scribb1e and I went to Cornwall, where we stayed in a cottage with a sea view.

We saw the Eden Project. I'd been before, and not thought much of the place, but it's much more fun when it's not raining and you can do the outdoor parts as well as go in the huge geodesic domes. We found the Lost Gardens of Heligan, which were pretty and, considering the amount of work and though which had gone into them, downright impressive. Their farm shop also sold us some fine rump steak.

Continuing the gardens theme, we visited some Japanese Gardens, which were very tranquil until a coachload of white-haired old ladies went on the rampage through the place. We'd already looked around by then, and had settled down to have lunch, so their calls of "Cooeee! Deirdre!" did not disturb us too much. After that, we went to St Michael's Mount on foot, and, as you can see from the photograph, had to return by boat.

We also found a tiny beach you could only reach on foot, and imitated Jack Vettriano paintings.

The weather was pretty warm most of the time, so I borrowed scribb1e's Tilley hat.

Holiday viewing was Buffy season 5, which we felt was tightly plotted and much better than the previous season. I got started on re-reading Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. On my second pass, unrushed because now I know how it ends, I'm savouring the expansiveness of the writing rather than just wishing he'd get on with it. The Diary of a Manhattan Callgirl, which we found in Tescos, failed to either titillate or to arouse much other emotion: it's sort of Brigit Jones with hookers.

Well, I'm back. Here's what I did on my holidays (note laptop in background, and Firefly and Battlestar Galactica DVDs, and Chronicles of Amber in my lap). Oh, all right, there was also swimming and scenery, but most of the time was reserved for the important things in life. It was fun.

You lot all seem to have been busy, so I'm queuing up open tabs in Firefox as I accumulate stuff I'm replying to. So far, we have:

• robhu's encounter with the smarmy sort of atheism which thinks all religious people are stupid.
• atreic's posting on going to a High Anglican church at Easter, cathedral_life's response about religious practice and rationality and atreic's thoughts on the mind/body problem as it applies to religion.
• terriem pointed us at songs as bullet lists. It reminded me of the Powerpoint suicide note story that The Onion did a while back, but The Onion is lame about access to old stories these days, so I can't link to that.

So, Battlestar Galactica eh? Unlike Firefly, it's not getting cancelled as it's apparently very successful. There are certain similarities. Both have the same cinema verite, handheld look (in both the filmed and CGI shots: not surprising as the same CGI company did both BSG and Firefly). Both focus on people rather than on the particle of the week, both are serial rather than episodic, allowing character and story arcs to develop. (I'm curious about the way the BSG's makers try to distance it from science fiction: they seem to assume that SF means Star Trek, which as far as I'm concerned is an occasionally fun but weak example of the genre).

What are the differences that might explain BSG's success? BSG is a big story: an entire civilisation in danger, a Biblical exodus, and characters who are political and military leaders. We rarely see the underdogs in the BSG universe, but since they have so little freedom of action, that's not very surprising. BSG is darker: no snappy comebacks and laugh out loud moments. Oh, and let's not overestimate our demographic: while Inara is pretty, we see rather more of Number 6 in BSG, and BSG is generally sexier.

I like them both, although I think it'll be interesting to see whether BSG can keep up its early promise now it has become such a hit.

The Lakes were lovely. We had excellent weather, and the scenery was beautiful. S and I took many, many photographs. We walked up Cat Bells, went to the Sellafield Visitors Centre (which, disappointingly, does not sell fluorescent T-shirts saying "I've been to Sellafield"), went on a boat trip, and also managed to do a bit of reading in the evenings.

At Brantwood, John Ruskin's former home, we happened across a performance of The Tempest by Illyria, who were excellent: a company of 5 actors, a simple set and a rollicking performance, in the best tradition of traveling players (being a Pratchett geek, I thought of Vitoller's Men in Wyrd Sisters).

We also happened across a "3 for £10" deal on SF classics in a bookshop, so I bought Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, Joe Haldeman's The Forever War and Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowiz. I've read Canticle, so that's gone to S. The Forever War's grinding tale of the pointlessness of war came to mind when I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 on Sunday night. My favourite was The Left Hand of Darkness, though, for the evocative and touching description of an alien society. Recommended.

Fahrenheit 9/11 was biased and polemical and relied too much on pathos (or do I mean bathos?), but was quite terrifying for all that. I hope lots of Americans are watching it.

I'm back. Rome was lovely. The weather was just about right. It rained a bit on some days but we had sunshine for the first couple of days. As suggested by S, who has more imagination than I do, here is the Slightly Sketchy Guide to Rome.

( Read more... )

Not been posting lately. It's been a busy few weeks.

( Barcelona was excellent. ) It's a shame to be back at work again. Sigh. No big plans for the coming weeks, although I'm sure something will turn up.

Came back from Center Parcs on Friday.

( What I did on my holidays )

I was diverted from General Dancing by a invite from lisekit to a 50s themed bop at Churchill. Whole lotta jiving went on. Good fun was had by all. It was nice to see the old place again. Not much seems to have changed. Returned to Lise and Terrie's and left rather late, so feeling somewhat tired on Saturday. I went to Tom's barbeque but not to the fireworks/film showing in town afterwards. Feeling somewhat more rested today.