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!

Fireworks and female vampires

I enjoyed (briefly) watching some late 'bonfire night' fireworks on Saturday evening from the warmth of our kitchen, courtesy of the people across the green at the back of our flat. A whole bunch of the neighbours over there get together every year and have a short outdoor party with the usual fireworks and sparklers - weather permitting of course! This brings the expected bangs, whistles and zooms. Fun to see, especially as it was free! I felt that 'Bonfire night' (and the weekend after when a lot of people would have parties) was quieter here this year. This may be due to the recession -- nobody can afford to buy fireworks!

<----some fireworks as seen from the window.

* * * *

We are still watching old British made horror flicks, and as we are enjoying them so much I'm hoping to order some more soon, such as 'Amacus' and 'Tigon' studio titles. The 1922 classic "Nosferatu" turned up a few days ago, and the DVD set looks wonderful. Oh, in response to Carla's post the other day (here)....I don't really have any favourite female screen vampires with the exception of Fran, played by Marianne Morris, from "Vampyres" (1974) which is one of my all time favourite sleazy shockers! I love the look and atmosphere of that film. I think she makes a fantastic sexy/posh vamp. Her fellow bi-sexual vampire, Miriam, played by model Anulka is fine, but I'll give the crown to the Marianne this time! :)

I own a top DVD of this, by the way. The US trailer for the film is worth watching for a laugh! I love the term "Very Unnatural......lad-ies!" trailer man uses in it. Classic. Also, the director commentary is brilliant and very funny.

Anulka (left) and Marianne ---->



Oh, we watched "Vampires" on Sunday: an enjoyable John Carpenter action picture originally released in 1998. Special mention should go to the lovely Katrina (Sheryl Lee - Laura Palmer from "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me") who gets bitten early on in the film by the master vampire. Love watching James Woods wisecrack and kill the vamps! Good fun, although I am John Carpenter fan so I'm biased!

* * * *

I've finally got a new mouse for the computer! A cheap Logitech one from Tesco's on the way home the other night. Much better than the old one, which was slowly dying after many years of good service!

All Hallows Eve weekend

Last Friday we went to visit Tamworth castle (just up the road from here) which was good fun and a bit spooky - see Carla's blog here. I particularly like the 'Hammer Horror' style shot of the castle she took! How atmospheric.

We've watched a few more horror flicks over the last few days for Halloween. We've been working though some old Hammer Horror 'Dracula' titles which have all been entertaining, but do vary in quality! For instance, "Scars of Dracula" was disappointing in terms of its plot and overal 'scope', and featured some of the worst 'flying bat' effects in the history of film! "Dracula: AD 1972" was much better, one reason being that it featured dear old Peter Cushing, and it seemed a lot more kinetic. Shame about the overlong and downright bizzare music sequence at the start though. We also watched a couple of older horror films - "The House on Haunted Hill" (Vincent Price flick from master entertainer William Castle - I love the skeleton!) and "The Legend of Hell House". We also watched the very classy 1979 version of "Dracula". Seeing that lead to Carla posting her list of fave screen Vampires here.

As for Halloween night, on Saturday evening our pal Teresa came round and we watched "Halloween II" and "An American Werewolf in London" - both excellent flicks. We also had some wonderful non-dairy chocolate cake that Carla made, and some non-dairy ice cream to go with it. Yum! We didn't get any 'trick-or-treaters' call (thank goodness) but I did see a few witches and goblins on the other side of the green going to the houses (we live in a flat, so its difficult for the kids to call at our door. Oh well, more sweets for us!) Nice relaxing evening, and the decorations looked good as well.



<--- Some of our Halloween decorations.












<--- with my creations!












<--- Teresa, Carla, and Pingu....as a Witch!

weekend, films etc

We've had a nice relaxing weekend so far, but Carla and I have done our exercise workouts steadily over the last week or two, and continued over the weekend, completing a rotation of the "Slow and Heavy" programme by Cathe Friedrich. The workout targets the main areas of the body that need attention, such as the chest, back, arms etc. I'm very sore now, but it's worth doing to keep fit! We've also done some cardio workouts in between.

After popping into town to do a bit of shopping, today we watched another one of those Hammer 'Dracula' movies I bought last weekend, this time it was "Taste the Blood of Dracula" (1968) which was very entertaining, and far better than the one we watched last time (it was a direct sequel to that film.) We are enjoying this 'horrorthon' of ours, so I've ordered some more classic flicks: "Scars of Dracula", "The Legend of Hell House" and "The House on Haunted Hill", all of which we hope to watch on Halloween next Saturday! I also bought my pumpkins yesterday morning, and while in the shops had a look at the stuff on sale and picked up some other little halloweeny trinkets. Can't wait to trim up! Oh, late last night one of the channels was showing "Fright Night"- a classic from the 80's - which I must buy for the collection!

