cul's comfy corner

at home, in bed feeling sorry for myself.

i feel dreadful today. third day of a horrible migraine, feeling very dehydrated and nauseous. in fact, it feels like the worst hangover after the bestest night out, except there was no bestest night out.

i've taken the day off on my boss' insistence in the hope that a day in bed will sort me out. i really hope so. i don't think i can stand a fourth day of mega-not-quite-hangover. plenty of liquids today, methinks.

friday i went to see 'the pursuit of happyness'

now, i *love* will smith. i love his crazy stupidness and funny face. i love the fresh prince, i loved 'getting jiggy with it' and i loved men in black.  i hadn't read anything about this film so i went in expecting some hitch-esque romantic comedy.

oh, how wrong could i be? there was barely a titter in sight.

instead, i found myself drawn into a tender story about pursuing one's dreams, overcoming adversity and self-belief. i laughed at this film. i cried at this film. but most of all, i loved this film.

will's portrayal of chris gardner, the guy who wants to provide for his family despite being a man of very little means, really touched my heart.

like watching 'rocky' the first time round, i found myself willing 'chris' to make it, almost yelling at the screen "come on chris!" at each twist and turn. Each disappointment for him was a disappointment for me.

this was the first film in a long time that has deserved a round of applause at the end. i was choked and have made this my number one film of the year so far. it's going to take something pretty amazing to beat this. five out of five!

triumph over adversity. power of positive thinking.

there's a few lessons for everyone there...

been to see a few films of late that have received a range of reviews.

firstly, i must mention happy feet. 

failure to do so wll result in me being slapped by jj tomorrow. 

i saw this  before christmas and it warmed the cockles of my heart.  jj and i sat there oohing and aahing all the way through.  there were tender moments and funny moments.  we laughed, we cried.  i'd love to see it again, a brilliant watch, hence 3.5 out of 5.

last week i went to see 'miss potter'

in all honesty, i don't know what i was expecting but this certainly wasn't it.  this was insightful and sweet and it really tugged at my heartstrings.  i've never liked any of the beatrix potter stories and so have avoided them at all costs but this film has inspired me to read them.  i'm off to see this film again on sunday, i liked it so much!  tough call on the score, probably 4 out of 5.

tonight's film was 'babel'

having read the synopsis, i was taken by the fragmented storyline and the opportunity to see something a little different.  in my head this film was going to be like 'crash', fragmented, emotional but ultimately satisfying.

instead, it was fragmented to the point of confusion.  the main characters (brad pitt and cate blanchett) were utterly unlikeable, brad pitt mumbling  like the incomprehensible antonio banderas.  the timeline was adventurous and achieved it's aim to make one think carefully but not to piece parts together, just to keep up with the story. 

stories where seemingly seperate lives become entangled are not a new concept, but this one was different.  it was like a small child doing a jigsaw.  three quarters of it was beautifully crafted and fitted together.  the remainder, although still beautiful, doesn't actually fit where it's being shoehorned in.  i can see how the mexican nanny, the american tourists and the moroccan goatherds all fit in together.  the deaf and naked japanese schoolgirl?  tenuous to say the least.  i found her story fascinating, but it was a film in it's own right rather than an unnecessary glimmer in this one.

i suppose that rather than telling any definite story, it provided a small insight into different worlds and cultures, something i'm always interested to find out about. with this in mind, i left the cinema unsure if this was the worst film i'd ever seen or the  most brilliant.  for that, i'll give it 2½ out of 5 with a note to see it again at least once.

film schedule: tomorrow - pursuit of happyness.  sunday - miss potter

a particularly disruptive little boy in my class has just been introduced to the joys of assembly at school.

he's been practicing sitting quietly and not just getting up and wandering off to have a chat with someone five rows back in a very loud voice.

the vicar came into school today to do an assembly on being 'good' and wanted to choose someone to say a prayer that they could make up themselves.

inevitably, he chose my little boy. everyone held their breath.

"i don't know what to tell" he told the vicar

"how about 'dear god, help us to be good. amen?'"

"dear god, be good. army!"

it's not the done thing to laugh out loud during prayers...

must...sleep...

eyes are falling closed but i have so much to do before i can go to bed.

when will i learn?

*chants*

i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.   i must not arrange things for 9am saturday mornings.  

now the boy is back, he's being very vocal.

he's such a funny thing.  he drinks out of the toilet, sleeps on his back and snores like my dad.

when i came in from work tonight, he was fast asleep on top of a parcel, his paws covering his face and snoring really loudly.  i guess he's glad to be home too.

now that the relief has set in, his punishment for disappearing can begin.  i'm going with grounding him for a week with no pocket money or tv.  that'll teach him. 

i woke up this morning to see ant yawn and roll out of my office sleepily. if i could have turned cartwheels right there on the landing, i would.

unfortunately, the very first thing he did was come in and clobber his brother who is now feeling very annoyed that he came back and is, understandably, a bit grumpy.

ant is very soft and well fed so it seems he has found someone else to feed him all that time.  

what a naughty boy!

i'm *so* glad he's home.

still no pussy cat.  dec is freaking out now.  he's crying all the time and very clingy.  it's so depressing.

i made some posters during the night when i couldn't sleep.  i'm going to copy them tomorrow and pin them out and post some through doors at the weekend in the hope that someone's seen him.

still no sign of ant.  he's been gone since friday. 

as chilled out as i try to be, i'm a worrier through and through and there are very few possible scenarios which haven't been through my head this evening.

