Christmassy

Hooray. Finished work at 4. Home by 5 and enjoying a beer or two. My boss gave me some gifts, am intrigued by one of them.

Have a cold, sore throat etc. But I won't let that stop me enjoying myself (I hope).

Have done a Christmas collage desktop. It is hilariously hideous. Buff men in Santa hats. Ho Ho Ho.

I'm off, I'm sounding like a troubled tramp.

Blood Stained Butterflies

Watched the (Spanish copy) DVD of 'The Bloodstained Butterfly' ('Una Farfalla con le ali insanguinate' Directed by Duccio Tessari 1971) last night on our massive new TV. Sadly I have to say it was a big let down and had no really typical giallo elements. Even though it starred Evelyn Stewart that alone wasn't enough to keep me interested. The English soundtrack kept losing volume and the print wasn't all that good. The soundtrack by Gianni Ferrio is pretty cool though and there is a nice twist at the end but over all not a film I'll be watching again in a hurry.

Last day of work tomorrow, before we break up for Christmas, yippee! I've bought far too much food for us both to eat...

Borderline

Hi! Well, our brand new TV arrived and it's huge and sexy.

The Christmas tree has more gifts under it, including one that is ticking from my sister. She does assure me it's not a bomb.

Finished watching the last two episodes of 'The Protectors' and was slightly miffed that there was no "this is end of the show, forever" type thing. Even the mystery man in the opening credits was not explained (I think it's Jason King myself!).

We have the kitchen light fixed now so at last we can see what we are cooking.

Two days left until we break up, yay! I wish we had more time off though. By the time we visit Matt's parents, see my Grandparents and 'celebrate' New Year it will be all over, with not a second to play with all my gifts!

www.cdjapan.co.jp has to be my new favourite web-site. They have some fantastic DVD's, admittedly expensive, but their shipping is so fast and the packaging is 'world class', to coin a phrase.
Have discovered that I have not seen one Gamera film, 'Gamera vs. Gaos' so am desperate to get that, it's available at that site but I'd have to pay import taxes (tttssskkk). There's also a bloody fantastic Gamera box set of all the early films in one box but that is over $400 so I can but dream.

Which reminds me, we got our Christmas bonuses already at work and I'm eager to spend!

Oh my god! Even better news, Fernando Di Leo's 'Vacanze per un massacro' starring the then gorgeous Joe Dallesandro has been released on DVD in Italian with English Subtitles. Have ordered that but will have to wait until the new year before I get my hands on it. Wish 'L'Ambizioso', 'Calore in provincia', 'Fango bollente', 'Il Tempo degli assassini', 'Donna è bello', '6000 km di paura' and 'Black Moon' would get decent releases too, although I have seen a mystery Japanese DVD of the latter...

Also wish the Dead Or Alive 12" collection would get a release, were Sony Japan fanny-teasing all those months ago?

Time gentlemen please

'Have I Got News For You'

Went to see 'King Kong' on Thursday night at the Barbican and thought it was excellent, even if there were some painfully cheesy moments. Kong is SO cute, it's horrible when he dies. I was worried that I was going to be in tears in the cinema! The over-sized creatures and dinosaurs on Skull Island are great too. (God! every single time I type 'great' I type greta). Anyway Matt didn't fall asleep so that's always a good sign and boy did it go on a long time.

I'm currently bidding on a gorgeous Brad Harris poster for the film 'Supercolpo da 7 miliardi' ('The Ten Million Dollar Grab'). I have won so much stuff on ebay recently, it's ridiculous. I got out-bid on a Blue Demon poster from Mexico (ttssskkkk) - the seller has loads of Jorge Rivero posters up so I'll probably be buying those too. I took a load of my framed lobby cards and photos to work yesterday and too them out of their frames - I don't have room to store them any more. I was a bit upset that my Joe Dallesandro photos ('Blood For Dracula' & 'Flesh for Frankenstein') have discoloured somewhat.

Can hardly believe that it will be Christmas Eve in a weeks time. I don't feel Christmassy at all (!) I've just rang my Grandmother to say we'll be down between Christmas and the New Year, she's made up. I must ring my mate James too and try to meet up with him for a beer or ten.

