A Study in Time (Sherlock/Doctor Who)

You got yourself a forward-thinking guy with that hot potato in the sharp suit.

Hello all.

Just had an adorable moment - Grandma letting a bottle of milk down the stairwell with a piece of string...

Wanna know something sort of hilarious? I liked Andrew Garfield before he was 'famous' famous. Seriously. I hate it when people say that. But... look:

Andrew Garfield + Doctor Who!

He (and of course, of course, David Tennant) were the only bearable things about the Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks episodes. He wasn't even a major character - but Tay and I were rooting for him the whole time.
Besides the yumminess of Tennant and Garfield in the one show, there really wasn't that much else to like about that ghastly two-parter. Everything about those episodes was stupid. Horribly fake (as in, even I could do better!) New York accents? Yep. Pig slaves? Yep. 'Dalekanium'? Yep. Vomit inducing Dalek 'mating' (or whatever it was) scene? Yep.

This thing, whatever it was supposed to be?

Yep.

Good Golly, Do I Miss Doctor Who!

Thank you, Kristen, for reminding me :-P

This is an audio clip - it won't take up as much download as a video. So at least listen to some of it. The violins at the beginning are amazing.

Also; click this.

Does it ever bother you that your life doesn't make any sense?

I'm Burning Up A Sun Just To Say Goodbye

Good evening. Love this song.

I'm not going to do a gigantic spiel about French literature tonight. (Well, probably not) Do I hear any sighs of relief?


Instead I'm going to go all fan-girly for just a little bit. David Tennant. Yes. One of the least subtle actors ever - but still brilliance x1000. In a way, his intense acting feels more honest - he seems to throw himself into a role so thoroughly. And who could ask for a better role than the Doctor? He was AWESOME. The last few episodes with him in them (the ones I saw, at least) were awful though. You can't create a cheerful, selfless hero and turn him into an angry emo at the last second.

Had a bit of a challenging afternoon. Partly my fault for not getting enough sleep last night; partly because the little ones were sick :( Poor loves. Joshua ran over with a tissue every time he saw Minnie's nose was runny and tried to wipe it for her. Of course, she'd twist and struggle and end up with gunk all over her face, but it's the thought that counts! I adore these children.

I finished The Castle of Otranto late last night (one of the reasons I was sleepy today) ; the first English Gothic novel. It was hilarious! Pictures of ancestors come to life, giant limbs are seen (and never explained) mysteriously peeping around doorframes, maidens run away to forests aaaaand... a skeleton shows up in monk's habit! One of those books that you read and feel slightly guilty upon realising afterwards that you didn't care at all about the characters and couldn't wait to see what horrors fate had heaped upon them. Yes sir, the gothic motif has certainly moved on a bit.

The love of my grandparents is one of God's little gifts to keep me sane at the moment.

How High Is The Sky?

Love David Tennant. Love bedtime stories. It doesn't get much better than this.

Sweet, maybe... Passionate, I suppose... But don't ever mistake that for nice.

Just having a nostaligic I-miss-David-Tennant-nobody-will-ever-be-as-good-as-him moment. Sorry. Watching the last 'Doctor Who Confidential. He cried! I love it when blokes cry!

How epic is this theme? Even if you hate 'Who', you gotta admit that this is pretty cool.

It's certainly been said before that hero stories fill a certain place in everybody's imagination. Doctor Who, whilst not really the most serious, intellectual program around (although it did start out as a way to teach children history!), expresses that need particularly well. It's a personal belief of mine that we all, deep down, desire a hero. Somebody to save us, who'd sacrifice everything for us... and for all our (nerdy) fond imaginings, the Doctor isn't real.

Why do we have this deep desire? It's part of the blueprint of being human. We desire a reason, a meaning, something bigger than ourselves. Particularly, someone. If we want a God, we want a God who cares. A God who doesn't just let things happen without doing something.

I'm not going to go all theological here, because it's late at night, and I'm tired, although this tangent is really splendid.

But God did the Biggest darn thing ever. He, in the greatest show of love the universe has known, willingly relinquished His cosmic power, became one of us, and died in horrible agonies. Because He loved His human babies so much. AND THEN, to top it all, He rose from death and ascended to power.

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
- Jesus Christ

Mike nodded. A sombre nod. The nod Napoleon might have given if somebody had met him in 1812 and said, "So, you're back from Moscow, eh?".

Having recently (as in the last few months) discovered the genius of P. G. Wodehouse, today I indulged and bought myself a 'Wooster and Jeeves' book. Anybody who hasn't yet succumbed to the pure, charming delight of Wodehouse ought to be forcibly made to sit down and read even a few chapters of his work. Particularly people in need of a pick-me-up. As I read I am filled with a satisfying, warming feeling that everything will be OK, because the inimitable Jeeves, no matter how fate conspires, always comes through. He always does. And so beautifully too. With calm and style.

