a busy weekend

Hello all,

A few things to mention as way of an update....

We had a packed and generally fun weekend, for once doing something "social" three days running! On Friday evening, Julie and her fiancé Pat visited our place for dinner, as they were in the Midlands to attend a sci-fi convention in (of all places in the known galaxy) Hinckley! It was really nice to see them again and introduce Carla to Pat. The Mrs cooked a wonderful meal as usual, and they left on a mission to get their own "Munkeh" toy from ASDA! (having seen ours on top of the telly!)

Then on Saturday, we went into Leicester to meet up with my sister, Josie, to sample the delights of the city's vegetarian restaurants. We ended up in a place called 'East' and stuffed ourselves from the 'all you can eat' buffet - dangerous when I'm around. Then it was a mooch around the shops, Dominoes toy shop being the highlight for me. The 'throw the pigs around' game (can't remember what it is called) was awesome! Before Jo went to get her bus home, I remembered to hand over some old military toys (plastic tanks etc) to her to give to her husband -he is a collector. What was fun was also giving Jo her old diary from 1970, which I found in the attic the weekend before.

On Sunday we went down to the Coventry Odeon cinema to see the newly released film "Hot Fuzz" with our pal Mark, a fellow blogspot man. The film stars Simon Pegg etc from "Spaced" and "Shaun of the Dead". There are loads of reviews of this excellent flick all over the net, so no need to waste space here. Sort of "Midsomer Murders" meets "Die Hard", with West Country accents! Suffice to say that I found it very funny, and I thoroughly enjoyed the cracking action sequences at the end. Highly entertaining, if a little over-long. I loved the swan, BTW! Also recognised the main location (Wells, Somerset) as we had been there about 18months ago. We had some transport issues getting back though as we had to wait for AGES for our bus. :( oh well....

We've started to watch "Heroes", the new US TV show about some remarkable people who have a special super powers. I suppose you could say this is "X-men" without the bright costumes. Really good so far (three episodes in)….. We are both getting hooked as the show is developing nicely. Thanks to Mark G for recording the episodes for us from his cable!

Oh, I got us tickets to see "Chicago" (the musical) on Friday in London at the Cambridge Theatre. Can't wait, as I loved the film.

…..I really must update this more often!!

at home in Gorleston - sorting out toys!

As the title suggests, I did indeed go home to see my mum and dad at the weekend. Long journey over to the east coast but it was ok as I snoozed a lot of the way on the train. This was my usual "hello....your son is here to help!" type visit (so I did the shopping, cleaning etc) but I also did some 'attic' work, which meant going up into the dusty darkness at the top of the house and attempting to sort out another box of old toys/comics/junk. Some of it went to the charity shop, some to the paper recycler, and some will be up for sale soon, such as the Action Man and film related toys I decided I don't want anymore. (Superman plane for instance.) Quite fun when you get into it, this 'muckin out' lark. You find things from the past that bring back simple but nice memories. :) And of course, it was nice to see the parental units as well. I hope to go back soon with the Mrs...so she can help me sort out more junk. haha!

I got mum and dad a PG tips monkey, which are being sold as part of special packs of PG tips t-bags! They love him, and he now lives in the living room!

Watched episode 2 of "Primeval" on Saturday night and as it played, I compared notes about the episode with Carla via txting on our mobiles. I had to tell her what happened at the end as he mother phoned just as the giant time travelling millipede attacked our heroes. This is good, I like the sillyness of it all, For once ITV have produced something worth watching! I guess they are going for the Saturday evening "Doctor Who" market with this.

Carla and I are hoping to get tickets to see the musical "Chicago" in March. It would be fun to see Tony Hadley strutting his ex-Spandau Ballet self on stage, in the role of Billy Flynn.

Oh, I must type a big "good luck" wish to my pal Trudi, regarding her nearly completed Phd! :)

Survivors, Doctor Who etc

We've been watching some old BBC sci-fi tv recently. This all started with me borrowing every episode of "Survivors" (on videotape...yes TAPE!) from a work colleague just after Xmas. So back in January over a couple of weekends and a few nights we ploughed through all 38 shows. Brilliant stuff, we both absolutely loved it. We found series 1 and 2 really interesting and generally well written, and we were hooked. Series 3 goes a bit odd: I think the producers lost their way and its such a shame not to see more of Greg Preston, but at least they made Charles 'character more interesting to watch. Especially when he starts his ranting about the re-birth of society and then attacking bad guys by swinging out of trees with a swift ninja kick.

