Vacation - Day 11

Yesterday's continuing birthday fun was quite good; started with the mundane chore of doing laundry, although with Miriam to accompany me there was nothing mundane about it. I'm sure the other patrons at the Laundry Express at Davisville and Yonge either think we're a really cute couple or we're absolutely mad. Caffiennated, washed and tumbled dry and folded, we were ready for the rest of the day. Michelle and Greg arrived and together we went to the Pickle Barrel for a quick, light lunch and then upstairs to the movies to see The Other Boleyn Girl, which is the story of one of the ill-fated wives of Henry VIII.

The review:

I suppose they meant well. But come on, having your wicked way with historical facts just to make a movie entertaining is just plain wrong. Here we see Mary Boleyn give birth to a son for Henry, which was the one thing he desired the most, and it never happened that way at all. Queen Catherine of Aragon could only produce one child for him, a daughter named Mary, but before bedding Ann Boleyn (a role only slightly managed through by Natalie Portman, who obviously thought with all the wierd hats and what not on her head here that she was still Padme Amidala-Skywalker) Henry had a son by Lady Blount, a son who later died of a fever. Lady Blount is nowhere to be seen in this version of the story, nor are half the characters who should be. The Henry we see here is a less intense man, a man who is easily beguiled and bewitched by his mistress, but with no mention of the ongoing strife with Spain and France, I suppose he was easily distracted. The whole break with the Catholic church for the sake of being with Ann is treated with the same importance as one might go and buy a loaf of bread; it just, like, happens. I found that a lot of the historical detail is just glossed over to give us a chick flick in corsets. If you're thinking of seeing this film, don't. Rent The Tudors instead; the performances in that serial are much more compelling, and even though it is not entirely accurate either, it's closer to the truth than this was.

End of review.

I came home from the movie and felt a fever creeping up on me again so I was into bed quite early, making it easy for me to get up early todat and escort Miriam to the airport for her flight to Calgary. She's off for three weeks now doing training seminars for work, and I'll admit I am going to be slightly lonely without her around to chat with. But I shall survive. I have the serious business of kicking this cold to deal with, and tomorrow I have some shopping to do: two classic Doctor Who adventures will be released on DVD tomorrow so I will have to get those. I also want to hit a No Frills and stock up on stuff since they're having a big sale of items for $1. It's not exactly the way I wanted my vacation to end, with me being sick and coughing a lot, but I am going to make the best of it.

That is all.