I am back from my weekend in Spain. My body’s capacity to survive on three or four hours of sleep a night never fails to astound me. My body’s capacity to flake out at that point and render me incapable of anything for another seven days also amazes me. So I should start sleeping now …
2004: Olympic Dreams
2004: Olympic Dreams
While I am way I’ve been thinking about all the fuss surrounding Holmes/Cruise engagement and Katie’s supposed missing days. From a distance it has always appeared to me that so-called real-life Hollywood isn’t that different from the movies; I suspect many over there can’t tell the difference anyway and walk around on a daily basis like it is a film. So, I hope they find the happiness they looking for. As for the rest of us, I think we should stop reading the rumours and stories. Frankly, what cares anyway?
I am off, right now at this early hour, on a long weekend to Zaragoza in Spain with some friends and ex-colleagues. I have no doubt that it will be a very friendly and social event indeed and I plan to enjoy the break (and hopefully the weather) as much as I can. I will be trying to post pictures from my travels to the mobile Flickr feed so look out for them. Hopefully I will remain sober enough to point the camera in the right direction while I am there. Now, I have to brush up on my Spanish while on the way to the airport.
Yesterday, Andy at Towleroad posted a picture of David Beckham on the beach looking great in his Abercrombie swim shorts. Why’s he never on a beach when I am? Sadly Andy, when you said, ‘David’s no Speedo man’ you were wrong. The front page of yesterday’s Mirror newspaper (pictured) clearly has something different to say about it all.
OK, so Andy got the update anyway. Still, it was only an excuse to post the picture.
2003: Archbishop Has No Objection To Gay Bishop
2003: US to extradite whoever they want, for any reason.
2003: Archbishop Has No Objection To Gay Bishop
2003: US to extradite whoever they want, for any reason.
So, after I berated you to get on with it – and provide some of the encouragement that I know you are good at – I managed to get to the gym this evening. And for that, I should thank you. For the buckets of perspiration that positively flowed from every pore, I should say much less of a thanks. So, thanks for sending me to exercise several hours of my life away on one of the hottest evenings of the year. If I need a doctor to deal with any dehydration side-effects I’ll know where to send the bill.
For the lack of ‘laundry bags’ in the changing rooms in which to deposit the soaked gym kit I will blame the cleaning staff and you are spared the additional cost of having to clean out the inside of my gym bag.
2005: links for 2005-06-22
2004: Online Customer Service Ratings
2002: Shopping Madness
2005: links for 2005-06-22
2004: Online Customer Service Ratings
2002: Shopping Madness
I’m with The Tin Man:Â ‘I am, by nature, a conciliator. I donÂ’t like conflict.‘ which may be because I am, in some way, frightened by conflict. It’s my nature although I wonder if I could change it. Would, somehow, confronting my fears work for me? Would I be able to fight my demons and then stand up for what I believe in?
Surely, if ever, this is the time to start standing up and saying what I believe. In Spain this week, Fr. Jose Ramon Velasco compared the proposed bill to legalise gay marriage to the beginnings of Nazi Germany:
“Back then the majority of people also backed Hitler just like the majority back this law,” he said. “I’m serious, give it time and it will destroy the moral fiber of Spain and the West.” [source]
I sit back and wonder how we got here. How can love be turned into hate so easily? When a man of the church says, “I would rather you commit suicide than have you leave Love In Action wanting to return to the gay lifestyle” [see Zach’s story] it makes you wonder about people. Not about religion or about the church just about people and how that can be inhumane to each other.
I guess Rev. John Smid (who said the above words) and The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, will never be friends. The Archbishop wants people to stop using “ghastly” language that implied people were “not human beings” because of their sexual orientation:
‘And when you use language which implies they were not human beings who are you to do that because you did not create them?’ [source]
I wonder if I am being too hopeful that his words will have any impact at all.
2003: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
2003: My First PHP
2002: Joy and pain
2002: Not Great
2003: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
2003: My First PHP
2002: Joy and pain
2002: Not Great
I wonder if yesterday was the first time that the ‘on this day’ entry has provided me with three links at the same time?
