This weekend was the annual get together with some of the girls from school. We went to stay in a gorgeous Victorian house near Kelso for a long weekend (see picture - Lochside Stable House). I was full of trepidation about the weekend (being the only single one still remaining and chronically so) but my fears were unfounded, they're still a lovely bunch, and so are their husbands... And child... And dog. In fact, on the first evening I ended up in what would probably be the traditionally male-dominated situation, drinking and smoking round the snooker table long after the other ladies had retired to bed. I like to think I'd have ended up in that situation even if I did have some male trailing along with me though ;o) Some may consider it sad but I choose to be proud of the fact that I have the stamina to cope with that and still surface at a reasonable hour for breakfast the next day - a good hour and a half before the last of the boys did!
The rest of the weekend was spent eating, drinking, relaxing and generally going "Oooh, daffodils. Lambs! Spring is here!" You can really see it out in the country and we had enough sun to make it feel like a proper break from the dreich city. I was going to join the others on a ramble after breakfast on Saturday morning but elected instead to take a second cup of tea out to the garden as the sun was so inviting. I did a lot of sitting and looking at the view this weekend, and caught a live cow sex show while I was at it. Not as exciting as it sounds I can assure you!
After all that peace and quiet I was really in the need of something exciting and violent and visually stunning (no really, I was!) so I toddled over to the cinema on Monday to see 300. First of all, can I just say it was a gorgeous spring day - the sun was shining, the birds were singing, I'd spent the afternoon on my ass in front of the telly and I was skipping past lots of mugs who'd been at work all day. Tra la la! Just try and keep the smile off my face. Secondly 300 is just about the forking coolest thing I've seen since Sin City - and I didn't feel like I'd been sat on when I came out. Bonus! Sin City was brilliant but a most unpleasant film to sit through - emotionally and physically draining. 300 looks the mutt's nuts (in a really, really good way) and you just come out going "OMG. That was SOOOOO cool."
I don't know much about cinematography or the graphic novel but I could guess which shots were taken directly from the original artwork and I loved that. (I loved that about Girl With A Pearl Earring as well, the visual attention to the source.) Oh, and I loved the "gratuitous butt in the moonlight shot" that they threw in there. Anyone who's seen National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon will know what I'm on about (and I suspect the director is one of them). It's probably only funny in my head but I loved it for making me chuckle. Some of the story and dialogue is a bit on the silly side but the thing just looks SO good that you can forgive them for it, and the over abundance of pectoral muscles, thighs and little leather knickers made up for any other shortcomings the film had in my book. And Gerard Butler? One word - Phwoooaaaaarrrrrrr! There's a slight Sean Canary-ness about his accent that just makes you go wibble. Mmmmm!
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