Spring Break Days 2 & 3: Sleeping, Reading, and British Television

The third day of Spring Break is winding down now, much to my dismay. I am not looking forward to returning to school this time next week at all! Break so far has been very enjoyable, although I find myself down with a cold of some sort that is sapping all my energy, which is frustrating. My throat's sore and swollen, and I'm very tired. Other than that, everything's fine.

Yesterday I discovered an adaptation of 'David Copperfield', I don't know from what channel, but Paul Bettany played Steerforth. The child-David was ADORABLE, but the rest of the adaptation left much to be desired. The Davids were excellent, but the supporting cast, although some folks were very good (it was extremely weird to recognize Anthony Andrews as Murdstone. I mean, the Scarlet Pimpernel? Old and beating up children? What??), were not used well. The folks who adapted the series didn't seem to know what to do with all the vast and important array of supporting characters in the book, and so just gave small tastes of each to the audience, which is a crying shame. What a waste of Bettany; he was in just about two brief scenes, and even the Tempest scene was cut!!! That's what really killed this adaptation for me, as the tempest is one of my favorite scenes in literature, period.

I also watched the last two episodes of "Primeval", so now I'm all caught up and ready for the show to return next year. And I watched a few scenes of "The End of Time" today, I'm not sure why, perhaps because I wanted to depress myself? I honestly was very disappointed in the story of Tennant's final episodes, (I adored "Waters of Mars", but "EoT" fell flat for me) but there are some individual scenes in those episodes that I count among my favorite in any Who episode ever. The regeneration scene with him going back to 2005, the monologue before he releases Wilf from the radiation chamber (and the incredible, heartbreaking acting as he's sprawling on the floor, covered with shattered glass, and sobbing with disbelief at being still alive. . .), the cafe chat with Wilf, and the talk between Wilf and the Doctor on the space ship--all are very, very good. Wilf should have been a companion for a full season. What a shame that he wasn't. Anyway, I reviewed all of the above, and was left emotionally exhausted, and very eager for the next series to begin in, what, two or three weeks now?

I read more of "Foundation" today, but honestly I'm just crawling through it. I don't know why it's taking me so long, it's not very thick, but I'm just not emotionally invested in the story yet, so perhaps I'm reading it slowly because of that? I am also almost finished reading "Neverwhere" for what I believe is the fourth time in as many weeks. Tomorrow will be a reading day--I'm going to go down to the apartment courtyard with library books as well as textbooks and just spend my day soaking up the sun and the stories all at once. Unless it rains, of course. I might go swimming too, seeing as how I can't go to the gym as I usually do on Tuesdays, but no matter what I do, I will be back in the apartment by eight because that's RICHARD ALPERT TIME, EVERYONE!

As I mentioned earlier, I've been very tired due to A) That cold, and B) Staying up far too late. Therefore I'm going to bed before eleven tonight and will sleep in tomorrow. I actually had a three-hour nap today, but seeing as that was right after watching aforementioned "Doctor Who" clips and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and reading some of "Neverwhere", "Foundation", and my nutrition text book, I don't think I should inflict my dreams upon you. Let's just say they were very, very strange. Yeah.

I almost forgot to mention, I plan tomorrow to be a writing day, too. For those of you who are members of the Radish Room, I will be posting some of my novel there tonight, because I'm sick of struggling with writing chapter one and so am going to just fling my poor scraps out there and let you tell me how I should stitch them together. I'll take my paper and inkwell and quill down to the courtyard too (weather permitting) and write there. Hopefully the change of scenery and fresh air will give me some inspiration!