Well, i’d put it off long enough and the girl had had enough and INSISTED we go down to Blockbuster and rent LOVE ACTUALLY. The title alone had me shaking in my boots, as ‘girly flicks’ are the single most terrifying thing to men when they are alone with women. But, i was in luck, as the DVD was sold out and I convinced Hannah that it would be pointless to watch a VHS, right? So we trolleyed up towards the front door and the nosy worker who overheard us went on a witch hunt and recorded a just-returned copy of LOVE ACTUALLY. I clinched my teeth together and thanked him. There was no way out.

So we walked up the big hill that flows upward from Main street and the whole time i’m thinking to myself, i can’t fall asleep during this movie, Mike, she’ll KILL you but i tried to get such thoughts out of my brain and think more positive, which is what i’ve been doing the last few months. See, whenever i get down or negative I remember a couple of really positive things or people in my life and i look on the bright side, whether it’s a book John E. gave me, a Disco CD Tina gave me, or Josiah’s stones. I just try to keep on trucking. And, well, one of the things i been doing is submitting music to annimators and this seems to be going in a good direction. However, it DOES take up a lot of my time but i do think it could pay off in the end. One must know how to sell one’s self to Hollywood moguls without sounding smug or useless. But the cool thing is, everybody in Hollywood wants to be in a band. That’s the truth.

And i figured i could pull that ‘honey, i need to work’ line on Hannah and get out of the movie but that would be inviting the wrath of all of England down upon me, and , uh, i don’t want that. SO, as the night went on, we had some dinner (we made lightly fried chicken breast, mashed Pot, broccoli and sauteed carrots) and washed that down with Lager. Then Rusty and Lucy came downstairs and we all watched LOVE ACTUALLY. And guess what? it was ACTUALLY GOOD! I really liked it and there were times i was doubled over with laughter! So there you have it, i pre-judged a movie and i was wrong. And so i’ll leave it at that but also leave you with the title song from TEAM AMERICA (at a Theatre near you), which was a HILARIOUS film: “America, F*CK YEAH!” I must now get back to work, as Hollywood calleth…

All the best,

Mike Randle