Sweet Nothings

I would love to do a detailed review of Winter's Bone , this season's critical darling movie which I went to see last night. Unfortunately, whilst I did indeed pay for my ticket, took my seat and watched the first half hour or so,  wherein the basic premise was established (teenage girl living in Midwestern wilderness and looking after her semi-comatose mother and younger siblings must find her absent dad who's put their house up as a bail bond), I did not manage to catch the whole thing. Don't get me wrong, I was there in my seat for the duration. It's just that getting older appears to have bestowed unto me the ability to nod off whenever I find myself in a cinema after a certain time of night. It doesn't matter how entertaining the film is, nor how noisy. I managed to snooze during Inception  and even near the end of Star Trek , for goodness sake (and I love Star Trek). So Winter's Bone unfolded for me in a somewhat hallucinatory fashion as I drifted

It's not often that the Pope and Mick McCarthy appear in the same sentence. After all, one is the revered figurehead of a powerful organisation, and the other is some old German dude. But this post deals with them both. Bear with me. So, the Pope is touring Britain at the moment. You may not have been aware of this, as they've kept it fairly quiet. Anyway, he was giving an address at Holyroodhouse earlier (was there a shortage of spaces when they named that place?) and made some interesting remarks which appeared to be associating atheism with Nazism. Well, I say "interesting". I must admit, my instinctive reaction was "Fuck off", but this very quickly transformed into utter give-a-shit indifference. The Pope is completely irrelevant to me and my beliefs, in the same way that he is irrelevant to the vast majority of Britons, including much of our ever-dwindling Christian population, most of whom aren't actually Catholics. The only aspect of his li

Read a really good article the other day about introversion and extroversion. I've lost the link, so apologies for the impending glut of paraphrasing, but the basic point was this: if an extrovert can be seen as someone who is energised by the presence of people (and indeed finds it boring to be alone for too long), then an introvert by definition is tired out by others. This in no way means introverts are misanthropes or loners - on the contrary, they (oh ok, we) can enjoy socialising with close friends or partners, and be perfectly outgoing and chatty while we're at it. But we find it an effort to do so, and after a few hours start we longing for some quality time alone. And don't get us started on parties and other situations where we suffer prolonged exposure to people we don't really know! It may sound daft, but I'd never previously considered how introversion and shyness might differ from each other, and it does explain an awful lot. Because, while I'

My flat is on the southern side of Palmers Green, which means I live in the borough of Enfield despite probably spending more time in the shops and cinemas down the road in Wood Green (in Haringey, as any fool knows) than I do in my own borough. However I am embarking upon a vague quest to be more of an active part of the community - this includes visiting the library, buying second-hand books in charity shops, and taking part in a 10K “fun run” in Enfield in a few weeks. I also attended the Enfield Autumn Show on Sunday lunchtime. The place wasn’t exactly busy when I attended, and I felt rather sorry for the local schoolkid bands playing on the main stage in front of about five people, one of whom may only have been there because their wheelchair had got stuck. There was plenty of entertainment on offer, though - funfair rides and inflatable gubbins to keep kids entertained, punch and judy shows, entertainment all day on the main stage and a smaller “alfresco ballroom”, plus regular