Four days is a good amount of days off. We stayed out til about 3am Friday night and then skyped NZ to see Bean's baby until after 4am. So much of Saturday was spent blobbing. We did manage some shopping (sleeping bag inners and hiking socks) and blobbed outside our house even!
On Sunday we got up in time to pack and walk over to the boy flat for our ride to Cape Clear Island. There was some organisational kerfuffle, which lead us to hanging out with Homebody for a good while before we left, but it was good fun. The drive was uneventful although parking in Baltimore was horrific. There was some festival or regatta or something on, people were all over the main streets and even illegal parking was hard to find. We still managed to get legal parks and made it to the ferry with minutes to spare.
The ferry ride was smooth for the most part and the weather was lovely. Near the end of the trip it got choppier, but it was fun rather than sickening. We were met just off the pier by mytholder et al and they escorted us up the hill to the camping ground. Pretty basic ground, there was a toilet block, but no BBQ/cooking facilities. In fact, I don't really consider it real camping because we didn't even cook anything ourselves. We had all our meals at the shop/restaurant at the waterfront!
We only stayed one night, which was probably a blessing as it rained the next night and delichan and mytholder, who had moved into our vacated (and as it was discovered, leaky) tent, were rained on. That tent was thrown out later that day.
I wore my onesie. I walked on sand. I had hot chips after midnight from the chip van. I drank tepid coke and malibu from a plastic cup. I had a good time. I don't consider it "camping". I don't know if Ireland actually has good enough weather for me to want to try real camping.
We got back home Monday evening and really blobbed. Staying up late, then sleeping on the ground (we slept on the groundsheet as we didn't even have foam mattresses), then longish car ride, means sleepy Giffy and Beau. We managed to get enough energy to buy takeaways for dinner (pizza and a salad), but that was about it.
Tuesday was a day of much movie watching. We saw The Dark Knight in the morning and went to the preview screening of Hellboy II: The Golden Army in the late pm. We liked Batman. We liked it *much* more than Hellboy. Some people have said that Batman could do with another edit. Hellboy *seriously* could do with another edit. I didn't hate it though. The elven prince fights pretty.
We also managed a library visit, some grocery shopping, made pumpkin soup for dinner and I even set up and used Neid's (mini!) sewing machine. I'm making a wheat bag with seperate cover for X+. I've finished the actual bag bit and have half done the cover. I'm doing some *basic* embroidery on it which is taking some time. I managed to do lots at work (hence the late posting) so if I go hard now I might finish it tonight.
Point of Fashion: Shorts are my friend
Current Obsession: Cleolinda's write-up of the 4th Twilight book. I don't care if it's spoilerific, I loves it!
I don't get The Dark Knight needs another Edit thing. Seriously editing a movie is not like editing a book. What would you take out of The Dark Knight without ruining its flow. What would you put in assuming you knew the other footage. Just because it is a long movie doesn't mean it needs editing down. There was no point during the Dark Knight where I was thinking "gee, why did they put that in?"
It just seems weird to me. I get that people might not like the pace or the length but suggesting it needs another edit because you didn't enjoy that - I'm not convinced. Now Harry Potter 5 (the book) that needed another edit (actually possibly a first edit).
As for Hellboy, we haven't got it yet so I can't comment. It looks like a big dumb fun movie and I'm not expecting much more than that.
Posted by: Jarratt at August 7, 2008 08:42 AMJarratt, I would have edited the whole Batman goes to Hong Kong bit was unnecessary to me. It added nothing at all to the story, just a chance for them to show off Bat gadgets that are used later in the movie anyway. What was the upshot of the whole trip? Getting back Lau. So, that whole 10-15 minute sequence could have been taken out just by having Batman intercept him at the airport or something.
Meh, even when I was watching it at the movies I was thinking 'we're not seriously going to follow him to HK are we? Oh yes we are. Oh well.'
Posted by: Jenni at August 7, 2008 09:48 AMI miss skyping with my Giffy...or even chatting to Giffy! Soon interwebz-at-home, you will be mine!
Posted by: Sass at August 7, 2008 09:56 AMJenni - The only thing I didn't like about the Hong Kong thing was that the Rusian ballet dancers on the boat had big breasts. WTF! :D
You are not the only person that commented on editing btw.
I actually liked that scene, I liked the fact that Batman could get you anyway, and it was also one of the coolest action sequences in the film. I didn't have a problem with it, or with watching it. It kind of added to the scope of the movie for me, and I think picking up Lau at the airport would have been less good. Though perhaps they could have worked in the connection with Wayne Enterprises to actually get him before he left Gotham.
If they could have got Lau at the airport then the cops could have got him and not needed Batman. It was the fact that they didn't have Lau that was holding them back.
Posted by: Jarratt at August 7, 2008 01:11 PMJarratt: Generally I thought Batman was great :) You're right, about editing a movie not being the same as editing a book though. Perhaps there is another word I should be using, but there were certain scenes in Hellboy that Beau and I found unnecessary and there are some really abrupt cuts. If you are looking at Hellboy to be Big Dumb Fun it should not disappoint. It didn't disappoint me, it just didn't do well in the direct comparison with Batman. I figured it wasn't out in NZ yet (it isn't actually out here for 2 more weeks).
Posted by: giffy at August 7, 2008 09:23 PMJenni: I didn't mind Hong Kong so much as the Russian Ballerina boat. Was pretty random.
Sass: By the time you get the interwebz sorted, I'll probably be travelling and unavailable. Ah well, I'll be back before Christmas!
Posted by: giffy at August 7, 2008 09:27 PMGiffy: I thought the Russian Ballerina boat was a nice little joke, some lighthearted fun in an otherwise pretty dark movie. I loved the companion scene with Dent and Dawes. The only problem I had with the boat was the breasts on the ballerinas.
Posted by: Jarratt at August 8, 2008 11:34 AM