Mistletoe's Musings

Well here we are at the end of January, during which I have posted every day for the Nablopomo challenge. I have to say it's been a bit of a struggle at times, but the day has come when I feel proud to have succeeded.

The transfer window closes today and Sunderland so far have lost Darren Bent and now Paulo Da Silva has gone to Real Zaragoza for an undisclosed fee. We have gained Sulley Muntari on loan from Inter Milan to the end of the season and bought Stephane Sessegnon, a Benin midfielder, from Paris Saint-Germain for £5 million. I don't expect any last minute deals so we will enter a critical two months in our season. By the end of them we may be on the brink of qualifying for the Europa League competition.... or not.
( Some stuff about The Bullet in the Brain )

Now I should really go to the shops because my watch needs a new battery. At least the sun is out though it is not very warm.

Gah. There I was footling about making icons last night, watching the Spanish football, recording the skating when poof! all the lights went out. Gallingly, the lights over the road and up the hill were still on, but to the west: total darkness.

9.45, I went to bed where a very aggravating discussion about religion and homosexuality was going on on Radio 4. What a bunch of apologists the panel was. They were so busy bending over backwards to respect each others views I never found out what each of them actually believed. Phrases like secular theocracy were bandied about. Pah. Posers.



Friends *gathers you all to my ample bosom* One hour (as it turned out) without online communication and I had to go to bed! Anyway, I divined when the electricity came back on by some 6th sense and got up again. 10.44. I had to set all the electric clocks again. Of course, now I was awake, so I watched Baking made easy which I recorded because it had a glam mac and cheese recipe. Why do outrageously skinny people have to present these shows? The recipes featured were strawberry and mascarpone swiss roll - all sugar and eggs; the aforementioned mac and cheese with 1/2 a pint of double cream and parmesan and dolcelatte in it and then a pavlova with more cream and sugar. She looked anorexic. Grrrr.

To pull myself together I watched the Men's ice skating final which had fortunately finished recording before the lights went out. The winner was a French youth who was extremely flashy but a very good skater. His trainer, who is Russian and bears a passing resemblance to Billy Joel, was clearly pissed off by his antics in the kiss and cry area where the results are given out. Still, the lad is only 19. Plenty of quadruples in evidence, among them Brian Joubert who pulled himself up from 7th to finish second. A Czech skater who danced to An American in Paris looked disappointed to finish 3rd which was frustrating because he knocked a Belgian skater down to 4th who had skated out of his skin and showed real skill dancing to music from The Mummy. This after years battling injuries. Ah the way of the world.

After that I watched Glee which was the Grilled Cheesus episode and was poor. It was somehow a holding pattern episode in spite of Kurt's trauma. Two gripes, and I know the show is satirical, but Rachel really needs to get over herself and her Barbra Streisand impersonation and why does Chris Colfer get Golden Globes for basically playing himself? Anyway, I found the religious theme in poor taste, satirical or not. I think it can be dangerous to mock people's faith unless it is handled well. How come Kurt was able to wear his hat in church? Yes yes it was making a point about why he went, but it felt wrong to me. Maybe you don't have to take your hat off if you are a man in American churches? Petty of me I know, but meh.

And so to bed (again).

It's not even half past four yet.



Today I am making curry. In other words chicken, mushrooms and a jar of tikka sauce. What? I have to cook the chicken and mushrooms first. Oh and an onion. I could make a curry from scratch but that would be better tomorrow and I am going out to eat then so quick and cheaty is the way.

Gasp! I was so lazy today. I could have gone to Durham and got a haggis for Burns Night and I watched The Player instead. Well it did look like rain and then it didn't rain, but it could have. And now it is so that's why it's dark early. Ha! I am prescient.

I wasted a lot of time yesterday reading a Bones fic that had promise but then the writer had such an execrable style I couldn't take any more. It was all simple sentences and, for variety, the writer would put the words of a sentence in random order. e.g. (not an actual sentence) Down on the seat she sat beside Angela. It was mainly to avoid starting every sentence with 'he' or she' but wearing it was by the 60th chapter (they were short too). Obviously the person has never heard of adverbs or compound or complex  or, you know, semicolons. No one knows how to use them properly these days. The writer said she never read other fanfic in case it tainted her ideas with others. Well maybe she could see the syntax instead. Never mind. By the time I gave up Booth was dying and had been for months, but nobody noticed. Good three sentences worth of information there. I wish I could write. I would show them. Type I would. Use a beta I would not. Brilliant I am. I couldn't even think like that never mind write 60 chapters and have no end in sight.

The amaryllis number one and the Christmas cactus have finished flowering, so I have to wait for amaryllis number two to show me what I've got. Hopefully, (see a different way to start a sentence) the snowdrops and daffodils will be making a show soon and it'll be Spring before we know it. Still time for snow though.

