Books read (9-10)
The Martian, Andy Weir (2013)
Partial Eclipse and Other Stories, Graham Joyce (2003)

Films watched (101-120) (12 at the cinema, 5 DVD, 2 tv, 1 stream Mubi)
Big Hero 6
Slow West
Magic Mike XXL
The Hunt
Love and Mercy
Jurassic World
Step Up
Spy
Penguins
Song of the Sea
The Salt of the Earth
Step Up 2 The Streets
Two Days, One Night
Cube 2: Hypercube (rewatch)
Ant-Man
Inside Out
Minions
LSFF Documentaries by women directors
Reel Women short film programme
La Jetée

Gigs, comedy, clubs etc (15-16)
Exilicon (geek convention, Cambridge)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (theatre, Cambridge, open air Shakespeare Festival)

So many good films this month!
At the cinema: Slow West (coming of age Western by chap out of The Beta Band, great young boy/old hand performances), Love and Mercy (Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, Paul Dano immerses self in role (and pool), lots of scenes showing how studio recordings work), Spy (funny), Song of the Sea (selkie animated story from Tomm Moore of The Secret of Kells, so beautiful, buy on DVD for your kids at Christmas even if they're grown up), Reel Women monthly Cambridge shorts (animation this time, loads of amazing/funny/sad/punk/beautiful things).

Unfortunately I have now watched La Jetée and will feel compelled to make some trite film-schooly knockoff.

I did not mean to rewatch Cube 2; I didn't like it, and must have erased the traces of it from my memory quite efficiently.

"They say the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but that doesn't mean it's any better over there."

Perhaps the grass on the other side of the fence has slightly different micronutrients due to the different environment, and after a long time on one side you need a nibble from the other side to keep you well balanced.

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted, there's plenty going on and I'm off out to the cinema shortly so might catch up on more things this evening.

Last Saturday was a bit odd; ( minus hamster )

So that took up my morning instead of getting to the con early. I had cleaned out the temporary tank to nurse Humphrey in, then of course I had to thoroughly clean his proper tank then the temporary tank again, then it was Matilda's turn for cleaning (large hamster who looks like a Friesian cow but also does not like to be handled). Gave all Humphrey's dishes and toys a good soak in Milton and put them away.

Instead of getting to the con in the late morning/lunchtime, it was burying time. I obviously wasn't quite ready yet; I just needed to pull up a bit of bindweed from hamster cemetery corner and dig the hole. but spent an hour doing a thorough weeding of the whole back third of the garden, digging down and pulling up bindweed roots (even though this is a futile effort against the incursion), untwining the new tendrils from the other plants.

After shower and some lunch and a couple of errands in town I got to the convention at 3, chatted with some people and got to a couple of talks.

But it was a bit strange.

I'm not planning to get a second hamster, instead I will put my cardboard robots in the tank, so they can be seen but can't get out to go rampaging. I don't know what the cat will make of that.

Maybe Matilda will like getting slightly more attention.

Books read (6-7)
Mort, Terry Pratchett (1987) (reread)
Tiny Pieces of Skull, Roz Kaveney (2015)

Films watched (69-89) (11 at the cinema, 7 DVD, 1 tv, 3 LoveFilm, 2 other)
I Heart Huckabees
August: Osage County
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
Intacto
Fargo (rewatch)
Mad Max
Mad Max 2
Force Majeure
Mad Max: Fury Road
About Time
Mad Max: Fury Road (rewatch, IMAX)
Clouds of Sils Maria
Girlhood
Pan's Labyrinth (rewatch)
Pitch Perfect 2
Um, Mad Max: Fury Road (rewatch)
Far From the Madding Crowd
The Wolf of Wall Street (rewatch)
Shutter Island (rewatch)

Gigs, comedy, clubs etc (10)
Fylm Club, Simon Munnery (comedy, London Soho Theatre)

What a month for films! I liked Mad Max (obv), also strongly recommend Force Majeure, Clouds of Sils Maria, Girlhood, Pigeon Sat on a Branch. It was interesting revisiting Far From the Madding Crowd since I read it at school, and understanding much more of the complexity of the characters. I have sprung for the Infinity card at my very local cinema, £16.95 for as many films as you like, but it doesn't seem to be stopping me from going to the Arts Picturehouse too.

Ok, let me adjust my morning routine so that Put On Intensive Hand Cream always comes after Brush Cat.

Signed,

Furry Hands

Books read (5)
Hild, Nicola Griffith (2014)

Films watched (36-48) (3 at the cinema, 6 DVD, 3 tv, 1 LoveFilm)
CHAPPiE
Albert Nobbs
Robocop (rewatch)
The Conversation
Gone Girl
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Star Trek (Abrams) (rewatch)
Les Diaboliques
Still Alice
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
In Bruges (rewatch)
Kill Your Darlings
Stranger by the Lake

Gigs, comedy, clubs etc (4-7)
Simon Munnery Sings Soren Kierkegaard (comedy, London)
Richard Herring: Lord of the Dance Settee (comedy, Junction, Cambridge)
Linton Zoo
The Gilded Birdcage (burlesque club night, Cambridge)

Films at the cinema: I enjoyed Chappie, and it did have some interesting things to say (including about parenting), but I left thinking "I want to rewatch Robocop" and so I did.

