Things To Do In Bristol When You're (OCD)ead

The Long & the Short – Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a prehistoric shark flying through the skies attacking air traffic while his eight-legged arch-enemy shakes submarines to death in a truly terrible monster from the depths of movie-making.

 

‘Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus’ - a movie so mindlessly dreadful from start to finish that the temptation is to raise the fon t size to maximum and just write the word ‘Shite’, safe in the knowledge that the review would be accurate. And yet it’s so terrible that it actually starts to nudge into the same category as ‘Plan 9 From Outer Space’, ‘Manos’, ‘The Swarm’ and T2D’s personal favourite ‘Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter’ which, despite their failings, exude a near-mesmeric kind of goofy charm because you just know the directors of those cracked gems all thought they were making cinematic masterpieces.

 

Bearing that in mind – and that I’ve lost 85 minutes of my life that I’m never getting back because of it – I feel obliged to share some of the things I’ve learn from the film with you all.

 

1. Prehistoric sharks can fly. Or at least jump REALLY high. An impressive feat when you bear in mind this particular shark is the size of a jumbo jet and actually made it to cloud height. At which point I learnt something else.

2. Prehistoric sharks eat passenger aircraft. One can only assume their eating habits have evolved over 100,000 years and that pterodactyls must’ve had a far harder time then we first thought.

3. Upon release from an icy prison in the Arctic, a giant squid will immediately head for the nearest oil rig to Tokyo and slap it about a bit.

4. It’s easy to take a military mini-sub on a joyride. This may be because the US Navy appears to only have one guard and is actually based at a small industrial plant in the desert. And he always wears sunglasses.

5. Visibility from said mini-subs must be awful as, despite the multi-jumbo jet sized sea creatures being right in front of it, the occupants weren’t completely sure they’d seen anything.

6. If in doubt, film an aquarium and just pretend.

7. Submarines will disappear if given a little shake by a rubber tentacle. Thank goodness Hitler didn’t know.

8. It’s amazing how quickly substances can be produced and material identified by fizzy cherryade and test-tubes.

9. Squids and sharks loathe each other and love nothing more then a good fight to the death, happily swimming halfway across the earth to continue one from earlier.

10. Just waving a tentacle in the air is enough for a plane to blow up.

 

The only excuse one can find for just how bad 'MS vs GO’ is would be that the whole budget may well have been blown on getting a ‘star’ name to appear. That dubious honour goes to Miss Deborah Gibson, one-time 80s US chart darling whose floundering career of the past two decades may have led her to think that this was a good time to reboot her career as a serious actress. Oops. The 15 certificate is also bemusing here as not only is ‘MS vs GO’ suitable for children but it appears to have been written and directed by them as well.

If very drunk and watched with a group of very drunk friends then there is some fun to be had here…it’d be impossible not to. Just be aware that it’ll take a lot of alcohol and, if you pass out, don’t worry. Really. You may still be better off.

The Long & the Short: Heralded in recent weeks as America’s answer to ‘Shaun of the Dead’, ‘Zombieland’ may never quite hit the heights of Edgar Wright’s Zom-Com masterpiece but it’s still a thoroughly enjoyable watch.

For college student Colombus (Jesse Eisenburg) the only change theUSA being overrun with zombies makes to his life is to give him dead people to lock himself away from rather than living ones. Nervous, phobic, geeky and near-terminally virginal, only his comprehensive list of survival rules keep him alone, alive and out of trouble. Until he hooks up with redneck survival specialist and enthusiastic zombie-killer Tallahassee (Harrelson) who, along with sisters Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), teaches him that some rules are meant to be broken.

