Spent most of the afternoon zooming back and forth between the local dump. Stevie was incredibly generous in helping out with transport, as we’ve been trying to find ways of getting rid of our old Double Bed since… well, since about January. We weren’t able to get absolutely everything done, and one half of the old bed is left, but we did manage to shift a massive amount of stuff, and Stevie says he should be able to return to do the rest of it next week. It’s quite a shock- there’s room to manuevere under the stairs!

I’ve got even more work to do for Monday- but it is writing a review of the Hayao Miyazaki film Naussica of the Valley of Winds, so I’m regarding that more as a pleasure than a chore.

One of the biggest surprises this year is that I’ve suddenly gotten back into the idea of board games and- shock, horror- painting minatures. This is something that I haven’t done in an absolute eternity (last time was probably around 1990), and yet it’s actually very appealing. Probably the only frustrating thing is that in order to do it properly, you need loads of colours (I’ve currently got nine- so any colour schemes are very primary oriented), but I’ve done it a couple of times already, and it’s incredibly relaxing. I talked to Alec about it, and he said something that I completely agree with- that it’s nice to have something to do that’s completely meaningless, involves concentration, and has nothing whatsoever to do with watching something on a screen.

I’m having yet another busy week, which is kind of a shock- reviews are coming in thick and fast, but the thing which is really worrying me is trying to get my fiction writing on track. Writing a book is going to involve so much work, and if I don’t get started soon, how the hell am I ever going to finish?

So, what have we learned over the last few days?

Val Kilmer is more charming than you’d expect.
Michelle Monaghan thinks my name is “beautiful”. (No lie.)
Robert Downey Jr finds it very difficult to stick to one subject- or to avoid stealing people’s matches.
Pierce Brosnan is tall, bearded, and a teensy bit dull.

I’m also having yet another week when my entire life seems to be taken up with stuff. I thought I’d actually succeeded in getting all the stuff out of the way, when suddenly another wave hit and I’m now reviewing the documentary Inside Deep Throat. Due in tomorrow. Gulp. Being busy is both very good and terribly frustrating, as I haven’t been able to get any writing done for the past few days, and considering that the London Film Festival kicks off very soon, life isn’t likely to get any easier. It’s all terribly good fun, but it does sometimes feel like life is accelerating to a rather intimidating blur. I feel the need to leap off the Merry Go Round, and I’ll probably end up spraining my ankle in the process. Metaphorically speaking.

I wish I had a little more to write about, but normal life for me is the tiny gaps that exist between the gigantic wadges of work (I’ve got a screening tonight as well, on top of everything else…). One very nice thing which happenned, however, is that the Dark Future boardgame that I got via Ebay turned up, and it’s great- a 1988 game that’s in fantastic condition, and I’m finding myself actually quite into the idea of painting and converting some toy cars for it, which is very unlike me. I like the tangible nature of the Games Workshop games, particularly the 1980s era ones, and the social nature of games- something I wasn’t really used to until I ended up with a gigantic set of in-laws.

Have to try and catch up with Nessreader’s blog as well- witty and completely barking, she’s a total one-off.

Right- off to try and battle the forces of injustice. There’ll be more, after these messages:

“With Mash, get SMASH!!!””

(And so on…)

Okay- life has gotten rather intense. Every single second for the next three days has been crammed full of stuff to do. It’s nice, but it’s also downright scary. I’ve just gotten a shedload of DVD reviews, I’ve got the Press Junket tomorrow (which I’m worried about), I’ve got a Press Conference on Wednesday, and I’ve got to have the DVD Collection article done by the end of the week. Plus, I’ve got screenings every night for the next three days.

In a weird kind of a way, I almost miss Edinburgh.

Bagged the boardgame Dark Future on Ebay last night. Snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a last minute bid explosion. Hurrah! Also got LOST Season 1 (on Region 1), and DANGER: DIABOLIK!

That’s my birthday treat done.

Gotta go and do stuff…

Okay, I’m awake- but it doesn’t feel that way.

George returned yesterday, and it’s great to have her back. Spent ages just catching up and talking about all the stuff I hadn’t had anyone to talk to about (like the stuff that’s going on in New Orleans at the moment which, frankly, boggles the mind). I also managed to get a whole heap of stuff done in London yesterday, and I’m now staring at a whole heap of work to do over the next few days. I’ve got a press junket on Tuesday- my first- and I’ve got to do five round-table interviews. In a row. I don’t even know exactly how they work, which is something I absolutely detest (I can cope with most situations as long as I can actually know what’s coming). I guess we’ll just have to see how it goes.

Also saw BROTHERS GRIMM last night which, as a Terry Gilliam fan, I found terribly disappointing. It’s got “troubled production” written all over it, and while there is some gorgeous stuff in there, it also seemed to bring out many of Gilliam’s worst and most incoherent excesses. The script is rather clunky, cookie-cutter stuff (what do you expect from Ehren Kruger, writer of The Ring?) and many of the fairy-tale references seemed awkwardly sandwiched in (an oil-like cartoony entity suddenly goes flat and starts shouting “You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man!” Er… why?). There’s also some very dodgy performances- including some dodgy villain work from Jonathan Pryce, and a near-unintelligible explosion of a turn from Peter Stormare, the man who you can rely on to demolish a movie in less than five minutes. If Gilliam was churning these out left right and centre, you could forgive him the occasional misfire, but considering he’s only managed five movies in the last fifteen years, it’s pretty dispiriting to see his films getting so messy so quickly.

