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By stephen, March 1, 2010 11:58 pm

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

What a wonderfully simple, charming & often hilarious little gem of a film. The broken horn on the van was priceless

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By stephen, February 22, 2010 5:47 pm

Bearing in mind that this person had actually contacted our Estate Agents and had arranged a viewing with us…

Knock knock knock…

Guy at the door: ‘Hi your house is for sale?‘

Me: ‘Yes.‘ (the huge wooden sign that he was standing next to had clearly escaped him!!!)

Guy: ‘What price is it?‘

Me: ‘£128,500.‘

Guy: ‘I don’t have that much money. How much do you want for it?‘

Me: ‘£128,500.‘

Guy: ‘Oh ok. Thanks. Bye.‘

Me: ‘Bye.‘

And he left without even setting foot into our house Although to be fair, a guy on Saturday didn’t even get out of his car to view our house!!! He apparently didn’t like our doorstep as he had a small child. The ironic thing is, that our ’small’ child was probably half way up a loft ladder while he was rejecting our lovely house!!!

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By stephen, February 22, 2010 4:04 pm

07:30 – British Gas ring to say that our boiler part hasn’t arrived yet, so our planned early morning visit won’t be happening.

09:00 – Our next door neighbour, who is moving house today, calls round to ask a favour… Could we please look after a ‘bit’ of her stuff until later today, as she has to have her house empty? I couldn’t really say no, so despite the fact that we’ve got 3 viewings ourselves today and despite the fact that we’ve been desperately trying to keep our house all clean & uncluttered, I took possession of a small poof/sofa (now hidden in our wardrobe!!!), a fish-tank, a huge box of random bits, a steam press (now under our bed) and two 4′ square mirrors

10:30 – A school rang me to say that all of my work that is planned to start tomorrow has been delayed. Not sure for how long, but am hugely peed off about this

12:00 – Boiler man called to say that he was on his way.

12:40 – Sawyer pooed his pants and I was hosing him down as someone was banging on our door. Still no idea who???

13:50 – Boiler man arrived… Just over an hour until our first viewing arrives

14:10 – Sawyer decides to fill the laundry basket with grapes and drag it around the house, while I’m being shown some boiler bit

14:25 – Boiler man leaves and while I’m saying cheerio Sawyer decides to climb up onto the kitchen worktop and ‘fiddle’ with our newly repaired boiler

14:40 – Di turns up for a worky catchup meeting/chat. Half an hour now until our first viewing!!! While we’re doing our worky stuff Sawyer decides to ‘make a cuppa tea daddy‘ whilst stood on a chair next to the kitchen sink

15:00 – Mess all tidied away and our viewings are imminent. Sawyer is now upstairs doing ’something’. I don’t really want to know what!!!

I’m stressed and I hardly ever say that

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By stephen, February 17, 2010 8:35 pm

And it’s surprising just how often we use that phrase!!!

Today is Jake’s 18th and moments before he officially turned 18 he decided to ‘tinker’ with the settings on our wireless router. Do I need to say any more? Sometime after 1 this morning the two of us bonded over chocolate cake, after somehow getting our Internet back up and running!!!

This morning we had to get the house all nice as the Estate Agents were coming round to photograph it. And this was the cue for Sawyer to play with every single toy that he possessed!!! Tracy also had this brainwave…

‘I really think you should put some paint on Jake’s ceiling…‘

I had an hour before the Estate Agent was due and had the most splattery paint that I’ve ever had the misfortune of using. And then the phone-calls began…

We had about half a dozen viewings booked, starting at 3.30 today and our house wasn’t even officially on the market yet!!!

Meanwhile, while I was wobbling on top of a ladder covered in paint, Sawyer decided to ‘play’ with a bit of water in the bathroom. He simply popped the plug in the sink and whacked the taps on Need I say any more? We then had a delivery of party food & the Estate Agent arrived, early, while Tracy was on the phone jotting down the details of yet another viewing

With photos done we then all whizzed off out for a birthday lunch for Jake. Our first 2 viewings were waiting outside the house by the time we’d dashed back. Another one followed moments later. Nobody seemed to notice the half finished ceiling, or my speckled hair!!!

We then received the news that the house we’re buying may not be for sale any more

I have a headache!!!

Tomorrow we have British Gas round to re-repair the boiler that they allegedly repaired on Monday (while we were trying to have a birthday tea for Sawyer!!!)

And then Friday sees the boozey 18th birthday party… Followed by more viewings the very next morning

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By stephen, February 7, 2010 6:28 pm

So after much waiting the final season of Lost is under-way and before we know it, it will soon be all done & dusted and gone forever which I’m sure will please some people. The Lost love/hate Marmite effect seems to be in full flow at the moment!!!

So what do we now know after the season’s 2 hour opening and more importantly, what don’t we know?