O_o Andy Gray has left Sky Sports. (The BBC report says he has been sacked with immediate effect in response to "New evidence of unacceptable and offensive behaviour")  Ha. This all stems from an incident on Saturday. He and his co presenter, the sycophantic Richard Keys who has been doing the job since Sky Sports started and still knows nothing about football, made derogatory remarks about the assistant referee in the Liverpool game being a woman. Women don't know the offside rule one opined. Kenny (Dalglish) will blow up said the other. This before the game had started. Clearly they expected her to fail because she was a woman and women have no place in football. These remarks were said while they thought their microphones were off (which they weren't) and came to light via a newspaper.

As it turned out she made a critical and correct offside decision in the build up to one of Liverpool's goals. In your face you two who spend a great deal of your time discussing offside decisions and admitting they don't know the new interpretation either. Male entitled idiots is what they are. The assistant referee has been withdrawn from the game she was supposed to be on tonight. That means her right to earn a living has been denied. If she were petty minded like those two she could sue. She is 24 years old, competent, qualified and fully backed by the FA. That's more than those two have ever been. One is a 55 yearold ex-footballer with a few stock phrases (e.g. 'Take a bow son, take a bow') and I have no idea how the other got his job because he is useless.

They were suspended for last night's live game (I didn't miss them) and now Gray has done the decent thing gone. I bet Keys hangs on though. He is too stupid to realise that referring to the business manager of West Ham as 'the lovely Karren Brady' (sarcastic emphasis on 'lovely') making sexist remarks in her newspaper was a tad hypocritical.

Here, singalong to this to cheer us up.

So after yesterday's desert I have to make three posts today at least.

First I got a mod's choice win at bones_stills for this icon.



That was a nice way to start the day. There are some really great icon makers in there so that was a real joy.

Next I caught up on Got to Dance which is my current crack viewing. It was the last of the auditions last night, followed by narrowing down the 200 shortlist to 28. That was so difficult they had to have a dance off between 8 acts for 4 places. Everyone was good and it came down to two body poppers who had to go through as a duo because they couldn't pick.  My favourite was a bollywood dance group. Such energy! I know nothing about dance and can't do it so it really is just mindless drivel to me, but I always cry when someone goes through.

Talking of mindless drivel I finally watched Ghost Writer. OMG. Alan Cumming was clearly mentally challenged when he directed this film and David Boreanaz had nothing better to do.( Suffering Succotash or The Ghost Writer )

It's a lovely sunny day and I am about to have a sandwich before embarking on my Seeley in Season 3 post. Wheeee - the energy she is with me. Or is that the Force? Also out for a meal with friends again this week and I have posted a card to the daughter of even more friends whose birthday is tomorrow. I even remembered to put a stamp on.

That's a bummer! Mid Nablopomo and I have run out of oomph. Well I do have things to say about Seeley Booth in season 3 but that will take thought and I am not in thinky mode today. I have viewed the first 6 episodes and there is more than I thought to dig out. High schools. There have been quite a few episodes over the years with High school settings and we actually get more about Booth in school than we do about Brennan so that is something unusual. Of course, it's all sports and girls, so that explains it. Anyway, don't want to pre-empt myself. Just a taster.

Today, I have made lunch and watched some football sporadically. I suppose I could watch the American football play offs rather than Cristiano Ronaldo tumbling about the turf in Madrid. I'm just not invested in American football like I used to be. The coverage annoys me. It is so stop start with a pause after every play. I'm used to free flowing stuff. Still, it's better than the sycophantic commentator who will be on the Real Madrid game. He gets so excited I want to plant my fist on his nose.

Have a Geoffrey Chaucer Tale.


It's all true.

Bugger! Bent has scored on his debut again. Which is all right for my fantasy team. Berbatov, my other forward has scored 3! Ha. In your face Benty. And, in spite of having only one fit striker on the books, Sunderland won! Away! Well done Kieran Richardson who scored the two goals. Disappointingly, we gave away a penalty late on, so did not keep a clean sheet, but we kept the lead which was just as important and are now 7 points clear of the team in 7th (Newcastle) and only one behind Tottenham who are 5th. I am pleased.

Bruce was very philosophical about signing anyone. We have only 5 games in February and March while there are 8 games in April and May. By then Welbeck and possibly Campbell could be fit so they will bolster the front line.  The next 3 home games are Chelsea (3rd in table), Tottenham (5th in table), Liverpool (not in top half but on the up since Dalglish took over) which will go a long way to decide what sort of season we have had. I am well pleased so far and if we continue in the way we have at home (only 2 defeats all season) the away games shouldn't hold much to fear. Europe? I don't think Bent will get near that with Villa.