More a comic road movie with zombies then a horror outing, Zombieland’s great performances, laugh-out-loud moments and short runtime make up for the fact that nothing much really happens. We’re dropped into a post-apocalyptic America with the briefest of explanations, allowed to watch the lives of 2, then 4 survivors (briefly and hilariously 5 but we’ll get to that later) and their journey for a few days, get flashbacks of their histories, see them mildly menaced by zombies (though there’s never any real sense of worry for the main characters throughout), learn a few lessons and then…that’s it, really. As depth of story, narrative structure, character development and plot resolutions go, ‘Zombieland’ lacks the bite of its cannibalistic inhabitants.

Yet that would miss the point as, like with all road movies before it, it isn’t really about the plot – it’s about the journey. And the journey is a hell of a lot of fun, mostly due to the relationship between the 2 main characters. Eisenburg’s loveable neurotic complements Harrelson’s twinkie-obsessed redneck perfectly and leads to some truly hilarious exchanges (at one point calling Tallahasse a ‘giant, cock-blocking robot created by the military’) and set-pieces (a knowing nod to ‘Deliverance’ is extremely funny, the Zombie Kill of the Week even better). In fact the ‘bromance’ between the 2 ends up far more believable then the actual love story that develops between Colombus and Wichita as the film progresses. Stone and Breslin are both talented actresses but their characters are underwritten here. the prime material seemingly saved for the fellas.

In fact Harrelson is one of the major reasons to go and see this, investing his character with a thoroughly endearing quality whilst remaining borderline crazy and frequently Looney Tunes-violent throughout and lampooning his role in ‘NBK’ with such skill that this might just be one of 2009s best on-screen performances.

Yet it’s not the only contender for that title in the film. I won’t give away who it is (many others have but I’m not going to spoil it for those who don’t know), suffice to say that the 5 minute cameo performance halfway through by a well-known comic actor comes as a complete surprise and absolutely steals the film and is especially unexpected given the reputation of the person in question. This alone is brilliant and is worth the admission price alone.

As for the look and feel. Fleischer’s direction is at its best when he allows the actors free reign to express themselves and, when he does, the film feels pleasantly natural and authentic (as much as slavering zombies can). However, he can’t resist the urge to be ultra-stylistic at times which sometimes works (the occasional appearance of the rules on-screen offers a number of laughs) and sometimes doesn’t (some gratuitous slo-mo splatter near the start is less scary, more self-indulgent and trying too hard to be cool) but controls himself before reaching Guy Ritchie excesses.

‘Zombieland’ may not quite live up to others claims of it being a SotD-beater but it’s still a fun, enjoyable watch with some masterful performances that knows how not to outstay its welcome. Seek it out.

Has been a while since T2D's been moved to comment on a genuine news article (though Moir's gratuitous piece on the death of Stephen Gately (see it here) qualifies as news in the loosest sense) but sometimes there are stories you just can't ignore.

For a newspaper journalist to write an article of this type so near to Gately's death is in poor taste. For the paper to then print it just days before the funeral whilst friends and family are still openly traumatised and the details are still emerging is an appalling error of judgement. Even though the Mail is known for its rabidly right-wing stance, to push such an agenda with a story like this so near to the young man's death is disgusting.

I'm sure arguments and defenses will have been prepared.That Moirs piece appears in some kind of showbiz gossip-style column suggests they may hide behind this being personal comment rather than the paper's own stance. Rubbish - the newspaper editorial staff hold ultimate responsibility for what runs in its own paper and they would have cleared this piece of trash. As much as there is disgust at Moir in particular, let's hope she isn't left to carry the can on her own.

In so many ways it's a terrible piece of writing, not just in content but in presentation. Present in a gossip column, Moir desperately has tried to construct this as some kind of serious, fact-based effort without actually having any facts to build her argument on and using rumour, imagination and assumption in their place.

