Lazy Long Weekend

So, what exciting things did I do this Bank Holiday weekend?  Surprisingly little, in fact.  As I'm already on an extended break from work, (no, that isn't a euphemism for being unemployed, I'm using up leave I couldn't take while I was sick earlier this year), I haven't felt the need to maximise having an extra long weekend by packing in as much activity as possible.  On the contrary, I've been pretty idle - having a holiday from my holiday, in effect, as last week's walking on beaches, through forests and over hill forts was pretty damned exhausting.  One thing I did achieve over the weekend was to put together the chassis for another model railway locomotive from bits I'd bought over the past few years.  It entailed getting my soldering iron out for the first time in years to reassemble the pick ups.  I also found a working X04 motor in my spares box and this is now powering the chassis, which runs surprisingly well.  The body which this chassis will go under needs some minor modifications and painting, while the tender needs its side sheeting cutting down before being painted and lined, (both are unpainted spares sold off by Hornby when their Margate factory closed some years ago, when they moved production to China).  I'm hoping to get most of this work done over the next couple of weeks.  My other main locomotive projects are more long term and I've been getting frustrated at their relative lack of progress, so I decided to switch my attention to this new project which should be far more straightforward to complete.

Model railways aside, I've managed finally to sit down and start watching some of the many films I've recorded over the past few weeks.  If for no other reason than to clear space on my recorder's hard drive for more recordings,  (Talking Pictures TV are having something of a purple patch at the moment, with a number of movies which haven't seen the light of day for years turning up n their schedules).  So, I've been getting the more mainstream stuff I've recorded out of the way over the weekend.  Consequently, I've confirmed that the second of the new Star Trek films is every bit as bad as the first, its makers seemingly believing that if you throw in some snatches of dialogue and the odd character from the original, you can disguise the fact these films are really generic science fiction action films using the brand primarily for marketing purposes.  I'm not saying that Into Darkness was badly made - indeed, in parts it was reasonably entertaining - but it simply wasn't Star Trek.  Attempting to rework the plot of the real Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was especially ill advised, highlighting the new film's maker's lack of a grasp of what the original series was about.  Indeed, every reference made to the original series and films felt like a check list being ticked off, ('OK, we've mentioned the Prime Directive - we've only nine more original series references to make to establish our authenticity as a Star Trek movie').  The Southern Star, one of those late sixties international co-productions, whilst equally being an assemblage of marketable components, (Ursula Andress, brief nudity of aforementioned Andress, exotic African locations, token second rank Hollywood star in the shape of George Segal, then contemporary anti-racism sub-text anachronistically inserted into a period narrative, Matt Monro theme song), was, on the whole, rather better put together.  I hadn't seen The Southern Star in an age and I'd forgotten that Orson Welles was even in the film.  Not his greatest performance, but nonetheless hugely enjoyable, (especially his wandering 'English' accent).

So, that was my Bank Holiday weekend.  It's back to the serious business of being on holiday for me tomorrow.