Monday 5 March 2007

Monday again already

Another weekend has been and gone. I spent Saturday out and about. After giving Rich a lift to the station as he went off to Watford I took myself off shopping. I deliberately parked in Asda's car park, hoping that the car-washers would descend upon me vulture like. Which they did. "Your car needs washing?" said the nearest, not so much as a question but more as an accusation. Yes, I agreed, my car did need washing - so we agreed it would take about half an hour and off I went. First port of call WHSmith - who had a sign on the door telling me that they would be opening on the 21st July to be selling the new Harry Potter. Hurrah! That is what they did two years ago, and I'd hoped they would do it again! Amusingly two years ago it was midnight into the 17th July (my birthday) and this year it is midnight into the 21st July (Rich's birthday). I duly paid my money to pre-order my copy... getting a free book and a £5 off voucher in the process. Result! Next stop HMV to see if I could get my hands on the new game Final Fantasy XII. £29.95 (which Rich confirmed to me was a good deal). Result! Next stop Argos. The recent debacle with VM has led to our purchase of a set-top box. Which of course now needs an aerial in order to function correctly. I'd picked one out in the catalogue which aparently can pick up even digital radio. £5 off marked price. Result!

Happily fulfilled with my shopping I returned to my car to find it sparkling. I then went off to get petrol... wondering if there would be forecourt chaos in the wake of the 'silicon in petrol' disaster. Either it was too early in the morning or everyone is boycotting supermarket pumps just in case, as there was nobody queueing at Sainsbury's. Ready to go down to visit with Mum and Dad.

I arrived at my parents' about an hour later... and managed to sneak in without alerting the dogs. Cue much canine embarassment for being caught napping! I had pleasant lunch with the folks (including Granny who was just finishing her visit). Before she headed off Mum decided to give Granny's car a quick sluice as it had been rather muddied by a passing truck on some journey or other. Gosh, I said, if I'd have known free car washes were on offer I wouldn't have paid to get mine done this morning!

Following lunch with the Ps the next stop was tea with my friend who lives a couple of villages over. My friend, her three year old son, her cat and her adorable (but mad) labrador-dalmation cross! We had a nice catch up whilst her husband hung blinds and her son showed me just about every toy he owns. I love other people's kids - you get to play with them and then give them back!

The journey home was dogged by bad traffic. I ended up getting back after Rich, who came all the way from Watford! I went straight off for a wee nap to recover from the stresses of the day - and be ready for an excellent Saturday night of movies and TV.

MOVIE REVIEW
The Sentinel - starring Kiefer Sutherland, Michael Douglas, Kim Basinger, Eva Longoria etc.
OK - there were a lot of bad reviews for this one. But hey, you have to take the good with the bad in order to get Blockbuster to send stuff!
I don't think it was as bad as the reviews - nor as good as it could have been. Kiefer Sutherland, predictably yet dissapointingly, is playing a Jack Bauer clone. The basic plot (trying to not give anything away) is that somebody inside the FBI detail protecting the President is working with some terrorists to try and kill the President. Weak points include the fact that we never find out why the person in the FBI is helping, who the terrorists are and why they want to kill the President. Additionaly the President is played by David Rasche, last seen as Sledge Hammer, which apart from making me want to shout at the screen 'Trust Me, I know what I'm doing" makes it hard for me to find him believable as the President. Unfair, but true. If you've never seen Sledge Hammer you should. 80s TV show - very funny.

That was it for Movies... as it was quite late and I wanted to watch Stargate. Luckily VM haven't managed to take it from us as Rich's brother will be delivering the end of that (and Atlantis) the weekend after they finish!

Sunday morning is for webpages. Mine was horribly out of date, so I spent some quality time catching that up. Followed by making lunch (which really disagreed with me) - and finally getting to play FFXII. Oh yes, it's good. The much hyped new battle machine is absolutely superb. Gone is the tedious turn based battling, replaced by much much more sophisticated fighting. The whole feel of the game is pretty much with the last I played (FFX) but the story (so far) appears much stronger. All in all shaping up to be enormous fun. Can't wait for more time to play!

Ah well, tea break now over. Back to work!