Nar-nar-nar-narnia ... Hey ... Aslan???

11 November - Worst subject line ever!
Last night's festivities resulted in waking up with a bit of a hangover today but nothing too intense. Made some pancakes, watched the end of AKira Kurosawa's 'Ran' (excellent movie that's been on my list for far too long), washed my bike and changed the inner tube ... Again!!!! I'd taken it in to be tuned up on Friday and already I had to fix the tyre again, which I was very annoyed about. A flat can be caused by anything but the number of things that i've had to change the rear tyre on this bike about 10 times now and it's getting ridiculous. Did notice that there was a bif of a tear in the wall of the actual tyre this time and thinking it might need to be replaced I headed into downtown only to find out that they hadn't tuned the bike on Friday, they'd just replaced the brake pads. The surly mechnic explained that they only fix what they're asked to fix. I explained that i'd asked for a tuneup and when I picked it up i'd been told it had been given a tuneup but I wasn't going to argue with them so I left it there whilst I went off to eat some very bad food court Chinese and to see the latest fantasy blockbuster to hit the cinemas. Ihave to say that I absolutely love the Chronicles of Narnia, I read it when I was a wee boy and in anticipation of the upcoming movie I refreshed myself by going throug the series whilst I was Vietnam (at one point when I was afflicted with the traveller's disease I found myself in super humid Hoi An guesthouse hallucinating about Aslan). There were lots of great moments in the film, including the obligatory troops shouting out a warcry before charging (no overlong inspiring speeches luckily) and the CGI realisations of the fantastic beasts were all pretty good but all in all a little bit disappointing to me. I couldn't really put my finger on what I didn't like about it - maybe it was a bit rushed at points, maybe i'm just over seeing massive battle scenes (although having the normal beasts participating was very entertaining, especially when the cheetahs put on their speed to tear ahead of the charging phalanx). Personally, when it comes to the fantasy classics, I think that the books of Narnia have the edge over Lord of the rings, but despite the great source material you can certainly see the difference having a great director like Peter Jackson on board makes when it comes to putting it on the big screen. It was certainly entertaining nonetheless, and i'm sure it'll make a lot of money which will mean that there'll be more of the series to come and maybe the future ones will be more suited to my particular palate. And then, we'll see if the fanboys will manage to lobby Hollywood into binging the Dragonlance saga to life as well. God help us.