The course I'm doing is taking a chunk of my reading time, but if I was only going to read one book, Hild was a good one. I tried cutting down on exercise but that wasn't good so I'm back up to trying for 5 miles per day.

Not tried peeking at the old laptop hard drive yet.

Have:
Installed Gimp on Mac
Installed Fitbit tracker on Mac
Got printer and scanner working with Mac
Bought tv license
Checked car tyre pressures (1 going soft)
Bought groceries at shop
Bought more groceries online
2 loads of laundry
Cooked loads of soup from fridge veg
Written up list of film course assignments
Read 85 pages of Hild for Book Club (including 15 min in sun in back garden)
Watched 2 DVDs (Albert Nobbs, Robocop)
Had visit from T
Arranged visit for next weekend
Frolicked with cat on demand

And I have 14 hours today before bedtime.

I wore a watch yesterday for the first time in years, the time display on my smartphone is quite small and (especially in meetings) it seems impolite to switch it on and peer to know the time. I thought the watch would be uncomfortable (partly why I stopped wearing one) but it was so light on I forgot I was wearing it till I undressed for bed. So, not much good for telling the time if I forget I have it!

And in bed I forgot to set my alarm and woke an hour late. Not as bad news as it could have been, I'm experimenting in March with starting work around 09:30 instead of 08:00 to spend an hour in the morning doing study with Fresh Brain and doing some stretches. Obviously not today. New cat also like to take up some of the morning time with exciting activities, but that is another post.

Barley contains gluten, but can be processed in a way that the gluten is removed.

Brand A cornflakes contain "Malted Barley Extract".
Brand B cornflakes contain "Barley Malt Flavouring".
Under current food labelling regulations, allergens are shown in bold in ingredients lists.

Brand A has an additional allergens box which says "May contain nuts." If you were to ask Brand A about the presence of gluten, they would say "Of course there's no gluten, if there was we would have listed it." I have happily scoffed three boxes of Brand A.
If you were to ask Brand B they would say "Yes, it's in barley, that's why we bolded it, your stupid fault for eating it."

In other news, does anyone want a box of Brand B cornflakes? Only one serving gone from it. Would swap for Brand A.

EDIT: Or maybe the labelling thing is more complicated, they don't have to label gluten in products that contain less than 20ppm. "Recent evidence indicates that people with coeliac disease can eat unlimited amounts of foods containing less than this amount." Anyhow - Brand A safe for bugshaws, Brand B not safe. Note for new readers: I don't have a coeliac diagnosis, as the test requires you to eat gluten for a month beforehand and it's deeply obvious that this would be a bad thing for me and would outweigh any benefits that a diagnosis might provide.

In case anyone's interested in what happens when I eat a dodgy cornflake:
6pm Tuck into tasty bowl of teatime cornflakes.
3am Wake, grumpy.
5am Wake again, with aching hands and feet. Recognise symptoms and start googling what I ate the day before. Swear at cornflakes.
This is going to get worse from here. Wash and dress now because I won't be able to later.
Worry in the shower about how I will manage work (first day back after week's holiday). Curse the cornflakes again as I realise I will need to cancel pre-paid Pilates class.
Feel like bad hamster-mom for not getting them food earlier, they've run out, I was going to drive by big hamster food shop after work. Maybe hamsters will eat cornflakes.
Thank self for keeping grabber stick from disabled days, and keeping it handy. Pick laundry up off floor or it will stay there for a couple of days. Cat arrives today and it won't want to meet a floor of old socks etc.
Hobble downstairs and put bins out because I won't be able to later. Ow, ankles hurt. Definitely won't be able to drive today. Soon won't be able to hobble 10 metres.
Realise I have moved from "How will I manage at work?" to "No way will I manage, don't even think about it"
Hobble back upstairs having grabbed some fruit, soy yoghurt and rice cakes. Is it harder to carry four soy yoghurts, or to tear open the pack and only carry two? Feel glad housemate is working from home today as she might be persuaded to open me some tins of food.
Curse self for eating all my stash of frozen meals and not doing a big cook/freeze yesterday.
6am Retire to sofa. If I lie very still, it doesn't much hurt. Typing and mousing hurts enough that I can't usefully work from home today, or do much else on laptop, especially as it will get worse during the day.

LJ's commenting isn't working for me at the moment on the desktop - was fine yesterday. I can see the "Comment on this" link but nowhere to type a comment.

I would ask if you all have the same problem but...