Amazing Grace

I watched Amazing Grace last weekend. It's a story about emancipation. Very watchable despite the lack of action (as in duels and gun battles). The battles that are fought are those with the conscience - so not that easy to pull off in a traditional movie. It could very easily have been a play (perhaps it is - I haven't had time to google it).

Ioan Gruffudd was great. I completely forgot that he was Mr Fantastic. (I haven't yet watched the Rise of the Silver Surfer.)

And I recognised Michael Gambon even without his long Dumbledore beard. He has a very distinctive voice.

But I didn't recognise Rufus Sewell who played Crown Prince Leopold in The Illusionist - another movie that I watched over the weekend. (Edward Norton was pretty good in that!)

Image from http://www.eonline.com/

Mother knows best

My parent's house has two front doors. One is used more often than the other. Every year for the last 4 years a pair of white-browed bulbuls make a nest on a creeper just outside the little-used door.

This year after the pair laid eggs the creeper dropped most of its leaves. My mom's got green thumbs so the creeper's making a come back but this meant that the nest is now completely out in the open.

My parents were worried that the birds would abandon the nest or that one of the neighbourhood cats would get at them so they did a bit of camouflage with a spare plank and my mom did sentry duty whenever she could.

This meant that the birds - particularly the mother bird who would already let my mom pet her when she (the bird, not my mom) was sitting on the eggs - got quite used to human contact. So when I visited I was able to take these photographs which tell the story.

Another grey day

At 8.30 am this is what it looked like outside. The street lights were on. Vehicles had their headlights on. It was like being in the middle of an eclipse! And I don't think these are rain clouds because it's noon now and hasn't rained. This is just smog or fog or whatever.

It's hard to imagine that above this swirling grey the sun's all bright and shiny and dazlious.

Red dress

A long, long time ago I read a story about a charwoman in post WWII England. The thing is I can't remember the name of the author or the book! Do these details ring a bell? Anyone?

There were several storylines centred on the people she cleaned for but the one that stands out in my mind is how after working for years and years and saving up she decides to go to France and buy a red designer dress from Christian Dior.

It's quite an adventure for her as she's never left England. But she manages it and comes back with her dress which is just beautiful. The writing was brilliant because I can still see how it stood out so cheerfully in her somewhat less colourful surroundings.

But she never gets a chance to wear it because one of the women she cleans for needs a dress for some important function and she decides to lend it to the woman. But the woman is a selfish spoilt sort of person and completely ruins the dress.

That's not the ending though. In the end our heroine wins some moral victory - I can't remember those details though. Wish I could!

Image from here.

Autism

Over the weekend I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. I liked it. It's funny that this is another story about a character with autism. But like Snow Cake it's also more than that - it's about family and relationships and trust and forgiveness. But because its narrator is autistic it's not mushy.

Yesterday (I think it was yesterday) there was a programme on TV about Dr Temple Grandin who is also autistic. She uses her experience with autism to better understand cattle. I know that may not sound like much but there were some amazing insights - for instance, someone with autism may be able to spot a strand of thread on a busy carpet - something other people would miss. In the same way a cow being herded into a barn (or the slaughter house) could get spooked by something as insignificant as a piece of hay on the path.

So what's with the picture? Well, I think we're all on the autism spectrum. Most of us. Me certainly. It's like being on a roller coaster. Some days I don't want to touch doors and bus railings that other people have touched. Other days I completely forget. Some days I hop over the cracks between floor tiles in malls - other times I couldn't care less.

So what's your autism thing?

Ride baby ride

So mad at myself. I couldn't stick on at work. Felt light headed and couldn't concentrate. There was no point staying on and staring at the screen. So I came home. Slept. Feels like I've been rolling a huge boulder up a hill. Again and again.

Tomorrow is another day. Have to get back on that horse and ride, baby, ride.

Pabuk

Finally! After three years of waiting for it, the No 8 signal was hoisted in Hong Kong and we are officially in the middle of a typhoon.

Bit of an anti-climax really. Just looks like a regular rainy day outside. It's only drizzling at the moment.

As soon as the signal was raised this afternoon the roads were jammed with people tyring to get home, supermarkets were crowded with shoppers stocking up on necessities and transport was just crazy - people getting on to buses and ferries any way they could.

And now we wait...

Close circles

There was nothing interesting on TV last night so I surfed the net and here's what I found out.

These are the films that Alan Rickman (1946), Emma Thompson (1959) and Hugh Grant (1960)are involved in - with Hugh Laurie (1959) and Kenneth Brenagh (1960) thrown in for good measure:

Remains of the Day (ET, HG)
An Awfully Big Adventure (AR, HG)
Sense and Sensibility (AR, ET, HG, HL)
The Winter Guest (ET - AR directed)
Love Actually (AR, ET, HG,)
Judas Kiss (ET, AR)

And the Harry Potter series (AR, ET and of course KB)

Apparently Hugh Grant was asked to play Guilderoy Lockhart and he turned it down. He says he regrets it now. (That would have made one more film that involved all three of them.)

