I’m in the UK for the annual Christmas thing. Still attempting to get a short story written and ready to submit by the 31st because I hate myself. The normal stuff. There are Yorkies here (Indy and Brody) and they’re absolutely adorable. My cats will be so angry when I come home and smell like other animals. LIKE A BIG OL’ WHORE.
The flight was pretty good, though more turbulent than I normally like. I felt very bad for a guy I’d met while standing in line for the bag drop. He was a professional cyclist who had just gotten hit by a deer (yes you read that correctly) and broken his collarbone badly. Not something that mixes well with turbulence, hopefully he was loaded up with enough drugs for the flight. He showed me pictures of what was left of his bicycle and it made me want to curl and weep. (Frame snapped in four places.)
Normally I try to catch up on movies, but between the hectic week and the flight being delayed an hour, I was actually incredibly tired. I managed to sleep! For something like six hours of the flight, which is just unheard of. So I only watched a bit to fill up the rest of the time.
The Great Gatsby: I’d been wanting to watch this movie since I saw the previews, but also wasn’t so certain about it since it was directed by Baz Luhrmann. Who I’m certain is a lovely human being, but of the two other films of his I’ve watched (Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet) I didn’t like either of them. They were visually interesting (very colorful!) but there’s just something about his style that I can’t seem to connect with. Sorry to say I had the exact same problem with The Great Gatsby. It was pretty, and I just didn’t even care. I actually fell asleep about halfway through the movie. Oh well, at least I tried.
Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa: I had no idea about the Alan Partridge thing going in. Honestly, the only reason I picked that movie was it was short enough to finish in the limited time left on the flight–well, and I remembered seeing something in Empire about it being very funny. Very funny doesn’t really do justice to this movie. It’s fucking hilarious. And in that particularly British way that I love. I think I made the guy sitting to my right (not Mike) a bit uncomfortable because I was laughing so hard. As a bonus the movie is about Colm Meaney snapping and taking his fellow employees in a radio station hostage (but in a ridiculous way, it is a comedy) so you get to feel like it’s Chief O’Brien who has lost his shit.
I’ve got my preferences on BA set up so I get a vegetarian meal, since at this point the only way I can keep myself from having what I feel like is too much meat in my diet is to actively avoid it. For fun, this time around I had the “asian vegetarian” meal, which was actually the best in-flight meal I’ve ever had. And it involved okra, which I guess is now something I like so long as it’s done in an Indian style. But I got a bit of an odd look from the flight attendant when the meal ended up going to me instead of the beautiful lady wearing a head scarf who was one row ahead.
The weather here is extra British-ly hideous, with hard rain and high winds. So needless to say, I didn’t go for a run today. But I did do exercises with a resistance band, so I feel like I accomplished something. And then we decorated the Christmas tree. It’s looking particularly awful this year because we tried really hard.
By the way, I get to have a piece of this after dinner tonight. I will now bask in your jealousy.