Hi all!
I've had a pretty good day today. Where to start.....Well, Mum got back from Valencia, so we had a brief catch up this morning, which is cool. School was.... school. Did a timed essay in English Lit, but that's OK, 'cause I have a good feeling about it. Mind you, I had a good feeling about the History exam as well. Oops... Anyway, it was Monday, so I had to babysit all the manic kids in the Library, but luckily I was with some of my meilleur copines, so everything was cool.
But the highlight of my day has got to be Spanish. I hardly got anything done, but that doesn't matter, 'cause I was having fun. It just so happens that in my Spanish lessons I have the priviledge of sitting next to one of the coolest people I know. (To all my other friends, don't feel left out - I said ONE OF the coolest). It's just... we sit there, having spontaneous conversations about the most random things in the world, and it's so EASY! Like, with some girls I wouldn't even know where to start, but not with her. I'm not going to mention her name, simply because I know that the kind of people read this who like starting completely made-up rumours to annoy me (Chris!). But yeah. Just before you jump to conclusions, I don't love her, 'cause she already has a boyfriend, and that would be bad. But we've known each other for a whole five and a half years, and we just get on so well. And she still might be going to the Days with me, even though she's seen them before. You know who you are, and I'm telling you now, you are brilliant. I don't know where I'd be without you.
Anyway, enough of that soppiness. HEROES!!! Wow, so many revelations! An actual good episode without Hiro in - I didn't know such things were possible! Mohinder - Left the show, or will he come back later?? If he's left, to be honest, I think they picked the right moment. There's only so many more things you can do to a character like that. Are the Petrellis finally teaming up to fight evil? To be honest, I think they're all as bad as each other. But at least they're not all as argumentative as they were before. And we finally found out why Angela stole the socks!!! Do you think they had this all planned, right from episode 1? It now seems even more likely that they're setting Angela up for her demise, they even tied up the socks plotline. Plus the next volume is called "Redemption", you could see the makings of that here. I still don't like Nathan. He reminds me too much of someone I know.
OK, this deserves a separate paragraph. The bombshell at the end - Sylar impersonating Nathan!! True fans will be quick to realise that this isn't the first time such an event has happened - Literally as soon as they showed it, I wanted to scream "Five Years Later" at the TV! And we all know (well, most of us...hehehe...) what happened there. Maybe we'll finally get to see the epic showdown they only hinted at in Series 1. Mind you, Peter had his full repertoire of powers back then, including an ice one - Does he get his previous ability back? Is Tracy really as dead as we're led to believe? Perhaps that future has ceased to be. Maybe Baby Matt fixes him, and her, like with Hiro. But that opens an entirely new can of worms - Peter would then have two powers, one natural and one artificial (technically his inherited powers don't count because he wouldn't have them without the "root" power), and that's something we haven't seen before. Would the two react, or repel each other, would they cancel out? So many questions.
And it wouldn't be a proper Heroes review without another fling at bringing Adam back. I was thinking the other day - Baby Matt fixes people's powers. What if he went to Adam's remains, no doubt locked away in a vault somewhere along with all those other interesting artefacts from the end of Series 2, and touched them, thereby reactivating Adam's power and causing him to heal back into a full person. Hmm...Maybe it only works if the target is still alive. But if they might be bringing Tracy back so Peter can have her power...Ah well, worth a shot! But until either the writers have enough sense to do that or I think of something else to talk about,
See ya 'round!
Jack
Monday, 27 April 2009
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Philip Larkin vs. Frank Turner - A Fight To The Death
Hi all!
So yeah, I've just been listening to some Frank Turner, and I'm not really that convinced I need to get the album yet. Yet. I might do eventually. But it's not bad. Optimistic, which is always good. In fact, I tell you what. It's like, Frank Turner is like the antidote to Larkin. Which is handy, considering I'm going to be practically bathing in Larkin for my exams.
But anyway, yesterday I went out to this awesome party. There was cake and music and everything. I even got to DJ for a bit! It was great to be able to go to something which was just my friends and I and no-one else to get in our way. I did get the impression at some points that it was all going to go down the drain, but no, we managed to keep it remarkably intact. And it was so much more relaxed than at the socials. We should have parties like that more often. Barbecue, anyone?
What lovely weather we're having! I say... That sounded way to posh. But yeah, it is pretty brilliant. I might even go out for a walk later, if I have the time. So much work to do! Yawn! Going to see the Days soon! How exciting is that? Hopefully they'll have even better equipment and be even cooler than last time, 'cause they're the main act this time, rather than just the support. At least I've got that to look forward to. Mind you, I still can't find anyone to take with me. I'm kind of running out of options; I offered to take Olwen yesterday, but even she, the person who introduced me to Frank Turner, seems intent on NOT getting up, getting down and getting outside. Everyone seems to have a better argument than me. I might even end up going with Mum again. That wouldn't be so bad, she's cool. But it would be cooler to go with a friend. Ah well, I'm sure a solution will present itself...
See ya 'round!
Jack
So yeah, I've just been listening to some Frank Turner, and I'm not really that convinced I need to get the album yet. Yet. I might do eventually. But it's not bad. Optimistic, which is always good. In fact, I tell you what. It's like, Frank Turner is like the antidote to Larkin. Which is handy, considering I'm going to be practically bathing in Larkin for my exams.
But anyway, yesterday I went out to this awesome party. There was cake and music and everything. I even got to DJ for a bit! It was great to be able to go to something which was just my friends and I and no-one else to get in our way. I did get the impression at some points that it was all going to go down the drain, but no, we managed to keep it remarkably intact. And it was so much more relaxed than at the socials. We should have parties like that more often. Barbecue, anyone?
What lovely weather we're having! I say... That sounded way to posh. But yeah, it is pretty brilliant. I might even go out for a walk later, if I have the time. So much work to do! Yawn! Going to see the Days soon! How exciting is that? Hopefully they'll have even better equipment and be even cooler than last time, 'cause they're the main act this time, rather than just the support. At least I've got that to look forward to. Mind you, I still can't find anyone to take with me. I'm kind of running out of options; I offered to take Olwen yesterday, but even she, the person who introduced me to Frank Turner, seems intent on NOT getting up, getting down and getting outside. Everyone seems to have a better argument than me. I might even end up going with Mum again. That wouldn't be so bad, she's cool. But it would be cooler to go with a friend. Ah well, I'm sure a solution will present itself...
See ya 'round!
Jack
Monday, 20 April 2009
Woody's Roundup
Hi folks!
Back to school today, and back to everyone's favourite drama, Murmuring Judges! Wahey!
Not.
Actually, I say that, but a particular line has had me (a) very confused and (b) very amused. I mean, it's obviously a typo, but it's quite funny to read. Goes a bit like this:
WOODY: Yes, Woody mentioned.
(He looks at once to WOODY, who is pouring himself a glass)
Waitwaitwaitwait.... So, now Woody is a house-elf who is watching himself having a drink in the mirror. Right? Maybe, the fact that Woody is referring to himself in the third person shows how he is naturally subservient to Sir Peter, because all good henchmen refer to themselves in the third person. That still doesn't explain the stage directions though. Maybe it's just someone's idea of a joke.
Ha Ha.
See ya 'round!
Jack
Back to school today, and back to everyone's favourite drama, Murmuring Judges! Wahey!
Not.
Actually, I say that, but a particular line has had me (a) very confused and (b) very amused. I mean, it's obviously a typo, but it's quite funny to read. Goes a bit like this:
WOODY: Yes, Woody mentioned.
(He looks at once to WOODY, who is pouring himself a glass)
Waitwaitwaitwait.... So, now Woody is a house-elf who is watching himself having a drink in the mirror. Right? Maybe, the fact that Woody is referring to himself in the third person shows how he is naturally subservient to Sir Peter, because all good henchmen refer to themselves in the third person. That still doesn't explain the stage directions though. Maybe it's just someone's idea of a joke.
Ha Ha.
See ya 'round!
Jack
Saturday, 18 April 2009
But.....That's Impossible...
Are those..... DISPOSABLE Pizza bases??
Yeah, such a random post today. But you know when you get a ready-made pizza from the supermarket, you taket out of the plastic wrapper and there's that polystyrene circle base thing. And it used to really get on my nerves, 'cause you feel like you should be able to DO something with it, but I could never think of what. And you couldn't recycle it, because it was polysyrene.
Well, NOW, they're cardboard!
It's a revolutionary breakthrough! One small step for Sainsbury's, one giant leap for frozen pizzas! What will they think of next - dissolvible packaging?
See ya 'round!
Jack
Yeah, such a random post today. But you know when you get a ready-made pizza from the supermarket, you taket out of the plastic wrapper and there's that polystyrene circle base thing. And it used to really get on my nerves, 'cause you feel like you should be able to DO something with it, but I could never think of what. And you couldn't recycle it, because it was polysyrene.
Well, NOW, they're cardboard!
It's a revolutionary breakthrough! One small step for Sainsbury's, one giant leap for frozen pizzas! What will they think of next - dissolvible packaging?
See ya 'round!
Jack
Thursday, 16 April 2009
A Knight To Remember
Hi everyone!
Today I learnt a very valuable lesson - sometimes you SHOULD believe the hype! I just finished wathcing Batman: The Dark Night, and it was pretty amazing. I know I said it would probably be rubbish and all that, but I guess it turned out to be good after all. A bit gruesome in places, I've got to admit, but on the whole it was incredible. great graphics, great scenery, great actors - Even Heath Ledger was good! Honestly, if I wasn't so used to supervillains by now, I'd be having some serious nightmares about him. And Two-Face, come to mention it. I'm glad they got Gotham nice and neat and tidy as well. It actually looks liveable-in now!
One thing that did annoy me, and I know it's kind of the nature of Batman being a bit of an anti-hero, but both movies now seem to have had very downbeat endings. I guess that was probably one of the things that put me off seeing TDK in the first place. And I guess the Joker's still out there somewhere. Or did they kill him after all? I'm confused. Nice touch about the people on the boats, though. Kind of optimistic... Well, as optimistic as Batman can be! Oh, that's the other thing - I thought Robin was supposed to be in it now as well...? Maybe the next one.
I don't think it was quite worth all the hype they gave it, but on the whole it is an incredible movie. I would still choose to watch Iron Man over The Dark Knight, but one thing's for sure - It is a movie you MUST SEE before you die. And Alfred is still the coolest character.
See ya 'round!
Jack
Today I learnt a very valuable lesson - sometimes you SHOULD believe the hype! I just finished wathcing Batman: The Dark Night, and it was pretty amazing. I know I said it would probably be rubbish and all that, but I guess it turned out to be good after all. A bit gruesome in places, I've got to admit, but on the whole it was incredible. great graphics, great scenery, great actors - Even Heath Ledger was good! Honestly, if I wasn't so used to supervillains by now, I'd be having some serious nightmares about him. And Two-Face, come to mention it. I'm glad they got Gotham nice and neat and tidy as well. It actually looks liveable-in now!
