Well that’s Christmas done and dusted for another year. It’s the 27th now, so it’s officially over as far as I’m concerned. Normal service resumed etc etc.
Ah, it wasn’t too bad really. I got a few…interesting gifts, had some nice meals, watched a couple of films and made sure to drink just enough every day to help maintain a positive outlook on the festivities (let’s raise a glass to being slightly intoxicated from 4pm onwards!). Otherwise I slept, Xboxed (another new word courtesy of this blog) and even did a little bit of writing. Can’t really ask for anything more really. Well, technically I can (money, a fiance in the same country as I, a huge book deal) but the last few days have been satisfactory.
I won’t bore you with all the details, as most of you will have probably done the same thing (big lunch, crackers, open presents, see the family and exchange awkward pleasantries for the rest of the afternoon) but I will talk about a few of my Christmas highlights because it’s my blog and nobody can stop me. So there.
Television!
I’m saying this is a highlight but for the majority it was bloody awful. My mind was made up when I was not once, but twice, subjected to the direness that is ‘Seeking Salvage’. Oh my, it was so tedious. I fell asleep watching it both times! Granted, I didn’t have to watch it; I could have just gone into my room and did something in there BUT I wanted to spend time with the family so I didn’t. And I was rewarded with a show about two companies who reclaim stuff other people don’t want.
Now I know what you’re saying. ‘You watch Storage Wars, so surely Seeking Salvage is right up your street!‘
No, my dear readers, it isn’t. Storage Wars has three things about it that make it interesting: the individuals, the mysteriousness of the lockers and the variety that you still manage to get between each episode despite the fact every show is exactly the same in its premise. Seeking Salvage does not have any of this. They reclaim bricks, they have personalities less interesting than bricks and I’m not sure if we were even watching new episodes or the same one over and over (when I was conscious of course) because all I remember seeing was bricks.
But despite this I did find a few gems. Dara O’Briain, who is one of my favourite comedians, had a stand up show on Christmas Eve that I’d never seen before. I like him for several reasons: he’s funny (obviously), he likes his science, he seems like a nice enough guy and most importantly, he’s a gamer! Such is his love for console gaming he’s hosted the BAFTA gaming awards just the other year. And what made his stand up performance so good was his short clip on gaming, and how good it was. He pointed out that nobody can be bad at watching a film, or reading a book but they can be bad at a game. And the game will punish you for it by restricting you from playing it further. Films and books don’t do that.
It was funny, basically. I enjoyed it. I would send you a link but as I can’t watch YouTube videos I can’t guarantee it being the right clip or not. Feel free to search it yourselves though. Very amusing.
What else? Well there were two films (which I’ll talk about further down) and a couple of games of football that I watched. They were entertaining, which surprised me considering how dire the teams usually play. Maybe they upped their game for Christmas. Either that or I was able to enjoy it more because Chelsea won again. Hmm.
Other than that television was just terrible this week. I only mentioned it to complain about Seeking Salvage.
Splat On The Run (A Boxing Day Treat!)
Splat has been whining for weeks as she’s been desperate to get out into the garden. Whenever the door opens, she is there like a shot trying to escape. The reason for keeping her in of course, is that she is in a new area. This in itself wouldn’t be too bad, but Splat appears adamant to jump over the back fence onto the grass beyond. But if she does that she’ll then be stuck as she can’t climb back into the garden from that side. It’s a one way trip, and we doubt very much that Splat, intelligent as she is, can figure out how to get back in.
So we’ve refused her for the most part, or only allowed her out when we’re in the garden to keep an eye on her. Already she has sneaked through the gap in next door’s fence, which isn’t ideal as the girl who lives there has some serious allergies and we don’t really want to take the risk that Splat might not cause her any harm. But when Sue was out on Boxing Day, my dad decided to let her out for a while because she was scratching the furniture in her little cat protest at being held prisoner inside the house.
To start with she just sniffed around, stretching her legs etc. Then as my dad was building a makeshift fence to stop her from going through into the neighbour’s garden, Splat-you guessed it-ran into the neighbour’s garden. Thanks Splat.
We weren’t too concerned though, as she usually returns within five minutes as she realises we aren’t going to chase her. This time however, she decided to pull a disappearing act. We looked over the fence but we couldn’t see her. Knowing that Sue wouldn’t be impressed if we lost her cat, the two of us went around to find her. But she wasn’t there.
Apparently you can get through the trees in their garden onto the grassy area we’d tried so hard to stop her from accessing. Great. So we checked it out. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t under the cars, she hadn’t returned to our garden and she wasn’t on the road. Deciding that we were just going to have to face the music, my dad and I went home to wait for Sue. She wouldn’t be much longer and she’d stand a better chance of calling Splat home than we would.
