I had another quiet night last night, which was nice.

Today I stayed in, because it was pretty cold outside. I watched a movie on TV in the afternoon called The Mist, directed by Frank Darabont, and based on a novella by Stephen King which was first published in his collection of short stories Skeleton Crew. The movie is set in a small town in Maine where a group of people are trapped in the local supermarket after a violent storm when a strange mist descends. In the mist are lurking an assortment of bizarre blood-thirsty monsters ready and waiting to make off with anyone who ventures outside. It’s a pretty effective movie, the main thrust of which is not so much the monsters in the mist but more how ordinary people would react in the strange and terrifying circumstances. The movie is not very scary, but it is pretty supenseful.

I might not be on-line much if at all for the next couple of days because I am going to be very busy what with Christmas, and also it’s my birthday tomorrow (23rd December)! I’ll be 31 years old which is a depressing thought.

Anyway, if I don’t get the chance to go on-line, Happy Holidays to everyone!

Last night was pretty quiet, and I spent quite awhile watching TV and reading Good Omens.

This morning I headed up to the Cineworld cinema and saw the new James Cameron film Avatar in 3D. The movie is set in the year 2154 on the planet Pandora, a wild jungle planet inhabited by a race of ten foot tall blue skinned humanoids called the Na’vi. Humans have arrived on Pandora to mine the planet for a valuable mineral and have made contact with the Na’vi through the use of artificially created Na’vi known as “Avatars” which are remotely controlled by humans linking up their brains with the the Avatar. An ex-marine (Sam Worthington) is selected to control an Avatar, and before long becomes fascinated by them and their world, however the human intentions towards the Na’vi are not peaceful. The movie is a stunning peice of work with some genuinely beautiful visuals and is a really interesting science-fiction film. It definitely has to be seen at the cinema though and definitely in 3D, if possible.

I got home at around four o’clock.

Last night I was watching the 1948 movie of Macbeth, directed by and starring Orson Welles and based on the William Shakespeare play. Set in medieval Scotland, the story concerns celebrated soldier Macbeth (played by Orson Welles) who, after a victorious battle, encounters three strange women who proclaim that he will be named Thane of Cawdor and that shortly afterwards he will become king of Scotland. Immediately after they disappear, Macbeth is met by a messenger who informs him that the current Thane of Cawdor is due to be executed for treason, and that the King has appointed Macbeth Thane of Cawdor as a reward for his victory. Furthermore, the King and his entourage are going to be spending the night in Macbeth’s castle. When he tells the news to his wife, she encourages Macbeth to murder the King in order to fulfill the prophecy. The movie suffers from badly recorded sound and some bizarre attempts at Scottish accents, with Welles’ accent especially prone to drifting back and forth across the Atlantic. However, it is very atmospheric with the sets and production design conveying a powerful sense of decay and corruption. There is an old theatrical superstition that Macbeth is an unlucky play, and it is said to be very bad luck to say the title of the play in a theatre, it is often referred to as “The Scottish Play”. One of the stories behind it is that Shakespeare stole some of the rituals and spells from a real witches coven and used them in the play without permission and so the witches cursed it in revenge.

This morning my Dad came to collect me and we went along to the Omni Centre shopping mall, where we had some coffee and a chocolate muffin. Then we split up and did some of our own shopping. I got a book called Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Then I went along to my parent’s house for lunch as usual for a Sunday.

Yesterday evening was very quiet and really cold. This morning I went out to the shops to finish off the Christmas shopping. I got my brother a book about walking holidays in the Lake District, which was what he asked for. I was also told to buy a book on King Charles Spaniels for his girlfriend, but I couldn’t find any books about them and so I bought a book on general dog training, which according to the cover is suitable for all breeds, so that should suffice. For myself I bought a book called Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin. The shops were absolutely packed today, which is natural enough considering it’s only a week until Christmas. I usually like getting my shopping done a few weeks before, but it is done now anyway.

On my way home I stopped off at the supermarket to get some groceries and the latest copy of Total Film magazine. On my way back there was a very sudden, very heavy, but also very brief snow shower which was a real surprise.

Last night I was watching another episode of Doctor Who from 1964. It always surprises me how little the design of the Daleks has changed in the past forty-six years. They’ve updated them a bit, but they are still basically the same. I was also watching an episode of The Twilight Zone called “Escape Clause” in which a paranoid hypochondriac makes a deal with the Devil for eternal life, however he soon gets bored and attempts to add some excitement to his life yields some surprising results.

Today I went in to work and it was pretty much a dull ordinary day. However, I am now off work for about two weeks, except for a week on Tuesday when I’ve got to be in for a day. It will be really good to be off for a bit.

