The Five Doctors

Yesterday afternoon I was watching the Doctor Who story “The Five Doctors”, which was first broadcast in 1983 as a 90 minute TV movie to celebrate the show’s 20th anniversary. In the story, a mysterious figure is taking the Doctor’s past incarnations out of time and space and taking them to a dangerous area of the Doctor’s home planet, Gallifrey, known as the “Death Zone”, which is dominated by a giant tower. The five Doctors, helped by a selection of their old companions, and hindered by a selection of old enemies, including a Dalek, the Cybermen and the Master, need to find their way to the tower to discover who brought them there and why. It is a fun episode, actually, although it does occasionally get bogged down by the need to include as many references and characters from past Doctor Who stories as possible. I remember seeing it when it was first broadcast.

In the evening I watched the Doctor Who story “The Curse of Fenric” which was first broadcast in 1989. In the story, the Seventh Doctor (played by Sylvester McCoy) and his companion Ace (Sophie Aldred) arrive at a top secret Naval Base in England during the Second World War, where a new type of computing machine is being developed to decode enemy ciphers. However, a squad of soldiers plan to steal the device, but the Doctor is far more interested in the local legends of an ancient Viking curse in the surrounding ocean. It is one of my favourite Doctor Who stories, and I remember seeing it when it was first broadcast. It is one of the darker and most complex stories, dealing with some fairly big themes, alongside Norse mythology, aliens and vampires.

I was also working on the ghost story that I started through the week. It’s not really very scary, though. It’s about someone who is researching a book on local myths and legends who goes to a small town, which he soon discovers is completely dominated by a powerful supernatual force.

Today I went along to my parent’s house for lunch, which was tacos today, and the latest issue of Sight and Sound magazine had arrived, which this month featured fifty film critics choices of the best film of 2008.

Shopping

Today I went out to pay in the cheque that my brother had sent me for his share of Dad’s Christmas present. I looked around, but it was really busy, which I suppose is understandable enough for the time of year. I got a couple of DVDs in the sales (Doctor Who: The Five Doctors and Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric). I was also looking for a book for my Mum’s present, but I couldn’t make up my mind, so I went back home, stopping along the way to pick up some groceries for the week.

A Day Out!

Today I had the day off work and headed out to meet my Mum at the bus station at half past ten. We got on the bus to Glasgow, which took about an hour and a quarter. When we got there we went along to Pizza Express for lunch. I had a Diavolo pizza which had the usual cheese and tomato but also spicy beef, pepperoni, hot green peppers and jalapeno peppers, with a dash of tabasco sauce. It was hot, but in a good way. Hot and spicy enough to give it a good kick but not enough so that it burnt the mouth. Afterwards I had a Chocolate Glory (which was vanilla ice-cream, with pieces of chocolate fudge cake and chocolate sauce) and a bottle of Peroni Nasturo beer. It was a really, really good meal.

Afterwards we split up and I had a look at the books in Borders. I got a book called Peep Show: Scripts and More by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, with a forward by the show’s stars Robert Webb and David Mitchell. It contains the scripts for every episode of all five seasons of the show to date complete with extra funny stuff such as school reports, e-mails, work memos, playlists. Then my Mum and I went along to have a coffee and a scone, and caught the four o’clock bus home.

I went to my parent’s house for a bit and watched some TV and had a couple of cups of coffee and a glass of wine.

When I got back home I found out that my brother had sent me his share of the money for my Dad’s Christmas present. It has been a good day.

New Project

Last night I started a new writing project, which is kind of a ghost story.

Today was a fairly quiet day at work. We finally got an e-mail about the Christmas leave and apparently everyone is getting the leave that they asked for, so that is really good. Now at least, I can get stuff organised.

Also, I have tomorrow off work. I am planning on taking a day in Glasgow to celebrate completing the NaNoWriMo challenge.

More Writing

Last night was fairly quiet. I watched an episode of That Mitchell and Webb Look which was very funny, even though I’d seen it before.

Work was quiet. I spent most of the time writing notes on work procedures. I didn’t really mind doing it because I found it quite relaxing, and it gave me time to think. Still no word about the Christmas leave yet, though.

It feels kind of strange now that NaNoWriMo is over, actually. Because I’ve got really used to doing all the writing. I had an idea actually, since it was nearing Christmas to try the traditional kind of MR James style ghost story.

NaNoWriMo Completed!

Yesterday I managed to get to 50,318 words of NaNoWriMo, and finish my novel, so that means I have completed the challenge! I am planning to start a new project either next week or at the weekend, but for now I am going to have a few evenings of rest. Hopefully after a couple of weeks I will revise Beyond the Shores of Midnight, and expand it and fix it.

