An entry for JM’s poetry competition. A duet.
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Four years of dedication
Pain barriers, niggles, frustration
The time has come
Bang goes the starting gun Continue reading “The Stasi years”
Category: History
A thoroughly British affair
We love the glory, don’t we? (Well, Backside does, although I couldn’t possibly comment.) No wonder we won so many skirmishes in far-flung places over the years. The Olympics are our chance to relive those special moments when the rest didn’t like it up ’em. Continue reading “A thoroughly British affair”
God gave us Grace
In the Golden age of Hollywood it was easy to brush scandals under the carpet. Take Rock Hudson for instance, who would have thought? Now Tippi Hedren has admitted that the married Alfred Hitchcock, who directed her in films, also made a play for her. The still lovely Hedren confirms that Hitch sexually harassed her when she was at her peak. She rebuffed him and her career hit the buffers. That’s life and life goes on.
A recent twitter poll asked a similar question to the long-running debate of best Bond girl: “Who was Hitchcock’s greatest leading lady?”. Hedren came out on top. Referee, Referee, you’ve got that all wrong. Consult your linesman. It’s got to be Grace Kelly.
Good looks, good acting, good pedigree. Got Royalist written all over her.
Continue reading “God gave us Grace”
Quote
“I could not tread these perilous paths in safety, if I did not keep a saving sense of humour.”
Well done, London!
Love us or hate us, you can’t ignore us! And Danny Boyle’s extravaganza confirmed all we have always believed about ourselves. We’re inventive, self-effacing, humorous – and bloody good value! How marvellous to celebrate the real milestones in our history – the human race! Like the industrial revolution, votes for women, mass immigration, the NHS, the WWW and our musical heritage. And M (for Monarch of course) behind the whole thing – with a bit of help from 007.
There’ll be the usual post mortem, yes. No creative enterprise ever gets through with a perfect 10. But it’s satisfying to think that every 50 years or so Britain can make such a proud statement to the watching world.
RIP Jon Lord
A Modest Proposal
A Modest Proposal, with profuse apologies to Jonathan Swift
“A modest proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland from being a burden to their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the public”
The Irish problem could be solved, there’s quite a simple cure,
By dining on the offspring of the nation’s poor.
Oven-ready babies could be sold when weaned,
They’d fetch a fortune so I‘m told; ten shillings maybe more.
An Anglo-Irish tale
In the light of the recent meeting that took place between HM The Queen and Martin McGuinness, I thought this short film added a certain poignancy to the event.
It’s all in the game, yo
Those of the older generation will think it is blasphemous to compare or, The Others take you, prefer the Harry Potter series to Lord of the Rings. Both fantasies have their fans and detractors in equal measure. You get the odd fanatic that swings bisexually embracing the two creations. Splitting the pie chart further are ones that favour the books over the films and vice versa.
The Tolkien/Potter saga with all those various permutations didn’t see the dark Dothraki horse coming up on the outside. Into the mix comes a third way: Game of Thrones.
The second season of Game of Thrones finished recently (for the record, I thought the first one was better) on Sky Atlantic. The TV series centres around a set of medieval fantasy books written by George R. R. Martin. There’s a bit of everything in the stories for the male audience: sword fights, sorcery, astounding landscapes varying from fire to ice, violence with heaps of blood, political intrigues with sharp dialogue and a smattering of soft porn. For the females, there’s Sean Bean and stuff like that.
It takes awhile to “learn” the character and machinations of the various cast ensemble that is pretty large (ugly large in the Hound’s case). It is annoying when just as you get to know and like a particular cast member they are killed; the body count is high. Most of the actors and actresses play their roles brilliantly. My own favourites are the dwarf, Peter Dinklage, who steals every scene he is in. And, remarkably, Jerome Flynn, yes that Jerome Flynn, as Dinklage’s bodyguard.
Cool church on a warm day
One sunny afternoon, before the monsoon season, we went to the burial ground to see how the native cherry we planted on mother’s grave was faring in the drought. Walking through the meadow, we took the footpath to the nearby church of St Nicholas.
Interesting chapel which houses the tomb of the Knollys family. You can see the effigies of Sir Francis Knollys and his wife, Catherine, lady in waiting to Elizabeth I, and niece of Anne Boleyn.
You may remember a previous post about Greys Court, and the connection with the Knollys family.
Boadicea's Chariot 
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