Things I Did Yesterday 25/05/09

Tut tut. Yesterday I:

- Got up nice and early but then sat at the computer, trapped in our bedroom until Alex's mum woke up in the lounge. Oh, she was very generous in terms to telling me not to be sheepish about waking her in the morning, but dammit I can't help it. I'm always like this when people stay over, not wanting to impose on them. To be fair, I wake up early on the weekend and I appreciate that most people don't. So being a prisoner in our bedroom seems like the reasonable course of action.

- Got ready and then once everyone was up and functioning, we headed down to Spitalfield Market. I haven't been down there since all the renovations, and I'm really not sure how I feel about it. It certainly feels cleaner and more orderly and the food places feel a lot less like botulism stands, but it is lacking in soul. I'm sure the tourists love it, but it won't be a regular stop for me.

- Went around the corner to a proper East London street market, which is always entertaining for the barking stallholders, but quickly realised that pressing my way through throngs of pushy, inconsiderate people isn't that much fun either.

- Headed over to London Bridge and went to The George, a very nice pub off the main drag with a spacious courtyard out front. Had some lunch which mum-in-law kindly paid for. Result!

- Saw Alex's mum off, then walked back up through town for a while. Near Holborn Circus we found an abandoned office chair which I nabbed as my old one has fallen apart. Wheeled that up to Rosebury Ave and got a bus.

- Faffed about on the net before a dinner of delicious lamburgers.

- Watched Big Man Japan, a film which has been doing the YouTube rounds thanks to the scenes where our eponymous hero battles against bizarre giant monsters. The guts of the film, however, is a little more meditative, shot as a documentary about the normal life of our monster-fighting hero. There's a lot going on about family, sacrifice, honour and the fickle nature of celebrity, but to be honest a lot of it fell flat with me, probably because it really does speak directly to Japanese culture. It also suffers from a narrative shift, abandoning the documentary format whenever he becomes a giant monster-fighter, which is quite jarring. There were certainly aspects of it I enjoyed, particularly the trippy final scene, but the fights are pretty much all covered by the clips on YouTube and the documentary material only works sporadically, unhinged by a largely unsympathetic lead character. Can't recommend it I'm afraid!



- Watched some Inbetweeners then hit the sack.