Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Watched this with my son. He assured me that we had watched the first film in this series together, we had not. However, it was still a very enjoyable film, one, which considering how it focuses on the relationship between teenagers and parents was great to watch with my son.

My favourite superhero will vary from day to day, but most days, it will be Spider-Man (the other two from my childhood are Bat-Man thanks to the series, and Superman thanks to the films). This film lived up to my childhood recollections of Spider-Man. In some ways anyway. He was funny, clever and, I guess, this film has a lot to offer many fans of the franchise. It stayed true to the issues he faces with the challenges faces to come out to his parents, but they would only continue to love him if he did. I love the art work, I love the plot and the characters are great as well, including the villain.

My son loved the film and I think that he enjoyed the time with me there as well as walking to and back from the cinema. The only downside was that he would not let me pay for his bubble-tea. Would I pay to watch it again? Yes. But I will not as I am happy to wait until it is streamed. Now I just need to watch the first one… 

COVID and spaces

Yesterday I was at a large meeting about healthcare. There must have been over 200 people there. I only saw one other person there wearing a face mask. There were occasional coughs and needless to say, I was a little twitchy. Saying that, I also did not feel 100% (and still do not) and could not be certain if this related to my vaccinations on Tuesday (when I had COVID in one arm and flu in the other) or if I had caught something from my son who has been unwell and at home for the beginning of the week. My wife has not felt too good either and she is going to cancel her day at work today as she is still so rough.  Anyway, I was surprised to see so many people working for the NHS not wearing a mask. It was good though to see many on a face to face basis, and despite me wearing a face mask, I was recognised by all who I have regular Microsoft Teams meetings with, though I almost did not recognise one myself!

In the evening, I watched This England with my daughter after we all had caught up with She Hulk. I do like She Hulk, I think that we all do, though I think that it has more meaning for my wife and daughter that it was for my son and me. This England did bring back a few reminders of just how terrified I was back in 2020 when there was no vaccine and the fatality rate was higher. It also reminded me of how much I hate how the Conservatives decided to ignore the concerns that had been raised before the pandemic. Exercise Cygnus appeared to be ignored as were the lessons of Exercise Alice. It will be interesting to watch the rest of the episodes. 

Where the Crawdads Sing

First of all, family.  My son was in a mood with me for most of yesterday.  This did appear to lift when the rest of us got back from the film, but I was going to bed.  Still, I much prefer him being in a good mood than not.  This did mean that we did not watch Grey's Anatomy, but we did watch Ms. Marvel.  She appears to be his favourite superhero at present.  Not mine, but I did love the final episode and I do think that she is a great character.  If pressed, I would probably say I enjoyed it more than Thor: Love and Thunder.  I think.  

My daughter has started to read about biology in preparation for her A-levels.  My wife is still hoping that she will attend Colchester County High School for Girls for her sixth-form education, but I have accepted that this is very very unlikely and that she will be going to the sixth form college.  My wife and I agree, that the standard of teaching and the support that she will get is not going to be as good at the sixth form college, but I do think that this will be an experience closer to university than remaining at her current school and this may aid her when (or if) she goes to university.

My son did not join us in watching the football, though again my wife and daughter watched it (along with Leia at times).  It was frustrating at times, notably once Germany scored as we were hoping to watch the end of the game before we left to watch the film.  It is not often my daughter watches football with me, though my wife will watch the major matches and we do have fond, but sad memories of them.  We had to leave once extra time started, but were very happy to get the alert by text that the Lionesses had won.  At least, a trophy for English football since 1966!

Right, the film.  I have not experienced such depression and despair watching a film in a while.  I loved it and I cannot understand why it has not been appreciated.  True, I did wonder why the body of Chase had not been eaten by alligators after his fall, but I felt that the film conveyed how Kya felt really well.  It may be that the film does not match up to the book, or it could be that the trailer ruins too much of it.  Like with most films that I want to watch, I did not watch the trailer before the film and this may have meant that I was able to appreciate it more than the critics.  I am very glad that I watched it and I will be watching this again when it is on the small screen. 