One thing that did annoy me, and I know it's kind of the nature of Batman being a bit of an anti-hero, but both movies now seem to have had very downbeat endings. I guess that was probably one of the things that put me off seeing TDK in the first place. And I guess the Joker's still out there somewhere. Or did they kill him after all? I'm confused. Nice touch about the people on the boats, though. Kind of optimistic... Well, as optimistic as Batman can be! Oh, that's the other thing - I thought Robin was supposed to be in it now as well...? Maybe the next one.
I don't think it was quite worth all the hype they gave it, but on the whole it is an incredible movie. I would still choose to watch Iron Man over The Dark Knight, but one thing's for sure - It is a movie you MUST SEE before you die. And Alfred is still the coolest character.
See ya 'round!
Jack
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Day 6 - Where'd The Keys Go?
Hi all.
I'm so bored. I was looking forward to going round to a friend's tomorrow, but now I don't even have that. I mean, I suppose it's partly my own fault, but I've hardly seen ANYONE this holiday. It's been so boring. I mean, there was the trip, and easter, but apart from that, hardly anything's happened. I should really be revising loads, but I just lack motivation completely at the moment. I mean, I know there's the long-term "you'll go to a good uni and get a great job" malarkey, but it would be nice to have something a bit closer. Say, this weekend? Nothing's going to happen now I've suggested it! That's how my life works!
Hey...
I know what would cheer me up, and I know what would cheer you up as well! Yep, that's right! It's the final day of my Russia diary! Hooray!
So, I woke up this morning and had a good breakfast to compensate for my lack of lunch money, and after five minutes of packing (I didn't have much to put away), I found I had half an hour spare, so I headed down to the bar and asked if there was any chance I could play the piano there - Apparently I could!
To be honest, the piano wasn't brilliant. One of the Ds wouldn't work, which was frustrating because a lot of my stuff is D-related. To be honest, I just wanted something to fling my feelingss at for a bit, and I thought it would be beneficial for everyone if I chose the piano over Ian. Among other things, I decided that the little blues improv number I always seem to have up my sleeve should be called "Tounge-Tied", mainly because it has no lyrics. Some random Italian guy appeared to be complementing me, which was a good sign, I guess. But at least it passed the time until we left.
So at nine we headed to the first site of the day - a memorial cemetery for all the Russian soldiers who died in the Second World War - the Siege of Leningrad etc. It was really moving. They had another one of those eternal flame things in the entrance, and from there you could walk down through rows and rows of "common graves"; that is, graves which have groups of people in, rather than just individual ones, because the people of the city were starving so badly they did not have the energy to dig separate graves. At the other end of the walk, you could see a statue and a written memorial, as well as some flowers from the President of Chile. They were playing sombre music through the tanoy as well, although I could have been sure I recognised Pachabel's Canon in there somewhere. I thought they only played that at weddings! All said, however, it was a pretty sobering experience.
We then headed to our second port of call, the Finland railway station. Logically, it's the station at one end of the line that goes over the top to Finland. Inside, we saw on display the train that Lenin was sent out of the country in, and which he later returned in. The picture-taking wasn't that good because the Sun was in the wrong place and the glass was really reflective, so my camera could hardly detect the train itself. We also saw a statue of Lenin... or at least where it should be. But they were busy restoring it because someone had bazooka-ed him in the back, or something.
When we'd finished looking around the station, we took a short drive to the Museum of Russian Politics - it was as boring as it sounds! It wasn't that the things they had on display weren't interesting, because they were, they were fascinating. They even had Sputnik, or at least a replica - I thought I saw the real one in the Science Museum. But it was the sort of museum where you had to be herded round in huge groups, and a guy would stand in front of all the most miniscule displays, and talk at you for five minutes, before herding you on to the next section, and so on. What made it worse was that the man who was leading the tour only spoke Russian, so we had to wait twice as long for the English translation. You had to pay for a photo permit again, and as I had no money left, I passed on this option.
Excruciatingly slowly, the time passed, and soon we were on the coach again, heading for the airport! As we drove, I took my last look at the streets of St. Petersburg, and too soon we had arrived at the end of the line. Our guide, whose name I have finally deduced is Theod, or something like that, bade us a sad farewell, and before we knew it we were through the airport's seriously convoluted customs system and in Departures. The shopping facilities here weren't fantastic, but still more comprehensive than, say, Banjul. Everyone else went of to get lunch at TGI Friday's, but as I've already mentioned, I had no money, so I sat and did my diary and waited until they served us on the plane.
It turns out I drew the longer of the straws - The lunches at TGI Friday's turned up late! So I waited around some more, and then, after passing through yet more convoluted customs, we could board the plane. I had an aisle seat on row 13, which was quite ominous and foreshadowing. Once everyone was seated (I ended up next to pokemon-pringle guy and his Reigate friend) the safety video was shown and the pilot spent fifteen minutes taxi-ing around the airfield in random circles. I was certain he had no idea where he was going! Another quarter of an hour passed as we camped out somewhere which wasn't quite the runway, and I began to dig in to my Heroes magazine. I feel really guilty I haven't made a start on my "proper" literature - The James Bond book, "From Russia With Love", naturally! - but to be honest there just wasn't time!
Eventually, we were soaring into the air again and waving our final goodbyes to Russia. Lunch was soon brought around, and I cracked on with my diary, whilst playing "Here Come The Drums" on my iPod to get me in the mood for the sunny remainder of the holidays which hopefully awaited me back home.
Well, time passed, and sure enough the captain soon announced that the weather in London was a sunny 16 degrees! Bodes well for the barbecue tomorrow (Said barbecue has since been cancelled.)! So, rather suddenly, we found ourselves thudding onto the runway at Heathrow. I was sad because the holiday was over, but happy because it was sunny! So the pilot returned to his favourite hobby of driving around in random circles, and eventually we ended up in a part of the airfield which wasn't quite the terminal, and got a bus back to the building itself. From there, we passed smoothly through passport control and onto the bus. It was really strange to see a Pulhams bus again, after all those Ladas and trams and electric buses.
Once on our way, we presented the teachers with their thankyou presents, and as we all cheered for them I got the sense that all of us, despite our differences, had become part of a massive circle of friends. I guess that's what school trips do to you. No doubt after the holidays we'll go back to acting just as though nothing had ever happened, but you never know with these things. And hey, if nothing else, I can be content in the knowledge that, somewhere out there in that humungous world we live in, some random Italian guy has enjoyed my music. Hooray.
Cripes, it's all over. I hope you've enjoyed reading about the trip as much as I've enjoyed being their and writing for you! I guess the next cool diary moment like this will be for the Spanish work experience in July, which promises to be awesome. And we're a much smaller group as well, so we should really get on. But until then, your normal, boring service will resume. Anyway, what am i doing here, I should be revising! Ho-hum...
See ya 'round!
Jack
I'm so bored. I was looking forward to going round to a friend's tomorrow, but now I don't even have that. I mean, I suppose it's partly my own fault, but I've hardly seen ANYONE this holiday. It's been so boring. I mean, there was the trip, and easter, but apart from that, hardly anything's happened. I should really be revising loads, but I just lack motivation completely at the moment. I mean, I know there's the long-term "you'll go to a good uni and get a great job" malarkey, but it would be nice to have something a bit closer. Say, this weekend? Nothing's going to happen now I've suggested it! That's how my life works!
Hey...
I know what would cheer me up, and I know what would cheer you up as well! Yep, that's right! It's the final day of my Russia diary! Hooray!
So, I woke up this morning and had a good breakfast to compensate for my lack of lunch money, and after five minutes of packing (I didn't have much to put away), I found I had half an hour spare, so I headed down to the bar and asked if there was any chance I could play the piano there - Apparently I could!
To be honest, the piano wasn't brilliant. One of the Ds wouldn't work, which was frustrating because a lot of my stuff is D-related. To be honest, I just wanted something to fling my feelingss at for a bit, and I thought it would be beneficial for everyone if I chose the piano over Ian. Among other things, I decided that the little blues improv number I always seem to have up my sleeve should be called "Tounge-Tied", mainly because it has no lyrics. Some random Italian guy appeared to be complementing me, which was a good sign, I guess. But at least it passed the time until we left.
So at nine we headed to the first site of the day - a memorial cemetery for all the Russian soldiers who died in the Second World War - the Siege of Leningrad etc. It was really moving. They had another one of those eternal flame things in the entrance, and from there you could walk down through rows and rows of "common graves"; that is, graves which have groups of people in, rather than just individual ones, because the people of the city were starving so badly they did not have the energy to dig separate graves. At the other end of the walk, you could see a statue and a written memorial, as well as some flowers from the President of Chile. They were playing sombre music through the tanoy as well, although I could have been sure I recognised Pachabel's Canon in there somewhere. I thought they only played that at weddings! All said, however, it was a pretty sobering experience.
We then headed to our second port of call, the Finland railway station. Logically, it's the station at one end of the line that goes over the top to Finland. Inside, we saw on display the train that Lenin was sent out of the country in, and which he later returned in. The picture-taking wasn't that good because the Sun was in the wrong place and the glass was really reflective, so my camera could hardly detect the train itself. We also saw a statue of Lenin... or at least where it should be. But they were busy restoring it because someone had bazooka-ed him in the back, or something.
When we'd finished looking around the station, we took a short drive to the Museum of Russian Politics - it was as boring as it sounds! It wasn't that the things they had on display weren't interesting, because they were, they were fascinating. They even had Sputnik, or at least a replica - I thought I saw the real one in the Science Museum. But it was the sort of museum where you had to be herded round in huge groups, and a guy would stand in front of all the most miniscule displays, and talk at you for five minutes, before herding you on to the next section, and so on. What made it worse was that the man who was leading the tour only spoke Russian, so we had to wait twice as long for the English translation. You had to pay for a photo permit again, and as I had no money left, I passed on this option.
Excruciatingly slowly, the time passed, and soon we were on the coach again, heading for the airport! As we drove, I took my last look at the streets of St. Petersburg, and too soon we had arrived at the end of the line. Our guide, whose name I have finally deduced is Theod, or something like that, bade us a sad farewell, and before we knew it we were through the airport's seriously convoluted customs system and in Departures. The shopping facilities here weren't fantastic, but still more comprehensive than, say, Banjul. Everyone else went of to get lunch at TGI Friday's, but as I've already mentioned, I had no money, so I sat and did my diary and waited until they served us on the plane.
It turns out I drew the longer of the straws - The lunches at TGI Friday's turned up late! So I waited around some more, and then, after passing through yet more convoluted customs, we could board the plane. I had an aisle seat on row 13, which was quite ominous and foreshadowing. Once everyone was seated (I ended up next to pokemon-pringle guy and his Reigate friend) the safety video was shown and the pilot spent fifteen minutes taxi-ing around the airfield in random circles. I was certain he had no idea where he was going! Another quarter of an hour passed as we camped out somewhere which wasn't quite the runway, and I began to dig in to my Heroes magazine. I feel really guilty I haven't made a start on my "proper" literature - The James Bond book, "From Russia With Love", naturally! - but to be honest there just wasn't time!
Eventually, we were soaring into the air again and waving our final goodbyes to Russia. Lunch was soon brought around, and I cracked on with my diary, whilst playing "Here Come The Drums" on my iPod to get me in the mood for the sunny remainder of the holidays which hopefully awaited me back home.
