wishful thinking

This week before leaving the house I've gone and picked a cd to play in the car. Today's almost random choice was Wishful Thinking by Propaganda. It's the remixed version of A Secret Wish. What a stunning album. Better than the orginal, IMHO.

plane crash

I has another plane crash dream last night…

I was watching a struggling plane (a 737 or similar in a livery similar to Lufthansa's) from an upstairs window in my old house in Whitley Bay. However, by the time I'd run downstairs the house was situated right on a beach. In America (don't you just love dreams?). At first it was strange as apart from a few other eye witnesses gathering on the beach there were no sirens or emergency vehicles. It was clear that the plane had gone down in shallow waters pretty near the coast. I grabbed my camera and began taking photos of some rescuers going out in boats and large amounts of debris being washed ashore by the surf. Soon, the emergency services arrived and a kind of organised chaos ensued.

That's all I remember.

hijacking

Our nextdoor neighbours (the "wannabes") like cats but don't have one of their own. They encourage our Jack to go in their house and being a friendly thing he obliges. I'm sure he loves the attention even though he is bombarded with love at home. We don't have a problem with him going in the house, after all, ourselves and the neighbours on the other side (the "fantasists") have cat-flaps installed and all our cats are regular visitors to each other's houses. What irkes us is that the wannabes don't have a cat flap so when Jack goes in their house, he's effectively locked in until they decide to let him out.

This morning as I left for work I noticed him sitting in a window in their house. Just then Alfie (Jack's little "brother") came running up the drive. Jack saw him and jumped down from his window seat. I'm convinced that he wanted to come out and join us but he couldn't. I became quite angry but unfortunately didn't have time to knock on their door and ask them to let him out. I'm hoping that I'm still annoyed enough to talk to them about it with them this evening.

we’re surrounded

Last night I setup my new home cinema system. I've wanted one of these since I first got a big flat-screen telly. I should really have bought and installed one when we moved into our house – then I could have hidden all the cables befor laying the floor – but the cost of moving and buying furniture and stuff meant it had to wait.

So now I've opted for a system with wireless rear speakers and I must say I'm very impressed. Surround sound is one of those things that you don't miss if you don't have it but once you've experienced it there's no going back. Last night I tested the new system with the start of Moulin Rouge – which really comes alive when any of the songs start. And then then beach landing scene from Saving Private Ryan which really shows off the subwoofer and the surround speakers.

So now I have my old, but very good, hi-fi seperates to sell. Ebay here we come!

il est neige

For the past two years its snowed in the week before HP's birthday. It's trying to snow now – brief flurries. I hope it doesn't. Snow is forecast later in the week in Budapest but that would be OK – make it more romantic in a way. Hopefully it won't be as cold as the time we spent New Year in Bruges and it was -11 or something!

the aviator

We went to see The Aviator last night. Good film.

My only problem with it was that Leonardo DiCaprio looks so young for most of the film. His performance was good though and Cate Blanchett was excellent as Katherine Hepburn. Ooh and the plane crash scene was incredible.

video vertigo

My latest gadget is getting good use. I'm not entirely sure why but I bought one of those hard disc video recorders (PVR) and whereas we hardly ever used to video anything on VHS, we've not stopped using the PVR. It's brilliant. The picture quality is fantastic and it's a doddle to programme – just select a programme from the EPG. I can't wait to hook it up to my next gadget (which should hopefully arrive today or tomorrow).

do not pass go

We're off to Budapest at the end of the month for HP's birthday. Well, we will be if my replacement passport gets here in time!

It was a toss-up between Prague, Krakow and Budapest. I've been to Prague before – about 10 years ago when I went inter-railing. It's great and I'd love to go back but I couldn't find a good, reasonable hotel right in the centre. I know good weekend deals are available at some of the business hotels but we like to be central. It was a similar story with Krakow but I was still really tempted as it looks like a great destination. Plus its not yet a tourist trap like Prague.

Normally at this time we'd be searching for things to do, places to visit, restaurants and cafes, etc. but that's all on hold until my bloody passport arrives.

officially boring

We borrowed one of those dance mat games for the PS2 from our neighbours. HP didn't like the music and I got frustrated with the mat slipping around our laminate floor. It quickly went back into the box. How boring are we?

Last night I finished The Getaway: Black Monday. I'll hang on to it because I like the special features like racing around London and the Black Cab game. I'm not sure which game to play next (I prefer to play one game at a time or I get confused over the button assignments)… I think Ratchet and Clank 3 because it seems quite light – a nice contrast to the very dark Black Monday.