Entries are sorted in chronological order with most recent entries at the bottom of the page.
Wednesday, 16 March 2005 00:57:58
"Oh, you must go skiing, it's such fun, we never thought we'd like it but we went once with Majorie Atwood and she took us to a delightful little chalet and we had such fun, you must go skiing, it's the in thing still, you would love it, you must go skiing" *BANG* Okay, people who go on about how great skiing is are very annoying. I get that. Not everyone likes the prospect of going over a mountain on a couple of bits of plastic, particularly when you have to pay a lot of money for the privilege. On the other hand, I really like it and the past week in Meribel was fantastic. Bright sunshine, beautiful snow and fabulous surroundings. What more do you want? Apart from decent nightlife, obviously (very, very bad there. The French struggle when it comes to music and dancing). It's also very weird when you drop back into your life after a week's absence and see that the world ticks on without you just fine. I suppose it's unreasonable to expect everyone to hold fire until you get back but there you go. Plus I got to read some very old books while I was away. Must start reading PG Woodhouse, Right Ho Jeeves was a delight. Pip pip!
Tuesday, 22 March 2005 13:08:54
When I was a child, I was a very big fan of a TV programme, Doctor Who. I collected the books of old stories, watched new ones avidly and participated in numerous acts of fandom. I even managed to convert the entirety of my school year into watching the show at Prep School when I was 10, the perfect age to be a Doctor Who fan. Then in 1989, the show was dropped. Ratings had been disappointing but the BBC never actually said it wasn't coming back. Years past, there were short skits for charity, a TVM with American co-production, a huge range of new adventures in books, webcasts and audios. But even though I always considered myself a fan, they didn't really count. If it wasn't on TV, it wasn't part of the official history (as witnessed by the fact that the books, comics and audios have now all gone in separate directions). But this Saturday, the man comes round again. A brand new series. Yes, it probably won't be as flashy as modern American shows. It will be still be aiming at a broad audience including children. But when I switch on to watch this Saturday evening, I'll be ten years old again.
Monday, 28 March 2005 17:41:41
Yeah, me too, but that's a bit unrealistic isn't it? Even Dr Crane gave up after a mere 500 odd episodes. But 696 is the number of episodes of Doctor Who there were. Last Saturday, it became 697. The longest running sci-fi show in the world got back up after a little break and the key word is running. This was a fast paced episode, faster than any previous episode of Who (possibly barring some of Douglas Adams' contributions). The plot was fairly slight, this was about introducing us to Rose and The Doctor. Russell T Davies, the man behind this revival, has said he's a big fan of Buffy and you can tell, from the pacing, the mixture of horror and comedy (which Who always did have but not to the same extent). But this is primarily a revival of a British institution which means the odd creaking corner and less than convincing special effect but nonetheless we love it. In fact, over 11m caught it over the weekend, not counting those who watched it on tape. This has been a big hit and successful sci-fi begets more successful sci-fi. It's also very strange how many people I know have asked me about the revival. I was a big childhood fan of the show and now I have lots of friends asking about it, telling me how much they enjoyed watching it on Saturday and I'm even having to do a copy of the episode for someone who missed it. Makes me feel like I'm 10 years old again, but in a good way.