Well, time passed, and sure enough the captain soon announced that the weather in London was a sunny 16 degrees! Bodes well for the barbecue tomorrow (Said barbecue has since been cancelled.)! So, rather suddenly, we found ourselves thudding onto the runway at Heathrow. I was sad because the holiday was over, but happy because it was sunny! So the pilot returned to his favourite hobby of driving around in random circles, and eventually we ended up in a part of the airfield which wasn't quite the terminal, and got a bus back to the building itself. From there, we passed smoothly through passport control and onto the bus. It was really strange to see a Pulhams bus again, after all those Ladas and trams and electric buses.
Once on our way, we presented the teachers with their thankyou presents, and as we all cheered for them I got the sense that all of us, despite our differences, had become part of a massive circle of friends. I guess that's what school trips do to you. No doubt after the holidays we'll go back to acting just as though nothing had ever happened, but you never know with these things. And hey, if nothing else, I can be content in the knowledge that, somewhere out there in that humungous world we live in, some random Italian guy has enjoyed my music. Hooray.
Cripes, it's all over. I hope you've enjoyed reading about the trip as much as I've enjoyed being their and writing for you! I guess the next cool diary moment like this will be for the Spanish work experience in July, which promises to be awesome. And we're a much smaller group as well, so we should really get on. But until then, your normal, boring service will resume. Anyway, what am i doing here, I should be revising! Ho-hum...
See ya 'round!
Jack
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Day 5 - "Don't think, just buy!"
Hi folks!
So today, it's time for Day 5 of my Russia diary. Enjoy!
Today's weather was cold, but still really sunny - a vast improvement upon yesterday! After breakfast and getting ready, we made our way onto the bus towards the Hermitage, also known as the Winter Palace! I had opportunities to take much better photos of the sites in St. Petersburg. It didn't take us long to reach the building, and after a short queue we were in. I managedd to buy a camera permit, meaning I could take lots of photos! The building itself was incredible - really ornate and covered in gold leaf - You wonder how they got it all to look so perfect.
Personally, paintings have never really interested me. Don't get me wrong, I can respect them for what they are, but I'll never be fascinated by them the way I am with books and music. I took some pictures anyway, but when I ran out of space on my card, I wasn't too fazed. After a while, however, the rooms seemed to go on forever, and our guide's voice had a really soporific effect!
A blast of icy fresh air was enough to wake us up though, and we set off down the prospekt to find lunch. I was confident going around by myself - in any case, it was better than going to MacDonalds like everyone else. Unfortunately, I got ambushed by the teachers, who insisted that I go with them to have pizza. So yeah. That was fun... Not!
But anyway, after joining up with the others, we headed down to the Church of the Spilled Blood, which was essentially a mini St. Basil's. It was 350 roubles to get inside, so I decided to just take pictures from the outside. We then took a short detour to the Fields of Mars, which was a fire representing the Revolutions and everyone who died in them. It was sad to see the monument in such a run-down state, but I suppsoe the people here are anti-Revolution these days.
So we were then given free reign around the local souvenir market. It was great fun, haggling with everyone. I managed to get one guy to reduce something from 1500 roubles to just 700. I also bought some air-force-related badges to add to my school bag. Pretty much all my money was now spent, apart from the 18 roubles I would need for the bus back. Catching the bus was...interesting. Whereas in England you pay the driver, here a conductor comes to find you. With a bus as packed as ours - believe me, it was packed - this can lead to chaos! Eventually, however, we got back. After dinner, the evening's entertainment was a Russian folk evening! So I dug out my shirt (There are shirts, and there are shirts. This was the latter. Hehehe...) and joined the otehrs, and pretty soon after we were taking our seats in a seriously posh theatre.
The show itself was incredible - ten times better than the flamenco! The things they were doing with their arms and legs were incredible - they must be made of pure muscle. The music was great as well, proper Russian folk music - they even had one of thos mahussive triangular guitars whose name I can't remember. In the interval I enjoyed champagne with nibbles, as well as some expert piano playing. The pianist even showed off a bit of Fur Elise at one point. I also learnt a funky new word - "Twende" IS Swahili for "Let's go!". I'm going to say that all the time now - Twende!
The rest of teh night was pretty much a repeat of yesterday, although I felt a bit left out in the bar. I wish the gang had been there. I could have had a laugh with them.
Anyway, there you have it, the last full day of the Russia trip. TOMORROW, look forward to more sight seeing, before the return home! Cripes, that was fast!
See ya 'round!
Jack
So today, it's time for Day 5 of my Russia diary. Enjoy!
Today's weather was cold, but still really sunny - a vast improvement upon yesterday! After breakfast and getting ready, we made our way onto the bus towards the Hermitage, also known as the Winter Palace! I had opportunities to take much better photos of the sites in St. Petersburg. It didn't take us long to reach the building, and after a short queue we were in. I managedd to buy a camera permit, meaning I could take lots of photos! The building itself was incredible - really ornate and covered in gold leaf - You wonder how they got it all to look so perfect.
Personally, paintings have never really interested me. Don't get me wrong, I can respect them for what they are, but I'll never be fascinated by them the way I am with books and music. I took some pictures anyway, but when I ran out of space on my card, I wasn't too fazed. After a while, however, the rooms seemed to go on forever, and our guide's voice had a really soporific effect!
A blast of icy fresh air was enough to wake us up though, and we set off down the prospekt to find lunch. I was confident going around by myself - in any case, it was better than going to MacDonalds like everyone else. Unfortunately, I got ambushed by the teachers, who insisted that I go with them to have pizza. So yeah. That was fun... Not!
But anyway, after joining up with the others, we headed down to the Church of the Spilled Blood, which was essentially a mini St. Basil's. It was 350 roubles to get inside, so I decided to just take pictures from the outside. We then took a short detour to the Fields of Mars, which was a fire representing the Revolutions and everyone who died in them. It was sad to see the monument in such a run-down state, but I suppsoe the people here are anti-Revolution these days.
So we were then given free reign around the local souvenir market. It was great fun, haggling with everyone. I managed to get one guy to reduce something from 1500 roubles to just 700. I also bought some air-force-related badges to add to my school bag. Pretty much all my money was now spent, apart from the 18 roubles I would need for the bus back. Catching the bus was...interesting. Whereas in England you pay the driver, here a conductor comes to find you. With a bus as packed as ours - believe me, it was packed - this can lead to chaos! Eventually, however, we got back. After dinner, the evening's entertainment was a Russian folk evening! So I dug out my shirt (There are shirts, and there are shirts. This was the latter. Hehehe...) and joined the otehrs, and pretty soon after we were taking our seats in a seriously posh theatre.
The show itself was incredible - ten times better than the flamenco! The things they were doing with their arms and legs were incredible - they must be made of pure muscle. The music was great as well, proper Russian folk music - they even had one of thos mahussive triangular guitars whose name I can't remember. In the interval I enjoyed champagne with nibbles, as well as some expert piano playing. The pianist even showed off a bit of Fur Elise at one point. I also learnt a funky new word - "Twende" IS Swahili for "Let's go!". I'm going to say that all the time now - Twende!
The rest of teh night was pretty much a repeat of yesterday, although I felt a bit left out in the bar. I wish the gang had been there. I could have had a laugh with them.
Anyway, there you have it, the last full day of the Russia trip. TOMORROW, look forward to more sight seeing, before the return home! Cripes, that was fast!
See ya 'round!
Jack
Monday, 13 April 2009
Day 4 - A Thick Layer of Pete
Hello again!
I won't tread water too much today, mainly because I'm so exhausted i can't think of anything to write! So instead, I'll hand you over to the me of the past, who will explain Day 4 of the Russia trip!
A load of the others seemed intent on staying up as late (or early) as possible last night, and as a result I didn't get much sleep, and woke up feeling tired and stiff on the top bunk as we rolled into St. Petersburg. I awkwardly dressed, not worrying about how I looked - there would be time to shower in the hotel. Anyway, once everyone was packed and ready, we made our way out onto the platform, the northernmost platform I've ever stood on in the world, and waited to meet our new guide. It didn't take long for him to appear, and we were then led out to our new coach, to head to the new hotel!
Along the way, as in Moscow, our guide pointed out interesting sites to us, although most of us were too tired to remember any of them! I do know, however, that the city is built over a series of islands, conquered by Peter the Great (!), the local hero, and that one of them is called Rabbit Island because (predictably) Peter saw rabbits on it. Arriving at the hotel, we found that it was the same basic format as the one in Moscow, but with a smaller selection of food but posher facilities otherwise. I got to the room and had a quick but refreshing shower, before we headed down for a bogstandard continental breakfast.
With the morning meal finished, it was time to see more of the city! The weather was stuck somewhere between heavy rain and heavy snow, so it was hard to get good photos from the coach. Occassionally we got out when there was something particularly interesting to see, but on the whole it was one of those mornings when we were driven around and talked at and tried to carma as much as possible into our seriously tired-out brains.
One highlight was the Peter and Paul Fortress - it had a humungous gold church inside and was very similar to the Kremlin, only this time I had my camera with me! We saw, among other things, an ugly but honest statue of Peter, the church, where the remains of all the Tsars were kept, and a big scary black gate through which prisoners were taken to be deported... I think.
Afterwards, the grown-ups must have finally twigged how tired we were, because we headed back to the hotel for some chill-out time. A load of people went swimming in the awesome water park they have here, but unfortunately I couldn't join them because I had no swimming kit! Instead, I went back to the room to do some more on my diray. With this out of the way, I finally had the chance to post my postcards, as well as give my bag a bit of a tidy. At seven, we headed downstairs for dinner, which was a set meal this time, rather than a buffet. Essentially it was the same as last night, but with no soup and a pudding of peach tart.
After dinner I ended up going back to "The Lads'" room, just for a bit of variety, I guess. It was a chance to catch up on some missed gossip, if nothing else. We whiled away the time until quarter to nine (hey, that almost rhymes!), when we all met up at the bar to discuss plans for the evening and tomorrow. I was a bit distracted, though, by the saxophonist who had started playing in another part off the room. It's been quite a while since I last heard proper live sax, and I maintain that it is the single most beautiful man-made sound in the world. Struggling to concentrate, I gathered that we were going out to a nearby traditional Russian pub which turned out to be... Well, different! I myself didn't drink; alcohol in general doesn't appeal to me, although I did enjoy a good brandy and coke in front of Doctor Who the other night. I ended up in a competition with someone to list how many countries we'd visited. I think I won about 21-20, and then only because the Vimy Ridge memorial is technically Canadian territory. It was that close.
Anyway, on the way back we were planning to visit the supermarket, but because it was quite late we decided to leave it until tomorrow. So I finished my diary and went to sleep instead. Simple as!
Yaaaaaaaawn... Well, there you have it. Episode 4. TOMORROW, tune in for paintings, palaces and Spilled Blood...Intriguing, huh? See ya 'round!
Jack
I won't tread water too much today, mainly because I'm so exhausted i can't think of anything to write! So instead, I'll hand you over to the me of the past, who will explain Day 4 of the Russia trip!
