Revolutionary Rants

How dare the American mass-media remake The Wicker Man. Or rather, make their own ‘horror’ type film pertaining to be The Wicker Man?

There were no bees. It was about the human phychology and human ‘evil’. About how ‘normality’ is classed. About difffering conceptions of religion. It had scary bits, but it was not you common-run-of-the-mill horro flick. It was very British. It was NOT about bees.

Why is the movie industry so interested in remaking things these days? Employ people to write new stuff and look to the sucess of such films as Alfie, The Italian Job and The Omen to see how much appitite there is for such shit.

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Argh, eBay is a nightmare. And BHS’s site might as well not even exisit, it is that rubbish!

I cannot believe August is almost over… Where has it gone? I feel like I have hardly done anything with myself, but at the same time I am very contented… Strange. I suppose I have been writing away on my thesis (I do like that word) and enjoying life in North Devon generally. Plus watching hundreds of DVDs. And reading. A full life, really.

Not long until it is Chicken’s birthday now, as well. I prefer Mr C’s birthday to my own, as it is more fun to give presents and celebrate with another person and it is still light at 16:00.

Yesterday I returned to Exeter with my Mum. I got our four pounds back from Lush (the swine) and we looked for dresses. We were pretty successful and there is generally pleasedness all round. Apart from with BHS, which was rubbish…

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The long Bank holiday is over. It has been lovely, three whole days with Chicken home and putting my dissertation to the back of my mind. Well, it is not long until I have to hand-in my dissertation, when Mr C will come with me for a weekend away back up in Yorkshire. After that, we are greatly looking forward to Chris’ counsin’s wedding in October, when we’ll fly to Warsaw. After that it is not too long until Christmas.

As I have already posted, we went to Exeter on Saturday. What I forgot was that we had a surprise on the way home. We stood at the edge of the platform, eager to get a seat for the journey back home. The train pulled up and we blinked at the side - Trans-Pennine Express, it read. It was one of the trains we had taken so often from Huddersfield; me, weekly at least, up and down to York and both of us often enough to Leeds/Manchester/Liverpool! It was an odd thing, both comfortable and alien to sit in the blue and red flecked seats again.

On Sunday we had a quiet day and a failed hunt for the local CAMRA pub, which turned out to have been brought up and changed. Yesterday we went to the local Lidl for veg and had a nice walk near the river. We watched the boring A Bug’s Life and in the evening the sublime La Haine, which was as good as I remembered it. Certainly one of my favourites.

It was nice to lie in and not have to make sandwiches every night! Sadly, our plans to make Yorkie puds (or, in my case veggie toad-in-the-hole) failed as we did not have any plain flour!

Today it is back to the real world, C at work and I am back to my dissertation. This mornign I went ot see my Nan, as it is her birthday. The sun is trying to shine…

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We woke a little later than usual after a hour long wake-up call at 3:45am for Mr C but decided to make the most of our Bank Holiday Saturday and head off on the Tarka Line to Exeter.

The train was packed on the way there and we got off at the wrong station, Saint David’s, rather than Central. We had a little walk in to the town centre, but nothing too bad.

We went straight off to Costa coffee to replenish ourselves with Frescata! We then headed off, newly revived after our interersting train trip, down the High Street. We visited a range of shops, including our favourite Lush (although on getting home we discovered that we have been over charged by £4 so we were less pleased with them than usual… I am now on a mission to get it back!!!). We stocked up on soap and bath stuff there before getting some special teas from Whittard’s, a bath mat, a tea strainer and shopping from Sainsbury’s. By which time we were ready to head home!

After a much emptier and more relaxed journey home we enjoied pasta and a relax.

Today, after collecting a air conditioning unit from Chicken’s workplace (don’t ask…) and helping up at the caravan, Mr C is going to cook for me, so that should be nice! Plus, no overnight wakings, so we are in a good mood for our extended break!

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Argh, nobody is blogging and there is very little exciting gossip on the red tops’ websites to keep me busy whilst I write dissertation stuff!

Nevermind.

I went with my Mum - freshly returned from holiday in France - to South Molton. We enjoyied a very pleasent jacket potatoe in a place called the Corn Dolly on the high street there. Tasty indeed.

I also got lovely French gifts, a string of colourful, jingly owls from my niece and nephew and a shoulder bag from my mum. Chicken also has very nice presents, but as he hasn’t seen them yet I will keep quiet…My poor brother has pulled his back out on a French holiday treat (wine, cheese, cigars, you know the usual) filled suit case. Not good.

