Christmas writeup
Thursday, December 27th, 2007 04:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizziecSince December started I have been burning my advent candle:
opening my advent calendar (from Thorntons, mmm :)):
and looking at how pretty our tree is:
.
Pressies were brought and wrapped and on Christmas eve ben and I went to Coulsdon to spend Christmas with my mum and brother. Ben's parents also turned up. I wrapped the presents that were kindly left by mum and especially Phil, I cracked and gave ben his birthday present from me 10 days early and then we went out and had a very nice family dinner at The Mint in Banstead. We thoroughly confused the staff because some of us were having the Set Christmas Menu and others (namely me and ben) were having the regular menu. Bwhahahahaha, or something. We were supposed to go to midnight service at St Peters (the parish church where we got married), but ben's parents were tired and ben and I were ill. Somehow singing Christmas songs is less fun when you can't even speak. In the end we skipped it and had an early night. Mum kindly gave up her bed so that ben and I could sleep in her bed and she had the futon. Ben's parents departed for the Selsdon Park hotel where they were staying and ben begged for his parents to return early so he could start opening presents!
And so Christmas day dawned and I got up comparitively early at 8am to do my part of Christmas dinner - preparing the veg (ben was cooking them and mum doing the meat). Did that while watching When Joseph met Maria recorded from the previous night on mum's shinybox. After nagging his parents to arrived at 5:30 (they didn't) ben finally got up at half past 9ish and his parents turned up dead on 11 and the great present unwrappening could begin. Got some lovely bath smellies, lots of Rington's lovely hot chocolate (Gingerbread and Orange Peel&Cinnamon) to make with milk as a treat, a fluffy dressing gown and socks, pants (thanks mum!), a mood beam, a rude cat pencil sharpener, a giraffe cushion (or sofa-parasite as ben calls them), some dvds, some books (especially from Phil who clearly was lacking inspiration this year, as he brought everyone gathered a book or two), a thornton's selection box :D, and various other things that were lovely but I can't recall at the moment! Christmas dinner was lovely with all the things you would expect to see on a Christmas dinner table. A lazy evening spent watching my London's burning DVDs and chatting and occasionally trying to make mum's new MP3 player work with her computer. It was eventually accomplished and I daresay ben will eventually write about how such a feat was achieved. Ben's parents left and went home again and we all trooped to bed, very much tired out from the days festivities :)
Boxing day started bright and early also, and was very lazy, with fried breakfast and watching The Muppet's Christmas Carol :) In fact, it was all very lovely, even though my poor elderly cat was not looking or behaving well and then the mormons turned up, completely unannounced. This particular set I do not believe we had seen for years and years. He was finally married and his wife was nauseatinly smiley. Apparently they were "in the area" (bollocks they were) and brought cookies(?!). They more or less invited themselves in and stayed for an hour being polite and making small talk and generally avoiding The Question (of whether mum would go back to church, us three having gone inactive together back in the day. For the full story of my journey through and exit from mormonism see here). It was all very fake and false (ben agreed) he seemed a little amused and weirded out by this, his first real encounter with mormons. I tried to be guarded with the information I gave out about myself. I just hope that they don't track us down. I feel sorry for missionaries for the most part and don't want to be rude to them, not least because I am done with mormonism and have no wish for it to be shoehorned back into my life.
Headed home and got back around 3pm. After 3 days excitements I was very glad to get home and collapse. In the evening we watched part of Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds in Concert and then I switched over to watch Ballet Shoes.
My thoughts on this are based on what I wrote on the CBB as it was on and a comment on Xanthe's LJ after she posted her thoughts.
On balance I think I liked it but as I watched it there were lots of things that annoyed me that jumped out. I agree, the girls were just too old - even posy was gaining breasts and she was supposed to be 8? when the book started. When I talked about it on the board I wanted to say that Pauline was a cow but wasn't sure the language was appropriate so I shall say it here - both Pauline and Winnifred were cows of the highest order. Theo annoyed me as yes, she was much too loose, and as for the lovey dovey bits *sighs*
I would have died for some of their clothes though, especially the CH coats *wants*. I also adored the doctors, who were exactly as they should have been and when they had a chance for banter the actresses who played them clearly had a chemistry. Sylvia and Nana were good but wasn't terribly fond of Mr Simpson, perhaps because he wasn't the character he should have been (or maybe because he wasn't a dr coming to save Sylvia from the White Man's Plague - ooh, spin off - dr comes to save Sylvia and takes her to the Sonnalpe to be cured and the girls attend the CS...) *ties plot bunnies in a sack* *returns to reality*.