"Buffy The Vampire Slayer" continues to be a complete joy to watch. We are following it on the sci-fi channel and are up to episode 3 of series 2 at the mo. Spike (played by James Masters) has just turned up. Great character, but has a slightly dodgy English accent. I've been told by a friend that it gets better over the coming seasons!

Oh, it was also very nice to get an extra hour to our Sunday as the clocks went back last night! Also, glad to see that the terrible weather forcast never became a reality!

Lastly, I have discovered dark chocolate Mars bars!! Yay!

Some recent films and TV watching

On Sunday we started our Halloween 'horrorthon' a bit early, with the DVD of "Dracula Has Risen From the Grave", the third Hammer 'Dracula' film starring Christopher Lee, made in 1968. Have a look at Carla's blog here for the posters. I look forward to seeing the other old Hammer flicks I bought at the weekend over Halloween. Not sure why I love the Halloween thing, but it's my favourite festival of the year, and Autumn is my favourite season - I've always liked seeing the leaves fall from the trees, and the slight chill in the air. I've always had a soft spot for Halloween related trinkets, and I carve a pumpkin or two every year - and they are usually given silly names! Anyway, as far as other entertainment goes, I'm sure I'll dig out some other classic films from the DVD shelves for us to watch. Postal strike permitting, I should be able to get some more flicks from the good old internet.

****
We are following "FlashForward" on Channel 5, which is really entertaining! ('Your new TV obsession' said one very positive review.) The premise is intriguing: what if everyone on the planet blacked out for a short period of time, and then woke up with a clear vision of their future in six months time. Apart from the dealing with the choas, injury and death the event brought about, what about how society deals with the reasons for the event, and how it occurred? How would people live with knowing their future, and what about those that had no vision?

"FlashForward" features the usual excellent production values of US television, a strong cast, and after four excellent episodes, some interesting character dynamics have developed. The show reminds me of why I enjoyed "Heroes" in its first series.



<------ Joseph Finnes surveys the devastation caused by the black-outs in Episode 1 of "FlashForward".



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The sci-fi channel have started to repeat every episode of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", so having missed it first time around back in the late 1990's, we've started to watch them. Thoroughly entertaining it is too! We completed series 1 last night, when Buffy defeated the Master. A very well written show that balances humour, scares, action and teen drama. The cast are a joy to watch, particularly Sarah Michelle Gellar. Series 2 starts tonight - woohoo!

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There have been some cracking programmes on BBC 4 recently in their Electric Revolution season, the highlight for me being "Micro Men", a drama about two wizards of the early days of home computing: Clive Sinclair (Alastair Armstrong) and his once employee, Chris Curry (Tim Freeman.) The show follows the battle of their rival companies to get their computer product to be chosen by the BBC for a government run programme, to encourage computing in schools. Also, the winning machine would be featured on BBC computer television programmes. The drama focuses on what is essentially a personal rivalry between two very intelligent and driven people. Acorn Computers (run by Curry) ends up winning the BBC contract, although Sinclair hits gold with his high selling Spectrum machine. Over time however, both entrepreneurs became unhappy with the direction their products were taking: Sinclair's Spectrum became the highest selling games machine of the time (to quote Sinclair in the show: "Jet Set F*ucking Willy!") while Curry's Acorn Electron was thought of as a business/serious machine. Both wanted a bit of each of their rival's market. Hence Sinclair's attempt with the QL machine. However, the good times soon come to an end for both companies when the computer sales bubble burst at the end of 1984.

With hindsight, it seems clear that if both had put aside personal rivalry and ego and joined forces, they would have had the ability to take on the American and Japanese computer giants. The final scene in the credit sequence is both clever and brilliant.


Tim Freeman as Chris Curry (left) and Alastair Armstrong as Clive Sinclair. ------>

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.

Sutton Hoo and Blythburgh

We drove over to Sutton Hoo the other Saturday, which is near Ipswich in Suffolk. This is a world famous archeological site where in 1939 a number of 'Dark Ages' relics were discovered in burial mounds. The most amazing find was a preserved Anglo-Saxon longship in which weapons, armour and gold had been buried with its owner, thought to King Raedwald, who died in 625 AD. There were a number of other finds around the same area, some of the burials possibly the victims of execution. It must have been an amazing time for those archeologists to find such a hoard - the richest burial site in England! A detailed description is here.

