emchi.co.uk

Well it would appear it’s summer again.  Well apparently it’s summer.  Anyhoo… chez emchi is off on holiday in a week’s time.  Yes that’s right… holiday.  Three years since my last holiday, so as you can imagine I’m looking forward to it.  Of course it means finding homes for le kitteh’s, pupzilla and hamstermonster.

This reminds me… I don’t think I’ve introduced the kittehs on here yet.  Perhaps this is a task for the weekend? Perhaps it’s just a task to update this blog a bit more.  OK. Note to self, must put photos of the kittehs online and update the blog a bit more.

So I managed to bag a free ticket to go and watch a preview of State of Play today.  I knew the film was coming out but I was a little reserved by the thought of watching it as I’m not the biggest Russell Crowe fan, that said I did enjoy the TV series.  Anyway, a free film is a free film and it’s not often they have tickets available for round here.

So what did I think?  Could Russell Crowe replace John Simm as the reporter?  I went in with an open mind, and hoped I would enjoy the film.  I wasn’t actually disappointed, which is a good thing I guess.  Gritty, sarcastic and a few funny moments.  It was well cast, especially with Helen Mirren as the chief at the newspaper, Cam.

Anyway, I love something with a good twist in it, book, film or TV, this had more twists than a helter skelter.  Very enjoyable, definately worth a watch.  Especially if you liked Enemy of the State.

Pardon the very very bad pun but in my mind it is the end of an era.  For I have just watched the very last episode of ER.  I won’t spoil the last six episodes for people by repeating them here.  If you want to know that badly go ahead and check out IMDb.  I will say the episode with Doug Ross and Carol Hathaway was serioulsy good, one of the best I’ve seen in a very long time.  That wasn’t the last one though.

I can remember the very first episode, with Carol and Doug Ross being the centre of attention.  I can remember Mark Green dying (and yes I cried like a huge baby).  I can remember Romano having his arm chopped off by a helicopter at the end of one series, then dying from a helicopter falling on top of him, didn’t cry then oddly enough, the guy was unpleasant.  I can remember Carter being stabbed and Lucy dying.  I can remember Abby when she was a nurse and Kovac when he’d first arrived. So many good hours spent watching it.

I’ve missed some series because Channel 4 put them on at very odd times and I’ve progressed to House and Grey’s Anatomy.  I still loved ER though.  It’s going to be something remiss without it on the screens any more.  I was 17 when I first started watching it, and now I’m almost 32.  It was clearly an enduring relationship that lasted longer than some friends…

With an ever changing cast of doctors.  The story did kind of round off quite nicely.  Learning what had happened to all the favourite characters.  You knew where everyone went, what they did, who they became.  Some people got together, some people didn’t, some even stayed the same.  It rounded off nicely.  Back to Grey’s and House then… it won’t be quite the same!

Yes I appreciate it’s a rather interesting play on words, and it really only did take me about five seconds to think of it.  I’m impressed considering the banging headache and ringing in my ears I’ve got.

So last week in both the Times and the Observer there were articles about Twitter.  Oh god… the main stream has caught onto it and everyone will think it’s soooo passée.  Lets be honest here, these are the same newspapers that said blogging was dead.  In theory it probably is.  If you don’t turn a profit from your blog, you are, by definition, doing it wrong.

So what’s the deal? Why does it seem that Twitter has more kudos than a blog?  Well with the wonderful advent of the iPhone and mobile Internet technology, twittering appears to be the perfect match to go with it.  With a limit of 140 characters it doesn’t take too long to post a tweet.

I’ve never been a “My Space” fan, it’s just so, childish and the technology behind it was always rather shite.  With Twitter, you don’t have to worry about which product you’re going to use to tweet, you don’t even need to think about registering a domain, hosting, what stats to use, whether to allow comments etc.  You pick a name, add a photo and off you go.

Who you follow is up to you, but beware of the spammers.  You can still end up with complete strangers following you, who just want to sell Viagra and pimp out their wares.  You can even follow celebrities, which can either be interesting or a waste of time.  I mean do you come off as a stalker by simply following them?  I couldn’t quite work it out, so decided to follow people who are friends or have interesting tweets.

So there you have it, join the masses or not? Up to you really, ignore the hype and enjoy it for what it is.  Oh, and of course… I’m tweeting this ;oP

I have a secret… I’ve been enjoying Dr Faustus.  I can’t quite explain it.  I thought I would hate reading it, dreading it and putting it off for so long.  I don’t though.  I think the secret of the reading lies in the BBC play that the OU provided with the course.  I listen to the play on my iPod and read the book.  It’s actually very good.

So it’s week two of my course, my attention has been diverted from reading Faustus to Cezanne.  This is now where my worries lie.  Will I get it.  I just like to look at art and say “that’s nice” or “is that really art?”.  I also wasn’t bothered about writing essays, I did well at school, why wouldn’t it be hard now? Well I ended up looking at books in Waterstone’s the other day.  Now, I’m bricking it.  Understandably I’d say.

