Bath Film Festival

Today is the start of the 2007 Bath Film Festival, and for the next eleven days there are some quality films. Some caught my eye.

Beautiful Young Minds, an interesting looking documentary about a maths competition (well, I think it sounds interesting!) on Saturday. Rescue Dawn is another film about Vietnam, but most importantly it has Christian Bale in it. Has he ever been in a bad film? I don't think so. The Yacoubian Building is a film about life in central Cairo that looks good and is being shown on Sunday. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Monday) is the story of a man who suffers a stroke - sad, but it looks quite inspiring. Taxidermia appeals to my surreal side (just look at plot outline!) and is on Monday. The Killing Of John Lennon looks interesting, as do The Band's Visit and The Aura. I'd also like to catch Hearts and Minds, an Oscar-winning documentary about the Vietnam war which is still pretty relevant. There's also an evening of locally made short films on the 11th which looks good.

So, lots of films to see, or potentially see anyway. There are some others that I wanted to list but I don't want to just reel-off films as much as bring attention to the festival. It's all good!

The Joys of Heathrow, and the lack of them in Uganda

Last week I was at the Radisson Edwardian in Heathrow for a week of training with my company. It was interesting and worthwhile, but it's a bit odd not going outside for almost a whole week. The trouble is, there isn't much to go outside for when you're in an industrial estate next to Heathrow airport. Actually, 'industrial estate' is unfair - it's more of a strip of hotels, much like the Strip in Las Vegas, only without the gambling, strippers, and so on.

Come the weekend I was going a bit crazy so it was time to kick back a bit. Apart from generally chilling out I somehow knackered my knee, which still hurts. I blame this 'going to the gym' nonsense that I've managed to maintain since the New Year. We also managed to catch The Last King of Scotland, which is very good. It starts off fairly light-heartedly, but make sure that you don't have anyone too squeamish with you near the end. It's pretty gripping the whole way through though and really well done.

I hate to go on, but my knee is giving me jip. I'm going to have to drive to work tomorrow I think - I couldn't make the walk today and caught the bus after the first ten minutes. I don't think I could even do that tomorrow. I'm rubbish at pain, and I'm not afraid to admit it!