Further ramblings of a self-made pauper

Oh well, I can tell the Summer is on its way in: the telly manages about 100 minutes before it gets too warm and turns itself off for a breather. I guess I am going to have to think about the fan behind it again, like last year. Actually, I've never moved it, but I think we would be best served putting the fan on a chair behind the TV and placing the fan closer and more accurately. It did work last summer, propped up as it was on books, but after a while then TV still got too hot. We have a spare chair and the space behind the TV is being wasted, so there's nothing to lose trying.

This plan came to me after watching DVDs this afternoon. I managed to get through the programme itself, around a 100 minutes, but shortly thereafter the TV arsed around while I was watching some of the extras. I've left it to cool down for now and will go back in a few minutes to implement my masterplan.

The DVD in question was an old William Hartnell Doctor Who story from 1965, one of my favourites: The Time Meddler, with the 'Meddling Monk' the first example, other than the Doctor, of the (as yet unnamed) Time Lords, complete with his fully working Mark IV TARDIS, which left the Doctor somewhat envious. There are times when the action is a little slow by modern standards, but it is an excellent story and far better executed than many from 20 years later.

Well I survived the meeting with Clan Furtle. It seemed to go well enough: the simple expedient of buying the drinks, making small talk about the relative merits of hoppy beers over heavier brews, a couple of comments about this and that and nodding sagely a lot of the time seems to have done the trick - by which I mean no obvious gaffs. As far as I am aware there have been no telephone calls, texts or emails telling Elle to run for her life or anything like that, so maybe I passed muster. Or maybe the family is in shock and intervention will come later. Who knows?

After about three hours we made our excuses and disappeared into the driving rain for a quick charge to the West End, where we bought fresh coffee beans from Monmouth Street (having taken delivery of a coffee grinder). We have since discovered that Whetstone is oddly bereft of anywhere to buy a cafetiere, so I may have to nip into Finchley tomorrow and attempt a purchase from there.

Weekend viewing started with the Torchwood finale on Friday (reviewed on video for Furtle who missed it); barely a dry eye in the house. The season premiere of Doctor Who, which was light weight fun: entertaining but not especially deep - one for the kids (which, to be honest, is good as it is actually a kids' show) but with a little foreshadowing of future plot. To my pleasure, Catherine Tate was restrained enough not to stink the show out and the choreography for the fist part of the episode was fun, just stopping before the joke wore out. Beyond that, further DVD episodes of the X-Files taking us deeper into the rather unfairly maligned seventh season (we're on a timetable: Furtle needs to complete her X0Files education before the new movie is released). My memory is going. I'm sure we watched a movie on Saturday night but I cannot for the life of me remember what it might have been. Maybe we just talked about it? Blimey, it was only a little over 24 hours ago...

This afternoon we partook of the season premiere for Battlestar Galactica season 4. A solid start, with hope of more shenanigans to come. Finally on the televisual front, tonight we slapped Stardust into the DVD player as neither of us had seen it at the movies. Highly recommended. Nice to see Michelle Pfeiffer again and the dead princes should have their own show. Robert DeNiro must have enjoyed every minute of filming.

I have tomorrow off. A further trip to the dentists, this time for the attentions of the hygienist and then it's done until I decide whether to empty my bank account and endure the root work or extraction on the remaining broken tooth at the back. Whatever, it won't be fore a while until the gum has healed from Thursday's attentions.

I expect that I shall be out of the house when the post arrives and I shall miss the copy of Maximum Power I am hoping to receive from Amazon. Still, we shall see.

Since My Girl^TM and I are spending Christmas in different places - she sipping daiquiris on a boat sailing up the Nile and I trying to get extra sleep in a small bed in Wem - we decided to open our Christmas pressies this evening. I shall be off to Shropshire tomorrow afternoon and she will be flying out from Heathrow on Christmas Eve.

I am now the proud owner of The X Files - The Complete Collector's Edition DVDs. Witness:



All nine seasons plus the movie neatly sandwiched in between seasons five and six. How cool is that?
We have already watched the first disk.