Fast approaching the weekend

The first week back at work after a holiday is always exhausting. Especially when there are meetings to go to and reports to be issued. I'm glad tomorrow is Friday!

This morning I went to a meeting at one of our Client's offices over in the City. The first time I've been to their new offices since they moved a few months back. Extremely corporate! Pre-printed visitor passes (with your name) I was a bit worried they were going to take my picture as there was an outwards facing webcam on the front desk - not today though. It actually does happen at very large offices that you have a personalised visitor tag with not just your name but your photo too!

I was quite jealous of their beautiful atrium and their extremely modern reception furniture - although once sat on it was quite difficult to get up from again! There was LED lighting around the meeting room doors and big computer screens on all the walls. I was quietly impressed. Also slightly confused as the office phone system appears to have the same ringtones as the phones on TV show 24... which also happens to be my mobile phone ringtone. I kept thinking my phone was ringing!

Take away trauma

So - for the third night in a row there was no cooking done in our house. We decided that we REALLY wanted the chinese take-away we didn't have on Monday night. Still no answer from the take-away. So I decided to go and fetch the food instead, and drove up to Charlton Village. The take-away is closed! The shutters are pulled down and there is a notice on the front of the shop (which I can't read from the car, even with my glasses on). I hope that they are just on holiday or something. We tried the only other chinese take-away menu we had; and sadly nowhere near as good.

More Pizza

Last night we were going to get a take away for dinner. It was going to be chinese. However, they weren't answering their phone - so we ended up with Pizza.

Tonight we took my nearly-mother-in-law out for dinner (it's her birthday today). She chose to go to Pizza Express in Blackheath. Pizza again! It's a good thing that Rich and I like Pizza. Happily the station car park is free in the evenings, so we drove to Blackheath rather than messing around on the number 54 bus.

Normal service is resumed

Back at work after my gloriously sunny (well mostly) two weeks holiday. Unsurprisingly nothing much has changed.

I spent the first part of the day wading through the 80 or so emails that had piled up in my inbox (that is after discounting all the newsletters, marketing and other junk). I spent a lot of the rest of the day catching up on projects and even worse arguing with the (still) recalcitrant office equipment. There may now be more of it than ever - but it still takes turns to really annoy me! Plus ça change.

Finally got the scanner that wouldn't scan to actually scan (hurrah). This led to five minutes blissful quiet. Then the main MFD (multi-function device... although I have some unprintable alternatives!) decided not to print. I rang our IT guy and asked if he thought it was coincidental that as one was fixed the other ceased to function. He suggested that I turn it off and on again. Printer back in business. I dropped him an email to let him know that it was fixed, and told him I should have thought of switching it off and on again (we always joke about how this is the only solution offered by helplines). His response, wryly "Trade Secret..."! The office equipment still wasn't done with me though. Some sort of power spike sent the server onto its UPS (unitineruptable power supply) - unfortunately it is extremely interuptable... it overloaded, started emitting a high-pitched wail and switched off the server. At this point (apart form wondering about the alarm) all work in the office stops as nothing works without the server *sigh*. There was another ten minutes holding the server's (metaphorical) hand through the start-up process.

By this point I'm pretty much done with Monday. This is fine as it is now time to go home anyway. Ah, but TfL and the Underground have other ideas. My phone receives a text message from the TfL travel update service. The Jubilee Line is suspended due to faulty communications equipment. Time to take an alternate route home. I walk out of the office into the oven that is Central London (thirty degrees apparently, it felt it). Now I'm thinking that the lack of Jubilee Line is no great loss. I consider (momentarily) walking to Whitehall to get the number 53. I can't be bothered it is just too hot... so I swelter on the number 9 instead, all the way to Trafalgar Square. Eventually I get the 53 and as I'm at the front of the queue (I saw it coming down Great Scotland Yard) I get a seat. Two hours after leaving the office I finally get home.

SatNav takes us on a trip

Today we were off to seem some friends for a BBQ lunch. As I only knew roughly where their house is located I decided it was the perfect opportunity for SatNav to guide us. For reasons unknown SatNav decided that the best route was via Sidcup to the M25 - which worked for me as the last time that I was at the junction near Dartford there were roadworks and horrendous queues. I got a bit confused when we nearly arrived, but SatNav did a bit of recaculating and found us our destination in the end!

