WOW x 100!!

Well, here I am AGAIN. Does this mean I'm becoming a full time as opposed to full time Cheeser? Not quite. But I'm getting there.

And - I am pleased to say Kylie in concert the other night was bloody magnificent!! Very good indeed. My laptop is currently in dock for repairs, otherwise I would have uploaded some photos I took on my digital camera to show you what she/it was like. Fortunately here's a few ones I nicked off the net in the meantime:

As said I'm going to write a proper review soon(ish) but highlights for me included:

• The excellent Kylie costume changes (even if she was quite "covered up" she still looked very interesting - some great dominatrix outfits!)
• Great moves from the dancers and so many different styles - ballroom dancing, disco...
  
• Some brilliant backdrops on the screen behind the stage e.g. Kylie as geisha girl in a flowery garden; Kylie as a Japanese prostitute (? I think) walking down the street with Atari-type graphics; glitter balls and Saturday Night Fever style flashing squares...and so forth...
• The different sets/styles utilised for "groups" of songs e.g. The "Copacabana" section with Kyles on a ship hanging out by a cocktail bar; the "American football" bit with lots of hunky footballer-dancers supporting Ms M and pom pom girls to boot; the "Russian ballroom" look leading into "On A Night Like This"...all highly creative!
• The excellent and different interpretations of old tracks e.g. sampling "Spinning Around" with Cheryl Lynn's "Got To Be Real" - a masterstroke and on a par with Madonna's ingenious mash-up of "Music" and "Disco Inferno" (a particular favourite of mine). The acapella version of "Step Back In Time"...

All in all, damn good stuff from Mistress Minogue and certainly value for money -£50 as opposed to the £160 I splashed out previously for Madonna. Talking of Madge, Kylie's show did bear a certain resemblance to her's but was, in my view, equally entertaining and good!!

I was also very impressed with O2, having never visited the venue ever before. O2 as in the old Millenium Dome. It's bloody massive! And has far more there than Wembley Stadium or Arena - tons of bars and restaurants and room to walk around and all the better for that. Me and Gustavo had a very nice tapas meal and some sangrias before the show to get us in the mood...very nice!

What else. I have three weeks left in my current job before leaving for my new one and I can't wait to go!! Nuff said. Typically I've got tons of stuff to sort out before I go, so the stress is on at the moment. Grrrr!!

Re: my proposed blog-meet, thanks to those of you who responded and showed an interest! All we gotta do now is agree on a date and place. I didn't have as many people get back and say "YES!" as I would have liked though. What about my fellow faggot bloggers? Sorry, I mean the ones of homosexual persuasion. Only Mr Newplanet has shown an interest. What about the rest of you? (!) I also had another brainwave - to those of you who have taken up my offer, if it makes you feel better (and to also make up numbers), why not invite some of YOUR fellow blogging pals as well? Just a thought.

Now. I'm spinning around...get out of my way...

OC xx

Wow wow wow WOWWWWW!!

Guess which Austraaaaaalian popstress I'm going to see in concert tonight??

Mmmm. Difficult one to answer.

Suffice to say I am very excited!!!

Full report forthcoming.

How very odd...and very sad

Just over a year ago, Gustavo and I visited some good mates in Weston Super Mare and had a jolly jaunt around the pier. And here's the proof:


And this is what's just happened to it now:

I can't quite believe it.

Oddly enough we're visiting again in just a few weeks. It will be completely bizarre to see the contrast.

Apparently the cause of the conflagration was a chip pan catching fire. Okay, so the pier (and Weston in general) has a tacky reputation, but what a tragic thing to occur (on a par with the burning down of the West Pier in Brighton which is now but a charred and blackened hulk...)

What do we all reckon?

And from the Dancefloors of Skaro...

May I present this:



And this:



I wish the second one was a bit longer!

Can we get together?

As Madge once sung.

Okay, ages and ages ago I came up with an idea. Having participated in this whole blogging marlarkey for close on two years, I've got to know lots of delightful and different people from many walks of life. It's been wonderful, enlightening and enriching. I've so enjoyed finding out about others; their lives, their experiences, their likes, their dislikes, their coming and goings, and...the rest. Not to mention sharing similar tastes, stories and anecdotes.

And now... I wanna meet all of you. In person.

I kid you not.

Mmmm. Now I know, there's probably a fair few of you who aren't so keen.

It's funny, the whole virtual communication thing. As said, I feel like I've built up some great relationships and, even though I'm hundreds or thousands of miles apart from some of my fellow bloggers, I feel like I know many of you. Of course that's not the same as meeting someone in the flesh. And a bit like internet dating, there's always the risk that you might get on famously online, but when you meet that person for real, it's just not the same. I'm also aware that some bloggers want to retain their privacy and whilst perfectly happy to wax lyrical and bare all about themselves on their websites, they don't want to extend the boundaries any further than the virtual sphere. In other words, they want to maintain their privacy. Fair enough.

But I'd still love to meet up with you and get to know you better. It would be wonderful to have a good conversation, share a laugh, have a drink, and most importantly, I'm intrigued at the prospect of meeting the real YOU!