Of the girls I think only posy was spot on in her Characterisation.
Well my first thoughts as I watched it are that the children were too old, especially Emma Watson. Nana comments that she has been trying to turn Petrova into a young lady for 10 years now and that she might as well give the academy a go, where as the actress who plays Petrova looked in her midteens at least.
Winnifred should not throw tantrums, Mr Simpson did not have a family who died abroad (just a wife who came with him), and Garnie is not ill (Inflammation of the Lungs - TB? Really? Perhaps a doctor will come along and save them). Also, I never imagined Theo as a flapper (perhaps not the word I'm looking for) but she seems all wrong to me. What was with Pauline not getting her part back after learning her lesson in Alice? The Theatre manager from a Midsummer Night's Dream was very mean and I missed The Blue Bird. Pauline was turned into a proper little bitch and would never have pushed Petrova in the books just so Pauline had a better chance of achieving their dream.
The love triangle left me wondering if the writer had read the same book that I had and I wish they had left the romance out of it.
Positive notes so far are that Madame, the drs and Nana are as I imagined them, more or less. I liked Posy in her audition with Manov - it and she is exactly as I imagined. I was not at all sure about GUM - I imagined him thinner and less like Harry Potter's Uncle Vernon (partly because the same actor plays both) GUM was definitely thinner in my mind though, possibly because of the illustrations in the copy I had as I was growing up.
OK. I think I am done now.
ANyway, yes, on balance I enjoyed it but it didn't come close to the book :(
Phew. That was a very long update. If I updated more often then I daresay I would not post such long rambling entries. Ah well :)
opening my advent calendar (from Thorntons, mmm :)):
and looking at how pretty our tree is:
.Pressies were brought and wrapped and on Christmas eve ben and I went to Coulsdon to spend Christmas with my mum and brother. Ben's parents also turned up. I wrapped the presents that were kindly left by mum and especially Phil, I cracked and gave ben his birthday present from me 10 days early and then we went out and had a very nice family dinner at The Mint in Banstead. We thoroughly confused the staff because some of us were having the Set Christmas Menu and others (namely me and ben) were having the regular menu. Bwhahahahaha, or something. We were supposed to go to midnight service at St Peters (the parish church where we got married), but ben's parents were tired and ben and I were ill. Somehow singing Christmas songs is less fun when you can't even speak. In the end we skipped it and had an early night. Mum kindly gave up her bed so that ben and I could sleep in her bed and she had the futon. Ben's parents departed for the Selsdon Park hotel where they were staying and ben begged for his parents to return early so he could start opening presents!
And so Christmas day dawned and I got up comparitively early at 8am to do my part of Christmas dinner - preparing the veg (ben was cooking them and mum doing the meat). Did that while watching When Joseph met Maria recorded from the previous night on mum's shinybox. After nagging his parents to arrived at 5:30 (they didn't) ben finally got up at half past 9ish and his parents turned up dead on 11 and the great present unwrappening could begin. Got some lovely bath smellies, lots of Rington's lovely hot chocolate (Gingerbread and Orange Peel&Cinnamon) to make with milk as a treat, a fluffy dressing gown and socks, pants (thanks mum!), a mood beam, a rude cat pencil sharpener, a giraffe cushion (or sofa-parasite as ben calls them), some dvds, some books (especially from Phil who clearly was lacking inspiration this year, as he brought everyone gathered a book or two), a thornton's selection box :D, and various other things that were lovely but I can't recall at the moment! Christmas dinner was lovely with all the things you would expect to see on a Christmas dinner table. A lazy evening spent watching my London's burning DVDs and chatting and occasionally trying to make mum's new MP3 player work with her computer. It was eventually accomplished and I daresay ben will eventually write about how such a feat was achieved. Ben's parents left and went home again and we all trooped to bed, very much tired out from the days festivities :)
Boxing day started bright and early also, and was very lazy, with fried breakfast and watching The Muppet's Christmas Carol :) In fact, it was all very lovely, even though my poor elderly cat was not looking or behaving well and then the mormons turned up, completely unannounced. This particular set I do not believe we had seen for years and years. He was finally married and his wife was nauseatinly smiley. Apparently they were "in the area" (bollocks they were) and brought cookies(?!). They more or less invited themselves in and stayed for an hour being polite and making small talk and generally avoiding The Question (of whether mum would go back to church, us three having gone inactive together back in the day. For the full story of my journey through and exit from mormonism see here). It was all very fake and false (ben agreed) he seemed a little amused and weirded out by this, his first real encounter with mormons. I tried to be guarded with the information I gave out about myself. I just hope that they don't track us down. I feel sorry for missionaries for the most part and don't want to be rude to them, not least because I am done with mormonism and have no wish for it to be shoehorned back into my life.