We had a wonderful afternoon with our friends, good food... a game of boules (!) and some quality time with their baby (who is really more of a little boy now!). It was quite shocking to notice the time and reluctantly make our way home.

This evening it was time to take the new grill for a test drive. Fantastically improved cooking times for the lamb chops (compared to trying to bake them in the oven). I love my new cooker! Also managed to find time to finish reading 'The Pirate's Daughter' by Margaret Cezair-Thompson. Another book picked from the library on the recommendation of Richard and Judy's book club. Fantastic read... set in Jamaica (where I did once spend two weeks on holiday many years ago) it is vividly written with wonderful characters (including Errol Flynn!). It's an absolute delight to read and really doesn't dissapoint all the way to the end... ten out of ten and highly recommended. I'm not sure what will happen to the rest of the library books as I've already had them for two weeks now so there is only one week left and now I'm back at work I don't have nearly as much time for reading, and what time I do have will be devoted to finishing 'Flood' by Stephen Baxter!

Cooker arrives!

After many months in the offing the new cooker arrived today. Well, not really new, second-hand but new to us. My uncle and cousin kindly drove it up from the South coast and delivered it (with some help from Rich) to our kitchen. Even better, shortly after this a call was received from the plumber to see if a) the cooker had been delivered and b) he could come to fit it this afternoon instead of Monday morning! Hurrah. The new cooker is now installed and we are very excited to have a functioning grill and an oven whose door stays closed; the old cooker's grill was busted and the only way the door would stay shut was to prop the front of the cooker on cardboard and let gravity take care of it!

I spent a large part of today watching the Twenty-20 final where Kent were playing Essex. Being a Kent girl (I lived there for most of my childhood) I was obviously supporting Kent. It was all very exciting - despite the 'sloppy' fielding (that's the commentators words not mine) of the Essex team they came close to matching Kent's score. I started watching the game between Middlesex and Durham but lost interest on account of a) Middlesex isn't an actual county and b) how can you take a cricket team seriously wearing that shade of pink?!

I missed most of the final as I was taking a well earned nap. I woke up in time to see Kent's innings... what a roller-coaster. They seemed to be out of contention, them a very strange incident of over-throwing appeared to give them a chance... before they finally blew it.

Friday - Holiday Day 10

Last real day of holidays today before the weekend and then back to work. It was therefore a day for chores and all the things I've neglected during the last two weeks. It involved a lot of tidying things away but also some good things like working may way down three months worth of magazines!

I've now had two weeks worth of my new 'comfort' auto-injector that I picked up from my MS Nurse. I have to give it a huge thumbs up. It is so much easier to use than the old one. It's easier to put together, and instead of having to hold two buttons whilst you use it you pull a lever before hand and then only need one button. The best thing of all though is that it retracts the needle when you are done... hopefully this should improve the adverse skin reactions!

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of Pharaohs

Today we were back at the O2 again (after our brief passage through from pier to bus station yesterday). This time we were off to the 'O2 Bubble' to see the Tutankamun exhibition. The tickets cost £15 each (they are more expensive on Friday through Sunday) and it was actually particularly good value for money.

We arrived and made our way through the queueing area and up the escalators to the entrance. From here we were shepherded into a viewing area (no seats!) to see a short introductory film. From here you could make your way through the various exhibit halls which make up the exhibition.

The exhibition was beautifully imagined and realised. The displays were perfectly lit, each room with just the right amount of exhibits. The information was located at several locations on each display (above and below the case as well as within the case). There were some amazing bits, such as the room with life sized replica columns and the room with replicas of the murals from burial chambers. The whole experience was extremely 'cinematic' in that it was 'moodily' lit and quite dark for most of the time - to the extent that I got lost on several occasions. It was informative and beautifully presented. These were the good things.

Of course there were some not so good points. The whole system for traversing the exhibition was extremely flawed. Far too many people were allowed in one 'sitting' and every room was over-crowded. It is unfortunate that we decided to go in the first week of the school holidays. Whilst there are undoubtedly many youngsters who are interested in the history of Ancient Egypt there are also a lot who are not, many of whom seemed to be visiting the same time as us today!

