A4 day

It’s been an A4 kind of day today.

After a slog down to Birmingham in the rain, I started with three items on my to-do list on a blank page of my A4 notepad. By the mid afternoon, I’d filled it up and ticked off most things but still with three things to start again with tomorrow.

Stupid problem of the day was one of my cow orkers trying to give read only permission to somebody on the accounts server file hierarchy and somehow removing all access from everybody else in the finance department. Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the pointy haired boss. I also had to try and write a report on our old scheduling system to give a report of all development work for 2002 – 2004, and found that the query tool which looked as though it should allow sql joins did not actually work as advertised, so I ended up having to write two separate reports and then merge the resulting exports in excel.

Slog back again, but it gave me a chance to listen to a fascinating conversation between Alan Moore and Michael Moorcock, downloaded from Moorcock’s Miscellany. The audio quality was pretty ropey, but it was well worth the effort for some fascinating insights into the creative process, particularly about multiple narratives.

I played a bit of teh crossings and then nodded off on the sofa with Biddy purring on my lap, only to be woken up by Alicia screeching in my ear about a moth that had flown across the room and disappeared behind the tv. I was slightly grumpy.

We’ve finally finished watching Roman Polanski’s ‘Ninth Gate’, a wonderfully atmospheric satanic thriller starring Johnny Depp as a louche and cynical book dealer trying to find a genuine copy of a sixteenth century book said to have the power to summon the devil. There are a lot of pastiche scenes that are very reminiscent of the seventies horror genre, but beautifully shot and composed in classic Polanski style and of course with a proper crackalack ding dong bats arse enigmatic ending. It’s notable for a commentary track from Polanski being included amongst the special features. Well worth the couple of quid it cost from the dvd bargain bin.