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Well Christmas is now done for another year and the New Year is almost upon us, sneaking up behind you ready to push you in.  I thought I’d get my New Year blog in early as the first month of the year is going to be completely hectic.  We still haven’t moved, whilst we’ve found somewhere we want we can’t do anything about it until the landlord can get hold of the builders and confirm when the three things we want done before moving in can be carried out.  With any luck it’ll be the second weekend in January.  I say with any luck, because I seem to be short on luck at the moment.

I’m seeing everything as a fresh start.  A new year, a new job and a new home.  I’ve asked myself if I’m running away from things here in London, but I don’t think that I am.  I think it’s just time to do what makes me happy, and London doesn’t do that, I’m not sure if it ever did.  I thought a semi-glamorous job would make me happy, but it didn’t, it just made me realise there are a lot of superficial people out there that don’t care about the things I care about.  A job that doesn’t seem glamorous in any way is what I want, something that challenges me and makes me think, I hope that’s what I’ve got and I’m looking forward to it. 

I’ve set myself some challenges for the next year.  I don’t see them as New Year’s resolutions, because they may take me more than just 2008 to complete them.  I’ll go into more detail about them once the hassle of having to move has been pushed out of the way.

Well thanks to some lying bitch in Humberts in Salisbury who sold us out, more to the point gave the house we wanted to a family who saw the place after us, we have nowhere to move to.  Time is running out, and we won’t be moved by the time I start my new job.  I’m now stressed to the max.  I’m also very angry that the sanctimonious bitch gave away the property and lied to me.

Christmas is upon us and the only small victory is my seven foot Christmas tree, and a smattering of presents nestling underneath it’s plastic boughs. 

I went to deliver Christmas presents today, and whilst shivering my arse off in the sheltered arcade at the top of Victoria street, a brass band was playing Christmas carols.  I came to realise two things whilst sitting there trying to remember Bear Gryll’s survival tricks to warm my extremites up.  1. they were actually very good, and 2. I only know one verse of just about every Christmas carol they were playing. 

I’m tired, bone weary tired.  I am hoping for some good luck, and for it to come very fast.  Tomorrow I shall be wrapping presents and watching cheesy Christmas films.

The influx of Christmas cards (ok four of them), tells me that Christmas is once again upon us.  That however is not my reason for blogging today.  I’m all a fluster.  I’m in the process of trying to get rental application forms filled out, hopefully everything will go through and then it’s a case of mortgaging our souls to get the money together to actually move. 

Christmas is officially cancelled, again, for the third year in a row.

Anyway, the car is in for it’s MOT, someone has stolen my aerial over the weekend (if I get my hands on the little scroat that did it then I’ll stick my aerial somewhere uncomfortable). 

I need a healthy dose of luck!

It’s hunting season again.  I don’t mean animal hunting either.  I’m talking about looking for somewhere else to live.  We spent two days in the West Country looking for somewhere to rent.  I’m tired, only one property looked at (quaint, but unsuitable).  Still we’re a bit further down the road, blown to bits as we got caught out in the gales.

Needless to say I’ll be returning next week to look at more properties.  Still Christmas is cancelled for the third year in a row.  Why do these things cost so much money to sort out?

I’ll blog about the Mark Thomas gig tomorrow… it was bloody  hilarious, if you’re in London for the next week I really recommend you grab yourself a ticket and find out what he’s been up to this time.  It’s amazing he gets away with the things he does, but we did find out several things we didn’t know before about minor royals and how to protest successfully in the centre of London!!

I seem to have a thing going on with the number two (not that number two you sick creatures), I mean a tale of two comedians and now two books, two films.

Last week my rental copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix arrived.  As this was the film version of the biggest Potter book, I was expecting, well, more… I have to say I was deflated and let down.  There were so many good things in the book that were simply missing from the film.  Somethings I could understand, but the Hospital scene, totally gone! why? You got to see Neville’s parents, and it would have been pretty good to see the Hospital.  Instead you got “look everyone, Dad’s back from hospital”… err, where was the gag with him trying to get stitches? Pah.  I felt there was far too much missing from the book that it seemed watered down and without direction.  I want to say more, but well there’s not much point.

And the other book? The Northern Lights, for I will call it that as it’s the British title of the book, ok so the film is called The Golden Compass, but I know it as the Northern Lights.  I saw the film today, I’ve read the book twice.  Hmmm… and indeed Hmmm… I have doubts over the casting of some of the characters, don’t get me wrong, there were some excellent actors and actresses in it, but I think it lacked conviction on places.  Ten out of Ten for the casting of Serafina Pekala, Farder Coram, Lee Skoresby, Ma Costa and Lord Faa, but the rest? hmmm. 

