Standing stones and a large white horse.

As we have an interest in ancient history, in September we took a long weekend break in the North of Wiltshire to see some of the famous historical sites there. That area of Southern Britain (near to Salisbury Plain) is well known for such places, so there were plenty to choose from to visit.

First on the list was a stop over in Cirencester (see picture to left), a town dating from Roman times and located on the edge of the picturesque Gloucestershire Cotswolds region. As we went down on a Saturday, we found it to be a bustling centre, with a small but busy farmer's market, a large medieval parish church, and lots of old grand buildings. We had a wander around, doing some of the advertised town walk which included the large park by the river Churn - very pleasant to wander through in the sunny weather. We also got a chance to visit the excellent Corinium Museum that has many Roman and other ancient artifacts.

After that, it was onto a brief walk around the very pretty town of Marlborough, and then onto our accommodation (a room above the pub) in the small village of Winterbourne Monkton, just North of Avebury. The evening was very pleasant, with clear blue skies, so we attempted to walk through the countryside to see the famous stones, but we turned back after seeing our path blocked by a huge herd of cows! The next day, we spent the majority of our time touring the stones (we even went on a guided tour) and some of the sites in the surrounding area, such as the West Kennet Long Barrow, and a walk past the amazing man-made Silbury Hill - what was it built for!?! These few hours were the highlight of the trip. Visiting the stones, and the other sites nearby was a brilliant and moving experience, something I've been waiting to do for many years. The site of the Avebury stone ring is extensive (it puts the more famous nearby Stonehenge to shame) and worth a visit anytime. I was particularly impressed with 'The Avenue', a line of parallel stones leading away to the S.E. of the circle. In the tourist information shop (sadly closing for the last time just a few days after our visit) we bought a nice artist impression of the stone ring. Amazing to think that nobody has any real idea about why the stones are here. Maybe it functioned as a pre-historic shopping centre!? (Incidentally, there is an excellent and very atmospheric children's TV series dating from the mid 1970's which was made in Avebury, called "Children of the Stones". Worth a watch!)

A view of the N.W. corner of the outer stone circle.

Me standing next to one of the amazing stones!

The entrance end of the West Kennet Long Barrow.

In the evening it was off to Devizes for a indian meal, a walk around the town (and a quick visit to the canal/docks in the wonderful twilight), and an impromptu tour of the old Palace cinema, which was a very nice surprise!

Devices town centre, near the church.

The Angel Cinema, a wonderful building both inside and out!

On the next day we drove home via the pretty Oxfordshire town of Farringdon (we were very impressed with the tower in the park!) and had a visit to the nearby (and I have to say spectacular) White Horse of Uffington, an ancient totum carved into the chalk escarpment next to the Iron Age camp. Stunning! The countryside in that area is lovely, a joy to behold, and the weather was beautiful that morning as well.

Me standing next to the famous White Horse!

Carla at the top of the hill above the White Horse.
The site of the huge Iron Age Fort- Uffington Castle- is to the right in the background.

We attempted to visit the Roman villa at Chedworth on the way back, but unfortunately it was closed. Oh well, another time! Still, we managed to fit in a quick visit to the Rollright Stones (the same place we went to last Hallowe'en) before heading home. A brilliant three days!

This was the first big drive in our new car, a 2007 Silver Ford Fiesta Ghia.

Summer films, house plants and Rainbow (twice!)

Since the last update, we've had the chance to see a some more of the Hollywood summer blockbusters, one a weekend over four weeks! The Showcase cinema in Coventry must have loved us. Through July and August we saw "Captain America", "Super 8", "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", and then "Cowboys and Aliens". All were entertaining to varying degrees, with some great visual effects and sequences, but the stand out film for had to be "Apes" - an excellent and well made prequel to the original film, that had some great ideas of how the events in the 1967 production came to be. Fantastic animation/mo-cap work as well; deserves an Oscar nod for that. "Super 8" would have been better if some of the unnecessary action sequences at the end had been cut, or at least better edited. The performances from the teenagers was excellent, though.

