Monday, October 13, 2003
Had another session of dental torture this morning. At my last check-up my dentist discovered infections under three or four fillings, necessitating two sessions for him to abuse me orally. And I'm one of the people that tends to feel that a general anaesthetic should be administered before anyone starts fiddling around in my mouth. Today's session involved removing, clearing under, then replacing a filling, which I got a local for, and clearing a load of gunk off of my wisdom teeth, which I didn't. Presumerably, when dentists are taught their trade one of the modular areas they can specialise in is 'how to make the experience worse for the patient', using methods such as pulling down on any instrument they insert in the mouth so it crushes the bottom lip, and permanently stick that suction pump down the back of the throat so you feel that any minute you're going to start choking. I also dislike the way my mouth feels all out of shape (no giggling please) for the rest of the day, so every normal twinge immediately makes me think "oh god, my teeth are falling out!" If dreams of teeth falling out are bad, what about daylight hallucinations?
Anyway, after that watched City of God which for once was accurately described on the box as a 'Brazilian Goodfellas' or the story of rival gangs in Rio de Janeiro in the 70s. It's supposedly a true story from a young boy who managed to escape the slums by becoming a photographer. Only, if the story is accurate then the narrator can't have known as much as we saw because he wasn't around for lots of it and there wasn't anyone left to talk to. But it's a rattling good film that whips you along at a good pace, has some interesting side plots that come back in interesting ways and some bravura camerawork. If you haven't, see it.
In the afternoon, to distract myself I went for a walk round the park. It's only about twenty minutes away from where I live, but this was the first time I've been there in the just over two years I've lived here. Part of the problem is that I have to walk practically the entire way around the park to get to the entrance. It's not much more than three or four football pitches strung together and there are many nicer green spaces in North London, Regent's Park being an obvious example, or the park in Burnt Oak (worth a visit on a nice summers day, come out of Burnt Oak tube station on the northern Line, turn left, it's thirty seconds down the road). But I daresay in Summer it looks nicer than on an overcast Autumnal day. I was needing to stop myself from going to see Spirited Away. Not because I don't want to see the film, I do, but I knew that if I went I would then immediately afterwards go to the Camden Virgin megastore and buy The Matrix Reloaded which would be stupid as I wouldn't have any opportunity to watch it until next Monday and, as I've paid the dentist over two hundred quid this month to indulge his desire to cause me pain through my teeth, it would make sense to hold off on buying it until the next credit card month, especially when I still have Pulp and X-Men 1.5 DVDs which I haven't watched all the way through yet.
And it's true Plums rocks so hard that the next Darkness single is going to be about living in Brighton with no money and being grumpy about how young and shiny the students all look...
Anyway, after that watched City of God which for once was accurately described on the box as a 'Brazilian Goodfellas' or the story of rival gangs in Rio de Janeiro in the 70s. It's supposedly a true story from a young boy who managed to escape the slums by becoming a photographer. Only, if the story is accurate then the narrator can't have known as much as we saw because he wasn't around for lots of it and there wasn't anyone left to talk to. But it's a rattling good film that whips you along at a good pace, has some interesting side plots that come back in interesting ways and some bravura camerawork. If you haven't, see it.
In the afternoon, to distract myself I went for a walk round the park. It's only about twenty minutes away from where I live, but this was the first time I've been there in the just over two years I've lived here. Part of the problem is that I have to walk practically the entire way around the park to get to the entrance. It's not much more than three or four football pitches strung together and there are many nicer green spaces in North London, Regent's Park being an obvious example, or the park in Burnt Oak (worth a visit on a nice summers day, come out of Burnt Oak tube station on the northern Line, turn left, it's thirty seconds down the road). But I daresay in Summer it looks nicer than on an overcast Autumnal day. I was needing to stop myself from going to see Spirited Away. Not because I don't want to see the film, I do, but I knew that if I went I would then immediately afterwards go to the Camden Virgin megastore and buy The Matrix Reloaded which would be stupid as I wouldn't have any opportunity to watch it until next Monday and, as I've paid the dentist over two hundred quid this month to indulge his desire to cause me pain through my teeth, it would make sense to hold off on buying it until the next credit card month, especially when I still have Pulp and X-Men 1.5 DVDs which I haven't watched all the way through yet.
And it's true Plums rocks so hard that the next Darkness single is going to be about living in Brighton with no money and being grumpy about how young and shiny the students all look...
