Books read (14-15)
Station Eleven, Emily St John Mandel (2014)
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, Sydney Padua (2015) (graphic novel)

Films watched (180-191) (9 at the cinema, 2 DVD, 1 LoveFilm, 1 tv)
The Martian
Macbeth
Mad Max: Fury Road (rewatch)
The Martian (rewatch)
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (rewatch)
Sicario
The Lobster
Crimson Peak
Sicario (rewatch)
Spectre
Escape from New York
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai

Gigs, comedy, clubs etc (18-19)
Stealing Sheep (gig, Portland Arms)
Teslathon (Cambridge)

Lots of rewatches - having the local cinema Infinity card makes it easy to go again for social rewatches.
Cinema good: Sicario, very exciting, looked amazing, came home and looked up the cinematographer and found he had 12 Oscar nominations. The Lobster was not what I expected, and not the celebration of the supremacy of couplehood that I feared. Very odd, lots to think about, very cruel but in a casually weird and Pythonesque way. Same director as Dogtooth but the absurd dystopia feel that was restricted to a single house in that film imbues this whole world. I want to know how it got there.
Wanted to like The Martian - but when I read the book I felt a mixture of unputdownable excitement and boredom, and got the same vibe from the movie, not helped by knowing the plot already. The second watching was with SF book/film club. If it had looked as good as Mad Max, or Sicario, or Moon, I could have enjoyed the rewatch, but I didn't
Lots of people liked Macbeth. I've not read it or seen the play before, but I couldn't figure out what was going on, I couldn't untangle the lines, and I couldn't get from context what some of the words were likely to be until the end of the sentence by which time it was a bit late. "My nighs/mine eyes" etc. Obv they were a bit upset about stuff and killing people made it worse and they went a bit peculiar and everyone was mostly polite because king. Banquo's ghost was great, looked like he had been pulled from a shallow grave. I'm sure I missed a lot. It almost made more sense if I pretended it was a foreign movie without subtitles.

Gigs: Stealing Sheep were marvellous and I'm off to see them support Django Django in December. Great to see them play a full set in Cambridge in such a small venue.

Thanks for all your comments here
http://bugshaw.livejournal.com/845281.html
There are six solid fixes in place and I have good approaches for a few more.

I think my priorities are down to
Chairs (which I'll try today)
Treadmill (I'll call next week)
Washing machine (could try today to find/clean filter)
Smoke alarms (whole units need replacing, not just batteries, and could find someone to resite them lower on the wall and make good the ceiling).

Is nice to not be surrounded by dodgy plumbing.

Books read (12-13)
Moon Over Soho, Ben Aaronovitch (2011)
Foundation, Isaac Asimov (1951) (reread for SF Book Club)

Films watched (145-179) (10 at the cinema, 25 DVD, 1 LoveFilm) (yes that's 35 films in a month - Film Festival and week on hol with dodgy back meant serious getting through the To Watch shelf) (let's cut-tag them)
( Thirty five films )

Gigs, comedy, clubs etc (17)
Bill Bailey (comedy, Junction)

Cinema good: The Spiderwebhouse (based on true story of children who secretly look after themselves for year while Mum in hospital, neat dark fairytale threads), The Hallow (creepy horror), Bill (if you like Horrible Histories check out this Shakespeare)

DVD good: Melancholia passed the test of "can you discuss this film for longer than its run time" and it's a long film! On the surface it's a planet approaching Earth - amazing spectacle or will it hit? But is full of depression allegories. Very arty.
Also good: Of Horses and Men, A Tale of Two Sisters, Ong-Bak. Good to catch up on a load of classics I've not seen before like The Hills Have Eyes, Manchurian Candidate, Night of the Living Dead. I feel proper film-educated now.

The hairdresser keeps not wanting to cut me a fringe because it wouldn't look good. From the dry, still air of the salon, I usually defer to her judgement. But next time I'm bringing these pictures because I am getting tennis elbow from swooping my hair off my face, and walking around with a hand on your head is not a good look.

Housemate brought along Inca the Cat earlier this year (her mum couldn't keep her when she moved house) (cat not housemate) (well both actually) and I have been remiss about uploading photographs. Many under the cut, suitable for those who want cute cat photos in their stream.

