almost witty

I’ve been on the Internet for nigh on 15 years, and in all that time, I’ve always had an email address. Admittedly about 20+ of them but they all go to the same place. Some people change their mobile phones for vanity, I change my email address.

But lately, the amount of personal email I’ve had from friends, old and new, has shot up. But strangely, to my Facebook in-box.

I’m not sure whether I’m the only one to notice this, or the fact that old schoolfriends, who have had my email address for eons, now exclusively communicate with me via Facebook instead of email, or text. Even when I email them directly, they’ll reply back via Facebook. *scracthes head*

Has anyone else had this, or is it just me?

I was chatting to a female Whovian friend about the geek squee that would be seeing David Tennant and Patrick Stewart doing Hamlet at the RSC.

That got me musing as to which gorgeous British actress they could find to play Ophelia and inspire similar squee in women-fancying geeks. Unfortunately, the only name I could come up with was Kate Winslet - and she’s already played Ophelia in the Kenneth Branagh version of Hamlet. Indeed, when I watched it at the time, I thought she played it much like a stereotypical Doctor Who companion, with lots of screaming.

So can you think of any gorgeous British actresses ?

Last night, I found a little bit of my personal heaven right in the heart of Manchester.

Down below, a basement bar. But not just any old basement bar - it was themed around cult film and television. There’s a full-sized Dalek in the DJ booth. A glass cabinet by the bar with various spaceship models. Framed posters fill the walls - and the customers in the bar were a good mix of people. There’s even a pub quiz every Wednesday. I bet they serve Romulan ale behind the bar too…

And above it, just to make it heavenly, there’s a cheap Chinese buffet. So I can fill up with alcohol, geek TV and good times, and then nip upstairs for noodles afterwards.

Does it get any better than that?

I’ve had an interesting few days following my parents all over Manchester’s Chinatown.

And for two days (well, evenings) I have followed them to two main kinds of places:

- Chinese restaurants. Before the last couple of days, I had no real idea where the good places to eat in Chinatown were, beyond the vague reputation that Yang Sing has. After this, following my parents, I have deduced that an awful lot of Chinese people prefer to eat outside Chinatown, in restaurants conveniently placed above Chinese supermarkets. Places like Tai Pan, Tai Wu or Glamorous.

While all three of them are just like eating in a Hong Kong restaurant - down to the excellent food, trolleys serving dim sum/yum cha and standoff-ish service - Glamorous just has to be seen to be believed. It’s a mixture between Hong Kong cuisine and Blackpool glamour. Anyone with an allergy to neon lighting - and fish tanks full of live lobsters and crabs - should steer clear.

- But by far, the most popular place appears to be the local casino near Chinatown. My Dad has spent a good few years there and I’d always imagined it to be almost akin to Las Vegas in its setting - why else would you want to spend till 3am in there?

But I got there and it was just a run of slot machines (which my parents would occupy), bored croupiers watching Chinese men throwing down 50-quid notes as if it was paper on the roulette table and the Chinese equivalent of Granny from The Kumars at 42 flirting with another blonde croupier on the blackjack table.

It was highly amusing watching my Dad walk around the casino showing me the cool bits. Such as the FREE tea, coffee and soft drinks. My eye was more on the free Chinese cakes that were being handed out around the casino, although you were supposed to tip the waitress.

Having said that, I managed to win £40 on the virtual roulette table. While my Dad was content to sink money into the slot machine all night.

It’s been years since I played a trivia quiz game like Trivial Pursuit. But some kind neighbours put together a board games night, and I realised how hideously competitive I can get without realising it.

While everyone else was having a laugh and not particularly bothered about point-scoring or whatever, I was scanning the rules book to try and figure out where the points should have rightly been allocated, and other really wanky things like that.

In my defence, I never actually questioned the moderator’s decisions. And I’ve had a hectic two days in Glasgow - and before that, my parents came to stay with me. So I’m now going to spend the weekend relaxing by myself. Woot!