Pening

Woke up this morning, and felt generally unwell. Chatted with Sweetie, and decided that it’d be a good idea to call in sick for the first time. So I called the appropriate people and made the appropriate arrangements and swaps (was supposed to be on-call today), followed by an enjoyable chat with Sweetie. But this feeling of unwellness was self-induced anyway – prior to 7pm yesterday, the only items that I had consumed were 2 cups of coffee, a blueberry muffin and a tiramisu. Oh, and a glass of water. By the evening, I was (rather unsurprisingly) having a horrible headache and feeling quite dizzy.

Weekend was good though, as it tends to be. Ellina’s back, and she stamped her authority by winning her first game of Monopoly, a game which I’ll probably stop playing soon since everyone’s quite keen on teaming up against me!

Saturday was filled with various bits of activities – mundane stuff like cutting my hair and doing a bit of shopping (including getting my hands on 3 week’s worth of comics) and more exciting bits of hanging around and going out for dinner with the other musketeers. This time, we opted for a new tapas bar (think it’s called El Castano) at Jesmond. Food wasn’t too bad although more could be done to improve the service. For example, a better command of English.

Having regaled each other with tales from the past few weeks (including a rather hilarious tale of a pervy patient getting an erection during a scrotal examination), we retired to Reem’s to catch the graduation DVD. I was rather amazed to think that it’s been only 3 months since the event. Feels almost like a lifetime away. It was fun listening to the fashion criticisms as well as listening to gossip about some individuals that I didn’t even know existed.

Met up with Imaan for breakfast, and had a long chat (having not met her in about 3-4 months) as well as a browse through her wedding pics. After which, I went off to the Tyneside cinema to catch Howl’s Moving Castle with Jo. It was also showing at the Odeon, but I prefer to have my movies subtitled rather than dubbed, so I ignored the latter.

This latest movie by Hayao Miyazaki (of Spirited Away (winner of the Academy’s Best Animated Feature in 2003) and Princess Monokoke fame) did not disappoint. I’m not really into anime, but I did enjoy the movies mentioned above, and was looking forward to Howl’s Moving Castle, which is a story based on Diana Wynne Jones work in which a young girl by the name of Sophie is magically transformed into an old crone and the journey that she finds herself in her efforts to lead a normal life.

Miyazaki (who has been likened to Walt Disney) is known for his beautiful and meticulous imagery (his studio is possibly the only major studio left that utilises traditional hand-drawn cell animation for its art), as well as the ability to bring forward stories in a simple but melodious way that tends to appeal to most age groups.

I’ve been told that a couple of people complained about this movie being too complicated to follow, but I have to admit to being rather surprised since the plot is rather easy to follow and is definitely bound to more rationality than Spirited Away was. Then again, one has to bear in mind that one is watching a fairy tale and there’s not much point in asking ‘How the hell does the castle move?’ in such situations.

I won’t divulge much about the story (which incorporates anti-war sentiments right up to the importance of romance) or its various bits of intrigue. My favourite character is probably a 10-foot-tall hopping scarecrow though, whilst Jo thinks that the wizard Howl is ‘pretty fit!’.

Today’s been good – I’ve been sufficiently recharged to look forward to work tomorrow and get myself mentally prepared for the possibility of being in the only person in my team next week. Was disappointed to learn that Michael Nyman will be performing at The Sage on a weekday, and that the cheapest ticket for Coldplay’s performance in Newcastle is a cool 75 quid. But I did get my hands on a standing ticket for Bon Jovi’s concert in Glasgow next June. Not sure if I’ll actually be going, but if I don’t, there’s always eBay.