Bath & Bristol Councils...
Nov. 24th, 2006 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magicaddict...where the blind leading the blind is an upgrade.
After spending four days trying to call the number the Job Centre gave me (after I listened to various gratuitous abuse that the person on the end of the phone didn't think I could hear while she searched for information), I finally got through without being sent away to be called later. After thirty six minutes of holding, I got through to talk to someone, to be told that they had no record of my application for housing benefit whatsoever. They asked for my postcode, so they could check with the area office to see if anything had been missed.
At that point, they realised I was calling from Bath and told me that I was talking to the wrong department, offering me a number I can call for the Bath Office.
*quiet fume*
I called the number, and received twenty minutes of unhelpful information from an automated system that did not tell me pertinent things like who I could contact in an energency, such as "I haven't received hide nor hair of any information from you and my claim is seven weeks old". I'm stuck in the labs until later this afternoon, and probably can't get to them today, so have been forced to email and hope it gets through. I'm holding out about as much hope as I am that the lottery I haven't entered on Saturday somehow comes up with a victory for me.
Anyway, the only thing of vague interest that happened this week (with the exception of spending lots of fun time with Emma, which is of little note to anyone save us), was our managing to get to see Casino Royale on Wednesday. As far as I can tell, the below contains no spoilers and no plot that wasn't shown entirely in the trailer.
The new James Bond film is like slipping on your favourite comfy clothes and eating your favourite meal in as much company as you want. The action was far more reasonable, the gadgetry useful and unobtrusive, the acting present and correct, and it left you with a feeling that you'd just watched a Sean Connery Bond film updated for modern day rather than a SFX flick with a franchise name tacked onto it. Probably down to the fact they were actually basing it on a real Ian Fleming book, rather than having hollywood scriptwriters come up with something that pays lip service by including his title character in it somewhere behind the gloss.
The clothes they put people in dropped some interesting hints about how retro is good and modern isn't. The DJ that Bond receives has piping over the shoulders - very old fashioned and not, as is mentioned, simply the sign of an expensive DJ. In comparion, Le Chiffe was seen in a black dinner shirt and velveteen bow tie - modern stylistic takes on the smoking jacket that were in jarring dissonance with the suave atmosphere of where they were. Vesper's hairstyle and evening dresses would not be out of place in the thirties and sixties respectively, whereas those of Le Chiffe's moll were straight out of the 21st century.
The comparison's continued with what happened. The object of affection almost reverentially used as a handle to reach someone being a sixties Aston Martin, whereas the DBS he receives is gratuitously destroyed as a throwaway item. The primary torture method employed later in the film was cited as being a simple, age old way of causing pain, rather than the new and complex methods used by people nowadays. It was as though the writers were trying to say "this is what Bond used to be, and deep down you know it was more fun". Any action film can do explosions, electronics and hi-tech wizardry. This was James Bond and didn't explicity need it to hold interest.
The only place the entire film fell down was the use of Hold 'Em rather than Five-Card Draw Poker, but in order to actually make it a modern film it had to be done. With the exception of that, I thoroughly enjoyed it all - including the very well performed theme song by the little known Chris Cornell, he of Preaching The End Of The World fame - and hope that more of the same will follow.
Nobody does it better.
After spending four days trying to call the number the Job Centre gave me (after I listened to various gratuitous abuse that the person on the end of the phone didn't think I could hear while she searched for information), I finally got through without being sent away to be called later. After thirty six minutes of holding, I got through to talk to someone, to be told that they had no record of my application for housing benefit whatsoever. They asked for my postcode, so they could check with the area office to see if anything had been missed.
At that point, they realised I was calling from Bath and told me that I was talking to the wrong department, offering me a number I can call for the Bath Office.
*quiet fume*
I called the number, and received twenty minutes of unhelpful information from an automated system that did not tell me pertinent things like who I could contact in an energency, such as "I haven't received hide nor hair of any information from you and my claim is seven weeks old". I'm stuck in the labs until later this afternoon, and probably can't get to them today, so have been forced to email and hope it gets through. I'm holding out about as much hope as I am that the lottery I haven't entered on Saturday somehow comes up with a victory for me.
Anyway, the only thing of vague interest that happened this week (with the exception of spending lots of fun time with Emma, which is of little note to anyone save us), was our managing to get to see Casino Royale on Wednesday. As far as I can tell, the below contains no spoilers and no plot that wasn't shown entirely in the trailer.
The new James Bond film is like slipping on your favourite comfy clothes and eating your favourite meal in as much company as you want. The action was far more reasonable, the gadgetry useful and unobtrusive, the acting present and correct, and it left you with a feeling that you'd just watched a Sean Connery Bond film updated for modern day rather than a SFX flick with a franchise name tacked onto it. Probably down to the fact they were actually basing it on a real Ian Fleming book, rather than having hollywood scriptwriters come up with something that pays lip service by including his title character in it somewhere behind the gloss.
The clothes they put people in dropped some interesting hints about how retro is good and modern isn't. The DJ that Bond receives has piping over the shoulders - very old fashioned and not, as is mentioned, simply the sign of an expensive DJ. In comparion, Le Chiffe was seen in a black dinner shirt and velveteen bow tie - modern stylistic takes on the smoking jacket that were in jarring dissonance with the suave atmosphere of where they were. Vesper's hairstyle and evening dresses would not be out of place in the thirties and sixties respectively, whereas those of Le Chiffe's moll were straight out of the 21st century.
The comparison's continued with what happened. The object of affection almost reverentially used as a handle to reach someone being a sixties Aston Martin, whereas the DBS he receives is gratuitously destroyed as a throwaway item. The primary torture method employed later in the film was cited as being a simple, age old way of causing pain, rather than the new and complex methods used by people nowadays. It was as though the writers were trying to say "this is what Bond used to be, and deep down you know it was more fun". Any action film can do explosions, electronics and hi-tech wizardry. This was James Bond and didn't explicity need it to hold interest.
The only place the entire film fell down was the use of Hold 'Em rather than Five-Card Draw Poker, but in order to actually make it a modern film it had to be done. With the exception of that, I thoroughly enjoyed it all - including the very well performed theme song by the little known Chris Cornell, he of Preaching The End Of The World fame - and hope that more of the same will follow.
Nobody does it better.
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poker
Date: 2006-11-24 02:20 pm (UTC)Monkeys can play it.
i'm not sure, but I also thing it's a better game to judge the odds on, so a good way for stattitians to fleece optimists.
Re: poker
Date: 2006-11-25 11:50 am (UTC)