THE LOST WEEKEND The busy mixed with the not so busy. Friday evening we were spared rain so went along to see the open air 'Agamemnon'. I had only read one review and it mentioned that a lot of the cast seemed to spring up from the audience as the play unwound so as we arrived early (cushions in hand) I tried to pick out the thesps sat around me. Apart from the chap wielding a machine gun I was dead wrong. Unfortunately most of the people who live near us dress like complete wankers so they are easily mistaken for board treaders - which is maybe the point. I don't read glossy magazines so I'm never too sure what it is we are all supposed to be wearing - I'm pretty sure it's not a Punisher t shirt and a snarl. Anyway - the play was good. Trimmed down nicely for those poor souls whose arses were sitting on concrete and spooky enough to scare the Japanese girls in front of us into a 20 minute clinging and hiding session. The occasional passerby screaming into his mobile phone, "it's a fucking play right in the middle of nowhere!", didn't detract too much from the action. There were a few stabs at linking the plot to Iraq which was nicely done and made me think of seeing Cherie Blair dragged from Downing Street covered in blood after gutting Tony. Saturday was spent mooching around town and catching up with friends. It's all change at Foyles again which is a shame. Still enough familiar faces for me to get the odd pang of nostalgia though. If just one bookstore took the risk of paying staff an actual real wage then maybe there wouldn't a constant need for training and replacing good people who given half the chance could turn a business around. We dragged Heather off to the pub for a pint and a chat which was fun. Her documentary is in the (hopefully) final editing stages and (fingers crossed) will be hitting the festival circuit soon. She's also cat feeding while we are in Oslo - that little trip has crept up on us quickly... Too quickly for me to grow a huge Viking beard for. I even had a haircut this weekend (my first since Denver perhaps) which was fun itself as I decided to go to this new Chinese place where my large head wouldn't fit into their dainty sinks. I've always wanted a cute girl to tell me I was too big so now that's something else I can cross off my To Do list. In the afternoon we saw The Bourne Supremacy which was good. Not quite as rewarding as the first one as Franka Potente is sorely missed from most of the movie but it's as entertaining and again Brian Cox steals the show (and all the best lines). The evening was taken up with one of those wonderful pieces of crap that I love so much; Lifeforce. It gets better and worse each time I see it. Patrick Stewart's first screen kiss (with Steve Railsback), poor Mathilda May wandering around naked in nearly every shot, Frank Finlay's hair, London on fire and full of zombies, the space shuttle Churchill... all of it appallingly edited and shot. Imagine if the original cast of John Gielgud, Klaus Kinski and Billy Idol had gotten their teeth into it... Sunday was mostly spent reading and wandering the National Gallery looking for dragons. Mike is blogging to: nothing