The bomb – Well it seams as though the bomb did actually go off in 1970’s Lost. As a result, the Swan Station was never completed, there was never a button to push every 108 minutes, which meant that the infamous Oceanic flight 815 safely sails across the Pacific and lands safely in L.A. with all of the original Losties on-board and strangely leaves the present day Island now submerged deep under the ocean (did the explosion cause this? Was it a result of the huge magnetic energy being released?). Well that’s the story in one reality anyway, as our 1970’s Losties appear to have been zapped to the present day Island at precisely the same time as the bomb exploding, which gives us two intriguing ‘parallel’ stories or realities to follow, which I’ll call (A) & (B), with (B) being the new non plane crash reality. I guess for me the most interesting development with these two (A) & (B) realities is the fact that (A) Losties have no idea that their actions have indeed created a (B) reality… Well almost all of the (A) Losties and this intrigues me more than anything else…

Juliet - Once the love interest for the loathsome Ben, then switched her affections to Jack, only to spend her time in the 70’s with Sawyer.

• Juliet (A) was last seen crushed at the bottom of the pit at the Swan construction site, desperately trying to get the bomb to ignite. Now zapped into the present day, Juliet is where we last left her. After a frantic rescue attempt, Sawyer finally reaches his beloved Juliet, only for her to die in his arms Her final words to Sawyer… ‘I need to tell you something really important…‘ And with the aid of medium Miles we learn that the rest of Juliet’s sentence should have been, ‘It worked.‘ Now assuming that this refers to trying to stop the plane crash, then how the hell can Juliet know this???
• Juliet (B) I’m assuming is somewhere in reality (B)???

Jack – He’s never been my favourite character, but I guess I aught to give him a mention. So…

• Jack (A) is full of remorse. As a result of his ‘oh let’s blow up a bomb’ actions, Juliet is now dead and Sawyer is not best pleased. Sayid appears to die from the shooting he received in the bomb climax, which improves Jack’s mood even further!!!
• Jack (B) meanwhile finds himself a little confused on-board Oceanic flight 815. He has a strange little sore on his neck, which I’m sure is very significant. He also manages to save a choking Charlie’s life by dislodging a heroine bag from his throat. Back in L.A. while trying to get to the bottom of his father’s missing coffin, Jack (B) also offers to give the wheelchair bound Locke (B) spinal surgery, which brings us to…

Locke – Easily the most interesting Lost character.

• Locke (A) is dead. End of story!!! Well maybe? There is an evil version of Locke (Locke ‘C’???) on the Island, but that’s Jacob’s nasty enemy/nemesis AKA the Smoke Monster. Not sure about everyone else but I kinda miss the original John Locke.
• Locke (B) as I’ve already mentioned is wheelchair bound and who knows just where his story will go? Where ever it does go though, Locke (B) will be going there without his trusty knives, which along with Christian Shepherd’s coffin have mysteriously vanished.

Jacob - Who the hell is the mysterious Jacob???

• Jacob (A) has just been stabbed to death by Ben and his body has been burnt by Locke (C) AKA Jacob’s enemy AKA the Smoke Monster. A ghostly Jacob then appears to Hurley and instructs him to take a dying Sayid to the Temple to be cured. He also tells Hurley that he must take his guitar-case with him. A guitar-case that a living Jacob gave to Hurley off the Island in 2007. A guitar-case that contained a big wooden Ankh, with a hand-written message hidden inside from Jacob, telling the Temple folk to cure Sayid. Coincidence that the Ankh is the Egyptian symbol for eternal life? I think not… Lots of hows, whys and whens spring to mind with this particular issue But it does certainly imply that Jacob knew what was going to happen a long time before they did and decided to do something about it.

• Jacob (B) I’m assuming sinks with the Island??? I don’t actually believe this for one minute!!! I’m not actually convinced that there even will be a Jacob (B)

And a few other interesting points.

The two (A) & (B) realities appear to be portraying very opposite characteristics. A ‘cursed’ Hurley (A) is mirrored by a Hurley (B)  who claims to be the luckiest man alive. A lucky Hurley (B) who appears to have grabbed the interest of a certain conman Sawyer (B). Interesting to see how this plays out. Sun & Jin’s relationship is also in stark contrast in the (A) & (B) worlds. Jack & Locke’s brief meeting in the L.A.Airport Lost Property was I thought particularly poignant. These two characters have been at opposite ends of the spectrum in world (A) and it will be very, very interesting to see how this storyline develops.

And finally a few questions.

• How will the two (A) & (B) worlds collide? (Surely this is a given conclusion?)
• How did Juliet know that the bomb experiment had ‘worked’?
• How did the large Egyptian 4 toed statue (Taweret) get destroyed? A bomb going off and a sinking Island would surely cause this, but had it already happened by then???
• How does Desmond fit into reality (B)? He appeared on the flight next to Jack, but was never actually on this flight.

As with almost every episode of Lost I could write a whole website full of questions, so just for now I’ll leave it at that!!!