I was hoping to catch Interstellar this week before it finally disappeared from cinemas, but it looks like I'm going to have to catch up with it on DVD when it comes out. That doesn't bode well, as it took me nearly five years to get around to watching the excellent Shutter Island this weekend. Although we have the obligatory trip to 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies' to look forward to tonight.
We're already planning a Middle Earth Marathon next year, when the extended edition DVD comes out. Watching all six movies in their extended format back-to-back in a single week-end.
Somewhat surprisingly, given the glorious weather walking weather we've got this weekend, my boots are remaining firmly in the boot-bag. Waiting patiently to have the mud of the last few week's adventures removed and be re-proofed. Dad's Taxi has been pressed into service to as my eldest daughters performances at Croome Court are now in full swing (the last performances are Sunday 21 December and well worth seeing) plus there are a number of jobs around the house that I should be doing.
At least the Christmas tree and decorations are now up, as we enter the traditional chaos of the Christmas season. There's eleven days left till the big day and I've yet to buy a single present or, to put it another way, the kids have barely ten left to get themselves off Santa's naughty list!
If you're really stuck for present ideas, there's still three days left to invest in Luna Mission One's current Kickstarter campaign. A crowded sourced unmanned mission to the moon's South Pole. The mission will bore into the Moon's surface to a depth of at least 20 metres. Studying rocks 4.5 billion years old to advance our scientific understanding of the early solar system. It will also deposit a digital time capsule in the borehole to commemorate the mission, the human race, and those who funded it.
Contributions start from as little as £3, £30 will buy you a place in the time capsules public archive, £60 a private memory box. The estimated life expectancy of the time capsule is up to 1 billion years. Given how quickly laser disc's became obsolete (anyone remember them?), I imagine reading it, whatever digital format they use, is going to be quite a challenge for whoever or whatever finds it.
Finally I'm now on the home straight for the revised edit of my second novel Exiles. Which I plan to up-load to Smashwords before the end of the year. I've a number of other projects in the pipe-line for 2015/2016, at least one of which I hope to complete before starting on the sequel to Exiles. So as they say watch this space.