Is That Rain I See?

It was a typical English summer’s day yesterday, i.e. wet and cold! Today is no different, and it has been much the same story ever since mid-July. It seems that nowadays we no longer get hot and sunny weather in July and August, instead we have to deal with floods and downpours. The best weather, such as it is, appears to be more likely to appear in April or September than in the summer months!

Anyway, as the day was a wash-out, and since we hadn’t been to the movies for a couple of months, Dori and I made the decision to head on over to the multiplex and catch a film in the afternoon. Now, as we are both big kids at heart we were quite keen on seeing Toy Story 3, but it is still the school holidays over here, and we thought that it might be a little packed out in there. So, instead, we plumped for “Salt”, starring Angelina Joile and Liev Schreiber.

If you don’t already know, Jolie plays a CIA agent and the film follows a “Bourne Identity” type line, with her character on the run and the audience left to work out if she’s actually a good guy or bad guy. It won’t be winning too many Oscars come next February, but it was certainly an entertaining and diverting way to while away a couple of hours on a wet Wednesday afternoon :-)

In other news, I forgot to mention that I became a great-uncle a couple of weeks back. I mean, I already was by virtue of marriage, but this new arrival was to my brother’s eldest son. They are calling their little bundle of joy Macy, or possibly Macey – the lines of communication have been a little fuzzy! Baby and mother (and even father!) are said to be doing well. I can’t quite believe though that my brother is a grandfather – it only seems like 5 minutes ago we were both in school! Time, as they say, does indeed fly.

Bank Holiday Films

As Dori mentioned in her post earlier, it is a Bank Holiday here today. It is the last Bank Holiday until Christmas here, and marks the end of the summer. It doesn’t seem like five minutes ago when we were making plans to go to Trooping the Colour, or to the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge, but here we are fast heading towards Autumn.

We have had a lazy day today as it is also the last day of my time off from work. For much of this afternoon we had the TV on in the background showing a countdown of the “100 Best Family Movies”. How they decided on this list I have no idea - it has seemed very arbitrary at times. I mean, how can “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” not be in the top 10, when "Pirates of the Caribbean" is? For the record, the Top 10 Best Family Films, as suggested by this programme, are:

10 – Wizard of Oz
9 – Star Wars
8 – Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
7 – Back to the Future
6 – The Lion King
5 – Toy Story
4 – Pirates of the Caribbean
3 – Mary Poppins
2 – Shrek
1 – ET:The Extra-Terrestrial

A lot of the films that were mentioned brought back a lot of memories for one or both of us, such as “The Amazing Mr Blunden” which used to be shown here almost every Christmas but which I haven’t seen for years now. But what this show really made us think about was why don’t they actually show these films anymore rather than just having interminable countdown lists about them?!

Anyhoo, what are your thoughts about the final list? What would your favourite family film be?

A Time Travelling Tuesday

This week is my last bit of vacation time for a few months. As seems usual for the times when I am off work, the weather has been a bit dodgy all week. In fact we are “enjoying” the last remnants of Hurricane Bill as I write this – nothing too extreme, it’s just been a bit windy with constant drizzle all day long. So, as a consequence we have been spending most of our time pottering about the Yellow House rather than going on days out.

Yesterday, however, we did venture out a little, and decided to go to the movies. We went to see “The Time Traveler’s Wife”, the film based on a novel by Audrey Niffenegger. Dori had read the book a couple of years back, and was keen to see how they would adapt it for the movies. The premise of the story is of a man who suffers from a genetic disorder which causes him to involuntarily travel through time. He has no forewarning of when this will happen, and no way of controlling it – he just disappears from one time period and appears in another. The focus of the story though is, as the title would suggest, the wife of this time traveller and the effect that his random disappearances have on their relationship.

This is certainly not a sci-fi film - it is a romance story and an examination of how this unusual “illness” affects the life of those around Henry (the time traveler). Starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana, it is a wonderful picture that I enjoyed thoroughly. This could have been a real mess of a movie, with all the different timelines involved, but director Robert Schwentke has done a superb job in keeping the audience aware of when they are and the pacing of the plot is absolutely perfect.

I won’t go into any more detail regarding the storyline, as I wouldn’t want to spoil it for anybody who has yet to see the film – or read the book. I will, however, highly recommend this movie if you fancy going to see a grown-up love story that will have you searching for your tissues by the end. As I mentioned earlier, Dori had read the book previously, which can sometimes colour your perception of the movie when it comes out. But she tells me that she was in no way disappointed with the film version. And as for me, I enjoyed it so much that I have already lined the book up as my next read!

To Boldly Go Back to the Beginning

Today has been a lovely day weather-wise down here in Wiltshire. I had to go see a client this morning, and it was a joy to be driving through the rolling countryside as I made my way towards Salisbury. I started out especially early, so that I could clock-off a little earlier once I had finished work. Flexible working hours are a wonderful thing sometimes!

