Choses Diverses

1. I am very much looking forward to the release of Revolutionary Road, Sam Mendes's latest movie reuniting Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, without a boat in sight although judging by the sharp, funny and (ultimately) achingly sad book I just finishied read, there will be ice. Those in the know are already suggesting Oscars, even though the movie isn't out until next year. I never had the requisite crush on Leo around the time of Romeo & Juliet, Titanic and The Beach, when he was plastered all over every issue of every magazine read by teenage girls but I thought he was great in all of his latest six movies. Rather like Avril Lavigne, the couple played by Kate and Leo crave to be anything but ordinary in very Mad Men-esque, late 1950s Connecticut but nothing seems to go according to plan, least of all their relationship.

2. I am also looking forward to next week's Gossip Girl, this week's episode ("It's a Wonderful Lie" --hee) having ended hanging over a cliff in Brooklyn, if such a thing exists. They're all still deceiving each other, betraying each other, breaking each other's hearts and generally acting like teenagers--especially the "grown ups." It's totally socially acceptable to watch GG though, now, as New York Magazine posts regularly about it on its Daily Intel blog. My favourite post of the week is the GG reality index, with which I usually concur (or if I don't, I do at least laugh at the scores allocated). However, it's Christmas season in GG-land, which meant plenty of shots of people ice skating in Central Park and window shopping on a snowy Fifth Avenue. Boo.

3. My laptop is getting slower by the day and driving me slowly insane--slow laptops do not make for fast streaming of GG episodes, no matter how fast one's internets might be. Unfortunately, Papa has the two-years-younger version of my laptop and because it comes with Vista, which is a memory whore, his is even slower than mine despite having 2 Gb of RAM compared to my 0.5. This is irritating enough that I'm considering getting a) a new MacBook (still) and b) one of those ultra-portable laptops (even more portable than my handbox-sized one) for out-and-about usage (and as a back-up hard drive, given that my 60 Gb one has been bursting at the seams for aeons), keeping my three-year-old baby as my desk computer. Neither solution is entirely satisfactory, which means I'm sticking with the Vaio for now.

4. I should wash up, wrap, pack and try on tomorrow night's outfit but I am sleepy and lethargic, having only got home at nearly nine thanks to getting a later train than planned and Tube-tardery at King's Cross. I definitely have to wrap, though, so I will at least do that.

5. I have now read every book in my flat apart from Ulysses, which means I'm going to have make a start on it. As it's seriously weighty, it doesn't make an ideal commuting book. Error.

6. Am I the only woman to take my usual train from KC to Nowheresville? Several weeks of research seems to imply that this is the case. Not that I mind, of course...