Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Our journey has begun.  Right now, we are at my parents in law resting before the long drive to Devon.  We have looked at the route, but are not sure where we will be stopping for rest, food and drink yet.  A lot will depend on traffic as well as the time we leave.

When I woke up this morning we watched he end of Star Wars, Episode Nine, The Rise of Skywalker.  I have posted about this earlier in the year, but now I feel free to discuss the film more.

It was well directed with better acting than the prequels and tugs on the heart strings well.  But while it appeals to the boy inside me who sided with the rebels/terrorist scum, it has made lots of errors.  Examples of this are how Finn and Jannah are rescued from a falling Star Destroyer, or how only a few knew the way to the planet of  Exegol, but there were loads of people there already.  In fact, there are so many errors and issues, it amazes me that people focused on the lesbian kiss instead!  But, despite the many issues, it is still a good film.  Not up to the standards of the original three, or even Solo and Rogue One.  But it is probably my sixth favourite Star Wars film.  Considering there are eleven, that is not saying much, but seeing Wedge Antilles in the final battle made the child in me sing for joy.

We did get to see my mother.  My wife had to stay in the car as it was full of our luggage and it was great to briefly see my youngest brother.  The visit was much briefer than I would have liked but my son claimed that his sister was mean to him 75%.  While he later said it was only 50% of the time, my Mum made things worse when she asked my daughter to be nicer to him.  Worse, I had asked her to get him to justify the maths behind his statement, but she decided to ignore me and upset my daughter so we left early.

We have eaten, been watered and I watched THAT interview with my father-in-law.

So, to bed soon for our journey tomorrow...

Don Peyote

This is a very interesting film.  One which is strange, but I think makes sense of why some people like conspiracy theories.

Warren does drugs, I presume because he likes them and because reality is not what he wants.  And he is obsessed with conspiracy theories.  Conspiracy theories that attempt redefine/explain reality.  The film is an interesting chart looking at his path to madness/clarity and most of the time, this is like one of the more eclectic films that I watched in the past.  I say ‘like’ as it has tackled issues I had not looked at before.

When it comes to the family, my son and I prepared he car for our trip.  We aim to start the first leg tomorrow and hopefully will see my mother before staying over at my parents-in-law.  My daughter is ecstatic as she found her phone (finally) and as I type, is going through two months of messages.  I did try to interest her in the latest interview by Trump, but she was convinced it was a spoof.  To be fair, my wife did as well later. 

To rain or not to rain

In summary I went to the dump today in preparation for our trip to Devon later in the week.  Afterwards, we went to Brightlingsea were we shared a beach hut before it started to rain.

We got to spend a bit of time there taking in the sun and the view before it started to rain.  So we packed and left and then it stopped.  We stalked an ice cream van and drove home as the sun not only came out, but shone and it was like it had not rained at all.

I watched an episode of Rebels with my son, my daughter joining us as well before we had some friends round,  I do get nervous with people round as while I am at work, I am rarely within two metres of anyone and often, I am wearing PPE when doing so.  But it was nice to see them and have human contact.  We did have a discussion about the recent allegations of rape in parliament and the existence of the gagging order preventing the culprit from being named.  While we all agreed that rape and sexual assault are wrong we had some disagreements as to if the culture that makes some men feel that they have to right to molest others has changed or not.

I have been blocked again on Twitter despite being polite.  It was an interesting discussion but the person who blocked me kept responding on tweet with a deluge of tweets and then would get annoyed if we had not answered every point that he had raised in an attempt to avoid the points that I and others had made.

That is it for now, though my daughter is still having to cope without her phone,

Little Women

I have finished most of my work today.  I have had to into work to complete reams of paperwork that I really should have completed over the last two months or so.  Cycling there and back today after doing it yesterday was a bit more tiring than normal as I have not done this on two consecutive days for a while.  But the more I can do the better.

Later on we went to visit two friends who had put on a socially distanced film showing in their back garden.  While my son did not watch it, we watched Little Women.  My wife and daughter loved the book and loved the film as well.  I watched bits while I was going through my e-mails and while I found the beginning of it hard going as there were so many characters.  But I did get into the film and would love to watch it again another time.

Watching how Scarlet Fever was an issue then did make me think about how COVID19 is to portrayed in fiction in the future.

Anyway, other than a few odds and ends, my holiday has now started and I can look forwards to our trip to Devon.  Not sure how my daughter will cope though as she has no phone still.

Arsenal and the 14th FA Cup

We won!  An amazing game.  I admit to thinking that we were doomed once Chelski scored, but we did really well.  Our defence was outdone by a run from midfield but we changed our tactics and thanks to a dodgy second yellow card, Chelski were down to ten men and were punished.

It was strange watching it in an empty stadium but I am getting used to it.  And it was great to see the reaction of Ian Wright when we scored, along with the sickly feeling Cashly tried to hide.

Needless to say, I am going to be unbearable when back at work.  I had gone in yesterday to finish my paperwork and will need to do so today to complete it.  It was annoying that we finished below The Scum, again, but at least for this season, I can keep asking the three supporters when they last won a trophy.

My son congratulated me at the end of the game, my daughter watching it with me.  My wife was unaware we had got to the final, despite me telling her several times, an indication of how much she tunes me out when it comes to foot ball.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

My wife and I had started to watch this before, but finished it tonight.  I love watching films with her and while this would not be my first choice in film, it was just nice to be around her.  I presume she liked the film, which was okay, but not my favourite.

While I like Benji, as played by Simon Pegg, I just do not warm to Ethan Hunt they way I do to Jason Bourne or other characters like Bond.  I am not sure if that is because I associate Tom Cruise as playing similar characters a lot of the time.  Or it could be that he does not want the warmth that other characters have.  While it has some interesting female characters, the fight scenes involving them are sadly stereotypical.  When I compare it to how characters like Buffy The Vampire Slayer fight other women, it comes up very short.  And as you can see from the attached image, one of the characters goes sky diving, but later, there is no indication that the presence of a dead blonde falling from high above has taken place.  Looking at the success it has had, I know that this was liked by many, but it is not one of my favourite films.  But I love watching films with my wife.  Even on days where she has tried to jinx me.  

Before I went to work, with a huge grin on her face, she wished me a quiet day.  And she knows how that curses things.  However, things were not as bad as they have been recently and I got home at a more reasonable time that I have been doing recently.

My son beat me again

We have had David round which has been great as we have not seen him in ages.  I have been working this weekend which has meant that I have not seen him as much as I would like but it has been great for me to catch up.

While I have known him he longest, my wife and he have a stronger bond that he had with me.  It is stronger now than it was in the past as I think that he has realised that I am not a complete fool.  I knew him before I became friends with my wife, and he and her clicked when they met, no stereotypes with my wife being a fag hag there!  But when my wife and I started to go out, it was in secret. When we came out, my wife spoke to him while I spoke to some other of our friends and when my wife admitted she was seeing someone he said “Well we know it is not...” but he has accepted me fully now.

Anyway, my son, daughter, David and I played risk.  My son won after he and his sister formed an alliance and David and I foolishly attacked each other.  The kids deserved the win, them working together makes me feel proud.  But I hate to lose, and my son has now said he will not play again in a very long time.