Mr. Binks returns...in 3D!

A couple of weekends ago, I went to see the cinema re-release of "Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace" - now converted to 3D - with three fellow "Star Wars" fans and friends, who I've known for about twenty odd years.

It was an easy going day, as we planned to see a matinee locally (well, sort of locally!) around lunchtime. Mandy popped down to stay with us for the weekend, so after she arrived early on the Saturday morning, we had a quick cuppa, and then jumped in the car and drove to Toria's, where we passed some time at her lovely house and chatted about her cats, while drinking yet more tea/coffee and eating some rather nice chocolate biscuits. Then, it was on up the motorway to the North side of Birmingham to pick up Gerald. His house was easy to find - I has happy to report I remembered the route in my head from the map I had studied the night before, so no wrong turns! For some reason in his area, the locals like to store sofas in their front gardens. Must be a brummie thing. Anyway, when we got to Gerald's it was yet more catch-up chat, drinks, and more cat talk - are we seeing a trend here?!

The cinema at the Star City entertainment complex (just off the M6) is only a short distance from there, so after driving underneath one of the stands of Aston Villa Football Club Stadium (impressive building) we arrived and had a look around before the film started. The venue certainly has a lot to offer: restaurants, bars, cafes, sports, kids entertainment, and the huge and impressive VUE multiplex cinema, although the place seems a little soul-less, and perhaps it's showing its age a bit now. We went into the cinema and took our seats, and found the auditorium pretty empty, only a few families here and there. The film had been out a couple of weeks so the core fan audience had already seen it I guess, and the kids had all been over the school half-term holidays. Anyway, after some really lame trailer for a flick called "Street Dance 2 - 3D" - the only vague highlight was seeing Sofia Boutella bend over and present her bum to us in 3D, which made us all snigger - "Episode 1" started with a really nice 3D Lucasfilm logo. Woohoo!

The film is the same version as presented on the 2011 blu-ray release: it has the addition of a couple of tiny scenes, as well as the full digital Yoda replacing the *really bad* puppet featured in the original cut. Other than that, the film is the same that premiered in May '99. I don't mind it actually, in fact, I rather enjoyed seeing it again after a few years away from the feature. I will admit that it is a bit clunky in the middle section - pacing issues and some poor acting, and some of the logic doesn't work, what with that treaty being signed stuff, but the production design and visuals are generally excellent. I made a point of carefully watching the CGI effects on Jar Jar and Watto, and they stand up very well after years of CGI effects development. Maybe the characters are annoying (I don't agree though, in fact, both make me chuckle in places) but the CGI effects to put them up on the screen should have won ILM a visual effects Oscar.

Anyway, as for the film presentation, we all were generally impressed with the conversion, although it is subtle in places - there isn't much obvious 3D 'coming out at ya!' stuff here (although the pod race sequence does feature some into the camera action), but you do get a greater sense of depth to many of the scenes, which we liked. I would guess it is hard to create a 3D effect with film scenes filmed for two dimensions, so what Lucasfilm have done was very good. Other 2D->3D conversions have been less successful, such as the rushed "Clash of the Titans" remake conversion from early 2010.

For a positive review see my friend Mary Jo's blog here, and a for a negative review see the film critic who makes a profession of hating *everything* "Star Wars"/George Lucas, Mark Kermode, here. I was glad I got to see it on the big screen again, and hopefully we can all get together next February for "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones". Oh, and just a few positive words about the cinema - we were very impressed with the gradient of the seating, the leg-rom, the screen size and projection/sound. 10/10!

After the film finished, we spent quite a while chatting and drinking in the cafe, then I took everyone home. After we had some wonderful tarka dal, aubergine curry, rice and wholemeal pittas for dinner which Carla had made, the three of us settled down to watch the dvd of Aliens as Carla hadn't seen it years. Good film (Mandy's favourite of all time!) but Carla and I prefer the original, Alien.