Are there circumstances that seem slightly unusual about that evening? Perhaps. Yet, despite the verdict from the coroner and words from both family and close friends about Gately's death, Moir has taken what (at the most) may have been a private decision between a couple in a long-term relationship to invite someone else to join them in some perfectly legal, consensual possibly sexual fun in the privacy of their appartment and turned that into some disgusting form of taboo-laden perversity that has led to his death and stained his character. Not only is all the above patently conjecture but, even if not - big deal. In a time where Deputy PMs and former PMs are having illicit affairs in work w/o the knowledge of their wives, there's little there to shock or condemn at all. Not only that but it's none of our f*cking business.

As for the timing, even if there was something worth saying there - NOW??? With such distasteful, tactlessly emotive language? How incredibly hurtful must that be to all those close to the guy, how disgraceful a time to throw mud and see what sticks.

Ultimately Gately represents everything the archetypal Mail reader hates - a gay guy leading a clean cut lifestyle, in a comitted relationship with another man and setting a good example to many young fans who seemed popular and near-universally liked within the entertainment world. The kind of standard bearer they'd just love to tear apart with accusations of promiscuity and drug abuse, both of which are not only unproven but terribly inaccurate from what we're all aware of (he smoked some cannabis, him and his partner invited someone back - frownworthy at the very, very most) & are accusations constructed and made at a hugely insensitive time.

Sickening journalism at its worst.

The Long and the Short: Beautiful, intense, moving foreign film that redefines the vampire genre and will move you to tears. This may just be the best film of 2009…

12 year-old Oskar is a troubled child. Misunderstood by his mother, neglected by his father, whipped and beaten by the school bullies and achingly lonely, he yearns for friendship, love, revenge and a companion as he enters puberty. When Eli, another 12 year-old, moves in next door a tentative friendship begins between the two. Yet the girl has a terrible, dark secret and as love blossoms between the two, tragedy is never far away…

Despite a barrage of film festival awards over the past year, ‘Let the Right One In’ seemed to become a victim of its art-house success upon release to a wider audience. A slow-paced horror/drama/coming-of-age/romance starring 2 preteen lead actors that’s filmed in Sweden on a limited budget and subtitled may just have been too hard a sell to UK cinema chains, whose target audience for both angst and vampire movies tends to be the ‘late teens with a nice disposable income’ market. Instead, they went for ‘Twilight’. They were wrong.

Alfredson’s film may just be the best film of the year. Saying it’s the best horror film is too restricting. It transcends the genre and turns into something almost too complex to categorise. Certainly there are horror elements in it both thematically and visually, yet it’s not scary (at least not until you start thinking over it after you’ve seen it and begin to understand what certain events actually meant – and you will). Nor is it a romance, even though (despite the age of the characters) there is a touching romance that develops between the protagonists and a darker level of sexual subtext and tension at times.

It is, however, a beautiful film. Shot in a Swedish town, the camerawork is never extravagant and yet every scene is lit and framed in such a way as to be near-hypnotic, while the snowbound cityscapes come alive at night through direction that remains fluid and never frantic, never over-paced. The simple, orchestral soundtrack complements it perfectly, giving the film a rhythm and emotional impact rarely seen in cinema today and a narrative voice beyond the script. Such is the combined effect that you’ll sometimes find yourself welling up at the impact of these things alone. Don’t feel stupid – you won’t be alone.

Don’t expect it to get any easier, either. Child leads Kare Hedebrant and Line Leandersson are simply astonishing as the lonely, tortured Oskar and the haunted Eli. Leandersson especially is a revelation, conveying so much meaning through her expressions and her words (both said and unsaid) that the barrier subtitles can represent never appears. Both are painfully, harrowingly, touchingly believable in their joys, sorrows, hungers and needs, finding solace in the company of one another that (for different reasons) they are denied by the rest of the world.

Sounds melodramatic? Perhaps. Yet this is a story that will affect you for quite some time, that can move you merely through recollection. It never compromises the vampire mythology, fusing it with the difficult emotional and sexual awakening that puberty brings and never shying away from scenes that may be controversial and yet are utterly necessary and never perverse. Uncomfortable maybe but, given the issues involved, that too just offers a deeper insight and never eclipses what is an achingly poignant sweetness between Oskar and Eli throughout.

