Took sprogs 3,6,7a, & 8 to see Five Children and It today to celebrate 7a's birthday. Despite arriving late and ending up too near the screen in a small cinema full of scrubby children who seemed to be spending most of their time on the phone or shouting at each other, the film still provided a passable afternoons entertainment. This was mostly due to the vocal talents of Eddie Izzard doing his best James Mason voice and the film would have been far better if more screen time had beed devoted to his performance.

I took kids 3, 6, 6a, 7, 7a, & 8 to see Thunderbirds today, and I can honestly say that I wasn't dissapointed. This of course this is because I was expecting it to be complete crap and I wasn't wrong.  If the rest of the cast had been as good as Ben Kingsley (The Hood) Sarah Myles (Lady Penelope) and Ron Hook (Parker) then it would have been a fine film.  The machines were also flawlessly executed as was Tracy Island.  But two things let the film down, the story and every single one of the Tracy family, though perhaps their wooden acting was a tribute to the films origins.  A few nice touches were the puppet walk of Brains (Anthony Edwards - Dr Green from ER) when under the hoods control, although he wasted a brilliant opportunity to ham up this character, and the strings attached to Alan's hand in a close-up shot towards the end.  If I haven't suceeded in putting you off going yet then you might want to count the Ford product placement in the film, I spotted at least 20 clear shots of their logo and the whole film had a bit of a car ad feel to it.  Oh and one other thing, if you can remember the Thunderbirds theme tune (click here if you can't) then you will know how stirring it is, but they even managed to castrate this highly emotive piece.

Well it looks like the frequency of my posts since the fostering started is increasing exponentially. A gap of only ten days this time. As I covered about six weeks of Angel in my last post now it's time to get upto date with what I've been reading.

Whilst I was finishing the excellent Finding Cassie Crazy I started work on decorating a couple of rooms for the new arrivals. In order to prevent my brain atrophying whilst I did this I listened to the audio book of Sabriel, that I had managed to pick up cheaply at the local market. I had been intending to get around to reading this sometime soon and to have it read out by Tim Curry was an extremely enjoyable to introduction to the series. As the second book, Lirael, isn't out in audio format for some time, I decided to read the copy belonging to child number 4, quickly followed my Abhorsen. I realise now why he got so desperate waiting for the release of Abhorsen as the story in Lirael,(although by no means short), stops at a bit of a cliff hanger. All three of these books are ideal for the younger reader branching out into harder books, as they certainly don't talk down to the reader and paint a very realistic picture of an extraordinary world. If you enjoyed His Dark Materials, then there is no doubt that you will like these as they are about as similar in subject as you can get with plagiarism, although they lack any of the religious controversy of Philip Pullmans books.

Well here I am brazenly posting after an absence of almost six weeks, but I feel I have a pretty good excuse. We were approved for fostering at the end of April (right about the time of my last post) and as a result we are now looking after a total of 11 (yes eleven) children.

Also, as you will know if you have a blog or website of your own, the longer you leave it the harder it is to start again, a bit like falling off a bike really.

Anyway, here I sit waiting for the last ever episode of Angel and I think I should try and catch up. Here's my instant resume of recent Angel episodes, this might contain spoilers if you are watching the series on terrestrial television.

Fred dies and comes back as a blue demon Illyria, much tougher and gives Amy Acker the chance to play a naughty girl for once. And what is it with alliterative names for the female stars on the show - did Amy Acker and Mercedes McNab change their names to compete with Charisma Carpenter?

The episode featuring Fred's death needs to set her up as the main female interest in order to wrench more tension out of her death, therefore characters repeatedly refer to her enormous effect on their lives and the episode would have been better titled Winifred Burkle as the writers were obviously getting paid for each time her full name was used.

Wes is upset about Gunn's involvement and stabs him (serves him right) and then gets the hots for the new blue Amy Acker, but then Wes never was fussy when it came to this sort of thing. Angel and Spike (in their new comedy double act roles) set off with Gunn to rescue Lindsay, leave Gunn behind to endless torment. Eve sacked Hamilton arrives but may be a little confused as he seems to think he has got a part in the Matrix.