Thor: Love and Thunder

As expected, I enjoyed this Marvel film.  It was not as good as the others at times, and of the Thor films, this may be my least favourite, but I still liked it, and if one of the children wants to watch it again on the big screen, I would be happy to watch it again.  Though I have to admit, Nebula and the soundtrack play a big part in this!

At times, it was a bit too silly, but only by a bit.  Overall, it had the humour I like and of course action.  A welcome addition to the Marvel series of films, but if I was being pedantic, not quite as good as the others.  Mind you, it did not seem to have the glaring plot holes that Avengers Endgame had!

As for the family, we all watched it together.  I had been planning to cook, but got to work too late to get home to cook lunch which was a shame.  I did go for a bike ride, my first in ages while my son took Leia for a morning walk.  However while he took her for a long one, it was a bit too late in the morning for what I wanted as none of us want her to be affected badly by the heat.  It is strange in that my children took Leia for a walk rather than me, by daughter taking her for a walk once we returned home from the cinema and before we watched Love Island.  I say we, my son will not watch it and instead was in his room.  But he may be the only sane one amongst us!

Spider-Man: Far From Home

First of all, family.  My wife went to see someone about her present and future yesterday so I was with the children.  Normally, they keep away from me while I am working from home, but maybe they felt guilty about the huge mess they left on the kitchen table which meant that it was harder for me to start working.  When she got back, she took my daughter away to shop for shoes and afterwards we went out of eat at Banquet.  We have been there several times, and my wife needed a distraction from her return to work today.  As usual, the food was amazing.

When we got back, Leia, who had been in the pen was even more overjoyed to see us compared to normal.  I had wanted us all to sit together but the kids wanted to do their own thing.  For my son, this meant ignoring the drying that he was meant to put away as well as the plates that he had left on the table (and a wrapper of ice-cream that Leia found).  But my daughter and I watched Spider-Man.  My son, her and I had been watching it earlier, but was not able to finish it.  She had forgotten that she had watched it before, but it was great to watch it again. Spiderman is one of my favourite super heroes and I love these films and I cannot wait to watch the next one.  

Like almost all Marvel films, this is amazing and I would even pay to watch it on the big screen again!

13 Reasons Why; Bryce and Chlöe

First of all, family.  I had wanted the children to take Leia for a walk this morning so I would have the energy to cycle to work, but they did not. This is despite the promises before we got her that they would walk the dog.  Saying that, I love walking with Leia, but I need to get back on my bike, and cycling in the morning means less traffic.  Instead, my wife decided to take her out, so I walked with her and Leia. What an amazing start to the day I have to say.

I still got to cycle to work, this being a round about trip to see if I am still able to cycle to my Wednesday job, where I have been working from home since the pandemic began.  I can do it, and I think that I may be better at doing so than I was back in 2020.  

My son and I watched one more episode of 13 Reasons Why, this touching on some of the reasons that women do not come forwards when it comes to rape and sexual assault, this being the awareness that others will judge them for this (among other reasons).  I did not get a chance to discuss this with him fully, but a big example is how Christine Blasey Ford was subject to abuse after speaking about her experiences. 

Later, the two of us watched What If...?  I love it.  Not sure that Hayley Atwell was drawn as well as she could be, but other than that minor issue, an awesome episode.  The two of us are going to be watching this later this week hopefully when the next episode comes out.

Black Widow

We watched this last night.  When I saw we, my daughter had watched it before in the cinema (a place my wife and I are nervous about going to ourselves).  She had wanted to come down for the final scene as she missed the end credits, but due to a slight argument (she had returned from a sleep over and therefore had not slept that well), it was felt best not to call her at the end.   

My wife had to go to bed so my son and I watched it with Leia (though she was not too interested in it).  We both loved the film, he feeling that his favourite character was the younger sibling as he identified with them the most, and I loved the father the most, because he was the coolest. 

The film was a long time coming and it was great to get some of the back story to such an iconic character.  I know many comic fans already know the official background to this, but I have not read a comic in decades and did not have the money to keep up with the story lines when I wanted to read them.

