Various summer stuff (a catch-up!)

Just thought I would do a round-up of a few bits we've done over the summer.....

We did a couple of visits to places in East Anglia to tie in with staying with my mum and dad, the first being a few days break in July. On the way to their place we went to the impressive Framlingham Castle in Suffolk, then onto Saxmundham. The next day we went to the stunning North Norfolk coast, a definite favourite of ours. We drove up through the county in rather windy weather, first to Cromer to sort out a walking map and to have a look around (we adore Cromer!), then onto Wells-Next-the-Sea to have a look around the old harbour area. We then went back along the coast through the pretty village of Stiffkey and stopped off to do a circular walk from and to Blakeney Harbour, through the saltmarshes and via Cley, where there is a famous windmill. Shame about the rain that came on at Cley, but never mind -it was a showery day. Lastly, we stopped of on the shingle beach at Salthouse and then onto Sheringham before heading home.

The next day we did a coastal walk from Gorleston-on-Sea to Lowestoft which was wonderful. We started the walk from Gorleston-On-Sea cliffs and then down to the beach, and headed south along the coast. Between Hopton and Corton we had to leave the beach due to coastal erosion, and then head along inland, via Corton's partly ruined church. On the other side of Corton we found a nice area of protected woodland right next to the Pleasurewood Hills theme park (you could hear the screams from the rides!) It was really fun exploring that, especially when we found the lovely pond with the ducks. We found ourselves back on the beach and walked along this for a while before making our way into Lowestoft town centre, first to do a bit of shopping and then catch the bus back to Gorleston. Great walk of about 7 miles on a lovely day!

On the following Sunday, having driven back home the day before, we went over to Shropshire to climb the Wrekin Hill (near Telford.) It was a lovely walk through the trees to the summit, where there are good views over the countryside. We hope to go back there one day, as there are many more paths to explore. Then, as a 'spur of the moment' choice, we drove over to Ironbridge. Having eventually found a parking space, we got out and had a look around the town, and (of course) photographed the famous bridge in the hot afternoon sun. The town was packed with day trippers - not surprising really, as it is a world heritage site and definitely on the tourist trail.

On our second trip to my parent's, we were able to visit Burgh Castle - the site of the Roman town - near Gorleston. Looks like we could do some good country walking around there on another trip.

We also did another fun country walk locally one weekend in the summer, in the countryside outside of Nuneaton, to Caldecote Hall and back along the Coventry canal. We were also lucky enough to visit the Battle of Bosworth re-enactment day again this year.

In August, we went for a little summer break on the Yorkshire coast. We stayed in a fantastic apartment in a converted barn on a farm near to Bridlington. It was so quiet out there! We did a lot of country walking on the trip, the first being around Flamborough Head, a very scenic area of coast that juts out into the North Sea near Bridlington. This was wonderful: a quiet coastal path, lots of sea birds, stunning views along the cliffs, fresh sea air, and bright skies. We also visited Whitby (what an amazing and interesting town that is - doing the Dracula walk was brilliant!) and then walked back along the clifftops to Robin Hood's Bay along the Cleveland Way. It was a gorgeous day, very hot and sunny and the North sea was a clear deep blue. The cliff views were stunning - shame about the bugs though! Robin Hood's Bay is quirky place, an old fishing village that marches down the steep cliffs to the sea. We also went to Filey Bay (good to walk along the Filey Brigg, and the town was great,) Bempton Cliffs (alas, no puffins on view!) and to Scarborough town and castle - bought some seaside rock for my work pals. Another walk we did was in the countryside on the edge of the North York Moors just outside Scarborough, which was fun even though the weather was very up and down. A pretty wooded river valley, open countryside and sheep!

We also visited Castle Howard (on the way up there) and Bolsover Castle (on the way back) I liked both, but I think Bolsover had far more character, maybe because it was partly ruined and older. Also, on the way back we stopped on in the market town of Beverley (very pretty and surpisingly olde worlde) and then had lunch by the river in the village of North Cave. What a wonderful trip!

A couple of weeks after that we went back up to Derbyshire to visit Hardwick Hall and gardens, which were very interesting, but disappointing, as the hall's very famous windows (rare at the time of construction in the 1500's) were partially covered up to protect the tapestries! Oh well. The walk down to the fish ponds was good, and we got some lovely photos.
Oh, the Mrs. passed her driving test first time, and drove us up to Hardwick! :) Well done, Carla!
There are some photos of this on Carla's blog entry here.

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I went to the London Film and Comic Con at the end of July, which was great as I got to catch up with some old friends amongst the film and TV celebrities and stalls selling merchandise. I managed to get some autographs for a friend. Then, the weekend after there was the annual "Star Wars" fan 'park meet', in London's Hyde Park. Not a big turn out this year, but a fun and relaxing time had by all. It was good that Carla was able to come with me this year.