When Emma Thompson divorced Kenneth Branagh she married Fred Wise who played Willoughby (sp?) in Sense and Sensibility - and also acted in Judas Kiss. They move in such tiny circles!!!

And in university she dated Hugh Laurie!

And Kenneth Brenagh was involved with Helena Bonham Carter who also appears in the latest Harry Potter movie. It's like a soap opera isn't it? Everybody's connected to everybody or has been at some point!

Image: www.rickmanistareview.com

Snow Cake

Hey - has anyone seen Snow Cake? I saw the trailer here and I think it's going to be a great film. Funny and touching - my favourite kind of movie. Of course, if all the best bits are in these trailers...

And I'm definitely going to play Comic Book Scrabble! Sounds like loads of fun!

Image from http://www.lezard.org/

Sugar

Despite the title this is a bit of an Eeek! post so don't read if you're squeamish.

Right, so apparently I have too much insulin in my system. I haven't got diabetes (yet) but I need to take up to three tablets a day to control the insulin. The doc warned me that the tablets would make me feel a bit weird so he said I'm to take one tablet a day for a week and gradually increase to three.

Saturday was the first day and I was okay on Sunday. Wouldn't you know it? Monday comes along and I'm on the bus to work when I feel like I'm going to black out. So I slump down across my seat and the one next to me (of course it's vacant) and I get a few strange looks but other than that people leave me alone.

My breath's coming in quick shallow gulps, I'm breaking out in a cold sweat, it feels like I'm going under and I'm thinking at least when the bus reaches the terminus and the driver comes over to tell me to get off he'll find me comotose and call a doctor. Then I think what if he goes off for a tea break without looking and I'm stuck in the bus for hours?

So I get up with an effort and find that I'm almost at my stop. Grit my teeth and keep my head up until the bus stops. Stagger out on to the pavement and immediately barf my milk and cereal. I know I'm going to be embarressed later but right then all I feel is relief because the dizzy feeling's disappearing.

I go sit on a bench till my stomach settles a bit. Fortunately it's early and no one I know has seen me (I hope). And my breath doesn't stink because my breakfast hasn't had much time to digest yet.

Make my way to work on shaky legs and eat carefully the rest of the day dreading the next morning. What's scary is how suddenly the dizzy feeling comes on. One minute I'm fine and the next...

Anyway, today I decide to just have a huge cup of tea with sugar. Even if I barf again it won't be so bad as yesterday - when I was snorting out bits of cereal the whole day. Decide to be adventurous and head for the gym first thing - at least if I throw up it won't be in front of the office again. Sit in the bus and listen to the happiest music I can find.

And then as I near my stop this huge wave of relief hits me - I'm going to be fine today! (And when I finish my workout and get my things I find frantic messages from Etch asking whether I'm okay - just made my day!)

Deathly Hallows

Right so now I'm going to vent my feelings about the last Harry Potter book. Plot spoilers galore so look away if you haven't finished it yet and plan to.

From book 1 Snape was my all time favourite character. Okay, when Lupin appeared in book 3 he was my favourite and Snape second but by book 6 it was Snape again. When he killed Dumbledore I knew it was part of a plan because of the way Dumbledore said 'Severus... please'.

Of all the other characters in the series no one has lost as much as Snape - not even Harry. Snape had a rotten childhood at home and at school. Like Harry he made some foolish decisions when he was young but didn't have Harry's good luck with them. He lost the only woman he loved and spent the rest of his life trying to make up for it. He lived like a man who had nothing to lose.

And right until the end no one knew he was a hero. The reviled teacher who was always protecting Harry (okay, he didn't make himself very likeable but then look at his history - it's not any wonder is it?). The brilliant spy who risked his life. The mentor and protector of young Draco. The surprising romantic who did all this for Lily Potter. I almost cried when he said his patronus had changed to a doe after Lily died.

And here's where I start to rant ... what kind of an ending was that for him? To be killed by a snake? A snake that was so easily killed by Neville?

At least if he'd lived he'd live a hero's life and perhaps even move on - after all the character is only about 40 years old. In death we know that James and Lily are together so even in his own version of Kings Cross Station Snape will be alone.

But if he had to die why like that? Dumbledore's death was heroic because he planned it. But poor old Snape had to die an ignoble death and the only tribute he gets is to have Harry's youngest child named after him (his second name too - though I have to say that I'd have hated to be that kid - what a name! Albus Severus!) and just one line from Harry who says Snape was the bravest man he knew. That's it?! Come on JK! I say you could've done better than that! Snape more than redeemed himself -- he deserved a better ending.

Image from hp-lexicon

Update: Found this interesting site about how Snape may have been based on Alan Rickman from book 1. It's good for a laugh. And this review of Alan Rickman films and these hilarious pictures and comments.

I'm back!

Back from Sunny Sri Lanka! Did anyone miss me?

(C'mon people... say you did!)