'The Woman In Black' and 'Ironclad'

On Sunday afternoon we went to our local Odeon cinema to see "The Woman in Black", a new film adaptation of the book by Susan Hill. This is the story of a young solicitor, Arthur Kipps (played by Daniel Radcliffe) who is sent to retrieve some legal papers from the house of an old woman who has died. Once he arrives at the large crumbling property, located in the middle of sinister marshland, strange things start to happen....

It was nice to see a modern horror film that was relatively quiet and slow-paced, and that did not depend on lots of over-the-top CGI effects or bombastic mood music. I haven't read the book, but me and Mrs. did watch the 1989 ITV version a few nights before, which we both thought was superior to this new cinema version. Daniel's performance was decent, and he seems to have mastered the tears-standing-in-eyes close up. In all, I think he gave a fairly nuanced performance, especially as hasn't that much to say - this is not a talky film. The picture would have been better without the needless addition of the dead wife story line - in the 1980's version she is very much alive. I also thought the vaguely upbeat ending was a little hokey. But all in all, the film was enjoyable. No big scares, but mild tension throughout. The jump scenes were full-on manipulation with loud bangs in the music, unlike the ITV version which was genuinely creepy, quiet, and had a downbeat tone. Definitely worth seeing though. Also, it was great for us to go with my sister and her husband for an afternoon out at the flicks.
*Thanks to Carla for helping me with this review.

We also watched Ironclad on DVD this week: an extreme action film (British produced) based on the real event of the siege of Rochester Castle in 1215 AD. Here, we have the wonderful Paul Giamatti as the mad King John, attempting to take back his kingdom from the barons of England that forced him to sign the Magna Carta. It also starts James Purefoy as the Templar knight leading the defence of the castle against him - essentially the hero of the piece - and boy, does he have a big sword, as the King's army of Danish ruffians find our to their disadvantage. I have to say I loved this film. True, the story is rather weak (er,..."Defend the castle".) and the production looks as if the film makers could have done with a bit more cash, but what is there is very entertaining, if only for spotting the overt gore and battle violence, and the odd wish-crack from the solid cast. Good to see Derek Jacobi as well, and the CGI landscapes of the castle and its surroundings looked pretty good on the whole. This might make a good double-bill with Black Death, another medieval set film from the recent past, which stars the always watchable Sean Bean.

Rochester is still a castle we haven't visited, so I'm even more excited about going there now! Must re-watch the episode of Castle where Marc Morris discusses the real history of the event. Excellent series.

Marsden Fire Festival

Last Friday, we drove up to Marsden in West Yorkshire, to stay for the weekend and attend the annual (and now famous) 'fire festival' which takes place on the Saturday evening. We went there last year and because it was so much fun, we decided to go back. The weekend was marked with very cold weather and the threat of snow, which it did for most of Saturday afternoon and evening. We got there late afternoon on Friday, and having found our town centre accommodation ok, we had time to have a quick walk (wrapped up well!) around the town and take some photos, and buy a few bits from the local health food / greengrocer shop. The home-
made wholemeal multi-grain bread was fantastic! Our place was a converted ground floor studio apartment that over looked the canal - very handy for the town centre, only five minutes walk away down the canal.


After an easy morning, we spent some of Saturday afternoon on a walk around the town with the local walking group. Unfortunately this was cut short due to the very cold and snowy weather, so we didn't make it up to the top of the hills which would have liked to have done. Still, it was nice to walk along the canal in the other direction to what we had been used to, and then to loop around along the bottom of the hills back to the town centre. The hills looked impressive in the snow. Thank goodness for walking boots! Also fun was avoiding the very inquisitive dog that happened to be with our group.

After dinner, it was out again for the Fire Festival. The locals organise this to celebrate the pagan ritual of 'Imbolch' (which marks the unofficial start of spring, or rather the return of the sun and the start of plant growth.) Its an absolutely wonderful event; the atmosphere produced by the large crowd, the pagan drumming, the long fire-lit procession, the fire twirling demonstrations, and then the 'show' part, where Jack Frost and his evil minions fight The Green Man for 'supremacy of the Earth' before the fire works go off. Jack, of course, represents winter and darkness, where as the Green Man represents Spring, the Earth, light etc. The people dressed up in those two extravagant costumes do have a bit of a fisty-cuffs at one point as well.
Memorable moment...the very noisy little girl who was an enthusiastic Jack Frost fan, who shouted in her Yorkshire accent her support throughout the show. For instance, "Jack Frost! We know yu-lose, but we-want yu-to win!" The amazing occurrence was that during the show, after the Green Man won his little boxing match and chased Jack off, it actually stopped snowing!
Some pictures of the event can be found here.

