Created: 16 Oct 2004
It’s a month since my last entry and during that time I have been heading down the road of life. Not a fast road, but a B-road. One that the local authority should have resurfaced a couple of years ago. So it’s been a month of slow progress with the occasional bump and jolt from potholes.
The highlight was certainly my birthday. Sally not only gave me a rather fantastic 19” TFT monitor, which she had chosen after enlisting the help of friends and colleagues, but also booked breakfast at The Wolsley and then humoured me by traipsing around the London Transport Museum. The Wolsley certainly served a very fine breakfast, but I felt a little underdressed in scruffy combat-style trousers and a T-shirt, especially in contrast to the gentleman in the cravat sitting nearby (who I think may have been Henry Blofeld). In the evening we had a very fine meal at Sarracino , followed by far too many drinks. The following evening Jane had a party in her flat, featuring good conversation, consumption of fine foods and beverages and mad dancing incorporating the use of a suspiciously positioned purse.
Sadly, Monday saw the funeral of my Great Auntie Glad, a really lovely lady who I unfortunately haven’t seen a great deal of in recent years. Phaps the happiest features of the day were the service itself, which was very simple and yet different from others I’ve attended, and meeting so many relatives whom I haven’t seen for some considerable time. Also, I discovered that my second cousin Tim lives not fifteen minutes walk from my flat.
On the blagging front, I’ve been to two previews recently: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Enduring Love . I disliked Sky Captain for a number of reasons: Gywnneth Paltrow’s performance, Jude Law’s performane and rest of the cast’s performance. Reading the description of the amazing CGI in the weighty press release beforehand, I felt a sense of trepidation that there would be a feeble plot propped up by some stunning graphics. I was wrong; it was in fact a feeble plot, propped up by some pretty average graphics. Since the only beer available was Carlsberg, that preview gets a blagging score of 2/10. Happily, Enduring Love was a gripping tale, well executed by all the cast and shot simply, but brilliantly. Pity the sandwiches were a little stale at the corners, but at least the Rolling Rock went down nicely, giving an overall score of 8/10.