Quick pop-in/Return of the King/Holidays

Hi everyone! Just doing my "suffering from an over-inflated sense of duty" holiday stop-by at the office to see if anyone's panicking without me here. So far, it seems they'll survive. The nice thing is that everyone left at 12, so I have the entire building to myself - and have locked my office door in case some lost soul wanders by looking for help I can't give.

It's been a grand holiday so far. The absolute highlight was seeing Return of the King on Friday morning. It was so booked out that we only had a choice of 5 seats, although second in line. We got 2 in the second row from the front - talk about "better on the big screen". Especially when certain overgrown nightmarish things appear - you know of Whom I speak, yes HER!:) It was pretty funny. When She appears for the second time in the film, a whole row of girls in the back screamed, which had the rest of the packed-out place in stitches. I was very good myself - only cried once in the entire movie (end of coronation scene) and didn't have to make a loo-dash at all.

(If it didn't cost us 66 bucks for 2 of us to go see, I think I would have gone right out, bought another ticket and done it all again....!)

What a movie! But I can echo thoughts posted in the comments a bit further down this page - it's nice to see the end, but it's sad that there's no more. HOWEVER, there's rumours that Peter Jackson will be making The Hobbit, and that I can't wait to see that.

I haven't read the books yet. I plan to now. I wanted to be surprised by each movie, to be on the edge of my seat, not knowing what will happen next. But now I want the WHOLE story, so we're going to read them together, my son and I.

We'll be standing in line for our own copy of the movie when it's released. I only wish we could get the extended versions here, but they won't ship outside the USA! Darn.... I'll have to prod a few American friends in the right places and hint wildly that those extended versions would make great gifts... :) Oh, and Theophilus, I heard the 12 endings would be offered via some or other news site, but can't remember which. Probably Fark.

The rest of my holiday has been pretty restful so far. Only got out of bed at 2pm on Saturday, then made strawberry and plum jams from scratch, then got back into bed for a nap before heading off to a birthday party. The rest of the days have been spent around the house, beating the up-country-folks to the shops for a final Christmas dash and planning a Painting Party. Will be colouring in a few walls before New Year, along with my sis-in-law.

I'll be popping in now and then, so will post stuff as I can. But now, I need to catch up on everyone else!