In a time before COVID, I would have paid to watch it in the cinema and would have had no issues doing so.  Hopefully my wife will get to watch the rest of it as it was an awesome film.

Loki fest

Last night, my son and I caught up with Loki.  He had been getting spoilers from friends and as a household, we all agreed to watch it on Wednesday and that if anyone was not to watch it, tough.  My wife did not watch it with us and may decide to watch it at a later date.  Surprisingly, my daughter did not like it, which is odd considering the character of Female Loki is so well acted and written.  

Compared to WandaVision this is better.  I felt that the last episode of that series was a disappointment, especially after such an amazing build up.  But I do consider it to be better than The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.  Saying that, all three were great to watch and I may watch Loki and WandaVision again in the future.  

I cannot state too much without spoiling the series, but I loved the ending and my son and I are looking forwards to the next series, whenever that is to be.  I do hope Sylvie is in it though.  She was awesome!

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Most of us realised that we never watched this before.  My daughter had, having watched it when she binged on Marvel superhero films over the summer holidays. This is much better than the first Captain America film, though to be fair, it was the end that ruined that film.

Watching this after watching the other films means that the plot does not have the surprises that are present, but despite that, it has enough twists and turns to make it enjoyable.  Like other Marvel films (Blade 2&3 excluded) this is a good film and well worth watching. What makes it more interesting is watching it after ‘patriots’ including service men and women invaded the US capitol in an attempt to overthrow democracy and impose what they felt was a just leader instead.

Today, we did some work in the garden and visited a garden centre.  Not too busy a day, a relaxing part of the Easter Weekend which is much needed before I return to work on Monday.

Made In Italy

My wife and I watched this today. Or rather finished watching it as we had started to watch it last night.  It was lovely to see Italy again, not just because we have not seen it for years, but may not return for years.  As a film, it was one with a mostly predictable plot, and my wife felt over acted in places.  But it was sweet and also refreshing to watch.  

My daughter spent the day revising and my son enjoyed the first day of the long weekend by continuing to relax.  Over this time, I took Leia to a part of Highwoods Country Park that she had not been to.  And I found a section of the park that gives her the Zoomies that Cockapoo’s are famous for.

Now, we are watching The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.  Marvel have done it again.  An engaging series, though much darker than Wandavision.  It is going to be interesting who ends up being on the good side of grey and those who are on the evil side.  I am missing bit of the plot hough as I need to watch he films with Captain America again.

Agent Carter

We spent the day chilling.  We watched WandaVision.  Rather, my wife and I watched it, my son came down and we watched the episode with him and then my daughter came down and saw the end.  He has found it frustrating that he has to wait a week for the next episode, but then this was an issue he has faced with The Mandalorian, one of the few TV shows he has not been able to binge watch the box set with.

We had a debate as to what we should watch afterwards, he wanting to watch Age of Ultron, and I wanted to watch the Marvel films in order.  We compromised and watched Agent Carter instead.  Sadly, my son went upstairs to get something and forgot to come down.  But the rest of us watched it and I have to say loved it.  It does portray the sexism that many women faced at the time, but ignores the racism that was present at the time as well.  It is interesting that a telephone exchange has such a large office within it as I think that it would be odd to anyone watching the exchange to see so many people leaving and entering it when the offices open and shut.  

It is also fun to watch a series where anyone English is not automatically evil.

Iron Man 2

First of all, my son does not have the plague.  We got his test results just before lunchtime. Although we did not think that he had it, he is young and the symptoms he would have would be different to what my wife or I would have if we had caught it.  So it was a relief.  

On the downside, Arsenal lost.  Watching Match of the Day was frustrating as our defence let us down.  I work with two Spurs fans who are going to be unbearable tomorrow, so I will have to do the best I can to avoid them.

Now it is legal, we did have some friends round for company.  With the plague being an issue, I am happy to isolate with just the family, but my wife requires more social interaction.  It is understandable as I get to enjoy her company while she has to put up with mine.  It was great seeing friends, but I was still nervous about the risk of contracting infections.  Especially with the way that social distancing is increasingly being ignored.  

