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.
Liverpool University’s New London Campus Shows Itself
I walked past Liverpool University’s new London campus in Finsbury Square yesterday. The signs now show some details of the new tenant.
It is just round the corner from Broadgate and Liverpool Street station.
Experiments With Selfies
I was trying to get a decent picture of myself.
Most seemed to be rubbish, so I only left myself with these. So if I kept these how bad were the others?
Note the Liverpool University Engineering Scarf, I often wear in cold weather.
Let’s All Have A Quick Pray
As I left Liverpool University yesterday, I saw this notice on the Foundation Building.
Let’s All Have A Quick Pray
I know they take their religion seriously in the Second City, so to see they provide it at speed didn’t surprise me.
A Cafe In Liverpool
Liverpool generally doesn’t do boring and there is nothing boring about this cafe.
A Cafe In Liverpool
It is actually in the Victoria Building of Liverpool University, which gave red brick universities, their name.
But the interior is a superb example of Victorian excess, in what is now the Victoria Gallery and Museum.
I particularly liked the clock.
The Clock
The food and drink is not too bad either.
An Investigation Into The Stability Of Peer-To-Peer Lending Systems
For some time, I’ve thought that peer-to-peer lending systems, and Zopa which I know best, in particular, are a very interesting proposition mathematically. I did muse on this question some time ago in Stability in Financial Systems.
My education is at Liverpool University, where I got a B. Eng degree in Electronics in 1968. I had specialised in Control Engineering and my undergraduate thesis was all about mathematical modelling.
Most of my career since has been about large business, monetary and planning computing.
But one thing that must be born in mind, is that after I sold Metier in 1985, I formed a finance company in partnership with a friend. We still talk so it must be a good relationship.
In the years I had a stake in that company, I modelled the cash flows for obvious reasons of watching risk, just as I do with my funds invested in Zopa now.
The company taught me a lot about the finance industry and it was partly for that reason, that I invested my savings in Zopa nearly six years ago. And I’ve not regretted it one bit!
As I said in Stability in Financial Systems last year, I have a feeling that Zopa is a stable system. I also think they have used this stability to their own advantage, to create their Safeguard offers.
Obviously, a full investigation would be of value to see how, if Zopa my proposition concerning the system is correct.
You would just right down the various cash flows and see how the various scenarios will affect the company.
Will It Be Engineers And Scientists Who Cure Back Pain?
BBC Radio 5 had a discussion this lunchtime about back pain. The most amazing part was a statement by Brian Saunders of the School of Materials at Manchester University. He talked of how they were developing a jelly-like polymer, which could be injected into the body. Things are apparently going well!
Couple this with work, I know of at Liverpool University, where engineers have been analysing the gait of humans, dogs and horses, to get greater insight into problems and I get the feeling that over the next decades engineers and physical scientists will make great process in helping us to live longer and better. These two examples are probably just two of many similar ones.
Liverpool University’s New London Campus
after a false start a few doors away, Liverpool University seem to have at last got a building for their campus in London. It’s reported here.
My only complaint, is that I think it’s in posh Islington, rather than practical and common-sense Hackney. At least though it’s only a short walk from the 141 bus stop, I can get close to my house. For those visitors from Liverpool, it’s just a 205 bus from Euston to Epworth Street.
A New Approach To Fighting Alzheimer’s Disease
Last night, I received my alumni e-newsletter from Liverpool University. There was this article about a new approach to fighting Alzheimer’s Disease. This is a key sentence.
We are using a new approach, harnessing the natural ability of sugars, based on the blood-thinning drug heparin, to block the action of BACE.
BACE is an enzyme, which according to the article causes some of the problems of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Let’s hope that the research succeeds.
Advice For Expectant Mothers
There is a widely trailed story today about what expectant mothers should avoid. It’s here on the BBC. This is the main advice.
- Use fresh organic food rather than processed
- Avoid food and drink in cans and plastic containers
- Minimise use of moisturisers, cosmetics, shower gel and fragrances
- Avoid buying new furniture, fabrics, non-stick frying pans and cars when pregnant or nursing
When C was pregnant with our first child, she was a student in her last year at Liverpool University. She actually did her exams at nearly seven months pregnant. She got a II-2, so she couldn’t have done badly.
She didn’t purposedly avoid any chemicals, but as the nice flat we lived in didn’t have a shower, she did at least avoid shower gel, which is on the list of products to avoid. As to the last point, we couldn’t afford new furniture or cars. our frying pan had been borrowed from her mother and was a well-used steel one, complete with a bit of added rust. Did it put iron into the food?
Neither of us smoked, although throughout her pregnancy, she had to endure the Capstan Full Strength cigarettes of her tutor; Robert Kilroy Silk.
But advice was different in those days. We went to stay with a family in Hingham in Norfolk, where C had been a mother’s help during University holidays. The mother, who incidentally was the daughter of a doctor, asked if she’d like a brandy before going to bed, as it would make the baby sleep better. She declined, but only because she was pretty abstemious with alcohol.
We also moved south just a week or so before the expected birth date and then in London, she didn’t have a hospital. I told that story in a post called Waiting for Apollo 11. Theses are the links to Part 2 and Part 3 of the story. We didn’t do boring, even in 1969.
We all survived and the only question, that sometimes comes to mind, is was the cancer that killed her caused by all of those smoky tutorials forty years before she died?
I do know that if she was here today, she’d be laughing like a drain!
The Anonymous Widower 