midnight diamonds

It's way after midnight and too late to expect new tyre tracks in the fresh snow.

I've cleared the pans of courgettes, tomatoes and some kind of garlic kicker.

Nearby I hear an argument about money or alimony but doubt that George can beat Catherine.

There's red wine threatening me in the glass, but I've already decided clarity will assist the morning's early start.

I look back to the diamond glitter and wonder whether the route north will be clear in time.

Sunday morning cycling

Cycling this morning and although I'd wrapped up, the wind was cutting a little too thoroughly through to my head. The aerodynamic cycling helmet's vents are sometimes too efficient. It's partly my own fault though because I did sip some wine yesterday evening and have found myself feeling slightly fragile today.

In truth I don't think its last night's modest drink but perhaps my body resetting after a week on 'the Malaysian project' which has been pretty full-on.

Actually I awoke at around 4am this morning and thought it was already Monday and therefore that I needed to be in Paris, only to realise that I could afford a few more hours sleep and a much more leisurely start.

And then mysteriously during my cycling travels I came across the building illustrated at the top of the post. Its called 'the Triangle' or something similar. What intrigues me is that I've genuinely never noticed it before yet I use a building quite close to it as an inspiration for a setting in the second book - The Square. I guess there's plenty of places called 'The Triangle' around, but weird that one is so close to an actual venue I've selected.

I'm back at home now and the next priority is packing.

A small bag only for this trip. Reminds me of an airport scene.

wagon wheels on the corner cabinet

With a new UK government corner cabinet attempting to get its show on the road, I found my my mind turning to thoughts of wagon wheels. It was probably an effect of the surfeit of wine that John and I drank before meeting Georgina.

The overhead televisions were running stories of the latest resignations from Gordon's flailing party. Geoff Hoon, John Hutton and Caroline Flint amidst her accusations of elitist inner circles and window dressing.

If not the wine bar, it was probably the later extended Shiraz experimentation whilst we enjoyed Georgina's paella in the mysteriously shortening evening.

So in my tired and slightly confused state I'm not sure whether Wagon Wheels fall into the category of biscuit or that of the alarmingly generic 'snack food'.

I'll assume that the 74mm chocolate covered marshmallows are biscuits and add them to the hall of fame started with in the advanced biscuitry briefings of 2005 with the bourbon and the later, though stealthier post about that marine amongst biscuits, the hobnob.

Eagle eyed will glimpse the illicit Tim Tam by the keyboard, although I've skillfully hidden the DDS sign of a mug of tea.

Which brings me to the enduring biscuitry advice for Gordon as he tries to apply his particular wheels. He is not dealing with Penguins here and his apparent use of DEEP DUNK and SUCK may be singulalry inappropriate.

enjoyed State of Play before Chianti refuel

I enjoyed watching 'State of Play'. A good and mainly tightly scripted conspiracy thriller about newspapers, relationships, politics, police against morality questions around friendship, self serving ends and ways to derive 'truth'.

There's some structural conventions, like in a good blues song, to make it easy to absorb - a short opening scene during which someone is eliminated from the plot. Helicopters, aerial swoops around skylines, CIA Langley, clickety clackety noises and a special synthesizer sound reserved for the prowling man with the big gun.

A scruffy metropolitan Saab-driving reporter (Russell Crowe) whom all of the cops know, eye-candy cub-reporter accomplice (Rachel McAdams) who writes the 'Capitol Hill' blogs for the paper(chalk cheese etc). Tough Brit scene-stealer editor trying to sell copy to stop the newly acquired paper from toppling (Helen Mirren). An entourage of only semi-named cops who are mostly a step behind the wily reporter's investigation centred on his ex room-buddy senator (Ben Affleck with a cheesy Philadelphia accent).

Snappily paced, with a few longer scenes to give time to breathe a little. Some settings confused my sense of the 2009 period - I found myself checking a car date sticker in one scene to be sure. The cluttered newsrooms full of paper were for me more evocative of 70s movies than a 2009 paperless workplace, but hey, maybe the press still do it the old way.

With references to Watergate Building (been there!) whizzing around Washington (ditto) and Georgetown (yup), there was a combination of homage to other reporting stories and perhaps just things to make it easy to fix the location for a global audience.

By random co-incidence I'd also watched 'Body of Lies' a few days ago, with Crowe playing against Leonardo di Caprio (another good popcorn film) and it was interesting to see the way Crowe can change his whole appearance and demeanour for the different roles. Less so with Affleck, where I thought it more a good casting choice for him as the neat but flawed senator.

And back to the blues song formula, one hopes in a film like this that certain things will happen; the genre needs the underground car park scene, helicopters, convergence of the unconnected, the important twist when you think you know what has happened. Its all there.

BUT. I gather this was adapted from a BBC screenplay produced some years ago. I'm wondering in hindsight if there's still enough of the original plot arc there to have limited some of the choices from what a modern rebuild could do? I'm guessing it was a mini-series, which could explain why I thought there was an end in sight around 2/3 of the way through (end of episode?).

Also the blog/new media savvy gal with the faux 1940's columnist name Della Frye, could have driven more into the plot. Don't just give Crowe a Blackberry, do something more interesting with the social media. Instead, Crowe ends up instructing McAdams and Affleck on spin management. A modernist twist here could have been more fun.

That's me being a tad over critical though; was this a film to watch before drifting along to an Italian restaurant for some good conversation over a glass of wine?

Will I watch it again when its a DVD or on Sky?

For sure.