Last night I was watching True Blood, it was the second to last episode of the season.

It was another really quiet day at work. There was still some food left over from yesterday. Apparently hanging out with Joe tomorrow has been cancelled, because one of his friends had suddenly remembered that he had a wedding to go to and another one just decided that they didn’t want to go.

At least after tomorrow I’m off work for awhile. I’ll be in work for one day a week on Tuesday, but otherwise I’ll be off for two weeks.

Last night I watched another episode from the second season of The Wire on DVD and a couple of episodes of South Park. I also collected a bunch of old DVDs and PC games and put them in the sack for the charity collection today.

I went along to work today and this time, luckily, the journey was without incident. They were having the annual “feast day” at work where the Team Leaders brought in food for everyone, and there was a lot of stuff. It was good, they had a selection of sandwiches, crisps, soft drinks, cakes, miniature sausages, sausage rolls, slices of pizza and various other bite size Chinese and Indian food. Despite a steady stream of people, there was still food left at the end of the day. lso on Friday it’s the main office Christmas party. I’m not going to the party, but my friend Joe, who I have not seen in about seven months, is meeting some of his friends for a couple of hours before they go on to it, and so I should be going there. It should make a nice change.

My brother finally got in touch with me about what he wants for his Christmas. Apparently he wants either a book about King Charles spaniels or a book about the Lake District.

Last night I was watching an episode from the second season of The Wire on DVD.

This morning as I was waiting at the bus stop on my way to work some drunk guy came up and asked for fifty pence, he wasn’t really being aggressive or anything but he was kind of slightly tapping his finger on my jacket arm. I hate being touched so I was kind of really shocked by this, and this woman standing in front of me turned around and said to the guy: “Ah, leave him alone, you can tell there’s something wrong with him!” The guy left, and I was left feeling totally humiliated and absolutely livid. I don’t know what this woman thought was wrong with me. Most days I at least manage to get to work before I make a fool of myself.

The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful.

It was a really quiet evening last night and I spent a while watching repeats of comedy shows on TV, most of which I had seen before.

I went along to work, which was pretty quiet today. We’ve all got an additional three and a half hours credited to our flexitime as a kind of Christmas bonus, so that is pretty good.

My cold is still hanging on, but it’s not as bad as it was. The main thing that’s lingering now is the cough, which is really annoying.

Last night I was watching The Shawshank Redemption, directed by Frank Darabont, and based on the novella “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” by Stephen King. Opening in the 1940s, the film stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne, a banker who is accused of a double murder and sentenced to serve two life sentences at Shawshank State Prison. While he gets used to the prison’s regime Andy befriends the prison’s “fixer”, Red (Morgan Freeman). I first saw the movie at a preview screening in February 1995 and I’ve always thought it was a great movie. It was not successful at all in it’s cinema release, but it really found it’s audience on video and then on TV, and now it routinely tops polls of the greatest movie ever made. I think when it was out at the cinema they had trouble with marketing it: it had a strange title, no big stars, no prominent female characters, it’s set mostly in prison and it was based on a Stephen King story but it wasn’t a horror movie (although I did see one advertising slogan for the film which played up the Stephen King connection and went something like “A Fiendishly Perfect Partnership and a Horror that Goes Beyond Homicide”, which makes you wonder whether they actually saw the movie). It is a great movie about the possibility of hope in even the worse circumstances. It’s one of really only two movies that have ever genuinely made me tear up (the other being It’s a Wonderful Life).

I still wasn’t feeling good at all today. My Dad came around to look at my washing machine. We eventually did get it fixed, apparently. The problem was that the draining hose had come loose and that was what was causing the leaks. However it should work now. I went along to my parent’s house as usual for my lunch, which was tacos today. The latest issue of Fortean Times had arrived during the week, which this month had a large feature on Dracula, tracing the history of the Bram Stoker novel and exploring it’s phenomenal popularity. Pretty much everyone has at least heard of Dracula, even if they’ve never read the book or seen any of the movies. The cover promised “20 Things You Never Knew About Dracula” and one surprising thing was that apparently Ingmar Bergman had planned to do a Dracula adaptation, but never got round to it. Maybe one where Dracula discusses the futility of existance and the search for the meaning of life in a meaningless universe. Later on I was listening to the third and final part of the radio adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy based on the John le Carre thriller. It’s been really good and very close to the original book.

I sent my brother an e-mail a week ago to find out what he wants for his Christmas present and he still hasn’t replied. I have absolutely no idea of what he wants, because he lives in London and we don’t really communicate much. Basically if he doesn’t let me know by the end of the week then he’s getting a book token.