Author: latepaul

Categories
25 books reading

25 Books, Book 5 – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Book 5 - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Book 5 - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Imagine someone wrote two books. The first book was a crime thriller. One filled with twists and turns, long-held secrets uncovered, lots of characters with complicated interconnecting back stories, gruesome crimes and clever detective work leading the heroes (let’s say it’s a kind of buddy cop thing) to solve the case.

Now imagine the second book, which has the same pair of lead characters, is about financial intrigue. It’s also a thriller but it’s more cerebral, it’s about fraud and misdealing, it’s about politics and journalism and perception. It’s about manouvering information and people into the right postion to either commit, or solve, white-collar crime. It has elements of a spy novel, heist story or computer hacking cyber-punk.

Now take the two books and…  Oh I know you think you know what I’m going to say but no don’t intertwine them, simply jam them together. Chop the second book in half and stick the pieces either side of the first.

Now you’ve got something a bit like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It’s not a bad book. I definitely enjoyed it – but this structural oddity is responsible for all the things I didn’t really enjoy. Like the way it’s slow to get started. Or the fact that there’s long complicated sections of exposition very early on about the financial stuff. Or the fact that when you think you’ve just come to what must surely be the end of the crime thriller you’ve still got 100 pages to go and it switches back to the other story with corresponding drop in pace.

I think I preferred the central crime story because even though it’s not the kind of thing I usually read – too much gruesome detail – it was at least page-turningly gripping. Also it had some clever detective work. How the case is solved with the help of various old photographs and the conclusions drawn from them was genuinely fascinating and ingenious. The other story felt slow, unnecessarily complex and outstayed its welcome.

If this was a stand-alone book I’d probably avoid any more by the same author. However it’s part of a trilogy and clearly there’s an ongoing element to the two main characters relationship with stuff still to tell. I’ll be honest and say that I’m intrigued enough to want to follow that.

Because in the end the most interesting thing about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was the girl with the dragon tattoo.

7/10 – enjoyable in a what’s-going-to-happen way for the central 2/3rds of the book.

Categories
lesamy

Lesamy Week 33 – I Came Out

OK this wasn’t the week where people found out for the first time, as I’ve told people and people have noticed, but it was the week where I started being open about it. I decided that rather than carry on being coy I’d had the satisfaction of the unprompted mention of me losing weight and I’d now not deliberately go out of my way to avoid talking about being on a diet (like not really giving a good reason why I didn’t want to go to the pub when I was already going out that night). So I did and it lead to a few conversations and nice comments including:

  • the lady who said “I hope you don’t mind me saying but you’ve lost a heck of a lot of weight”
  • the guy who told me he’d noticed but wanted to wait until he was sure I wasn’t ill or something
  • the woman who used to work with us and came into the office having not seen me for 6 months and was amazed that a) I wasn’t doing some kind of program and b) wasn’t on the front of some slimming magazine
  • my co-worker who was not only impressed that I had lost weight but was (more) impressed that I was cooking properly

So that was all nice. However, typically perhaps, it’s also the week where I had an evening at the pub that was quite a large freebie in terms of calories. I’ve still ended up losing weight so I’m not that bothered but I should have held back a bit more, even for a freebie. I also got warned that I shouldn’t lose too much weight as some women aren’t into skinny men. I shall bear this in mind…

Anyway this week’s numbers are:

Weekly loss: 0.3kg (0.7lb)
Total loss: 37.3kg (82.2lb or 5st 12lb)
To target: 30.6kg (67.5lb or 4st 11lb)
Current weight: 106.8kg (235lb or 16st 11lb)

Still a little shy of having lost 6 stone – but I should get there by next week.


Categories
reviews

Romeo and Juliet, at The Globe

Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet

On Thursday I finally did something I’ve wanted to do since I moved down here – go see a play at The Globe in London. For those that don’t know it’s a re-construction of the 16th century theatre where Shakespeare actually wrote and acted.

I’m not sure that Romeo and Juliet would be my first choice of play to see but someone was organising a trip and I decided to join in. Besides it’s Shakespeare and I like Shakespeare.

I guess that there are two things to review here – the theatre ‘experience’ and the performance itself.

We went for the cheap tickets in the yard which was open to the elements but were lucky with the weather – I had prepared for rain so was pleasantly surprised we didn’t get any. I had braced myself for inclement weather and for standing for 3 hours, what I hadn’t prepared myself for was that for the first hour there was a plane going overhead every few minutes. It meant 10-15 seconds of struggling to hear the actors, who are not relying on their lungs and voices. I also was unfortunate to stand behind two of the tallest people there, so I was constantly shifting position as they did. The Globe website says that there’s no seat that doesn’t have a partially obscured view of at least part of the stage, but at least pillars don’t move. I think that, rather than comfort would make me want to pay for a seat next time.