A load of the others seemed intent on staying up as late (or early) as possible last night, and as a result I didn't get much sleep, and woke up feeling tired and stiff on the top bunk as we rolled into St. Petersburg. I awkwardly dressed, not worrying about how I looked - there would be time to shower in the hotel. Anyway, once everyone was packed and ready, we made our way out onto the platform, the northernmost platform I've ever stood on in the world, and waited to meet our new guide. It didn't take long for him to appear, and we were then led out to our new coach, to head to the new hotel!
Along the way, as in Moscow, our guide pointed out interesting sites to us, although most of us were too tired to remember any of them! I do know, however, that the city is built over a series of islands, conquered by Peter the Great (!), the local hero, and that one of them is called Rabbit Island because (predictably) Peter saw rabbits on it. Arriving at the hotel, we found that it was the same basic format as the one in Moscow, but with a smaller selection of food but posher facilities otherwise. I got to the room and had a quick but refreshing shower, before we headed down for a bogstandard continental breakfast.
With the morning meal finished, it was time to see more of the city! The weather was stuck somewhere between heavy rain and heavy snow, so it was hard to get good photos from the coach. Occassionally we got out when there was something particularly interesting to see, but on the whole it was one of those mornings when we were driven around and talked at and tried to carma as much as possible into our seriously tired-out brains.
One highlight was the Peter and Paul Fortress - it had a humungous gold church inside and was very similar to the Kremlin, only this time I had my camera with me! We saw, among other things, an ugly but honest statue of Peter, the church, where the remains of all the Tsars were kept, and a big scary black gate through which prisoners were taken to be deported... I think.
Afterwards, the grown-ups must have finally twigged how tired we were, because we headed back to the hotel for some chill-out time. A load of people went swimming in the awesome water park they have here, but unfortunately I couldn't join them because I had no swimming kit! Instead, I went back to the room to do some more on my diray. With this out of the way, I finally had the chance to post my postcards, as well as give my bag a bit of a tidy. At seven, we headed downstairs for dinner, which was a set meal this time, rather than a buffet. Essentially it was the same as last night, but with no soup and a pudding of peach tart.
After dinner I ended up going back to "The Lads'" room, just for a bit of variety, I guess. It was a chance to catch up on some missed gossip, if nothing else. We whiled away the time until quarter to nine (hey, that almost rhymes!), when we all met up at the bar to discuss plans for the evening and tomorrow. I was a bit distracted, though, by the saxophonist who had started playing in another part off the room. It's been quite a while since I last heard proper live sax, and I maintain that it is the single most beautiful man-made sound in the world. Struggling to concentrate, I gathered that we were going out to a nearby traditional Russian pub which turned out to be... Well, different! I myself didn't drink; alcohol in general doesn't appeal to me, although I did enjoy a good brandy and coke in front of Doctor Who the other night. I ended up in a competition with someone to list how many countries we'd visited. I think I won about 21-20, and then only because the Vimy Ridge memorial is technically Canadian territory. It was that close.
Anyway, on the way back we were planning to visit the supermarket, but because it was quite late we decided to leave it until tomorrow. So I finished my diary and went to sleep instead. Simple as!
Yaaaaaaaawn... Well, there you have it. Episode 4. TOMORROW, tune in for paintings, palaces and Spilled Blood...Intriguing, huh? See ya 'round!
Jack
Sunday, 12 April 2009
Day 3 - The Galactic Metro Market Circus Comes To Town!
Hi all.
First things first - HAPPY EASTER! Hope you got loads of chocolate. Personally, I've just enjoyed a huge chunk of my brother's industrial-sized Toblerone in front of the second viewing of Doctor Who! Does life get any better? Well, yeah. It does. But not by much. ANYWAY, back on the tracks today, literally I suppose, I bring you Day 3 of my Russia diary...
After a good night's rest, I woke in the morning and headed straight down to breakfast. I didn't see anyone in the breakfast hall, so I guess they were all having a lie in! After a short meal, I headed back to the room to get my things packed. After doing this, I had plenty of time spare, so I checked my money to make sure I still had enough roubles for the rest of the week.
At about half ten, we met in the lobby and left for our first destination - the space monument! I'm not quite sure what its real name was; I only knew it as "the space monument". The accompanying museum wasn't open, but I still had an opportunity to bend the laws of physics and take some great photos. I also learnt some important dates, such as 1957, the year Sputnik was launched (and co-incidentally the year Indy 4 was set in), and 1961, when Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space.
Armed with this knowledge, we moved on to a nearby park, which still retained many of its Soviet architechture and emblems. The park was surrounded by several pavillions, each celebrating a different part of the USSR. These are now shopping areas similar to those in Singapore, only not as big or busy, and after a quick browse in "Armenia", we headed into the biggest building. Whilst inside, I looked around for a CD shop, and eventually located a small stall. In my poor Russian, I asked the lady what was Number 1 in Russia at the moment, but evidently something must have been lost in translation, because she gave me folk music instead! Ah well, better than nothing.
After this we headed briefly back to the hotel to meet up with Irina, who then took us on a tour of the Metro! It's totally different to other Metros I've used - The stations were all decorated as though they were actual historical buildings - mosaics, gold leaf and chandeliers adorned every hallway! I still got to play the number game in the carriages, but I'm not convinced anyone else wanted to join in! The Metro routes are much tidier here as well - There's an almost circular track and thena load of straight tracks which bisect it at various angles. I wanted to pick up a map, like you can do in London, but sadly I couldn't find any available. Maybe Russians have the Metro map saved to their brain or something.
Anyway, once we had experienced the Metro, we returned to the coach and drove on to a good shopping street. I ended up having lunch in a Russian Starbucks! It was really surreal! The ambience and people-watching were, however, just as good as back home. After my speedy lunch, I went for a stroll down the prospekt, as they call the streets here (Kind of a "Prospekt March", I suppose), and bought some presents for my friends at school. Just some little Russian dolls. So time passed, and eventually we met up again and drove on to a restaurant where we could have dinner.
Dinner time proved to be less than enjoyable. Not because the food was bad - it was perfectly adequate, in my opinion. But, just my luck, I ended up sat at a table full of "The Lads" again. They were always so negative and immature about everything that was put in front of them. It was only salad, soup, steak and ice-cream, foor goodness sake! How much more generic do you want? There was quite a funny incident, however, when some of the guys put salt in the sugar, because they assumed no-one would use it again, and then the teachers borrowed it for their tea! Oops!!!
So then we headed out to see the Moscow State Circus. It was amazing! Some of the ways the acrobats contorted themselves were mind-boggling, and the lights and sounds made things really dramatic. The pit band sounded like they were having a whale of a time! The only downside was the animals. It looked horriffic, the way they were caged up and whipped like that. And it wasn't even serving a purpose. It was almost as though they were saying, "How badly can we treat these animals? How low can we bring them?" At least in most zoos they can live in some semblance of their true habitat. But here, all they do is go between a 2-metre-square box, sometimes not even that, and an arena where they are stripped of their dignity in front of hordes of jeering spectators. The lion is supposed to be the King of the Beasts, but here I saw him reduced to a tame house-cat. If I was supposed to be impressed, I was a disappointment. I refused to clap.
But other than that, it was brilliant! So afterwards, we got back on the coach and drove to the station, through the glimmering streets of Moscow at midnight. Inevitably, all the good lights were on the other side of the bus, so I didn't take any photos. Eventually we reached the station and waited to board the night train. A short while passed, as I busied myself with people-watching and keeping hold of my belongings at all times, and then we were shepherded into our compartments.
The compartment is... not huge. But definitely suitable for one night. I doubt I could spend a week on it, as you would if you were on the Trans-Siberian, but for just the short journey it was perfect. So I bunked down and, after completing my diary, got some much-needed rest. Once again I was clueless as to what tomorrow morning would bring.
Well well well, three holes in the ground. That was another action-packed day in Moscow. I feel sorry for the bus driver - He probably had to do it all again the day after! So, I won't waffle any longer, Stay tuned for the first day in St Petersburg! Actually, you probably won't miss much tomorrow, we were too worn-out to get up to much. But there were a few interesting things. So until then, I will ride off into the sunset, in which direction my old log cabin just happens to be.
It must be pretty depressing, living in a log cabin...
See ya 'round!
Jack
First things first - HAPPY EASTER! Hope you got loads of chocolate. Personally, I've just enjoyed a huge chunk of my brother's industrial-sized Toblerone in front of the second viewing of Doctor Who! Does life get any better? Well, yeah. It does. But not by much. ANYWAY, back on the tracks today, literally I suppose, I bring you Day 3 of my Russia diary...
After a good night's rest, I woke in the morning and headed straight down to breakfast. I didn't see anyone in the breakfast hall, so I guess they were all having a lie in! After a short meal, I headed back to the room to get my things packed. After doing this, I had plenty of time spare, so I checked my money to make sure I still had enough roubles for the rest of the week.
At about half ten, we met in the lobby and left for our first destination - the space monument! I'm not quite sure what its real name was; I only knew it as "the space monument". The accompanying museum wasn't open, but I still had an opportunity to bend the laws of physics and take some great photos. I also learnt some important dates, such as 1957, the year Sputnik was launched (and co-incidentally the year Indy 4 was set in), and 1961, when Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space.
Armed with this knowledge, we moved on to a nearby park, which still retained many of its Soviet architechture and emblems. The park was surrounded by several pavillions, each celebrating a different part of the USSR. These are now shopping areas similar to those in Singapore, only not as big or busy, and after a quick browse in "Armenia", we headed into the biggest building. Whilst inside, I looked around for a CD shop, and eventually located a small stall. In my poor Russian, I asked the lady what was Number 1 in Russia at the moment, but evidently something must have been lost in translation, because she gave me folk music instead! Ah well, better than nothing.
After this we headed briefly back to the hotel to meet up with Irina, who then took us on a tour of the Metro! It's totally different to other Metros I've used - The stations were all decorated as though they were actual historical buildings - mosaics, gold leaf and chandeliers adorned every hallway! I still got to play the number game in the carriages, but I'm not convinced anyone else wanted to join in! The Metro routes are much tidier here as well - There's an almost circular track and thena load of straight tracks which bisect it at various angles. I wanted to pick up a map, like you can do in London, but sadly I couldn't find any available. Maybe Russians have the Metro map saved to their brain or something.
Anyway, once we had experienced the Metro, we returned to the coach and drove on to a good shopping street. I ended up having lunch in a Russian Starbucks! It was really surreal! The ambience and people-watching were, however, just as good as back home. After my speedy lunch, I went for a stroll down the prospekt, as they call the streets here (Kind of a "Prospekt March", I suppose), and bought some presents for my friends at school. Just some little Russian dolls. So time passed, and eventually we met up again and drove on to a restaurant where we could have dinner.
Dinner time proved to be less than enjoyable. Not because the food was bad - it was perfectly adequate, in my opinion. But, just my luck, I ended up sat at a table full of "The Lads" again. They were always so negative and immature about everything that was put in front of them. It was only salad, soup, steak and ice-cream, foor goodness sake! How much more generic do you want? There was quite a funny incident, however, when some of the guys put salt in the sugar, because they assumed no-one would use it again, and then the teachers borrowed it for their tea! Oops!!!