Well, I hope I haven't freaked you all out. I did speak to Steve some time back and he expressed an interest, which is good!

So. Any takers??

PS I think a meet-up in London might be best ... so yes, that cuts out rather a lot of my overseas counterparts ... unless of course you want to jump on a jet and visit the UK! I'm not stopping you, ladies and gents!

Love
OC xx

Journey's End

Ooooooweeeeeeoooooo!! It’s Dr Whoooooooo!!

Except it isn’t any more, cos the last episode of Season Four has now been and gone!! * The Cheeser starts sobbing uncontrollably….* How am I (and many others for that matter) going to spend my Saturday evenings now?! And next year we don’t even get a proper series, just a few specials!! Oh well, better than nowt…

And have you heard the current rumours about how much the Beeb are offering David Tennant to stay on for Series Five? (Which would seem to indicate he might be departing some time next year….) (Oh and if you click on that link before there's a birrova spoiler at the end - just to let you know!)

Anyway. In the meantime, what were my thoughts on the second part of the Dalek “epic”? Yes, I'm late, I know... just for a change.

The Good

Just let me get me old fingers on that old Dalek joanna! All together now....any old iron, any old iron, any any any old iron...

Donna’s amazing transformation into half human half time lord. Okay, so it was a convenient plot device that the “temp from Chiswick” with a low self-image was finally imbued with the intelligence, know-how and wisdom to enable her to render the Daleks and Davros impotent, free the Dr and co and ultimately save the day, if not the entire universe (and rather similar to what happened to Rose’s transformation into an omnipotent, god-like being at the end of Season One, don’t we think?) However Catherine T played it very well and proved Rose’s remark that she really WAS the most important human in all creation. “Ooooh yes, I’ll just the render the thingamy whatsit thus doing the thingamy…..” (Sorry can’t remember the lines but you know what I mean). This in part was down to Catherine Tate’s brilliant rapid fire delivery and comic lines –The comedy really did work this time.

Look I know I've only got a one series contract, but you can't wipe my brain, Dr! No! No! No! I don't wanna appear in a West End play in the nude!

Donna’s “death”. Very poignantly done and tragic. Some of my fellow bloggers have said that it was horrible and diminishing. Yes it was, but then wasn't that the whole point? Having Donna forget all that happened to her since she’d met the Dr; all of her travels through time and space; all of her extra terrestrial encounters and so forth and then having her revert back to the self same unchallenged temp from Chiswick she was at the very start of “Runaway Bride” rendered her whole situation far more tragic than just being blown up, Adric style. And although the outcome for Donna was obviously negative, wasn’t it more realistic NOT to have an entirely happy ending sometimes? (Whereas on the bright side they did manage to defeat the Daleks and return the planets to their rightful place, which was something wasn't it? If Martha had had her way, the whole of planet Earth would have been nuked!!)

All together now. You put your left leg in...you put your left leg out...hang on. The TARDIS ain't no bike...

The companions all operating the TARDIS console. The console room had never been so crowded! But good to see the literal “hands on approach”.

Greetings Village People! Any vacancies for a decrepit old Kaled with a Gucci tunic and a disco fixation? Look! I can do the hand wave to perfection...

Julian Bleach as Davros. Great performance. There was only one bit which seemed non-Davros, when he threw his hands up in the air in a rather YMCA fashion (see above).

However (and this should really go in the “not so good” section below) they could have done more with him. Old Dave Ross was stuck in the vault for all of the two episodes. Couldn’t we have seen him out “in the field” (no, NOT with Phil Lynott and Gary Moore) supervising the Daleks’ takeover of the Earth/the Cosmos? Or iconically trundling across Westminster Bridge with his creations following him behind? Or shopping in H&M on Oxford Street for a trendy new tunic? Then again, we did get the bit about how the Daleks wanted to “contain” Davros, hence him being stuck in the “basement”. It was just a bit kind of limiting for old tortoise face.

Mistress! Master! Oh this is a bit boring being stuck in an attic...

The return of K9. Not quite how I predicted but good to see everyone’s favourite dog back all the same.

I liked the "helping to fly the Earth back home" bit and the fabulous accompanying choral music. Very uplifting and magnificent.

The okay but could have been done better

Who you gonna call? Chavbusters!!

Mickey and Jackie’s return. They didn’t do very much. Granted, they saved Sarah from destruction (though as an all-action adventure girl with her own series, I would have preferred to see Ms Smith doing this herself) but overall The Mickster and the Jackster were rather underused. And the rumours have it Mickey is back in the next series of Torchwood! Mmm. I’ve never been a fan of Mr Clarke’s acting in spite of his good intentions and directorial aspirations, but we’ll see….if we get lots of scenes of him showing off his naked bod like in Rise of the Cybermen, that might just help to compensate. Or a three-way with Jack and Ianto?

No! I don't want the camera to pan down any further! This is a kid's programme!

The second Dr being reborn in the TARDIS. This did just about work but was a tad too convenient e.g. having “another” Dr on hand to help Donna whilst the other Doc was held captive, and of course, ultimately partnering up with Rose, which is what she’d wanted all along. Quite nice to see DT topless too, a first I think. What might the rest of him have looked like, we wonder? One clue might be Billie Piper's nickname for him, which was "David Ten-inch". Anyone know why?