There’s far more then the above but saying too much would spoil it. Suffice to say that watching ‘Let the Right One In’ may be the most emotionally cathartic and spellbinding experience you’ll have this year and should be at the top of your DVD list.

Time for a general disorder update – not too great if I’m honest.

Latest attack came on yesterday…same as many of them in recent months, pretty much out of nowhere w/o a great deal of warning beyond a huge feeling of mental exhaustion over the past few days. This time I woke up Saturday morning at around 7am and found msyelf locked onto thoughts about Uni from over 10 years ago and incidents where I’d fallen out with people. All stuff which is water under the bridge now of course, but I guess where normal peoples brains automatically kick that coping method in, mine requires me to try and sort it out manually w/o that help. Cue intense strain, followed up by tiredness and an unhealthy dose of depression.

Perhaps that’s another way of understanding this disorder. Not only do OCD sufferers lack the necessary chemicals in the brain to calm their anxieties but the natural thought processes that work in tandem with them are disrupted too, so we have to work through many things which people without a disorder like this deal with on a subconscious/unconscious level, which then adds to the mental strain and keeps you in the downward spiral.

As a result, found myself fighting off thoughts from a pretty dark place again last night – the whole ‘what’s the point in all this?’ topic reared up again. Not one to dwell on and, thankfully, drifted off into a pretty ineffective sleep after 30 mins or so of holding it at bay.

This morning? The mood is still quite nihilistic and the concentration is struggling to maintain itself. Can’t see this being a particularly productive day. Hot the diazepam straight off but, as seems to be the case with medication across the board more and more, it’s effect is negligible.

I dunno guys…I think this is one of those periods in the life of a sufferer that the medical profession can’t help you with and, tbh, do little to inform you about. There really is little support there for those people like myself who they are unable to help a great deal and you’re pretty much on your own. I suppose there’s little they can do, but I feel for those people who perhaps aren’t as coherent as I am or as able to research things themselves – with no support links given to them by the health services, they’re effectively cut off. I’m lucky in having family and friends to help hold me up, and self-educating myself about this disorder but even that’s not enough sometimes. Others aren’t so lucky.

Find myself thinking about the future more and more lately and not convinced it’s a healthy thing to do. Is easy for people to SAY ‘take things day by day’ but that becomes less effective when you have something which (as far as anyone can tell) isn’t going to improve, and you’ve hit the ceiling of what you’re able to do and found it pretty damn low. At 35 I find myself without a career, few financial prospects and even less relationship ones. When any goals I DO try and set become difficult to sustain because of my mental instability and my disorder has a tendency to veer into the area of depression on occasion, this isn’t good.

Starting the reviews again has been something but am finding writing hard, which it never used to be. Am reading back over them and they’re lacking something…perhaps I’m just rusty.  Am hoping whatever I DID have in that field returns because I think my best chance of having anything to keep me going daily is to start up the website I’ve been thinking of, essentially a more developed version of T2D with a split between disorder info and my own stuff. Will have to do it using WYSIWYG software as it’s hard to learn website programming when you can't read much of the book about it before you have a ‘spell’, forget it all and end up at the beginning again but I desperately need to do something just to give myself some sense of worth.

One relief is that Mums tests, initially, seem ok. Not had the results back yet but the specialist couldn’t see anything that was immediately obvious. Is what they said last time of course, but the experts seemed more competent this time around. Should get the results in the next week or two (at which time the process of figuring out what the hell IS causing the bleeding should start – 2 years late) so fingers crossed that, like last time, there’s no sign of cancer. I didn’t feel outwardly too stressed about it but i know I was – perhaps that’s triggered the latest spell, relaxing after the tests were complete and it suddenly coming out.