The sun is currently shining, which makes a nice change. I doubt it will last over the Bank Holiday weekend, however!

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Oh, by the way, the previously mentioned “unsung landmarks” vote is now on here. I think the list is a bit of a fix - who woul vote for Emley Moor mast?!?! Maybe it is just me, after ll it does make you think of the area instantly, so maybe that’s why people chose it.

As for Bideford Bridge… It is depressing, with it’s Samaritans don’t do it! type sign in the middle…

Interesting poll, anyway!

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The rain has most certainly set in, but sadly, our visit is off. Due to a very nasty Dutch tummy bug. It is a shame, as Mr C was looking forward to seeing his neices very much. Oh well, hopefully they can visit soon.

So, it is pouring, the dissertation goes on and Belleville Rendez-vous (which C and I watched last night) was very, very odd indeed! We liked the animation and Bruno the obese dog very much, but overall nothing much seemed to happen.

Chicken and I are really enjoying watching a few more films together now we have this DVD rental thingy.

Oh, and the curry turned out to be delicious anyway, so that was good!!!

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That just shows you what writing nostalgic posts does for you - I’ve now burnt the curry I am preparing for Chicken and my dinner!

It really smells, as well…

The rain is back and settled in, by the looks of things, which doesn’t bode well for our visitors later in the week.

Oh well, must press on with chapter three before I get tempted to watch Belleville Rendezvous our latest Tesco DVD rental!

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Today, for some reason, I started thinking about when I was a child aged 12 or so. That was when I first went to visit my penfriend of six years. He was Welsh, but his family had moved to the island of Inishfree off the Donegal coast some time before. As my family had decamped to Clare by this time we were able to visit and meet.

The island was very beautiful but - like all of Ireland - prone to awful weather and on our first August trip we were meet by a grey sea and sheet-like ever-falling rain. My Dad, my brother and I all went over for a day or two. With our friends we explored the island and saw the scuppered boat on the far side, facing out in to the Atlantic ocean, as well as all the empty fishing cottages.

There was still no electricity on the island, no running water. It was a real throw-back. A weird place, as well as beautiful, it always seemd to have an atmosphere. This was only made worse by the tales of the phycholoical experiment of Jenny James (nd her group which was more generally called ‘The Screamers’ due to the primal scream nature of her ‘thearpy’), which has once lived on the island. They moved to Colmbia in the end, but all the broken crockery they smashed in order to express their anger to other memebers of the group (you had to express all feelings like this) still littered the sea floor.

It must have been sunny sometimes, as we went swimming on subsequent trips. Funny really that I remember it the way I do, with the creepy atmosphere, and the greyness, as it was a place I was very happy, but there you go…

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After a 4:00am wake-up call from a crashing server at work, Chicken and I have woken up more than a little tired today.

Then, already feeling a little annoyed at the world, we were faced with the news that passengers had bullied two individuals - of course, of ‘middle eastern’ apperence (which as we know probably means Brazillian…) - off a chartered plane to Manchester. They had cleared security, and did so again later, but the people on board claimed they acted suspiciously and had them thrown off the flight.

Absolutely ghastly. Disgusting, really.

But, as usual, documentary maker and comedian Sarfraz Manzoor put an excellent spin on it all for the BBC News this morning. The interview began with a clip of two of the charmers from the flight; he, shaven and beefy looking, her completely orange. I was just thinking ‘actually I’d be more scared to sit next to that pair, personally’ when Manzoor came on. He began with a quick reference to the ‘views of that orange person there’ - flash back to the very white whites of her eyes staring out of the overwhealming tan - and carried on to point out he, as a Mulism person himself, was also terrified of being blown-up. He ended on the brilliant note of saying that if all this carries on we will have to have seperate sections for people in planes ‘be they Muslim or even orange’.

Very amusing.

We had another quiet weekend, with a Saturday of lazing and on Sunday a birthday meal for my Nan in Bickington (not half bad). We saw Memoirs of a Geisha (OK apart from the dire American ending) and Spirited Away (very good, no Americanised ending). And, nit for the first time, I was glad of having such a practical partner, when Mr C managed to fix the washing machine, which had the same problem as before in Yorkshire.

Now for a bit of dissertationing before a nap…

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