The not so good

The non-regeneration thing – a swizz and a cop out? We all knew the hand would, erm, come in handy, somehow didn’t we?

Haven't we been somewhere like this before? Deja vous or what...

Some of the companions felt under-used (in spite of the aforementioned TARDIS scene). And sticking The Dr, Rose and Jack in a very similar scene to "Parting of the Ways" wasn't very original.

Mmmm...mmmm....oh what's that? Oh. So, it's true what they say about your nickname, David...

After her butch-Sigourney-isms of Part One, Rose didn’t get much of a chance to flex her muscles in this episode. I would have loved to see her going hell for leather with her giant gun, blowing up Daleks left, right and centre, but no such luck. A waste. And whilst still on the subject of Ms Tyler, her presence was...well...kind of swamped by everything else that went on, and the Return to Bad Wolf Bay scene felt a bit too familiar. And yeah, getting a Dr Number 2 to snog made it nice n'easy...

The gappy-toothed one and the comedy doorman from Torchwood also didn’t do very much in Part Two. I suppose if they’d let them out of the hub and into the TARDIS all of the guest stars would have been squeezed up in the console room far too tightly, worse than a London bus during rush hour.

The rather convenient placing of the device machine thing (forgot what it was called) in the Vault that enabled Donna to defeat the Daleks and save the day. Would it really have been so easily accessible?

That's right, Ms Jones. Have the decency to look a little bit guilty...

The key thing – would Martha really be prepared to blow up the whole world? Her transformation into ruthless killer prepared to zap all of mankind for the greater good was slightly hard to stomach. Had her time with UNIT turned her into a hard-nosed military b*tch? It didn’t really wash.

Well it seems I have as many criticisms as positive things to say about the whole affair. Sure it had it's drawbacks. But it was still one hell of a lot better than the Master-Mess of 2007 and on the whole I enjoyed it lots.

And now we have to wait until 2010 till another full and proper series!! But there's a few specials to console us along the way.... until then, I shall probably dig out a few more of my DVDs...

Oh and like last year, I shall shortly post my Top 13 list of Season Four (thanks for the reminder, Tim) - erm, actually that doesn't make much sense as there were only 13 stories, but you know what I mean. All the stories in order of preference. Watch this space!

Back, back, BACK!!

Am I actually capable of using a different phrase to herald my return?! Apparently not!

Well, here I am. After a few weeks of hecticness (doing extra work in addition to my full time job) I finally have a bit more time on my hands. A bit. Life STILL seems to be fairly full and bursting at the seams at present...

My first and biggest piece of news is....I GOT A NEW JOB!! I have been waiting to announce this one for some time (should I say I've been bursting? Maybe...) but now I can tell y'all officially. I am so pleased. It's a lecturing post at an FE college in South London, teaching English Language and Literature A Level and GCSE to 16+ students. It's only a maternity leave cover post so it's not forever, but it's much more in line with what I want to do job wise and will enable me to use my teaching skills and creativity, as well as being a more dynamic role overall (frankly, what I am doing now just doesn't allow for any of that). Anyways I start there at the end of August and have already given my notice in my current job. Can't wait!!

And here are the rest of today's news items...

I have started having Brazilian-Portuguese lessons. In a bid to keep up with my husband and also if we ever move to Brazil (well it's a slight possibility). Not an easy language to master what with all the masculine and feminine, different "to be" verbs etc but I am determined to try. I think I need to be more conscientious with my homework though...

Dr Who has finished!! At least until Christmas! And a pretty good finale it was too, perhaps not a true classic but infinitely more satisfying than the Master-mess of 2007. More on that one in a while...

The OC spotted some famous celebs on a train last Saturday. Well, C list ones to be precise. Miaow. But it was soooo weird and funny!! More on that one a bit later, too...

Fellow blogger Deemer is leaving us!! Noooo! In case you didn't know who he is, Deemer is a gay Pakistani American from Chicago (or thereabouts) and he's lovely. In some respects, he's a lot more sussed about the real world than me - well the world of Islam and American politics for instance - but he's also written a lot about pop culture and there our tastes and interests gell. Oh and gay culture too - lots of interesting debates have been had there. So I (and many of us) will really miss him. Wishing you all the best, Deemer!

Went to see Sex and the City (the movie, that is) a couple of weeks back and thoroughly enjoyed it, despite some negative reviews. Okay so it was quite predictable and not exactly world-shatteringly different, but the four actresses slipped back into their roles seamlessly - like meeting up with your best friends again. There was some excellent drama as well as weepy bits. Loved the Samantha suishi scenes and Carrie's ditching of her old wardrobe bit.

I haven't watched the latest series of Big Brother atall. All that I know is there was a nasty black girl from Croydon who got booted out for bullying (I pray I don't run into her as Croydon's only up the road from where I live) and a strange blind albino man (that's not meant to sound prejudiced in any way, but he IS strange). Has anyone else bothered with it? The impression I get is that they haven't.

And THAT is about IT for now, folks...laters!!

OC x