Connor's new parents arrive and ask Angel to fix their superhuman son, Angel agrees to get Conner to kill Sahjhan as per prophesy, (this was the whole reason for Sahjhan setting up the whole Holtz thing with Conner) and then he accidentally, with a little help from Wesley, gets his memory back. Cue a few touching but unspoken moments with Dad. Gunn continues to undergo unbearable torture throughout this episode but I don't care and Angel's gang seem even less bothered than I am.

Illyria rescues Spike as no one else can be bothered and this, along with the fact that she keeps beating on his boyfriend Spike, makes Angel persuade Wes to try and kill her. Wes as usual ignores this and just drains her powers (after some freaky time jumping stuff) presumably so he has a better chance of getting off with his new blue Fred look alike.

Next episode Angel and Spike fly to Italy, bicker the whole time and get made to look like prats (not as hard as it used to be, especially for the slight porkier of the pair). Lots of Angelus/William the Bloody flashbacks, just to show they were prats then as well. Fun for the fans to see all the comedy stuff but not an episode that would stand up in it's own right.

And then Angel seems to be turning evil, only to reveal to the guys that it's all a trick and would anyone like to go on a works outing to kick the senior partners collective butts. Everyone seems keen, especially when they hear they'll probably die trying, so the scene is set for the final episode. And that's just about to start now...

Busy week this week, we have just been approved for fostering so as well as our existing eight (yes 8) children we could have two or three more arriving any moment now. Looks like I might have to change the title of my cooking blog (which like everything else around here is way out of date) from Cooking 410 to Cooking 4 anything between 7 and 13.

Theres an interview with the new Dr Who, Christopher Eccleston over at the bbc cult site for anyone that's interested, I haven't listened to it yet.

Just finished reading the Hat Full of Sky. I thought it was excellent and although as a discworld "junior" book I found it a bit short, it certainly pulled no punches, if fact I wonder if parts of the ending might just go over the heads of some of the "adults of all ages" it is intended for, I'll let you know more once a couple of the sprogs have read it.

I am now reading Finding Cassie Crazy which, like Feeling Sorry for Celia, is composed entirley of notes, letters, forms and notices, which makes it an extremely easy and enjoyable read. Not in any way a sci-fi/comic fantasy book, but definitely a "young adult" book, and an insightful and enteraining one at that.

Expecting Ottakars to do their usual trick of releasing a new in-demand hardback over a week early I asked them if they had Hat Full of Sky in yet and was very disappointed to find they weren't expecting it until Monday. However I was much relieved to find it available at the small independent bookshop three doors down, and with £3 off the list price. Ok it was still £2 more than amazon, but as they aren't shipping it until the 29th and I have just finished The DaVinci Code and therefore am desperate for a new quality read, I decided to throw caution to the wind and pay the extra two quid.




As mentioned above, I have just finished reading The DaVinci Code and I can only say that while it is above average in terms of plot, a real page turner in fact, it is quite possibly one of the most badly written books I have ever read. The idea of melding the whole grail conspiracy thing with a thriller is brilliant and makes for a riveting story. Where Dan Brown falls down is in the dialogue, both spoken and internal by the end of the book oh how I had tired of the italicised and overdramatic internal asides of each and every character however minor. There is a lot of plot to get across and it needed to be handled subtlely, it was about as subtle as Bernard Manning.

One other concern I had was that, in order to enjoy this fully, the reader has to have faith in the authors statement that all rituals, secret societies etc. described therein are factual. I found an error fairly early on that undermined my cofidence in the details from thereon in.

On the plus side, the film script would need very little work and I found myself casting as I went through. The male lead was a natural for Harrisson Ford, although he is a little older than the character. His new wife would be totally unsuitable, unless she put on some weight (like about 9 stone), so I am undecided on the female lead, but there is definitely a part for Simon Callow, if you do read it I am sure it will jump out at you.


Has anyone noticed the new Blog of the Monent feature elsewhere on this page. The current encumbent is The Catacomb Blog. Though I should warn potential visitors to the site's "sub-blog" Charlie and Gerald and what they think that this page contains not only the blog of a cat, but his tail as well. Whilst recording the thoughts of your pet in an electronic journal can be considered, at the very least, bizarre, the tail thing can only be construed as a sign of being (to use a technical blogging term) totally out of your tree.

