The Lull... and much Egyptian hokum

[muninnhuginn]

For a quiet Christmas, there's been too much to do. Viz:

• 22nd had two parties, lunchtime and mid-afternoon, one with we suppose what ought to be called the "Cambridge friends", the second with M's current and the ravens' ex- colleagues which wasn't as painful as it might have been
  
• 23rd was final shop before D- (or is that C, X, or baby J-) day
  
• 24th was erecting and decorating tree, wrapping presents, putting up cards (and discovering [...pauses to brew chai...] that most of the smaller ones fit into the square spaces in the new CD racks so prettily that some will remain there after the festive season), cooking and eating Xmas dinner (turkey, et al, and Xmas pudding) accompanied by Whitbread's Celebration Ale
  
• 25th was presents, drive to Nottingham, veggie Xmas dinner with sister-in-law and parents-in-law, much less painful than anticipated, drive home
  
• 26th was M's birthday, Looby Loo to friend's birthday party with M, whilst the ravens roasted beef for birthday supper with in-laws who arrived around tea-time, after which it was board games
  
• 27th was in-laws playing with Looby Loo day
  
• today, is it turkey risotto or beef curry first?

Theme for this year's Xmas, most definitely Egypt. We bought LL a wooden pyramid complete with mummy, sarcophagus, treasure chests, gods, palm trees and sphinx. M found the ravens a reissue of Pharaoh for the PC. We watched and enjoyed both"The Mummy"* and "The Mummy Returns". Snooty comments in The Guardian notwithstanding, we liked the CGI in each of them (maybe, since we don't get to the flicks very often, we have not enough comparisons). The sequel was marred by presence of small child but improved by the talents of Alun Armstrong. Its plot was messy too. John Hannah fun too in both. [... pauses to clear up feline puke ...] And the gradually regenerating mummy (which resembled during its transformation various of the "exhibits"/"specimens" at von Hagens' Bodyworlds exhibition) becoming the rather fine-looking villain Imhotep (played by Arnold Vosloo). And the black-clad tattooed Ardeth Bay (played by Oded Fehr) was definitely our hero. Brendan who? we add.

What the ravens would really love to see would be pitched battle between the LOTR orcs and the massed ranks of jackal-headed warriors of the scorpion king. [ ... pauses to breathe in the scent of chai ... ]

---

* Where the ravens found they were the reincarnation of Hamamat the beekeeper. And it's a pretty site that one.