Anyway, course is now under way, and I actually enjoy what I’m doing so I’m hoping it will remain enjoyable

It’s really not quite the same when you’re a grown up.  You know, the excitement you felt when you were a kid, at just the thought that there might be snow when you wake up.  Opening your eyes and thinking, it’s another day of school, then opening your curtains and there’s snow! sweet amazing snow!

I used to be able to look out the window and if the field on the hill a few miles away was white, I knew I could go sledging wtih my dad.  I’d beg him to take me.  We used to love it.  He even made me my own sledge.  The field was steep and white but also decieving.  I’d race out the car and up the hill, climb aboard the sledge and away I’d go.

Thundering down the hill, with the cold air whipping around me, over the bumps, for there were many down to the bottom.  My orange scarf wrapped around my cherry red cheeks and my mittens sodden through.  I’d smile knowingly at my dad then drag my sledge up the top.  Fun, that’s what it was, complete and utter fun!

With growing up comes responsibility.  The thought of a snow day and sledging is replaced with the dread of having to phone work to say the snow is too much, so you’re staying home.  Honestly, the thought of driving (which I did yesterday) fills me with dread.  Panic sets in.  For a car is expensive, and it’s your responsibility.  Crashing it would cost you money, and cause you injury.

So the closest I got to racing to the top of the hill today was watching the dog, being very stupid in the snow.  Cold wet feet, were replaced with sensible Gortex boots, woollen mittens were replaced with soft leather gloves and the scarf was something fleecy.

So anyway, enjoy the picture of Lilybug having way more fun than I did.

As in, I’m a big girl’s blouse.  Things that have made me blub in the last 10 days:

1. Pratt dying in ER (sorry if that’s a spoiler, but it was on over a week ago now).
2. Warrick dying in CSI (again… a week ago, it was old news if you saw the last series).
3. The song “You have been loved” playing at the end of Private Practice.
4. The end of the Christmas episode of House, sad / happy, perhaps bitter sweet ending.

So I am officially a big girls blouse.  Just have ton wonder why four different tv series can make me cry like a big jessie, but other, perhaps more cataclysmic events in life failed to get the same effect.

UPDATE: Add to that Grey’s Anatomy, Season 5, Episode 9.  Why does nobody in the UK watch this at the same time as me?

I’m back at work again, which I must say is lovely, I feel like I’ve finally found a home.  But that’s enough about that.  I had to go into London yesterday for work, and I ended up out at Canary Wharf.  I never thought I’d go back there and I really did miss it.  Although it felt a little strange thinking I had a two hour journey home instead of thirty minutes.

Anyway, it struck me, as I was gliding up the escalator, that Canary Wharf tube station.  I l0ve the structure, but that’s not what caught my mind.  With it’s expansive ceilings and posts, it reminds me of a cathedral.  When I thought about it some more, I thought it wasn’t far from the truth.

In this day and age, everyone works hard, they work hard to earn money so they can enjoy the luxuries that life holds.  Some of those luxuries include holidays, which leads back to what this amazing structure actually is, it’s a place of travel.

Not only is this concrete cathedral metaphorical for all it stands for, it’s location is somewhat symbolic.  For those that earn, they earn money (well in most cases one would assume), and Canary Wharf is the home of many financial institutions.  A rather circuitous affair.

I wouldn’t profess to getting down on my knees and praying to the gods of money, but I love the structure.  Underground stations don’t need to be dirty, dark and grubby, Canary Wharf is a shining example of this.  Not sure I’ll ever get bored of it.

Well the New Year is upon us, I was feeling particularly grumpy on New Year’s Eve, possibly the thought of everyone out there having fun but me.  I was warm but that was about it.

Anyway… I said I’d post what my New Year’s resolutions are… and I can tell you I’ve already broken one, but that’s because the said item has fallen down the back of my desk.

1. Keep a writers diary, forcing myself to write something every day – fail… fallen down the back of my desk.  Does it count as broken if I write yesterday’s entry today?
2. Loose some weight, I’ve turned into a right fat bastard over Christmas.  I’m not setting deadlines, or going on a massive diet or joining a gym, but I’ve got to do something.
3. Have more fun… life has been pretty boring for the last few months.

Right, that’s about it… I’ve already buggered my back up lifting the spare bed to get the box for the Christmas tree out.  I am an idiot.  Anyway, the tree is down and put away, the living room is vacumed… but there’s still more to do.  No point starting a new year with the house looking a mess.

What are your New Year’s resolutions?

As 2008 comes to a close I have been doing some pondering.  I thought I would share my ponders with you (yes I’m sure “ponders” is not a word, but, hey, who cares?).

1. Why is there ever only three pillows in a hotel room designed to sleep four?
2. How come you need to be a trampolinist to sleep in hotel beds these days?
3. Why do you always want what you can’t have and don’t want what you can?
4. How come the 4×4’s on motorways say “Traffic Officers” when they should just say “Wombles”?
5. Where does the other sock go?

Anyway, that is enough on the pondering.  There’s about two hours left to go, so I’m off to find something stupid to occupy my time with (why break a habit of a life time?).

I shall try to think of some New Year’s resolutions to share with you, and the time I’m estimating I’m going to take to break them.