So then we headed out to see the Moscow State Circus. It was amazing! Some of the ways the acrobats contorted themselves were mind-boggling, and the lights and sounds made things really dramatic. The pit band sounded like they were having a whale of a time! The only downside was the animals. It looked horriffic, the way they were caged up and whipped like that. And it wasn't even serving a purpose. It was almost as though they were saying, "How badly can we treat these animals? How low can we bring them?" At least in most zoos they can live in some semblance of their true habitat. But here, all they do is go between a 2-metre-square box, sometimes not even that, and an arena where they are stripped of their dignity in front of hordes of jeering spectators. The lion is supposed to be the King of the Beasts, but here I saw him reduced to a tame house-cat. If I was supposed to be impressed, I was a disappointment. I refused to clap.
But other than that, it was brilliant! So afterwards, we got back on the coach and drove to the station, through the glimmering streets of Moscow at midnight. Inevitably, all the good lights were on the other side of the bus, so I didn't take any photos. Eventually we reached the station and waited to board the night train. A short while passed, as I busied myself with people-watching and keeping hold of my belongings at all times, and then we were shepherded into our compartments.
The compartment is... not huge. But definitely suitable for one night. I doubt I could spend a week on it, as you would if you were on the Trans-Siberian, but for just the short journey it was perfect. So I bunked down and, after completing my diary, got some much-needed rest. Once again I was clueless as to what tomorrow morning would bring.
Well well well, three holes in the ground. That was another action-packed day in Moscow. I feel sorry for the bus driver - He probably had to do it all again the day after! So, I won't waffle any longer, Stay tuned for the first day in St Petersburg! Actually, you probably won't miss much tomorrow, we were too worn-out to get up to much. But there were a few interesting things. So until then, I will ride off into the sunset, in which direction my old log cabin just happens to be.
It must be pretty depressing, living in a log cabin...
See ya 'round!
Jack
Saturday, 11 April 2009
All Aboard!
<<<<<<< WE INTERRUPT THIS BROADCAST TO BRING YOU IMPORTANT INFORMATION >>>>>>>
Yep, that's right! It's the Who Review! As I'm sure you all know, Planet of the Dead was first shown earlier today, and what a beastie it was! So, let's take it from the top. Oh, and by the way, if you haven't seen it yet, there will invariably be spoilers, so don't read past THIS POINT.
What an incredible intro! It was such a stylish set-up, it almost belonged in Mission Impossible or National Treasure, rather than Doctor Who! I don't think I've felt that sort of vibe since....Well, I'd like to say The Lazarus Experiment, but some of the UNIT bits from Series 4 were pretty smart-looking too. I really like Lady C as well - A good anti-heroine, for a change. And quite pretty, too. The random inclusion of the waving Chinese cat made me smile too - I got one when I was in Singapore! All in all, I reckon it was probably my favourite pre-credits sequence.... well, pretty much forever, even.
The thing that annoyed me next was the Doctor's weird device thing. For some reason they always think it's necessary to put in a weird device as a talking point. It was the same at the start of Season 4, and I could have sworn they'd done it in a Christmas one as well. Anyway, the bus was an........ interesting idea. I'm a bit confused now, though, because when does that mean the episode was set? The last routemaster bus left on December 9th 2005, but the guy clearly mentions the planets in the sky, meaning it has to be after Journey's End, meaning it has to be modern day. MIND YOU, Wikipedia tells me Boris Johnson is planning to bring back the Routemasters in 2011. So maybe it's set in the near future. I shouldn't really care about these things, but they stick out like a sore thumb sometimes.
The desert was good. It looked suitably alien. In my opinion, it probably wasn't worth going all the way to Dubai to film something you could probably have greenscreened, but I guess actually being there gives it greater realism and depth. San Helios is a great planet name. I'd like to have seen more of what it was like before the Swarm, because what little you saw from the computer screen looked really funky.
Right! Alien time! First things first, the Tritovores. No. Just, no. The insect idea has been way too overused now. Even in the new series, you've had the Vespiform, the Malmooth, the Racnoss, Lazarus, the Uvodni, and let's not forget our good friends the Zarbi from the original series. In my opinion, the Tritovores are just ripping off a design that used to be good. Don't get me wrong, I loved all their gadgets, and clothes, and the ship, and stuff like that. Suitably space age, just what you'd expect from a group of galactic traders. But as far as the actual creatures go, the BBC have to go back to the drawing board now.
But, on the other hand - the Swarm! I loved 'em. OK, it might be another riped-off stingray design, but it just seemed to work so much better. The way they glided menacingly through the air. You felt like they were real predators, proper aliens, not just humanoid creatures like we're used to getting. I'd have liked to have seen more killing power, but I spose pre-watershed there's only so much you can show. It's just.... I got the impression they could bash against stuff and not really do much else. However, having said that, they didn't look too out of place on Earth either. But I'll get to that later.
So... Actors. David Tennant, good as ever. Not his best performance, though, I must admit. He didn't seem to have the same....dynamics as usual. He never seemed to be out of his depth in this one, which is a shame because the best acting always comes to the front when the character is in grave peril or the like. But I guess we've got that to look forward to at the end of the year! Michelle Ryan - Possibly my favourite companion yet. She was very Jenny-ish, but sort of an evil version, which made her much more interesting. I felt at times she was a bit....wooden, I guess. But on the whole I would love to see her return someday. Besides, you've got a random bus flying around the world, it's impossible not to bring it back again. But anyway, Lee Evans. I've not seen any of his other stuff, but from this, I'm not really impressed. Partly, I guess the writers are to blame. I felt they included Malcom just to say, "look, we can get lots of famous people on our show", rather than judging on actual good talent. But as I say, that's just my opinion.
Anyway, I generally thought the effects on this were pretty brilliant. They just keep getting better, in my opinion. I mean, OK, the bus looked a bit like it was just a picture they were moving around the screen, but as far as everything else was concerned - fantastic! The spaceship was done in that lovely matte style which I really adore, the Swarm was really cool and fluid and menacing, just as they should be - I would be scared if they were breathing down my neck! And I gotta admit, some of those shots over London were pretty breathtaking. When the Swarm came through, it was like a proper sci-fi movie, like Transformers or Batman. Too bad they were all fought off with a bus and a few rockets. Bit of an anti-climax, in my opinion. It was one of those moments where you just wanted to see, just for a minute, what would it be like if THE WHOLE SWARM came through. Alas, it may never happen.
Music-wise, I loved this episode. Loved it right from the funky moody brass of the break-in at the start to the triumphant crescendo at the close. I thought the planet music was very atmospheric, and hopefully they'll put this lot on CD soon! One thing I did enjoy was the UNIT theme which tehy've revamped AGAIN! It seems to be getting cooler and cooler every time! Admit it, Torchwood, you're nothing compared to this!
OK, time to look to the future. That lady's predictions. Oh, and can I just say - They were never properly explained. Just where does her foresight come from? I mean, it might just be some vital plot device which turns up later, but if it isn't I feel very cheated. A bit like at the end of the last Indiana Jones. But anyway, "he will knock four times." Let's be honest, can it be anyone other than the Master? The knocking is obviously in reference to the "Sound of Drums", and the Doctor obviously realises this as much as we do. So we've got that to look forward to. I hope it's John Simm again. He was brilliant. But what about that other detail? "It is returning through the dark". IT? What IT? Nothing Dalek related, I hope. Maybe...Gallifrey? Nah, couldn't be...could it??!! Or maybe even... THE TIME WAR! Nah, the writers probably aren't that imaginative.
So, the Waters of Mars. Fairly self-explanitory, I guess. And the locale looks quite funky, as usual. What it'll mean in the grand scheme of things though, as Tennant's penultimate story (remember his last is a 2-parter), remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, November can't come soon enough!
So there you go. Back to normality tomorrow, but I hope you enjoyed watching Planet of the Dead as much as I did. And if you didn't, just reassure yourself with the fact that, from here, it can only get better!
See ya 'round!
Jack
<<<<<<< YOUR NORMAL SERVICE WILL NOW RESUME >>>>>>>
Yep, that's right! It's the Who Review! As I'm sure you all know, Planet of the Dead was first shown earlier today, and what a beastie it was! So, let's take it from the top. Oh, and by the way, if you haven't seen it yet, there will invariably be spoilers, so don't read past THIS POINT.
What an incredible intro! It was such a stylish set-up, it almost belonged in Mission Impossible or National Treasure, rather than Doctor Who! I don't think I've felt that sort of vibe since....Well, I'd like to say The Lazarus Experiment, but some of the UNIT bits from Series 4 were pretty smart-looking too. I really like Lady C as well - A good anti-heroine, for a change. And quite pretty, too. The random inclusion of the waving Chinese cat made me smile too - I got one when I was in Singapore! All in all, I reckon it was probably my favourite pre-credits sequence.... well, pretty much forever, even.
The thing that annoyed me next was the Doctor's weird device thing. For some reason they always think it's necessary to put in a weird device as a talking point. It was the same at the start of Season 4, and I could have sworn they'd done it in a Christmas one as well. Anyway, the bus was an........ interesting idea. I'm a bit confused now, though, because when does that mean the episode was set? The last routemaster bus left on December 9th 2005, but the guy clearly mentions the planets in the sky, meaning it has to be after Journey's End, meaning it has to be modern day. MIND YOU, Wikipedia tells me Boris Johnson is planning to bring back the Routemasters in 2011. So maybe it's set in the near future. I shouldn't really care about these things, but they stick out like a sore thumb sometimes.
The desert was good. It looked suitably alien. In my opinion, it probably wasn't worth going all the way to Dubai to film something you could probably have greenscreened, but I guess actually being there gives it greater realism and depth. San Helios is a great planet name. I'd like to have seen more of what it was like before the Swarm, because what little you saw from the computer screen looked really funky.
Right! Alien time! First things first, the Tritovores. No. Just, no. The insect idea has been way too overused now. Even in the new series, you've had the Vespiform, the Malmooth, the Racnoss, Lazarus, the Uvodni, and let's not forget our good friends the Zarbi from the original series. In my opinion, the Tritovores are just ripping off a design that used to be good. Don't get me wrong, I loved all their gadgets, and clothes, and the ship, and stuff like that. Suitably space age, just what you'd expect from a group of galactic traders. But as far as the actual creatures go, the BBC have to go back to the drawing board now.
But, on the other hand - the Swarm! I loved 'em. OK, it might be another riped-off stingray design, but it just seemed to work so much better. The way they glided menacingly through the air. You felt like they were real predators, proper aliens, not just humanoid creatures like we're used to getting. I'd have liked to have seen more killing power, but I spose pre-watershed there's only so much you can show. It's just.... I got the impression they could bash against stuff and not really do much else. However, having said that, they didn't look too out of place on Earth either. But I'll get to that later.
So... Actors. David Tennant, good as ever. Not his best performance, though, I must admit. He didn't seem to have the same....dynamics as usual. He never seemed to be out of his depth in this one, which is a shame because the best acting always comes to the front when the character is in grave peril or the like. But I guess we've got that to look forward to at the end of the year! Michelle Ryan - Possibly my favourite companion yet. She was very Jenny-ish, but sort of an evil version, which made her much more interesting. I felt at times she was a bit....wooden, I guess. But on the whole I would love to see her return someday. Besides, you've got a random bus flying around the world, it's impossible not to bring it back again. But anyway, Lee Evans. I've not seen any of his other stuff, but from this, I'm not really impressed. Partly, I guess the writers are to blame. I felt they included Malcom just to say, "look, we can get lots of famous people on our show", rather than judging on actual good talent. But as I say, that's just my opinion.
