Obligatory Christmassy video for you

Because I said I would. And this is sorta awesome.

Isaiah 46:3-4

Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and grey hairs,

I am He,
I am He Who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you.
I will sustain you and rescue you.

My cheesy emo Christian song to belt out when I'm feeling a bit crap. Always makes me feel a bit better.

A Study in Time (Sherlock/Doctor Who)

The Dog Days are OVER!

This is a blog post for no apparent reason. I feel happy this evening.
I should probably go and study and make/eat some dinner, get into pajama gear, and drink some tea.
Positive interactions with other human beings ftw.
Did you know I'm related by marriage to a baronet? A descendant of Anthony Trollope, no less. My great aunt Mary was a Lady Mary and her husband was a Sir Anthony. That is cool, no?



Currently listening to:

He walked as if on air, and the whole soul had obviously expanded, like a bath sponge placed in water.

As You Wish

I'm very bad at putting numbers on things, and I don't know how I'd be able to rank one of these above the others, but here are some films that have ingratiated themselves into my life:


Ever After

If I had to pick any movie to represent my childhood, it would probably be this one. I and my siblings watched this film so many times I can recite most of the dialogue off the cuff. I love that this film takes itself so seriously - sometimes the acting (I notice this now, being not nine years old anymore) is really a bit awful - but it's so endearingly earnest at the same time. And I still laugh at all the funny bits and invent amusing backstories for the minor characters. And I still want all the pretty dresses!

The Scarlet Pimpernel


Yes, I know, I'm period drama obsessed. But this film (and the book it's based on) are absolutely splendid. Od's fish!

The Emperor's New Groove

I don't really enjoy watching movies alone very much, so it comes as no surprise when I discover that most of these films are movies that my family enjoys watching. I don't even understand how this movie can be so darn good. It just is. Heartwarming, hilarious. Truly epic. I'm racking my brains trying to think of another Disney film that depicts a pregnant woman, let alone a pregnant woman of Pacha's wife's awesome level. Unusually for Disney, this isn't a romantic plot, but somehow this chucklefest of brilliance also manages to have more heart packed into it than three standard princess movies.

Bride and Prejudice

A Bollywood interpretation of Pride and Prejudice? Of course it's awesome!

About A Boy

It's funny; I know a lot of people who dislike this film. I'm not quite sure why. Perhaps it's just usual to hate Hugh Grant films, because Hugh Grant can be a bit of a pain in the neck. (He can also be entertaining - Music and Lyrics, anyone?) All the same, I really like the unconventional idea - taking the 'coming of age' cliche movie and turning it on its head. Instead of a young boy learning to grow up and a grown man learning to embrace his inner child, we have a young boy who needs to learn to be a child and a manchild who needs to learn how to grow up. I like it very much.


Secondhand Lions

Not as much as I like this film, though. I hate the framing device - the actor playing the adult Walter was badly cast, and it adds a maudlin air to a film that is tough yet tender. Yet this movie is delightful. Go watch it. Now!

The Princess Bride
My mother compares any film that is good in a special way as being 'like The Princess Bride' The only two films I can remember (though I know there have been more than a few) her using this phrase about are Secondhand Lions and A Series of Unfortunate Events. But Princess Bride is our standard of awesome. Always. Because it is.

It's Too Darn Hot!

Cannot stand this insane heat! Cool breezes, where art thou?

I have fairy lights in my room now. I like this development :-)

Have formed ridiculously sudden adoration for Mumford & Sons - I guess it's been a while since I fell in love with a band - 'twas bound to happen! My family are already sick of my gushing about my new favourite band, so I thought I'd share with you guys. Seriously love this band.



Like, a lot. The poetry of Simon & Garfunkel; the energy and fervour of U2; folkiness to die for; they're British; THEY HAVE A MANDOLIN! Argh, and just when I thought I couldn't be any more in love, I discovered that Marcus Mumford runs a book club on their website. And he likes G. K. Chesterton.

*Dies*

Ludicrous amounts of awesome, right there.

"Lend me your hand and we'll conquer them all
But lend me your heart and I'll just let you fall
Lend me your eyes I can change what you see
But your soul you must keep, totally free"

I feel we're about due for a new adventure... I wonder what it'll be...

Hello all,

All you sweet little pieces of sunshine - meant in an entirely non-ironical fashion.

I did some (fiction) writing yesterday, for the first time in ages. It was a good feeling. A very very good feeling, like happiness. :)

I wish my life had a soundtrack, written by Henry Mancini, Murray Gold or Alan Menken.

I haven't uploaded any phone photos for ages - coz I lost the little cord thingy that attaches said phone to the computer. But I found another cord... so here's my recent life in pictures...

So I haven't been doing a whole lot lately.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGXqUSpyyb0&feature=related

Nice things of late:
Warm pajamas & dressing gown
Hot chocolate
Having Tay & Jay sleep over
Disney films
Yet another velveteen jacket - this one has ribbons and lace!
Making soup
Pregant bellies everywhere - particularly the one on my mother
Having the use of a car - heavenly!

I feel we're about due for a new adventure... I wonder what it'll be...

"Oscar Wilde said that sunsets were not valued because we could not pay for sunsets. But Oscar Wilde was wrong; we can pay for sunsets. We can pay for them by not being Oscar Wilde."

- G. K. Chesterton

Been reading a lot of Oscar Wilde lately. I completely and utterly don't understand him. In the slightest bit. He's sort of one of those writers whose sincerity is buried beneath a gazillion layers of wit and sarcasm and cleverness. If you sit down and read his plays and his fairytales and his poetry and his love letters all in one go like I did the other day you'll be completely bewildered and dismayed by the shallowness and depth alternating in such quick, clever beats. I know I'm rather homophobic (and freely admit it: if I'm going to be a coward, at least I'll be an honest one) because I just don't know how to deal with the issue of homosexuality. I (don't want to offend anyone! At all! Sorry!) don't know anybody who openly struggles with it, and don't know what I'd do if I did. My motto is 'love everyone because God does', but I don't know (probably because I've only ever dealt with this issue theoretically and not practically) how to specifically do that, coz I don't believe in pretending everything's OK when it isn't. If homosexuality is condemned by the Bible and biology I'm not going to sit by and say it's an acceptable lifestyle to offer to our children, but I really don't want to hurt more people's feelings than I have to. One of the guys from my church is a male nurse whose colleagues are mainly 'on the other bus': he says that all of them have at least attempted suicide. That's a demographic I don't want to go about hurting with my insensitivity.
Wow, cleaning out the dark corners of my mind in public here.
I hope I haven't engendered the hatred of any of my beloved readers.

All the same, I wish Oscar Wilde would explain himself. His stuff was so darn good. And so darn contradictory. And so bizarre. What was going on there?

So never will wine-red rose or white,

Petal by petal, fall

On that stretch of mud and sand that lies

By the hideous prison-wall,

To tell the men who tramp the yard

That God's Son died for all...

The Chaplain would not kneel to pray

By his dishonoured grave:

Nor mark it with that blessed Cross

That Christ for sinners gave,

Because the man was one of those

Whom Christ came down to save.

- The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Oscar Wilde

The man was a genius!

And now for something totally different...

The Love of Christ

John17:14-21

Jesus prayed to God for His followers:

"I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me."

Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.

Fairtrade Chocolate

Jeeves & Wooster

P2 Driver's licence

Oranges

Tea

Dressing Gown
(although mine isn't nearly as cool as that)

Second-hand poetry books

Today was a good day.

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 :)