On Looper And A Couple Of Recent Reads

Following our long walk around Loch Leven on Wednesday we did indeed sleep well and our bones were aching as we rose in the morning to head to Edinburgh for the day. We had a few presents to buy and we needed to get some bits and pieces to finish off the bathrooms in Framlingham (toilet roll holders, towel rings – you know the sort of thing).

We always enjoy our visits to Edinburgh. It’s the perfect sized city; everything is within fairly easy walking distance but there’s loads to do - good shops, museums, restaurants and galleries and much more. We went into Harvey Nicholls to look for a present. It’s a super shop and it would be easy to spend hours browsing in there. We just bought the present and enjoyed a cup of coffee but we’ll make sure that we have plenty of time next time we visit.

We debated which film to see with the last few pounds remaining on our VUE gift card that we got for Christmas but hadn’t spent due to the lack of VUE cinemas near St Andrews and Framlingham. It was a toss up between The Perks Of Being A Wallflower and Looper. Each scored about the same on the IMDB website but Looper came out slightly on top with the critics.

It’s one of those films that creates a grim, dystopian view of a future where half the population appears to be living in abject, lawless, poverty while the remainder is involved in a hedonistic, drug fuelled life of relative luxury. This future is 2044, only just over thirty years away so I hope that it’s way off the mark as I wouldn’t want our grandchildren living in it. It seems that thirty years ahead of that it will be impossible to dispose of a body without being caught so the criminal mob, who by then have mastered time travel, send their victims back thirty years where they are unceremoniously disposed of by hit-men known as loopers.

It’s a complex but interesting idea, which becomes even more complicated when the time traveller turns out to be an older version of the assassin himself and sees Joe ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt) sitting down to steak in a diner with his older self (Bruce Willis). Throw in a kid who is a sort of six year old medium with one hell of a temper and his sexy mum to create a love interest and you’ve got a plot that doesn’t make a lot of sense but is nonetheless an entertaining couple of hours with plenty of action.

I enjoyed seeing what happened to one of the loopers who travelled back and escaped his younger self. The mob exact violent revenge on his 2044 version but we don’t witness the violence and instead watch the older man metamorphise before us – a clever idea. The romances between the lead character Joe in both 2044 and in the future are unconvincing but they aren’t central to the film, which is essentially a sci-fi shoot em up,  and I’ll forgive them.

I haven’t written about what I’ve been reading lately. The WIFI here at the caravan is so poor that I struggle to upload the blog but I’ve enjoyed Caroline Flett’s Separate Lives, Meg Rosoff’s What I Was and  I also read Summer’s Lease by Charles Mortimer which is entertaining but very dated just thirty years after it was first published. I am currently reading The Quincunx by Charles Palliser as part of Scott Pack’s internet social reading group – see the link to Meandmybigmouth blog over to the right. This is a monster of a book at over 1200 pages and not something that I would have normally picked up. However, it’s surprisingly good so far and not at all what I expected – and owes more to Charles Dickens than any 21^st century writer. I’ll let you know what I think after then next 900 pages.

It's a quiet week this week with no trips to Sufoflk planned so I hope we can get to a couple of films in Dundee, take granddaughter Rose and daughter Sarah to Edinburgh and also have a day out with the detector. After that we're really excited about seeing the progress on the house in Framlingham on 24th October and even more excited about seeing this little lady again on  25th. She'll be almost three months old.

My Granddaughter The Photographer

Well they say it's never too young to start and, at fourteen months, Rose is showing a keen interest in photography - well, let's say that she likes things with buttons. I was babysitting for her the other day and we got around to experimenting with my phone. Here are her first efforts.

I think you'll agree that she's starting to show an artistic streak. And talking of artistic streaks, Marion treated me for lunch at the wonderful Seafood Restaurant here in St Andrews for my birthday today. There was a bit of a mix up with our reservation - I messed up by using Twitter and not getting a confirmation, but all was not lost and, despite a full reservations book, they managed to find us a table by a window (not difficult really in a building that is constructed of glass) and proceeded to serve the most delightful of meals. Each course not only tasted fantastic but was a work of art on the plate (no wonder they were turning people away). Here are just a few of the amazing courses we enjoyed.

