I’ve just realised that I’ve been so busy the last couple of weeks that I haven’t actually posted anything here, so for those of you I haven’t bumped into at some point here’s what I’ve been up to:
Dear Wendy
A week last Wednesday Justine was back up in Manchester and wanted to go and see something at the cinema so the two of us ended up watching Dear Wendy at the Cornerhouse (a small independent cinema near Oxford Road Station). Despite having lived in and around Manchester for so long, I’d never actually been to the Cornerhouse before, and was surprised to find out that it’s a lot nicer inside than both AMC and thefilmworks. The seats are a lot more comfortable, the arm rests are actually big enough to rest your arms on and they don’t seem to have anywhere to buy food on site so you don’t end up with lots of kids munching and throwing popcorn during the film.
The film itself was alright to begin with, although it did take a while for the back plot to be explained (not as long as Fantastic 4 though!) and for things to get moving. It got very weird towards the end though, especially with the main character getting slightly obsessive with his gun (which he called “Wendy” and wrote a note to as if it was his girlfriend or something). The police were also poor shots to the point of disbelief – it took over twenty officers more than ten minutes to take down half a dozen kids with amateur guns and limited ammunition. Justine pointed out that this was probably part of the film’s objective – that being to get across the point that America’s way of dealing with problems by force isn’t always the most effective – but it just seemed a bit surreal to me.
After the film finished we ended up in Kro – which was extremely quiet – and just chatted and caught up on what had been happening in the six months or so since Justine had last been in Manchester.
Friday pubbage
Last Friday was a bit of a deviation from the normal “go down to the Friendship Inn and get drunk with the Megalomaniacs” as Lizzy was back up from Essex and Beth dragged a load of people from UA to the Kro. It was good to see everyone again, although I had to deviate from drinking for a while to go and pick Lizzy up from the station.
Kro involved most of the usual stuff when it comes to UA/Warped – notably me being referred to as “Little Jason” (despite the fact that I look nothing like him!), Dan accussing me of walking far too aggressively (apparently I always look like I’m in a hurry to get to places), Alisdair saying I looked particularly single (not sure if that’s a good thing or not), Jon pointing out that all this teasing is good practice for whenever I get married to some ferocious woman (hmm, not sure how that one works) and me getting hit across the head by Lizzy for saying something out of line.
Bewitched
On Saturday I managed to get to Around Town Flats (the letting agency we used last year) and hand in all the paperwork required for us to get our deposits back from our house on Stephens Road. I tried to get this done sooner but United Utilities kept messing about with sending us a final bill (I imagine the confusion occured because they actually owed us money, so they couldn’t really send us a bill saying “pay us £X”) and also the problem of me being at work whenever the agency was open didn’t help much. Hopefully though I should get my money back fairly soon, which is good because that’s over £200 that I’m owed!
On the way to the agency I’d texted Lizzy to see if she wanted to go to the cinema and we arranged to meet outside AMC. Unfortunately this meant going through the centre of Manchester (I needed to go to the bank on the way) and the Manchester Pride festival was on. I don’t mind the parade per se as it’s quite amusing and good to see so many people out enjoying themselves in Manchester, but the organisers are really useless as they go all the way round the city centre and don’t leave any gaps for pedestrians, so if you’re trying to actually get somewhere in a hurry you have to fight your way through dozens of lines of people (who all think you’re trying to push your way to the front rather than just get across the road!) and a parade in full swing. It would have been much better and more considerate if they’d had specific points for people who just wanted to get into the city centre without getting stuck in the parade. Thankfully though I didn’t actually get pulled into the parade itself – that was probably my biggest fear as I’d never be able to get off. 🙂
Anyway, we ended up going to see Bewitched, which is basically a story about someone remaking the old TV series (I’m sure you’ve all seen it at some point – if not why not?) and ending up falling in love with someone who plays the witch (Samantha, played by Nicole Kidman) and is actually a witch herself. The film was rather amusing, although the people on IMDB have only given it an average of 5.3/10 which I think is a bit unfair (this is less than Kirk’s “favourite”, the highly chauvinistic Flash Gordon). We both enjoyed it though, and Lizzy got free popcorn and drinks (some club loyalty card membership thing) which is always good.
After the cinema we went back to Lucy’s flat and ended up playing Lord of the Rings Risk with her and Jon. Unfortunately I lost my advantage of knowing the rules off by heart because the LOTR version has lots of exceptions and differences to the standard game, which probably put us all on a more level footing – especially as Lucy had never played before (and I don’t think Jon had either, but I may be wrong there). Anyway, Lucy and Lizzy took the forces of good and Jon and I naturally picked up the forces of evil. Fortunately I’m not sad enough to do a Rimmer style breakdown of the game (“then I threw a 6 and a 2, which beat his 5 and a 1”) so the brief highlights were me going last and by the time it was my first turn I was almost destroyed, but then I came back to sweep through a large area of the board. Jon quietly took over his side without much effort, although that was partially down to being lucky and getting his initial territories all in the same area. Lucy and Lizzy cruely ganged up on me, but I got my revenge by stomping over most of Lizzy’s forces (which Jon then finished off in his turn) and crushing the last remaining resistance from Lucy towards the end of the game. In the end the forces of evil triumphed (mwahahaha!), although Jon had more territories and a stronger army than I so it was fairly obvious that he had won overall.
I can’t really remember much else from the last couple of weeks, other than I’ve been pretty busy for most of the time (most of it spent at work I imagine). I’m sure I’ve been up to more stuff, so I will update or post something else if and when I remember what.
Wow, you must be bored if you’ve finally updated your blog. 😉
No idea what screen it was in but the last and only time I was in the Cornerhouse I never want to go back. The seats were horrible, cramped and the whole place was extremely shoddy. I know it’s independent but I expect to have a seat at least as good as a CS lecture theater not worse.
I think you must have been in a different screen, we had comfy red chairs like thefilmworks and AMC but much bigger and better. I’d certainly like our lectures more if we had seats like that!
They are upgrading the Cornerhouse at the moment.
thefilmworks is better, and you know it 😉
Only because I rarely have to pay to get in (but I’ve never got free food/drink). 🙂
“and they don’t seem to have anywhere to buy food on site”
Except for the bar and the cafe, of course 😉
Thankfully, the average popcorn-muncher isn’t attracted to obscure/foreign-language films.
Don’t worry, I don’t get free food or drink either 😛
Either they’ve refurbed corner house, or it’s just cause you’re tiny and can fit in the seats. I was in agony after seeeing Donny Darko there.
And you do walk aggressively 😛
Hmm, they must have been closed when I went, as I didn’t see anything other than the tiny box office and one screen. Unless you mean the Cornerhouse bar across the road?
Given that I was there with Justine, I imagine the latter option is more likely. 😉
“Unless you mean the Cornerhouse bar across the road?”
It’s all part of the same complex. There’s another screen or two beneath the bar.
Ah, I didn’t know there were screens underneath the bar – like I said this is the first time I’ve been in and I’ve never actually gone into the building with the bar/coffee house in. I shall have to try it at some point though.
The bar’s OK but can be a little pricey. The cafe’s better value for money but the meals aren’t brilliant. They do a nice line in coffee and cakes – or did: I’ve not been there for a few years. It’s a much nicer place to sit than platform 3 on Oxford Road station!
To be honest, I think practically anywhere is a nicer place to sit than Oxford Road station! 🙂
I shall have to try the cafe at some point.
Except you so are Jason; it’s your fate, and you know it.
Does that mean I’ll end up as UA sysop at some point? 🙂