Also last night I was watching the third episode of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, a 1979 BBC series based on the John le Carre spy novel. The show lasted seven episodes and starred Alec Guinness as George Smiley, a retired British spy who is brought back from retirement when it turns out that there is a Soviet double agent in the upper echelons of the British Secret Service. It’s a great show, very slow-moving but very suspenseful.

It was another slow day at work. I managed to get Friday off, so that should be fun. I still don’t know about the Christmas holidays though, I know a lot of people are getting very angry about that. I was very glad to get home today.

The Monster Squad

Yesterday I managed to get to 48,180 words on NaNoWriMo, which means I have less than 2,000 words to write to complete the challenge. The story is already at it’s climax.

Last night I was watching a 1987 film called The Monster Squad, directed by Fred Dekker. The film is a blend of comedy and horror and tells the story of Count Dracula (played by Duncan Regehr) arriving in 1980s California in search of a magical amulet, however a bunch of monster-obsessed kids (who call themselves “the Monster Squad”) uncover Dracula’s plan. Unfortunately for them, Dracula is being helped by The Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Wolf-Man and the Gill-Man (from Creature from the Black Lagoon). The movie works as a homage to monster-movies (especially the famous Universal Studios monster movies of the 1930s through to the 1950s) and a teen comedy. It manages to zip along with a brief running time (about an hour and fifteen minutes) and is often very funny. In fact, it actually works a lot better than it may sound, and the special effects, although obviously dated, are pretty good, especially the monster make-up and fans of the old monster movies will probably really like it. I love those old monster movies.

Today was the first day back at work for the week. My video news thing was being played in the canteen. I haven’t seen it yet, though. I’ve put in for Friday off. I thought it would be good to do something fun after completing the NaNoWriMo challenge. I still haven’t got my leave for Friday signed off. My Christmas leave hasn’t been approved either, for that matter, which I am quite annoyed about because I put in for two weeks off and it was submitted over a month ago. There are things that I want to do over the Christmas vacation, especially since my birthday falls during that time ,but I can’t make any definite plans until I know for sure what days I have off.

Einstein and Eddington

Yesterday I managed to get to 46,224 words on my NaNoWriMo novel, which is really good. I’m definitely on target to finish it on time.

In the evening I was watching a TV movie called Einstein and Eddington, based on a true story set during the First World War when British astronomer Arthur Eddington (played by David Tennant) caused controversy when he corresponded with obscure German scientist Albert Einstein (played by Andy Serkis), whose groundbreaking theories threatened to unseat two hundred years of Newtonian physics. It was a good film and very well-acted, with really good production values. The way it was written, it moved between Eddington’s and Einstein’s stories.

Today I went along to my parent’s house for lunch (which was roast chicken, roast potatoes and peas with a dessert of rhubarb and gooseberry crumble, and a glass of Stella Artois). During the rest of the afternoon I watched a couple of episodes of The X-Files on TV, one of which I had already seen, but it was still good to see it again.

Also today marks forty-five years since the first episode of Doctor Who was broadcast. Of course it’s still going strong today, and probably more popular than ever.

Weekend Starts

I managed to get to 44,183 words on the NaNoWriMo novel last night. The target is to get to 50,000 words by the end of the month, and if it goes the way that it has been going then I should make it okay. The plan is to get it finished early next week, then maybe leave it for a week or two and then try and improve the bad bits. Then I’ll try and figure out what to do with it.

Last night I was watching the first episode of a new series of The I.T. Crowd, which was very funny. It’s a sit-com set in an office I.T. department, a lot of the humour comes from taking the kind of annoyances of office life and taking them to an absurd extreme. It was another quiet night for the most part, and I got to bed at around four in the morning, which is the regular time for me when I don’t have to work the following morning.

Today has so far been really quiet as well. I only went out once today and that was to get my groceries for the coming week.   I still have a really bad cold.

Finally Friday

Last night was pretty quiet. I got up to 42,273 words on my NaNoWriMo story, so that was great. I watched the latest episode of Little Dorrit on the TV On Demand service, so that was quite good.

It was another very quiet day at work. One of the bosses had been to a meeting and had brought back some sandwiches.

I got home at around half past five.

I do realise that this is probably the most boring on-line diary on the face of the planet, but I do try and leave out the dull parts. The thing is that recently I haven’t really done much except work and write my story. I tend not to post much about my thoughts, opinions and feeling because I don’t want to annoy or alienate people.