A Painful Time For Marion, Summer In February In Framlingham And Gravity In Cineworld

Marion had a tooth abscess a couple of weeks ago. She went to the dentist who extracted a wisdom tooth and in a couple of days she was well again. Unfortunately her good health was short lived as she started to have terrible pain in the other side of her mouth last weekend. I don't think I've ever known her be in such pain. Her mouth started to swell up but, as it was weekend, she couldn't do much other than take painkillers and wait for the dentist's surgery to open on Monday. Monday came and we managed to arrange an emergency appointment. I sat in the downstairs waiting room as Marion was treated but even downstairs I heard her scream as another wisdom tooth was pulled. She was in terrible pain for hours afterwards but I am pleased to say that it has subsided now and her swollen face has returned to normality. This tooth infection followed an expensive course of oral hygiene treatments over the last couple of weeks. Whether the two were related or not is anybody's guess. As the first abscess was before the treatment I suppose it's just a coincidence.

Last night we went to FramSoc the society run by Framlingham College for pupils' parents and Framlingham residents. We've been to some great FramSoc talks in the last few months and this was another excellent event. The speaker was Jonathan Smith who wrote the novel Summer In February  and went on to write the screenplay when it was adapted for the screen. We've not read the book but we've seen the film which tells the true story of acclaimed artist Sir Alfred Munnings' first marriage. The short-lived relationship, which involved a love triangle with Munnings' friend Gilbert resulted in the tragedy played out so brilliantly in the film.

Jonathan, a schoolteacher by profession, told us how, through school contacts he met Gilbert's son, heard the story and was so gripped that he felt compelled to write about it. School contacts also resulted in Jonathan coming to Framlingham college; headmaster Paul Taylor told us how he and Jonathan were colleagues at Tonbridge School. A surprise for the audience was a passage from the artist's autobiography which described his unhappy time as a fourteen year old in (where else?) Framlingham College. Further school connections were also involved; Jonathan was so impressed by the teenage Dan Stevens when he was a pupil at Tonbridge that he kept in touch and Dan made a pact to play Gilbert if the novel ever came to the screen.

Jonathan was an excellent, warm and genial speaker and I imagine that he must have been an incredible teacher. He didn't hold out much hope for me as a novelist though. He said that the greatest artists tend to have had troubled childhoods and troubled, rebellious, teenage years; my life has been pretty happy from the start so my book (which I have just had professionally edited and will be ready to upload to Amazon soon) won't stand a chance. 

Talking of not standing a chance, picture this scenario - you are an astronaut out in space fixing some equipment on your space station when the debris from a huge explosion comes into your orbit. This is what George Clooney and Sandra Bullock encounter in Gravity, the film we went to today at the fabulous IMAX screen in Cineworld Ipswich. To tell you what happens next would spoil the film for you as it's certainly better to see it without knowing. The effects are spectacular - as good as anything I've ever seen in the cinema - and IMAX enhances these brilliantly. Bullock and Clooney give good solid performances although they don't engage the viewer like Tom Hanks did in the recent Captain Phillips. People are raving about this film. It's certainly entertaining and well worth seeing (especially if you can get to an IMAX screening) but Oscar material? Other than for special effects, I doubt it.

  

Win Win

I'm on a bit of a roll today. Firstly, I got an email this afternoon from Scott Pack (he's "Me And My Big Mouth" on my blog list recommendation over there on the right). My name came out of his hat after I left a comment on his blog to receive a copy of a book he has just published - The Evolution Of Inanimate Objects. I'm really looking to reading it. Scott's also running a project to send handwritten notes to anyone who asks for one so I've asked him to put one in with the book. It seems that there's an upsurge in reviving the art of handwriting letters at the moment and the Guardian highlighted this in an article today. Scott's project gets a mention there too so I imagine his pen will soon be smoking. I'd offer to write a personal note to any blog readers who want one if I thought anybody would be able to read it. 

My second bit of good news came to light when I checked the UKDetectornet Forum to find that my Roman gold clasp did top their Artifact of the year poll when it closed last week so I'm in line to receive a subscription to a detecting magazine. I'm giving a talk to a village society near one of my favourite detecting spots on 15th February so that will give me something to mention. I've done a power point presentation - never done one of those before so I hope I don't fall flat on my face. Okay so it's not exactly winning the lottery but maybe it's an omen for me to get my entry to that novel competition I mentioned the other day posted.

We're looking forward to hearing Caroline Smailes talk at Birkdale Library tomorrow. I read Black Boxes last week. After the excellent In Search Of Adam and Like Bees To Honey, I wondered what surprises Caroline had in store this time and was not disappointed. She has to be one of the most original authors writing today. Black Boxes is possibly even grimmer than In Search Of Adam but it's extremely hard to put it down. There's fascinating use of words as almost an art form on the page together with the only example of sign language in a novel that I've ever come across. It's highly recommended reading as long as you aren't feeling depressed and, as someone who once helped on a suicide helpline, I found the tone very authentic. She will be talking about Like Bees To Honey tomorrow; although it has death as a central theme, it is a walk in the park compared to Caroline's other novels.

This week's Orange Wednesday trip was The Descendants. As you might guess from the title it's all about family and the film entwines several relationship threads around the story of George Clooney's wealthy Hawaiian  lawyer Matt King whose wife is in a coma and about to be disconnected from life support. Clooney's tearaway seventeen year old daughter Alex (brilliantly played by Shailene Woodley), difficult ten year old Scottie (Amara Miller) and Alex's friend Sid (Nick Krause) make up the heart of the cast and I loved the way that the characters evolved in response to the situation the family finds itself in. The extended family is involved in a multi million dollar real estate deal involving inherited land and King as the last surviving trustee has the final say on what goes on. Throw in an affair, an alpha male father-in-law and Alzheimer's suffering mother-in-law and you've almost got a full house of relationship issues. Director Alexander Payne handles these well and Clooney gives a beautifully understated performance which I found touching. I'm surprised that the film didn't rate higher with the critics (only averaging three stars in most of the broadsheets) but perhaps it was just a bit too nice. It is classed as a "comedy drama" and, although it did have some of the audience laughing, I felt that the laughter was out of place.


And the subject of family leads me seamlessly to an opportunity to leave you today with this wonderful little family video.