vilakins: (nikau (NZ!))
Nico ([personal profile] vilakins) wrote2007-03-21 09:17 pm
Entry tags:

Holiday miscellany

The wind dropped and the sun was out, and so were we (mad dogs and deltas and all that).

We started the day by watching NZ beat Kenya, who look like a side with an excellent future. Speaking of cricket, it now seems that Bob Woolmer's death may be homicide after toxicology reports. He was apparently writing a book exposing Pakistan's match fixing; yikes, this is the stuff of murder mysteries. :-(

Then we went to Puzzle World and went round their maze, collecting five questions and five numeric answers we had to match to the questions (we got 100%, yay). This was followed by tea and seed cake in honour of the Swallows and Amazons; I can see how the seed cake survived the shipwreck; that stuff is solid. They had logic puzzles on every table in their café which was a fun idea. I also bought two jigsaws: a flat one of Escher's Reptiles, and a large spherical Simpsons one with all the Springfield characters on it. Hee.

We then walked round the Craters of the Moon, a geothermal area near and caused by the Wairekei geothermal power station. Ahhh, the small of sulphur in the afternoon...

A late lunch at an excellent Thai restaurant rounded off a pretty good day out.

I also bought more books: SF (Greg Bear) and a mystery collection in honour of Ellis Peters so I definitely won't run out of reading this holiday. Oh yes, and a Doctor Who DVD: The Sontaran Experiment, purely because it's Sarah and Harry, and I've never seen Harry though he was in the Mumak RPG for a while and seemed to be a lot of fun.

I also saw a DVD of Blonde Bombshells, a wonderful film we saw on TV a couple of years ago about a woman (Judi Dench) who, after her husband dies, decides to get her old wartime female jazz band back together. I called out to Greg about it, then stepped back and almost bumped into an old guy. I apologised and he said I shouldn’t because he was delighted to find the DVD. He’d taped the film when it was shown and it got taped over and he’d been hoping to find it ever since, so I’d made his day. :-D

[identity profile] zoefruitcake.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 09:37 am (UTC)(link)
well done at getting 100%.
I read a lot of Ellis Peters about 12 years ago, and recently read a biography of her, which was very interesting indeed. Enjoy the books

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 09:39 am (UTC)(link)
Yay, Escher icon!

This book is the second collection of stories by other people in her honour after her death, which I thought would make excellent holiday reading. I do enjoy her books too, mind.

[identity profile] ecossefilmmaker.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 09:46 am (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you're having a good holiday :D

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 10:02 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks! It might rain tomorrow though so maybe I'll do some indoor stuff like ceramic painting or go to see Hot Fuzz. Or go to the thermal pools and get really wet. :-)

[identity profile] ecossefilmmaker.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 11:39 am (UTC)(link)
Hot Fuzz is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good :D
ext_6322: (Jarriere)

[identity profile] kalypso-v.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 02:44 pm (UTC)(link)
I also saw a DVD of Blonde Bombshells, a wonderful film we saw on TV a couple of years ago about a woman (Judi Dench) who, after her husband dies, decides to get her old wartime female jazz band back together.

Harry Jones is in that, for a few seconds! He runs down a staircase in Ian Holm's house. I haven't worked out whether he was cast for his style in running down staircases, or whether he originally had more to do and it got cut.

[identity profile] astrogirl2.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 04:53 pm (UTC)(link)
The Sontaran Experiment

*cringes* Worst. Episode. Ever. Or at least my personal pet hated episode, anyway. But Harry Sullivan is fun, though I can't remember if he gets any good moments in that one. If you want to see him at his best (or at least, him most fun), I recommend "The Ark in Space" or "Revenge of the Cybermen." Heck, I recommend those, anyway, particularly "Ark."

And yay for fun holidays! Moreover, for fun, geeky holidays, what with the books and puzzles and geology. Sounds like a fine time to me! :)

[identity profile] jaxomsride.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 05:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Glad you are enjoying your holiday. Puzzle World sounds a lot of fun. Congratulations on 100% too!

[identity profile] jhall1.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
I'll be unoriginal, and say that I too am glad that you're enjoying your holiday.
kerravonsen: Fourth Doctor: Like Chocolate (Doc4)

[personal profile] kerravonsen 2007-03-21 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh yes, and a Doctor Who DVD: The Sontaran Experiment, purely because it's Sarah and Harry, and I've never seen Harry though he was in the Mumak RPG for a while and seemed to be a lot of fun.

IMHO if you want good Harry and Sarah, a better one (well, a better adventure altogether) would be "The Ark In Space", which in the same season.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)
So I've heard. :-D I loved 'Shaun of the Dead'.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 08:19 pm (UTC)(link)
How odd. I imagine it was cut, like PD's in James Bond.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 08:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, bugger. The only other ones they had were new Who and I vaguely remembered people mentioning the title here. I did worry a bit after I got home and saw an egg-shaped alien on the back. Why do they burn bad ones to DVD? Oh well, we'll do an MSTK3 on it. :-P

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 08:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks; Astro recced that one too. The shop didn't have many though; I'll have a look back in Auckland.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 08:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you!

[identity profile] astrogirl2.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 08:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, the Sontarans are stupid in both appearance and, well, everything else. :) The other episodes featuring them aren't anywhere near as bad, but this one by itself is enough to make them my least favorite Who species. Although my distaste for 'em seems to be much more pointed than most people's, so, who knows, you might not think it's as bad as I'm making out. And it does have one good point: it's only an hour long. :) And it has Tom Baker in it, which does sort of automatically guarantee at least some kind of entertainment level, really.

I have no idea what basis they use for deciding which episodes to bring out on DVD. They seem to be releasing some really bad ones lately.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 08:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Puzzle World was cool. Today is another nice day too, though they predicted rain. :-)
ext_6322: (Cricket)

[identity profile] kalypso-v.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 09:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Re Woolmer, he was working on a book with Ivo Tennant, who published some of the contents (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article1539817.ece) in yesterday's Times. Ivo could be biding his time for legal reasons, but there's no hint of any shock revelations there.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 09:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah. Just the press stirring up trouble to make news again, then.
ext_6322: (Cricket)

[identity profile] kalypso-v.livejournal.com 2007-03-21 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)
I think most of the press are in shock. But there's never a shortage of conspiracy theorists.