Ben Affleck's Thriller Has Us On The Edge Of Our Seats

We managed to find time to get to the cinema earlier in the week when we went to see Argo at Cineworld in Ipswich. I'm afraid that I'm a bit of a sucker for the critics' reviews when it comes to cinema and never bother with anything rated at less than two stars and rarely find time for a three starred film if there's a higher rated one showing. Maybe I should rethink that policy as Ben Affleck's Argo rated just three stars in the newspapers I read but, for me at least, it was possibly the best film of the year to date.

Telling the story of six escapees from the US Embassy in Iran during the hostage crisis of 1980 you would imagine that the director would find it difficult to create suspense and excitement in a story in which the ending is pre-known to the viewer. But suspense and excitement is there by the bucketful and we are kept on the edge of our seats as the escaping diplomats make it to the Canadian embassy where they hole up and await their fate while the CIA in Washington makes outlandish plans to get them out of Iran. 

Affleck not only directs but also stars in the movie as CIA agent Tony Mendez who plans to save the Americans by creating the patently ridiculous cover of a Canadian sci-fi film crew hunting for locations in Teheran. Complete with story boards, script and fake production company he heads to the Middle East. What follows is a remarkable piece of cinema as the tension is cranked up to bursting point in a race against the clock to flee the country in the certain knowledge that discovery will mean execution for all involved. 

There's humour and some relief from the nail biting in the double act of John Freeman and Alan Arkin playing the Hollywood moguls fronting the subterfuge but the overriding feeling whilst watching the movie is fear for the characters' safety. Credit to Affleck for managing to pull this off so brilliantly. How true the story is to the real life incident that it was based upon is irrelevant to me and I am happy that the director chose to create such suspenseful entertainment. He also went to tremendous lengths to recreate, authentic scenes and people - as the credits roll real footage and stills from the hostage crisis accompany similar shots from the film and it's difficult to spot which is which.

An excellent film - do try and catch it.

And speaking of films, we were delighted to see a video of our granddaughter Rose featuring on the Signs and Rhymes website. She's been going to baby signing classes for quite some time and it has been a huge help in developing her communication skills and she was able to sign plenty of words before she was able to say them. If you check out this link and click on the video on the right you can see her using her signing.

It's been a great day for us today. We awoke to this wonderful dawn and things got better as we picked up Paul, Josephine and Catherine from Edinburgh for their flying visit. It was so good to see them.

Back Home

We're back in Scotland now and the fact that we gave a sigh of relief and "home at last" as we arrived at the caravan shows how well we've settled into St Andrews. We missed Sarah, Duncan and Rose very much while we were away and it's going to be very hard to find ourselves living five hundred miles away in a few months' time. But at least we've got the caravan and can spend plenty of time here next year. I loved this photo of Sarah and Rose that Duncan took and I'll be getting a copy to frame.

We couldn't wait to see the family, so, as soon as we'd got ourselves straight after the trip and sorted out a few more bits and pieces for Framlingham we joined Sarah and Rose for a coffee in the excellent Mitchells in the town centre. Rose demonstrated what a tea cosy is really for.

I don't often write reviews on Trip Advisor but I thought that the Crown Hotel in Framlingham merited a mention after popping in for a quick lunch on Monday. It's a wonderful old building at the heart of the town centre. When we first visited back in February it was nothing to write home about. However it came under new ownership in the summer and has improved in leaps and bounds on every visit. We only had a sandwich and a game terrine this time but both were absolutely delicious, the service was prompt, polite and friendly and the atmosphere is getting much livelier. We've high hopes for the success of The Crown - it can really make the difference between a vibrant and a dull community.

It's not all about Sarah and family though. We're very excited about the forthcoming visit of son Paul and daughter in law Josephine together with our granddaughter Catherine. I'm picking them up from Edinburgh airport on Friday for what is literally a flying visit. There's breakfast at the marvellous Old Course Hotel and dinner at the excellent Rufflets on Sunday as well as plenty more arranged by Sarah and Duncan before we get them back to the airport. We can't wait to see them.

Spare a thought for Marion. She's struggling with her new phone and when she tried to write a message the other day and this came up it was almost the final straw. Fortunately it's pretty indestructible.

Seeing The Light At The End Of The Tunnel In Framlingham

We're back in Scotland after another five hundred mile drive from Framlingham and the end of our eleven days on the road. It's been a good break; we've seen friends, we've enjoyed a few days in a good pub and we've caught up with progress on the renovation of the house. As you can see from the above photo, the ugly brown UPVC windows and door have now gone and been replaced with these contemporary light grey timber windows and door by Timber Windows of Fornham. The window colour clashes with the cladding colour but steps are in hand for the exterior to be repainted in March.

The new steel girders above the Solarlux Bifolding doors have been covered with a layer of cladding in readiness for painting and the aluminium finish for the corner pillar is now on order.