A delicious crab starter. Now I can't remember how the dish was described on the menu but I can only say that the pale yellow ball which was like a cold sweet corn puree was fabulous.

Our mains were equally grand and I enjoyed a decadent half lobster while Marion had the monkfish wrapped in parma ham special which was amazingly good (I know because Marion left some). There was no let up with the chef's imagination with desserts and we shared our panna cotta and dark chocolate puddings.

You would be hard pressed to find a better lunch and the beauty of celebrating at lunch time means we won't miss the X Factor! (Although from what I read, nobody is bothering to watch it this year) . It won't be long before the live stages begin and I can place my annual bet which has been successful every year except the one when I lost by backing Cher Lloyd. I quite like the personality of a girl in a duo with a rapper and think that's where my money will go this time.

We headed to Edinburgh yesterday to take my Bronze Age gold metal detecting find to the museum. The good news is that it's still Bronze Age gold and the curators agree with my identification but all will be revealed when the results of tests on the metal are carried out. They liked everything else I found too and I've left it all with them - I wonder when I will see it again. Whilst in that lovely city we seized the opportunity to go and see "Untouchable". "You do know it's in French?" the young woman at the ticket office intoned as we bought our tickets a bit like the way that they said "You do know it's silent" when we went to "The Artist". I suppose you can't blame VUE for making sure when they screen something that is a bit out of the ordinary - they don't want unhappy customers who were expecting to see Elliot Ness (you need to be fifty plus to get that reference). It's as good as it says on the poster. An unemployed no hoper somehow manages to land the job as carer for an incredibly wealthy Parisian quadriplegic and starts a life changing experience for them both. It's funny, touching, gentle and totally watchable with a wonderful performance from Omar Sy as the carer Driss who just oozes cool and personality. Based on a true story I worried that it was going to be too sad but it avoids that pitfall and is a total joy.

I'll leave you with photo's from today's lunch. Another year on, retirement still seems to be suiting us both.

 

The Goodbyes Begin

Although we've still been going to the gym this week, we haven't really needed to as the marathon packing job has given us plenty of exercise. Yesterday we moved the boxes packed with all the office and the attic contents down into the conservatory. We felt that we'd be less likely than the removal men to scuff the paintwork so we traipsed up and down three flights of stairs with approximately 240 boxes.

We're almost at the end of it all now and the removal man came round this morning to check out our handiwork - I think he was quite impressed. I've asked him to come and pack what's left now (some paintings, mirrors, glass and a few antiques)  as we aren't insured for breakages under his terms and conditions if we pack that stuff. We're going to head off up to Scotland on Monday for a well earned break and to celebrate Sarah and Rose's birthdays (can it really be a whole year since we made a mad dash up to Dundee to welcome her into the world?). Once we're back we've got to pack for four months of caravan living, help Paul and Josephine with their move to Rochester and choose a builder to renovate the new place in Framlingham - not much on our plates then.

Marion said a tearful goodbye to her friends at the gym last night and on Monday we took two of our oldest friends to The Vincent for a farewell meal. I'm sure we'll see plenty of them as David and Janet are in London frequently and it will be easy for us to arrange to meet up. Tonight we'll have our last ever Orange Wednesday at Vue in Southport. We're going to give The Five Year Engagement a try. It's been well received by the critics so hopefully we'll be leaving the local cinema on a high note.

It was also goodbye to Marion's car yesterday as we sold it to a local dealer. It's been a great little runaround for her but she didn't exactly drive far in it and, with just 10,400 miles on the clock after six years, someone is going to get a great buy. 

