Saturday, November 13, 2004

November 13 (Saturday): Flying Saucer Tour. Baby, you are going to miss that plane.

Up and at ‘em, again I awaken suffering from another restless night. Where do the early hours go, how did I reach 5AM so sudden? The sheet on top of my mattress has been yanked off in my apparent restlessness. I check my side for where I stabbed myself on the corner of a drawer and it looks bad. Could I be about to die from eternal bleeding?

Today is open plan. I really ought study but baggage and exhaustion dictate otherwise. Early morn and I head into town to check up on my finances (now rather precarious) and to do the newspaper. I pop into Natwest to check my balance and draw out some payola and I bump into Janine and family. We exchange frosty “hellos” and suddenly kick into paranoia overdrive, mass debating in my mind “what does she know? What is being said in the office?”. When I get done at the cash machine and as I leave the bank, there she is standing by the door with eyes completely transfixed to the ground, she sure does not want to talk to me, which only adds to my fear and suspicions.

To sooth my mind with retail therapy, I buy The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion which has FINALLY be released in this country on DVD.

From there I head to Sainsburys, I find myself with a real jones on for some of their Classic Cola, which actually tastes better than “The Real Thing”.

I return home to a recorded letter/package slip from the postman for a letter/package I have just missed. I have not ordered anything specifically recently so I can only but speculate that it is from GloboChem but then again, why on earth would they be sending documentation to me by recorded that I have to sign for? Strange things happen at sea. By the time I got in, the East Hill post office is now long closed, so now it is going to have to wait until Monday before I get the letter/package/suspect device. All in all though, as a gesture of cold war paranoia, it sure works and sends me on a downward spiral of worry and concern due/down to the potential contents of such an item of post. Is it a writ to a lawsuit? Ain’t no time to play.

Today pretty much winds up being a waste of time. Once more under the circumstances, I find myself unable to get down to any form of study and I only wind up spending the afternoon watching DVDs. The first of which I watch is Before Sunset. Years ago I would proclaim Before Sunrise as being my favourite movie as I became delusional that that might be a realistic description/recreation of a real relationship. Through the years however, the truth of the world has come to show me otherwise and the last few times I have attempted to watch the original (Before Sunrise) I have just found myself becoming bored, no longer falling in love with the on screen couple, dismissing them as wet and truly unbelievable. So, when the sequel came like a bolt out of the blue earlier this year, I immediately knew it would either the best movie or the worst movie. This afternoon I sit down and watch Before Sunset and I have to admit it leaves me semi cold. I have truly moved on and the words uttered/muttered in this film now seem some of the most unconvincing conversation you could hope to imagine. It’s also pretty shocking to see Ethan Hawke’s physical decline next to Julie Delpy’s pretty well maintained appearance. I loss interest in the film early on but my current situation/circumstances I think would dictate that I would lose interest in any film, so sucking a thoughtful tooth, today I do not make any lasting judgements on the film, instead putting it to one side for sometime less cynical. I would however that Delpy’s songs sound fantastic (prompting me to immediately download them off Soulseek) and then ending of the movie turns out to be insania inducingly clever and annoying at the same, a fantastic last line and a really brave decision to let/make/force the viewer to make up their own minds as to the ending/destiny of the two characters. I find myself looking at and watching the extras on this DVD, the first DVD I have watched the extras on in a very very long time, so I guess the film left a good mark in the end. Here’s looking forward to a time when I will feel more like watching the movie.

By the time I switch to watching Curse Of The Jade Scorpion, the evening is already drawing in and outside it is almost black. I have heard the worst possible reviews of this movie but being a blind Woody Allen follower, I’ll always buy into his thing. And of course the movie he has made after this one, Anything Else, turned out to be absolutely fantastic. This movie however manages to capture my attention even less than Before Sunset. I start out with best intentions but soon the plot has moved so slow that I have almost stopped breathing. Instead, I find myself distracted with Saturday afternoon football and today Millwall are away to Preston. In true Fever Pitch style, today I gamble all my luck on the outcome of this match. Mentally I say to myself “if Millwall win this today, then that will be the turning point of my fortunes and luck to come”. In the end, the game finishes at 1-1 and in the destiny luck stakes, it is pretty difficult to judge and weigh up the outcome of that result. It does mark however Millwall scoring a late goal instead of letting in a late goal for a change, as Barry Hayles scores in the 86th on the same day that that Scott Dobie guy (who he?) makes his debut.

Tonight represents the culmination of the apparent Graham family reunion as a table for eight is booked for us all to eat Greek food (whatever that is). As the Garnham side (Mum’s side) of the family appears to be falling apart and turning into one big soup of anger and lies, all efforts appear to be being made to bring everyone on Dad’s side together, now that there are even less of us than before. I’ve happily said I will go along, after giving Dad some prodding to pay for me (and I’m never one me for turning down a free meal). So, in order to make my parents (especially mother) proud I put a hell of a lot of effort into my appearance for this evening’s appearance/representation and this includes wearing the best of the best clothes and thoroughly put everything into scrubbing up well.

Eventually it comes time to roll and I look good. My parents pick me up and it’s all in a rush and I fucking forget to tape this Branford Marsalis show on Channel Four. Nevermind. I get in the car (mum and dad’s new Fiesta) and I can immediately tell that mum is in a hump but at least dad seems ok.

The restaurant we go to is called Bellapais and we turn up well ahead of time, obviously the first members of the family to arrive. Immediately I begin to feel self conscious, not really all that game for seeing family members I haven’t seen in nearing a decade. And especially in/at these times (ho). Eventually everyone else turns up and it is a really weird evening, these aren’t people that dine out often. At every given opportunity half my relatives are smoking cigarettes which, whilst being vile and disgusting in a restaurant, only serves to project them as being poor and like Selma and Patty off the Simpsons. Our waiter looks like a young Allen Ginsberg and the service all night is absolutely fantastic which is a shame when the food turns out to be crap and expensive (even if I’m not paying for mine). I have keftedhes, swordfish steak and kataifi. And I think I make the best decisions even if I only chose the swordfish because it came with chips. I attempt to converse but I’m stuck on the end of the table and find myself the youngest by ten years. Mum however does fine talking the hind legs of these donkeys having cheered up but then I cruelly go and point out that she sounds like Nanna Moon off Eastenders. It’s a busy Saturday night and I look around at the people eating remembering when I used to actually take people out for meals on a Saturday night. By the door there is a girl that looks like a tubby version of Julia Stiles and I am immediately smit (its all in the mouth with Julia Stiles).
Eventually I/we come out of the evening unscathed, myself having barely spoken to half of my family. Everyone gripes about their food (typical Grahams) and I find myself glad to get home.
I get in and fall asleep until around midnight when my mobile rings and it is a number I don’t recognise. I answer it and its Haslett (Sara) from Australia. Its morning there and she is calling me from her bathroom and whinging about the natives outside her window. She sounds or at least/best very very hungover. We chat nice nice and with her in this state, you can always get away with saying some pretty off stuff to her. However, there she is telling me how she has nailed the 18 year old local yokel over there and how last night she was drinking driving some jeep and she cannot remember how she got home. All good stuff. As the phone (line) peters out, she just disappears and once more I find myself left exhausted having spoken to her. Meeting up when she gets back might not be the best idea.

np: The Vines – Get Free

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