I haven't seen many films at the cinema since "Transformers 2", but I did go and see the excellent "District 9" when I was at my parent's place the other weekend. I went with my pal Kevin who (like me) enjoys his sci-fi movies. We saw it at the Hollywood cinema Great Yarmouth. I loved the film and was particularly impressed with what they did with a small budget - the animation on the aliens was brilliant. The week before, Carla and her work pals went to see "Julie and Julia" which she enjoyed. See here, and Joe's review here.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen & Michael Jackson

A couple of weekends ago my pal Gary came up to stay, and we went to see "Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen" at the cinema. I really liked the first film, as it was a fun and dumb romp with some cracking visuals.....typical Michael Bay really. The sequel delivered exactly what I expected (over the top action, military types in slow-motion photography, etc) but with far more robot action this time around, and some slapstick comedy thrown into the mix. I loved Wheelie - what a great character! Bay and his fx wizards move the camera a tad too quickly in the action set pieces for my liking, and the film is over long, but other than that, I really enjoyed it. Most of the humour worked for me, although some of it was unnecessary (did we really need so much screen time devoted to two comedy relief robots acting goofy?) but where the film delivers is in the scope of action set pieces and visuals. The fx's on the robots is stunning - ILM's most complex CGI models. The whole end sequence of the Autobot v Decepticon battle at the Pyramids was very exciting. I like the cast as well. Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox are now Hollywood's most successful young stars. "Transformers: ROTF" is already the highest grossing film of the year with $315million in the bank.

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Michael Jackson died from a heart attack a couple of weeks ago, just a few weeks before his comeback concerts in London were to start. He was 50 years old. I was surprised at how this got to me. It sunk in about a week later and then for some reason I felt quite sad and muddled for a few days. I guess this was because Michael was (and remains) an entertainment icon from my childhood and teenage years. Maybe his passing reinforced issues of mortality and age to me. Not sure. Anyway, as a little tribute, I played "Thriller" for a few days running in the car on my commute - what a wonderful record! I also bought two special magazine publications about him.


Michael in a promotional shot for the "ET Storybook" album, 1982.


I think my first memory of Michael was in the promo video for "Blame it on the Boogie" from the Jackson's "Destiny" album in 1978. Great video effects in that one! I'm sure "Top of the Pops" showed the video, if not, I saw it on another show like "Swap Shop". I also fondly remember the Jackson's TV show shown as a repeat on Children's TV on summer mornings, shown alongside such fare as "The Littlest Hobo", "The Pink Panther" and "Why Don't you...?" I remember Jackson's singles from the excellent "Off the Wall" album in 1979 and 1980 in the charts, and then of course the hit singles from the "Thriller" album which were played constantly on the radio and on television. I also recall watching the John Landis video for "Thriller" for the first time on late night Channel 4 - Friday December 2nd, 1983, wasn't it? Then there was other stuff like "Bad", "Dangerous" etc, although even before the 1993 allegations, I was distancing myself from his stuff and finding interest in other music. Still, Michael was always in the news for some reason, so you couldn't really get away from the latest hullabaloo surround him, such as the 1995 Brit awards when Michael's Christ-complex-like performance was interrupted by a bemused and annoyed Jarvis Cocker.

For me, the memorial service broadcast from the Staples Centre in Los Angeles last week was a interesting (if very 'Hollywood') thing to see, but I'm sure it provided some form of closure for Michael's family and countless fans. I found it telling that some key people, such as Diana Ross, Quincy Jones and Elizabeth Taylor did not attend. I think the highlight for me was when the Rev. Al Sharpton addressed his children with the line, 'I just want to say to you children. Wasn't nothing strange about yo' daddy. What he had to deal with was strange.'
There was a lot of dross in the show, such as some politician spouting on and on, and Mariah Carey's performance was very poor. I'm glad I watched it though - one of those events that will be talked about in the future. The worldwide audience was thought to be around 1 billion people. Wow.

Anyway, I doubt if the press will let this whole thing go yet, as it sells too many papers. Even today, the Daily Star had a headline suggesting his death was actually murder. I don't know why, as I didn't actually read the article. And tomorrow, Channel 4 has a show on about his last days. MTV and a host of other music channels have shown his music videos on repeat over the last two weeks. Many of his hit singles are in the charts again. Hmmm, I wonder what will happen to his adopted children? No doubt the media will follow their every move from now on. Let's hope they don't become more victims of stardom.

A couple of years ago Carla and I read The Magic and The Madness, which is a fascinating document of Michael's life: the lack of a real childhood, an autocratic and overbearing father, stardom at a young age, the plastic surgery, highest selling album of all time, the chimp, the fanatical fans, the allegations, it's all there. I hope the author goes ahead and completes the story now. What a bizarre life for a very talented (if rather strange) man.

R.I.P. Michael.