of days off and doing stuff

Today was a national holiday - a holiday to celebrate the founding of Japan.  Not quite sure when that was, as today is different to Constitution Day, apparently.

So, as the weather was rubbish, and I needed a rest, I decided not to go out.  Well, I went out on my bike to Shintakashima and bought some baked beans from Tesco.  It was freezing cold and raining.  When I got back, I had a fit of the grumps, lay about in bed for a bit and then after feeding myself beans on toast (suspect the grumps were brought on by not eating), got down to typing up a little story I've been working on, and then re-writing a poem that's been kicking about for almost a year now.  The story needs to not be a first person narration, so I have to reword the whole thing, but it's only 1100 words so far, so nothing too strenuous.

I watched "The Lovely Bones."  I haven't read the book.  People were raving about it when I worked at the bookshop in Slough, and I had a policy or avoiding reading anything that was recommended to me more than twice in one day, because back then I was an idiot.  It was a pretty good movie - very tense in parts, very sad in others. I liked the whole fantasy-heaven part as well, particularly the ships in bottles smashing up on the beach. The music was good too, and made even better by the fact that I recognized Brian Eno, The Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil in there.  Go me with the music knowledge.

So,  an update on movies and books is due I guess...

books and movies

                                  

      Books                                                           Films

Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood                 Brothers
Cormac McCarthy - The Road                          The Time Travellers' Wife
Russell Brand - My Booky Wook                       Inglorious Basterds

Eckhart Tolle - A New Earth                               Precious
                                                                           Up In The Air
                                                                           500 Days of Summer
                                                                           Friday the 13th (2009)
                                                                           The Hurt Locker
                                                                           The Lovely Bones

I'm pretty certain there's another book in there somewhere, but surveying my books is bringing up nothing else, so maybe I imagined it.  Currently reading Michael Chabon's "Wonder Boys", the film of which is one of my 'comfort movies' along with Amelie, The Lost Boys, and The Goonies.