A Bug's Life

Yesterday was a wedding in a church in Barton, very old, with 14th century wall paintings and thick stone walls which made it very cool on the sunny afternoon. The reception was at the nearby Madingley Hall, a beautiful venue, it was lovely to spend a few hours chilling and chatting and mingling in the 'Capability' Brown garden. I did not get terribly drunk and do anything embarrassing as it was my line manager's wedding, though I did dance a fair bit in the evening and am a little sore today.

I'm mostly on the sofa today, spodding, reading Cerebus (Latter Days - I had been wanting him to a) shut and b) get on with things and we have just had a revelatory moment. The next section is in minute type, though.), maybe a DVD later. I have managed to feed the neighbour's fish (but walking up stairs too slowly for the pedometer to notice) and harvest some of their delicious runner beans, so sweet and flavourful.

I went to the cinema on Monday for Wadjda and The World's End, a coming of age story and one about recapturing lost youth. I am definitely of the right certain age to appreciate the latter, guys turning 40 and going back to their old village to repeat an epic pub crawl. Very funny. And on Wednesday there was a Flamenco concert at the Botanic Gardens, a lovely venue, and I would have wandered around it some more if I weren't laden with deckchairs and picnic.

Next week is currently quiet socially, but people are coming on Wednesday and Thursday to fix the kitchen plasterboard and rebuild cupboards and plumb in the dishwasher. It will be great to be able to put the plastic crates'o'stuff back into cupboards and out of the downstairs room.

Last weekend I went to Shepreth Wildlife Park with a friend for a birthday outing - as part of which we went to Meet The Lemurs. The five lemurs live on a little island and we were winched over on a strange boat on wires. Lemurs were very pleased to see us as we had brought the blue bucket which is full of food, and they leapt onto whoever was holding the bucket. It was quite odd the first time, as one pounces from behind - they weigh about the same as a cat (they look bigger but it's mostly fur), are agile and land very lightly, and have cool padded hands with divided palms so they're good at grabbing things. Banana is a favourite, and once they have eaten the chunk they drop the peel on your head or down your front so you spend the trip home picking bits of banana out of your hair. The long tail on the lower lemur is its natural length, some of them lost a bit due to frostbite in their previous home. The keeper said it's good for them to have visitors like this sometimes as it makes it easier when they need a vet visit.

( I don't want to cut the photo as it is a lemur on my head )

Also there was otter feeding and clicker training. Otters are carnivorous bitey beasts and hard to handle, so they train them with a ball on a pole. See the ball: put both paws on to get a bit of food. See the pole end: touch it with your nose for a bit of food. Apparently this helps. Before feeding time they were really excited when anyone came along, squeaking and looking cute; afterwards they went for a nice lounge in the pool.

( otter on a stick )

And the usual tigers and capybaras and fruitbats and things. A very nice day.

Revel had been unwell for the last few days. The rescue centre gave her that name when she came in after the chocolates, where "you never know what you're going to get inside" - on that first day it was a peanut in each cheek pouch. On Wednesday it was a boil which they lanced; she perked up a lot overnight and came home on Thursday with delicious banana flavoured antibiotics. For a brief moment I thought that vetinary science had given the 2-year old hamster another 6 months on the clock, but by the next day we were back at the vet. Probably heart failure from the anaesthetic, but they felt another mass in her abdomen. Maybe it was a peanut. Go out as you came in, little hamster.

I might have a very quiet work day today - all the rest of the org are out at a Staff Development Day (I cannot join them as it's 10-12 miles in a car then a whole day sitting in a marquee which I can't manage yet). Will it be very quiet as there's no one in? Or will I get all the external people with urgent requirements? Will my recalcitrant WiFi be a hindrance? Can't save anything to the desktop on this machine, I don't have permission. A lot of what I need to do today can be done with large pieces of paper and coloured pens and arrows and crossings out.

* Surprise visit from damp drying person, proclaimed the kitchen dry, next step is to get the builders back in to fix cupboards and paint and then kitchen will be restored :-)
* That thing with dream logic where you do something odd like get into the back of a strangers car and they take you somewhere and it feels perfectly normal, except these strangers didn't realise they were in a dream and reacted angrily, like it real life.
* Nearly finished beaded bracelet for Mum's birthday. Just as well as birthday is tomorrow.
* Caro round later for Looper. I've watched it before, I wonder if there is a strong correlation between the films I rewatch and their having time travel in them? It feels like there is but that may be confirmation bias.

