Parties and Power Sockets

A party on both of the last 2 weekends left me a bit exhausted and low on motivation to do much when I got back home in the evenings, so I'm glad this weekend's a bit more relaxed. Just two things to do: one involves a regular favour for my mate's mum looking after their house while they're away, the other is more fun - finding out who I'll still recognise at the car meets I used to go to when my Scooby was on the road. I haven't been to one since it's been road-taxed again and I missed the last 2 months events due to being too busy, so I'm looking forward to some fun driving and catching up with the bunch.

The reason I was so busy at the weekends is that I was in Nottingham two weeks ago for a big party, took the train up with my reduced fair on the railcard; the weekend before that I was in London and visited a Health Spa for the first time ever; and the one after it I was catching up on film-watching (which made me really busy :-) and doing some bellringing (for a wedding).

Now, there's not so much I can really tell you (and keep this respectable) about the party in Notts, except that I had a great time, was up til 5am-ish (was all a haze by then, so not sure!) on Saturday night - or Sunday morning to be more accurate, and had 3hrs sleep. Does it seem sad that the 'revelation' I want to blog about more is that the train up from Kings Cross had power sockets by the seats? I've never come across this before. Only intended for mobile phone/laptop chargers but very handy for keeping your device topped up. Particularly if, like me, you use your phone as your iPod-alike mp3 player - the media player does suck up battery life like a hoover. Caught up with a few podcasts on that trip and did some more reading of Douglas Adams' biography (which I've now just finished).

Unfortunately the train coming back sucked - low seat backs, half the number of carriages and from rather old stock (apparently the original one had problems and that was all they could get their hands on for that service).

I've now seen Sin City, Batman Begins (good film, recommended - way better than the last couple of cheesy attempts), and Van Helsing + School of Rock on satellite. Made up for not watching any (well, only one) since I'd started work. Reviews may be forthcoming for the two I saw at the cinema (and both have Frank Miller connections so very appropriate I saw them so conjointly).

School of Rock / Van Helsing aren't worth raving about (although I missed some of the start of V.Helsing), but they're ok films to pass the time with and School of Rock is kinda fun. VH is blah blah with a few nice SFX. I've always liked Jack Black since I saw him in Hi-Fidelity (worth renting) but he was a little too much at times in SoR. Very charismatic, just a little more than I was ready for at times. Not as bad as Jim Carrey in some of his but I hope you get my point.