london journals :: december 2005
After my year in Australia, I lived in London for two and a half years, but always with the intention of moving back to Sydney eventually. But I carried on writing my journals in London... mostly because I just liked writing them, and my friends in other parts of the world (and some in the UK) still liked to read them. Here they are! You can keep up to date with what I'm up to now in my new Sydney journals, far out!
Thursday, December 15 2005, 0:39
CGI lions and centaurs and wolves! Oh my!
On Monday, we went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I only just finished rereading the books by CS Lewis in October, and I was excitedly anticipating seeing the story come to life. I wasn't disappointed.
The realisation of Narnia was more magical than I could have ever imagined, in both the landscapes and the inhabitants: dwarfs, griffins, centaurs, etc. The start of the film sees Narnia as a beautiful winter wonderland and ending as a lush, green country of such bright colours, they could make your eyes hurt. The costumes are majestic, if a little twee, and therefore perfectly suited to the tale! Even better than that, Ann Peacock's screenplay transforms the children from the rather lifeless if amusing Enid Blyton-style cut-outs of the book into four children who are unmistakably part of the War years and yet still kids we can sympathise with. If that weren't enough, they're actually pretty good at acting, and that's unusual in kids...
The screenplay confidently fleshes out the original plot and enables it to make the transition from book to film easily, although the story does race along as childrens' stories are wont to do. Additionally, CS Lewis' Christian allegory is an inevitable part of the tale, and still just as subtle as a wet kipper in the face, but hey! you can't have it all. The casting director has made up for it by giving James McAvoy the role of Mr Tumnus - I never thought I'd find a faun such a hottie! (blush)
Wednesday, December 28 2005, 10:36
Jingle Bells
Flying through the snow,
In a First Great Western train,
All the way we go,
Preserving a dignified silence, avoiding eye contact, and trying to ignore the noisy mobile conversations on the three and a quarter hour journey to Hereford to see the folks.
It's actually snowing today, although the snow-covered fields are intermittent, as are the snow showers, but it's still all very festive. As we pull out of each station, Gary, the train manager and a Swansea lad, informs us in his lilting accent that this train is for Swindon, Bristol Parkway, Newport, Cardiff, Neath Port-Talbot, and Swansea - my old university town. I've lost count of the times I've been on this train, and I still say that travelling by train through this country is a great way to have a comfortable glimpse of the countryside.
But anyway, Christmas was great. How was yours? I managed to cram a lot into the week running up to the big day - four gym visits, three parties, including my department Christmas party at work, which was great fun - lying on white-draped beds at Tantra (off Regent Street), while wafer-thin girls and guys brought us little meaty nibbly things. My heart went out to the vegetarians who had to make do with spring rolls. The following day brought a hangover with it (unsurprisingly), but I could cheerfully brush aside the concomitant grouchiness by reflecting on how much I like working at the BBC! What a friendly bunch of people, and what a great project. You'll just have to wait and see what it is...
Christmas Eve began with John and me happily ripping apart the carefully and brightly wrapped parcels we'd slaved over only a few nights previously with the cheerful voices of Band Aid in the background. We ate out for our pre-Christmas lunch at Cafe Rouge, before coming home for a night in with our Christmas crew. While Pete and Chris are in Canada for the holidays, and John was spending the 25th with his family, Matt, Matthew, Paul, Nick, Chris McGillick (a friend from Australia who's just moved out here with Virgin) and I were spending the day at Matt's. We passed our Christmas Eve night with fondue and Articulate, and enough mulled wine to make Christmas very merry indeed. Clearly you can have too much of a good thing though, because I found myself with no chance of sleeping until I finished a purge that would have won me approving smiles from Europe's favourite catwalk supermodels. Just a little festive detail I had to share with you ;)
Needless to say, when Paul rang me on Christmas Day to demand our immediate arrival at Matt's for more unwrapping of gifts, I was feeling rough as guts. Chris provided a less than flattering comparison, rising from the bright white sheets of Pete's bed looking refreshed and full of beans and brimming with typical laconic Aussie enthusiasm. Christmas Day is also Paul's birthday, and we pretty much watched him unwrapping gifts for an hour like a happy five year old ;) Bless 'im.
Matt was the perfect host - refilling our glasses and providing us with quite the feast, although I think thanks are also due to Pete, who cheekily bought him the BBC Good Food magazine Christmas edition, with a sly wink in my direction. Our day passed by with games and drinking and more food and laughs until Chris and I finally returned to my place around 3am and fell into bed.
And so it's almost over again for another year... New Year approaching with all its climax and inevitable anticlimax and withered Christmas trees appearing in front of every home, and then next stop: Spring.
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