which actually allows her to get away with more thinking about it......

Sarnieless Sunday

2006-09-08T22:35:09Z

I'm missing having a cooker. A day or two of making do without one would be fine. I can cope that long with salads or takeouts or microwave stuff. After that though I need me some home cooked food. Specifically some home cooked food cooked by me. Because average it out over the typical week and I cook a lot more than my Better Half.

For her cooking is a means to an end and something she does not exactly something she wants to do. She has to, she wants to eat the meal at the end so she does it. I, on the other hand, quite enjoy cooking. Not that I'm a particular whizz at it or that I go for anything spectacular or amazingly intricate. It is just that i find it usually relaxes me. Turn on the radio, listen to whatever and just forget everything else for however long it takes to cook what I'm cooking. That I enjoy. Most of the time anyway.

Result is that i've missed doing that these past few days. Both taste wise and stress wise. I've also missed not having my traditional Sunday morning bacon sarnie. White bread, crispy bacon, brown sause, one happy Jack. Not today. Sure I could have tried making it using the microwave. I looked at one of those plastic things you can use to cook bacon in the microwave yesterday. Was even tempted for a few seconds to get it. But I didn't. No matter the promises the packaging makes the actual result wouldn't lice up to them.

Such is the problem with cooking in a microwave. Anything I do with them beyond heating something up just turns out rubbery, distictly uncrisp and just god damn awful. Roll on Tuesday and the arrival of the new cooker.

Rain I Love You, Rain I Hate You

2006-09-05T23:35:13Z

Rain, rain, rain. How I love you and at the same time how I hate you. At least in respect to what you are doing to the garden. A garden I haven't touched in over six weeks now. Not that i had to for half of that time. The constant sunshine may have got on my nerves during July but one thing it did was frazzle the grass. It went from green and long and needing cutting to short and brown and perfect to walk and play on. So long as you didn't mind the lack of greeness. Which was fine by me as their is green all around here so it is nice to have that balanced by a few shades of brown. Especially if it means you don't have to cut the bloody grass.

Alas with the passing of July and the rains of August that state wasn't to last. It took a couple of weeks but gradually the ground in the back garden soaked up the rain and the grass started to grow. And boy when the grass in our garden starts to grow it fairly shoots up. Fortunately we have rarely had more than one straight day without rain in August so I've been able to get away with the excuse that the grass is too wet to cut. An excuse that has neither convinced my Better Half or I but one which has worked because she hates gardening even more than me so she is hardly likely to go out there and get it done.

But now it is September she has took a look at the overgrown state that the garden is in and decided enough is enough. Time to tidy it for autumn and the winter. Not that i think that either of those seasons will be bothered by how long the grass in our garden is but then their opinion doesn't count. Nor apparently does mine. Or at least my excuses don't. Not when my Better Half has her mind set on something. So come rain or shine I'll be out in the garden this weekend. Can't wait. Though if it pours down....

Bye Bye Cooker

2006-09-05T23:12:50Z

Our cooker bought the farm today. It is over four years old and though bought new wasn't exqactly the most expensive one we could have bought. In fact it was the cheapest so getting over four years use out of it was pretty good. Just a pity it had to go and die on us now as that means we have to get a new cooker at a time we aren't exactly flush with money. But then I suppose that is typical of the way these things go. Money you had put aside for other things suddenly has to go on something else. Such is the adult world.

And thinking back on it this cooker could have sentimental value as well. Not that I wouldn't have traded it in for a better one in a heartbeat but it does represent the first and last of something. The first is that this was the first biggish household purchase my Better half and I made as a couple. Before this everything we had that was big we had bought before we moved in together. Not so unusual given that we both had a load of stuff in our own seperate places so moving in together was a case of gaining more, duplicating a lot of stuff, gaining more and generally having to get rid of stuff rather than having to buy it new.

Of course since then we have replaced much of what we had. Moving a few hundred miles severley affected what we decided to keep. Wear and tear took out some other stuff and as for the rest it was a case of wanting stuff that was us and didn't have the memory of other people and worse times associated with it. The result was that that cooker is really the last big piece of furniture or electrical stuff we brought down with us. Certainly the last thing we still have that was bought in my home town. Everything else is us and bought here.

Blade

2006-09-02T23:11:10Z

I think I may have just found my latest TV series to take a place in my much watch category. A category sorely lacking in new shows to watch lately. That would be Blade The Series. Which is a surprise because when i first heard they were going to turn the movie trilogy into a TV series I didn't actually hold out much hope for it being any good.

That is not because I don't like the Blade movies. I do. I own them all on DVD and even have the Blade game for PS2. A birthday gift from my Better Half a couple of years back. She knows I absolutely love anything about vampires. Books, movies, games, whatever. If it has vampires in I'll watch it.

That goes back to me being a kid when I used to scour the horror shelves in the local library for any book on them. For some reason it had a really extensive horror section that library. Bigger than the sci-fi and fantasy sections combined. I guess whoever was in charge of putting the books on the shelves also had a thing for horror.