2002 was full of links – Glastonbury and World Cup fever. The kind of thing I leave to del.icio.us now as tagging data is fun!
2003 had me developing my downloadable Formula One calendar. I haven’t done that this year – although I planned to. Formula One is still a big part of my summer.
And last year I was moaning about Yahoo offering me extra mail storage and then not handing it over. Well, that was all resolved and something to do with the fact my Yahoo account pre-dates Yahoo UK and thus is – technically – a .com account but is all uk-ised by my location preferences. Understanding a user’s location but offering them the same quality of services (rather than service) is something they still haven’t got. My Firefox Yahoo tool bar, for example, is a lot more useful if I pretend I am in the US that if I am in the UK. Still, I live in hope.
No other posts on this day.
No other posts on this day.
photo originally uploaded by Blaise KÂ (https://www.flickr.com/photos/blaisek/12517037/) no longer available.
Sitting in the sun this afternoon looking at some of my pictures on flickr I decided to do some random searches of the images stored over there. This one – a busy NYC bar at night – seems so far away from where I am right now and yet strangely uplifting.
Summer in London has arrived. It’s 30+ at the moment and I have spent the day digging the garden and enjoying being outside (the thermometer is in the garden shed and it was baking in there). I’ve said before that my favourite season is autumn but a life where I can sit outside – in the warm – at 10pm would be quite appealing. You can’t argue that the sun puts you in a better mood.
Last night as I sat watching the planes in the gradually darkening sky I started to think about where all those people were heading on the trips. Were they, perhaps, heading to meet friends or for new holiday experiences? Or were they returning home? I’m not sure what it meant but I started to think of the vast size of the planet and how little I have seen of it.
And therein lies a problem. I love London and being at home. I have thoroughly enjoyed a lazy afternoon in the sunshine in the garden. But then I’d love to be off somewhere new and exciting too. Luckily, that’s why I’m travelling next Friday for three quick days in Spain.
2005: Nightlfe
2004: A Little Update
2003: Formula One 2003 Race Calendar
2003: London’s Secret Railway
2002: Rod Stewart plays Glastonbury
2002: Paris in the Summer
2005: Nightlfe
2004: A Little Update
2003: Formula One 2003 Race Calendar
2003: London’s Secret Railway
2002: Rod Stewart plays Glastonbury
2002: Paris in the Summer
Friday night is warm across London so we met some friends, had tapas and headed to the flicks to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Unusually for me, I knew what it was about before I actually sank into my lovely comfortable Clapham Picture House seat and – therefore – I wasn’t surprised in either a good or bad way with this film.
The premise: Mr. & Mrs. Smith are killers for hire but they don’t know that about each other. You need to gloss over the huge holes in that, for they don’t matter. The ongoing lies each one has to tell to cover their other life as a hitman is ruining their marriage. So, they seek counselling and somewhere along the line – again, don’t worry about the detail – they end up trying to kill each other.
The lead-up to the assassination attempt(s) is essentially background filler and, thankfully, is over pretty quickly. When the penny drops – and Mr. & Mrs. Smith head to kill the other – is the point where the movie gets better. As you would imagine for such a blockbuster, the killing spree is well covered with special effects making the gun battles comic-book in style and certainly all the more enjoyable for it.
This film, however, is made by the unexpectedly witty dialogue that writer Simon Kinberg has peppered the film with. For plot details and suspense, then two deadly assassins trying to kill each other is – perhaps – better left to Robert Ludlum. A husband and wife couple doing the same and you’ll laugh along to the clever use of the dialogue which moves this film. When it really gets going, it’s great.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt keep it moving well. They are a convincing couple and have all the moves a film of this nature needs. Most importantly, they carry the dialogue convincingly as a married couple.
Don’t expect realism nor a movie that takes itself seriously. Expect a surprisingly entertaining cinema experience. The fact that some in the audience applauded at the end should suggest you give this film a chance.
2005: links for 2005-06-17
2004: Football Crazy
2005: links for 2005-06-17
2004: Football Crazy