Conjunctivitis, Cloverfield, and Comfortable Shoes

By way of an update, in reverse chronological order, here’s what’s going on:

I have conjunctivitis in my left eye, which has caused it to swell up, and will only open half way. This is annoying. I’ve got drops that have to live in the fridge, so at the moment they’re sat next to someone’s home-made salad, or whatever gubbins is in that Tupperware in work’s fridge. Hope my drops don’t get eaten…anything goes in this place…

I saw Cloverfield at the weekend, and very much enjoyed it. It’s basically Godzilla, or King Kong, shot through a digital camera by a bunch of attractive-looking youths. There are parallels with Romero’s Diary of the Dead (which should get a theatrical release soon) but Cloverfield isn’t as determined to get its message across. If it even has a message. It’s more of a clever piece of viral marketing, with an end product that actually delivers for a change. I’m a sucker for half decent giant monster movies, and this certainly fits that category.

Oh, and it gave me motion sickness for the first time in my life. Seriously, I thought I was going to throw up or leave the cinema. That’s never happened before. Unless you count the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake…but that was for different reasons.

It’s also very pleasing to see all the speculation on various Internet blogs and forums, regarding things that didn’t happen in the film. The origins of the creature, what the meaning of various clues are, and what path a potential sequel could take are all being debated on a number of sites. This makes me happy: anything that fires up people’s imaginations after they’ve left the cinema is a good thing, if you ask me. And you didn’t, but you’re reading my blog, so that’s close enough.

I took a week off from training last week. I walked to work on Monday and Tuesday, and managed to hurt my heel/ankle, pansy that I am. On Wednesday it was particularly excruciating, and so on Thursday I decided a visit to the local quack doctor was in order.

He basically told me that a) the problem would be very persistent, b) the problem would be extremely painful, and c) I’d not be able to run the race in May.