The biggest disappointment was the fact that the famous death mask of Tutankhamun was not included in the exhibit. Despite the fact that this features prominently on posters, the website and a lot of the souvenirs you will not see it at the O2 (apparently it is no longer allowed to leave Egypt). I did know this in advance of my visit today (I remembered reading about it before the exibit opened) and if you read the FAQs on the website it does confirm this. However, I'm sure that most people didn't read the FAQs or remember the news from the time and were extremely dissapointed at the end of the tour instead of seeing the death mask to find themselves in the gift shop!

After this we had lunch in McDonalds. It amused me deeply whilst having my lunch to find the 'nutrional advice' on the side of my fries and burger. Not only was I informed of the percentages of my RDA of various things (calories, fat, salt, etc.) but there was a dotted line to indicate 1/3 of the RDA to enable me to plan my balanced diet (that is what my burger said, anyway!). I know that McDonalds have tried to shed their fast food image over the last few years and do now sell some healthier options - but I can't think that anyone could possibly claim that a burger and fries in anyway could be seen as part of a balanced diet... after all, the only vegetable in evidence was the pickle!

The Occasional Tourist - Part Five, Royal Observatory (Greenwich)

Today we took a trip across Blackheath and through the Park to the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Our original destination was the Planetarium, which we never got around to in the event, but the Observatory itself is a worthwhile day out... and even better, free entry!

We started by getting a bus from Charlton to the edge of Blackheath from where we walked to the top entrance of Greenwich Park. We walked along the beautiful tree lined avenue and finally reached our destination of the Royal Observatory.

Standing in front of the Observatory there are amazing views over the Thames towards Greenwich, Woolwich and Canary Wharf.

Panorama from in front of the Observatory.

There are some amazing exhibitions to see at the Observatory; the original home of the Astronomer Royal has been recreated, including the stunning Octagon Room. There are numerous examples of clocks and watches as well as other equipment used to watch the universe. Amongst other things to see was the amazingly impressive 28 inch telescope. Not for the fainthearted this one as it involved a climb up a very precarious feeling spiral staircase, a walk across a rather narrow terrace and a descent down another long spiral staircase with chequer-plate treads which mean you can see all the way down! A quick stop in the courtyard to admire the Greenwich Meridian (and the plaques to the three previous meridians!) and we moved on to the 'space' side of the exhibits. These were great fun (if probably more aimed at the younger visitors!) and ended with an excellent short film.

The Greenwich Meridian

The famous 'ball' which drops at 1pm every day - we missed it by 15 minutes!

The top of the Planetarium which is constructed using significant angles relative to the Greenwich Meridian and astronomical features! It is made out of copper, and has signs warning against touching as the metal becomes hot in the sun.

The airship (again) which seemed to be following us as we saw it on Blackheath, at the Observatory and again when we were nearly home!

Garden Gang (again)

Whilst I was sitting in the garden yesterday afternoon I was delighted to see a lot of my friendly wildlife out and about:


Blackbird having dinner


Squirrel sunbathing


Molly sunbathing


Assorted fish enjoying the sunshine

I also managed to get some new pictures of this summer's crop of amphibians - and some snails which had colonised what used to be a pot of coriander!


Small frog


King Frog with a smaller relative


Small frog hiding


Snails having destroyed coriander!

Monday - Holiday Day 6

So, (nearly) all the birthdays in my family being in July - today was Rich's birthday; happy birthday Rich!

Today was also the day that the new flooring was finally laid. True to their word the fitters turned up early afternoon to lay the screed (even managing to get the remains of the old flooring from out under the freezer). They then went off to do another job and came back to lay the vinyl in the late afternoon. I spent most of the intervening time sitting in the garden reading my book and keeping an eye on proceedings. And, easy as that, the new floor is laid! The new cooker is arriving this weekend and then the transformation of the kitchen will be complete!


The new kitchen floor (at last)

Movie night as usual

Last night's movie was the fantastic "Stargate Contiuum" (thanks to Play USA for getting it here so fast!).

If you like Stargate then you're going to love 'Contiuum'. it is an absolutely amazing film. It manages to get nearly all the main cast members (ever) together, even the late, great Don S. Davis. Several of the famous G'ould (especially my personal favourite Ba'al) and even a brief appearance by Jack O'Neil. I heard an interview with writer Brad Wright were he was saying it was the piece of which he was most proud, and I could well agree with him. If my other favourite cast member Harry Maybourne had only shown up it would have been perfect! I might go as far as ten out of ten!