She's nearly 2 now, very sweet, likes to play feathers on a stick, loves being in the great outdoors (the tiger barn/rabbit hutch is seeing plenty of action), sits on people vanishingly rarely, likes to be brushed and knocks things off table with head while this is occurring. Well done, 5 points! Does not wake one in the early am with spiking and wailing! Enjoys watching hamster, hamster is fine with this. Came off the worse in a couple of boundary disputes earlier in the year but seems to have established territory now. Comes in when called (if calling is accompanied by Dreamies rattling).

Photos under the cut... (big though, lost my Photoshop Creative Suite 1 when upgraded to Win 7 and haven't learnt/bought a replacement yet)

( cat photos )

I've had a few good walking days recently - stroll in overgrown foresty country park, another in recreational park with nice planty garden, walking back through Greenwich after visiting someone (river! Cutty Sark! tiny beaches! great big herringbone skies! foot tunnel under the river with Victorian techno-dome!), and on Saturday I walked through London to Waterloo instead of getting the tube and most of my route was along an organised bike ride - many happy people of all ages, Hell's Angels on Choppers, people waving on the corners. Today's walk will be mostly in the gym before physio, tomorrow's is around the glow worm chalk pit but in the daytime, and tomorrow (as I have a few days off work this week) I plan to do the thing where I get a train to Ely and walk back. Should be a nice quiet day for it. I last did the walk in November 2012; FitBit handily reminds me of the day I got my most-steps-in-a-day record, and perhaps this time I will beat 44,100 and do a couple of laps of the block to get to 45,000 in a day.

On Saturday I will lie around in the garden reading a book.

On Thursday I will charge my iPod and work out how to get podcasts onto it. And find my plasters and moleskin.

Ooh, also on Thursday evening I have nice home beauty lady coming to give me a manicure and pedicure. She will ask what colour I want my toenails painted. Given my plans for Friday I might see if she has any colours that resemble "blood blister".

On Wednesday I saw glowworms! S and J invited a few friends round for delicious gluten free dinner, timed to coincide with peak glowworm and the Wildlife Trust's survey.

After dinner we headed out to East Pit Nature Reserve. I have passed it on my way to work almost daily in the last few years, but had no idea it was there. It was astonishing at night; a near full moon lit the chalk cliffs like a lunar landscape. There were maybe a couple of dozen people there when we were, wandering on their own or with the guide, and every so often there was a bright greenish spot looking entirely like an LED, which as you got closer to it nestled in some plant had little black stripes on. I saw 6-7 glowworms, other people saw up to a dozen, and other years have been better populated, but it was an interesting and unusual nocturnal exploration. I'd like to go back in the daylight, to better see the plants.

Here is a more interesting link which talks about the development of the pit as a nature reserve, and the wild flowers which now grow there including the rare Moon Carrot. Article which contains the words Moon Carrots.

Also I would like to take again the opportunity to say the words Moon Carrot.

Glowworms are nothing like the fireflies I saw in New York back many years ago, they have a steady glow and don't whuff on and off.

Moon Carrot.

I want someone to help me with a spot of role play.
You be my physio/personal trainer, say you have to cancel this session and reschedule.
I say "I will go to the gym as planned anyway for a workout."

How hard can it be?

Books read (8)
The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (2014)

Films watched (90-100) (4 at the cinema, 5 DVD, 2 tv, 2 LoveFilm)
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Strawberry Shorts Film Festival
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Leaving Las Vegas
'71
Machete
The Look of Silence
Mr Holmes
Night Watch
Plenty
Sleuth

Gigs, comedy, clubs etc (11-14)
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy (art, London)
Stewart Francis: Pun Gent (comedy, London Bloomsbury Theatre)
Alex Horne: Monsieur Butterfly (comedy, London Soho Theatre)
AK/DK (gig, London)

Books read (5)
Not a one this month!

Films watched (49-68) (5 at the cinema, 8 DVD, 3 tv, 1 stream, 2 LoveFilm, 3 other)
Pretty Woman (rewatch)
The Kids Are All Right
The Brothers Bloom
The Wind Rises
The Darjeeling Limited
Blade Runner: The Final Cut (rewatch, kinda)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (rewatch)
John Wick
So I Married An Axe Murderer (rewatch)
American Hustle
The One I Love
A Little Chaos
Child 44
The Great Beauty (rewatch)
Irma Vep
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Capote

Gigs, comedy, clubs etc (8-9)
The Hard Problem (NTLive theatre at cinema)
Omid Djalili (talk at Cambridge Literary Festival)