Shapes, Spirits, Tenants. Rodents and ICO

That DAMN mouse made another appearance last night… I thought that it had gone away. It’s literally been months since we (or should that be I – as I’m the only one who has ever seen it) last saw it.

So out comes the mouse traps again and the poison… For all the good it’s done us in the past!

I’m really starting to think that our flat is cursed… We are still having tenant difficulties.

The last time I wrote we had two sets of interest tenants. They both really wanted the flat. One promised to phone me to let me know the date that she was going to move in, but never got in touch. I tried contacting her repeated times, but she never answered her phone, so we other it to the other couple. They immediately jumped at the chance and said that they desperately wanted the flat and planned to come around this weekend to pay the deposit and sign the lease.

Just prior to them coming around I received a phone call from them. They explained that even though it says in their current lease that they only need to give one weeks notice before moving out, their current landlord is now giving them hassle and saying that they will need to continue to pay the rent until new tenants are found. As such, they don’t think they’ll be able to take our flat. They were planning on having another word with the landlord. They said that they’d get back to us and let us know either way and we have not heard from them since. I have tried contacted them, but they have not answered my calls.

As I said… Cursed.

Made some animal shapes for Elliot today… My efforts are displayed below for anyone to admire/criticize. I won’t even bother to try to explain what these are meant to be…



Overall, it’s been a tough weekend for one reason or another. I don’t feel like talking about it at the moment, but our tenant issues certainly factor into things… Ah the joys of life!

Films Watched:
Spirited Away
There has been a small film festival this weekend at Beau Sejour, in which international films have been screened. I went to see this, even though I actually own it on DVD, just because it’s unlikely that I’ll ever get another chance to watch an anime film at the cinema again.

This is quite possibly the greatest anime film ever made, and quite possibly the greatest animated film ever made. It’s Miyazaki’s masterpiece and is an absolute joy to watch from start to finish. For those unfamiliar to the story this is kind of like a Japanese version of sort of Alice in Wonderland, but saying that really does not really encapsulate the film at all.

What was very surprising and pleasant, was the cinema was quite full and I’m presuming that many of the people had never seen the film before. As I left the cinema there was such a positive buzz and you could tell that it was a universally liked film. As it should be.

9/10

Games Played:
ICO
As Shadow of the Colossus is due to be release (in less than 2 weeks), I decided to revisit this game.

Without a doubt this the greatest game released to date on the PS2. If there was any game in which the space between art and games was blurred, then it is this game. It also helps that this game has the finest level design I have ever witnessed. The Castle in which the game is based is simply huge and even from early on you get glimpse from high view points of future area’s that you will explore further on in the game.

It’s also the little touches that make the game, such as if you leave the game undisturbed for a moment and are stuck on a puzzle, Yorda (your companion), will wander off and point helpfully towards something that might help you.