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

The sad truth is there were christmas sales and lights up at Halloween, which is VERY premature in my eyes... I can accept day after Thanksgiving, but Halloween is FAR too early. I'm already sick of holiday muzak... which really is a pity because I'm a big proponant of caroling. My group of friends have a different take on carrolling; instead of wassaling for food and drink, we bring cookies and ornaments with us, and give them to the people we carol to... since very few people carol anymore, it's a double treat. My family always did "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" upbeat and in a medley/round with "A Soulin'" which is quite a nice little effect.

I am happy to be going home to my folks house for the holidays. My big traditions are making cranberry/popcorn chains for the tree and popovers, cinnamon rolls,and scotch shortbread for the family. We also generally watch The Muppet Christmas Carol and Scrooge (with Albert Finney), and spend a lot of time singing, eating nuts, and reading the Bible. We usually spend about half the day visiting widows in the nursing home, and the rest with another family. It is indeed my favourite festival... all the brightness in the midst of gloomy snowy weather.

I didn't realize Boxing Day and St.Stephen's feast were the same things!!! That's very neat. I always liked Stephen's story, it's the first passage in the Bible that moved me to tears as a kid.

Ah.....

Raych.

Oh Scrooge! What a classic musical - not that Albert was in it for his singing. But it's one of those great 'switch off real life and just enjoy' movies - it doesn't take itself that seriously, but it still gets Dickens' message across.

Better still, we got a decent performance out of Mr Finney, far better than his ghastly turn as Hercule Poirot in 'Murder on the Orient Express' - overacting, luvvie!! Who spiked the tisane?

Talking of Poirot, we had a good one on the Television last night, 'Evil Under the Sun' - not the Ustinov film, but one from the marvellous adaptations with David Suchet as Poirot. I consider him to be the 'definitive' Poirot, and - even though I know how the story goes, I still sat up and watched it, which is why I'm feeling so wrecked this morning. Late night TV always keeps me awake. But it was definitely worth it.

I've never seen the 'Muppet Christmas Carol', but I suppose the thought of Michael Caine as Scrooge seems a bit strange to me!

Mind you, the television over the Holiday in the UK is pretty dire this year, which is an excellent excuse not to have to switch the box on - we can hope that there are a few goodies on the satellite, though.

Having said that, my Grandmother has already booked 'Harry Potter' for Christmas Eve on the DVD. We can't watch it on Christmas Day or Boxing Day because my sister's coming over and she refuses to have anything to do with the Harry Potter phenomenon because of all the hype!

Happy days...

Michael Caine is AWESOME as Ebenezer Scrooge! It's one of the best portrayals of that story I've ever seen, actually. If you get a chance, rent it!

I've never seen any Poirot movies... I'll have to go check them out!

Have tickets to see Lord of the Rings 2 tonight. Very excited... will dish later!
Y.S>

Wow! LOTR Two Towers ahoy!

I have to admit that I have now failed on numerous occasions to read the books. I just can't get into them at all, which is a pity because I enjoy Fantasy normally ( New smiley! Yay!). I just find all the hobbits really irritating with all that breaking into song, and I never managed to get out of the Shire before I just had to give up - which is a shame because I think it starts to pick up after the first 1000 pages (or so someone said - but he might have been joking).

If you do watch Poirot movies - try the ones with Peter Ustinov in them. They're not generally in line with the books, but he's so entertaining, even if not that accurate, so they're worth it (Death on the Nile in particular is marvellous). But Murder on the Orient Express? Unless you can cope with Finney's outrageous accent/overacting - avoid, avoid, avoid. He can do *so* much better than that - what was he thinking?!

The TV adaptations (the ones with David Suchet in) are probably the best because they follow the original stories as accurately as a screenplay can, they're set in the right period, and all of the characters are so well portrayed. If you can find one of those, give them a try.

Enjoy the film! The Trailers on the telly look awesome!

VERY AWESOME FILM!!! They didn't follow the books too closely, but only uber like me would know... but a 45 minute battle scene? How can you go wrong? Actually, the first five minutes of the movie made the yearlong wait worth it. I went with a group of friends and we had a blast and a half! They are pretty much the only fantasy books I really dig, so I'm pretty into being "THAT WASNT IN THE BOOK" annoying in the theatre. Yeah. so.

Random fact, Peter Ustinov was born on April 16... my birthday!

Y.S.

According to Michael Caine (in his book, 'Not Many People Know That'), Humphrey Bogart was born on my birthday, 23 January, but the studio told everyone it was Christmas Day to romanticise his image. (ooh look! links up to two posts! Can't accuse me of topic drift!)