There’s one thing I do want to say to other sufferers reading this though – don’t become disheartened yourselves because I’m writing about having a hard time. Not every case of this is the same (in fact, none seem to be) and if you’re in the midst of treatment then the likelihood is that you WILL get a lot better then I’ve been able to. Even if you don’t….don’t panic. The bottom line is, we’re all still a hell of a lot better then we were when our disorders started – things may be tough mentally but at least I know who I am and that I’m not going insane and that’s the same for us all. I may be beat-up mentally a little but I’m still ME. That’s important. Plus, if nothing else, at least we can help educate other people as to how all this works, be it through blogs like this or just by helping people around us understand all this.

Anyway, that’s where things are atm. Fun fun fun.

The Long & the Short: Superb sci-fi drama set in modern day South Africa, whose thought-provoking storyline and excellent acting are matched by some marvellous special FX. You may never eat another seafood cocktail again.

 

Already the sleeper hit of the year, ‘District 9’ may have been marketed as a science-fiction film and pushed the involvement of Peter Jackson as producer in its publicity, but don’t be fooled – this is no ID4 or LOTR. Instead, Director Neil Blomkamp has made a powerful piece of apartheid drama using aliens as his oppressed minority and humanity itself as the aggressor

Set in Johannesburg 20 years after the arrival of a stricken alien craft above the city and the subsequent resettlement of the alien refugees (or ‘Prauns’ as they’re referred to due to their appearance), the plot follows private security firm Multi-National United’s attempt to re-home the aliens from the segregated slum dwellings of District 9 to the custom-built District 10 – which just so happens to be hundreds of kilometres away from the general population and any other prying eyes. Office clerk (and boss’s son-in-law) Wikus Van De Merwe is assigned to a military division of the company and charged with the task of visiting each settlement inside of D9 and serving them with eviction orders (a concept many of the aliens have no understanding of) and it’s his story and transformation we follow via a mixture of documentary-style footage, news reports, interviews with family members and more conventional narrative techniques.

Painted early on as something of a coward and a petty official, Wikus is no conventional hero. In fact during the first third of the film he’s a hard character to like at all and even though his attitude towards the Prauns is clearly better then that of the military men around him (and does hint at an essential decency underneath), his actions on finding the alien incubation room are repulsive enough to nearly make you turn your back on him altogether. Yet the more he’s exposed to the aliens’ way of life and the true attitudes and agenda towards them of his superiors (culminating in a memorable bio-lab scene), the more he’s forced to evaluate his own beliefs and actions until, ultimately, he realises that the concept of humanity has nothing to do with what you look like or even what species you are – and that being humane has nothing to do with being human. That the film makes you question whether he has it in him to make the sacrifices he needs to make up until the very end simply gives his final choices much more emotional impact.

Then, of course, there are the aliens. They look astonishingly real for a film with such a modest budget and Blomkamp’s decision to show them from the off is both brave and successful. Doing so allows them to become a near-commonplace part of the film and stops your attention ever being drawn too far away from the plot by the spectacle. Cleverly, Blomkamp develops the visual portrayal of the aliens on screen at the same time as Wikus’ attitude changes – main Praun character Christopher and his son get more close-ups as the film goes on, their expressions made all the more emotive and touching as a result. As for the story itself and the message behind it, it may not be subtle in its obvious parallels with apartheid in South Africa and more recent cases in Israel-Palestine & Zimbabwe but it is bluntly effective nevertheless and sets the social/political background to the film’s events in a fast, efficient manner.

D9 is never boring though and. despite its subject matter and generally serious approach, finds plenty of time for the occasional action sequence (which build towards the climax) and some very gory, splatter-filled deaths and mutilations. Fortunately these always serve the plot rather then become gratuitous additions - that they look so damn cool is the icing on the cake .

Though sci-fi fans will love the low-tech look and feel of the alien creations and others will take ghoulish delight in the more bloody scenes throughout, anyone looking for a mindless, popcorn-munching Saturday night blockbuster will find themselves surprised to find a very different beast at work with ‘District 9’, one with infinitely more depth and dramatic impact and worthy of all the critical acclaim that’s come its way so far. Excellent.

