Tiddly-Pom

Yup, it's snowing here at home. The real home. Situated high in the mountains. (No prizes for recognising the reference in the title of this blog to snow, but if you don't know it the answer is at the end.)

Bit of a Monday morning ramble...

My most recent contract is complete so now I wonder: Do I try and get another contract before Christmas, the money would be useful, or do I stay at home and go back to being a house-spouse?

Must admit I'm at a bit of a loose end. It's not that I have nothing to do: Apart from the writing, there are numerous house things, plus dog-sitting, and my pet web project which is pretty near ready.

No, it's the fact that the house runs like clockwork without me. I'm not needed, no it's worse than that - I don't fit in. It's very weird. If I had a car it would be different because I could be taxi, but we got rid of the second car as (a) it was falling to pieces but (b) it wasn't needed and was just an unnecessary expense.

Oh, it's stopped snowing now and the sun is coming out.

We had a French guy staying with us a few years ago, Gael (pronounced Gayle), lovely chap. Anyway he didn't understand when we said "Britain has weather, not climate", until the day it did everything (rain, snow, hot sun, storm).

Guilty pleasures: I like X-Factor because I like to see people with talent succeeding. I'm not interested in talentless weirdies or people with unpleasant attitudes, and the way the production team try to add "stories" I find gauche and irritating. But I like seeing people with talent.

Like Diana Vickers; after her first song my attitude was: "If she had an album out tomorrow I would buy it." This is still my attitude, and I'm getting really impatient, I want an album! (Of course, I like Kate Bush and Tori Amos, 70s prog rock and other strange stuff.)

I shall also admit I used to really like Blind Date, but I didn't watch it for the silly questions and answers, or people filled with hate, I watched it for those rare moments when two people really liked each other.

I can be such a softie. I cry watching movies and TV.

Which brings me to Survivors: I like it. It's not perfect but it has some really excellent moments which are left beautifully unexplained. The instantaneous hug between the mother Abby and the boy Najid; Al bursting into tears in the chicken run. That was good writing; and the Abby/Naj moment brought a tear to my eye.

Then there's Apparitions: I think I like it. The second episode got a bit boring in the middle, I was watching online so I let it run while I did other things, coming back to establish the scene. Still, it's different, the acting is very strong and the writing is clearly well-researched.

In our family we have noticed something. The quality of a film or TV programme is reflected in the degree to which we talk about it afterwards - the better it is the more we discuss it.

Wall-E left us almost silent, Space Chimps had us chatting all the way home (yes, I know, Wall-E is suppose to be great and Space Chimps is the poor relation, sorry, we don't agree). National Treasure we talked about well after we got home.

Survivors has us talking a lot about the characters, the plot, what would happen if... (I'm the only one talking about Apparitions, as the others haven't watched it).

And finally: "Tiddly-Pom" is from the little "hum" that Winnie-the-Pooh made up about snow in the story about Eeyore's New House. As recited by Pooh with Piglet doing the Tiddly-Pom bits in between.

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What's on the turntable? "Lucifer's Cage" by Gordon Giltrap from "Visionary" (based on the poem by Blake)