All The Days Are Blurring Into One

I think it's Thursday today although, as every day has been almost identical for the last two weeks, you could tell us that it was Wednesday, Tuesday or even Saturday and we wouldn't know any better. Who would guess that preparing to move from a family house of twenty-three years would be such a challenge? The last twenty-four hours has been one of the most grueling yet. 

Yes, yesterday we hit the point on the schedule that read "photos". I've always enjoyed taking snaps and in the forty years or so that Marion and I have been together I must have taken many thousands and, before we hit the digital age, most of those thousands of photos were printed by the local shop and religiously stuck into albums with the better ones finding a place in one of Marion's large collection of frames. We had a large antique coffer completely full of photographs so, starting yesterday at around noon, and finishing at about the same time today we went through every single one of them.

This is what we ended up with. Now I don't want to panic our children and other relations; the bulk of those big bin bags is taken up with empty albums - we threw away very few photographs with people in them (other than those of people we'd rather not remember). Most of the photos disposed of were my attempts at landscapes and holiday scenes; so bags full of atmospheric shots of castles, Lakeland fells, hotels we stayed in, Mediterranean beaches and fish I once caught were consigned to the tip. I've made so many visits there in the last two week that I'm on first name terms with some of the blokes who work there now and I walk around the place with such authority that people have started asking me which skip they should deposit their stuff in. We still ended up with three packing boxes of photographs, albums and frames to take to Framlingham but at least we've spared our kids some work in the future.

Before we started on the photos it was the turn of the smallest room in the house - the cupboard under the stairs. It was like the Tardis! Who would have known that all this stuff would have fitted in here?

Marion is so keen on leaving the house nice for whoever comes in after us that she suggested we might want to decorate it. Hmmm.

After working flat out we decided that we really ought to get to the cinema. We haven't been for almost two weeks and, although there was nothing on at Vue that really took our fancy, we ended up at Red Lights. I spent most of the film wondering if the bloke playing the young scientist was the real scientist Professor Brian Cox off the telly. Turns out it was Cillian Murphy but I'm not the first one to notice the similarity as I Googled the names of both together and loads of stuff came up. Sadly the similarity between Murphy and Cox was the only thing that was interesting in the film. It was, in fact, pretty rubbish. Sigourney Weaver is a scientist who debunks the paranormal, Murphy is her assistant and the film opens interestingly enough with a haunted house for them to investigate. But then Robert De Niro enters the fray as a blind psychic who once persuaded Murphy's mum that she could fix her cancer by paranormal means and the film revolves around the two doctors' attempts to destroy De Niro's credibility and expose him as a fraud.  A few things go bump in the night which is a good job as they woke me up - maybe we've been working too hard on clearing the house but this really was a dull film.

  I even managed to find a photo of the two of them together.

There's so much going on in our heads that we're still reading when we go to bed to try and wind down. I read  Theres' Always Tomorrow by Pam Weaver this week. I gave it four stars on my Amazon review but feel a bit guilty as I was slightly critical and I know that when I get around to publishing my own novel I won't enjoy criticism. Here's my review.


"I spent a while trawling through the Amazon bestseller lists trying to find a good read and There's Always Tomorrow caught my attention - it looked like my sort of book - a mysterious letter, family intrigues a period setting.

And it's a good story about good and evil. It captures the atmosphere of the fifties very well and the reader is always compelled to discover what happens next. But I did have a few niggles. For me the heroine Dottie is almost too good to be true and whilst Pam Weaver's writing is very competent, whenever we got to showing emotions, there was always a tear running down a cheek or a heart fluttering in a fairly melodramatic and overstated way that had me picturing the characters like actors in silent movies. I don't want to appear overly critical as it is an enjoyable book, but I do feel that this exaggeration and almost cliched showing of emotions let it down at times and I sometimes felt as if Dottie and some of her pals were characters from one of the many Enid Blyton books that are referred to in the text.

Although there is a dark side to the book, it's a pleasant and unchallenging read and I think that it's a story that would make a good TV drama."

It's Friday tomorrow (I think). That means it's the conservatory and lounge to get sorted. Can't wait for the weekend (dining room).