Went into the office yesterday but back is still achy so I'm working the rest of the week from home.

* Lovely to have a quiet kitchen with no drying units blasting away
* Cat is in back garden, crouching on table like gargoyle, brooding like Batman, not wishing to come in even though it is damp
* Most exciting plan for today: wait in for hamster food to be redelivered

Posted a bit early, I might squeeze another DVD onto my retinas before the month is out.

Books read (24-33)
A Face Like Glass, Frances Hardinge (2012)
Cerebus, the first 12 phone book collections, issues 1-231, which I am arbitrarily counting as 9 books. Re-reads except the last two. Four more to go to finish the story.

Films watched (51-64) 8 at the cinema, 6 DVD
Peak
Talk To Her (rewatch)
Much Ado About Nothing
Apocalypse Now
Piercing Brightness
Man of Steel
Primer (rewatch from several years ago)
Alien (rewatch)
Predator (rewatch) (The Prince Charles cinema, for your 80s nostalgia needs)
Primer (rewatch from a few days ago)
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (rewatch)
Airplane! (rewatch)
Pushing Tin
Despicable Me 2

Gigs, comedy, clubs etc (13-13)
Alien (amateur, Leicester Square theatre)
Still no gigs!

Books incoming 2 (1 loan, 1 purchase, read 14/19)

Good: Apocalypse Now, Much Ado About Nothing
Interesting: Piercing Brightness
Disappointing: Man of Steel

Pets At Home have stopped stocking the dwarf hamster food, in store and online. forpets still stock it, £2.99 per 700g bag, plus £2.10 P&P up to 2 kilogramms. But charged me £4.25 P&P for two bags after I had entered PayPal password so I lost courage and sucked it up :-/ Hamster was only a fiver!

I seem to get a lot of holidays, but they're only a day here and there as I've not taken a full week off this quarter. Not ideal.

Plan: haircut, then Film Club (Primer)
Saturday: London for double birthday outings - Alien/Predator (not Alien v Predator), tea and cake (must bring gfdf brownie in handbag), then dinner. Train works in the evening so it will take a bit longer and I'll need to get out to Seven Sisters, so I won't be up to much on Sunday.
Sunday: lie on sofa with books and DVDs and maybe beading bracelet and maybe SQL course.

Currently reading (but hefty so not taking on train) Frances Hardinge's A Face Like Glass, lovely world. The story is full of True Delicacies - fine foods and wines with almost mystical powers and amazing tastes, created by artisans using lengthy and arcane methods. If I had read it as a child I would have wanted to spend my money in Waitrose buying small waxed cheeses, arranging them carefully in the fridge (if Mum let me) and turning them assiduously and treating them in the manner prescribed in the hope that they would become magic, or at least I could eat them a couple of weeks later and pretend they were magic. If someone else in the family didn't get there first and eat one unwittingly, or move them to fit in some mint chocolate mousses, or make me go away to visit grandma for a weekend so I missed a crucial 12-hourly turning and all my efforts came to naught. <-- My life as a child

I still do not understand Tumblr. Can anyone explain?

The Whedon version, was super - Amy Acker was great, very lively action, and it was the version of Much Ado I've found easiest to follow. The modern setting mostly worked well, thought the princes didn't really transfer. Giggled and snorted and clutched my jaw throughout. Masses of funny details and physical comedy. Nathan Fillion is special. Felt like 80 minutes, not the full 107. Not sure what was more arch - the eyebrows, the dialogue, or Cupid's bow.

Lots of familiar faces from Whedon's work - more if I'd watched Dollhouse.

I wonder about an episode "Much Ado About Buffy" based on the line "She was only dead, my lord, as long as her slander lived" where some supernatural creature gets the idea that with remorse or restitution one's actions are reverted, and all over the world people (Jenny Calendar, Tara) come back to life...

Apocalypse Now today, which apparently is the cinema's Fathers Day Special.