Halloween weekend and other Autumn stuff.

Back in late October (over the Hallowe'en weekend) we did a couple of fun things. On the Friday before we had a day off work and went over to Hereford, a very historical city in the west country, about 2 1/2 hours from here. Not a bad drive, as there is some lovely countryside to see in Herefordshire. The main reason for our visit was to go to the medieval cathedral and see the 'Mappa Mundi' there. This is a world famous map, created around the end of the 1200's showing the then-known world. It was a fantastic experience for me to see this (being a cartographer by trade.) It was also interesting to see the displays which explained its significance, and the famous chain library...books on chains! We also had a good look around the city centre, an interesting and bustling place with lots of varied shops and street entertainers. Good to do a charity shop trawl as well. We spotted the scene of the recent fire that had threatened to destroy a very old timber building right in the centre. Hopefully that can be saved. We also made a a brief visit to the River Wye. Shame the weather was a bit chilly and windy...brrrr!

On the Sunday - Halloween - we went down to the Rollright Stones, an ancient stone circle site on the Warwickshire/Oxfordshire border. This was to see the Cotswold Order of Druids perform a Samhain ceremony, and to visit somewhere that would be very atmospheric on Halloween. I was worried as we left in the rain, but it soon cleared as we headed South, and was clear but quite cold, and misty later - certainly atmospheric! On the way, we stopped off at the small town of Shipston-on-Stour, which had a very 'country' feel to it, and seemed a bit well-to-do. On our wander around the town centre, we went into an antique shop that was full of teddy bears, and then onto a deli to pick up some nice biscuits to munch!

The Rollright Stones site was easy to find, and certainly fascinating to see. The site is actually three separate locations: the main circle of stones - 'the Kingsmen', the 'Whispering Knights', and the 'King Stone' on the other side of the road. Basically, a smaller version of Stonehenge. As the ceremony wasn't going to start for some time, we had a slow wander around the stones and chatted to some other visitors, many of which had come dressed up in pagan/druid style. Carla got her medieval style cape on later, and we also brought a drum for 'raising energy', as well as two lamps. It was amazing to watch the sun start to set over trees the ceremony started. Soon the ceremony started, and the druids welcomed us and guided us to enter the main stone circle from the East, where two druids (dressed in white robes) held aloft staffs for us to pass under. It looked really good as the sun set and it got dark and misty: the ring of people within the stone circle, surrounding the fire, which had lit jack-o-lanterns around it. The ceremony went on for about an hour or so. To start, the druids invoked the elemental powers by greeting the four cardinal directions of the compass, starting in the east where we entered. Next was an Anglo Saxon tale of heroism and dragons performed by a troop of alternative style morris dancers. Very entertaining! Then we had more ceremony, which included the group taking honey mead and a bit of flapjack, placing sticks into the fire, etc. These were symbolic of making a connection with ancestors and saying farewell to recently deceased family and friends. Things got a bit disorganised on their part I felt; the ceremony dragged on a bit with lots of silence, which surprised me. Oh well. The druids closed the ceremony by giving thanks to the four cardinal powers, and then as a group we all held hands and shouted in a final bout of energy releasing. A fascinating and generally enjoyable visit.

As usual I had to decorate for Halloween. Seemed to take ages to carve those pumpkins, but at least I had a few classic horror films on DVD to watch!

I got to see some fireworks on the Sunday after Bonfire Night, as usual from my kitchen window. The days before had been wet, so Sunday was actually the best day for fireworks here. The people across the green outside of our flat had their annual party.

I went to both the Memorabilia (Birmingham NEC) and Collectormania London (Olympia) shows in November. Very good events to attend. I managed to get some more autographs and chat to the usual friends. I also managed to start selling some of my old collection of film and TV memorabilia; items I no longer want, such as my old British comics got sold to a dealer. Thankfully Ebay has helped in the process as well!

London visit, museums, and a cinema trip

We went to London on Friday morning of last week, and stayed over until the next evening. Carla was attending a conference on tarot card reading all day Saturday, so I went along with her for the two days as we planned to do stuff together the day before. We wandered around for most of Friday, mainly in the Temple/City area, and visited The Temple Church (famous for the it's Knights Templar history), Dr. Johnson's House Museum (he wrote the first English dictionary) and Sir John Soane's Museum (bizarre!) and lastly the fantastic Muesum of London. We did that in mega quick time as we got there in the last hour of opening time. I really liked the display on the great fire of 1666. We spotted a few other things of interest as well whilst wandering around, such as a possible sunken Roman bath. In the evening we met up with our friends Julie and Pat for an Asian-fusion meal - I managed the chopsticks this time!