  

The decorators have made a start with painting and even with just undercoat the landing is so much brighter than it was. Those Velux Sun Tunnels give fantastic natural light; we're so glad that we had them fitted.

All of the sanitary ware in the family bathroom is now installed and functioning. We still need the splash back tiling.

The en suite shower room is coming on nicely and is starting to look very classy. We had a setback with this when the shower screen that I ordered proved to be too small but Boundary Bathrooms have agreed to take it back with a 25% restocking charge which is reasonable as we've had it for two months (it is still in its packing though). We bought almost  all our sanitary ware and other bathroom stuff from Boundary Bathrooms and we're extremely pleased with their service (and prices).

Now that the kitchen/diner has been plastered and the floor has had a coat of screed where the walls were removed it's starting to look more like a room.

The chimney breast in the lounge has been completed and the wood burning stove should be in in a few days. The oak mantel looks really good.

The shower over the bath is now in place. 

We've ordered fitted wardrobes, dining furniture and all of the wallpaper. The wooden flooring goes in next week and then we've just got the lighting, other wiring and decorating to complete and we'll be ready for the kitchen fitters to arrive on 10th December.

The landscape gardener presented his plans on Monday and they are really exciting. Chris the designer reckons that the work could begin as early as January so we will be ready to plant in March.

On a negative note, our super duper new garden office turned out to be terribly finished and it started to leak. This is a bit scary considering the amount that we've spent on it but I'm not going to name and shame the suppliers yet as they seem to be bending over backwards to get it right and have authorised a very respectable expert in wooden buildings to remove the structure and build us a new one. As long as it is complete before Christmas we won't make too much fuss. If it isn't ready by Xmas, watch this space.

The Road Trip Continues

We left the AA Pub Of The Year 2012/13, The Black Swan in Ravenstonedale, on Wednesday morning after three nights of relaxation. It's a pub that's well worth all the accolades, with good food, pleasant surroundings and, above all, extremely friendly and helpful service. I think it's that side of the business that tipped the awards in The Black Swan's favour although a beer drinker might well tell me that the fabulous variety of fine ales that they serve may also be a factor.

From Ravenstonedale we had a leisurely drive to Sedbergh before a quick stopover in the lovely town of Kirkby Lonsdale for a coffee and a bit of shopping. We then headed for Ribchester to visit friends Mark and Nita who joined  us for dinner at The White Bull in nearby Alston before putting us up for the night in a very comfortable bed. Staying in a house was a nice change from the Premier Inn. 

On Thursday it was a short drive to nearby Southport where we stayed with my mum for the night and enjoyed some of her delicious home cooking. It was good to see Mum for the first time in four months and we look forward to stopping over in Southport again in a month or so en route to Suffolk again.

Friday saw us in Ormskirk visiting our old friends Dave and Jane Haworth. Marion headed off to Liverpool for a little bit of shopping in her favourite stores with best friend Jane. Dave and I joined them later for a dinner at San Carlo. It's an extremely brash and busy place - perfect for people watching. You would never guess that the country's economy is in some sort of slump; the place was heaving at five p.m. and was jam packed for the rest of the evening. It's a great place to go and we must thank Dave and Jane for their generosity in treating us to the meal.

After a good night's sleep in Ormskirk we headed back to Southport to collect our car which we had left for a service having done 14,000 miles in a few months. We got the garage to fit a full set of tyres; although they weren't quite ready to be changed it's getting colder and we're likely to see icy roads soon. I don't want to put our lives at risk for the sake of saving a few quid.

We were in Southport to attend our old Instanta colleague Nick Neal's surprise 50th birthday party. Nick, pictured above with his lovely daughters Laura and Millie who worked so hard to make the party a big success, enjoyed a great night with plenty of friends, colleagues and customers (who have also become friends) many of whom had travelled miles to be there. 

We enjoyed meeting plenty of old colleagues again (including Craig above) after Liz's party last Saturday. I won't embarrass anybody with photos of the later revelry. Suffice to say, a good time was had by all.

Today we headed off from Southport to Suffolk and I'm writing this from the Premier Inn in Ipswich where we are now regulars. Off to meet the builder in Framlingham tomorrow to see how things are progressing. 

What A Difference A Day Makes

Twenty four hours ago we were enjoying the wonderful wintery landscape of Ullswater in glorious sunshine. We enjoyed our walk around the lake so much that we decided to make the most of our stay here in Cumbria and go for another ramble. We bought a book of nine walks starting at the Black Swan in Ravenstonedale where we are staying and opted for one of six miles that included gentle climbs to the summit of Green Bell and an expected duration of three to four hours.