The performance itself was excellent I thought. It was a very ‘straight’ version with the period costume and staging – which I’m told, despite the theatre, isn’t always the case. The leads were great, especially Adetomiwa Edun’s Romeo. Phillip Cumbus as Mercutio was good too, bringing out a side of that character I wasn’t aware of. I guess I’ve been influenced by the Baz Lurhmann film to think of Mercutio as quite a cool dude. Cumbus’ Mercutio was more comic, a bit of a windbag – but just a likeable and entertaining. Along with Fergal McElherron’s Peter he was responsible for bringing out the bawdy humour of the play. The later was also very good.

I had wondered whether the nature of the venue – both being outdoor and very close up – would lead to a problem with the audience being too noisy but that wasn’t the case. There were a few who ignored the no cameras rule and I heard at least one mobile phone on a very loud vibrate setting but generally the audience was more respectful that I’ve seen say in the cinema recently. There was a good-natured feeling of wanting to laugh that made the humour work better than it perhaps deserved at times, but when Juliet ‘died’ there was a hush in the place I hadn’t expected.

Overall it was a very enjoyable performance. It made me want to go see more Shakespeare – though perhaps indoors next time.

8/10 for the play.

6/10 for the ‘experience’

Categories
movie reviews

The Boat That Rocked

The Boat that Rocked
The Boat that Rocked

I saw this movie with M. on my birthday so I figure I owe you a review on it. However I’m not sure how much I have to say.

OK it’s a Richard Curtis movie that’s not a romantic comedy (well not really). It’s a (very) fictionalised version of pirate radio in the 60s. It takes place on a boat in the north sea which houses a radio station. There’s a colourful collection of characters – some obviously based on real life DJs – and a plot about the authorities trying to shut it down.

It’s good fun, it rattles along pretty well and there’s plenty to laugh at. It does suffer from some of Curtis’ particular ‘sins’ i.e. a tendency to over-sentimentality, plus an entirely unrealistic moment where the guy is completely inept but the girl goes for him anyway. It also has an ending that’s both illogical and too drawn out.

But… I dunno, it’s hard not to like. Thanks to all-round good performances the  characters are so amiable, and it’s all so breezy and light that you don’t really care about that stuff. At least I didn’t.

8/10 – a fun, even if completely unmemorable, way to spend a couple of hours.

Categories
25 books reading

25 Books, Book 4 – The Ascent of Rum Doodle

The Ascent of Rum Doodle
The Ascent of Rum Doodle

This book was given to me by my “Secret Santa” on a writing site I’m on. It’s taken me a while to get to reading it (as you can tell it being months since Christmas now). It got added to the list because it’s quite short and I felt I needed to catch-up on my target a bit. Anyhow…

The Ascent of Rum Doodle is the account of an expedition to climb the fictional Rum Doodle mountain which is slightly higher than Everest (40,000 1/2ft). It’s told by the leader of the expedition who is often blissfully unaware of what’s really going on around him.

It’s like a “Three Men and a Boat” for mountaineering. Or so believe since I haven’t read that book either.

The real test for a book like this is is it funny? It is but for me it was a bit of a one-joke idea – that the narrator has no idea just how incompetent his team really are. I read it more with a wry smile than I did actually laughing – though there was at least one laugh out loud moment toward the end.

6/10 It was a fun read but not “one of the funniest books” I’ve read. Sorry Bill.

Categories
lesamy

Lesamy Week 32 – Lesamy Rebooted

OK, as I acknowledge there’s been some slackness of late. I’ve had my reckless week(-ends) and so on. I’ve managed to maintain a downward trend and not a bad one at that but it hasn’t been what it could have. Last week was my birthday and that meant, in the end, three days of freebies. So I decided to wait but as of today I’m officially rebooting Lesamy.

Specifically this means:

  • doing my exercises – not my exercise (walking) which I pretty much never miss but my exercises which I hate with a passion but do every morning. First I stopped doing them at the weekend then I stopped altogether. As of today they’re back – 15 press-ups and 15 sit-ups. I did them this morning and could tell I hadn’t done them for a couple of weeks.
  • no more recklessness – this means keeping the freebies to a maximum of one a week and keeping the extra calories to a sensible amount. Which means
  • keep an eye on the alcohol
  • not using the stepper to ‘buy’ treats – this is an interesting one because in itself it shouldn’t make a difference to my weight-loss. The whole point is that the extra calories are cancelled by exercise – BUT I feel this practice adds to an attitude of slackness and in-discipline. So from now on I can only use the stepper to ’round off’ calorie calculations and then only to a maximum of 50.

As I said even without these I managed to keep losing weight but it’s getting harder and I am still months away from my target. I think that by ratchetting the discipline back up to the slightly obsessive level it was originally will give me room to slowly relax it again but in time for when I’m hitting the target not still half a year a way.

That’s the theory anyhow – we’ll see what happens. Here’s this week’s stats:

Weekly loss: 0.6kg (1.3lb)
Total loss: 37kg (81.6lb or 5st 11lb)
To target: 30.9kg (68.1lb or 4st 12lb)
Current weight: 107.1kg (236lb or 16st 12lb)

Given the slackness and my birthday etc that’s not too bad.