Anyway, I generally thought the effects on this were pretty brilliant. They just keep getting better, in my opinion. I mean, OK, the bus looked a bit like it was just a picture they were moving around the screen, but as far as everything else was concerned - fantastic! The spaceship was done in that lovely matte style which I really adore, the Swarm was really cool and fluid and menacing, just as they should be - I would be scared if they were breathing down my neck! And I gotta admit, some of those shots over London were pretty breathtaking. When the Swarm came through, it was like a proper sci-fi movie, like Transformers or Batman. Too bad they were all fought off with a bus and a few rockets. Bit of an anti-climax, in my opinion. It was one of those moments where you just wanted to see, just for a minute, what would it be like if THE WHOLE SWARM came through. Alas, it may never happen.
Music-wise, I loved this episode. Loved it right from the funky moody brass of the break-in at the start to the triumphant crescendo at the close. I thought the planet music was very atmospheric, and hopefully they'll put this lot on CD soon! One thing I did enjoy was the UNIT theme which tehy've revamped AGAIN! It seems to be getting cooler and cooler every time! Admit it, Torchwood, you're nothing compared to this!
OK, time to look to the future. That lady's predictions. Oh, and can I just say - They were never properly explained. Just where does her foresight come from? I mean, it might just be some vital plot device which turns up later, but if it isn't I feel very cheated. A bit like at the end of the last Indiana Jones. But anyway, "he will knock four times." Let's be honest, can it be anyone other than the Master? The knocking is obviously in reference to the "Sound of Drums", and the Doctor obviously realises this as much as we do. So we've got that to look forward to. I hope it's John Simm again. He was brilliant. But what about that other detail? "It is returning through the dark". IT? What IT? Nothing Dalek related, I hope. Maybe...Gallifrey? Nah, couldn't be...could it??!! Or maybe even... THE TIME WAR! Nah, the writers probably aren't that imaginative.
So, the Waters of Mars. Fairly self-explanitory, I guess. And the locale looks quite funky, as usual. What it'll mean in the grand scheme of things though, as Tennant's penultimate story (remember his last is a 2-parter), remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, November can't come soon enough!
So there you go. Back to normality tomorrow, but I hope you enjoyed watching Planet of the Dead as much as I did. And if you didn't, just reassure yourself with the fact that, from here, it can only get better!
See ya 'round!
Jack
<<<<<<< YOUR NORMAL SERVICE WILL NOW RESUME >>>>>>>
Friday, 10 April 2009
Day 2 - The actual second day!
Hi gang!
Picking up where we left yesterday, here's the second part of the Russia diary:
I got up today at 7:45 with some serious bags under my eyes. Luckily, however, it was only a short stagger to the bathroom, where I could wake myself up with a refreshing face wash. That appeared to have done the trick for now, at least. After dressing and sorting out my things, I headed down to breakfast, to sample some of the more unusual foods on offer. Thirsty, I stocked up on juice again, reminding myself that I needed to get water from the supermarket!
Breakfast came and went, and once I'd gathered up camera, wallet and iPod, I was ready for today's adventure! We set off in the coach around the city of Moscow, with Irina pointing out interesting details. On the trip we saw several good examples of the various periods of architechture, as well as important buildings such as the university, the olympic stadium and Tolstoy's house, which is now a museum. Then, out of nowhere, we saw it right in front of us - St Basil's Cathedral! The actual St Basil's Cathedral in actual Red Square next to the actual Kremlin - Incredible! It was every bit as elaborate and majestic as I'd imagined, and as for the Kremlin - Well, I couldn't see much over the towering red-brick walls - This must be one of the only times I've actually liked red-brick architechture! Lenin's tomb was there as well, but we couldn't see him because he was being filled with new preservatives or something.
Anyway, just off the main square there were some stalls where I managed to buy a fluffy Russian hat - half the price it was in the hotel! So there I was, wearing an actual Russian hat, in actual Red Square, in actual Russia, with and actual light snow beginning to fall. I know, it sounds about as cliched as going to Pisa and it being really sunny and you buying a hat and taking a picture of yourself holding up the leaning tower. I mean, what were the chances?
All too soon we had to move on, continuing our tour of the city. We stopped off at a convent where lots of famous people were buried, and saw the Church of Christ the Saviour, which was covered in gold plate! I love Russian architechture. At some point I nipped into a souvenir shop to buy some postcards I probably won't send and a Russian doll keyring. Eventually, we stopped off in the manic food court of an underground mall for lunch. In terms of ambience, it was very Singapore-esque, only less busy. One large slice of pizza and a bottle of fanta later, I went for a walk around in the mall. Unfortunately every shop was either a clothes shop or a perfume shop, and you all know that neither of these things interest me in the slightest! Somehow I managed to kill time until we met again, and next thing we knew, we were being taken to the Kremlin! Foolishly I had left my camera on the bus along with the rest of our stuff, so my mobile would have to suffice!
After passing through security, taking a group photo and passing through the gates, I'm afraid to admit I found myself rather underwhelmed. A walled palace complex which has been around for centuries and is exquisitely adorned with gold and ornamentation? Sorry, been there, done that. And Bangkok was far cooler. Don't get me wrong; there were some interesting points - we went into a couple of amazing churches which were literally plastered with paintings, and in one we even got a choir singing for us! We also saw the broken bell which was in one of Dad's pictures, so that was quite interesting. Apparently it got really hot for some reason and they poured water over it to cool it down, but then it got too brittle and cracked - D'oh! It was pretty huge, as bells go, and touching the piece that fell off is supposed to be good luck, so I gave it a go myself!
Moving on, we then entered the Armoury, which is a museum where all the crown jewels were kept. Though everyone was feeling a bit lacklustre and worn out by now, there were still some quite interesting things on show. For instance, in one cabinet we were shown faberge eggs, which traditionally had a gift of some kind inside. One had a train inside - solid gold carriages and a platinum engine - which went around a track when you turned a key. I can't even imagine what these artefacts would be worth today. I bet even one of the eggs must be close to a million, at least.
With the tour finished, it was now definitely time to get back to the hotel! Upon returning, we had half an hour chill-out time, and then it was dinner. Some people's lack of adventurousness saddens me - a load of "the lads", as they call themselves, your generic "tough kids", decided to walk out halfway through dinner just because they didn't like one particular thing. Well, their loss, I guess. They had a new juice today; I think it was probably cherry, but it tasted a lot like cranberry, with just a hint of water chestnut. Not a winner over the "fruit" juice, but still pretty good.
Anyway, we then headed out to the supermarket again, where I stocked up on (non-alcoholic) drink for the train journey. It's quiet surprising, how cheap everything is. I've hardly spent any roubles so far. Mind you, I'm sure the market tomorrow will change all that! Yawn... Well, after a diary update and a few postcards, it was time for bed at the end of another busy day.
So, part 2 over. TOMORROW - Actually, tomorrow I'll probably end up reviewing Doctor Who, but the next diary entry will include some interesting monuments, a circus and plenty of travelling, as we leave Moscow for St. Petersburg! Until then, see ya 'round!
Jack
Picking up where we left yesterday, here's the second part of the Russia diary:
I got up today at 7:45 with some serious bags under my eyes. Luckily, however, it was only a short stagger to the bathroom, where I could wake myself up with a refreshing face wash. That appeared to have done the trick for now, at least. After dressing and sorting out my things, I headed down to breakfast, to sample some of the more unusual foods on offer. Thirsty, I stocked up on juice again, reminding myself that I needed to get water from the supermarket!
Breakfast came and went, and once I'd gathered up camera, wallet and iPod, I was ready for today's adventure! We set off in the coach around the city of Moscow, with Irina pointing out interesting details. On the trip we saw several good examples of the various periods of architechture, as well as important buildings such as the university, the olympic stadium and Tolstoy's house, which is now a museum. Then, out of nowhere, we saw it right in front of us - St Basil's Cathedral! The actual St Basil's Cathedral in actual Red Square next to the actual Kremlin - Incredible! It was every bit as elaborate and majestic as I'd imagined, and as for the Kremlin - Well, I couldn't see much over the towering red-brick walls - This must be one of the only times I've actually liked red-brick architechture! Lenin's tomb was there as well, but we couldn't see him because he was being filled with new preservatives or something.
Anyway, just off the main square there were some stalls where I managed to buy a fluffy Russian hat - half the price it was in the hotel! So there I was, wearing an actual Russian hat, in actual Red Square, in actual Russia, with and actual light snow beginning to fall. I know, it sounds about as cliched as going to Pisa and it being really sunny and you buying a hat and taking a picture of yourself holding up the leaning tower. I mean, what were the chances?
All too soon we had to move on, continuing our tour of the city. We stopped off at a convent where lots of famous people were buried, and saw the Church of Christ the Saviour, which was covered in gold plate! I love Russian architechture. At some point I nipped into a souvenir shop to buy some postcards I probably won't send and a Russian doll keyring. Eventually, we stopped off in the manic food court of an underground mall for lunch. In terms of ambience, it was very Singapore-esque, only less busy. One large slice of pizza and a bottle of fanta later, I went for a walk around in the mall. Unfortunately every shop was either a clothes shop or a perfume shop, and you all know that neither of these things interest me in the slightest! Somehow I managed to kill time until we met again, and next thing we knew, we were being taken to the Kremlin! Foolishly I had left my camera on the bus along with the rest of our stuff, so my mobile would have to suffice!
After passing through security, taking a group photo and passing through the gates, I'm afraid to admit I found myself rather underwhelmed. A walled palace complex which has been around for centuries and is exquisitely adorned with gold and ornamentation? Sorry, been there, done that. And Bangkok was far cooler. Don't get me wrong; there were some interesting points - we went into a couple of amazing churches which were literally plastered with paintings, and in one we even got a choir singing for us! We also saw the broken bell which was in one of Dad's pictures, so that was quite interesting. Apparently it got really hot for some reason and they poured water over it to cool it down, but then it got too brittle and cracked - D'oh! It was pretty huge, as bells go, and touching the piece that fell off is supposed to be good luck, so I gave it a go myself!
Moving on, we then entered the Armoury, which is a museum where all the crown jewels were kept. Though everyone was feeling a bit lacklustre and worn out by now, there were still some quite interesting things on show. For instance, in one cabinet we were shown faberge eggs, which traditionally had a gift of some kind inside. One had a train inside - solid gold carriages and a platinum engine - which went around a track when you turned a key. I can't even imagine what these artefacts would be worth today. I bet even one of the eggs must be close to a million, at least.
With the tour finished, it was now definitely time to get back to the hotel! Upon returning, we had half an hour chill-out time, and then it was dinner. Some people's lack of adventurousness saddens me - a load of "the lads", as they call themselves, your generic "tough kids", decided to walk out halfway through dinner just because they didn't like one particular thing. Well, their loss, I guess. They had a new juice today; I think it was probably cherry, but it tasted a lot like cranberry, with just a hint of water chestnut. Not a winner over the "fruit" juice, but still pretty good.