After completing those, I decided to buy some classic "Doctor Who" on DVD. The beeb have released some impressive sets of various episodes with new and rare extras. I picked up "Genesis of the Darleks" and "EarthShock", both top banana adventures ("Genesis" = Tom Baker as the Doctor, 1975, and "EarthShock" = Peter Davison as the Doctor, 1982.) Really great fun to watch! Love those wobbly sets.
"Genesis" is quite dark and violent actually, and marks the first appearance of Davros the Darlek creator. Great character, love his psychotic character. I have the say the production design was impressive considering the budget and time restrictions. "EarthShock" is great, as I love the Cybermen and Peter Davison is my favourite Doctor. Not sure what Beryl Reid is doing in this, though. I think I'll pick up some more episodes, such as "The Sontaran Experiment" when time and money allows. And then perhaps some "Blake's 7"!! haha!!

I read that the BBC is planning a 6-part remake of "Survivors". Let's hope its done properly and isn't naff or cheesey. In the meantime, I got series 1 on DVD to watch again later in the year.

The top TV news is that series 2 of the excellent "Life on Mars" starts on the beeb tomorrow evening! Fantastic. Hopefully we'll find out what's going on with this 1973 time travelling...and of course, lots of '70s cop show car chases and gritty "The Sweeney" style punch ups! Wonderful. :)

The 2007 Bafta awards....

.....are on BBC-1 at the moment. Lots of awards going to people who couldn't be asked to fly in from La-La land. I'm a bit tired so bedtime now, and I'll have to catch up with the rest of the winners tomorrow via the 'net. Glad "Happy Feet" got best animated film though, as I *loved* that. Mumble was wonderful! He actually looked like Elijah Wood. Clever CGI animators.

(Bafta site)

European animations......

I love "Pingu". Those little shows are so much fun! Well, it seems he is now the star of a music video!

Also, I finally found a link to some cute little animations that I saw on Dutch tv in the early '80's. Presenting "Loekie de Leeuw", star of Nederland 1 and 2 channels!

:)

First (past the?) post...

Hi to all out there in bloggy-land,

Just a couple of lines to get this thing going. I think I'll use it mainly for DVD and film reviews, but I'm sure I'll write about some other things....err...when I can remember or be bothered to update it! ;)

We watched "Earthquake" this afternoon...part of last weekend's mega DVD purchase at Nuneaton HMV. Not bad...quite entertaining actually. It has a similar structure to "The Towering Inferno", released in the same year - 1974. (Introduce the characters, then waste a third of the film showing their relationships and situations, then start the disaster!) Charlton Heston was his usual hero self, swaggering through the script with several major stars of the time (George Kennedy, Lorne Greene etc.) The film features some good action sequences and matte work, and yet another great score by good old Johnny Williams. However, there was one effect that was so * B A D * it was funny - the blood splattering in the lift as it crashed down the shaft. Its an *animation cell*! Red paint blobs!! Oh. Dear.
Talking about shaft....Richard Roundtree was in it as well, sporting a groovy stunt biker costume. Can yu dig it?

We watched the new ITV series called "Primeval" this evening. Dinosaurs and other such CGI creatures find their way to suburban England. Cue team of experts to investigate and sort it out. Again, quite fun to watch, although very derivative of many sci-fi and fantasy series...we had some "Jurassic Park" mixed with some "Stargate" and "X-files. Hope it develops well. Next week the preview showed them fighting giant bugs in the sewers! More b-movie rip offs then....
It was nice to see Ben Miller as the cynical Government man. He does the voice of the "PG tips monkey" (or "mung-keh" as he is known.) We both liked Rex, the cute little flying dino. I'm sure if the show is a hit, a toy Rex will be in the shops for Xmas!

Thankfully the annoying snowfall of Thursday and Friday seems to have gone now. All that remains on the square at the back of our flat is a very disheveled looking snow man...his carrot nose fell out as he melted!!

see ya'll soon! :)