Been to the shops today and got another top in the sales which will look very nice with a vest in the summer at the cricket. Purple and grey hoops it is. Also got meat and cheap petrol, well, cheaper than where I live. It was £1.25 a litre which is 2p cheaper. The weather was manky, that horrible drizzle that gets on your glasses.

I have nothing to say about this week's Bones other than what I have commented elsewhere. I shall wait until there is an episode where I can really say something positive. 10 out of 22 seen and I haven't enjoyed any of them really.

You know, the frost has barely moved today. It is still on the grass and in the shadow on the roof over the road. The scaffolding is finally coming down from the neighbour's roof replacement. It has been there since the end of October, through all the snow and everything. The sun has been out all day, obviously without much heat and it looks like it will be a glorious sunset in about half an hour.



Today friends we start on Season 3 of Booth's journey with Bones. We have new players, a season long villain although this was the year of the writers' strike so that is a truncated season (and oh how we protested!) and a slightly changed dynamic between the main protagonists. Some characters hit their stride, some get too much screen time ( a personal view) and the first signs of amajor fumble appear. Also, there is a change in how Booth is characterised that becomes more noticeable in Season 4. Let's ease into this with some housekeeping.

( Booth analysis: An American's home is his office )

Which means it's Thursday tomorrow and we all know what is significant about that.



Now this has been a non-event day par excellence. I did pick 3 winners in the racing on the telly which cheered me up. An 8/1 outsider among 'em too. Bwah ha ha.

Here is the amaryllis now:



All three flowers are now out. As you can see, the other one is trying to catch up, the Christmas cactus is clearly vying for top flowerer and some ornaments wanted to be in the picture. So from the left we have Winston Churchill; a wizard with a cauldron bearing a crystal; my perspex or something owl; a multicoloured candleholder; a mug; a money box and a box with an apple fairy on the top. Also, the sun was out! The mug has a pig on it and 'suddenly colin came to a fork in the road' and there is a garden fork sticking in the ground.

I am now trying to watch three cup matches at once from England, Spain and Italy. I'm focusing on Arsenal v. Leeds. More fallout from the Bent transfer today: him denying he was tapped up; Villa espousing innocence; Niall looking like it's all sour grapes; Bruce expressing his disappointment. No word on a replacement apart from Pavluychenko from Spurs. Hmmm. If he didn't know anything about it before Sunday he was pretty quick to get his written transfer request in just after the derby game on Sunday. He also shot down to the Midlands within hours and was training with them today. Transfers just don't happen that quickly. I think our management must have been dissatisfied to give in so easily to sell our top scorer. We now have one fit striker. Welbeck is out with a hamstring and he's just on loan anyway. Manchester Utd won't sell him to us.  Fraizer Campbell is out till March. So that leaves Gyan. I have made some icons of him to replace my Judas Darren Bent ones.

       

He has a funky dance for when he scores and a hit record back in Ghana. He could be good.

Telephone saga update.

Went down to parents this morning and, hopefully, fixed phone. Basically it was a reset job and a lesson in watching the battery level for when it needs to go on the charger. I rang when I got home and we didn't get cut off so let us hope that is that. I got my dinner there too so no need for cooking tonight. We watched tennis from Australia and bowls from East Anglia so that was quite fun.

As a result, I haven't had time to watch a film today though I did start my Season 3 rewatch last night so that's one item ticked. I saw one or two things to comment on in the opener and will have to start Soccer Mom in the Mini van again to keep the focus on Booth instead of Brennan's family journey. Incidentally, is it just me, but why would someone with no interest in sports and a lack of pop culture knowledge use and understand the term 'Soccer Mom'? It is such an un-Brennan type thing. She has no idea about soccer and no liking for momness. Careless writing again.

Also, I need to know if the hockey player in the picture behind Booth's desk is a Boston Bruin and if he is famous. Just a theory.





No progress on the Darren Bent story though he will go I think. *pout*

Sandy Denny today.





I watched Shadowlands this morning. It was good, understated, British fare and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm not a great fan of Attenborough films, but he reined himself in. Anyway, I thought this song matched the mood. Hopkins and Hardwick seem so effortless on screen. He's a good Watson is Hardwick and Hopkins is good in everything. I also thought Debra Winger made a good fist of Joy. The Oxford Dons were suitably dotty and shut off from the real world. Later, I shall be having a Season 3 of Bones evening.

The parental phone saga continues. I am going down tomorrow to see if I can sort it out. The helpline advice consisted of unplugging the base for half an hour and taking the batteries out. I could have said that!  I can see it going back to the shop in the afternoon!

The second bud on the Amaryllis is out and looking good. The heating is on and the sun is setting. It has been quite a bright day for a change. Coffee now.