This afternoon it was the Grand Prix at Hockenheim. After the excitement of Silverstone I was expecting a big let-down, but luckily I was wrong. Fantastic race! Having opened up a superlative lead over second place pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton looked like he had it in the bag. Then a rear suspension failure on Timo Gloch's car brought out the safety-car. Lead vanishes. As soon as the pit lane opens nearly the whole pack pits, except Lewis. The safety car then stays out a few more laps than seems strictly necessary (presumably the lapped cars are unlapping themselves). Now Lewis has to build up another lead in order to make his pit-stop and come out in front. It doesn't happen. Suddenly Piquet (who is one stopping) leads from Massa with Lewis back in third. Amazingly he manages to pass both other drivers to finish top of the podium. Fantastic stuff! There were some other good drives around, but none to quite beat that!

Library Books

I make good use of my local library. It's small, but has a pretty good rotation of books (I suspect that the libraries in the Borough must pool their resources and share the books). It never takes me long to choose books. I have a few 'want to read' items that I keep a look-out for, and otherwise pick pretty much at random from displays and shelves. If I end up not fancying a book it gets sent back unread; although I always try to stick to my late grandfather's maxim of finishing a book you start (he was a voracious reader); it may sometimes take me several efforts!

The current crop were chosen in my normal manner. Two were renewals from the last lot (you only get three weeks for eight books from Greenwich libraries) that I had started and not finished. Five of the remaining six were chosen from a 'summer reading' display featuring choices from the 'Richard and Judy Summer Read'. Well, why not? The last was a book I spotted off the shelf, Jeffrey Archer "Sons of Fortune". I realise that Archer isn't generally considered high literature, but I've always enjoyed his books (I must have read "Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less" a dozen times!). I decided to start reading this first, and from the beginning I wondered if I hadn't already read it. I reasoned that I would definitely remember some of the more audacious plot twists, therefore I probably hadn't. There is some familiarity in many of his books as he writes often about what he knows, and so politics often features strongly.

It wasn't until I read the last words of the book that I realised that I definitely had read the book before; the end of the book irritated me, and had irritated me on the previous reading. I don't want to give to much away... but at the end of the book is an election, the election is a tie, and must therefore be decided on the toss of a coin. The last paragraph reads "The mayor picked up the coin and turned round to fact the two candidates. He smiled at the man now standing on his right, and said, 'May I be the first to congratulate you, governor.'" The end. On the previous page you are told that the two candidates are standing "as befitted their political persuasion". During the coin toss you are also told "One of them called, 'Heads,' but then he always called heads." Yep. This was mentioned somewhere in the course of the book. But, for those who have criminally short attention spans and read books in several sittings (often in conjunction with reading several other books) such throw away details are often forgotten. Yes, annoyingly about twenty chapters previously one of the characters lost a coin toss when the opponent called heads and it was mentioned at that point "because he would have called heads - he always did".

I'm not going to tell you who won; you probably haven't read the book and don't really care. You can work it out anyway from the last two pages of the book; and if you want confirmation I'd recommend the beginning of Chapter 31! It just annoys me that I managed to read an entire book without realising that I'd read it before! I'd recommend it if you enjoy a good tale; just as I recommend all of Archer's books (well, the ones I've read, anyway).

A change of pace, next - a delve into 'Richard and Judy's Summer Read' I think.

Friday - Holiday Day 5

We noticed this morning that apart from the black bag the bins we put out yesterday were still sitting there, waiting. My nearly-mother-in-law said that she had heard something about a strike. As I don't read the local paper I didn't know anything.

I decided to check the Council Website to see what they had to say. Nothing of any relevance. So I decided to call the Contact Centre to see what they had to say. Yes, indeed; the bin men were on strike on Wednesday and Thursday. I asked when I could expect my rubbish to be collected. Next week as usual I was told. I pointed out that my bins were full. Oh, you can use black bags I was told.

What is the point of them going on strike. Number 1, I didn't know about it (so excellent publicity!); Number 2, the only people they have inconvenienced is me and my neighbours who can't do anything about whatever it is that they are striking about anyway. Do they think that they are making a point to Greenwich Council? Do they think that Greenwich Council care that half the Borough didn't get their rubbish collected this week? No to both, I'd hazard a guess.

So, the flies will buzz around my 'green' bin for another week; my 'blue' bins will overflow... and ironically my black sacks which are best placed for non-collection were collected. Go figure.