Now onto Iron Man 2.  I have not watched this film before.  I have wanted to, but kept missing it when it was on television.  Being on the Disney channel, I suspect that some scenes may have been cut (to make it more acceptable to smaller children) but my daughter and I watched it (with my wife watching bits of it).  And like most the Marvel films it was good.  Iron Man was never my favourite superhero, but the films make me warm to him more.  In essence, he is just a souped up version of Batman who I did love when I was a child.  I am looking forwards to watching the third film with my daughter later.  Personally, I would prefer to watch the Marvel films in order, but she is not too keen on this.  Maybe later and hopefully with my son who refuses to watch them...

My mother had me tested

This morning my son woke up with a new continuous cough. So we are in isolation and are waiting for the test results.

Yesterday he tidied his room.  I have commented in the past about how interesting an experience this is, but tidy it he did and today he had a cough.  He is well, no temperature, active and no change in behaviour.  While both my wife and I agreed that this was probably because of him tidying his room, we could not risk it.  Especially as we had planned to have some friends over, now that such visits are legal.  So we rang NHS111 to arrange some testing.  A work colleague sent me information on how to book it on line, but that was after I range 111 to see about arranging a test.  By the time they rang back, we were booked and ready to go.

COVID-19 testing is not nice.  Though not as horrible as it was when I had it done, it is still traumatic for those who have it carried out.  So I showed my wife how to do it, as I felt he would let her do it instead of me.  A drive to Ipswich later, and he was very brave letting my wife test him.
Afterwards it was home, food and quarantine while we wait for the results.  We played a game, and the first games were scrabble.  I have played this since a child with my mother who kept beating me over and over again.  And I have been playing Words With Friends,  which meant that I had an advantage.  So I won the first game.  And while my daughter was not keen on it at first, she was keen for a second game.  Playing it on line means I get to have breaks.  Playing it in real life stresses out my brain.  And despite a mild headache, I agreed to a third game.  But after I used all me letters in one game, my son left, and my wife and daughter ended the game afterwards when I continued to increase the score gap.  I was proud of my score, though understood it when they both decided to end the game.

We played Labyrinth afterwards while my son talked to his friends online and later watched bits of Iron Man 2.  Or rather watched most of it until we got too tired and had to go to bed.  Love he film though and am looking forwards to the rest of it.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Yesterday it was time to watch a film after working from home.  The downside of Wednesday is working from home.  The plus point of Wednesday, is working from home.  I do not work as well as I do when at the office, and also cycling there on a Wednesday burns off a lot of calories (another downside of working from home).  But it is nice to be around the family.

After work, I went for a haircut with my son, or rather I went and my son, brought by my wife later, went in afterwards.  It is strange to have less hair, but I knew lock-down was coming which is why I had my hair cut as close to it as I dared and when the barbers opened, I booked an appointment on line.  He was not too keen and acted surprised by this, despite having been told about this on many occasions.  But he liked his haircut as well.

And later in the day, we watched Guardians of the Galaxy.  My son did not want to join us for this, which is a shame, but it was great to watch it again.  My daughter is working her way through the Marvel films and while I would want to watch them in time order, my wife wanted just to watch this, so that is what it was.  And as before, I loved it.  Of all the new Marvel films, I think I like these the most.  My best one was Blade, but it has been a long time since I watched that and I am not sure if I would like it as much if I watched it again.  Guardians has great characters, classic lines and for me, the sci-fi nerd, it is also set in space.  I love this film!

Day sixteen in Sri Lanka. The journey home.

We are back! We spent the evening of New Years Eve in a Thai restaurant with the family of my wife’s cousin.  And after packing, it was off to the airport where we got to celebrate New Year’s Eve by being in a queue!  But once through the gates, my wife and I were able to have a glass of champagne.  Over this time my son fell asleep and when it came to the time to the time to get to the plane, moving him reminded me of moving a sleeping cat.  At least he did not scratch!

On the plane from Colombo to Dubai, I watched Thor as well as catching up on sleep.  I have wanted to watch it for a while but have missed out on chances in the past.  I was not impressed at first, but the film did improve and was very enjoyable over all and told the back story of Thor and Loki quite well.