* * *

As the the weather has got a bit cooler, particularly just as August was ending, we decided to get some plants to bring a bit of green into are home.....so off to Dobbies (a local garden centre) we went. Some of our new plants are shown here at Carla's blog. Also, one early July evening we had an amazing double Rainbow visible after heavy rainfall....

....talking about 'Rainbow', I was sad to learn that Roy Skelton, puppeteer and voice of Zippy and George in the show (he also voiced the Daleks in 1970's "Doctor Who"), passed away in June. Here is a picture the two little characters as way of a tribute.

A couple of spring trips, cinema visits other events.

We recently had a couple of short breaks to get away and see some countryside and interesting historical sites. In May, for my birthday, we went to North Devon and based ourselves in a small village near to Ilfracombe and the coastline (a very pretty area on the edge of the Exmoor National Park, and by the coastal AONB). Here we had the opportunity to do some country and coastal walking and visit some really pretty towns and villages. Our first day was spent in Ilfracombe, a large town in the area, which is also a famous holiday resort and has an attractive harbour. We walked along the SW Coast Path to the west of the town. This was a wery good walk; there were some amazing views to see, but on the return we had to dodge some cows who seemed to think we were going to feed them! One of the best walks we did was around the headland near to Mortehoe, to the west of Ilfracombe. The walk provides some wild and stunning scenery and lots of sheep that seem unfazed by walkers. Another fantastic walk was SE of Lynmouth, along the wooded river valleys around Watersmeet. It was also fun to ride the famous cliff railway between Lynmouth and Lynton. On the way to Devon, there and back, we stopped off and looked around the Somerset towns of Glastonbury and Cheddar - it was very windy at the top of the Glastonbury Tor!

In June we stayed up in North Yorkshire and visited Harrogate, Ripon (to see the cathedral), Knaresborough (fantastic views of the river!), and the famous sites at Fountains Abbey and Brimham Rocks. Driving around we saw some lovely countryside and lots of cows! Also, it was fun to visit the oldest sweet shop in England in Pateley Bridge to pick up some treats....and it only rained on one day! Oh, on the way up to Yorkshire we also visited Brodsworth Hall and Gardens, but more impressive was Newby Hall and Gardens just to the East of Ripon. The gardens there are absolutely beautiful; the most impressive element was the extensive rock garden which was a joy to explore. Thankfully the sun was shining for the few hours we were there! There were interesting wicker animals (created by a local artist) located all over the park.

We spotted some old cinemas in Ilfracombe, Lynton and up in Harrogate. The 1930's Odeon in Harrogate town centre was particularly impressive (see pic). Also, we manged to catch this year's Eurovision broadcasts at our rented cottage in Devon. Bizarre TV, but thoroughly enjoyable, particularly the Moldavian gnomes playing trumpets ...on unicycles!

* * *

Since the last update, our friends Sarah and Mandy have visited us, and it was lovely to see them. When Mandy was here we went to Milton Keynes to attend the Collectormania show which was fun as always - I was very impressed with a friend's home made R2-D2! Also, last weekend I went to the London Film and Comic Con, which was very busy due, I think, to the presence of actress Karen Gillian (from the current "Doctor Who" series). Nice to see friends and 'celebrity spot' at both events, and chat with the cosplayers at LFFC. I got a couple of autographs at both events.

As for cinema films, I've been lucky enough to catch a few recent releases. I saw "Thor" with Sarah and "Kung Fu Panda 2" with Carla, and both films were very enjoyable. Contrary to many opinions on-line, Sarah and I both thought the 3D in "Thor" worked very well. The CGI in "Panda" was amazing; there were some really beautiful shots in the film, and Po's character is fab. :) My pal Gary came up for the weekend just gone and we saw "Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon" - more over the top (but fun) Michael Bay robot destruction -in glorious 'real 3D', followed by "Bad Teacher", a Cameron Diaz comedy. We also did some DVD watching by seeing all three "Star Wars: Robot Chicken" specials, and the first episodes of "The Time Tunnel" and "Land of the Giants". I introduced Gaz to the observational comedy of Chris Lilley in "Angry Boys" and "Summer Heights High". I have yet to buy his first series, "We Could Be Heroes". The shows work so well as the characters are so well realised, and they get themselves into some hilarious situations.