I had a long wander around central London the next day, and popped in and out of a lot of interesting little shops. My pal Sarah was in town so I met up with her first and I showed her a couple of film/TV collector shops: Vintage Magazine and The Cinema Store. We spotted ex film director turned restaurant critic Michael Winner and his Mrs. get out of their expensive car! Later, I met up with my pal Gary in the afternoon and we went to the Empire Leicester Square cinema to see "Back to the Future", recently re-issued for its 25th Anniversary and on the back of the blu-ray release. Very pleasing to see it on the big screen at last! The film remains an all-round two hours of top entertainment from Spielberg and Zemekis, film makers working at the top of their game. A very enjoyable experience helped by seeing it in a digital cinema.

I popped down to the lovely Stratford-upon-Avon recently for a two day work related conference - on all things mapping/GIS. That went ok, and it was nice to see the town again. The improvement work to the canal basin and theatre area has nearly been completed. The tourists will be happy!

I'm loving watching Terry Jones "Medieval Lives" on DVD, an irreverent look at the individuals that lived in the era. He covers people such as knights, peasants, minstrels etc. This gives Mr. Jones carte blanche to dress up in every episode, in fun little 'Monty Python' style animations as well! Another top TV show that's turned up on BBC4 is "A History of Horror", expertly presented by lifelong horror fan Martin Gatiss. Episode 1 was excellent, covering the horror classics of the 30's and 40's - can't wait to see the others. Also, we saw recently the latest offering from Ridley Scott, "Robin Hood". Not bad at all, although the accents were a bit muddled. Looked great though!

I see that American Football has returned to Channel 4. My goodness, it's been a while since that channel covered NFL. Back in the late 80's the sport was *essential* viewing for me, as C4 screened a fab clips show of that week's games on a Sunday teatime. I also see they got Gary Imlach back as well.

My latest bit and pieces

Two weeks ago we were off for what I believe is rather irritatingly known as a 'stay-cation'. Still, it was just nice to be at home, get some bits and pieces done and relax. We were going to do some day trips that week, but the weather had been so unpredictable we didn't bother going far. However, on the Thursday evening we drove over to our friend Toria's house for dinner. It was lovely to see her (and her two cats - their antics are always fun to watch!) again after a long time, and the meal was very nice. During chatting, the series "Sapphire and Steel" came up in the conversation. I hadn't seen the show in ten-forevers, so I was intrigued to watch it again as I have found memories of it, even though at the time I found it very creepy! So I ordered it from dvd.co.uk and it came last week. We started to watch it the other night and I have to say although its a bit 'stagey' (like a lot of old British TV shows - see 1970s "Doctor Who" for example) the premise is very interesting. I like the two leads, David McCullum ('Steel') and Joanna Lumley ('Sapphire') a lot. Anyway, a short documentary on the show can be found here, and this is the DVD box set. I also ordered the two "Grange Hill" DVD box sets that the BBC released a couple of years ago. It will be great to see Tucker Jenkins again! I also picked up the DVD of Ridley Scott's "American Gangster" which I thought was a very enjoyable and well made drama. Loved Denzel Washington in the role of the drug lord and Russell Crowe played the goody-two-shoes New Jersey cop excellently, although I wasn't to sure about his accent. Also, nice belly Mr. Crowe! Staying with DVDs, I've done some more video tape recordings to DVD conversions over the last week or two. Many more to go..... Amongst the gems found recently were a 2005 documentary about "War of the Worlds" (mainly concentrating on the Tom Cruise/ Steven Speilberg film) and loads of old early 1980's adverts, including this television advert for Parker Bros. Atari games!

I enjoyed reading my friend Mary Jo's 'Star Wars Celebration V' detailed convention reports recently, which can be found on her blog link from this page (see right). Sounds like she had an amazing time in Orlando and got loads of great stuff. I have another pal, Jason Joiner, who went as well.

Oh, to round of this entry, a 'Happy birthday' to all of my friends who were born in August (there are a few!)