Oh, the pain, the pain.

I’ve got a ridiculous number of films to watch, and only a short amount of time in which to do it. Probably better get started…

An hour.

Better than nothing. Not spectacular, but better than nothing.

It’s difficult writing when you don’t have a specific plan. I need more details down on paper- then, I’ll be able to function.

Time to loll around, anyhow. Life is getting action packed at the moment, so lolling is a goddammed priority!

Right. I’m about to sit down and write as if my life depended on it. I don’t know how long I’m going to last, but every little will help. This novel ain’t gonna write itself.

A better day today- I’ve suddenly got lots of work to do. Robert Downey Jr, Pierce Brosnan and Joel Silver are suddenly looming large in my life, for reasons I really can’t go into at the moment.

Watching Season 1 of Buffy again (well, skipping a couple of episodes…), and I’d forgotten how good it is.

Okay- I shall buckle myself in and see what happens.

Okay- my brain is now functioning a little better (although only a little…)

Returned to London yesterday morning at 5.40am, after a relatively pain-free bus ride. In contrast to the journey up, this bus was actually air-conditioned, so things didn’t go too badly, although I was only able to get a couple of hours sleep. Once I got home, after a couple of hours of running around going “Yeah! I’m back!!!” I crashed quite severely, went to bed till 12, and spent the rest of the day in a haze. Went to bed at 10.30pm, woke up at 5.40 a.m. Still feeling strange, and I’ve also had to work this morning, doing the review for Red Eye, and trying to think up movies with Rock Stars in them which are actually good. Which isn’t as easy as it sounds.

The air here is strange- I’d gotten used to fresh, Scotland-type air, so being back in the sticky fug of London is an unsettling experience. It’s very strange being back- and I have to try and get enough rest so that I feel like I can function, rather than just throwing myself at stuff and gradually making myself iller. I keep thinking that the Glandular Fever may be coming back, and I really don’t want it to.

My last day in Edinburgh was good- went for a walk up to the Edinburgh Royal Observatory, and then tried climbing up a gigantic hill next to Edinburgh called Arthur’s Seat- which felt terribly familiar in a really weird way, and it turns out that I’ve actually been there before, at the age of 3. I can remember the Scotland trip, I’ve just mixed together that with my trip part-way up Ben Nevis. Anyway, I didn’t make it all the way up, purely because I was tired and the wind was constantly in threat of blowing me off the hill and down a limb-breaking slope, so I headed back.

Also saw the first hour of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (had to leave in order to get ready for the bus, and would have seen more if there hadn’t been half a fragging hour of adverts on the beginning!) which was an oddly charmless experience. It’s closer to the book, and yet the Gene Wilder version actually captured more of the weird spirit of Dahl. Strange stuff.

Anyhow- I must relax, recuperate, and get something to eat. In that order.

Okay- I’m back.

And I’m still tired.

I’ll update tomorrow, when I’m capable of rational thought.

There’s Bob Marley playing on the stereo. I’m in the front lobby of the hostel, having bought some time on the Internet, and there’s just under five hours before I get on the bus. It’s been a funny couple of days- I managed to see three seperate shows yesterday. 20,000 Leagues Under The Office was brilliant- a mental explosion of physical comedy, slapstick, and the kind of daffy theatrical nonsense that I love. A couple of awkward moments, but otherwise outstanding stuff (especially when it’s just two people on a tiny stage). Later, I saw Rom.Com- an attempt at an internet spoof romance- and there were a couple of halfway decent moments, but mostly it was rather annoying and studenty. Finally, I saw Funny Women At The Fringe, a selection of female stand-up comics, which was hilariously funny (once the damn thing started- we had to wait in a nightmarishly claustrophobic bar).

Most of the Fringe is packing up today, so I’m considering possibly popping off to the Cinema for the final section of today. I’ve also eaten a truly gigantic Chinese meal, to the extent that I don’t want to eat too much for dinner. I don’t want to be hungry on the bus, but I don’t want to give myself an upset stomach either. I walked up to the Edinburgh Royal observatory, which was beautiful, and then worked my way along to this gigantic hill. I almost got all the way up it, but the trouble was the path dropped away to in incredibly steep slope on one side, it was incredibly blustery, and the entirety of Edinburgh was spread below me as an uneasy reminder of exactly how high up I was. Certain heights I just can’t cope with, and this was definitely one of them. I’m going to be nice to myself today, and I’m just hoping that the bus journey will be as comfortable as possible.

In conclusion, I am glad that I’ve done Edinburgh. I’ll do it differently next time (potentially for less days), but the positives have definitely outweighed the negatives.

And I can’t wait to get home.