Quatermass With John Mills

My wife is still away in Singapore so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to rent the DVD of 'The Quatermass Conclusion' with John Mills. This was a series made by Thames TV in 1979. It ran for four episodes and I had to fight with my parents to stay up and watch it when I first saw it aged 12. The DVD I watched was a movie version of the series, with the four hours truncated into two.

How is it?

How is it that I always get the slowest queue in the supermarket? This morning it looked promising until the man in front of me decided to withdraw his request for cashback and caused chaos with the till, ultimately spoiling the day of the Saturday assistant who had to deal with him.
Some people say that the queue you are in always appears to be the slowest because you notice the other queues moving beside you, and this is also true of traffic jams on the motorway. My wife obviously doesn't subscribe to this as she often shouts 'go into that lane' and 'go into the other lane'.

Home

A day at home. My wife has gone to Singapore for the week so we are up really early to take her to the bus station. My daughter has a friend round to play and I am exhausted even though she only stayed for less than three hours, although in that time we went to the park, I cooked their tea and the cat killed a bird.

Dancing Feet

Our second week of salsa dancing. My wife was so excited that she danced into the kitchen when she got back from work. I said I had a headache but she wouldn't listen, although the session went far better than last time (although it couldn't be worse). Much less embarrassment, I even danced with two other ladies, but I was still the first to the bar at the end.

The Cat Crept In

I hate it when you've just sat down at the computer and then the dishwasher, having finished a cycle, starts relentlessly beeping in the kitchen below.
Anyway, I have been in and out of the kitchen a lot lately these last evenings trying to call the cat in from the garden. I feel foolish calling his name over and over again in a high pitched voice, especially when he doesn't come. I gave up last night and he stayed out until the morning, creeping in at seven for two bowls of food. Today we accidently left him in all day, but it was in his advatange as it rained. I opened the back door when we got home but he just sat there, looking into the misty void. Later, thinking he was upstairs on the bed, I looked out and saw him sitting amongst the plants, drenched. I'm not sure how he got out there. As far as I know, we have no flaps. This time he needed no coaxing to come in, although he still expected two bowls of food.

A Right Time for Charles Gray

There is a right time for the actor Charles Gray. That time is late at night and just before bedtime. I was watching him last night in 'The Rocky Horror Show' with his cigarette holder and cocked eyebrow.
This morning, taking my daughter to her drama class, I was tempted to stride in singing 'let's do the timewarp', but it was not the right time for Charles Gray. I don't think she would have forgiven me.

Two Left Feet

It's come round quickly, but the dancing season is upon us again. This time, my wife has decided to take up salsa. If anything has ever turned out to be much much more of a nightmare than I had ever imagined it to be then this is it. We started on the third week, which we didn't think too far behind to catch up, but five minutes into the lesson I knew I was in trouble. Recap for week one took five minutes. Recap for lesson two a generous ten minutes and before I knew it everyone was dancing away around me. For most of the lesson I took up all of the attention of the assistant instructor as she danced with me, alternating between nodding at her instructions and apologising for accidently punching her bosom.

In the bar afterwards a man generously offered his condolences, and that all would fall into place, as after all it was only my third week. "It's my first, actually", I kept correcting him.

Losing the Plot

We rented the new Harry Potter film from Lovefilm, the latest in our long line of DVD rental services. I braced myself as I'd heard that this was a long film, but I only managed to get about an hour into it. Even though I've read all of the books, I couldn't make heads nor tail of it.

I think I was distracted by the cameos (such as Gary Oldman's head in a fireplace) and the supporting cast (Trigger from Only Fools and Horses). I also couldn't get used to Michael Gambon as Dumbledore, as the Irish accent he'd adopted, possibly as a tribute to the late Richard Harris, appeared to come and go.

And with the whole Harry Potter thing, I read the first four books in one go four summers ago when I had nothing to do. My head was awash with Hogwarts and all the intricacies of wizardry. Now it all seems a little vague, and I even struggle to remember the name of the red headed boy.