Anyway, we then headed out to the supermarket again, where I stocked up on (non-alcoholic) drink for the train journey. It's quiet surprising, how cheap everything is. I've hardly spent any roubles so far. Mind you, I'm sure the market tomorrow will change all that! Yawn... Well, after a diary update and a few postcards, it was time for bed at the end of another busy day.
So, part 2 over. TOMORROW - Actually, tomorrow I'll probably end up reviewing Doctor Who, but the next diary entry will include some interesting monuments, a circus and plenty of travelling, as we leave Moscow for St. Petersburg! Until then, see ya 'round!
Jack
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Day 1 - Journey To The Cosmos!
Hi all.
Cripes, major outpouring of emotion back there. So I slept on it, that's always a good thing to do. After a refreshing session in the gym, everything seems a lot clearer, and I've decided I don't really mean what I said yesterday. I mean, I do, kind of. Like, it would be awesome if I could find someone just like that, and if whoever lives "upstairs" likes me, I hope they'll be able to sort something out, but I know I might not achieve my goal exactly, so I guess I'm back to where I was when I started this blog. Which isn't a bad place to be, I guess. Yeah, whatever Larkin, I know it's the failure of ideals, and the gap between dreams and reality, and all that malarkey, but this time it's on my terms. So eat that, Larkin! You're dead and I'm not!
So, moving swiftly on, I present for you today the first entry from my Russia Diary! If I hype it up too much you'll be sorely disappointed, so I'll let past-me do the talking instead.
It's another one of those exciting early-morning starts. After a final check of my now-tidy room and a mouthful of breakfast I was on my way to school. The journey was easy, if foggy, and we saw a grand total of six cars on the road. Once I'd tried on my awesome Russia hoodie and loaded my case into the bus, I said goodbye to Mum and took my seat. Quarter of an hour later we were all present and correct and on our way to Heathrow!
The journey was uneventful; for the most part, I people-watched and listened to my recently-purchased Taylor Swift album, Fearless. It's not bad work by Swift: A little samey, perhaps, but in a good way. Tracks that stand out to me are "You Belong With Me", "You're Not Sorry", and of course, "Love Story". I'd reccomend this to anyone who enjoyed Let Go by Avril Lavigne, Sonya Kitchell's "Let Me Go" or the Veronicas' debut album.
Anyway, time passed surprisingly quickly and when I next looked out the window we were pulling up in front of Terminal 5. Now, we've all heard the criticism that has been hurled at T5 since its opening, but personally, I saw no difference between this and the other Terminals. So we got through security fine, no liquid-realted fiascos this time, and we split up to explore Departures. I got a coffee to energize me for the day ahead (ZING!), and then set out on a quest to find something for 24p. Alas, my struggles were in vain, and I now had to face the complication of mixed pence and roubles!
My ticket got a bit trashed as well, but what can you expect when you print onto paper? I always preferred card, but I guess auto-check-in is quicker. So yeah, we got on board eventually, and after a half-hour delay (yawn) and having to give way to a 747 (more yawn) we were off, through the fog, above the clouds and into the blue sky. The crew were having a faf with the videos, but I came prepared! After a scrummy breakfast including the biggest yoghurt in the world, and a short update to the diary, it was time for Indiana Jones!
One swashbuckling adventure and some mind-boggling form completion later, we began the descent. The clouds were quite low today, heavy with snow, so the moment of revelation was somewhat delayed this time. However, when it did come, it was unlike anything else I've ever landed on. Actually, I tell a lie, there was that embarassing incident involving a lot of ice and a lack of balance. But anyway, I can't say it was especially inspiring, it was the sort of slush-snow greyness that we seem to get a lot back home. Our guide told us later that this weather was unusual for spring - usually most of the snow comes in winter, as you'd expect.
Anyway, we taxied in and got through customs fairly smoothly, apart from Mr E leaving some important documents on the plane. D'oh! So we got outside, into the pouring snow. Brr, it was freezing! Luckily I had my new hoodie to protect me as we waited outside the airport for our coach to arrive. This is another country where they drive on the other side, and judging by the frequent horn-tooting, they're quite agressive with it!
Soon we were cruising down the motorway, during which time our guide, Irina, filled us in on some interesting facts. For instance, did you know that Moscow has a population of over 10 million? Yeah, it's pretty incredible. Most of them live on the outskirts, which makes sense, and it takes them on average 40 minutes to get from there to Red Square on the Metro. The Metro comes in handy, apparently, because it's always rush hour! Did you also know that the Moscow State Circus has been around since the 16th Century? Well, there you go!
So we continued our tour of Moscow, slowly but surely. Whilst it has a lot of quite impressive architechture to show off, it seemed quite depressing in the drizzle. We passed a huge wooden building that used to be Tsars' summer palace, as well as the headquarters of the KGB. The trafic was manic, five lanes wide throughout most parts of the city, although lanes appear to have little meaning. It's more of a free-for-all!
Eventually, after two hours of negotiating Moscow, we arrived at Hotel Cosmos. What it lacked in aesthetics it made up for in sheer size - I was on the 20th floor and that still wasn't the top! So I got landed with a Year 13, Ian Robinson, in Room 2020. The room is a generic hotel layout, just in a different decor. Ian is quite quiet, in a kind way. A bit like me, I suppose. That did mean, though, that the conversation didn't exactly flow! So I chilled out and added to my diary, and at Eight we headed town for dinner in the restaurant.
Dinner seemed to be extremely meat-based. It might just have been me getting to the selection late, but after the starter there appeared to be very little veg. Essentially it was your regular buffet, I think there might have been some squid in there, which was cool. I even ended up trying liver - Eurggh! It was horrible! I have a reputation for eating almost anything, but even I refused to finish the liver. The juice was good, though. You could get this generic "fruit" juice, which was.... like, pineapple, melon, hints of apple and maybe a bit of kiwi all mixed up together. Mmmm... That made dinner worthwhile for me.
So afterwards, we trooped down through the rain to the local supermarket to stock up on provisions for the days to come. Whilst there, I tried to decipher the Russian alphabet, but I got confused between the different types of B. And there was way too much alcohol in the shop. Oh well, at least they had cherry juice!
Returning from that, I took the time to explore all the souvenir shops in the hotel, and they were all offering pretty much the same things. I bought a couple of postcards today, and investigated Russian hats as well - on average they'll set me back about 600 roubles, so maybe I should shop around first!
With nothing else to do, I returned to the room and finished my first entry in the diary. I also got in some photos of the city at night, which I think came out quite well. So yeah, I decided to go for a shower then, and by that time I was well and truly exhausted!
Hope you enjoyed reading that. I enjoyed writing it! Anyway, stay tuned, because tomorrow we'll start exploring the city for real! Prepare for more gold and jewels, more rants and reccomendations, and a trip to the actual Kremlin and the actual Red Square!!
See ya 'round!
Jack
Cripes, major outpouring of emotion back there. So I slept on it, that's always a good thing to do. After a refreshing session in the gym, everything seems a lot clearer, and I've decided I don't really mean what I said yesterday. I mean, I do, kind of. Like, it would be awesome if I could find someone just like that, and if whoever lives "upstairs" likes me, I hope they'll be able to sort something out, but I know I might not achieve my goal exactly, so I guess I'm back to where I was when I started this blog. Which isn't a bad place to be, I guess. Yeah, whatever Larkin, I know it's the failure of ideals, and the gap between dreams and reality, and all that malarkey, but this time it's on my terms. So eat that, Larkin! You're dead and I'm not!
So, moving swiftly on, I present for you today the first entry from my Russia Diary! If I hype it up too much you'll be sorely disappointed, so I'll let past-me do the talking instead.
It's another one of those exciting early-morning starts. After a final check of my now-tidy room and a mouthful of breakfast I was on my way to school. The journey was easy, if foggy, and we saw a grand total of six cars on the road. Once I'd tried on my awesome Russia hoodie and loaded my case into the bus, I said goodbye to Mum and took my seat. Quarter of an hour later we were all present and correct and on our way to Heathrow!
The journey was uneventful; for the most part, I people-watched and listened to my recently-purchased Taylor Swift album, Fearless. It's not bad work by Swift: A little samey, perhaps, but in a good way. Tracks that stand out to me are "You Belong With Me", "You're Not Sorry", and of course, "Love Story". I'd reccomend this to anyone who enjoyed Let Go by Avril Lavigne, Sonya Kitchell's "Let Me Go" or the Veronicas' debut album.
Anyway, time passed surprisingly quickly and when I next looked out the window we were pulling up in front of Terminal 5. Now, we've all heard the criticism that has been hurled at T5 since its opening, but personally, I saw no difference between this and the other Terminals. So we got through security fine, no liquid-realted fiascos this time, and we split up to explore Departures. I got a coffee to energize me for the day ahead (ZING!), and then set out on a quest to find something for 24p. Alas, my struggles were in vain, and I now had to face the complication of mixed pence and roubles!
My ticket got a bit trashed as well, but what can you expect when you print onto paper? I always preferred card, but I guess auto-check-in is quicker. So yeah, we got on board eventually, and after a half-hour delay (yawn) and having to give way to a 747 (more yawn) we were off, through the fog, above the clouds and into the blue sky. The crew were having a faf with the videos, but I came prepared! After a scrummy breakfast including the biggest yoghurt in the world, and a short update to the diary, it was time for Indiana Jones!
One swashbuckling adventure and some mind-boggling form completion later, we began the descent. The clouds were quite low today, heavy with snow, so the moment of revelation was somewhat delayed this time. However, when it did come, it was unlike anything else I've ever landed on. Actually, I tell a lie, there was that embarassing incident involving a lot of ice and a lack of balance. But anyway, I can't say it was especially inspiring, it was the sort of slush-snow greyness that we seem to get a lot back home. Our guide told us later that this weather was unusual for spring - usually most of the snow comes in winter, as you'd expect.
Anyway, we taxied in and got through customs fairly smoothly, apart from Mr E leaving some important documents on the plane. D'oh! So we got outside, into the pouring snow. Brr, it was freezing! Luckily I had my new hoodie to protect me as we waited outside the airport for our coach to arrive. This is another country where they drive on the other side, and judging by the frequent horn-tooting, they're quite agressive with it!
Soon we were cruising down the motorway, during which time our guide, Irina, filled us in on some interesting facts. For instance, did you know that Moscow has a population of over 10 million? Yeah, it's pretty incredible. Most of them live on the outskirts, which makes sense, and it takes them on average 40 minutes to get from there to Red Square on the Metro. The Metro comes in handy, apparently, because it's always rush hour! Did you also know that the Moscow State Circus has been around since the 16th Century? Well, there you go!
So we continued our tour of Moscow, slowly but surely. Whilst it has a lot of quite impressive architechture to show off, it seemed quite depressing in the drizzle. We passed a huge wooden building that used to be Tsars' summer palace, as well as the headquarters of the KGB. The trafic was manic, five lanes wide throughout most parts of the city, although lanes appear to have little meaning. It's more of a free-for-all!