A Smashing Time In The Ribble Valley

We went over to Ribchester yesterday to visit friends Mark and Nita Jones. We spent the afternoon watching Manchester City get within touching distance of the Premier League trophy and then went for a very late lunch at The Assheton Arms in nearby Downham. The sun was shining and, being Bank Holiday Sunday, it was no surprise that the pub was packed. Fortunately Mark had the foresight to reserve a table and we enjoyed an excellent meal and wine before heading off to Clitheroe.

Mark and Nita had booked to see Clare Teal who was closing the Clitheroe Jazz Festival at the Grand Theatre. I went with some trepidation as jazz is not my usual cup of tea and I had not heard of Clare Teal before Mark told us about the event. But I needn't have worried; she is a fabulous artiste. Accompanied by a fantastic trio on grand piano, double bass and percussion, Clare performed for two hours mixing a little traditional jazz with a helping of ballads and covers of classics by favourites like Annie Lennox and Snow Patrol. She has the winning combination of a tremendous voice and a sparkling personality and she certainly deserved her rapturous applause from a full house. Her final song Chasing Cars was sung with such feeling that Marion was moved to tears. We enjoyed the concert so much that we bought two CDs in the interval and we very much look forward to seeing Ms Teal perform again. 

I haven't blogged since our Orange Wednesday visit to VUE in Southport when we saw Avengers Assemble 3D. It's probably the best comic book hero movie that we've seen. I know that these films are daft but there's good daft and there's bad daft and this one is very firmly in the good camp. The film is well scripted with plenty of laughs from good one liners and the action is visually stunning; even if it's all done with computers, it's convincing enough for you to sit back and escape into a world of incredible invading aliens from another galaxy. The actors take their roles seriously; Robert Downey Jnr as Iron Man has the same charismatic twinkle in his performance that made him such a likeable Sherlock Holmes and Tom Hiddleston almost steals the show with his wicked Loki. At 142 minutes it's long but it didn't feel like it and that's a credit to Joss Whedon who has made an immensely entertaining film.

With all our plans for renovating the house in Framlingham we're going to make a visit to Excel in London's Docklands one day this week. It's not only an opportunity to get some ideas for the house but it's also our first chance to see Paul and Josephine together since Christmas. Lets hope that when we're in Suffolk we never have to go that long between visits.

Although I've been sounding like Victor Meldrew with my views on football on the blog recently, now and then something good crops up in the sport and even Victor would be hard pressed not to smile at this photo that swept around Twitter like wildfire at the weekend. Seems that Hartlepool fans descended on London en masse for their game with Charlton, dressed as Smurfs. What, with electing a monkey as mayor, it looks like there's no shortage of humour in Hartlepool. 

A Bit Of Light Relief

We took a day off from clearing Marion's mum's flat today. Marion had an appointment to have her hair done so I caught up with a huge pile of ironing (no don't stop reading, it will get better - honest). After a really good lunch at The Vincent on Lord St we headed to the local Vue to see 21 Jump St.

Looking at others in the audience Marion wondered if we had chosen something that's perhaps aimed at a slightly younger market. I started playing with my iPhone in an attempt to signal 'Hey kids we may be oldies but we're cool oldies' but then let myself down by switching it off when the film started. 

The film (21 Jump St) came highly recommended by reviewers across the whole spectrum of tabloid and broadsheets (although I seem to remember the same for Jackass 3D). This time the reviewers got it right as it has all the ingredients of a great comedy - superb performances from leads Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, a strong story line (based on an old TV show that we don't remember), a good script with plenty of  intelligent jokes thrown in amongst a minimal amount of the gross out stuff usually associated with this genre. 

Hill and Channing play a couple of rookie cops whose "youthful" looks leads to them being chosen to go undercover as high school students. Tatum was a jock at high school while Hill was the geeky kid that he bullied. They're chosen to reprise those roles in their assignment to bust a drugs ring but, as in most good comedy from Shakespeare onwards, things don't go exactly as planned. What follows is fast moving and laugh out loud funny and it certainly gave us a lift from a week of flat clearing.

