MrsHughey.com

The Two Apples - er - Towers

It's been a pretty interesting few days, but right now I'm really sleepy. We've been in and out of buildings all day (cold-hot-cold-hot) so I've got a bit of a headache and just feel generally pooped. I hate that. In Florida, it used to happen quite a bit, but the hot was outside and the cold was inside (air conditioning). Here in Oxford, it's about 5 degrees celsius outside and everybody has their heaters blasting inside. Same effect - I get a headache and worn out by the end of the day.

On with the updating, patient reader.

I have three days off from work (I got 3 paid holidays this year I had to use up before the 31st. Since the library is closed from the 24th through January 2nd, I pretty much had to use them this month). So I took of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Yesterday I did my favorite day-off tradition of staying up way too late and sleeping until noon. My natural body clock would have me up until 3 or 4 and out of bed at 11 or 12. However, this doesn't function well for the real world. Anyway, it's fun once in a while.

Unfortunately, our heater broke yesterday. We have a back-up heater from the LAST TIME it broke, but it doesn't work as well and, since it's a space heater, we don't leave it on while we're out. So we came home to a cold house yesterday and had to call in a request for service. So we spent most of yesterday out and about. I wrapped Andrew's Christmas presents and we picked up a big box from the lodge which contained the presents my mom sent. We've also gotten lots of very nice Christmas cards from our family and friends back home.

Today I was awakened at 9 by the electricians barging into our flat and rather quickly bounding down the stairs to fix the heater (which is in the same room as the bed in which I was sleeping!). Andrew was already up and dressed, fortunately. He got up early because he ordered his new computer last week and it was scheduled to arrive today. So he was eagerly awaiting a knock at the door - for the heater and for the computer. Anyway, I just basically hid under the sheets until they were gone. Ug. At least the heater is fixed. And the bathroom light.

So then I was up - ::sigh::. I got ready and then we hung out at home until Andrew's computer arrived! YAY! He is very, very excited about it. We've been planning to buy him a new machine for about two years now and finally got it! It's pretty great! So, since we have no internet access at our flat(!), we got on the bus and headed to the city centre.

As you all know I'm sure, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers opened today in Oxford. (You all DID know that, right??). And my husband is a HUGE Tolkien fan from way back. As a matter of fact, when we started dating in 1993, it was a major deal that I MUST read The Hobbit and LOTR. I did so within a month or two of us starting to date. Since then, we have exchanged many, many Tolkein-related gifts. Of course we saw Fellowship the day it came out, and so we had to see TTT, too. So we went to the theatre on our way to Hertford and bought tickets for the 3:45 showing.

We then went to college and spent a few minutes setting up Andrew's computer before locking it up and going to the movie. Although we knew the 8 pm showings were sold out at the 3 theatres in town showing the film, we'd managed to buy tickets to the 3:45 show after 1:30, so we figured we wouldn't need to show up REAL early to the theatre. So we got there at about 3:20 and the line was half way down the street! We ran into friends of ours from Hertford about 2 people in front of us in line and waited with them. We did find good seats all together.

After about half an hour of commercials and previews (my boyfriend, Leo, is in a killer new movie called Catch Me if You Can! RRROWR!!) the film finally started. If I may say so, it was brilliant. Equally as good as the first LOTR film and, I think, better than the book. I found the book very confusing but the film was much easier to follow and more compelling for me. I found myself much more interested in the characters. Anyway, it was terrific. I laughed, I cried, blah, blah. Andrew loved it, too, of course. I say it was equal to the first film in quality. Andrew is undecided, but thinks it might be a bit better. We'll definitely see it again. My only problem was that I ate too many M&Ms during the show.

My personal favorite LOTR character is Pippin. I absolutely adored him in the books. I don't care too much for his portrayal in the films so far (a bit to mischevious for my taste), but it's not terrible. This film featured my absolute favorite bit from the novels, which is Pippin and Merry's journey with the Ents. I thought it was pretty good, although nothing could quite live up to my imagination. Still, the battles and Golum made the film really remarkable. I liked those bits much better than I did in the book, and could follow the battles and characters a lot better.

So now it's after the movie and we're back at Hertford's library. Andrew is playing on his computer and I on my adorable iBook. It's good to have her to myself again.

Our friends who were left at Hertford seem to be slowly trickling away as Christmas inches closer. It's cold but not snowy here (very unusual for it to snow in Oxford), but we have each other to keep warm.

How is it with you?

Posted by Erin at December 18, 2002 11:02 PM