Life continues

[ewx]

I watched The 13th Warrior, in which Ahmad ibn Fadlan (of Viking funeral fame) takes a month or so out from wandering round southern Russia to take part in Beowulf. I enjoyed it. Reading about the book it's based on I'm glad the one of the more implausible elements was removed (or at least left sufficiently implicit to ignore). Possibly a shame they couldn't have found an Arab actor for the Arab hero, though.

I went to the British Museum's Moctezuma exhibition, which was interesting. They seemed keen to emphasize the identity of the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan as Mexica rather than Aztecs. Regardless of how they identified themselves the impression I got was of a pretty bloodthirsty lot.

I tried the Royal Mail's print-your-own stamps facility. Perhaps old hat to everyone else but new to me. It just worked (...well, I don't know that the letter arrived yet I suppose.)

I've been doing a lot of bike maintenance: two puncture repairs (the second due to inadequate checking during the first), a new saddle, and various bits of work on the mudguard fixings.

Comments

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

Yay for 13th Warrior - I love the atmosphere of the film, even if Antonio Banderas ultimately fails to be convincing as an Arab. The book, Eaters of the Dead, is a lovely exercise in fake academia, and my only major complaint is that Crichton clearly gets bored by the end and doesn't get enough detail or excitement into the climax. Though admittedly this is also a flaw of most ancient epics, etc. :)

[em788.livejournal.com]

The letter did arrive :-)