see, what' i'm wondering is if he's dead.  one of the cats was sick on tuesday and then again on friday, though i didn't see it happen either time so i have no clue which one it was.  as i sat working this evening i pieced things together - ant has beenvery grumpy, he was the one who was sick and now he's gone off somewhere to die.

melodramatic after onlhy a few days, i know, but my cats simply don't do that.  ant went missing once before for 3 days and that had me frantic.  his brother dec is pining for him and sits by the catflap waiting for him to come home.  now i just feel sick. 

i've spent the best part of the last hour trying to work out how to get rid of that stupid bloody ticker in the corner there.  i've read the helpfiley things and i've clicked on everylink i can find and i still don't know how to get rid of it. 

help! 

i have had a dreadful day.

the kids have been mental despite doing really nice things like making crispy cakes and having a party for a bear who was celebrating his 5th birthday. 

bastards.

i'm taking myself off to the cinema on my own tonight to watch something vaguely intellectual so i can pout even more and even feel a little bit precocious. *grin*

in other news, one of my cats has gone missing.  he's the brains of the pair and is doing this to spite me.  they were fighting on friday so i picked him up and put him outside and he hasn't been home since. i've been for a walk around the streets and tonight i'm going to drive around.  i'm really worried.

i sat at my desk for 6 hours yesterday, working solidly on this stupid threshold form.

part way through,  i panicked and rang a friend who went through the threshold last year and asked her if i could see her form.  20 minutes later i was in receipt of a flimsy bit of paper with casual notes jotted down indicating how each of the standards had been met.  hmmm.  is that it?  apparently so, it was changed in september and now i have the big mamm-jamma to fill in and provide evidence for each standard and all that crap.  so, from what i can summise, if my boss had done it properly when it was due, i'd have had to fill in the old form, but because my new boss has to do it, i have to fill in the new one.  that sucks.  however, whinging about it doesn't get it finished.

i didn't finish it last night.  6 hours of staring at it was making me panic and it didn't seem to be making sense so i packed up for the night and went to bed at 12.  i would say that i went to sleep, but it would be a lie.  i fell asleep almost immediately, waking up when i heard the alarm and getting out of bed before i realised that it was only 1am and the alarm clock wasn't actually going off!  it was impossible to sleep after that, though.  *grumble grumble*

i went in to see the finance officer today to beg for a few more days, stating that expecting that much work in such a short time was unbelievably unfair.  i looked a sorry state because i'm not feeling well either, so i guess she felt sorry for me and my snotty nose, runny eyes, pounding head and pale face because she's given me until friday to get it in with all of the evidence.

not really cause for celebration though, it's not the only thing that needs to be done by then so no rest for me until the weekend.

*sniff*

and linda, i luff you.  thanks so much for the cd [::] 

some of you that have known me for a while may remember some of the shit i've had to put up with work.

a few years ago i reached the top of my payscale at work and so had to apply to go through the threshold for the new payscale. i hassled my boss for about 3 months and he kept fobbing me off, saying it wasn't due yet and that it needs to be done at the end of the year etc. a friend of mine was due hers at the same time and found out that the closing date was approaching and my boss panicked and made me fill in the huge application in 6 days instead of the 3 months i was allowed. grrr

in july, before the boss left, i asked him how i should go about getting my second threshold payment as it was due in september . he said that as he was leaving, the next head would sort it. in september we had a temporary head and so i asked her about it. she said she couldn't make the decision and the new proper head would have to do it. you can see where this is going, can't you?

i asked the new head about it yesterday and she said she would look into it for me. she checked the details and found out that my application should have been filled out and returned by 31st august 2006 :( frigging old boss. he's been gone 6 months and he's still causing bloody chaos.

so, the new boss has given me a choice. it's a tough one. if i fill out the form *tonight*, i can have the pay and she'll fax it all through for me tomorrow citing extenuating circumstances. if i don't do it tonight, i have to wait another year for my pay rise.

it's not an easy choice. i've got to rifle through a 87 page document and fill out the pages i need. it's a proper application form where i need to think about things like the impact i have on the school etc, so not stuff i can just throw onto a scrap of paper.

it's going to be a long night. again.

:(

i haven't blogged about any films in a while so i thought i'd do a little catch up of what i've seen in the last few weeks.

it's a very easy blog post then, because all i have seen is this:

not once, not twice but three times!

i saw it with a friend the first time and enjoyed it, i saw it a second time because another friend wanted to see it and i had enjoyed it the first time.  i saw it with a different friend the third time because by then i had given in to my mentally insane crush on jack black :D

it's such a great film though.  obviously all the guys out there are groaning about it being a chick flick, and maybe it is, but it's the sort of film that warms the cockles of every girl's heart and i need a bit of that right now.

one thing that surprised me about the film is how much i liked jude law.  i don't like jude law, so that was the main indication of my surprise.  i found him quite charming in this film, even vulnerable and that was quite attractive given his usual arrogant persona on-screen.

so, all in all i'd give the film 4 out of five (and i'd give jack black the other one!)

i greatly dislike getting a cold and sniffles around the beginning of the new year.  no fair.

anyways, today is my pop's birthday!  yay!   happy 57th birthday dad [::]

and so, my favourite photo of my dad and me, just to make me smile because i've got to go to work and actually teach today.  

have a good day, everyone [::] 

happy new year!

i'm on my way home today.  i'll be around later to read of the drunken shennanigans that went on, so get posting!

love to you all [::][::]