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deborah_cOut to see Shrek 2 on Saturday afternoon, mostly as a treat for son's impending birthday. We'd just booked tickets online in the morning when we got a phone call from one of the girls' friends' mum: when were we bringing them round to play? Some confusion ensued, since we had no memory of anything being said. It turned out her daugher had asked one of the girls to go round, but hadn't actually got round to telling her until Saturday morning; meanwhile, R had forgotten completely to say anything about it to us. So, we ended up going to the film with one extra child in tow...
Stopped off for a little shopping first: a quick trip to Borders to look for books for assorted birthday presents, a browse round the market (finding two nice skirts on a stall full of far too many nice things), and a few other little bits and pieces while the children were sufficiently distracted to allow it. And so to the film...
Shrek 2 is a really great film -- one of those that's full of different layers (like ogres :) for different people to appreciate. A fun story, with some distinctly original twists, lots of humour for everyone from small children upwards, some lovely homage to other films, pastiches and parodies of others, and some wonderful new characters. I particularly liked Puss in Boots, who (to my mind, at least) is straight out of The Princess Bride, another of our family's favourites. The children all loved it -- all finding different things to laugh at, which was also fun to watch -- so a good time was had by all... Meanwhile, the basic theme of the film, needing to be yourself, rather than what other people want or expect you to be, very much echoed many of my current thoughts.
Sunday saw us haring down the M11 after church to have lunch with my parents, it being both A's birthday and mum's. My sister was there too, along with her husband and their new baby, who we hadn't had the chance to see before -- it was lovely to get to see them all, and the baby is gorgeous. (OK, so I'm a little biased!) My uncle and aunt also dropped in, so we got to see the whole of my side of the family in one afternoon... Generally a good time to meet up, although the atmosphere was sometimes a little strained -- my sister doesn't really approve of some of the things going on in my life, unfortunately.
Lots of fun in the garden for the children after lunch, as A was given a large compressed-air water pistol as a present (although the garden hose was also pressed into service a little later -- rather more of a WMD...) Later, A, Dad and I tried out Settlers of Catan (another of his presents), which he loves, although we're still working it out. We didn't have time to finish, but we started another game at home this evening (Monday).
Back to work today, although feeling a bit subdued after Sunday, and a little dispirited by being sent, right at the end of the day, a set of amendments to the standards I've been working from which mean that I need to rewrite quite a bit of last week's code. Bother. Then in the evening, a long but ultimately rather unproductive talk with Liz -- we seem to spend a lot of time going round in circles at the moment :(
Rather looking forward to the Calling tomorrow, as a little while to escape and stop having to think too much about life...
Stopped off for a little shopping first: a quick trip to Borders to look for books for assorted birthday presents, a browse round the market (finding two nice skirts on a stall full of far too many nice things), and a few other little bits and pieces while the children were sufficiently distracted to allow it. And so to the film...
Shrek 2 is a really great film -- one of those that's full of different layers (like ogres :) for different people to appreciate. A fun story, with some distinctly original twists, lots of humour for everyone from small children upwards, some lovely homage to other films, pastiches and parodies of others, and some wonderful new characters. I particularly liked Puss in Boots, who (to my mind, at least) is straight out of The Princess Bride, another of our family's favourites. The children all loved it -- all finding different things to laugh at, which was also fun to watch -- so a good time was had by all... Meanwhile, the basic theme of the film, needing to be yourself, rather than what other people want or expect you to be, very much echoed many of my current thoughts.
Sunday saw us haring down the M11 after church to have lunch with my parents, it being both A's birthday and mum's. My sister was there too, along with her husband and their new baby, who we hadn't had the chance to see before -- it was lovely to get to see them all, and the baby is gorgeous. (OK, so I'm a little biased!) My uncle and aunt also dropped in, so we got to see the whole of my side of the family in one afternoon... Generally a good time to meet up, although the atmosphere was sometimes a little strained -- my sister doesn't really approve of some of the things going on in my life, unfortunately.
Lots of fun in the garden for the children after lunch, as A was given a large compressed-air water pistol as a present (although the garden hose was also pressed into service a little later -- rather more of a WMD...) Later, A, Dad and I tried out Settlers of Catan (another of his presents), which he loves, although we're still working it out. We didn't have time to finish, but we started another game at home this evening (Monday).
Back to work today, although feeling a bit subdued after Sunday, and a little dispirited by being sent, right at the end of the day, a set of amendments to the standards I've been working from which mean that I need to rewrite quite a bit of last week's code. Bother. Then in the evening, a long but ultimately rather unproductive talk with Liz -- we seem to spend a lot of time going round in circles at the moment :(
Rather looking forward to the Calling tomorrow, as a little while to escape and stop having to think too much about life...