<--- Cameron Diaz in "Bad Teacher"

Blenheim Palace and some other things in late March and early April.

Back in March, we had a great time visiting our friend Toria, who we hadn't seen for a while. Despite the cool weather, we ended up having a walk with her in the local woods, then back to her house for dinner and a DVD, which turned out to be "Paranormal Activity". This was building into an effective horror flick, but lost me somewhere toward the end of the running time: I wasn't scared anymore, just a bit dissapointed really- I believe a relevant term would be 'it jumped the shark.' :) Still, it scared Carla for several nights running!

The next day we went for a visit to the famous Blenheim Palace, which is located just North of Oxford. This large stately home is named after an area in Southern Germany were the British, together with their European allies of the time, defeated the French in The Battle of Blenheim in 1704. It has been the seat of the Duke of Marlborough since it was built a short time later. It was also the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. Anyway, we had a very enjoyable few hours wandering around the palace (which included seeing the amazing library!) and then the gardens (designed by "Capability" Brown) which are very extensive and impressive. Highlights were 'the cascade' - a fantastic waterfall at the end of the lake, the Grand Bridge, and the walk along the lakeside in the trees which was beautiful, and having our packed lunch in a part of the gardens that gave us fantastic views of the palace on other side of the lake. It was nice weather that day as well - very mild. A shame we didn't have time to look around the neighbouring town of Woodstock, as it seemed to have some grand buildings and interesting shops. Oh well, next time.

As usual, I went to the Memorabilia Show at NEC: the usual mix of merchandise for sale and celebrities selling their autographs. I got two in the end, both of actresses from 'Allo 'Allo : Vickie Michelle and Kim Hartman. I got to see several pals as well.

Our friend Trudi came to stay with us the other weekend, so apart from the usual TV/DVD watching at home (enjoyed seeing "X-men Origins: Wolverine" for instance), we visited nearby Stratford-upon-Avon to have a look around the picturesque town centre, the river front, and go into the Shakespeare's Birthplace Museum. On the way home we stopped off at Kenilworth to visit the ruins of Kenilworth Castle, notable for its stunning setting and Elizabethan formal garden. On the Sunday, we went to the cinema to see "The Eagle", a tale set in Roman Britain about an adventure into the wild lands North of Hadrian's Wall. An enjoyable film, despite having a couple of dodgy historical aspects, and a little drawn out in the end section, but it was very well shot and the performances were solid. Less violent that I thought it would be as well.

"Battle: Los Angeles" and comic book DVD watching

We went to the cinema to see "Battle: Los Angeles" on Friday afternoon, while we were on a few days annual leave from work (back to work tomorrow!) The story is about a vast alien force invading the major cities of the world, so they can ultimately gain control of the Earth's water supply. This film concentrates on the fight between the aliens and US marines in downtown Santa Monica and L.A, and stars Aaeron Eckhart. I really liked the frenetic action scenes (the film is basically 1 1/2 hours of urban based battle carnage) which were thrilling, and the design of the aliens and their ships was interesting, as was the way they fought their side of the conflict. The visual effects were very well done and integrated nicely into the live action - great use of CGI. The shaky/naturalistic photography does take some getting used to though; definitely no steadicam on this set. After the first five minutes or so I warmed to this, and thought it actually suited the overall 'front line news report' style of the film. The cast of soldiers are quite stereotypical and the script won't win an Oscar in a million years, and there was one 'noble speech' scene that would have benefited from some editing, but generally I found the film exciting to watch on the big screen. I'll definitely pick this up to go on the shelf next to "District 9", 2009's breakthrough 'alien' film.

