h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sex lateral filing cabinets?? Yeah, you'll probably have to go to Sweden for that.

Last night I went over to Si & Mary's to admire his new laptop, £600 worth. It's gorgeous, though I never saw Simon as the GTA San Andreas type. I met Mary's friend Lesley and we had lots of snacky Indian food. I had something called chicken chat, which sounded like an anxiety phone service. Lovely grub though, I even took a bit home. Nothing like half a cold peshwari naan at 2 in the morning.

Tomorrow I've got to find a new kettle for work, a guy came round testing appliances and failed it. Held together with parcel tape is probably not a good indicator of safety, so he put a big FAILED sticker on it, and I spent the rest of the day asking Jan "do you want a cup of failed coffee?" Apart from that and a few odds and sods, nothing much planned bar watching Aliens. This box set is ridiculous. 4 films, 4 discs of bonus material and a bonus-bonus-material disc. I'll probably never bother with those.

I make fruit chaat sometimes. It's yummy. In fact, there isn't much Indian food (aside from the meaty bits, that is) that I won't like. My favorite- and one of the few things I'll eat "left over" is aloo paratha.

Most of the time, I don't watch DVD bonus materials, either. Some DVDs have trailers for other movies, and I'll usually watch those, and any time there are additional films/ shorts included, I'll watch those. But I don't usually get around to the documentaries and can't recall ever using the commentary tracks. Criterion usually has good extras, but they usually include them on bonus discs, and let's just say that I have the bonus discs for some and not for others.

I did watch most of the bonus materials for the Alexandro Jowdorowsky films box set, though I haven't gotten around to listening to the soundtrack discs that are included.

Evidently each of the film discs has both the special edition and the original theatrical release on it. So that's 13 features on 9 discs for four films (with one premise). At £15.

I only ever bother with out-takes on bonus material, really; though I did really enjoy Ang Lee's interview about Virgin Spring.

Box sets are often an enormously good value- that sounds like one to me! The Jodorowsky set cost less than two separate DVDs did; I was able to turn around and sell the two films that were duplicated for enough money that we essentially got the box set for "free".

I think most of my box sets are TV shows, though.

Glad you liked 'The Virgin Spring'. It's waaaaay up there among my favorites. Everything happens so "quietly", if you know what I mean?

Definitely. It really ratcheted up the tension; made it all the more unpalatable, something you don't often get these days... now you get Stealer's Wheel on the radio. When MVS found out the truth about his guests, I was expecting two new assholes served up straight away. But he gets some branches, has a bath - then, with plenty of opportunity to kill them in their sleep, does he? Nah. Wait it out... excellent. I enjoyed it more than Seventh Seal, definitely going to find some more Bergman.

I'm trying to get more Bergman on DVD, myself. I've seen a lot of them, but don't own most. The only other one I think I have at the present is "Shame". I suppose one reason I've been gathering them slowly is that many of them have been released by Criterion, for which the price was, in past days, a bit more prohibitive for me than it is now. That and once they've been out for a bit, they're harder to find. I'm working on getting them in from Netflix and watching everything again.

"Permanent Records" I love it

Sisters Of Mercy records were always "A Merciful Release". What about Club Foot???

Yeah, I'd thought about it... I'll let a few more peeps post first.

So, we're going to run out to the grocery store in a bit (I'm waiting for another 30 minutes, because I want to get a bottle of wine for having company next Sunday and they can't sell liquor before 11:00 AM on Sundays) and get a rather odd assortment of items. Unfortunately, I'm a bit peckish and I'm holding out to get some of their "hot bar" items for lunch. So I'll probably wind up with more in my cart than I originally intended.

Herman's being the whiniest of cats this morning. And we've got "The Beastmaster" for today's matinée.

It used to be midday on Sundays before you could sell alcohol. I remember going to the pub for a coffee after the car boot sale and seeing a line of old lushes stood at the bar, tapping their fingers at 11.59. Now it's round the clock, anytime, and I get shit for ordering coffee.

Watched Aliens yesterday - decided there needs to be a button on the remote, next to "Menu" "Options" "Subtitles" and the like, marked "Just Let Me Watch The ing Movie."

No 24 hour booze sales here, thankfully. And they're really cracking down on bars that stay open past closing time (1 AM weeknights and 2 AM weekends), thank goodness. I think you can purchase liquor after 7 AM every day except for Sundays.

Back in my bartending days, while I was still in school, I used to have a 7 AM to 3 PM shift a couple days a week, and the old lushes would be lined up outside the door, around the corner even, by 6:30 AM.

I have little sympathy for people who drink every day, and even less for those so pathetic they'll line up for one, especially at 6:30 in the morning.

How's your Monday going? Mine's been relatively uneventful, so far, but I ate dinner too late last night and thus slept rather poorly, so I'm tired beyond words.

Pretty dull here too. It started off nice but now it's fogged over (sounds familiar). I've downloaded Texas Hold'Em to my mobile and I'm getting my ass kicked, but enjoying it.

Knock wood it remains dull here. Usually a dull start means all hell breaks loose later.

So far, so good, though. Other than that I'm ready to fall asleep on my desk.

The hell did indeed break loose late yesterday morning, and is, in fact, still on the loose. Sigh.

Thanks. But, I'll live. You know how some days, everthing happens, and all at the same time, and no matter how well you plan & schedule, nothing goes according to either? One of THOSE days.

Oh, yeah Weekdays.

Days that end in "Y".

Just on the off chance you're still lurking- I hope you have a nice weekend.

You too. Will email.

So much for sloping off and being constructive.

How are you doing? I sent your parcel this morning, the 45s were visibly scratched enough to be unplayable I'm afraid, so I didn't send them. But they weren't rarities or anything.