20 September 2003 22:49 [link]
underworld
We went to see Underworld. I did enjoy it, but felt it wasn't all it could have been.
It looked lovely - a sort of Blade-meets-Matrix feel - and had enough plot to be decent, and enough action pieces to be entertaining, and not too much gore. I don't do well on gore, or horror. I confess I'd expected it to be less of a horror film and more Matrixy, but I got used to the crunching and ripping noises soon enough.
The main let-downs were the final fight scene (top tip: if the audience laugh at the finale of the climactic sequence of your vampire/werewolf movie, you've probably done something wrong) and the "hey, folks, there's going to be a sequel!" ending. Oh and some dialogue that was just cliché.
I can't say I was particularly interested in the fact that there was a sequel. I can't imagine I'll get too excited when it comes out, but I'll probably go and see it anyway.
So, no major passions, all told.
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20 September 2003 16:53 [link]
just follow instructions
We bought a filing cabinet today, which came flat-packed. It was a good job I actually thought about the instructions before starting to assemble the thing - if I'd followed them in order, I'd have been unable to attach the bottom to the sides (the feet would have been in the way) and the top would have been glued down before I had the locking bars in place.
I love flat-packed furniture.
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20 September 2003 14:15 [link]
helping old ladies
We were wandering around Marks and Spencer food hall, and found an old lady trying to do her shopping. She had the items she wanted, and wanted to pay, and so the helpful assistant pointed her in the direction of the tills at the far end of the store. "Just keep walking that way and you'll come to it." She said she couldn't see very well, so he just re-iterated his instructions.
Sara and I watched her almost trip over a display stand and decided we'd better do his job for him. And so I took her shopping from her and guided her towards the tills (which she walked straight past before I managed to steer her back in the right direction). I confess I abandoned her once her items were on the conveyor belt and she knew she was at the till.
Quite why the assistant was too busy to help her I don't know. I should have complained to someone, really.
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20 September 2003 12:23 [link]
migraine
Unpleasantness last night - my first migraine. I got a bit of a headache as I was finishing work, which developed into a thumping headache as I got on the train, and an excruciating headache as I got off it. (Thames Trains had also, thoughtfully, put the heating on in the train, making me really want to vomit.) It felt like I was having my temples and the back of my neck crushed in a pair of vices.
I stumbled through the door and straight into bed, with a concerned Sara feeding my ibuprofen and sympathy. I was thinking "meningitis", she was thinking "brain tumour". As I crawled out of bed to go to the bathroom to throw up, she checked WebMD which said something along the lines of "Serious headache? Vomiting? Call a doctor, for goodness' sake!" She called NHS Direct (a service I really, really like, even if their advice always seems to be "go to bed, relax, see the doctor tomorrow").
NHS Direct ran through all the symptoms (including, I noted, the tests for meningitis) and said "go to bed, relax, see the doctor tomorrow". (Oh, and "sip lots of water so you don't dehydrate". Top tip: if you can't keep sips of water down, suck on ice cubes.)
I hit a bit of a snag when I found that I actually couldn't sips of water down (and we had no ice cubes) and any painkillers I took came straight back up too, but eventually I just passed out. Ah, sleep, blessed sleep.
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