Turkish Baths and The Boat That Rocked

Okay, the Turkish Bath part may be a bit misleading, but I'll explain it now. I'm back at home, and enjoying the home comforts of food, TV and seeing my relatives. The house, though, is not particularly tidy. It is not due to slovenly behaviour (like that of my student friends), but more redecorating chaos. There is one thing in particular I do not like about being home. It is the downstairs power shower. It officially hates me. Whenever the sound of the whirring noise changes I know the shower is preparing to spite me. The is no rhyme or reason in what is about to happen. It just does. After the noise as change the shower suddenly sprays me with either ridiculously hot or cold water. Then after thirty seconds it sprays me with the temperature it hasn't done so yet. So the effect is like that of the cold plunge pool followed by the sauna.

Last night I went to see The Boat that Rocked. The experience was unusual because I saw only two days after it's release, rather than the standard 32 in Aberystwyth (random fact: I can't type Aberystwyth properly). It was alright. The performances weren't bad, the storyline was not overly boring and the sinking scenes were quite fun. After that we went to a very posh restaurant for food, which was very nice. (Another random fact: when using the spell-checker the nearest word it can find to Aberystwyth is abreast.)

Bad Idea

Sometimes I think it's a bad idea to have wireless connection. Or internet at that matter. My ability to focus on my work is greatly impeded, as you can tell. I have a 3000 word essay to write for Monday, and I'm finding it difficult to get down and do.

Anyway, the lent thing is going well, except yesterday I think I fell short by 5-15 minutes. I forgot to time, lost track etc. However, people have been sending me their prayer requests. But I still want more, people. That way I will feel accountable, and it will encourage me to pray. This lent idea has blessed me greatly, and I'm really beginning to appreciate the Bible so much more now. It is a really amazing book. However, there is still a part of me that sees it as a chore, and not as a joy (which another part does), so I'm going to have to stamp that bit out quickly. Through Genesis alone God exhibits his faithfulness, grace, mercy, love, compassion and wrath. It is quite awesome.

I really want Blogger to sort out the line breaks. I know what it is, it's the the text alignment codes that mess it up. I hate having to go into Edit Html every time and sort it out. And when you add images.

Yesterday a group of us watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was quite good, but very long. It is framed by a sort of death-bed confession just before Hurricane Katrina rages through New Orleans. It concerns a man that is born 80 years old and get younger, rather than aging. It is really moving in places, and it is filled with both hope and sadness. Some of our party saw it as a waste of two and a half hours of their life, which they'll never get back (somewhat ironic with the subject matter of the film).

The film score was remarkably good, but very characteristic of Alexandre Desplat. It had the same sort of haunting themes, with the bright, sharp and simple melodies and softly scored string accompaniments as The Painted Veil. In places he makes use of modal passages in order to create the fantastical and dream-like quality (which I think is used as a theme of Daisy), and often rises towards dissonance to give a sense of poignancy. The instrumentation is interesting, especially in Love in Murnansk. But enough of my musical analysis.

Moving and Casablanca

Thomas may be moving. I haven't decided yet, nor do I know why I introduced myself in the third person. When I say moving, I mean I may relocate my blog to wordpress.com. It is just more chic. Also, you can upload content from other blogs as if it had always been there. But I don't know. I would feel like a traitor and blogger is just so cute and friendly, although the templates are a bit pants. I think for the mean time I'll stay put.

Also, Rachael and I watched Casablanca today, which was cool. Better than Twilight at the very least. I'm getting into the old classics. The other day I watched Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, which was also quite good. Although these old classics are always quite slow to start, I mean often you're not even introduced to the main character until twenty minutes in, I still like them. Yes, I know, you're thinking, 'hang on, your problem with Twilight was the slow start. One rule for one, one rule for another, eh?'. Well, yes. Casablanca and The Lady Vanishes were not trying to be something they weren't. They were made in a time where things weren't expected instantly, patience was still a virtue, and that was the way things were done. Twilight was trying to be too arty, and was made in a time when things are demanded quickly and where, worryingly, patience is becoming more obsolete. The lingering scenes in it were unnecessary, whereas there were no superfluous shots in these oldies. Well, the English-cricket-obsessed-gentlemen were very irritating, but I suppose hackneyed stereotypes were acceptable back then (possibly because they weren't as hackneyed).

I also found a fantastic site with the help of my friend Rachel, which helps you make meals from your left over foods, lovefoodhatewaste.com. Seeing as I am short of cash at the moment it will be really helpful, as well as the fact that waste is not good. I was going to link to the actual post where she recommends this website, but I couldn't find it. So I will link to her entire blog here (as well as the link in my sidebar). It is also a cool example of why wordpress has benefits over blogger.

And I shall leave you with good news, I'm now back on track with my posts.