The Butterfly Effect

Thanks to the shingles I am out of commission, apparently all week - that is what my boss expects. And this morning my consultant at the agency warned me I could be out for up to 3 weeks. No way! I was hoping to be able to wear something more formal than pyjamas by the end of this week! But I don't know, some of it is right along the bra line. Evil. And water on the skin? Forget it.

I am unable to go to a friend's birthday this weekend. I'm not contagious, but I don't want anyone to worry.

Well, the throbbing, pinching pain is mostly gone this evening, but there is a rawness, and the itching is becoming much more intense; there was even a little spreading yesterday, but it's definitely slowed down. It is easy to keep my hands off, but compression and warmth help, and when my hand is there compressing, the temptation to maybe scratch round the edges of the gauze and tape is sometimes too much...then there is a sort of stupid lingering pain under the whole area.

Oh! Must take my midnight dose. High dosage tablets, five per day for a week (probably because it's so poorly absorbed by the body). It's not hard to forget when you have something so pervasive. I almost watch the clock.

This thing is so wicked...more so than the original chicken pox. If you've had that then you must try to avoid developing shingles, ok? Which means, keep down your stress levels and keep up your immunity.

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On to better things. I saw a movie the other night that we might enjoy discussing.

It's The Butterfly Effect.

First off, I am no fan of Ashton Kutcher. No, not even that, he's not even an issue. The actors in a movie don't influence whether I watch it or not, I'm not critical in that way. (I don't like Cameron Diaz but have watched There's Something About Mary twice.) But I must say, young Mr Kutcher did a good job in this.

It was a fascinating premise and one that obviously interests me as a psychology grad and a lover of some things sci-fi.

A psychology student called Evan (Kutcher) with a troubled childhood finds a way of travelling back in time and into the body of his childhood to certain events in his life via his journal entries. In this way, he is world-wise enough to tweak the main events that influence his life in order to improve the long-term outcome. After each episode he returns to the present but often with drastic changes, and he must undergo a fit during which his memories are rewritten and he suffers some hemorrhaging. However, each attempt is detrimental to his life and the lives of the people who are closest to him.

Depending on which event he tries to control, the outcomes are wildly varying and he goes further back each time to find the root problem.

The final solution means he must return to a day when he says something that turns the love of his life, Kayleigh, away from him forever. And only then do their lives take a normal path. Of all the variables, it had to be her.

Finally, Evan finds himself at the college dorm, roommates with the friend Kenny who in all other scenarios had been tied to a bed in a mental hospital, but who is now studying architecture. He experiences the hemorrhage...Kenny asks if he needs to see a doctor...he insists everything will be alright now, then asks "How's Kayleigh?"
And Kenny says, "Who's she?"

Sad, but triumphant, ending.

Some years later, working in NYC, Evan passes Kayleigh on the street. They glance at each other the way you do when you get the feeling you've seen someone somewhere before, except he knows who she is. She then looks back at him but keeps walking. Then he looks back too, but shakes his head and keeps going. He has chosen to keep the solution uncompromised.

I hope you find the time to watch it.

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Oh my gosh!! 'Tis getting worse. Please tell me not to scratch it!!!

Weekend Escapade

What a busy weekend I have had!

VIVA ITALIA

On Friday, Miss S and I went to the Viva Italia! exhibition. Ate lots of goodies and freebies. Alfa Romeo had a display area with two vintage models and three new ones.

There were two vintage Spiders with a new one, all three red. Beautiful cars. I was enjoying the aggressive front grilles. Ooooh and the new Spider was fitted out by Pininfarina!




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After parting with Miss S, I kept walking up Kensington High Street, up Kensington Church Street, all the way to Notting Hill Gate. I was looking for the new Whole Foods Market that supposedly opened on the high street, until after I returned home I found out that's not until summer.

I was surprised that Whole Foods has reached the UK. It started in Austin, Texas in the early 80s! No surprise that the world's largest organic/natural food retailer comes from Austin (if it had to be from TX), otherwise it would have been California.

Apparently they have a few outposts in London already called Wild n Fresh. I saw one in Camden today.

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FULL SPEED AHEAD

On Saturday, I went to see my favourite anonymous commenter, the former Delightful, to repeat what we did last year in his first new sporty car, only this time it was a Porsche 911 in electric blue. He is the boy with all the toys, I tell you.

But because it was so fast, the drive this year seemed shorter. We went over 100mph so many times I lost count, and the Porsche is so solid and grippy that you don't feel it and don't notice it unless you're staring a the speedometer. He might not like to hear it, but he drives just like I used to. Boy do I miss taking corners diagonally to the inside, and doing The Sweep on cars littering up the fast lane.