Humphrey+Bogart=Romantic? Intriguing, though given that I've not seen many of his films I think I'm being darned cheeky there.

Better being 'THAT WASN'T IN THE BOOK!!!!' annoying, than 'UNWRAPS AND CHEWS SWEETS LOUDLY, KEEPS GETTING UP TO GO TO THE LOO AND THEN STARTS CHATTING ABOUT AUDREY'S CHIROPODY' annoying.

Or being one of those tiresome kids whose parents let them run riot around the cinema whilst everyone else is TRYING TO WATCH THE ING FILM!!! annoying.
Or, worse still, giving a commentary on what's going on to their pals on their mobile phone! I've not had that happen, but I'm told it's such a problem in New York that they're legislating against it. Good for them, I say.

Or the unfortunate parent whose child was so distressed by the volume of the Dolby Surround Sound advert that it cried for most of the opening titles of the main feature.... Not me, I hasten to add, I don't have any children - well none that I can't give back at the end of the day, anyway!

Ah, the joys of going to the pictures...

Ooh - my blood pressure's rising. Not good.(takes deep breaths)

Ends rant...

So, you enjoyed the film then?

You know... it's kinda crazy that you brought up Bogart... I'm a HUGE fan. I dunno why... maybe it's just because he was in some rad films. Maltese Falcon and all that. I watch Casablanca every Valentine's day and cry my eyes out every time. I have this stuffed animal monkey I named Bogey and everything... kinda into dead old weird guys I guess.

Well, I've been up all night watching TriGun animae with a few guys... appearantly I fell asleep on the couch and they woke me up to say goodbye, as they were leaving for Mexico... that's the last thing I remember because I was soooo sleepy (been up for over 30 hours), but I guess I walked home around 3 am and went to bed fully dressed. I love having sweety pie guy friends who take care of me, I'm not afraid of falling asleep with them around and stuff. The world is so dangerous, I'm always glad for true friends that have my back. They're off taking supplies to orphanages down there and I'm gonna miss them.

How's everything going over there?

y.s.

The Christmas Countdown continues!

It actually snowed for twenty whole minutes last Thursday!

It got cold again yesterday and the day before!

It's going to rain today!

Actually, our branch (the small team I work with) are planning to potter down to the pub at lunchtime for a 'Christmas meal', which will probably be something and chips (sorry, fries!). I'm then probably going to head off into town to buy some hair colour (red), a nice belt I've been coveting for ages and some really nice eye makeup for the Big Day so I wow my Dad's cousin and her hubby, who haven't seen me since last year!

Do I sound excited?

Hey! I finish work on Christmas Eve - and then I don't go back again until 6 January - with a whole wardrobe of new clothes!

Calm down...chamomile tea, please...

It's all white and beautiful up here at my parent's place! I'm off to Ohio to collect my Granny who's ill, so I must run!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Y.S.

And to you!

Nadolig Llawen! (that's Merry Christmas in Welsh, by the way)

We've been told it might snow today. A bit.

Hah.

Mind you, I was walking back from the supermarket (we have one about half a mile down the road) through a nice little snow shower a few days ago. It didn't settle or anything (shame) but it was ever so pretty - and it really cheered me up!

On the other hand, the window cleaners visited us yesterday evening, and the idiots emptied their buckets into the road just by our drive - needless to say it all froze almost at once - and it's still there this morning, including frozen soapsuds, so it should be noticable enough to make sure no one slips on it.

Oh yes - we started our next concert programme on Friday Night - a whole evening of Gershwin!

Marvellous.

It's shockingly bereft of snow here... all the ski hills are manufacturing it, which is no fun at all.

I get to go pick up my new and improved fiddle in the next two days. ! I'm all excited.

All I have been doing lately is cooking, cleaning, taking care of Granny, keeping the wood furnace going, and watching Gene Kelly movies. ... I'm very, very tired.

Let me know how Gershwin goes! Must be fun to play.

Y.S>

All the snow in the UK has fallen on the eastern side of the country - not the west (where I am ) the only advantage is that I don't have to try to pick my way over it when it becomes nasty pack ice once the thaw begins.

A wood furnace? Eek! That sounds like hard work indeed... add that to everything else and no wonder you're .

Being in w*rk means that I've had to get over the odd phenomenon of w*rk lag as I've had to adjust to earlier bedtimes and getting up times - I think I've more or less got back into it now, though.