There was a light drizzle when we left the hotel - nothing serious; so we set off on the gentle walk. The booklet mentioned that the route of the path was unclear in parts and, as we started to climb, we worried a little that we couldn't really make it out at all. However, we could see the summit of Green Bell so we knew the direction we were heading in.

At least we could see the summit when we started up the path but as we grew closer it disappeared inside a low cloud and alarm bells started ringing for us as we had visions of wandering across open fells in thick mist without waterproofs and with the sort of inadequate equipment that would have had us in trouble with the mountain rescue people if we'd had to call them out. We got to within a few hundred yards of the top but, soaked to the skin, shivering and not exactly full of the joys of spring we looked for a route down, saw a path, checked it on the map and followed it.

The book of walks mentioned that the path was often wet and muddy. This was not an exaggeration.

At one point we reached this spot where two paths merged. It resembled a ditch and involved a detour through a bog to enable us to continue to the road and ultimately the safety of the pub where I am now sitting by a blazing fire with a pint of award winning Black Sheep Bitter and the prospect of a delicious evening meal to look forward to. We like this country walking lark but in future I think we'll remain fair weather walkers.
 

What A Swell Party That Was

We headed down to Southport on Saturday for the first time since we sold the house in July. We met my mum and my sister Julie briefly for a coffee but the main purpose of our visit was to go to our old friend and colleague Liz Clayton's 50th birthday party. Liz is a female Michael Palin - the word that everyone associates with her is "nice"-  so it was hardly surprising that a huge crowd attended to wish her well. She and her family put on a super spread for us and a great time was had by all.

It was good to see old Instanta colleagues Max. Isla, Rebekah, Tony and Peter.

As well as Phil and Craig and a few more who managed to escape my camera. We didn't talk about the business a lot but it was interesting to catch a few snippets about what life is now like in the company after the Brassey era.


We stayed at the Vincent on Lord St on Saturday night (thanks Nick for negotiating a very good price for us). We used to eat there a lot when we lived in Southport but never had need to stay. I have to say that it's very good. Attentive and friendly staff, a beautifully fitted and comfortable (if a bit dark) bedroom and nice attention to detail - plenty of towels, toiletries and (nice touch) a Nespresso machine. With a decent breakfast thrown in it was an impressive stopover.

On the road on Sunday morning the omens were good with the Howgill Fells looking beautiful as we sped up the M6 in the autumn sunshine. After a great meal and good night's sleep at The Black Swan in Ravenstonedale where we are staying for a few nights, we awoke to thick fog but Google told us that Ullswater was going to be sunny.

And Google was dead right. We headed to Glenridding for the 11.10 steamer to Howtown and walked back the six miles amongst some of the most glorious scenery in Britain. Forgive all the photos but it was a spectacularly good day weather wise (we'd taken the sensible precaution of wrapping up well against the cold) and I can't remember seeing Ullswater looking better. There were quite a few cameramen around with all the gear. They must have taken some glorious scenes. Looking forward to another two nights here at the Black Swan before we head down to Ribchester to meet Mark and Nita from the excellent Workhouse Marketing.

Poorly In St Andrews

I mentioned on my last blog that Rose and Duncan had been unwell at the weekend. Little Rose's sickness lingered on for a few more days and sadly Marion came down with the same virus (we assume it's a virus) on Tuesday night when she was violently sick. Although we've been happy in the caravan during our three and a half months so far, it's not the ideal place to be ill and poor Marion has been very uncomfortable trying to convalesce. Fortunately she seems to be on the mend now and has managed to eat a bowl of soup and a slice of bread today after nothing to eat at all yesterday. I hope that she's fully recovered tomorrow in time for our trip down to Southport and our short break in Cumbria.

All Sarah's work in making Rose's Halloween outfit was wasted when the little witch couldn't go to the party in case she's still got the virus. I think you'll agree she makes a very wicked witch with her scary face. Down in Rochester our granddaughter Catherine also dressed for the event. She was a formidable pirate complete with cutlass, bandana and a magnificent pirate hat.

With Marion feeling a little better this morning I went out with the detector for a few hours. My favourite field has been planted with a crop of wheat so I can't go there again for some time. I had a choice of mud or stubble to walk over.

Neither was perfect. The mud was heavy and difficult to walk on while the stubble was easy to walk on but difficult to swing the detector low enough to find anything. 

Although there's nothing much here, it's another thirty or so bits of metal recovered. The five coins range from late Georgian to Elizabeth II but all, including the Victorian sixpence, are in poor condition. There are four buttons from about the same date range - the rest is junk. Despite the paucity of finds it was a beautiful late autumn day of sunshine and four hours of fresh air.

We did some more work planning the house today and agreed the final fitted wardrobe layout, ordered the last of the light fittings and chose the paint colours for the kitchen, hall, lounge and cloakroom. Tomorrow we're getting ready for the trip to England. We're looking forward to it.