Happy New Year

I didn't mean to be away for so long, but the last couple of months have been a bit strange.

Firstly, like so many, I've staggered from one cough and cold to another - probably not helped by travelling on the tube where on every journey someone seems to kindly cough or sneeze in my face - which left me wiped out.

Secondly my laptop threw all its toys out of its pram by keeping on shutting itself down, usually when I was in the middle of typing an email which it would send to some random person in my address book. After investigation a virus was ruled out and it was decided that I'd just bought a lemon. So eventually I bit the bullet and bought a bright new shiny laptop from the lovely people at John Lewis.

It hasn't all been bad news though, the company Christmas do was at the London Hippodrome seeing La Clique . I'd expected to only make it through the first half because I wasn't feeling so great, but lasted throughout the entire performance. David O'Mer and the English Gents were probably our, all female table, top recommendations ('The Man in the Bath' was one person's request for our office Secret Santa, but as we had a £6 limit per person so even if we'd pooled our resources it was never going to happen - you need look at the website to really understand this!) and I have a soft spot for Mario Queen of the Circus - did you know Freddie Mercury was really writing about ... juggling! All the performances were fabulous, although Ursula Martinez's strip divided our audience - especially as she later proved she has singing and comedic talents without taking her clothes off.


I also sat through the 165 minutes of this. Its had some mixed reviews, which are not unfair, but I have seen it described as a turkey which is unfair - I don't think Baz Luhrmann is capable of making a bad movie, but this one is just a little too busy and overlong and he should have concentrated on one of his story arcs, rather than trying to deal with two complex stories in depth - oh yes and there was a complete Thomas Hardy moment, well as Thomas Hardy as you can get in the outback! But it is overlong and the narrative drags in places, but its a lot better than a lot of the stuff out there at the moment.

Oh yes and while we are on the subject of movies, I also had the requisite Bond moment. I loved Quantum of Solace and thought it pitched perfectly the emotional depth and tone for a direct sequel to Casino Royale. I've also just started to read the Bond books in order of publication - I read some of them when I was at school years ago, and have to say that Daniel Craig may be blond, but he seems to be the actor whose got the closest to Bond, well in my humble opinion!

Oh yes and finally, but not least, congratulations to Sir Terry Pratchett for his much deserved knighthood, the man is a genius and not afraid to stand up for what he believes in from humanism to Alzheimer's research and if you haven't read any of his books, why not?