Joan Collins was presenting 'Have I Got News For You' last night, it was totally excellent. She's doing 'an evening with' in April, we're going with Peter. How marvellously faggy of us. I can't help but love Joan, not only was she great in Dynasty she also made some brilliant British Horror films ('I Don't Want to Be Born', 'Tales That Witness Madness', 'Revenge', 'Tales from the Crypt', 'Fear in the Night', 'Dark Places ') - even if she was only in it for the money.

Well, that's me. My second load of toast has just popped up and my tea is looking stewed. Good morning.

Oh, I mean I was always stunningly beautiful, but I was married once, to a man, and I had a little baby name Freddy...

Well, it's Wednesday.

Wow! I got Cher's CD 'I Paralyze' and it's brilliant! Totally grew on me within two plays. It's no 'Heart of Stone'' though but good to rawk / laugh to.

Matt got back from Barcelona last night, tired out, well he should be after drinking until 5.30. He managed to pick up a DVD for me 'Una Farfalla con le ali insanguinate' ('The Bloodstained Butterfly '), 200 Lucky Strikes and a massive bottle of Blue Sapphire Gin - I'm not hard to please am I?

100th post!

Well, I haven't been here for a week or so, that's mainly because we no longer have a TV in the front room. Max has had all her electrical stuff sent back, because of our eventual move. The house we thought we had bought seems to have slipped away from us - the seller is planning to stay there now until May, because she's having a baby. After all that stress and expense too, I am gutted...

On a brighter note, we have ordered a brand new massive TV, to watch all those lovely DVD's on.

Have only two episodes of 'The Protectors' left to watch, the last two we saw were great. I love Nyree Dawn Porter, can't believe she's dead. I see 'The Avengers' are being shown on BBC4 (well the Emma Peel ones anyway) and 'Jason King', 'The Protectors', 'Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)', 'Man in a Suitcase', 'Department S', 'The Saint', 'The Return of the Saint', 'The Champions', 'The Strange Report', 'Space 1999' and 'UFO' are all being shown on ITV4!!! Wow, if only I wasn't so obsessed with buying DVD's, I might have watched some episodes.

Yesterday I watched a couple of 'big box' videos:

'Robbers of the Sacred Mountain' (AKA 'Falcon's Gold' Directed by Bob Schulz 1982). It starred hunky 'Manimal' Simon MacCorkindale and some other people. I hated it.

'Alien Terminator' (AKA 'Top Line' Directed by Nello Rossati 1988). Although this starred Franco Nero I hated it more than the previous film I'd just sat through. There is one amusing scene however, when a bull gourds the 'alien terminator' or should I say a dummy of a man wearing a wig?

Slight return

Back from Windsor. Had a relaxing time, didn't go to a farm but did see Father Christmas and his reindeer glide down Windsor High Street. Had fish and chips in the evening and drank beer, while watching a Peter Kay stand-up video. Today we walked to Eton (after cutting armfuls of mistletoe) and looked in some shops, saw lots of Eton boys - they all look the same! Came back to Kate and Graham's had soup, then Graham dropped us off at the train station, only we had an hour to kill so we went to the pub opposite for a pint - I had a choking fit in there for some reason. It was so lovely to see little Scarlett (or rather not-so-little) - she's becoming quite a personality. Oh yeah, I bought her a hideous doll from Mothercare - he's called Simon, and she loves him!

Well that's all for now, I'm exhausted and have sandy eyes.

Filthy Friday

Felt like crap all day. Went out drinking last night for Tom's leaving for India 'do'. I'm having a medicinal beer to steady my nerves right now and listening to the Cocteau Twins.

Meeting Kate at 2pm in Windsor tomorrow, she might be taking us to a farm. I'm no wellington boots person, so I'll have to take my oldest trainers! So looking forward to seeing her and little Scarlett.

One of my favourite shops ever 'In Place' on Shaftesbury Avenue is closing down. It sold all kinds of Japanese imported stuff like San-X and Sanrio characters. I went there yesterday and bought loads of things that they've reduced. Now there's no place left like it cus 'Victoria Star' in China Town closed down too, sniff. Back to the internet for shopping...