The Long & the Short: Insightful, inspirational and often harrowing accounts from the front line of WW1’s most infamous, brutal battlefield. Not just essential reading for those interested in the period but for everyone – such sacrifices should never be forgotten.

 

Considering the amount of interest in portrayals of war through the popular media, the First World War has become something of an anomaly. The Napoleonic conflict, the American Civil War, WW2, Vietnam, the Gulf War have all proved rich veins to mine for a range of fiction and non-fiction sources over the years. Yet WW1, in comparison, is near virgin territory. Fiction by and large backs away from it while non-fictional accounts (in the style of Stephen Ambrose and the like) are sparse. Perhaps it’s because the motivation behind WW1 isn’t so black and white – there’s no Hitler figure, no plucky Vietnamese, no French dictator. Nothing to comfortably polarise opinions to allow a reader/viewer to pick a side in any comfortable fashion, just a messy politically-motivated conflict where the heroes and villains of the piece never even saw a trench. Or perhaps it’s because what the soldiers of that war endured was so horrific, so terrible…who could ever understand? Perhaps, for them, a lifetime of trying to forget was the only way to survive after it.

Levine’s book certainly provides credence to the latter theory. Comprised of first-hand accounts from those soldiers who served on the front-line (courtesy of the Imperial War Museum sound archives and interviews), this is the story of the Somme from conscription to recuperation as told by those who lived through it. Privates, Majors, Padres, Stretcher Bearers, Tank Operators from across all the British battalions are given a voice.

The result is a brutally honest and honestly brutal account of what it was like to be there – and it’s not for the squeamish. Soldiers recount how they saw friends and colleagues wiped out in swathes by machine guns and mines, suffered terrible injuries to themselves and survived in horrific conditions where the pools of water were crimson with blood and the rats nested inside the ribcages of fallen comrades on the battlefield. Knowing that these were often groups of people who all marched to the conscription office to join up together (football teams, co-workers, families, schoolfriends) gives these accounts an emotionally powerful impact that’s impossible to ignore.

Yet, horrific though these images are, they’re not the most affecting things here. The matter-of-fact courage shown by the soldiers, the determination, the resilience, the (sometimes dangerous) naivety, the comaraderie at the front…all leave a deep and lasting impression. Plus, though accounts of the battles themselves take centre stage, the book also touches on issues and attitudes outside of battle too. Stories about how the decision of how far to advance was based on the kicking of a football on the battlefield, of how shell-shock and nervous breakdowns were believed to be down to cowardice (and sufferers sometimes executed on said charge by firing squad as a result), of time spent in French brothels and of the lack of understanding throughout much of the British public towards those serving in the trenches – all offer real insight into society and its values at the time, be they good, bad, moral or immoral.

Though some historians may take issue with ‘Forgotten Heroes of The Somme’ in regards to its status as an empirically accurate text, that really misses the point of why this book is so important. My own great-grandfather fought at The Somme, someone I never met and who my mother says never spoke of it. A book like this gives me and my family some idea of and insight into who he was as a person, what he went through, the things he stood for and the time he came from, and why those who fought in such a terrible war should always be remembered, respected and honoured for many years to come.

An absolutely essential purchase.

The Long & the Short - Dizzee abandons substance for style with a clutch of tracks that put a smile on your face without a memory in your head 2 minutes later. Throwaway dance/r'n'b fun (if you can suppress the little voice whispering 'sellout'),


"What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his own soul"?

Let's face it, biblical quotations aren't the first things to spring to mind when it comes to Dizzee Rascal's work normally but 'Tongue 'N' Cheek' is a different affair altogether. Four albums into a career that's seen him win a Mercury and be hailed as one of the most innovative, distinctive (and fast) rap artists to come out of the UK but never gain the commercial success to match the critical acclaim, the lure of mainstream pop has become too much for him to resist. A few calls to the likes of dance producers Armand Van Helden & Calvin Harris and this is the result.

Let's get this out of the way first - 'T'n'C' is by no means a bad album. The three chart-topping tracks are all here alongside new single 'Dirty Cash'  (though in their 7-inch incarnations only, which is particularly mean-spirited for club anthems like 'Bonkers' & 'Holiday') and the other tracks are all good fun too. Even when Dizzee does throw out the odd expletive, it's all done in an OTT cartoonish fashion that's impossible to take offense to.

Which is the problem - anyone looking for a little depth to their music will go away empty-handed and empty-headed here. In cracking the mainstream any individuality, character, social comment and real musical invention has been abandoned in favour of the kind of songs that ANY rapper could record, release and get a hit with. Dizzee's vocal style may be distinctive but tires quickly when he's saying nothing with it for track after track and, when the versions on the album are all so short, it's hard to justify buying this instead of picking up the extended versions on 12" or CD-S. Even though 'Can't Tek No More' & 'Bad Behaviour' give hope that the Rascal might not completely abandon his old influences, it only takes one listen to 'Chillin' Wiv Da Man' (whose bland, featureless R'n'B backing track numbs you so much that he could be rapping 'kill your children, rape your goldfish' and you wouldn't notice) to realise that his old audience have been left behind in favour for one that's younger, far more affluent and far less demanding.

Good luck to Dizzee Rascal. He's worked hard and deserves the success that has and will continue to come his way. But next time he says he's just 'keepin' it real' in one of his tracks then his tongue really IS in his cheek.

It’s 12:35am and I’ve just returned from having a smoke at the back door and an unpleasant mental dialogue involving me giving the eulogy at my own mother’s funeral.

Needless to say, I’m not in a great state of mind tonight.

Mum returned from a GP appt today with some troubling news. Any long-term readers may remember that 2 years ago she had a cancer scare after blood was found in her urine. After some tests (including a painful scan at the Urology dept) no trace of any cancer was found, her GP of the time effectively shrugged her shoulders and put it down to one of those things and no more was mentioned.

Until today.

Turns out that there’s blood there again and the latest GP has told her she should have been recalled for a further test as all her symptoms still suggest a strong possibility of cancer and it may have been missed first time around. The recall didn’t happen. She’s now been fast-tracked and we’re waiting on a phone call for her to go in sometime in the next 2 weeks for a repeat scan. One she should already have had. Hopefully it’s a kidney issue (that’s bad but the lesser of 2 evils in this case).

Have more-or-less held it together in front of her (my own worrying didn’t help her at all last time) and we’ve agreed to not think on it until results and the like are through – but I’m worried sick. Am aware already of it playing around in my head (as my grim little episode suggests) and, knowing that Mum’s never in great health, that’s not liable to subside anytime soon. Was a horrible period a few years ago and can’t see it being any better now. Know it isn’t healthy but, for her sake, am simply gonna have to do some of that thought repression my OCD has honed to a fine art and hope that the results come back negative again. Don’t want to even consider the alternative atm.

Glad I still have this place to let all the above out. Keep your fingers crossed for some clear results, folks. Will keep you all posted.

 

Matt

You may notice above a new section with links to T2D reviews.

Well....it is!

Have decided I need some kind of focus for the week-to-week to try and give me something other to do than sit around going insane and so am going to try and do at least 1-2 new reviews a week of things from the ents world. Might be a DVD, cinema flick, album, single, book, even a TV series...either way will keep me (and hopefully you lot) entertained and hopefully work some of the rust off of my reviewing skills.

Hopefully I'll get reviews of the latest Dizzee Rascal album up this week along with long-awaited ones of 'District 9 and 'Inglorious Bastards' soon after.

All tweeting of them gratefully received!