My cycling this year has been intermittent at best. 'Things' just seem to keep cropping up to stop me putting bum to saddle and foot to pedal...so I was glad to jump on the bike this morning. I turned out of our house, down the hill to the T-junction where there was a long queue. Without thinking I cycled to the front, whereupon the nice young man in his black soft-top Porsche Carrera4 started edging forwards and pushing me out the way. I turned round and asked him "Why?" (That may not have been the exact word). His reply "I was here first". I nearly fell off at that point. A grown man saying "I was here first". There are various reasons that cyclists go to the front of a queue. If we discount the 'Because we can', we can still hold our heads high with the 'It's for safety - not getting caught up in slow moving traffic which is dangerous' argument is a good one. Anyway, he roared off...only to be caught in the traffic jam in the High street, which enabled me to catch him up and bellow at him "I'm here first now". It may not have been grown up, but it did make me smile...and him snarl.
Having sold my soul to Rib Tours for the sake of a an hour being thrown around on the Thames, I might just mention that I've also sold my soul to Warner Brothers. I'm not quite sure where or how Beelzebub might get a look in....and I know he's been rubbing his hands in anticipation for a good few years now. When I first started I always said NO to any form of commerciality, but frankly and bluntly if I fancy something I'm going to go for it. As it happens, I walked away with a whole load of goodies which have gone in the re-gifting cupboard....
A few weeks ago I went to a Bloggers morning to see some of WB's new films and the associated technology. Since then they've promised me a review copy of a couple of films which I expect will pop up soon. But the little gem that will be winging its way to me soon will be Lego Batman2...its a computer game. Now as Steve is a Lego addict, I hope this will make him green with envy...although I suspect he doesn't give two hoots for X-Box games, preferring the pleasures of dodgy French police dramas. The Boy is much excited...as no doubt will be The Muffins when I tell them about it.
But the most important thing I learnt was that if you buy a Blu-Ray marked 'triple play', you can transfer it to your phone. And that works well for me.
We recently watched a film on Blu-Ray that we'd managed to miss in the cinema - In Time with Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried. I don't know how we missed it, because I loved the premise - ageing has been conquered. Everyone ages until they're 25, and then stops getting older. The only thing is you only have a year more to live. Time has become currency, so working buys you more time, and spending uses up that time. In a more talented directors hands this would have been brilliant...actually Andrew Niccol directed Gattaca which was brilliant...so no excuses really. Instead it was just good...quite clunky in places, not great acting, and the script needed some work. And whilst Amanda Syfried looks great everyone wanted to know whey when she's running for her life, she's always doing it in six-inch stilettoes. But we all really enjoyed it...and it provoked plenty of debate for a good while afterwards. It certainly makes for a scathing reflection on today's society. And it was good enough that it became the first film I transferred from the disc to my phone, so I can watch it anywhere. Do grab a copy (it's a Twentieth Century one, so no Warner Brothers bias).
