Ow ...

Well, at least it was quick. The injection was probably the most unpleasant bit, although when the surgeon said "Oh - it's burst" that came in a close second. I now feel as if I have been slapped in the face with a wet kipper and the stitches on the inside of my lip feel like a large hairy spider that has taken up residence in there.

It's not too bad now, as long as I talk through gritted teeth like Clint Eastwood ... feeling lucky, punk? Apparently the swelling will get worse over the next two days, so I might have to substitute a Marlon Brando impression tomorrow ... :-)

Fight night

Fencing last night was even more fun than usual, taking the form of a mini-tourney with a series of different bouts each with a different weapon or style. Rick took us through rapier, backsword, small sword and finally broadsword (at least until he smashed it on Andrew's wrist and used a sabre instead). Each of the forms had its own set of challenges to overcome and it was most enjoyable to see everybody tackling them in their own way - we seem to reaching the level now where we can apply all of the techniques that we have learned over the past year or so and learn from experience. Most excellent and all round ACEBEST fun.

In other news, I am finally going to get the lump on my lip lopped off today, in fact in an hour or so ... gulp. It will be such a relief not to be biting on the damnable thing all the time though.

Wellies, walkies and weird scenes inside the goldmine.

I am a man of modest requirements, particularly in the footwear department. A pair of Doctor Marten's famous shoes, some trainers, sandals for the summer months and a pair of Wellington boots. You would think that Meadowhall, one of the largest shopping malls in England, would be able to supply my, not particularly demanding, needs. They have a vast array of different shoe shops and department stores selling everything from the chavviest of trainers to the glitziest and most impractical creations for ladies with more money than bunions, but do any of them sell the humble welly? Do they buggery. Not a sniff of a rubber item, feet for the wearing on, to be seen anywhere.

Do people no longer need to go out walking in inclement weather? Are the nation's dogs destined to go unwalked for the winter months, and any other wet days for the rest of the year? Will gardens go untended and lawns unraked? Will piles of leaves go unkicked and puddles go unsploshed? What has happened to the great British boot?

In the end we had to go to Homebase in the retail park where I had a choice of any colour I liked as long as it was green, for some rather cheap and thin boots that will last me a year at most. My last pair of stout boots were over twenty years old. Go figure.

Still, at least the trip to the particular circle of Dante's hell that is meadow shaped gave us an excuse to mooch in the shops and boggle at the christmas lights and the Santa's grotto that had a queue stretching halfway along the shopping mall - it's not even the middle of November yet! In fact, I saw a packet of mince pies in the supermarket with a best-before date of the 28th of November. Madness. Utter madness.

We were going to go for a coffee in Cafe Revive in M&S but there was a long queue, tables waiting to be cleaned and lots of items sold out on the menu board (patently, it all goes to rack and ruin when Loops is not on duty) so we gave it a miss and went to Starbucks instead, where I had a delicious Gingerbread latte - mmmmmm.

Returning home suitably booted, I took Barney for a walk and settled down to play a bit of Call of Cthulhu. Hoo boy, scary stuff.

After repairing the generator and frying the shoggoth, as well as releasing poison gas into its lair for good measure, I found myself trapped in a small temple like room far beneath the basement level of the Marsh family gold refinery. At one end was a statue of a bat winged monstrosity with tentacles where its face should be. As I examined the statue I could feel my heart start to race and see my vision blurring as my fragile grip on reality started to loosen. From behind me I could hear an eerie voice whispering one word, repeated over and over - 'Cthulhu ... Cthulhu ... Cthulhu'. I turned around in a state of panic (in both the game and real life) to find that the source of the voice that had nearly tipped me into gibbering insanity was ... Jamie. Aaaargh!

What wonderful children I have ... :-)

Science Fiction Double Feature

Well, neither of them were science fiction, but yesterday did develop into a day for slobbing around watching dvds and playing games. I did do some washing and ironing in the morning so I didn’t feel too guilty … :-)

The afternoon matinee was ‘The Italian Job’ – a classic 60s crime caper that I picked up from the bargain bin in Tesco last week. I’d only ever seen the butchered pan and scan version on tv before, and this is a film that really benefits from a crisp, vibrant wide-screen picture to show off the shots of the Italian Alps, the 60s cars and fashions and the iconic car chase through the back streets of Turin. The plot doesn’t really make all that much sense, and it takes a while to kick in, but the minis are what we’ve paid for and the movie doesn’t disappoint. Excellent fun.

Following that, what could we do but play a bit more Midtown Madness 3 with me driving the mini and Jamie taking in a police car playing tag in Paris. At one point we ended up on the roof of a building jousting and trying to ram each other off the side. ACEBEST!

A break to walk the dog in the nippy twilight – I really must find my wooly hat and gloves before it gets much colder – and then a couple of hours on Call of Cthulhu. This game continues to amaze me with its audacity and inventiveness. The plot took a left turn (I’m now on a gangbusters raid with J Edgar Hoover and his FBI goons), but the mechanics are quite unlike anything I’ve ever played before. At one point I was edging across planks through the rafters of an old warehouse – so far, so Tomb Raider – until I made the mistake of looking down and suffered a highly convincing attack of vertigo. The screen blurred and swam in a most disconcerting fashion until I looked up again – wooah! I’ve also caught sight of my first Shoggoth and am currently hiding behind a pile of crates on the verge of insanity. Eeeek!

What could top that, but the late night horror of ‘Dagon’? Made by the team of producer Brian Yuzna and director Stuart Gordon who seem to have carved out a niche for themselves in the low budget Cthuloid horror genre, notably in the schock gorefest of Reanimator, this was superb. This takes the original HP Lovecraft story and sets it in present day Spain, where a yacht with four wealthy young dilletantes is dashed onto a reef by a violent and unexpected storm. Struggling ashore for help they find themselves on the run from a town full of strangely deformed half human villagers and weirdly tentacled creatures.

There are plenty of in-jokes and sly references for fans of the genre – the protagonist wears a Miskatonic University sweat shirt, and a sequence in run down hotel with much frantic bolting of doors and shoving of wardrobes will be very familiar to players of Call of Cthulhu – but it is not a post modern, ironic horror flick or a big budget CGI creature feature. Rather it has much more in common with the Hammer Horror B movies of the seventies – a bit of gratuitous nudity, a bit of gore, some effective monsters and a lot of genuine shocks. There are one or two CGI shots – and one very effective money shot of the title creature – but this is perfect low budget film making. It’s a Spanish co-production, which means there are some sections of Spanish dialogue (which might be useful for anyone learning Spanish *coff* Will? *coff*), but I can’t imagine anyone wanting to take a holiday in Imboca (and that’s another sly reference for Spanish speaking HP Lovecraft fans). Well worth £4.99 from play.com I would say.

 

Spooky ...

Just in case anybody hasn’t seen Jan’s latest flash art project, have a look at www.planethopkins.com and make sure that you’ve got the sound turned up for best effect. I think that it’s brilliant (and so is Jan!).

S&M

Fans of S&M should check this out ...