On the topic of rubbish gripes, as expected now that the Summer is here (after a fashion) the food/composting bin is suffering badly from the flies and smell. It is the furthest bin from the front door, but you can still smell it as soon as you leave the house. I appreciate why the Council are organising the rubbish collections the way they are, I even applaud their efforts... but I still think that if they are going to insist that food waste is deposited un-wrapped (or barely wrapped) into the bin they should arrange for and finance regular sanitisation of said bins. Not going to happen, I know, so I guess I'll be arranging it myself.

This afternoon was devoted to playing my new Sonic the Hedgehog on the Xbox 360. Very much in the vein of all recent Sonic games it served to remind me why I usually only play games with a 'three years and up' rating (this has a 'twelve years and up'). I'm not very good at console games, I fare better with easier games. I get frustrated when the learning curve is too steep... I'd also forgotten the irritation of all Sonic games that when you 'die' and use up all your lives you go all the way back to the very start of the level. ARGH! Frustration beyond frustration... back to Indy for the rest of the day now to clear my mind for another Sonic attempt!

Thursday - Holiday Day 4 (aka my birthday!)

Cake and presents! Also, a great deal of quality time with my Xbox!

Amongst other things Rich got me the new Indian Jones Lego game (and also the Sonic game, which I've not even got around to playing yet!). Indy is GREAT! Having played the Star Wars Lego games in their various incarnations forwards, backwards and probably sideways the new challenge is great. The same amazing graphics... the same excellent game play... probably the same attention to details from the movies (if only I remembered the movies better!) - you really couldn't ask for much more from a game.

Tomorrow Sonic? I've really missed playing Sonic since I sold my Gamecube!

Wednesday - Holiday Day 3

Things in life are rarely simple. Any attempt at home improvement we make is also rarely simple. From the time that the new sofa was delivered (and got wedged in the door) to the time that the new fridge-freezer was delivered and abandoned in the garden, to the time that they re-did the ceiling and the disintegrated plaster and lathe ceiling came down all over the living room floor... well you get the idea. If it can go wrong it usually does.

The purchase of our new flooring with delivery and installation the next day seemed too good to be true. Probably because it was. The workmen arrived this afternoon and looked at the kitchen floor and told me that they couldn't install the hardwood levelling base as there was 'nothing to fix it to'. I would have thought that they could have drilled into the concrete... but apparently not. So, it has to be a screed. Screeds of course require time to 'go off'; I know these things, working in the industry and all, and let workmen know it, so that they don't try and pull the wool over my eyes! This means that we have to clear the kitchen for basically two days. I'm a bit annoyed. I did tell the woman in the shop that the floor was concrete... so she should have said that the workmen wouldn't fix hardwood to concrete. Oh, and they won't work around the fridge freezer, so we (that means Rich) have to move that too. And presumably it will have to sit in the garden for twenty four hours... great - my nearly £300 fridge-freezer open to the elements.

So now I've to wait for the shop to call me back to let me know when they can fit in the new appointments. In the interim the carpet is gone from the kitchen leaving bare (cold) concrete, and without the softening of the concrete the cupboard in the corner no longer has any help with levelling the floor and wobbles alarmingly.

All depressingly predictable.

All Star Game

So... tonight is the All Star Game. The annual collection of the greats (mostly) of baseball playing together. For the last few years the All Star Game 'counts' as whichever team wins the game gets home-field advantage for their League in the World Series. The American League usually wins the All Star Game (at least for the last few years)... not going so well tonight so far (AL are currently losing). It's about the only time that Rich and I can agree in baseball as we both want the AL to win.

This is the last season at Yankee Stadium... therefore the last All Star Game at Yankee Stadium. Before the game they had all the living Hall of Famers on the field along with the All Star Players. This was rather cool, they all lined up on the field behind the positions that they played at, and were then joined by the All Star Players.

We've been watching the coverage on Five (yep, there is a choice between them and NASN). Five win our viewing on account of they actually have proper coverage with presenters (no ad-breaks at all tonight so far). How could miss out the fun with Jonny and Josh (and David)... and the best bit of all, they wished me "Happy Birthday". Rich emailed them in and they read it out live on air... which means that my name was said in Yankee Stadium! How cool is that?! It's the little things...

