Sky's the Limit

If you, like me are one of the people who has sold their soul to the Murdoch empire and have Sky TV installed in your home then I hope you share my frustration.

With the introduction of the fantastic Sky Atlantic, Sky is getting shows in line (pretty much) with them being aired in America.  A fantastic thing you might cry.  About time, praise be & hallelujah.  Unfortunately though I've found a bit of a glitch in this fantastic plan of theirs. You see it turns out American TV scheduling it frickin crazy!

A series of 12 episodes would run for 12 weeks you'd imagine.  Allow a couple of weeks for holidays etc. and you're probably looking at a 14 week run, in this, the sensible land of TV scheduling.  America though ....

Well lets take for instance, the fabulous "The Walking Dead". Series 2 of this great show started in Oct. Next Friday we are privileged enough to be presented with .......... episode 8!  Yes ladies & gentlemen, that's four months and we've had 7 episodes.

You see we had a couple of weeks off for thanksgiving and then over a month for the Christmas period.  Don't worry though we were left on a cliffhanger after mid season finale!

MID SEASON FINALE?!?! What the f*ck is that? I'm not entirely sure it's possible to have an ENDING HALF WAY THROUGH!

So what's the alternative.  Well if Sky returned to normal it would mean we would be about 9 months to a year behind US schedules but is that such a bad thing?
Actually yes, yes it is.  One of my favourite shows (as I may have mentioned previously) is True Blood.  It's been forever since series 4 aired in the US and I have been frantically trying to avoid spoilers since then.  Thankfully though series 4 started on Sky this week  and what a corker it was.

We had fairies, witches, a shape shifter anger management meeting and what appears to be a demonic baby decapitating Barbie dolls!  That's just bloody amazing.

As for the scheduling debacle.  I really don't know what's best.  Wait and watch like a normal person or put up with schizophrenic American scheduling.  As I intend to watch episode 8 of Walking Dead I think I've made my decision already. I'm still allowed to complain though, right?

Ps. I'm ridiculously proud of the title of this particular post!

2010

Never has a year flown by as quickly as 2010 seemed too. I still partially believe that I must have passed out for 6 months of it as it seems the only explanation for the sheer speed with which it passed. Still it was an excellent year. In fact I would maybe even put it down as one of my best years. Here are some of the things I’m very thankful for in 2010.

In no particular order:

• Family – 2010 was a great year for my family as my sister finally got her finger out and got married to her lovely boyfriend of God knows how many years.

• Friends – It was the year I turned 30 and some of my best friends were with me to celebrate/commiserate. I had an absolutely superb night. 2010 also saw Miss Rainy finally make her way to the land of leeks! A feat which may in fact be repeated again in 2011!

• My Husband – I’m not going to get too sloppy here as I don’t really do that but for Christmas 2010 my husband gave me a printed copy of a story he used to tell me on the phone during our long distance relationship days . The work that went into is incredible and I love it. It’s perfect.

• Work – One of my jobs I adore. I have quite possibly the best set of colleagues I’ve ever worked with and I actually like what we do. I’m very grateful for the role but alas it comes to an end soon. The other job is not so good. While the organisation I work with does great work, my actual day to day working life is dull to say the least. Still, I’m thankful I have work at all!

• Music – I’ve attended some great concerts in 2010 the highlight of which was 30 Seconds To Mars (possibly the best concert I’ve ever been too) with the super hot Jared Leto. Another highlight, although somewhat different, was Tim Minchin with an orchestra at the CIA in December. I laughed, cried and laughed again. More fab concerts are already lined up for 2011!

• Holiday - I had a weekend away with friends in 2010 which in itself may not seem like much but when you factor in that, apart from visiting family, I haven’t had a holiday in 6 years, you’ll understand why it’s a highlight.

• Acceptance - I’m a very positive person generally but my god can I be negative about myself sometimes. 2010 was the year I think I finally learnt to accept myself and not be so flipping self conscious all the time. I thank, age, wisdom and burlesque for that! I’m still overly self conscious but hey, it’s a start!

• Ophelia Nightly – 2010 was the year I started slinking and strutting by joining a Burlesque class. It’s been hugely enjoyable, rather educational and it’s increased my confidence phenomenally. I really hope to continue in 2011. I don’t think I can stress enough how much more confidence it has given me and I’m so grateful for that.

• True Blood – It’s now an undeniable truth that I am obsessed with True Blood. It’s funny, sexy and gory. What else do you want? 2010 was the year Eric Northman got HOT and Jason Stackhouse joined the ‘Light Of Day Institute’. What followed made for some of the most enjoyable TV I’ve ever seen. If you’re not already, be smart and go watch.

• Blu-Ray - Thank you 2010 for True Blood in blu-ray. More specifically thank you for giving me Eric Northman, Jason Stackhouse, Sam Merlotte & Eggs in 42inch glorious high definition! Praise the Lord!

• Dry Shampoo – I’m finally free from the constraints of washing, drying and then straightening my hair every single flipping day of my life thanks to this little miracle.