Just imagine how thrilled I am to discover that Wodehouse wrote lyrics for musicals! Yes, indeedy! I have found a whole list of musicals hereto-unheard-of-by-me, with titles like:

Miss 1917

The Girl With The Gun

The Golden Moth

Sitting Pretty

I have also discovered two that I have heard of: 'Show Boat' (which had great songs but was a terrible bore) and 'Anything Goes' (which I haven't seen but am dying to because I love the songs so very much!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6vxeROJS3s

Percy continued to stare before him like a man who has drained the wine cup of life to its lees, only to discover a dead mouse at the bottom.

I turned to Aunt Agatha, whose demeanour was now rather like that of one who, picking daisies on the railway, has just caught the down express on the small of the back.

The Inimitable Jeeves (1923)

A while ago I read a biography of J. M. Barrie. It was disillusioning and disappointing, as just about all biographies are, but I learned this incredibly fabulous fact. The very clever author of 'Peter Pan' created a cricket club with a great many of the other clever and wonderful writers of his time! It included such luminaries as: H.G Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jerome K Jerome, G.K. Chesterton, A.A. Milne and P. G. Wodehouse. In a spectacular burst of self-indulgence I (quite accidentally, too) I bought books by Wodehouse, Chesterton and Jerome, all without remembering their singular connection! Now, I adore just about all of these writers, and I have decided that if ever a time machine were to come into my possession I would make my first stop a visit to one of these cricket matches, and I would watch in adoration as my heroes lost heroically, because they were reportedly the worst cricket players of their time...
Whilst I'm on the subject of good things, I have just remembered a diary entry of, let me see... there is no date, but I noted that it was a Wednesday, in August; in which I listed things that affected my mental health. I rather like the lists I made.

Things that are good for my sanity:
Genevieve
David Tennant
Tea
Oscar Wilde
Flight Of The Concords
Singing
Oranges
Kristen
P G Wodehouse


Things that dent my sanity:

Changing trains
Falling asleep on my bedroom floor (an unfortunately common occurrence)
Onions
Carelessness
Emo lyrics
And toddler tantrums



And now I must say 'Toodle pip, old crumpet!' until next time :)

People who work sitting down get paid more than people who work standing up.

I love pictures of people sitting on the floor:

“I don't mind not being cool.” - Chris Martin

"How could it be that we're one of the only two developed countries in the world to refuse to ratify the Kyoto Protocol? I don't understand. I just don't get it." - Kevin Rudd



You go into a supermarket and your face is on a cake. And the other day ... I got sent ... there are now underpants with my face on them. And thats not a sentence I ever thought Id ever say on National Television ... you can now have ... my face on your crotch! - David Tennant


I'm an Asian guy growing up in London so I see myself as British, but India is part of my culture."
- Dev Patel


A weird fetish I know...

Rude and not ginger.

Amusing text message from my mother; received Blackstump weekend:

'I found your husband he's christian, really cute skinny and plays the double bass for architrave and is singing a fairtrade jazz song as i text u! He looks like the love child of steve edwards and scoot'

I find that more than faintly hilarious. Now I wish I had seen Architrave play. After reading this I passed my phone to one of my friends to read it, and the blank look on her face was worth millions. I don't know if she thought Mum was serious, but it took a few moments to process, with me explaining that it's an in joke - my mother does NOT go around matching me to total strangers - I hope! But she's right, you know - my dream boy would be cute and skinny and play the double bass (or any instrument really) and sing fairtrade songs...

Dum de dum de dum. I think I shall take a leaf out of Kristen's book and list cute guys... not something I do often, but now I am tempted... this should be fun...

1stly: David Tennant

Isn't he just edible? And his portrayal of our dear darling Doctor is too delicious. Making Doctor Who a star amongst BBC programs, which is high praise indeed.


2ndly: Dev Patel


I know that my evaluations are chiefly based on sweet characters played by the actors - for all I know all these guys could be rude drunken snobs - but the lovely lovely character of Jamal Malik is enough to give anybody at least a mild crush on Dev Patel. Besides, he's so cuuuuute!


3rdly: Dick Van DykeNow I obviously don't mean as he is in his current stage of life, although I'm sure he's just as nice a person as he always was - but in his youth, and particularly in his Mary Poppins role of 'Bert' he was positively irresistibly gorgeous... his simply brilliant dancing and appalling Cockney accent (I watch that movie and feel much more positive about my own Cockney attempts) in that film always have me in fits of delight.


4thly: Michael Crawford

Same as above BUT MORE SO. I feel a twinge of sadness whenever I see a picture of Michael Crawford past the age of about 35, because he was so very pretty when younger. And I mean Frank Spencer/Cornelius Hackl era. I have a weird thing for long skinny legs on guys in suits.


5thly: Sean Maher


And here we move away from tall skinny guys in suits... But we don't move away from suits! I have never seen Sean Maher in any other role than Simon Tam in Firefly, and this one is definitely a case of character crush rather than actor crush; simply because Simon is so nice. Even if he does look a bit like a cross between an undertaker and a Backstreet Boy.


6thly: John Hannah
Again, character not actor. John Hannah is simply here because of his role in Sliding Doors. I didn't even really like that movie very much, but I do love his character.


Starting to get a bit tired of this... silly attention span failing me. Will probably post a secondary part to this list sometime...