We're currently enjoying the Seventh Inning Stretch... and Jonny, Josh and David talked through most of 'God Bless America' - not cool guys! I always enjoy the rendition of 'God Bless America'.

So, we'll settle down to enjoy the end of the game, and hope that the AL Team pull their finger out!

Tuesday - Holiday Day 2

Another busy day today (how are holidays as busy as going to work?!). Given the arrival of the new fridge-freezer and the imminent arrival of the new oven it was decided that it was finally time to get the new floor laid. I'd already been out scouting for floor finishes, and even snapped a few pictures so that Rich and I could decide what we were going to choose. Of course, the one we chose was a 2m roll which wouldn't suit our kitchen whose minimum dimensions exceeded 2m. C'est la vie. We've ended up with a rather bright blue, which will hopefully lift the colour in our kitchen which is rather dark because the windows are small.

The best bit was that they can come tomorrow to fit the flooring... the worst bit is that as we'll be up late tonight watching the All Star Game we're going to be rather tired clearing the kitchen tomorrow morning.

This afternoon I decided to try getting my Xbox 360 controller to work on the laptop. The logic goes like this... the Xbox is made by Microsoft. My laptop runs Vista made by Microsoft. The game that I want to play is 'made for Windows' and made by Microsoft (in part). The logic is therefore the controller will work with the laptop and the game. Hah! I plugged it into the USB and indeed the computer recoginised 'something'. It went off searching for drivers... and eventually 'found' something on Windows Update. Nothing worked. I searched the net and found another download. Installed... appeared to work... controller doesn't work. Restarts... troubleshooting... still nothing. I give up. I'll buy a games controller I guess. Silly me to think that anything would be easy!

Off for a nap soon, ready for the All Star Game later.

Monday - Holiday Day 1

A great start to my holiday this morning... an appointment at the hospital to see my MS Nurse. This in itself is not a bad thing, I like my nurse (actually she's great) and as the appointments were running to time today everything was accomplished delightfully quickly. Shame the same couldn't be said for the blood test department. The sign at reception warned of a wait of 45 minutes. In the event it was an hour and ten!

The nurse gave me a new version of the auto-injector (hopefully I can work out how to use it with a needle in it, as she didn't have a demo needle for the demonstration). This is going to (allegedly) reduce skin reactions at injection sites - although it has been much improved ever since I started using the aloe vera gel.

This afternoon I decided to run some errands. First up was trip to the library, where upon arrival I realised I'd forgotten my library card and so had to go all the way home again. Whilst at the library I noticed an airship overhead! A real live airship (some call them dirigibles) not one of those tethered ones. After choosing some books (thank you Richard and Judy's Book Club for providing me with four easy choices!) it was off to Asda for a bit more shopping... and another airship sighting! What can there be to see over Charlton and Woolwich apart from the Thames Barrier? It's all a new sightseeing opportunity, for the very rich it would seem!

Airship over Charlton House

Airship heading towards the river

Airship over Asda

Next I took the car through the car-wash (yes, lazy and not very eco-friendly), before my final stop looking for new kitchen flooring. A long (long) time ago when we had the living room re-decorated we used the carpet off-cuts to put down in the kitchen. Never (ever) have carpet on a kitchen floor. So, now we've had a new fridge freezer (and the new cooker imminently arriving) it seems a good time to rethink the floor!

So, several of the dull but necessary tasks out of the way; now I can relax and enjoy the rest of my holiday!

Movie night

Two movies last night, first up was 'Unknown' followed by 'Cars'. 'Unknown' was very good... five guys wake up in a warehouse with no memory of who they are, and the film progesses from there. Well written, well acted and a truly surprising twist at the end. Totally recommended, eight out of ten.

'Cars' is another animation from the excellent Pixar (who have brought us the likes of Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and so forth). Great fun movie, amazing (amazing) animation and a lot of very famous names doing the voices. The best bit was at the end where they had a little bit at the end self-referencing the fact that John Ratzenberger (Cliff in Cheers) has been a voice in all the Pixar movies, and they had little clips of the movies (but done by cars)... very cute. Again, eight out of ten.

A good movie night, then. Must be due some rubbish ones next week on that basis! A lot of movie watching is likely over the next few weeks, I've got two weeks holiday, and apart from visiting as many friends as I can impose myself upon I've got no real plans. Some R&R - couldn't come at a better time.