Eventually, after two hours of negotiating Moscow, we arrived at Hotel Cosmos. What it lacked in aesthetics it made up for in sheer size - I was on the 20th floor and that still wasn't the top! So I got landed with a Year 13, Ian Robinson, in Room 2020. The room is a generic hotel layout, just in a different decor. Ian is quite quiet, in a kind way. A bit like me, I suppose. That did mean, though, that the conversation didn't exactly flow! So I chilled out and added to my diary, and at Eight we headed town for dinner in the restaurant.
Dinner seemed to be extremely meat-based. It might just have been me getting to the selection late, but after the starter there appeared to be very little veg. Essentially it was your regular buffet, I think there might have been some squid in there, which was cool. I even ended up trying liver - Eurggh! It was horrible! I have a reputation for eating almost anything, but even I refused to finish the liver. The juice was good, though. You could get this generic "fruit" juice, which was.... like, pineapple, melon, hints of apple and maybe a bit of kiwi all mixed up together. Mmmm... That made dinner worthwhile for me.
So afterwards, we trooped down through the rain to the local supermarket to stock up on provisions for the days to come. Whilst there, I tried to decipher the Russian alphabet, but I got confused between the different types of B. And there was way too much alcohol in the shop. Oh well, at least they had cherry juice!
Returning from that, I took the time to explore all the souvenir shops in the hotel, and they were all offering pretty much the same things. I bought a couple of postcards today, and investigated Russian hats as well - on average they'll set me back about 600 roubles, so maybe I should shop around first!
With nothing else to do, I returned to the room and finished my first entry in the diary. I also got in some photos of the city at night, which I think came out quite well. So yeah, I decided to go for a shower then, and by that time I was well and truly exhausted!
Hope you enjoyed reading that. I enjoyed writing it! Anyway, stay tuned, because tomorrow we'll start exploring the city for real! Prepare for more gold and jewels, more rants and reccomendations, and a trip to the actual Kremlin and the actual Red Square!!
See ya 'round!
Jack
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
Guess who's back...Back again...
IT's ADAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No, unfortunately it isn't. Although it might be... I dunno, I need to catch up on the whole Heroes malarkey some time. Do it over breakfast tomorrow.
Anyway, yes, zat is right, I am back from ze Russia! It was pretty awesome, and as with the last holiday, I've kept a proper diary, so I can tell you all about it! For now, though, I'm going to go on a pathetic ramble and feel sorry for myself.
Don't worry, this post does resolve itself after a fashion, and there is an exciting quest involved, but for those of you who don't know the history between me and Blondie (that's obviously not her real name, of course), check back through the archives, I think she pops up once or twice last year. But yeah, anyway, she was on this trip. And no matter what I did, no matter how I tried to convince myself it would never work, I couldn't stop thinking about her. Like an insect bite that you know you shouldn't scratch, but you just can't resist. Actually, they're saying now that scratching some bites can be good... But yeah, it's got to the stage now where it's gone beyond just beauty etc etc. It's at the stage where I actually have a craving for her voice. That sounds way to cliched...But I think it's true.
Anyway, along comes 'Mr Cool', who before I didn't mind, but now he just annoys me. He's a bit like Gatsby. I don't want to like him, but I just can't help it. It's like, if you cut him in half he would be pure cool all the way through. Too cool. Like Massa. But this annoys me, 'cause it leaves us mere mortals a bit depressed. He's just so.... Perfect. He knows all the right times to be funny, all the right times to be kind and sincere, all the right things to say to people. And he has such a following. He's practically idolised. So yeah, Blondie ended up falling in with his camp.
OK, that's fair enough. It shouldn't really matter to me any more. I mean, it's painful to watch them just casually exchanging banter the way I can't really because we didn't have that connection from the start. But it's not really my business. But what it has led me to is a goal of my own. I'll never be with Blondie now. I guess I can accept that. I've missed too many opportunities to just be friends, and earn brownie points with her 'circle', and all that jazz, but what I do know is that my true love is going to be very similar to her. Yeah, I know no two people are the same, and all that, but there have got to be other petite blonde saxophonists with a really cool voice, perfect face and eccentric personality who are great fun when drunk, who DON'T know a Mr Cool. Surely?
So there you go. That's my quest. I've taken Hiro's point of view. So what's going to happen is I'm going to Mr-Cool-ify myself a bit, try and lose a little weight, build up muscles etc etc etc. Work on my conversation skills, earn some more money, that sort of thing. And once I'm.....well, not Mr Cool, but similar, without losing my personality, I can go and look for another petite blonde saxophonist with a really cool voice, perfect face and eccentric personality who's great fun when drunk, who DOESN'T know a Mr Cool. And yes, there'll be disappointment, and false leads, and all the stuff you would get in a good soap opera, if such a thing really exists, but now I know just what kind of person I'm after. And besides, there are six billion people in the world. Out of six billion, there has to be more than one Blondie.
So there you go. I have bored your eyes out of their sockets again. Hopefully tomorrow, when we get down to the actual diary, you'll find it much more interesting. Romance isn't everyone's cup of tea, but stick around, 'cause there's plenty of action, too.
See ya 'round!
Jack
No, unfortunately it isn't. Although it might be... I dunno, I need to catch up on the whole Heroes malarkey some time. Do it over breakfast tomorrow.
Anyway, yes, zat is right, I am back from ze Russia! It was pretty awesome, and as with the last holiday, I've kept a proper diary, so I can tell you all about it! For now, though, I'm going to go on a pathetic ramble and feel sorry for myself.
Don't worry, this post does resolve itself after a fashion, and there is an exciting quest involved, but for those of you who don't know the history between me and Blondie (that's obviously not her real name, of course), check back through the archives, I think she pops up once or twice last year. But yeah, anyway, she was on this trip. And no matter what I did, no matter how I tried to convince myself it would never work, I couldn't stop thinking about her. Like an insect bite that you know you shouldn't scratch, but you just can't resist. Actually, they're saying now that scratching some bites can be good... But yeah, it's got to the stage now where it's gone beyond just beauty etc etc. It's at the stage where I actually have a craving for her voice. That sounds way to cliched...But I think it's true.
Anyway, along comes 'Mr Cool', who before I didn't mind, but now he just annoys me. He's a bit like Gatsby. I don't want to like him, but I just can't help it. It's like, if you cut him in half he would be pure cool all the way through. Too cool. Like Massa. But this annoys me, 'cause it leaves us mere mortals a bit depressed. He's just so.... Perfect. He knows all the right times to be funny, all the right times to be kind and sincere, all the right things to say to people. And he has such a following. He's practically idolised. So yeah, Blondie ended up falling in with his camp.
OK, that's fair enough. It shouldn't really matter to me any more. I mean, it's painful to watch them just casually exchanging banter the way I can't really because we didn't have that connection from the start. But it's not really my business. But what it has led me to is a goal of my own. I'll never be with Blondie now. I guess I can accept that. I've missed too many opportunities to just be friends, and earn brownie points with her 'circle', and all that jazz, but what I do know is that my true love is going to be very similar to her. Yeah, I know no two people are the same, and all that, but there have got to be other petite blonde saxophonists with a really cool voice, perfect face and eccentric personality who are great fun when drunk, who DON'T know a Mr Cool. Surely?
So there you go. That's my quest. I've taken Hiro's point of view. So what's going to happen is I'm going to Mr-Cool-ify myself a bit, try and lose a little weight, build up muscles etc etc etc. Work on my conversation skills, earn some more money, that sort of thing. And once I'm.....well, not Mr Cool, but similar, without losing my personality, I can go and look for another petite blonde saxophonist with a really cool voice, perfect face and eccentric personality who's great fun when drunk, who DOESN'T know a Mr Cool. And yes, there'll be disappointment, and false leads, and all the stuff you would get in a good soap opera, if such a thing really exists, but now I know just what kind of person I'm after. And besides, there are six billion people in the world. Out of six billion, there has to be more than one Blondie.
So there you go. I have bored your eyes out of their sockets again. Hopefully tomorrow, when we get down to the actual diary, you'll find it much more interesting. Romance isn't everyone's cup of tea, but stick around, 'cause there's plenty of action, too.
See ya 'round!
Jack
Monday, 6 April 2009
No Need For Russian Around...
Hi gang!
I am currently kicking back in the bar of my hotel in St Petersburg. Outside the snow is going mad and I am able to write this for the very respecyable price of 200 roubles. Hope everything's going Ok down there - I can't wait to tell you all about my escapades! I know I'll run out of time soon, so for now I'll say goodbye and see you on Wednesday!
See ya 'round!
Jack
PS: Georgia, I won't be on MSN later, don't be too gutted.
I am currently kicking back in the bar of my hotel in St Petersburg. Outside the snow is going mad and I am able to write this for the very respecyable price of 200 roubles. Hope everything's going Ok down there - I can't wait to tell you all about my escapades! I know I'll run out of time soon, so for now I'll say goodbye and see you on Wednesday!
See ya 'round!
Jack
PS: Georgia, I won't be on MSN later, don't be too gutted.
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Ready To Go!!!!
Hi gang.
Chances are, by the time you can be bothered to read this, I'll be in Russia!!! If you're still in time, drop me a line on messenger, but otherwise, have an awesoem week. I will be operating the diary system like last time, so I can bore you to death again when I get back! I might... MIGHT... try to update this at some point on the trip, but I can't promise anything as the itinery looks pretty chocca! So, until Wednesday, keep TV spoilers to yourself, don't waste your credit, leave your glass on the table when pouring vodka, and download Republica. It's ancient but cool with it.
See ya 'round!
Jack
Chances are, by the time you can be bothered to read this, I'll be in Russia!!! If you're still in time, drop me a line on messenger, but otherwise, have an awesoem week. I will be operating the diary system like last time, so I can bore you to death again when I get back! I might... MIGHT... try to update this at some point on the trip, but I can't promise anything as the itinery looks pretty chocca! So, until Wednesday, keep TV spoilers to yourself, don't waste your credit, leave your glass on the table when pouring vodka, and download Republica. It's ancient but cool with it.
See ya 'round!
Jack
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Warehouse??
Hi folks.
Totally random post, this, but I'm a Doctor Who viewer so I notice these things. Basically, the word "warehouse" seems to be following me around this week. On Sunday I unlocked a LEGO Indiana Jones level entitled "Warehouse", on Monday I saw a girl in school with a bag that said Warehouse on the side, on Tuesday Chris Moyles was joking that they had a warehouse full of mugs to give away, and today in English we were doing a poem which made the teacher think of a load of people queueing up inside a warehouse. What does it mean?????? Maybe warehouse is an angram of something.... I dunno. I'll find out eventually.
Oh yeah. TRAILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tonight at 9.
Jack
Totally random post, this, but I'm a Doctor Who viewer so I notice these things. Basically, the word "warehouse" seems to be following me around this week. On Sunday I unlocked a LEGO Indiana Jones level entitled "Warehouse", on Monday I saw a girl in school with a bag that said Warehouse on the side, on Tuesday Chris Moyles was joking that they had a warehouse full of mugs to give away, and today in English we were doing a poem which made the teacher think of a load of people queueing up inside a warehouse. What does it mean?????? Maybe warehouse is an angram of something.... I dunno. I'll find out eventually.
Oh yeah. TRAILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tonight at 9.
Jack
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