Absolutely fabulous, darling!

Through the miracles of modern technology, I am now insured to drive our car. (Amusingly, as our policy has now become a driver and spouse policy, it doesn't cost any extra for me to be named. In fact, Dave gets a £5 rebate :P Apparently I make him a safer driver or somesuch.)

Anyway.

Last night I drove us to the cinema. Only a few miles, but plenty of fun roundabouts--I remember how big a deal it was when I first drove round one of those!--high speed roads, and streets lined with parked cars. This morning I drove us to the midwife's and back again during the school run, so that was fun.

I've also learnt that a car is not just a car. Our Alfa is a lot bigger and heavier than the Renault I'm used to driving. So, more foot to the brakes and so forth. It's wider, too, so I need to watch my verges and clearance. It's also weird to be using a semi-automatic gearbox instead of a manual and pushing forward only to go up a gear, and pulling back to go down. I find myself forgetting and trying to go across and up occasionally.

(POTC2 was okay. Far too long, though. The effects were great, Scruffy Norrington was nice, I loved Davey Jones' face, but the plot left a bit to be desired. We'll see how the third film ties stuff together, I suppose.)

My 20 week scan date finally came through on Friday. It's on the 2nd of June when I will-amazingly enough--actually be 20 weeks. Hopefully Speck is as ridiculously healthy as Dave is and not sickly and broken like mummy. I'm looking forward to starting to buy little bits and bobs. I do worry that I'll have Speck and not have anywhere for him/her to sleep....

( Read more... )

2lazy4linux just sent me this link. How absolutely brilliant is this? It's not listed on IMDB yet, but The Independent has an article on it and an interview with PTerry.

I am thrilled. I wonder who will play Susan and who will voice Quoth?

*bounce bounce bounce*

For those of you who've been under a rock for a few days, Sam Raimi is to direct PTerry's "The Wee Free Men. A resounding YAY to that!

Fantasy casting is going on in earnest over many a message board. Personally, I'd love to see Dame Maggie Smith as Granny Weatherwax and Dame Judi Dench as Nanny Ogg, however, I'm not sure Maggie would want to play two much-loved witches. Dave reckons that Andy Serkiss should play Rob Anybody, which could be pretty cool. He's got the right sort of interesting face....

And for the Americans: SciFi has bought rights to the new Doctor Who! Alas, this does push back the US DVD release, but I'm told the Canadian release is still happening on 14th February. That'll work, right?

Yesterday Dave and I finally saw The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. (Admittedly, we were shooting for a 0930 showing, and made it there for 1615. Still, an improvement on previous attempts.)

( My musings. )

On the plus side, seeing the new LWW finally shook free a not-quite-drabble that I started a couple of weeks ago--all glammetalkitten's fault. Frozen is a gen drabble that arose from my ponderings on what long-term effects the Witch's magic would have. Um, spoilers, I suppose? *looks at flist* I'd be shocked amazed if any of you lot hadn't read the book at least once.

Looks like we have a fox problem round here. Our binbags were attacked again last night, but not dragged away this time. As our local authority doesn't provide wheely-bins and it's impossible to find a bin that will take more than two large bags, we'll now have to store the bags in the garage until bin-day rolls around on Friday. Joy.

Dave's just gone out to buy some pine, a saw, some nails, and some fine fabric to make mosquito/fly screens for the windows upstairs so that he can have the cooling goodness of a breeze, without me screaming about the huge fucking flies invading the house. I'll tolerate flies everywhere if I'm in Grenada or Barbados, but in the UK I'd rather swelter indoors with the windows shut. Yesterday, just as I was about to put my bare feet on the floor, I spotted a huge bumble-bee waddling across the carpet. I don't know why it wasn't flying--perhaps it suddenly realised that it wasn't aerodynamically possible for it to fly? I wouldn't survive more than half an hour in a rainforest....

The dishwasher is dead. I'll have to phone tomorrow (today is a Bank Holiday in the UK, so whilst plenty of shops are open, dishwasher service centers are shut) and beg for a service engineer to come round ASAP. Hopefully it'll just need a spare part. I don't fancy buying a new dishwasher so soon. It's only about 4 years old....

Knitting is going well. I've given in and started with a relatively simple top, rather than the gorgeous lacy tunic. Couldn't find any red yarn, so I've got a pale purple as you can never have too much purple clothing. So far, I've done about 2.5 inches.

Oh! I am also the proud recipient of a copy of National Treasure. A trashy movie, but it's one of Sean Bean's sexiest roles which lets me overlook the ridiculous plot and Nicholas Cage's presence.

I said this was random shit, didn't I? :)

Saw Sahara last night at the cinema. I've long been a fan of Clive Cussler and his rollicking Dirk Pitt (yes, he does sound like a porn star) novels. Great summer reading, with plots as inticrate as Tom Clancy's efforts... but you don't need to haul out a copy of Jane's to understand what's going on. They're a bit Mary-Sueish, since like his hero, Clive has discovered lost ships, treasure, and has a massive collection of classic cars.

An aside--do other Clancy fans have to haul out gun manuals/listings and ask their husbands what sort of plane's being talked about, or is it just me? He throws in as much sodding detail as Anne Rice does! I keep threatening to write a reading guide for non-military Clancy readers.

Anyway, after spluttering a bit over the casting (Steve Zahn is NOT my idea of Al Giordino, but then again, how many squat actors with arms like an orangutang are there?), I actually enjoyed the movie. They've made a few changes. Inevitably. We can't have a marine engineer saving the world, can we? No, he has to be an ex-SEAL. As only ex-SEALs know how to fight *dramatic eye-rolling* Still, the door is open for future films and it's definitely better than the very dismal adaptation of Raise the Titanic from the early 80s. The action was great, and the plot wasn't raped too much to turn it into a movie. William H Macy was great as Admiral Sandecker and they kept the running joke about his cigars which made me smile.

BTW, Dave has been winding me up with comparisons to Indiana Jones. I must point out that the first Dirk Pitt novel was published in 1973, and Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981. It's probably easier to think of it as a watery rendition of James Bond, without spy connections :D I believe that Clive wrote it to compete with James Bond anyway.

I have to be the world's worst reviewer, but if I as a screaming fangirl enjoyed it despite some dubious changes, then most folks should have fun at it :)

God... the teenage vic (Abby) in Elektra is the most irritating kid ever. She's everything that's wrong with teenagers. Blech. (I know she's supposed to be irritating, but she's beyond merely irritating!)

In more positive news, I've finished my Seduction of a Straight Man challenge fic. Now all I have to do is wait until the 26th and post it. *drums fingers on the desk* Absolutely no idea what I'm writing next, although after watching this film it's likely to be something involving very sharp knives. Or... femmeslash. Elektra/Typhoid Mary, anyone?