A quick workout and Nick Owen's *terrible* puns (at least Suzanne has nice legs)

I used Carla's "Rebounder" this evening to get a quick workout in before dinner. The great thing about it is that you can watch TV as normal as you bounce around sweating and getting the heart rate up! Well, as this was at 6:30pm I watched Nick Owen and the lovely Suzanne Verdee (with Shefali doing the weather - the classic lineup!) present "Midlands Today", haha! I have to say twenty minutes on that is a pretty fun, but it makes you *ache* later if you aren't used to it. I will do some proper home gym work on Sunday - a mix of weights and cadio I think. Carla has just completed a five day rotation of working out to Chalene Johnson exercise DVDs, and wow they have been tough.


<----Suzanne and Nick: Great to bounce to. :)

There was a very entertaining episode of "The Supersizers Go..." on TV this evening. This time Giles Coren and Sue Perkins did food in the 1970's in their imdomitable way. Funny, but Sue just seems to get plastered every episode, whatever age they cover!

It's been odd weather wise here in the midlands over the last few days. Rain one minute, sun the next. Plus it was pretty cool today - of course, it is the middle of summer. :P Let's hope it's nice for our trip to see friends and to visit the excellent Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising on Saturday (I'm donating the second of two boxes of old stuff.)

As me and the Mrs. are both off work next week, we hope to do some fun day-trips and see more castles and countryside. I wonder where we will end up going to!? Will have to see where the roads take us!

Pembrokeshire holiday, Ross-on-Wye weekend etc

Back after a break of not typing updates! Bad me. :(

We went over to southwest Wales for a holiday back in May (to help celebrate my 38th birthday) which was wonderful. A week of doing our usual stuff: country and coastal walking and exploring pretty towns and villages and castles, and in that area of Britain (the county of Pembrokeshire) that's easy to do! We stayed in a pleasant cottage in the countryside north of St. David's (Britain's smallest city - beautiful area around the cathedral and Bishop's Palace) which is located in the extreme west of the county. Every day we saw impressive countryside and breathtaking coastal scenery, and our walks were great fun. I think the highlight of the trip was exploring the lovely village of Solva, and taking in the stunning views of the bay from the top of the cliffs in the gorgeous sunshine. We were lucky enough to have great weather - it only rained for five minutes on the whole trip!

We also managed to visit four castles: two on the way over (Caerphilly and Coch) and two on the way back (Pembroke and Carew). I think my favourite was Caerphilly - those seige engines (which I remember seeing on the TV series "Castle") were ace! Fantastic towers too (see pic.) Various castle links are here.

A week or three later we had a long weekend in Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye (where we stayed) on the English/Welsh border, having liked the area from our drive over to St. David's. We did lots of walking in the lovely countryside around both towns and also briefly visited Tintern Abbey, Goodrich Castle and Raglan Castle, the latter of which was an amazing place! Great to visit the Savoy Cinema in the middle of Monmouth as well. Would love to see a film there one day, or a burlesque show. :P



I watched most of the World Cup finals which this year were held in South Africa. Funnily enough we got to see the England v USA game on the first night in Ross-on-Wye, on the tiny TV with poor reception in our rented holiday flat (very well located in the centre of town though.) Not a bad tournament, although the horrid vuvuzelas were bloody annoying. Sounded like angry bees to me. The highlights were Spain winning the thing (definitely the best overall team, although Germany were very formidable in a few games) and Paul the psychic octopus! It was funny to see that rather exotic bird snoozing on the goal crossbar during the England v Algeria game! I think he was the best player....

As for films, we saw "Inception" at the cinema the other day, the latest blockbuster from Christopher Nolan. I have to say it was *excellent*; definitely one of the more interesting summer blockbusters I've seen in a many a year and it looked fantastic. Leo gave a good performance again. The latest "Tron: Legacy" trailer has now been released as well. Awesome! Can't wait to see it 3D+IMAX in December! Thankfully our 'DVDs-to-watch' pile is gradually going down. Highlight so far has been the series boxset of "Kolchak: The Night Stalker". Great stuff, if you like 70's TV and cheesy horror that is!