Headed home and got back around 3pm. After 3 days excitements I was very glad to get home and collapse. In the evening we watched part of Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds in Concert and then I switched over to watch Ballet Shoes.
My thoughts on this are based on what I wrote on the CBB as it was on and a comment on Xanthe's LJ after she posted her thoughts.
On balance I think I liked it but as I watched it there were lots of things that annoyed me that jumped out. I agree, the girls were just too old - even posy was gaining breasts and she was supposed to be 8? when the book started. When I talked about it on the board I wanted to say that Pauline was a cow but wasn't sure the language was appropriate so I shall say it here - both Pauline and Winnifred were cows of the highest order. Theo annoyed me as yes, she was much too loose, and as for the lovey dovey bits *sighs*
I would have died for some of their clothes though, especially the CH coats *wants*. I also adored the doctors, who were exactly as they should have been and when they had a chance for banter the actresses who played them clearly had a chemistry. Sylvia and Nana were good but wasn't terribly fond of Mr Simpson, perhaps because he wasn't the character he should have been (or maybe because he wasn't a dr coming to save Sylvia from the White Man's Plague - ooh, spin off - dr comes to save Sylvia and takes her to the Sonnalpe to be cured and the girls attend the CS...) *ties plot bunnies in a sack* *returns to reality*.
Of the girls I think only posy was spot on in her Characterisation.
Well my first thoughts as I watched it are that the children were too old, especially Emma Watson. Nana comments that she has been trying to turn Petrova into a young lady for 10 years now and that she might as well give the academy a go, where as the actress who plays Petrova looked in her midteens at least.
Winnifred should not throw tantrums, Mr Simpson did not have a family who died abroad (just a wife who came with him), and Garnie is not ill (Inflammation of the Lungs - TB? Really? Perhaps a doctor will come along and save them). Also, I never imagined Theo as a flapper (perhaps not the word I'm looking for) but she seems all wrong to me. What was with Pauline not getting her part back after learning her lesson in Alice? The Theatre manager from a Midsummer Night's Dream was very mean and I missed The Blue Bird. Pauline was turned into a proper little bitch and would never have pushed Petrova in the books just so Pauline had a better chance of achieving their dream.
The love triangle left me wondering if the writer had read the same book that I had and I wish they had left the romance out of it.
Positive notes so far are that Madame, the drs and Nana are as I imagined them, more or less. I liked Posy in her audition with Manov - it and she is exactly as I imagined. I was not at all sure about GUM - I imagined him thinner and less like Harry Potter's Uncle Vernon (partly because the same actor plays both) GUM was definitely thinner in my mind though, possibly because of the illustrations in the copy I had as I was growing up.
OK. I think I am done now.
ANyway, yes, on balance I enjoyed it but it didn't come close to the book :(
Phew. That was a very long update. If I updated more often then I daresay I would not post such long rambling entries. Ah well :)
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Date: Thu, Dec. 27th, 2007 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Fri, Dec. 28th, 2007 11:50 am (UTC)One thing that troubled me was that the viewers were never actually shown that Pauline *could* act. It went straight into her Alice leading role without showing any of her other acting, so anyone who doesn't know the books might well believe that Tantrum-Winifred was correct and Pauline *was* cast for her looks rather than any abilities! I wish they'd had time to show "The Blue Bird".
Posy was great though, as were the doctors.