Guess the top speed we reached, busy British motorways allowing? 134mph. But don't tell anyone.

Since moving to St John's Wood, where one goes by every half hour, I have learned to recognise the big hollow grumble of a Porsche driving by. This car, when you hit that optimal speed just right, sounds like how the sweet spot on a tennis racquet feels....know what I mean? There's a sort of a long ping...which I first noticed with my Dad's car, only better.

We were back in the abbey town of St Albans, this time at a trendy restaurant where we shared a starter of corn cakes with fresh salsa and guacamole - well made, considering. F-D was very good and predicted that I would go for it, bless his cotton socks, so he ordered it.

For mains he had spaghetti with crab and chili, and I had the best cod ever. Moist, succulent, tender, and falling apart on a bed of bok choi, in a miso sauce sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Then we went for another rather fast drive with the music cranked up. F-D thought Muse's Hysteria was a good fast drive track, so we played that a few times and I sang my heart out, though it didn't work so well going over bumps with sports suspension.

We ended up at the cinema in Finchley where we didn't like the lineup, so F-D suggested the O2 Centre near me, where we plumped for Ghost Rider and then when it was over I got the blame for choosing a bad film. He's such a cheery bugger. Finally we stopped at Sainsbury's and did a bit of shopping - well, I mentioned everything else so there is no point leaving that out.

Ghost Rider ... hm, the fiery bits were ok, but there were also scary bits. I jumped about 4 times and screamed twice. The Texas talk made me laugh a whole lot. "...you're purdy and all..." There were quite a few laugh out loud bits.

I just knew it was Texas as soon as I saw the open country with the short trees and the meadows of bluebells. If you've lived there, you never get it out of your system. No sirreee.

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Tomorrow, I am going to a seafood restaurant for my 2nd cousin's 6th birthday. We go there every year for birthdays, so it will be predictable. Adults, kids, food, toys. And an aunt who will ask me too many questions that I don't want to answer.


I had better end this on a better note:



Yes, the Porsche has hips!

Coward

I watched The Ring last night. Most of the crucial scenes were viewed through the gap between my fingers. Thankfully, because of this, I didn't scream. Sometimes I get taken by surprise, though.

It was scary, but not as viscerally frightening as Ringu which I saw on TV last year. Shoot, that one scared the toenails off me. (This time, I knew when to cover my eyes, see.) Plus the original was shot in constant semi-darkness.

When it was over, the back of my neck felt uncomfortable and I was paralysed until I came across a link to this refreshing recut of The Ring as a family drama.

I also came across some hilarious answers on IMDB to the question, "If you knew she was going to come after you, what would you do?"

There were the predictable ones like: "I'd scream and run / I'd hit her with a chair / I'd shoot her". And anyway, she's dead and she can control electrical devices, so there's no stopping her, but still some great ones were:

• I'd put my TV on top of the wardrobe so she would fall out and break a leg

• When she was halfway out of the TV I'd turn it off so she would be stuck and I'd watch her squirm

• Before she crawls out I'd change the channel to Jerry Springer or some soap so she would be forever trapped in awful TV land. [I vote we send her to Big Brother...]

• I'd reason with her
  
  

However, assurances that "it is just a movie and they are just actors" soon pass, and when it came time to go to bed, I couldn't turn off my lights. Yes, I know that nothing will ever crawl through my TV screen...but I left it on the digital BBC classical station and turned on the blue light that illuminates the dome on my humidifier.

Even after watching Ringu I turned off my lights, so what happened???

And what is the big deal about the dark? Some of the deaths happened in broad daylight.

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In much lighter topics, I've restarted the application I mentioned a few days ago. I was working on it on my old laptop, which is so mangled it takes 5 minutes to notice you've actually hit a button. Slow going. Today I spent the entire afternoon running System Mechanic on it in an attempt to speed it up a bit, but it's a lost case I would say. Surprised it didn't cut itself off or give me the Blue Screen of Death today.

I haven't been able to work on it on my new laptop because it came preloaded with MS Works, which, in short, is crap. Plus the world and its uncle send attachments as .doc or .ppt or .xls. So it was only a matter of time before I had to relent and buy an Office Suite. And SWEET indeed it is -- I am on the Office 2007 free trial. It is a-mazing.

It comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and a new program called OneNote. With a few clicks and drags you can assemble anything, all sort of notes, pics...it predicts what you want and before you know it you have pages of bullet lists, tables, boxes, sidenotes, and so on.

All the programs have an intuitive Ribbon that replaces the clumsy old toolbars. And so much more I have not yet discovered.

So anyway, I have restarted the application...well, when I get through playing with everything :)


Here is a picture to please your eyes, taken from the breakfast table one morning in Canada:




Pretty little Mourning Doves. So shy and gentle.