Ids and Ods

I have very little to blog about. But in order to keep up with my blog neighbours, I'll make an effort! Even Cass and Ange have blogged semi-regularly lately.....

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I went to a dinner on Friday night for a guy who was leaving. I had that odd situation where I was stuck sitting down the 'quiet' end of the table. It really does affect your night, where you sit. And it's awkward when you arrive either very ealry (in which case you have no control over the arrangement, and just have to pick a spot and see who surrounds you) or very late (when you have very few choices left) And etiquette demands that you do not move once seats are committed to, as this would be highly insulting to your neighbours.

I actually ended up getting to know the two annex-ladies (they do the photocopying and stuff for us teachers). Kinda interesting! We went thirds in a bottle of wine. It was just me and them down the very end of the table. To my other side was the guest of honour. We watched a few people in the restaurant who looked like 'couples' and tried to decipher whether they were on first dates. That's always a fun game!

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Matt was a bit sick in the weekend. I bought him tissues. It sucks not having good tissues when you have a runny nose. As a long-time allery sufferer this is something I am very sympathetic to. In the right circumstances, I would pay a lot of money just for a box of tissues. Toilet paper is just not enough sometimes.

He's been breathing germs all over me for the weekend, so my immune system will have to fight hard. I've been training it up for years - it is superior. His flatmate actually has (W?)hooping-cough. I didn't know that people in the western world still got that. Apparently there's nothing you can do about it. It just lasts for about 90 days, draining you, and then goes away of its own accord.

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Here's one of those stories that you wouldn't believe if it wasn't on an official news website. Some McDonald's worker was made to be humilated and strip-searched by her boss and boss's fiance because a man on the phone claimed to be the police and instructed them to detain her. One of those examples of humans acting despicably when given 'authority' and losing their own judgement.

It's like that famous psychology experiment where they got psych students to administer harsh electric shocks to subjects when they got questions wrong. They kept going and going even though the people were obviously in pain - just 'cause they'd been told to. Also like the true-life case the German film 'The Experiment' is based on, where they set up a prison experiment, where volunteers from the public were randomly assigned as either wardens or inmates - and it quickly got out of hand. Makes you wonder. Wonder what kinda teacher I woulda been in the days of corporal punishment......

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God of War is a much better movie than I thought it would be. Quite nicely shot, and not so macho as most action movies. The films that are included as previews on the DVD are all crap B-grade action flicks starring people like Van Dam and Wesley Snipes. This is a bit misleading. I think the person who matched them up with this film had the same misconceptions that I did.

Nicholas Cage plays his role as a gun-runner pretty straight, as if he is just a good salesman who might just as easily be selling cars or real estate. It also has a non-Hollywood ending which is always a plus.

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I actually got a birthday card for my Grandma. I think her birthday is on the 19th. I must remember to send it now! I am ashamed to admit I haven't sent her a card in years. I am a slack-ass grand-daughter. I went through an awful teenage phase where I didn't like her - for no particular reason. I think I was taking on some of the things my mum used to moan about as asides - and somehow thought it would be loyal to mum to not like Grandma...... It got so bad that my parents threatened to not to me with them on a family trip to America if I wasn't nicer! She only had the one child, my mum, who passed away. So now me and my brother are her only surviving relatives. She's one of those people who's incredibly easy to please and appreciative of anything.

I'm gonna try and be a better grand-daughter! Must ring her up on her birthday....

My nana is kinda the polar opposite. Very unemotional and doesn't like a fuss (really - she's not one of those people who says that). Certainly that's where my dad gets his rationality and calmness from. Nana is a tiny grey haired lady (five-foot-nothing) and she got given the fingers by some big trucker when she did something bad on the road.... In reply, rather than getting flustered and scared, she actually thumbed her nose at him. If it was still the 1950s, that woulda been the height of insults............

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