silent movie, anyone?

who would have thought it? in 2011, people paying to see a black & white silent movie at the cinema. yep. and i was one of them yesterday when i went to see The Artist (a French film, despite its English title), the story of a silent movie actor refusing to get into talkies. sounds familiar? a little part of the Singing in the Rain plot there, but despite the amount of music (well, you have to fill the silence somehow), not a musical. after the original weirdness of not hearing anyone talk, it went fine and it was, surprisingly, quite an elaborate story. a good movie, if you don't mind it being 2 hours of non-talking. and apparantly, the main actor should be in the running for an Oscar.

the mug

i broke my mother's mug. it's been in the family for at least as long as i've lived, so a good 30-odd years and had survived years of daily use - my mother never used another cup - and only survived 6 years with me. i know it was bound to happen, but this cup was a daily reminder of my mother, much better and more valuable to me than her jewellery or other things.

the whole thing happened in slow motion. i saw it slip out of my hands and break into pieces. and i just stood there for 5 minutes, not knowing what to do. as it turned out, it mainly broke into big pieces, so i'm in the process of glueing it all back together. i won't ever be able to use it again but at least it'll still be there.

overslept

i woke up because i felt rested. which was odd, as i knew i couldn't have slept the 8 hours i need to feel rested because i'd got to bed rather late. so i turned over and looked at my alarm clock. 7.30. ok. and then it hit me. 7.30! i was supposed to have left ten minutes earlier and i had a lesson at 8am. just perfect. amazingly, i was actually in class at 8.05 - that's including a 15-mn bus ride into town and a 5-mn walk to the relevant building. it did ruin the rest of my day, though, which is pretty typical considering i'd apparently slept what i needed.

the old car

getting the new car means that i have to get rid of the old one. in a way, i really don't want to. it's served us well for the past nearly 15 years, it's moved me back from Wales, moved my sister to and from Scotland, crossed France east-west (and back) on several occasions. if it wasn't for the cracked bumpers, it would have a good 3 extra years in it, if not more. and those bumpers don't hinder the good driving. yes, it's a bit hard on the pedals and the gears and all, but it is an old car. but with the bumpers being shot, i can't even give it to someone else. it has to go to the scrapyard. and that's just hard, cos that's like throwing away a perfectly good computer.

yes, i know. let go of the past. thing is, i'm technically an archaeologist; the past is an area of life that i really like.

buying a new car

i finally picked up my new car this evening. yeah! it didn't go quite as planned, however. i mean, buying a brand-new car is a bit of an experience, but i ended up mostly annoyed. i'd done my best to be there half an hour before closing time and i'd waited about 10 minutes for the salesperson to finish off with another customer when this guy walked in and got the salesperson's attention the minute the other customer had left. while i understand that his query was shorter to deal with than my filling in forms etc, i got just a bit annoyed when 'dealing with it quickly' became a 20-minute long process.

once all the forms had been signed, i was informed that the wheels (for the winter tyres i also bought) weren't actually ready yet. only 2 had arrived. so i'd have to come and pick them up at a later stage. this actually annoyed me more, because the whole point of the entire operation was that i'd be able to pick up the car and everything in one go and now i'd already been up there twice and would have to come back. typical!

then it was, at last, time to actually get the car. he was just going to get it and bring it up front, he said. he'd be there in a minute - it was only 50m after all. except he wasn't. it took another 10 mns of my time before he finally did get the car up front - i actually considered going to the back, but it was raining. i'm guessing no one had actually prepared the car, seen as the tyres hadn't arrived, so that he'd had to get rid of all the plastic, etc.

finally, he showed me how everything worked. once i was aware of all the main features, i checked whether the security kit was in the car. ah. no. not yet. it hadn't arrived either. ... right. there was no point getting pissed. what hadn't arrived hadn't arrived and it presumably wasn't his fault (then again!) still. i was pissed inside! anyway, drove home and all and remembered he hadn't given me the light bulbs or the oil can that he'd also charged me for. this was just getting better and better.

*cliffhanger - end of the story in the next episode*

go All Blacks!

ok so i simply haven't had the time to watch even a single game of the rugby world cup, but i've been following on the action through friends and news and i ended up waking up early enough to watch the second half of the game this morning. New-Zealand vs France. i was of course rooting for NZ, although i could see that, today, France played better. they probably deserved to win, but from what i've heard of their previous games, they didn't actually deserve to get so far - i'm especially peeved about them winning against an apparently superior Wales - so i guess that's pretty fair. and it was good to see the All Blacks win!

the Cube

i was supposed to pick up my new car today, but it turned out it wasn't ready yet. so instead, they gave me a replacement until Monday and they gave me the Cube (a Nissan). that's basically a cartoon car, meaning it originated in crazy anime 20 years ago and someone made them into reality. it's a bit strange and not at all aerodynamic but what the hell. it's a bit fun to drive. that said, i'm really looking forward to getting my very own car!

more than i bargained for

i had just signed up for module 2 of my management course when i got an email from the university asking if i didn't want to sign up for module 3, too, seen as they were meant to go together. followed an exchange of mails to explain why i wasn't too keen on taking two modules at the same time, until i realised that i hadn't quite understood how the timing went - i'd gone and made assumptions, again! and that did make me think. i would not have time to finish this and sit an exam next September, my busiest month. plus, i wanted to be able to enjoy next summer, not study through it like this year. so in the end, i relented. that said, it helped when i found out i would only have 2 big assignments for module 2 and that the 3rd one would in fact be the end of course exam.

on staying sober

i bumped into an acquaintance, the other day, and had a strange conversation with her. i hadn't seen her in a while, and she was trying to explain why she wasn't coming to my regular drinks anymore (totally superfluous as everyone's free to come or not). anyway, what she said was something on the lines of 'i'm trying to be sober at least 3 evenings a week'. right. what do you say to that? 'are you going to meetings?' didn't seem like the right response, although it might not be a bad idea. all i could do was applaud her efforts and if it meant missing the drinks, by all means!

i will never get men

i don't get it. this guy chatted me up. apparently, i really made an impression. so when i finally had a minute, i got in touch. followed a month of irregular messages, then emails. i only have a month before my next course starts so i thought that, if we were going to get to know each other, time was of the essence. so i thought i'd invite him to join us for a potluck dinner. no news. i had nothing against him not coming - in fact, i completely understood it - but he could have replied. which he did...today. saying he'd keep an eye out for my drinks, which incidentally take place tomorrow, which i'm guessing he would know if he actually was that interested. so it seems a bit pointless telling him about it. i guess we'll have to see if he shows up... but all in all, i must have spoken to him for about 15 mns, so it's not like i know him or anything. this is exactly why i don't generally make an effort when i barely know someone.

hot October

second day of October and i was sunbathing on my balcony... not exactly normal, but a great way to spend some free time!