• Spontaneity – 2010 has been full of spontaneous acts (either by me or others) which made it unpredictable and hugely enjoyable.

• My Blog – In January 2010 I started my blog. While I may be a little erratic with my updates I have tried to keep in updated reasonably regularly. I don’t know if anyone actually reads it & enjoys it but I enjoy writing it (and it gives me something to do!).

All in all it’s been a great, fun year and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that 2011 will continue in a similar vein.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Well I almost choked on my £4 bottle of wine last night while watching my latest instalment of True Blood.  The very dumb but beautiful Jason Stackhouse came out with this gem:

“It’s funny. I never really thought I was clever enough to get depressed.”

A rather smart comment from such a blonde fellow I think.

Fangtasy Lover

I’m in love. Truly, madly deeply in love. My husband can rest assured that I still love him but he’s also come to accept that sometimes a girl just needs a fantasy guy and boy do I have a fantasy guy. Let me introduce you to Eric Northman:

Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) is a Viking King turned vampire in the True Blood series. Yes that’s right, Northman the Viking and yes he’s a vampire (hey, I never claimed this was sophisticated stuff). You can keep your whining, not to mention celibate, Edward Cullen and the like. I’ve found myself a proper vampire with real bite!

If you haven’t watched True Blood or indeed read the truly appalling Charlaine Harris books, then you’ll have no idea who I’m talking about. I’m sorry for that but seriously, why aren’t you watching? It’s a sexy, gory, very funny show about hot vampires (The books on the other hand, well I’ve already commented on those here)

Of course anyone who knows me well will know that my obsession with the undead started many many years ago. In fact it started long before most of the bloody Twihard fans were even born. When I was just 11 years old I developed the mother of all crushes on this man, Alexander Lucard.

Alexander Lucard ran a global corporation by day and turned into the Prince of Darkness by night. What more could an 11 year old girl want in a crush than international success, billions of pounds, fangs and a cape? Unfortunately this little TV series (rather subtly called ‘Dracula: The Series’) didn’t last too long and I was left to dive into the murky world of vampire literature.

And what murky water it is! There is no lack of reading for anyone interested in vampire tales and mythology but my goodness some of it is truly awful. There are some gems of course but on the whole it’s pretty cringe worthy.

Anyway, back to Eric. Eric didn’t start life as every girls dream. In series 1 of the show he was this tall, gangly drudging fellow. However in series 2 the man positively bloomed and at this stage I’m struggling to watch series 3 without a paramedic standing by. Lets just say the boy got hot!

I would like to able to into a lovely analysis of the appeal of his character but to be fair I’m not that good a writer also, it’s True Blood for goodness sake, how deep can the character be? Instead I’ll leave you with a little taster of the man himself. 

Oh and if vampires aren’t your thing, True Blood has taken that into consideration. It also offers hot shape shifters, wolves and the occasional human.

Truly Deflated

You haven't experienced crushing disappointment 'til you get home to find your brand new sexy bluray boxset of True Blood has arrived, only to open it and find it's a box of tampons!

Pissed off doesn't even come close!

Dead Awful

Thanks to fabulous show that is True Blood, I have recently started reading the Charlaine Harris series of books that the show is based upon.  Anyone that has watched the show will tell you it's a sexy, irreverent, piece of drama with enough sex, violence & fangs to satisfy any gothic urges you may have.  The books on the other hand . . !  

Well with such snappy titles as Club Dead, Definitely Dead & All Together Dead you can understand why I was a little dubious cracking open the first book (Dead Until Dark in case you were wondering).  I must admit I was pleasantly surprised.  Don't get me wrong, I don't see Charlaine Harris walking off with a Booker prize anytime soon but 'Dead Until Dark' is a perfectly enjoyable bit of fluffy fantasy.  In fact, I was so surprised by how competent the first book was that I got myself the next 4 in the series.  

Oh, what foolish creatures we mortals can be!

The second in the series was readable, barely.  However and about ten pages from the end I had to put it down in shame when this Mills & Boon moment was unleashed from our brooding hero, Vampire Bill:  

'It's lovely, but you may be slightly overdressed for the occasion.'

'What occasion would that be?'

'The best sex of your life.'

Aagggghhhhh! 

 

Why then you ask did I pick up the third book this weekend?  I'm afraid I'm not sure.  Obviously some dark corner of my mind is using this series as a form of self flagellation for some unspoken crime.  Or maybe, just maybe, I'm hoping the books improve.  

That being said I think I'm really done now.  I just can't do it to myself any longer.  I've realised I love myself too much.  Oh and I have Charlaine Harris herself to thank for this revelation.  Nice and early into book 3 Charlaine gave me the push I needed to put the novels down for good.  Thank you Ms Harris.  Oh and in case you're curious, the offending paragraph is below: 

'BIll's Missing,' Pam said, shooting from the conversational hip.

'No, he's not.  He's in Seattle,' I said.  Willfully obtuse.  I had learned that word from my Word-A-Day calendar only that morning, and here I was getting to use it.

Umm yeah, someone might need to have a word with the narrator about what is wrong with this scene!