Saw Beowolf last night - a puzzling film. I had read about the semi-animated nature of the film. Real actors (a good cast including Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich) were filmed against a blue background with spots attached that were then transferred to a CGI programme - rather like Andy Serkis did for Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It did make me wonder about the point of having such a stellar cast as you find yourself curious if Angelina could possibly be so pneumatic especially with a tail. Ray Winstone also morphed into a six foot eye candy with an incised six pack who preferred to fight naked (as do we all, of course). The effect was rather strange, sort of cartoony and not helped by the cod- Danish accents adopted by some but not all of the cast. JM sounded as though he was the understudy for the Swedish chef in the Muppets while RW was pure Essex. Odd. Sarah liked it though as it had a dragon and the general CGI/battle scenes etc were fine.

Today Sarah and I ventured into town this morning for some Christmas shopping. Sarah made some purchases from Blue Banana, which was fascinating as it allowed a peep into the purchasing habits of young Goths etc... I was rather startled to see a man of my own age wearing a woolly jumper worthy of a folk singer purchasing some footwear - an odd combination of styles. I had no idea so many items of clothing could be decorated with skulls. We then ventured into a number of other emporia and Andrew eventually collected us around lunchtime. Spent a quiet afternoon pottering at home. Tonight pizza, possibly a movie if Sarah wants to, although she might prefer to be on the net with her friends. Tomorrow some culture then Sarah returns home. It's been a pleasure having her around - though I can't believe Christmas is now less than a week away.

Now that I can relax a bit more and am starting to feel more festive, I attach some photos of the trees, one small in the living room, one large in the hall, the quilted hanging I made, and some small decorations I made.