I wanted to finish early today because Dori and I were going to the movies this afternoon to see the new Star Trek film. We prefer to go in the afternoons if we can, because it avoids all of the crowds and happens to be cheaper too, which is a bonus! :-) As it happened, even though we got there in the early PM, there was still almost a full house to see this movie – no wonder it is at the top of the Box Office lists!

I am sure that most of you have already heard about this movie being a “re-imagining” of the Star Trek universe, and that JJ Abrams has “rebooted” the franchise. Well, all of that is true – and more! The casting of the film is superb, with Zachary Quinto in particular looking almost identical to the Spock we remember from the original series. But, the other main characters are also very well cast, with Karl Urban’s portrayal of Dr “Bones” McCoy very reminiscent of that of DeForest Kelly. Simon Pegg does a comic turn as Scotty, without it grating against the action-packed main storyline. And Zoe Saldana, John Cho and Anton Yelchin all do excellent jobs at recreating the roles of Uhura, Sulu and Chekov.

The film tells the story of how Kirk, Spock et al all came together before their famous 5-year mission began. There is plenty within the script to delight any Trek geek (like me!), as well as those totally new to this cosmos (if such a person exists). There are plenty of references that Trek-savvy movie-goers will pick up on, but you really don’t need to be a full-on Trekkie to enjoy this film. There is plenty of action, humour and pathos to go around, and JJ Abrams directs with a light touch to breathe new life back into the 43 year old franchise.

9 stars out of 10 from me. Go see it – Boldly or otherwise!

Markets and Meals

As I mentioned on Monday, I have this week away from the office to spend with Dori. The reason I chose this week is because it is our anniversary. We have spent previous anniversaries in Paris and London, but with the credit crunch ‘n all, times are a little more frugal at the Yellow House :-) So we have spent the week here at home, and have had a few days out to celebrate being together.

On Wednesday we went to the National Arboretum at Westonbirt, just over the Wiltshire/Gloucestershire border. It is a wonderful place for just hanging out and enjoying getting close to nature. We both said that it must have done wonders in lowering our blood pressure! It is good to get back to nature sometimes. For more info on the Arboretum, and some wonderful pictures of the trees and plants there, see Dori’s blog entry for today.

Yesterday we ventured out again. This time we stayed in Wiltshire and started the day off in Devizes. Devizes, apart from famously being part of a limerick – “his ears were of different sizes...”, is a small market town in the centre of Wiltshire. And it was the market that we were heading towards Devizes to see. The main part of the market is in the central Market Place in the town – the largest in the West of England - and has a lot of stalls selling fruit & veg, fresh bread, cheese, clothing and other household items. Right next to the Market Place is The Shambles, which was originally built in 1835 as home to a butter and poultry market. Nowadays it acts as an extension to the main market and there was a good variety of different stalls in there too. We walked around both the outdoor and indoor parts of the market for a while – making our way into The Shambles when the rain got a bit too heavy!

Having not found anything that really grabbed our attention, we crossed the street to the Corn Exchange, which holds its own flea market on Thursdays. This was much more of a treasure trove of fascinating knickknacks. There were stalls selling jewellery, paintings, postcards, toy cars (oh, how I wish I had kept the CASES full of toy cars I had when I was little!), old music sheets, old board games, painting sets and lots and lots of other bric-a-brac. We picked up a few items for ourselves, including this wonderful little jug and teacup set.


...and this mug celebrating the silver jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary.


Some of the items we bought may well end up on eBay, but some will definitely have a home here in the Yellow House.

After we had spent the morning in Devizes we decided to head over to Swindon. We were going to see a film, but first we went to the restaurant next door – Frankie and Benny’s. This is a New York style restaurant and bar, which we had never visited before. We were in for a treat. We had spotted the Frankie & Benny’s restaurant at the O2 on a number of our visits up there, but had never had the time to try it there. So, when we were trying to think of a place to have our anniversary meal, we came up with the idea of the F&B outlet in Swindon. The interior of the restaurant reminded both of us of many restaurants that we have visited in the States and the atmosphere is enhanced by a constant soundtrack from people such as Dean Martin, Billie Holiday, The Drifters, Bobby Darin, etc. And when we found out that they refill your drinks for free, in the American style, we were sold!

We enjoyed a wonderfully delicious meal - I really would recommend an F&B restaurant if there is one near you – and then headed next door to see “The Uninvited”. This is a horror/mystery type thriller of a young girl who has been disturbed by the death of her mother. It was quite enjoyable, with the requisite twist at the end. As you will see on the right hand side here, I gave it 5 stars out of 10, though maybe 5½ would be more accurate. It may not be a cinematic masterpiece, but it was certainly an agreeable way to while away a wet Thursday afternoon. :-)

So, that has been our anniversary week travels. Today we have just chilled out around the house, and did a few odd jobs here and there. Luckily, Monday is a Bank Holiday here in the UK, so I still have three more days until I have to return to normality. Here’s to a great weekend for all of us!