As we left the cinema I got an email with the surveyor's report on our proposed house purchase in Suffolk. While the man from the architect said yes, the man from the surveyor's says yes ...... but;  and then gave us a pretty long list of buts.   

All Cleared

We sold Marion's mum's flat recently so this week we've set aside four days to empty it before the new owners move in. It hasn't been the happiest job sorting everything Flo owns into just three piles - keep, charity shop and tip. We made a few journeys to the tip and we've given a selection of things to various charities and now we're left sifting through the "keep" pile. Going through everything that Flo and Marion's dad Doug kept - all the little personal mementos, cards, certificates, photos and nick nacks - is extremely sad but it has to be done. And it has made us realise that we don't want our own kids to have to do the same one day in the future. So, when we sell the house, we're going to do it for them. Whilst it's nice to have things like the lovely anniversary cards that we gave each other, our school certificates and reports, souvenirs and reminders of things that meant something to us in our lives, we never look at them; they're simply gathering dust in boxes in the attic awaiting the day when someone does what we've just done and takes them all down to the tip. So we've got a big de-clutter to carry out soon. We're going to be ruthless so Paul and Sarah don't have to. We'll keep plenty of photos in case anybody ever wants to make a family tree but the rest is simply sentimental and we'll have to rely on our memories instead.

My blog about my model mum resulted in an email from my sister linking me to an American used car seller's website. There's Mum again. This time with a megaphone and the catchy slogan "It's sale time Honey".   

   


We had planned a day out at our favourite cinema FACT in Liverpool tomorrow. We were going to see the Polish film In Darkness, the new Robots and Avatars exhibition and 21 Jump St. But clearing the flat has been so draining , both physically and mentally, that we don't think we could cope with the journey and a subtitled film about refugees hiding from the Nazis. So we're going for a lighter option of lunch in Southport and 21 Jump St at Vue. It's been getting great reviews so maybe it will give us something to smile about. I'll let you know.


  

You know you're getting old......

...when one of your son's old school friends turns up on Merseyside's biggest commercial talk radio station City Talk (105.9FM) and he's reviewing the day's papers! Yes, we got up early to listen to Jamie Gavin who not only got ten minutes prime time but also a big opportunity to plug his business InPress Online. His earlier claim to fame was as the bridegroom in the long running Daily Express TV ad campaign with its catch phrase "We stand for family values" but today was far more serious stuff with Jamie commenting on Kim Jong Il and showing a degree of empathy with his successor Kim Jong Un, who, like Jamie, is 28 but, unlike Jamie, has to run a whole country and not just a thriving internet business. He also found time to review the back pages and may have alienated some of his fellow Evertonians with his "if the price is right" attitude to the sale of the team's star players. So well done Jamie, hats off to your performance. We'll let you off your failure to get in the Alan Partridge quotes that your friends requested and applaud you for the professional way that you approached the task. Who knows, my anecdotes about my meetings with Robert Maxwell, Kenneth Clark and James Corden's dad may soon be usurped by my one day being able to name drop you.

Marion's feeling a lot better today and in an hour or two hopes to eat her first meal of any significance since Saturday. I've built a nice log fire and it's blazing away as I write and she's snuggled by it under a blanket reading her Kindle. We've a bit of a break from the routine of visiting Flo tomorrow when we hope to get to Vue to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. I know that Holmes purists will be apoplectic with the transformation of the cerebral Holmes into a sort of Victorian James Bond but we could do with a bit of escapism and we're off to the 11.20 am performance. I'll let you know what we think.

I've lost contact with almost everyone and everything to do with work in the twelve months since we retired. But I'm pleased to say that we're still in touch with the lovely Mark and Nita Jones from Workhouse Marketing in Ribchester who did so much fabulous work for our business in the short time that we used their creative services. Workhouse have made it a seasonal tradition to produce a short Christmas film and this year's (another cracker) arrived in my mailbox today. Do you have a Secret Santa?





