Merchants and Web-Chats

Another day of not a lot happening. Brett has been more active than me – heading out for a class at the gym and then another fitness assessment. Rosie spent the day on the sofa watching episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer from the DVD’s that Brett and I had bought her for Christmas. I spent the day getting my main computer tidy and backed-up properly. Then I completed transcribing the handwritten journal I kept during a cruise I took in 1999 to upload to the website. The travel journals are actually ‘least-resistance’ kinds of things. I don’t expect they’ll be terribly fascinating to many people but they are easier to do. I should probably put more effort into more general content on the site. Brett cooked us a lovely pork roast this afternoon and we had hot apple pie for dessert.

This evening we went to see the film of The Merchant of Venice. Although I studied it during my English studies at school and I remembered the plot in its broadest outline, I had forgotten so much of the detail.

The film is well acted and lavishly set. With Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes playing the leads it almost cannot fail. Some of the reviews – and some of the mutterings I heard in the toilet after the showing – described it as anti-Semitic but that is part and parcel of the story: Shakespeare was a product of his era. That said, for all that he grieves the loss of his fortune more than the loss of his daughter, Shylock appeared to me as a sympathetic character and the mercy shown to him by Antonio is quite bitter-sweet. Not what I would have called mercy, more a case of exacting his own revenge. Anyway, I’m not re-sitting my English Literature paper so I’ll leave the film. Probably one for the wish list though.

After we got home we finally got a successful webcam link with Brett’s parents and gave them a virtual tour of the flat. There are still a few problems to work out to get it running smoothly, but at least we know we can do it now. I ought to get my folks equipped as well! Anyway, I’m off to bed – it being 2am already! Eeek!