I’ve been sat here for the past hour playing on Guitar Hero by myself. I’m still only on easy, after a  month of playing and even though I’m hitting 100% on most songs, EASY still means I’m pretty shit. But you know, everybody gets nervous and scared about changing their lives to medium. I mean, what happens if I went from easy to expert? Nobody is an expert. Even the experts get it wrong. I’ve had to reevaluate a few things recently. Having had doors, and arms close in front of me with no explanation, a few whispers behind unhappy smiles that tell me nothing that I need to know and everything i don’t want to know…I guess I’ve lost my place again. Somebody hit the rest button.

Christmas, as always, went by too fast. I didn’t listen to enough Christmas songs and i’m incredibly sad that I wasn’t allowed to see my Nana and Granddad because everybody was sick and they didn’t want me accidentally passing on germs. Which makes sense. But I wanted to sit in their small living room eating Mr Kipling cakes, drinking Nana’s sweet tea and I wanted to look at the garden where the world was once magic. I made my own fairy tales underneath that washing line.

After this I’m going to finish My Friend Leonard. Once again, I gave up reading because I had too much free time to do anything productive. It’s funny how that happens. You find yourself at home, alone, with nobody to see and a wealth of things you could do, you know you should do, but you sit on your sofa naked witha  blanket watching reruns of America’s Next Top Model and the TCM channel. Just me, eh?

Well anyway, this is my last semester now. Three years have gone by so quickly. How cliche. My modules this semester include Future Fear: Science Fiction in America, Modern Hollywood, Televisual Narrative Part 2 and finally, my dissertation. I have no idea what my dissertation should be about. I thought I’d be a smart arse and think of some hip new subject, but after months of all talk and no substance I realised I was kidding myself and that there was no way I was going to be able to pull it off successfully.

Over the summer I need to find a well paid, full time job to pay for my travels in December. So far the itinerary looks like this:

New York - First week of December (or second)

Stop off at Los Angeles before heading to Hawaii for 4 or 5 days

Hawaii to Sydney before catching a  plane to New Zealand.

New Zealand for a month…visting Scott’s family and of course every possible destination that has some link with Lord of the Rings. I know. I’m sad. But I won’t apologise for my obsession, sorry. On the way back home we’ll be going to Tokyo. I don’t know how we are going to pay for all this. I don’t know where we will live when we get back, or who will look after my hamster and my fish…

These things make me most nervous about life. Not knowing. I guess I like plans for reassurance. Scott is an adventurer. He may be reserved in every other aspect of his personality, but when it comes to adventures he’s gung-ho Bear Grylls style. though I’m sure he would never eat a fish head. Or rocks for that matter. We are both looking forward to New York mainly because it will be christmas when we go and we will be visiting all the places Kevin McAllister enjoyed when he was Home Alone in New York. Jodi, I know you might be reading this so I’m going to be rude and ask if you could come up with a  list of your own personal must-sees in New York. Your list will be far more entertaining, knowedgable and cool than any Lonely Planet or AA guide can come up with for me. I hope yours involves Coney Island.

Films I have watched in the past month that I loved:

SlumDog Millionaire

United States of Leland

Wall-E (on Blu-Ray….it does make a difference!)

Eagle VS Shark

Paris Je T’aime

Eyes Wide Shut

Rediscovering Honey I Shrunk The Kids.

One question: What ever happend to Rick Moranis? I am a bit apprehensive about checking up on his life at IMDB or Wiki…mainly because he’ll either be dead or doing something boring ‘behind the scenes’ which will anger me. So, if you have your own theories of Rick Moranis’ whereabouts, then please post them. The best one wins a creme egg.