Thankfully it didn't snow at all overnight, so it was easy to clear the car on Sunday morning. Also, the ice on the roads wasn't that bad and the sun was shining so our drive home was pleasant. We stopped off in Huddersfield on the way back to do a supermarket run, and to meet up with a friend who I hadn't seen for some years. A great weekend!

g'bye 2011, and hello to 2012.

Just thought I would post a few lines to bring this blog into 2012.

As for films, I enjoyed my cinema trips and DVD watching in '11 - my favourite blockbusters being either "Thor" or "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" .....can't decide! I think my most unusual cinema visit last year was to see the excellent "We Need to Talk About Kevin", which Carla and I went to see on a Sunday morning back in the autumn, at one of our local cinemas - the Coventry Showcase. The screen we were in is also used as a live venue, often for evening comedy shows, so only the back of the screen had the typical cinema seasting. The rest of the auditorium had tables and chairs, and there was a bar to the right. Apart from the odd layout, we were in there ON OUR OWN, so it was basically a private screening of what proved to be a very gripping picture. Tilda Swinton gives an amazing performance as a mother 'on the edge'!

We had a nice simple Hallowe'en weekend, but I always enjoy that time of year. We put up a few decorations and carved a couple of pumpkins as usual. Our pal Teresa came round and we watched "Trick R Treat" and "Halloween H20". I have to say, "Trick R Treat" is a gem of a horror film, very exciting and funny in places -a solid anthology flick.

Our Christmas break was ok as well - we had a nice time off work relaxing. I got Carla the "Battlestar Galactica" DVD box set - the 're-imagined' version of the series that was broadcast between 2003-2009. This afternoon we completed watching series 2 (we were both off work today for Carla's birthday) which is arguably the best series of the show. It has been wonderful to watch these episodes again; the characters are well realised, and for the most part the plots/scripts are very good, and for television the visual effects are excellent. My favourite cast member is James Callis who plays Dr. Giaus Baltar, and his pairing with the tall blonde Cylon woman, Caprica 6 (played by Tricia Helfer) makes for some great scenes. Carla got me "The Benny Hill Show: 1980-1989" DVD boxset, which I've watched a lot of so far and have thoroughly enjoyed! I don't care if the comedy is dated, Benny and his team of regulars, including his main Hill's Angels girls, Louise English and Sue Upton, make me laugh my head off. The best sketch so far has been 'A Tribute to the Lower Tidmarsh Volunteer Fire Brigade'! Great retro tv. :)

Some new TV highlights for us recently have been the first part of series 2 of "The Walking Dead" (what a cracking end to the first half of the season!) and the rather oddball "American Horror Story", which has improved by leaps and bounds over its run. What I like in that show is spotting the horror film/TV cliches in every episode - you can almost tick them off a list! Another TV highlight of recent weeks has been "The World's Strongest Man", this time won by an American, Brian Shaw, on his home turf. Well done to Brian for pipping Savikas to the title in the last event, the Atlas Stones.

Oh, also well done to my pal Trudi for appearing in a National Geographic TV special, called "Roman Murder Mystery" - a very interesting show.

It was sad to hear about the recent passing of Bob Holness, most famous for presenting "Blockbusters". That was in my thoughts recently, as Challenge TV have started to screen episodes from the early 90's, which have been enjoyable to watch.

Anyway, as the weather improves and as we head into spring, hopefully we can start doing some day-trips to castles, historical sites, and do some more country walking again. Looking forward to it! Not to bothered about the Olympics this year, but the Euro 2012 finals should be good.

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!

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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)!

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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!