Finally, I managed to go to some film/TV collector shows recently: The London Film and Comic Con, Collectormania Milton Keynes and Memorabilia (at Birmingham's NEC). All good fun. Got a couple of nice autographs and saw friends there. Best buy: an Aleksandr Orlov meerkat. Simples!

Foxton Locks walk

A few Sundays ago in mid April we went over to Foxton Locks near Market Harborough (in Southern Leicesteshire) for a short but very pleasant country walk. Having started early that day, we got over there quickly (about a 35 minute drive) and started on the easy to follow trail. Hardly anyone was parked in the car park at that time! Not too far away from there are the locks themselves, which are very impressive constructions dating from the early 19th Century. The route of the Grand Union Canal has to ascend a hill at that point, and the designers achieved this by constructing ten locks all in one long line!


Our route took us down the hill past the locks and the basin (where there is a pub, gift shop and museum) and then along the route of the canal on the tow-path around a long bend. It was nice to see a few boats on the route. After passing a sizeable canal boat yard, we crossed the water and walked up the hill, past a large farmhouse (noisy dogs) then down a country lane and past some lovely woods. Thankfully the sheep in the field didn't seem to mind us walking past, and neither did a bull! He seemed busy eating. We explored the pretty villlage of Gumley, and were very impressed with the medieval church - what a marvellous building! Then it was a short walk down the hill and back to the canal through the sheep fields, and finally a stop near the locks for our lovely packed lunch (thank you Carla!)

A nice area - very rural, quiet, and the walk was relatively easy. The weather held out as well, as it only rained for a couple of minutes!

* * *

Last week we were lucky enough to have walking holiday in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales, which was really nice! More on that in the next blog entry.

Country walking again....now the weather is improving!

The weather seems to be getting better, so Carla and I have started country walking at weekends again. Last weekend we went over to The Wrekin in Shropshire - an easy drive from here as its all via motorways, and there was little traffic about that Sunday. Starting the circular walk from the centre of the town of Wellington, our path took us through the lovely countryside to the East of the Wrekin (the route only marred by some horrid fly-tyipping on a country lane), then through the woods and up onto the summit where we had our packed lunch, then down the North and West side of the hill, then past two small reservoirs and onto the smaller hill, The Ercall, then back to Wellington. Nice walk of about four hours, featuring some lovely country views, and after that long winter it was great to get out and do a walk in fairly warm conditions.

<---- The view South from the summit of The Ercall: the summit of The Wrekin can been seen in the distance - we were there about 1 1/2 hours before!







Hopefully we'll be going somewhere nice tomorrow as well. We'll look through our walking guides and decide this evening.

...can't believe its been four months since I updated this blog! From now on, I hope to update it with every walk we do this summer, including our trip to the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales. :)

Happy new year and Avatar

Hope you all had a nice Christmas, and a (belated) happy new year. Here's to everyone having a brilliant 2010 film watching. Looks like there is going to be a few cracking blockbusters coming out, from "Iron Man 2" to "Tron: Legacy".

A couple of Wednesdays ago, mid-way through our Christmas break from work (which was lovely as we spent most of it at home doing nothing apart from watching TV, DVDs and eating!) we went to see James Cameron's much hyped (and now $billion grosser) "Avatar" in 3D. I'm glad our local Odeon cinema now has a digital 3D screen so we don't have to go far to see films in that format. Anyway, I thought the CGI visuals were pretty stunning, so full marks to WETA Digital in New Zealand for that. The 3D process worked very well, particularly in the less kinetic shots where you actually had a chance to take in the beautiful vistas. The detail leapt out at you - certainly an improvement on the old 'red and green' glasses of the "Jaws 3D" era! Looks as if more and more films are being made in this new format now the expensive equipment is cropping up in cinemas worldwide. Well, the SPFX were great, but shame about some other basic elements of the film. I felt the script was rather weak, and the characters actually quite dull....very 1D. Also it was too long. I'll give it a 7/10. "District 9" was far better. In fact, we enjoyed watching that on DVD on New Years day! I Look forward to seeing a future sequel.

Picture shows James Cameron (right) directing actor Sam Worthington (playing Jake Sully) in "Avatar".


Even though the snow was pretty heavy in places on the lead up to Xmas, it was ok over the actual holidays. The snow hit the whole of the UK bad over the last week....I wonder when things will get back to the normal cool wet weather? Thankfully the main roads haven't been a problem in this area.