Dubai was a lot more relaxed compared to before,  we rested, the kids ate and I drank (soft drinks).

On the way back to the UK, I watched two more films as well as sleeping at times.  We flew on the Airbus A380 which I have always wanted to fly on.  Auggie was a slow but great film.  Similar in some ways to The Circle it was a disturbingly good film.  The other film was The Dead Don’t Die.  And I actually liked it.  In the limited time available it allowed the viewer to click with characters, hoping some would die and some live.

Anyway, we are at home.  Everyone else is asleep and I am watching Dr Who.  I not going to be able to stay awake to listen to the Arsenal match.  But while it is unlikely, I do hope we win.  While we have not a proven defensive mastermind as a manager, I hope Arteta is going to be able to sort out our defence.  As great a manager that Wenger was, he had a habit of ruining defenders such as the then German international Mustafi.  Now we have sideshow Bob in defence.  I can only cross my fingers and hope...

Planes, trains and automobiles. Our first day in Sri Lanka

We are relaxing in Colombo.  Well, I am.  My daughter is freaked after encountering tropical wildlife, in her bed.  Or the bed that was going to be hers anyway.

We left yesterday flying from Stansted to Dubai, arriving there this morning.  On the way, I watched Toy Story 4.  We, by which I mean my wife and I, have watched Toy Story since before the kids were born.  As enjoyable as this was, it was not as good as the original and while a good film, not the masterpiece the others were.  After this, I watched the end of Yesterday.  My wife and I had watched it before, but she asked me to sort some things out while it was on, so I never actually got to watch the end of the film.  A lovely feel good film, one I would watch again if on the telly, possibly.

Arriving in Dubai, we relaxed ate food but left it a bit late to get to our flight,  in fact, when we got there, the flight had finished boarding!  Fortunately, it turned out that it was not our flight, but the down side was that we had a short time to get across to the other side of the airport to make our flight.  My daughter and I raced ahead and got there after it started to board having jumped onto trains and into lifts just before depths sliding doors closed. We let them know that my wife and son were on the way and was expecting them to be a while.  But my wife had managed to get some of the airport police to drive her and my son in a buggy and they took the airport shuttle bus to get to the flight.

Once we had all calmed down, it was them the next part of the flight and during this, I watched X Men, Dark Phoenix.  I had heard bad reviews of the film, but both I, and my daughter who was watching it at the same time as me, both liked it.  Much better than films like Wonder Woman!

Anyway, we are now in the Hotel and are to rest.  Good night!

I am Thor

This week, my wife has been away for part of it.  She was away on a course in sunny Brighton and her mother kindly came up to look after the children.  Ideally it would have been great if I could have taken time off work to look after them myself, but I was not able to due to holiday being taken already at work by someone else.  Which as a shame as I do love the time I get to spend with them, no matter how tired I get! 

Today was a day of enjoyment.  I went for a walk into town with my son to look at getting a new iPhone. I had agreed to buy him a milkshake from Shakeaway in town but on the way back, I found out that he had not eaten his breakfast! His excuse was that there was no food to eat, even though his grandmother was at home who would have made him anything that he had wanted.  And he got cold drinking his milkshake which did go well with the cold weather this morning. He was frozen and we had to abandon drinking his milkshake on the way home, but to walk home as quickly as possible.  This warmed him up a bit but his mother had made some porridge for him when he got home and that helped him.  Sadly he did not get to drink the milkshake despite putting it in the fridge for later. 

Later we went to watch The Avengers, but I had got the time wrong and we missed the beginning of the film.  Overall it was a great film, but I am left wondering if the gaping holes that any sci-fi nerd like me are to be addressed in another film, or are to be left. (This link contains spoilers.)  But the best bit of the film was Thor.  I can now say I have the body of an Asgardian god!

The only downside to the day is that my wife has crashed.  We were meant to have gone to the birthday of a good friend of ours.  It was to involve drink and dancing, but sadly she has been too tired to go.  She was worried about me as well, as I did not sleep well when she was gone, but I power napped and was ready to go.  Sadly she was not ready to do the same.