Revolutionary Rants

This afternoon Alex and I went off to see The History Boys at Barnie cinema. It was brilliant. We loved it. For someone with a degree in Politics and a possible MA in Political Philosophy the idea of education for it’s own sake is an important thing, of course. Joking aside this was that oh-so rare thing, a good British film – with laughs!

A small set of boys attempted to gain Oxbridge entry, aided by Richard Griffiths, Francis de la Tour and Stephen Campbell Moore. Moore is gay, fresh-faced and keen only on them gaining enough flashes touches to allow them entry to their chosen grand institution. Griffiths the old master who believes in knowledge for its lasting power and, simply, for itself. He also likes to cop a feel from his older pupils on the motorcycle ride home. It is de la Tour, however, who steals the show as their history teacher. The pupils are well played but all look slightly old for the roles! Samuel Barnett stands out as Posner, holding a rather obvious torch for his class mate Dakin (played by Dominic Cooper, perhaps the least believable of the main cast).

The film is basically about learning and about that moment in your life when you think you are the cleverest and most exciting thing in the whole bloody world. It is only later that you discover that you were not and that your mind only retained Keates for a short period of 2001…

My favourite bit, however, is when the priggish head declares to the Oxbridge exam coaching teacher Irwin (Campbell Moore) “This is Oxbridge, if it were Bristol or York i wouldn’t be worried”… Almost as good a the women’s toilet graffiti in one of the University of York’s student bars:

“Oh, where would be be but for York?”

“… Oxbridge?”

Comments (3)

Congratulations C4! Last night they truly showed the Beeb (I won’t even mention ITV…) how to do amazing drama.Longford was the best thing I’ve seen for ages.

Jim Broadbent was, as per usual, excellent, but I thought Andy Serkis’s chilling, dead-eyed performance as Brady really stood out. Morton could perhaps have been a little less withdrawn as Hindley, as you couldn’t really see why Lord Longford originally was so drawn to her, in a way.

The drama steered clear of the usual ‘Moors Murder’ hysteria and looked at the humanity of Longford and legal points.

Shame the same could not be said for the hugely irritating Best and Worse Places to Live in the UK 2006. Someone should gag Sophie Allsop. Now. Phil thingy is always annoying, but Sophie managed to trump even him and her horrific sister. Made the programme almost unbearable to watch!

Oh well, off to declare my marriage in a bit. Sell out that I am…

Comments (0)

First off, two rants. Brief but sharp. One, as it is pouring with rain and I am very tired after a spate of insomnia-ish, I sat in my dressing gown watching a repeat of Fraiser this morning after Mr C had peddled off to work. Oh my gosh the “British” accents are vile. Now, I like Fraiser (before, like almost all Yank shows, it went on too long and got stupidly sentimental), it has some very funny bits and, unlike almost everything from across the pond, a touch of sarcasm. But, sometimes I find I can hardly watch because of the English characters. Daphne is supposedly from Manchester and yet seems to be doing an impression of Dick Van Dyke with elongated vowels. Then, today, an old flame appeared – also a “Manc” – and he was even worse, where that possible, he added to Van Dyke and kind of crappy impression of Jack Lemmon’s impression of Tony Curtis’ impression of Cary Grant. All I can hope is that this “actor” was actually American, unlike the “actor” who plays Daphne, who is English. Shame on her.

Second rant. The American right-wing press apparently doesn’t realise that Parkinson’s makes you shake. I knew these people weren’t the brightest bulbs on the tree, but this is getting daft… OK, so stem cell research is a tricky subject, but this hardly means those with Parkinson’s are faking spasms to gain changes in the law, surely?

Now, one piece of news on the Beeb has made me smile today. Good for Richmond council, I hope they have the guts to carry through and make the 4X4 parking tax a reality. I think the bastards should be taxed off the road anyway. Then, maybe, they can stop going on and on at us to “make the difference” by turning our telly off and not leaving it on stand-by (before you comment, people, I do do that anyway) because these gas guzzling, “my children are safe, I feel safe” fuckwits will be taxed off the road.

