Birthdays

So Mrs Hora has another birthday today. It's the 31st she's had since we've been together, wow! The children came in, way too early, but the collection of pressies was good, some books, secateurs, earrings, massager thingumajig, top and I've promised to get her 'band in a box' software so that she can jazz along with full backing. We had a family breakfast together too, the first in quite some time as we're all over the place when it comes to getting up.

Then a good march to the tube and off into Bayswater to meet up with Thierry, Helga, Ennio and Wim who are over for a week from Berlin. Thierry has been one of our best friends for so long. I bought a video of The Beloved he'd recorded in Paris way back and then when Cheryl was teaching at a language school in Lowestoft the French leaders told her about their friend Thierry who liked the same sort of music that she did. They gave her his address and it was the one I'd got the video from, obviously!

He moved over to London with Carole and we went and visited them and that was that. We followed them around various homes; Puteaux, Milan, Gladbach and Berlin. He and Carole got married. Cheryl was maid of orleans, I mean, honour. And we drove the piece montee down from Bayswater to Alfriston. We had to break off the top bit to get it in our Renault 5, thus dooming the marriage. It lasted quite some time to be fair. Thierry and I set up Peaceful Fish Productions in 1999 and he's still giving the world advice on film finance, film music and that sort of thing. He has yet another project starting up that I may be able to do some writing for, could be very useful.

They'd brought presents for all of us including an incredible Belgian Easter Egg, and Josie and I got a tinned gherkin each... plus the perfect napkin for me to use whenever we see my sister's husband Heinz again. We had a pleasant lunch together before the others all took off to go to Harry Potter World. I really wasn't up for it so returned home alone where I've managed to scape my shin falling down the stairs in the middle of some games reorganisation, ouch. Never mind. I fixed the shelf in Basti's room and managed to load it up with books giving additional shelving for games in the box room, hurrah! The others are all off to Brick Lane for some more food so I've no idea what time the taxi I'm driving will need to be at the tube, could have done with an early night. Not that there's anything to get up for tomorrow of course!!

Swedish Vampires

With Mrs Hora out playing jazz guitar yesterday evening Basti surprised me with a request to watch a film together, he's decamped into his room pretty much all the time since Christmas. He's been keen on watching some horror films over the past year and I picked up two going relatively cheap, both Swedish vampire tales. The first 'Frostbite' was awful, not even hilariously awful. I haven't been in a rush to watch the second one as a result. If you're following the tone of this piece then by now you'll be garnering that 'Let the Right One In' - dreadful title - was actually very good, hurrah!

The story is nothing exceptional, a girl, Eli, and her father move in to Vallingby, a Stockholm suburb and we see him draining the blood from a local to take home to his daughter. They've moved in next to 12 year-old Oskar who is bullied at school and he and Eli form a 'cool' relationship centring around a Rubik's cube and falling in love. 

The film is slow paced, in all the right ways; the scenes are beautifully snowy, stark, the trees shown in detail, the apartments very square, neat. The music is similarly atmospheric and thankfully uncliched. The characters of the town are brilliant, a motley selection of real people, and indeed the school kids, particularly the mates of the bully, learn a lot over the course of the film. Our young loves are perfect: he's ice blonde, has a perfect snotty nose more than once, and she is the antithesis, dark-haired and all knowing. She has the best line; 'I've been twelve for a very long time'.

Whilst not being into the horror genre to even the smallest extent I really enjoyed this. I'll certainly re-watch it. The relationship between the two children is sweet and very well-handled. It reminded me of the odd relationships in 'My Life as a Dog' but also 'Betty Blue' and 'L'Enfer', intense but also deep and meaningful. That there's been a US remake has naturally annoyed me although the Amazon reviews are still strong. I won't be going there. Nor too will I read the book, the odd horror film is fine but I can't imagine buying into it across a novel.