A Dog Of A Film
The Times today gave the film Pudsey: The Movie, the score of zero stars. The review included this paragraph.
Given the half-chewed dog’s dinner of a movie that resulted, it seems likely that makers of Pudsey the Dog: The Movie decided to maximise their investment by getting Pudsey to write the screenplay as well
No wonder, it’s being advertised on a high proportion of buses. The busometer is never wrong.
My Tired Hotel
If there was one thing that spoilt my holiday to Iceland it was the hotel.
This picture sums up the hotel.
My Tired Hotel
It was tired and in need of a stiff makeover.
But there were some faults you just can’t excuse.
1. The shower was stuck on hot and unusable.
2. The gluten-free bread they produced was frozen and inedible.
3. They had a glut of Earl Grey teabags, so that was what you got in the room. I hate the stuff.
4. I had a top floor room, which suffered from top-floor-too-hot syndrome. They kept the fire escape open to try to cool the top floor.
But the biggest problem was that it wasn’t the city centre hotel I asked for and it was claimed to be ten minutes walk away. You might have been able to walk it to the centre in just over that, but walking back up the hill would have been a lot more for me.
If I’d have donre my research better, I wouldn’t have booked it, as some entries on Trip Advisor said that all was not well!
Reykjavik
I’ve put all the sundry pictures I took of Reykjavik in this post.
It is a city with more colour than I thought it would have and being by the sea, there is a lot of water.
In fact, don’t go to Iceland, if you’re not keen on water.
It is also a friendly city, as the locals always seem to be helpful and there is a fair amount of information and maps at important places.
I also used the taxis to get back up the hill to the hotel several times and I just used them off the rank and paid the meter. Unlike some cities I could name, they were clean and the drivers were efficient and knowledgeable.
An Aladdin’s Cave For Coeliacs
Marks and Spencer may have its problems, but the display for its gluten-free bread and cakes in Islington, is bigger than the whole gluten-free area in the Waitrose next door.
An Aladdin’s Cave For Coeliacs
I just bought a loaf and some cheese biscuits.
I have a feeling that despite the Islington M & S not being one of their bigger stores, I might find that in a few months time, I’ll go there first and then buy the things they don’t have in Waitrose.
I can only rarely buy clothes there, but I do use it as the delivery point from the web site. I don’t know about others, but I’ve had no problems with shopping on their web site.
They Run Out Of Letters
The Scree n on the Green, rarely misses a tick in its film information.
They Run Out Of Letters
This is one of their best.
The Film That Changed My Life!
Last night, I went to the Hackney Picturehouse to see the newly-remastered digital version of Hard Day’s Night.
The film was originally released in July 1964 and I probably saw it that summer or soon afterwards. I remember I spent that summer in London, as I was working at Enfield Rolling Mills, in the Electronics Laboratory, putting little bits of automation on metal processing machinery.
There was a mixed-sex group of us at school, who spent time together and went to parties, plays and events. Some of us may have gone to see the film together after the summer. We did go to see the Beatles in Hammersmith that Christmas, which was a night I’ll never forget.
But whenever and wherever I saw Hard Day’s Night for the first time, it had a tremendous effect on my life.
I often wonder, if I’d not seen the film and the Beatles live, whether I would have ever considered going to Liverpool University. If I hadn’t, I’d have never met C and my life would have been completely different.
Since that first viewing, wherever it was, that film has always been one of my favourites and I’ve seen it many times. But not as many times, as I would have liked, as C never liked to see a film too many times.
So it was an absolute joy to see the film last night.
The cinema was surprisingly full for a Monday night and the audience was generally about fifty upwards, although there were a few children and teenagers there, with a sprinkling of twenty- and thirty-somethings.
The film still has all the power to delight and inspire and I suspect it will be doing so for many years yet.
As I said to a young couple as I left the cinema last night, the film proved to me that we could all have dreams and live them! I certainly have lived my life to the full!
Without the Beatles and a Hard Day’s Night, the world would be a very much poorer place.
I’d probably have gone to a third-rate University and ended up back in Felixstowe in a semi with a thick ugly wife and 2.4 children. Perish the thought!
If Hard Day’s Night comes to a cinema near you in the next few months, then go and see one of the most significant films of the 1960s, that did a lot to redefine modern cinema.
Praise For Marks And Spencer In An Unlikely Place
Marks and Spencer may not be in the best of health these days, with even their boss saying the results aren’t good enough in this report on the BBC.
He might like this story.
I have a small waist, which needs a thirty-inch-belt. They are hard to find and for the last ten years or so, I’ve always bought them from Paul Smith. Usually at their flagship store in Covent Garden.
Yesterday, I went to get a new one and I found a nice one in brown. I got to talking to the stylish assistant, who came from Bordeaux. He felt I was wearing a very nice pair of chinos.
They were only from Marks and Spencer.
I did buy one of the three pairs I have in a store, but the others were from their web site and delivered to my local store at the Angel.
Their web site worked for me!
Why Would Anybody Have An Exhibition At Olympia?
The only time in recent years, when I’ve seen any class at Olympia, was when I stood on a stand at a telecoms exhibition next to someone, who is now a peer of the realm.
Today, I went to The Allergy Show, but my troubles started before I even arrived. I just missed the Overground train at Highbury and Islington, so instead of waiting half-an-hour for the next train, I decided to go via Victoria and Earl’s Court. I got to Earl’s Court in reasonable time, but then there was no shuttle train to Olympia. So I hsad to get a replacement bus, which somebody had saved from the scrapyard. At least it was clean.
When I eventually got to Olympia, there was an air of dereliction about the place. But it wasn’t any worse than I remember it, when we took the boys to the Christmas Horse Show in perhaps 1971.
John Betjeman would be summing up a friendly bomb.
At least I got home easy enough, but then leaving Olympic is much better than going!
Highbury And Islington Post Office Is Now Shut
The convenient Post Office at Highbury and Islington Station has been closed.
To be fair, it had seen better days and its closure probably makes it more likely, that one of the worse stations in London gets developed as a station for the twenty-first century, hopefully with step-free access everywhere.
Wasting My Licence Fee
The BBC has just broadcast an interview with some Islamic nutcase.
Why is the BBC wasting my licence fee, giving fantasists like this time on the airwaves?
He might even be able to find out if jihadists go to heaven in a few days or weeks!
The Anonymous Widower 