But I then decided to check out the street one last time, just in case I saw her. And there she was, standing on the path meowing at me. I quickly grabbed her and carried her to the house, safe and sound.
We told Sue about it later, but it’s easier to own up to such things when nothing bad happened.
Last time we’ll trust you, eh Splat?
Knight And Day (Surprisingly Good!)
I have no real dislike of Tom Cruise. I know he is a figure open for mocking, what with his Scientology beliefs, hist shortness and his…teeth (I got desperate – why do people not like him? I don’t know!) but I have no problem with him. Never really watched his films (I can only think of his cameo in Tropic Thunder, which, to be fair, was funnier than the actual comedy actors in that film) but he seems nice enough. He’s a perfectly good actor. I respect him for that.
Same, really, with Cameron Diaz. Never watched her films but I don’t dislike her. Just don’t really make an effort to watch her films.
So when I noticed Knight And Day was on last night, you would probably expect me to skip by it. But, for a change, I decided to watch it. I didn’t have any real expectations of it being decent but I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. Well, I enjoyed it. It was funny, the acting was fine and it wasn’t overly stupid. I’m not an action movie guy (never seen any of the Die Hards, for example) but I enjoyed K & D. The title didn’t really make sense (I thought her name was Day…it isn’t) but that was my only complaint.
So yeah. Give it a go if you have a few hours to spare.
Alien
I have to make a quick adjustment to that list now because I’ve finally watched Alien. I’ve wanted to see it for ages just I’ve never got around to it. I always miss the first half an hour or find it conflicting with something else so it’s escaped me for quite a few years now. But yesterday, after Knight And Day finished, there it was. Alien. Young Sigourney Weaver, 1980’s film effects and lots and lots of alien rape. I know most of the key scenes because, like Star Wars, you hear enough from others to know what it’s about without watching it, but I went ahead and stayed up until half 2 to watch it anyway.
I don’t really need to say anything do I? It was great. A suspense based horror, which is a refreshing change from all the horror films I usually watch. I tried to forget the fact I watched Prometheus in the summer and pretended it was all new. And it worked. Very good. Now I just need to look for the sequels. Then Prometheus might actually make sense (it probably won’t; too many plot holes for my liking).
Building Splat’s Play Pen
This is what I did today, and though I said in my first paragraph that the 27th doesn’t count, I felt like including it as it was quite an achievement to (we think) cat proof the garden (see above for the reasons why).
We first went off and bought some wire fencing and wooden stakes at B & Q (our version of Menards, Americans). Then, after a bit of debating on where to put the fence, we decided to close off the main part of the garden and essentially give Splat the entire lawn. There would only be two troublesome parts to this plan; the small gap in the fence where Splat made her escape, and a part on the opposite side where we couldn’t put a wooden support. Other than that it was a straightforward job.
So in the pouring rain we hammered in the fence, using the spare bits of wire to tie the fence to the wooden stakes. After that we focused on the gaps. The first bit (the one in the above picture) was relatively straight forward; we stretched the final two sections of wire between the neighbour’s fence and the wooden fence at the back of our property, using nails to hold it in the place. Then, once that was secure we looked at the other gap and decided a more makeshift solution was required (in other words, we had no supplies left). We used cardboard boxes, paving slabs and bricks to close it off. It doesn’t look great but it should work.
After that we set up a scratching post in the middle of the lawn for Splat, plus a little brick structure for her to climb over or shelter underneath. I also trailed a piece of rope across from the washing line pole at the far end of the garden across to her scratching post for reasons I’m not quite sure of. I think I got confused about why we were doing this and thought we were building a pen for a monkey or something. It looks interesting though, and we can probably hang a toy off it for her to swing a paw at.
The final test was of course putting Splat inside her new area and seeing whether she could break out of it or not. Immediately she went over to her escape routes, and seemed rather unhappy to discover that we’d blocked them all with either wire or bricks. What’s the point in being outside if you can’t run off, she’s probably thinking. I’m sure she’ll get used to it though. There is plenty of space for her to explore (which she doesn’t really do: after a five-minute stretch she’ll sit down in one spot for hours) and hopefully, she won’t be able to get out. We’ll just have to wait and see.
And, if our cat pen does indeed prevent Splat from roaming the streets, I’ll take some pictures of our work.
She definitely wasn’t happy about it, mind. She’s been scowling at us more than usual since she came back in. We’ve annoyed her you see, and she wants us to know about it. She won’t come over to us or sit beside us. Very grumpy.
But we know she hasn’t been beaten just yet by our pen. She’s a clever one, is Splat, especially when it comes to escaping. She won’t give in without a fight.
writingonthecitadel 