Hat Full of Sky the latest Terry Pratchett book and second outing for Tiffany Aching is out on the 29th of April, order yours now at amazon.co.uk or pre-order from amazon.com where it is out on the 1st of June. As you probably know this is a "junior" discworld book, although the only real difference seem to be that there is a single plotline as opposed to several interwoven strands. The next "adult" discworld book - Going Postal - is due out on the 7th of October in the UK and the 26th of October in the US

I'm thinking of starting an internet reading group, in the form of a discussion board. So if you can't find a book group in your area, can't get out or are chained to your computer let me know that you are interested and I will get my proverbial finger out.

The Cat in the Hat absolutely STINKS as a movie. If you have children under 7 then they very well might find it an enjoyable way to spend an hour and a half, but certainly not a memorable one. I say under seven as then they are less likely to be disturbed by the many jokes that are totally inappropriate for a children's film. Ask yourself why this film should be a PG? It's Dr Seuss for god's sake. The reasons include the following: reference to the cat's balls being cut off, anacronym that spells out SHIT, Myers referring to a garden implement as a "Dirty Hoe" before starting to lick it, and many more.

It is incredible that the film can be so bad with such good design, the brilliant sets and costumes and great effects don't save the useless script, but then what can you expect when this is Bo Welch's first film as a director having previously been -you might just be able to guess this one - a designer.

The audience's initial attempts at laughter soon faded to an embarrassed silence. This was caused by confusion, on the part of the children and for the parents a sort of disbelief. Had they accidentally walked into Wayne's World three or was this Austin Powers 4? The Cat was definitely Dr Evil in disguise.

All in all not a film for children, but eminently suitable for intoxicated and shallow adults, should be a big hit with students everywhere. Myers sums it all up at one point in the film when the cat says; Well doh!

John Malkovich joins the cast of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film based on the screen play written by Douglas Adam before his death in 2001. If you enjoy the Hitchhiker books then make sure you have read the two Dirk Gently books - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long, Dark Teaa-time of the Soul, in my opinion his finest work.


I have just finished reading To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis and can only say that it is a unique and charming book. Not just your basic "Time Travel with a Love Interest" plot it combines an intricate knowledge of the turning points of history with a casual mastery of the style of many great authors, in particular Jerome K Jerome and P G Wodehouse. Imagine if you will Jeeves and Wooster playing the parts of Marty Fry and the Professor in Back to the Future as if directed by Terry Jones as a historical documentary and you will be only part way there. Please stick with it past the confusing opening pages and you will find your self immersed in an idyllic Victorian world, though the author by no means glosses over the social inequalities of the time. One of the best books I have ever read and I look forward to reading more of Connie Willis' work.

I try not to do the "heres something fab I found on the net thing" too much (it's soo bloggy) but this look at Bill Gates' partially underground fab pad is so Tracy Island it's untrue.
I looked for a publication date, suspecting April the 1st but I guess it could so easily be real, I mean, wouldn't you if you could?
Found via Seriously

I have spent most of the last couple of days working on my new RSS and Atom feed service at blogfuel.com. What? I here you ask, well the idea is that by putting a bit of javascript in your page you can automatically link to the newsfeed or blog xml feed of your choice and display recent articles on your page. By way of a demo heres the link to Lily's Blog:

If you haven't seen Shaun of the Dead yet then I can only urge you to do so as soon as possible. It is quite unique in it's combination of horror and comedy, Lily was asked her age on the way in an I certainly wouldn't reccomend taking anyone under 15 to see it. It's a scary film, but by no means the scariest I have seen. It's a gory a film, again not the worst but then the graphic depiction of someone being eaten alive by a horde of the undead comes close. It's a funny film, and in all probability one of the funniest films I have ever seen. The tension in the first, relatively zombie-free, half of the film only increase the laughter of the audience. There are endless references for the fan-boys amongst us (we know who we are) and the are the inevitable comparisons between the living dead and large sections of the population, especially the texting classes. And on top of all this it's a love story AND a buddy movie, there - what more could you ask for?

With Harry Potter film 3 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban opening on June 4th, Warner Brothers have just anounced that film five - The Goblet of Fire will be released November 18th 2005. More from Sci-Fi Wire