I've got a string rehearsal tonight, so that should be interesting. We were meant to be doing a read through of it all last week, but that more or less turned into a string rehearsal as well - which must have really irritated the very few wind players who turned up.

Hope the fiddle's nice - have fun with it!

Hello! So long since I've written! I am busy trying to lose some poundage and get a little more in shape, and in the middle of it all these acrobats come to the school and make me feel like even more of a wimp! But it was a great show... very breathtaking, and highschool students no less!

Haven't gotten my fiddle yet... frustration! I'll be so into practicing when it finally gets here.

Oh, and I'm back at w*rk, which is really really great... very excited about all the new opportunities to talk with the kids! I get to speak next Friday Night Service, don't know what I'm gonna talk about yet, but looking forward to making it a fun night.

Well, was up too late last night at Visions, so late it impeded on morning... And I'm on duty tomorrow, so I'll catch you later!

Yankee-shoes

Hmm. I remember the two acrobatics shows I went to when I was in China - wow they were spectacular!

The best of the bits of each show was definitely the one we saw in Beijing, with a troupe of youngsters (doubt if they were older than their late teens - if that) taking it in turns to wind themselves up in a long red rope and then go plummeting to the stage in a wide variety of incredible loops and twists, just stopping themselves before hitting the ground. Amazing stuff.

The other show was in a town on the Yangtze called Wanxian, where we got much the same sort of thing (though not the red rope bungee brigade), mainly vase kickers and a contortionist - and a small group of girls who did wondrous things with diabolos.

The other spectacular thing that happened was an unfortunate one really as it wasn't meant to happen. The usual routine with the contortionists is that they balance candelabras on their hands, feet and head whilst they hold a pose. In this case, the poor girl managed to set fire to her trouser leg! Fortunately she managed to get the flames out fairly quickly, but it must have been pretty nasty for her. We never got the chance to find out if she was okay. I hope so.

Mind you - we got to see so many different shows of one sort or another, and often in the oddest of places. We got to see a selection of solo performances in a garden at night, moving around the garden to different pavilions - a 'variety show' which was far more interesting than it sounds in a 'theatre' on a pontoon on the Yangtze - a concert hall in a museum. Amazing.

That trip was nearly three years ago now - and I still rave about it. Either it was a truly incredible holiday, or I don't have much of a life. I think I'll go for the first option there...

Hope the fiddle comes soon!

The Fiddle is HERE!!! Yay!!! So very very happy!!! It came sans shoulder rest, though, so I'm relegated to the humiliation of a towel until it arrives. Oh the pain, oh the tragedy !!!!

Today I started this whole health push thing, hoping to even lose a couple lbs before the big banquet in a couple weeks. Wouldn't that be nice.

Okay, I will write again soon when I have recovered a bit more from the whole crazy weekend thingy.

later,
Raych.

I imagine fiddle purists would probably say something like "Shoulder Rest? Pah!". Personally I say, "I value my shoulder and don't want to put it out, thank you very much."

Personally, I use a 'Kun Super', mainly because it's one of the few makes that will actually fit my monster sized viola. It also happens to be a good make, fortunately.

By 'big banquet' are we talking Chinese New Year by any chance? We're certainly getting ready for that as (now this is the moment when I *really* wish there was a 'Yay' smiley) I will be chopping Saturday off my diary from that weekend so I won't have to write anything from the Chinese Takeaway we are going to stuff our faces with!!!

The only downer is that I'll have to 'eat around it' as it were, but I'm more than willing to do that!

Enjoy the fiddle, (even with for the time being)

The big banquet is the "Winter Fest" at the school I work at... this year's theme is "fairy tale" so I think I'm going as an of the Tolkein kindish. I'm all excited.

I also have a date for Valentine's day for the first time ever!!! It's with my buddy Sam, the crazy punk rocker with all the piercings and tattoos... lots of fun!

Fiddlin' away,

Raych.

That sounds even more fun!

Actually it all sounds fun!

How many tattoos has Sam got? I imagine it must be quite a few if he's got lots of piercings as well. Sounds very intriguing!

Currently, Sam only has one big tattoo, the MxPx logo guy on his bicep, but he's considering getting Strongbad's face on his back with the word AWESOME! underneath it. Very unique guy. We are old youth camp buddies, so it should be a fun day.

Oh but he has his lip, tongue, eyebrow and ears pierced... and a mohawk. He's a very good lookin' guy, doesn't need any of it... but it's such a part of the scene he's in.

Y.S.