I also used to watch just about every single late night horror film and show that was shown on TV. Not that my mum let me stay up until all hours but I did have a crappy little portable TV in my room at the time. Terrible reception and i had to keep the sound down low but it did mean I must have seen every single Hammer House of Horror film they ever made as well as numerous other hammy horror films that would never be decribed as masterpieces but which I loved anyway.

No, the reason I thought Blade the Series was going to be bad was because it was neither going to star Wesley Snipes as Blade nor could ever be as bloody as the movie series. And it needs to be bloody and violent at times. That is what vampires do. What I thought would happen is that it would be defanged along the lines of the Robocop series. I must have caught two episodes of that on late night TV a year or two back and it was terrible. The originals aren't the best but they do have a certain entertainment if you leave your brain by the door and just enjoy them as popcorn movies. The series though sucked out all the violence, guns and whatnot to try and turn it into a family show. it didn't work.

I was afraid that Blade the Series would end up the same shadow of it's movie self. I was wrong. The blood is in there. Though having watched the first six episodes I have to say that the TV Blade isn't a patch on the movie Blade. he has the sword, the gadgets and the moves but Kirk jones does not have the charisma or presence of Wesley Snipes. He is just averagely good. Which should make me hate the series but fortunately he isn't the star or focus of the show. At least not for me.

Seems strange that. Blade not being the main character of Blade. But for me, and having read a few fansites many others I think, the main focus of the show is the vampires. Krista, Chase, Marcus, Charlotte, Boone and all are what make the show so good. The vampires themselves. They are the ones with the depth, backstory and presence which draw you into the show. The reason i love it so. And the reason it will probably be cancelled after thirteen episodes.

Because it seems too many of the people watching are female. Weird that attracting equal numbers of men and women would be reason to cancel a show but that could happen. Because this show is shown on Spike TV which has been set up to attract mainly male viewers. Seems strange to me to differeniate like that but they do. And not enough men watching a show supposedly aimed at men could mean bye bye Blade the Series. And another show I get into being cancelled after one season.

Rain

2006-09-02T22:37:25Z

When I went to bed last night it was raining. Not much at first but by the time I was tucked up and snuggled next to my Better Half it was pouring down. No lightning but since I've had my thunder fix just recently I didn't mind. Plus it meant i could just lie in bed and enjoy the sound of the rain.

I do enjoy a good downpour but how I enjoy it depends on what time of the day it is. If it is light then rain, especially heavy rain, is a visual pleasure. If I'm at home I will sit by the bedroom window and just watch it come down. The patterns it makes in the puddles on the patio, the way it bounces off the roofs of the houses across the way, the little streams that come cascading down the road or just the way it falls through the sky. There is just so much to see when it rains and all of it is relaxing. Even when you are outside in it.

At night though the pleasure is more through sound than sight. Partly because it is darker but mainly because the world is more silent at night as most people sleep. Then you can really hear the sounds with so much more clarity. From the rapid rat-a-tat-tat of the rain bouncing off the roof above to the running and gurgling as it moves through the guttering and drips off to fall to the ground below. Hammering off the concrete and tinkling on the windows. I just love to lie in bed at night and listen to all those sounds.

What makes it even better is if the wind is howling as it was last night and adding to those sounds. Perfect to fall to sleep to.

One Scooter No Pillows

2006-09-01T23:03:28Z

My daughter's scooter came today. A purple and pink Disney Princess one which she has been pointing to in the Argos catalogue for weeks on end and which we have been promising to get for her birthday. A birthday that is about six or seven weeks away. Not quite sure as I haven't done the math and my brain is too tired at the moment to work out. Whatever it is we decided to give it to her early just so she could use it when it is still relatively dry and sunny.

We still wrapped it of course. Had to do that just to see her face when she got a big wrapped present for no reason in particuar and to see the big grin on her face when she unwrapped it and saw what it was. Though since the thing came in a big, brown, very plain box the actual expression was one of puzzlement when she ripped off the paper and asked us what it was. The big grin and hug came when we told her and opened it up. Ever since she has been whizzing about on it indoors and out.

Unfortunately my Better Half and I won't be getting to sleep with our heads on the new pillows which we ordered at the same time as the scooter and which were supposed to be delivered with it. They weren't. The delivery guy checked his whole van but there were no pillows. A fact confirmed when I rang up the Argos helpline and was told that they hadn't been delivered because they were out of stock.

Seems that they being in stock when you actually order and pay for them online doesn't actually mean that they will be two days later when they are supposed to be delivered. Foolish of me to think so. especially given that they did this before with a washing machine. At least this time I didn't have to wait three weeks before they admitted that and refunded the money. This time they offered the money refunded or for me to go to the nearedst store and pick them up. If they were in stock of course. I took the refund option and will be taking the buy from somewhere else option tomorrow.