Secret Santa from Workhouse on Vimeo.

Before I go, just a quick reminder that it's Rev on telly tonight. If you only watch one thing, watch this. It's been a fabulous series and I'll be sorry to see it end. I've been amazed that some Christians are up in arms about the show but I think that forward thinking churchmen such as the Rev Richard Coles would find it difficult to take offence. Coles tweeted this morning with a word which my computer Scrabble wouldn't allow when I used it. He said that his dogs had been playing up and he'd found a big shit under his piano.  I tweeted back asking what Piers Morgan was doing under his piano. Others asked if it was Jeremy Clarkson whilst one,  (a vicar perhaps) suggested it was his archdeacon.That's the sort of vicar who might get a few more bums on seats.

In Praise Of Modern Family (Again)

We sat down in front of the telly last night to catch up with the stuff we’ve got on the SkyPlus which is almost full of things we’d love to have seen and will probably never get around to. One that most definitely doesn’t fall into that category is Sky1’s Modern Family, which has been amongst our favourites since it launched. We’re now into Series 3. By this time even the greatest sitcoms have usually started to flag; not Modern Family. Episode 10 of the series is the family’s Christmas which is being celebrated a week early due to problems getting everyone together on the big day. From the opening pre credit scene around the swimming pool to the final post credit scene at home, this was perfect television. I can’t reveal the plot for fear of spoiling it for others who have it saved. All I can say is that Christmas came early for us too and I can’t remember watching anything with so many laugh out loud moments; the writers crammed in more in thirty minutes than many Hollywood blockbuster comedies achieve in two hours.

And it’s not even as if the show has one stand out star like Bill Cosby, Bob Newhart or  Will Smith; even the smallest character got at least one big laugh in this episode and the rest got plenty. And it’s also not even as if all the comedy is the same. There are elements of slapstick and farce as well as great lines and brilliantly observed situations. The actors are universally excellent from the patriarch Jay (Ed O’Neill), his glorious Latino wife Gloria (Sofia Vergera), very gay son Michael (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and his even gayer partner Cam (Eric Stonestreet) but my favourite is the hapless Phil (Ty Burrell) an eternal optimist who always does everything to make things right and inevitably makes everything anything but – a bit like me really. “Down with the kids” Phil’s classic interpretation of WTF (Why The Face) sums him up in a nutshell – wonderful. The kids are all outstanding too. If you haven’t seen Modern Family, treat yourself to a box set for Christmas and lift your family out of the great depression that was 2011.

No Orange Wednesday for us this week; just not enough time week as we’re preparing a tea party for Marion’s mum and we’ve got four old ladies and old man coming round to join us. We’ve just roasted this turkey crown and we’re going to use it to make turkey sandwiches, (which are always the best food bit about Christmas for me). The fridge is absolutely packed so I imagine that our guests will be going home with their usual goody bags that will do them for another couple of meals as they don’t tend to have enormous appetites at 80 plus.

I hope that we will get to the pictures again before Christmas as I quite fancy the new Sherlock Holmes. I loved the last one and the new one has got even better reviews from the critics so I hope that it gets to FACT or Vue next week. We’ve seen so many films this year that it’s hard to say which was my favourite. If pushed I would probably have to go for Submarine – one of the few feel good movies of the year, although A Separation, Of Gods And Men and Cave Of Forgotten Dreams were all memorable.

I’m struggling to read The Slap. I usually fly through novels in a couple of days but this one has really slowed me down. I don’t know if it is all the different characters or the Australian slang that’s making me struggle but I’m persevering as Marion’s got it saved on the SkyPlus and doesn’t want to watch it while I’m still reading the book (Kindle says I’ve got 50% left). Books that were a pleasure to read this year were The White Woman On The Green Bicycle and Florence And Giles both of which I strongly recommend.