Funnily enough, I think this was the first time for a long while I've seen a newly released film on its first day *and* its first screening that day!

<--Here is a picture of the entrance to our local Odeon cinema, taken when we went to see "Battle: LA". As you can see, Odeon have become big fans of George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic visual effects company (ILM)!

* * *

In preparation for some big 'comic book' film releases this summer in the form of "Captain America" and "Thor", we've been watching some related films on DVD recently - "Hulk" last week, and "X-Men" and "X-2" over the weekend just gone. We have "The Incredible Hulk" on the way, and I want to pick up "X-Men: The Last Stand", "Spider-Man 3", "Iron Man" and "Iron Man 2" to plug those gaps in the collection. Most go shopping for some more bargains soon....

January and February trips

At the end of January we went over to Gorleston-on-Sea to do a few bits and pieces at the old house before the sale - bye bye childhood home! I oversaw the sale of my old Atari "Star Wars" arcade machine, for instance. We were also lucky enough to see some pals in the evening after going for an Indian meal. On the way over there we had a look around Bury St. Edmund's, and King's Lynn on the way back. Got some great charity shop bargains in both towns! After all these years it was nice visit King's Lynn and see the riverfront and shopping area, and finally go to the Majestic cinema!

In late January we visited Gloucester and Tewkesbury, which are very close to each other in the West of England. It was an easy drive there and back on the M5/M42/M6, so that was ok. Gloucester was good to visit, but not that nice really - we didn't like the atmosphere, although the area around the cathedral was quite pleasant, and the cathedral itself is a very impressive and imposing building. Shame it was a very cold day, but there was a lovely clear blue sky. The docks have been done up very well. We went onto Tewkesbury, which is a lovely town with a charming atmosphere, and the town centre and abbey and gardens are picturesque. As for shopping, I bought another little cuddly monkey (or 'Mung-keh'!) from a charity shop. :)

In early February we had a fun weekend away in West Yorkshire. On the way up there we stopped and had a look around the city of Derby. Although some of the centre looks a bit downbeat, we were pleasantly surprised by the large amount of shops in the centre, and the grand Victorian covered market was great to explore. The cathedral was interesting to visit as well, and there were some little shops in that area to nose around. The Pickwood's House Museum of Georgian life was impressive, and free to get in! After that, we drove North up the M1 and then onto the small town of Marsden. It was a bit of a hairy drive once we left the motorway as it was very windy up in those hills, and my little car felt every gust! We managed to find the cottage in the end, and it was very nice and cosy, with a lovely view of the canal, river and wooded valley with the hills in the background.

The next day we got the train to Leeds, which was easy to get to by train. Shame it rained hard first thing. We had fun walking around the massive shopping district (lost count of amount of Greggs the bakers outlets!) and then onto the interesting (and now largely re-developed) waterfront of the River Aire, where the ex-industrial buildings are now mainly swish apartments. On the way back we broke our journey and had a look around Huddersfield, which is another town that developed in the industrial revolution and still has some grand buildings amongst the shops.

The highlight of the visit was on the Saturday night - the Marsden Embolch fire festival. A *fantastic* event to attend, even in the very rainy weather. It was a 2-hour mix of drumming, fire acrobatics and fireworks, to tell the tale of Jack Frost (representing winter/darkness) lose in a battle to the Green Man (representing spring/light/rebirth etc.) I hope we can go again.

On Sunday morning, we drove up to Bradford to visit the National Media Museum. Not bad, but to be honest I was disappointed with what was on show, although the venue is impressive. The IMAX film was amazing to see - we saw Space Station. As for the museum itself, the highlights were the extensive Kodak exhibit, the history of TV technology (very informative - great to see the old video recorders and laser-disc players on show!) and the history of video games in the lobby...oh, and I got to see the original puppets of George and Zippy from Rainbow! We went home after that; it was good to relax in the lovely cottage afterwards. We watched some films and I started to read the novel of "Dracula".