Oh and since it was my birthday here’s a little indulgence:

First my least favourite picture of me –

me on my 40th
me on my 40th

Now me a couple of years later –

me on my 42nd
me on my 42nd

Cool huh?


Categories
reviews

Lesamy Week 31 – Officially Unofficial

Not a lot to say this time since it’s only a couple of days since last ‘week’ so to speak.

However the stats below show the perils of letting people know an ‘unofficial’ weighing. Someone over at SoF asked for an update so I gave them a weigh-in from that day. Turns out it was 0.2kg less than my unofficial one. Oh well.

Can’t complain because I’ve still hit two milestones – I’m under 17stone for the first time in 9 years and I’m now 75% of my original weight.

Weekly loss: 1.2kg (2.6lb)
Total loss: 36.4kg (80.2lb or 5st 10lb)
To target: 31.5kg (69.4lb or 4st 13lb)
Current weight: 107.7kg (237lb or 16st 13lb)

Oh and it’s my birthday in two days – so I enter my 43rd year weighing about what I did when I was 33.

Categories
lesamy

Lesamy Week 30 – Slackness

I had another reckless weekend – or reckless bank holiday monday anyway.  Which means I suppose I should be grateful that I lost any weight at all. In fact though I did it was largely due to when I weighed myself – which was the ‘usual’ time – but before I’d really pigged out. I know that this had an impact because I weighed myself the next day and had put on quite a lot.

Things have gotten a little slack lately. Freebies being opportunities to pig out rather than sensible treats. Having multiple freebies in one week. Using the stepper to ‘earn’ lots of extra calories. Not doing my exercises. All of which would be ok but I need to be a bit stricter because I’m still only just over half way through and if I’ve slipped this much so far I can’t let it slip too much further.

It’s my birthday next week which involves freebie-ness so after that I think I’ll make a deliberate effort to reel in the slackness and be a bit of more of the obsessive I used to be about Lesamy.

One of the things that I don’t consider slackness is weighing myself more than once a week. The only reason not to do that was de-motivation and whilst it can do that, I am pretty much going to stick with this regardless. Only the official monday weighing counts but the fact I can know day to day where I’m at is ok so long as I don’t get too hung up on it. It helps me to know for instance that I have now lost all that extra weight I put on after monday.

Oh and whilst it makes no difference to the diet per se, one piece of slackness I’ll aim to reform on is not updating this blog on Monday.

Weekly loss: 0.3kg (0.7lb)
Total loss: 35.2kg (77.2lb or 5st 7lb)
To target: 32.7kg (72.1lb or 5st 2lb)
Current weight: 108.9kg (240lb or 17st 2lb)


Categories
flubbage

A Walk in the Park in the Rain

The Park by my House
The Park by my House

I went for my usual walk today (for exercise) but I thought I’d take my camera along. It was nice. It was raining but only lightly and it wasn’t cold. The camera gave me an excuse to keep a more leisurely pace.

some bird I saw
some bird I saw

Saw a bit of wild-life. Birds and squirrels and obviously lots of ducks.

Nice Weather for...
Nice Weather for...
rain on the pond
rain on the pond

I tend to walk around the edge of the park – so as to make the walk as long as possible.

pylon in the park
pylon in the park
gotta follow the edge
gotta follow the edge

There’s hardly anyone around which I like.

some bloke on a bench
some bloke on a bench

Once I’ve done the perimeter, I zig-zag along the paths.

which way to go?
which way to go?
tree
tree

Back through the trees.

(one) path through the trees
(one) path through the trees

Back past the duck-pond

island in the pond
island in the pond

The park is actually in two parts, separated by a road.

the road splits the park(s)
the road splits the park(s)

And that was my walk in the park. Lots more pictures on my google page.

Categories
reading TV writing

How to Improve as a Writer

“Just write every day, and read more often than you write”

*sigh*

I haven’t been very good at writing or reading lately. On the writing front I’ve only managed to edit a couple of stories and submit them to the Whittaker. That wasn’t my intent when joining it but at least it keeps me in the competition. If this is a temporary blip then I won’t have forfeit my place, if it isn’t then I’ll withdraw gracefully.

Having set aside The Crow Road I’ve not read any of Rum Doodle for the past couple of weeks. Thing is it’s a short book so I ought to be able to knock it on the head in a couple of hours. Might be an assignment for a rainy Bank Holiday weekend.

It’s not just reading and writing either. I haven’t watched a full length movie in ages. My MythTV box current has 80+ movies waiting to be watched. When I’m looking at the latest upcoming listings I’m choosing movies more often than other types of program to record. True this varies from “I really want to see that” to “might be worth a look” but none of them are getting a look right now.

It’s that whole short attention span thing. Must work on that.

*sigh*