The site is contained in a large and attractive estate: nice countryside on three sides, and lots of trees on the slopes down to the river Debden on the other, with the town of Woodbridge in the distance. The burial mounds (or barrows) are all located in one large field (one mound has been restored to its original size, and it is very big) and there are pleasant woodland walks to the west. The visitor centre comprises of a large museum that elaborates on the burial grounds and the era they were created, and it contains some wonderful displays and artefacts. What a shame the famous original mask of Raedwald wasn't there on show. This is in the British Museum in London. The visitors centre at Sutton Hoo has a replica, which is still wonderful to behold. In another building there is the usual gift shop/restaurant combo - excellent facilities. We bought a few bits and pieces from the shop, including some stunning postcards of the site in winter. (And some yummy cakes and flapjacks).

<----Carla sitting in a boat-throne!








After this, we headed up the A12 to Blythburgh to visit the famous church, that is rumoured to hold the "pawprints" of the devil's dog on the North door. You can certainly see burn marks on the door that could look vaguely like animal scratches, but that is debatable! Anyway, the village is quite pretty in an English countryside way, and the church, known as the "cathedral of the marshes" is a very impressive building and in a nice location looking over the river Blyth (which nearby meets the North Sea at Southwold.)

The day was beautiful - sunny with a blue sky, with a light breeze that kept us cool. It was nice to have our little packed lunch by the church in the pretty and quiet spot. We noticed a BBC Radio van packed by the church, and inside the building there were lights and recording equipment around a piano, so I guess a recital was on that evening.

It was just a short trip up the road to my parents' where we stayed for the weekend. It was fun to have a couple of walks at the seafront, and finally Carla saw Gorleston-on-Sea beach busy with tourists!

A trip to Arkansas

Over the last two weeks of May, we went on a little break to Arkansas, USA. It was a family trip to see Carla's relatives, specifically timed to tie-in with her son Ethan's graduation from high school. Apart from that, we had a lot of chores to sort out as well as enjoying ourselves. In between running around doing paperwork, visiting the necessary places and such, we managed to fit in a few fun things. This included a day in Memphis to visit the famous STAX Records museum ("Mr big-stuff, tell me, just who do you think you are?") and the zoo (cute meerkats!) We also took a little trip up to Mammoth Spring near the Missouri border, which is the 10th biggest natural spring in the world. Lovely spot that (see picture of me in front of the falls) with an impressive gift shop. Interesting to see the old railroad station there as well.

On the way up there (about 1 1/2 hours drive from where we were staying in Trumann) we stopped off at the Hardy water wheel, situated on a small creek that flows into the Spring River. There is a long established flea market there, as well being within the site of the "Martin Creek and Morgan's Mill" American civil war battle. On the way back, we visited the tourist town of Hardy, a small town comprising of antique and nick-nack shops. Another day we had a wondeful walk around Craighead Forest Park (see picture) on the outskirts of Jonesboro, which was lovely - the woods around the huge lake were quite beautiful. We spotted a snake swimming in the water, as well as the biggest geese we have ever seen! Generally great weather throughout the two weeks: hot and sunny for the most part, and humid at times so thank goodness for air conditioning! Saw some cracking thunderstorms and very heavy rain after coming out of a supermarket one afternoon - Jonesboro looked like it was sinking under the sea! We spent a lot of time in Jonesboro, the biggest town near to where we were staying, and the town where Carla grew up. There is an impressive new shopping centre there called The Mall at Turtle Creek. Also, for some reason, we ended up spending a lot of time in Wal*Mart! You can't get away from that in the US!

As far as cinema visits went, we ended up seeing "Star Trek" (for the 2nd time for me), "Terminator Salvation", "Angels and Demons", and "Night at the Museum 2". All very entertaining and great to watch, especially as the cinema we went to see all of these in, the Hollywood Malco 16 in Jonesboro, had digital projection equipment in most screens and wonderful seating. I love that cinema! Also I managed to catch up on all the "Harry Potter" films (to date) on the plane journeys. Caught a few flicks on US TV, including "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" and "Wild Hogs", both very funny!

Carla and I continued to do our exercises while staying at her mother's house: we managed to find the "Fit TV" channel on the satellite, and on there worked out to Gilad in the morning, an Israli who now lives and works out in Hawaii! He was good, I enjoyed those workouts even if they looked a bit 1990s 'dated'.

Also while there, I managed to complete my US State Quarters collection! Very happy about that! :)

I think the highlight of the trip for me was spotting Isacc Hayes' 1972 cadillac on show at the STAX Records museum. It was amazing, so 70's cool. :)








Anyhoo, some assorted images of Jonesboro and rural Arkansas....


Fast food and scripture...yep,we're in the Bible Belt!












Some cheap dirt for sale!












Liberty Bank in Jonesboro.....that played stirring military style music in the car park.