Yesterday was my book club website’s Christmas party. Starting at 1.30 pm we watched 3 films, had food, then the bar opened. With yesterday’s weather being so awful it was again tempting to turn off my alarm clock and shove my head back under the covers, but I was good and got up. I’m happy to report that I can still get lost in London even with my A-Z. Well, I didn’t get lost so much as get off the bus at the wrong stop. Stupid numbering system in this city. Why does one side of the road go 1-101 and the other go 100-2? Makes NO SENSE. So I got off way down the road before I realised I was an idiot and tramped back through the rain. Oh well, I got there eventually. I was the first one there so talked to the organiser for a bit and we were given luke warm tea, but then we got proper hot tea and I settled into a Mastermind/Star Trek chair that spun all the way round and made me feel tempted to do an evil villain’s laugh. I didn’t. And then we watched the films, none of which I have ever seen, which seems strange given the amount of films I watch.
The first was Meet Me In St Louis which was actually quite nice, in a very girly, bright ‘we have just discovered technicolour and shall therefore dress all the women in hideous frocks’, shrieky, melodramatic way. Honestly, did people ever dress like that, ever? Mismatched colours and patterns that should never be worn together, and the frills, oh my. Anyway, there isn’t a lot of story here. A family is eagerly awaiting the World’s Fair, they like boys, they dance and sing. A LOT. There are misunderstandings. They are going to move to New York. They don’t. Oh yay, Merry Christmas! I also very badly needed subtitles for the younger two daughters, their high pitched voices were just impossible to hear. I missed a whole subplot about the little one being beaten up but not really by the boy Judy Garland fancied when really she split her lip…doing something else. Not a clue what went on there. Anyway, it was nice enough, but had I been watching it alone I may not have made it to the end.
Next up we had The Nightmare Before Christmas which I didn’t really like. I could easily have nodded off during that one. Really thin on story, albeit well made and technically brilliant, but just very meh.
Last was the ultimate Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life. Is it really? Are you sure? Cos this is one hell of a depressing film. I can see why Phoebe never got to the end of it on Friends. OK, so it has a nice ending, but all the crap that goes on before you get there…it’s too much. I think it’s really well done and for the time really excellent, a well told story and all that. But even though it has the nice ending and everyone is happy and wow he learns that his life has had meaning…he’s still going to wake up the next morning and be stuck in his same old life. He still has to go back to work at that bloody savings and loans. He never gets out of of Bedford Falls. I think I might have like the ending more had someone given him two tickets for a round the world trip so he could finally take his wife on a honeymoon and have an adventure. AND! Evil Mr Potter got away with everything! He stole the money and was just mean to everyone, and he didn’t get his comeuppance? What the hell kind of Christmas story is this? Nope, just too upsetting for my liking.
I also have to ask, what’s with the bizarre names for the youngest girls in these old films? Tootie and Zuzu? Huh? What? Were these really popular names back then that have (quite rightly) died out? Very strange. I have also had the damn song from St Louis in my head since yesterday. I only know two lines. Kind of driving me crazy.
After the films I was actually brave for once and made myself talk to people, and I had some very nice conversations. I left at about 11 pm though because I was just shattered. But I had a really lovely time. Hopefully we’ll do that sort of thing again.
And in other news, yet another person I went to university with is having a baby. So congratulations to everyone in the whole world who is having babies! It’s like an epidemic I swear, and yet none of them live remotely near me so I can’t even use them to get my baby fix. That’s just selfish that is. 
