Mirror wishes ...
Monday, 16 October, 2006
I think I overdid it last week. Friday I worked 7:30-3:30 and then went to New College to do some things for Mark to help him get the New College lectures online (you can download them from here if you're interested). I finally got home at around 5 pm and I suppose it was just wishful thinking to have packed our bags, cooked dinner and eaten to be out of the house by 6pm. Instead, we left at around 7:30 and didn't get down to the campsite (which was in Wombeyan Caves) until around 9:30.
Erin and Francis had brought Singstar. Someone turned on the disco ball in the corner of the room, and some of the girls got up and danced during some of the numbers. But for me the highlight of the evening was watching Ben sing “I Want to Know What Love Is” with Cameron, complete with much swaying and arm-waving.
I probably should have left earlier but I left the gathering at around midnight, just when they discovered the game that's a bit like air hockey except you use your voice to control the paddle. Apparently they had hours of fun with that one and some of them didn't get to bed until 2.
I didn't sleep very well and woke up with a cold of some sort: my nose wouldn't stop running and, during the course of the day, I went through all the tissues in the car. We had breakfast outdoors and then had Bible study (it was on the theme of glory) down near the pond. Before lunch, we also talked a bit about church. After lunch, I decided it was time to go back to bed and tried to sleep during the afternoon. It was stinking hot in the cabin and I couldn't work out whether I actually had a fever or if it was just the weather.
At 5:30, I loaded up the car and extracted Ben out of the Survivor games they were playing down near the pond (they were trying to see who had the best boat constructed out of bark, twigs and leaves). We drove to Denham Court and had dinner with all four Uns. Sarah was also sick, and she and I shared a tissue box over dinner. Mary commented that the last time she had seen me (Duncan and Fi's engagement party), I had also been sick and was this the same cold? Oh dear, I need to do better at looking after myself and not doing so much!
After dinner, we watched Mirrormask which, even though I had been given it as a birthday present, I still hadn't watched it. For people who don't read this blog to closely, this is the story of Mirrormask the way I like to tell it:
Mirrormask's genesis goes back to The Labyrinth, one of my favourite movies of all time. Sony realised that The Labyrinth, even though it had flopped at the box office, was making a truckload of money in DVD and VHS sales. “Hmm, we can cash in on this,” they thought to themselves. “Let's make a sequel! Oh, wait, we've only got 7 million dollars. Who can we get to make us a movie for 7 million? Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman!” So McKean and Gaiman went and spent some time up at the Henson house (where a decaying puppet of Hoggle eyed them sadly from the wall), and they threw together a script and McKean went away and filmed it.
It's not really a Labyrinth sequel; it's more like a Labyrinth-type movie—the heart and soul of The Labyrinth is in it. It's about a girl named Helena whose parents run a circus and all she thinks about is running away from it (heheheh ...). After a fight with her mother during which Helena wishes that she (Helena) would “be the death of her” (her being her mother), her mother gets very very ill. She dreams—and finds herself in a strange world of orbiting giants, flying books, sphinxes and people who all wear masks. The White Queen has fallen into a deep sleep from which no one can wake her because her charm has been stolen—most likely by the Dark Princes which everyone says resembles Helena. As a result, her realm is falling into shadow and everyone is trying to escape, like rats jumping from a sinking ship.
I don't want to give away too much of the plot except to say that it was everything I thought it would be and much more, and I keep thinking about how clever it is—so essentially Gaiman. I loved the visuals, I loved the music, I thought the cast was great, I loved The Very Useful Book which, when opened, would bear pages that said things like, “Remember what your mother said” and “Don't let them see you're afraid”. I can understand why people found it slow and rather dull but I didn't. The ending did need a bit of work (and I think Neil explains somewhere on his blog that they would have re-shot it except they had run out of money) and I think the one thing I would have fixed is to give us more of Helena's character before the plot starting rolling as we don't get much of a chance to empathise with her, but apart from that, I loved it and I am very grateful to Haoran, Sarah, Guan and Mary—and their parents!—for giving me the chance to see it on the big screen.
We drove home afterwards, following Guan and Mary back onto the M5 and into the city once more. I was feeling sort of okay but knew I really needed sleep. On Sunday I woke early because of the light and somehow managed to get myself out of bed to wrap Ben's birthday present and make him a little card before we headed off to the Camellia Gardens in Caringbah for family photos. Us kids had pitched in together to hire a professional photographer to take some shots of the family for Hans and Cathy's wedding anniversary. I wondered if my poor red nose would make me look terrible but no one commented on it. And we had great light for the shoot.
Afterwards we went to grandma's flat to have Ben's birthday lunch. It was odd being there without her there. Cathy even said that it was almost like she was just in the next room and would come out at any minute. Cathy wanted us to have a look to see if we wanted to take anything home with us which felt really awful as we were going through someone else's things but I suppose it was better that we were doing it—because we were family—rather than strangers. We found things like a box full of letters dating back to 1858 (we have no idea whose they were) and grandma's leaving certificate examination papers from 1936. Eventually Ben and I will get her antique dining table—the same table that Cathy grew up with and that grandma ate off when she was a little girl. We will also get her crockery and bookshelves. I have no idea where everything will go; I guess we'll work that out when it all gets here.
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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