***

As for recent film watching, we've seen "The King's Speech" and "True Grit" at the cinema, both excellent.

Christmas hols, snow and "Tron: Legacy".

Firstly, a belated happy 2011 to all! We had a nice Christmas and New Year's holiday. It was great to be off work for a while and relax a bit, watch some TV/DVD's and eat lots of choc! For an xmas pressie from Carla, I was lucky enough to receive the book "The Making of the Empire Strikes Back". I'm just over halfway through it at the moment, and its proving to be an excellent read, covering the 'making of' process in great detail. Wonderful photos as well! My friend's mini review is on her blog here.

A highlight of late December (for me at least) was seeing "Tron: Legacy" at our local Odeon cinema (in digital 3D.) I thought it was a very entertaining and exciting film, which looked *amazing* on the big screen - a worthy (if rather delayed...by 28 years!) sequel to the original. I'm hoping to catch it again before it ends its run, but maybe in 2D this time. A review I liked is here from Harry at good old 'ainitcool'.

Latest DVDs we've got include "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (2008), "Bad Day at Black Rock", "The NeverEnding Story", and "Black Books" (the complete series), and "Edge of Darkness". We also enjoyed watching a couple of westerns on DVD, "The Searchers" and "Tombstone". Even though we have it on disc, we ended up watching "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" on BBC1 on New Year's Day (the British network premiere) - love it!

We seemed to miss the worst of the very cold weather/snow that hit N.W. Europe from late November, and which lasted about a month. There were lots of cold clear days and nights, which required the car to be scaped free of ice a few times! The Midlands did have some snow, but its effect varied from area to area. Thankfully it didn't affect my day-to-day drive too much, although on the 22nd December it did take me about 1 1/4 hours to drive what would have usually taken about 10 mins! It was a bit weird to see the huge snowflakes come down as the traffic crawled along. Still, at least I didn't have to dig the car out of any major snowdrifts after all that. It was bizarre seeing a bus stopped and parked *across* a road I passed, blocking the traffic down that road. I guess it had skidded into that position - scary! All the snow went a while ago now, and its back to usually winter cloud and rain.



<-- The Moon and planet Venus, as seen looking S.E. from the car park behind our flat in the dawn sky, early December 2010 - taken during the cold snap.

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.

November collector shows and films

In November, I went to two Film/TV collectors shows over two weekends, namely "Memorabilia" (at the NEC Birmingham) and "Collectormania" (at Olympia, London). Both shows were fun to attend, but I think Collectormania had a better 'buzz', and certainly featured a better selection of celebrities signing autographs. I was lucky enough to see old friends at both events and chit-chat about 'movies and stuff'. :) At the Collectormania show I got a few autographs, including one from actor Billy Dee Williams who played Lando Calrissian in "The Empire Strikes Back". I got him to sign my old ESB storybook, which already had a few signatures of cast and crew - that's from years of going to these shows and conventions!


As for film watching, we've seen a few recently but only one at the cinema - "2012", which we saw last Wednesday afternoon as we were both off work. We caught this at the Showcase cinema in Coventry and used the Orange Wednesday 1/2 price tickets offer. We both generally enjoyed the film, although it was a bit too long (by about 15 mins) and the drama goes a little off-kilter in places, and of course logic goes out of the window in a Roland Emmerich disaster flick. Still, John Cusack is always watchable, but I felt that Danny Glover was miscast as the US president. The film does feature great special effects. The sequence that shows the destruction of LA is incredible, and with some other exciting action sequences, make it a big screen definite. Next up, "Avatar" and then "Sherlock Holmes".


With my movie geek hat firmly on, I have to say that I'm so 'psyched' over some of next year's film blockbusters, with "Tron: Legacy" being on the top of that list. That gives me an excuse to put the teaser poster up!