Wed
10-Nov-2004

the exorcist

Matt and I went to see the recut version of the Exorcist at the NFT this evening. It was fantastic, the Exorcist in all its marvellous theological horror, but with a few new scenes and a much less abrupt ending, reinstating several scenes that the producer and writer, Blatty, wanted in the original. There's an amazing 'spider walking' scene where the girl runs down the stairs on her back like some kind of horrific arachnid, and a comforting and satisfying ending.

the dangers of cycling along the canal

On the way back home today, I had a narrow brush with getting very wet indeed. I was setting off cycling along the canal from work by Caledonian Road and I saw a group of kids up ahead along the towpath. It was getting very dark at that point and I realised that they were loitering with a little too much intent. I braced myself for them possibly shouting at me as I cycled by to scare me off my bike, which kids have done before. As I drew alongside, one of them stepped out besides me, reached forwards and deliberately and powerfully shoved me off my bike into the canal. I was shocked by the forcefulness, even though I had been expecting something. I tumbled off the bike, struggling to keep it on the towpath, scraping along the side and off the edge. I just about managed to grab the edge of the bank and fuelled by a massive adrenaline rush haul myself back on to the towpath, swinging my legs away from the water to dry land. As I clambered up, the children had fled, which was probably lucky for them, and I turned around expecting my bike to have vanished below the waters. But there it was, the pedal have caught on the edge, suspended for a few seconds with enough time for me to pluck it back from oblivion. All in all, I was very pleased with myself at that point - I had just a couple of grazes and my bike was unharmed, just a little wet.

ceri's stag do

I joined Jon and Charles on Friday evening and we headed down to Southampton for the beginning stages of Ceri's stag weekend. We met lots of his Southampton friends and his brothers, admired his pert attempt at cross dressing, and roamed through a number of pubs and ended up eating a drunken curry before passing out.

I had to get up quite early to go back to London for a DSA conference, but Charles remained in Southampton and they all embarked on a massive D-Day landings style paintballing adventure.