Dakota Blue Richards hasn’t convinced me she is Lyra, merely that she’s probably a stroppy little madam.  She seemed to struggle (as I did when reading), with the colloquialisms laid out in the book, words like “en’t” they just seemed to stick, and hang, just as much as if she’d said “fuck” at the most inopportune place.  As for Ian McKellan, he has an imposing voice, and as Gandalf it was as if he was born to play that role.  As Iorek Byrnson, he was not.  My first thought was Patrick Stewart, they’re voices are quite similar.

I was interested to hear that Daniel Craig was playing Lord Asriel and
Nicole Kidman was playing Mrs Coulter.  Daniel Craig had the worst line
in the film “Can’t we sort this out like gentlemen” (I actually
cringed) and Mrs Coulter just wasn’t as venomous as I’d hoped.  Both
excellent actors let down by a poor script.  Daniel Craig was especially let down, when you read the book, and try to imagine Lord Asriel Daniel Craig works as someone to portray him, but for some reason he just didn’t work.
 

I knew what was coming when I saw it for the first time on the screen, and then I thought, “oh god, please don’t let them do that every time Lyra reads the Aletheometer”… Sadly as there is no god, my prayers were not answered.  The worst special effect of the film was played over and over every time the Aletheometer was consulted.  The dust came swirling out of the centre of the Aletheometer and you got to see what it was telling Lyra, only it was not constructed well and you couldn’t clearly see what she was seeing.  I think had they had a stronger actress, she could have explained away what it was saying, even if it was just to Pantalaemon.

Other special effects were better than hoped.  For example the air-ships, using gyroscopes to power them was quite impressive.  The Daemons, as a rule were quite convincing, with the exception of Mrs Coulter’s golden monkey, which just didn’t look right.  There was some sloppy work in there though, the scene with Lyra riding on Iorek’s back across a frozen lake, did not flow very well, it looked, lumpy.  When Mrs Coulter bent down to pick up her Daemon on the airship, it was clumsy, badly edited.  I know a lot of money was spent on the effects, and they took a long time, but I felt they could have been done better in places.

Empire said that the ending had been cut, to act as a follow onto the next film, but it still came as a bit of a slap when you got to the end.  I was all fired up for the ending.  What they have done is imply that two of the main characters (for those of you who have not read or seen the film yet, I won’t spoil it in detail), will carry on throughout the next film, which in the book they do not, a whole new set of characters are introduced.  Why would you do that?  I don’t believe the director’s argument for doing so is a valid one. 

Again this was another film that felt watered down, whilst the outline of the plot was in essence true to the book, it just didn’t feel as rich and full bodied as the book did.  Perhaps they will polish it up further between the film and the DVD release, to give it that Lord of the Rings shine.  It has to be said, even the special effects in the Harry Potter film were significantly better.  It was good to see the film, to see it brought to life and alive, I enjoyed it, but not as much as I had hoped I would.

Update 6/12/07:
<a href=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7128985.stm”>Two “religious” reviews of the Golden Compass</a>, so following on from yesterday’s rather long post (above), today I read the linked reviews on BBC news online.  The first one was a pathetic attempt at a review, focusing solely on the Magesterium as a Catholic style institution.  Get over it, go harp on about how great the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is.  It’s no reason to boycott what is in essence being marketed as a Christmas Kids film.  The kids aren’t going to see the Religious divides in this, in less their parents indoctrinate them so much that they are forced to believe that is what the film is about.  Yes I get the irony, and the sarcasm, but it’s not a film about Polar Bears.

The second review from the atheist, to a degree covered everything that I wanted to say (but probably did so poorly), he made the point I failed to, but also felt, the film was too short, it should be 2.5 hours long.  I don’t like the idea, (and I think Philip Pullman agrees) that the film is being used to wage some religious war against Catholicism and Atheism.  Whilst Pullman has recognised that the book is anti-religion, I think there is something beyond that in the book.  The books are wonderful stories, the kind that open your mind and pull you through.  As for them not being Children’s books? I think that’s incorrect, as you’ll find them in the 8 to 12 reading range in Waterstones… (I have copies, I was looking for Christmas presents).

Whilst I think the first review is a farce, I think the second one is pretty much spot on in terms of having to pull their finger out for the second and third books.  Perhaps they should get Peter Jackson on the case, he seemed to have pulled off something completely amazing with the Lord of the Rings trillogy, I’m sure he didn’t spend as much as Wietz did on the Golden Compass and it was not a sloppy production in any way.   

Well that’s another one over. Somewhat Frugally thanks to lack of funds. Also the lurgy I’ve been fighting for the last few weeks caught up with me last night and deprived me of a lot of sleep, the doc tells me I’ve got Bronchitis… nice.

Not a big present haul, although the best by far was the pen I got. Exactly what I wanted and all I had to say was that I wanted a pen. Although the DVD and Sonic the Hedgehog were excellent presents as well.