Oops, maybe that was three rants. Oh well…

Comments (1)

Ahh, Saturday. Bliss. And it is a beautiful day, going against the forecast, here in Barnstaple. We have a mission for today, only one, but it is a big call. Baking the family Christmas cake! Last night we mixed up all the dried fruits, ginger and citrus peel and juice and it has been soaking over night. We have chosen undyed glacier cherries and they actually taste nice! Hopefully we will not mess up with the cooking!!!

Chicken also has a free range locally reared chicken to cook, brought from the local produce market at the Pannier market yesterday.

We also got our Christmas booze yesterday, the sort of stuff you don’t drink the rest of the year (i.e. Baileys) and the staples (cider for me and Carlsberg Export for Mr C!). This was after a quick trip to Swimbridge to see our wedding venue, which looks excellent.

After our busy weekend last week we intend on doing very little else this weekend! It is time to chill… Bliss.

Comments (0)

We had a very enjoyable weekend in Warsaw. Our train journey to Gatwick was very smooth and although our flight was a little late and our bag took a long time to emerge in the terminal we got there safe and sound. We stayed up chatting until midnight and then to bed.

The wedding day dawned – and stayed, sadly – murky and grey. We headed off in to Warsaw’s centre for vodka shopping and a visit to Chicken’s grandparents’ flat. After returning to Mr C’s Aunt’s we lunched and beautified (in our case, this took fifteen minutes!) before leaving for Warsaw once again and the wedding. The mansion called Palacyk Szustra which was the venue for the ceremony was housed within a pleasant park area and had a real piano during the nuptials. After the “I do’s” there was a general meet ‘n’ greet for the newly weds and then off to the Balkan restaurant they had chosen for the reception. The food was really nice, despite me being warned there would very little veggie food, and we ate and drank well. There was dancing and in general a very nice atmosphere.

The next day there was a “post-wedding breakfast” with the young couple and much of their closest family – and us, of course! It was strange – but nice – to eat wedding cake at 10am! Then Chicken and I left for Gatwick once again. A slightly wobbly landing got us home and then we had a train journey to Reading and then stood up all the way to Taunton, where my Dad collected us.

It is strange how, even if it is only for a day or so, like in this case, you really miss home when you are not there! But we were home with a bump, back to work for us both yesterday. Well, our own wedding next, I guess…

Comments (0)

After a busy morning at work, followed by some early Christmas shopping (yes, I know, I hate myself too, but we wanted to take Chicken’s parents stuff over for them to have at Christmas without postage worries), it was home to pack. With wedding, thank you, birthday and Christmas presents wrapped and shielded in clothes, Chicken’s suit and my outfit all packed we are almost ready for the off. Sadly, I don’t have a jaunty little feathery hat to wear, but I am sure I’ll survive!

It’ll be, strangely, our first wedding attending together as a couple. In fact, it’ll be only the forth wedding I’ve ever attended (if you don’t count my parent’s, which I went to as a bump, again minus feathery little hat!) Scarily, the next wedding we attend together will probably be our own!!!

It will also be nice to return to Warsaw and see all Mr C’s lovely Polish family.

Well, expect us back early next week, but until then do widzenia!

Comments (0)

It was stormy weather in the South West last night. Lucky, Barnie escaped the worst of it, but some areas were badly hit. Chicken and I were sitting watching telly downstairs at about 22:10, when a flash of lighting flickered across the sky and the TV promptly lost picture. I was most concerned, as a couple had lost their telly to lightening in Devon only weeks ago, But, happily, the screen shortly displayed that there was ‘No signal’. Chicken, of course, thought I was over reacting a great deal. In the middle of the night we were awakened by claps of thunder and, because of my phobia, we had a rather wakeful night.

Today it is just wet. Really wet. Although, having said that, it does seem to be clearing up a little bit now. Which is good, because it is not too long before Chicken comes home for lunch – Polish instant borscht!!! