About Me

Llantwit Major, Wales, United Kingdom
I am mother, librarian, avid reader, sf fan, writer (unpubished), singer(amateur), animal lover, needlewoman.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas and dogs

We have had a lovely Christmas with all 3 children and one son in law home.  Ad was working on Christmas day so we had a late dinner.  Kate and Carl made a fabulous brunch with Eggs Royale and prosecco, then we had a relaxed day until Adam got home about 2.30.  We then did presents and my very generous children have given me an iPad mini, so I am very excited!  I also got some jewellery, a pretty necklace and some earrings, and a thing to make my iPod talk to the radio. So I did very well indeed.

We have had a visiting dog over Christmas.  A Jack Russell crossed with (we think) corgi so he has a very long body, very short legs and huge bat ears, but he is very cute.  Saffy does not think so, she thinks he is a young pest and is being a grumpy old lady.  He did give me a total panic tonight however.  I got back from work and he wasn't here.  After checking the house I went round the field calling 'Fudge' everywhere while Adam went down the road, and after half an hour of hunting round and now sign of him we were getting ready to phone the police.  However in the meantime Nic had phoned her friend who is a dog warden.  He gave her the number for the kennels who told her he was in Llantwit police station.  When I got there he was delighted to see me and I was equally delighted to see him!!

Our office flooded again.  2008 was the last time.  The new stock was  moved out to Barry library on Monday, and today we spent most of the day throwing things into a skip and arranging how we were going to squash ourselves into the workroom in Barry library.  Ho hum.


Thursday, December 20, 2012

Hobbit

We went to see The Hobbit last night.

Pro
Martin Freeman is brilliant as Bilbo, he was born to be a hobbit.  The characters from the previous films  fit well into the new(old) story seamlessly, and the characters they have added from background information and the appendices mostly are good too.  The characterisation of the dwarves work really well too, and they end up being much more individual than they are in the book - as far as I can remember as it is a long time since I read it.

The 3D is great.  I am still so thrilled to be able to see it, and don't understand why I can, but it is great and the depth of the pictures are really quite exciting.

Cons
It is too long.  There is too much of the group being scenic against the scenic scenery.  The scene where they escape from the goblins goes on too long too.  The baddy orc isn't very convincing, and as they are meant to be created by man why are they running an independent war?

The ending is at a sensible place, and I can see the second film, but am still completely at sea about what they are going to do with the 3rd one.

Not as good as LOTR because the story isn't as good, there is less drama, less intensity so it is less exciting.

Spoiler alert -Bilbo doesn't tell anyone about the Ring until LOTR and there is a moment when he almost tells, but Gandalf says something and looks at Bilbo as if he knows about the ring - and he doesn't, the whole point is that he doesn't know until he throws the ring into the fire many years later.  That was annoying

Flood fears are rising with the water levels around us, and we spend an hour or so today lifting 100 or so boxes of books off the floor and onto higher surfaces. Ho hum.  Fingers crossed