Annie Lennox and David Stewart, “together for the first time in five years” apparently on Parkinson – very cool.

Is there anyone else that thinks Annie Lennox bears a moderately disturbing likeness to David Bowie, especially when she is wearing a suit and tie?

“Of course he has a knife; we all have knives! It’s 1183 and we are all barbarians.”

Thus spake Glenn Close, as the glorious Eleanor of Aquitaine.

I have finally seen this movie – the remake; one day I’ll see the original too (a familiar refrain). Sean Connery was fabulous, and Glenn Close… well. I didn’t much like Richard in this movie – he was very much the thug, and also quite insecure. John was a snivelling little wretch – definitely no revisionism here – but the most interesting character, I thought, was Geoffrey. He was great! I know so little about him; I wonder if there is any good bios about him? I will have to re-read my Eleanor bio – I really enjoyed that. I’m not sure I really liked the portrayal of her here; she was insecure, too, and emotional… I didn’t mind the deviousness and cunning, but I can’t decide whether they brought her down too much or not. And I think it would be interesting to find a really good, as-objective-as-possible bio of John.

The movie was great. Glorious costumes and buildings – although, I realise, almost all of it was set inside a castle, which was clever. I’ve just read a short thing on Robin Hood movies, comparing the Golden and Gothic portrayals of the Middle Ages. I think this walks a line between the two… it’s not completely clean and sanitised, but it’s also not Excalibur.

I think I just found the remains of Fido.

I realised this morning that I hadn’t seen him in a few days… which shows two things: how used I am to not seeing him, because he hides so well, and how little time I have actively spent looking at the fish recently.

I noticed this weird ball of gloop behind a bit of wood. I fished it out. I am still not 100% positive that it was Fido, rather than some food that had weirdly decided to grow rather than just disintegrate, but I think that’s actually mostly wishful thinking.

I don’t know why he died, obviously. I guess he was a bit old, in fish terms, and maybe didn’t cope so well with the heat over summer. I also don’t know why his body did the weird growing-stuff thing, rather than being et – it wasn’t that inaccessible – it was white/grey, fuzzy, yucky stuff.

I am mournful. Two of the most distinctive fish, gone.

Very sad discovery when we got home today: Cuban Pete will no more be shaking his maracas. We have no more cloach. I wonder if the heat finally got to him.

I have also finally got around to aquascaping the tank; it looks infinitely better, as it always does. I think I may have to buy some new plants, actually – some more creepy ones, since most of the ground stuff is dead. I’m not sure, but I think I found a dead Rainbow Widow among the leaves… erk.

Being a teacher has some perks: as soon as I heard school had bought Sir Thursday, it was mine! Ahead of a year 9 kid who also wanted it – I know who he is, since we’ve had a couple of Nix conversations – but it’s ok, he’ll get it Monday, since I read the whole thing last night. That may be one of the great things about teen lit: it’s so darn easy to read, it’s instant gratification.

This was, of course, a great book. I loved it. It’s a bit different from the others, in that there is a bit more about stuff that is happening back in the “Secondary Realm” that is our home, thanks to Leaf making it back. I usually get a bit annoyed when books go chapter for chapter with different characters, but again because this was so easy to read, I just flew through it and basically didn’t have time to get annoyed.

It’s a modicum darker than the others, although still on the light and happier end of kids’ fantasy; getting drafted into the Glorious Army of the Architect is no joke, but Arthur (or should I say Ray? No, that would be telling…) deals with it in his usual inimitable manner.

There are some interesting issues raised here – like Arthur not wanting to become a Denizen – that promise to make the next few books quite fascinating. It’s a little Potter-ish, in some ways, because although Arthur has access to magic, he doesn’t necessarily want to use it (although he does use it better than I believe Harry manages to, at least in the books).

Bring on Lady Friday!

We were very, very disappointed last week. The ABC has bought all the rights to West Wing, and they started showing it last Thursday. We had hoped beyond hope that it would be season 6 – we were pretty sure it wouldn’t be. We had reckoned that it would be season 1, which would be a bit painful but make a lot of sense. But no; we turned it on, and they started in something like season 4! Where is the sense in that? For the people who haven’t watched it before, they won’t really get it at all, and for people who are into it – why start there? I truly do not understand their thinking. Bah.

We did, of course, still watch it – again, that thing about watching with however many thousands of others being exciting.

Well. It was a very interesting book, and I am very glad to have read it. It was also incredibly disturbing, which I guess is the point. I probably will see the movie at some stage (the b&w one, of course, not the modern American one). I ws right in assuming that the whole thing was set on the island – there was maybe one flashback from Ralph, and that was it. I think that was one of the coolest bits. It was so – laconic – and yet seemed to manage to get into their heads so brilliantly. I was impressed, anyway, and will have to remember to thank the people who forced me to read it.

How absolutely terrifying.

I’ve just started reading it, because a bunch of teachers at school howled me down when I said I hadn’t read it, or even seen the movie (the b&w version, not the more modern American one, it has been insisted). Anyway, I knew there was a copy on my bookshelf in Adelaide, so I picked it up while I was there. The style is different from what I was expecting, and different from most other things I’ve read before. I’m wondering how much background of the boys will actually be given, or if he leaves it with them simply starting afresh on the island. The description is weird, but it’s good… certainly, I can see the island in my head.

We’re watching it at the moment. I love it. I still haven’t seen the original, which is meant to be fabulous. George Clooney is magnificent in it, and so is Brad Pitt. It’s so gloriously improbably, and so wonderfully glamourous.