I hope all who reads this had a wonderful Christmas :o)

Yesterday I was talking about wearing heels as being foot binding (far from flattering), the piece the item can from was following on from where Alice Walker spoke of the woman’s right to wear the Niqab. I know I’m a little late off the mark on this one, although I could still hit close to the bone given Channel 4’s alternate speech on Christmas day.

This subject does make me rather angry, but I won’t go off the deep end but will say: whilst we are tolerant of other cultures in this country, you cannot expect to use the race or religion card when what you are wearing gets in the way of the ability to do your job.

If a deaf person, who was a lip reader, could not understand you, would you continue to talk in a manner, which meant they could not understand you? If you wore a veil, and the person you were teaching had to read lips but your beliefs told you not to take your veil off, who would be in the wrong? It’s a hard thing to get your head around. I potentially put more thought into it. However I feel sometimes you have to take things at more than face value.

We should do something because it has a reasonable basis in our life, not because a peer or a book told us to. Wear long draping clothes because you may not have the most flattering of figures and it’s best to cover up (me then), wear a mask over your face because you’ve had chemo and to be infected with germs means certain death or wear flat shoes because it hurts too much to wear heels. Don’t however listen to someone who tells you to cover every part of your body possible because they’re too ashamed to see your body, without at least questioning WHY they want you to do it.

Anyway, after everything that’s been said in the news, and the mixture of emotions that it’s stirred in everyone I applaud Alice Walker for saying the following: “Women have to be extremely careful about choosing something that they consider an act of defiance that can really be used to further their enslavement”. Something everyone should consider I think.

Well it’s five days to go and I’m still being shafted. Firstly the phone call on a Saturday, was possibly a bit rude “why are you bothering me on a Saturday?” asked I.
“Are you coming to the Christmas party?” (originally planned for the 13th of December… an evening I am for a change doing something on, but I’ll get to that later).
“What day is it on?” Says I, believing it to be the 13th, so I could out smart the person bothering me on a Saturday.
“Oh we’ve moved it to the Tuesday as the venue has changed” Bugger thinks I.
“No thanks, I’m busy” washing my hair thinks I.
“Oh come on you shouldn’t leave like this” Like what? I hate Christmas parties, especially ones with people I’d rather not socialise with.
“No thank you, I’ll be out overnight the day after, I’d rather spend the evening with R” How much will it take to get them to go away I’m thinking at this point.
“Oh come on” I mean really, which party of No are they having issues with, the “N” or the “O” or perhaps the forming of the words.
“I’ve got better things to do than spend the evingening with the evil one and little lord twuntleroy thanks” Yeah, like watch CSI and spend the evening with cultured company.
“oh OK” Gah! that took too long.

Anyway, I get an email from the evil one saying “the new office is ready for us to move in”, and telling us we’re helping to move everything on Monday night. I mean seriously, does this person know the concept of “asking”? you know, seeing if we might have anything better to do than spend all night humping boxes? The last time I got told to help, I ended up in excruciating agony, and spending money I didn’t have on an osteopath. You’ll forgive me if I’m not really enthralled in “helping”. Oh that coupled with getting stuck in the new office on Friday with no internet, and a rather pleasant telecoms guy. The “reliable boss” said they would be back before 6 which is the end of our work day to relieve me as I was expecting guests… 10 past no sign of said boss. Great… luckily someone else turned up… however that 10 minutes meant it took me 2 hours to get home. How considerate? yeah, not really.

Now this Wednesday I have tickets to the opening night of the Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House… part of my inheritance paid for those tickets, my mother never took me, so I thought I’d take myself. Who wants to lay bets on the evil one, knowing full well that I have these tickets will conspire to ensure I don’t leave the office on time? Who wants to place a bet as to whether said employee will walk out with utterances of “screw you, and the horse you rode in on”… watch this space people.

Well it’s now official, it finally got recognised, in three short weeks I shall be out of work. So why on earth did I dream of retracting my resignation last night… very odd.

Anyway I have had enough and I’m looking forward to relaxing for a week over Christmas then finding myself some new work. Not sure what I shall do next, other than find somewhere that’s well structured and where there are protocols in place to protect staff from managers who want to harrass their staff. Where criticism is structured and comments aren’t negative all the time.

So all I want for Christmas is a new job :o)

Well that’s it, the downward, slipperly slide into Christmas is upon us. The last of the bank holidays until the expensive one comes along. Someone in the office decided to share their cold with me. I’m not amused, I’ve felt awful all weekend and I’ve had my cousin to stay. I’ve now passed said cold onto R who doesn’t sound impressed, he’s currently on his way back from Spa at the moment.

Anyway it’s back to the office tomorrow. The news on the job front is that for the first time in, oh about 6 years, I’m not contracting. I’ve wanted a permanent job for ages, but now I’ve got one, I’m not sure how I feel about it. Well I know I’m not happy at the moment. You know you should be careful what you wish for because when you get it, it just may not be what you expected.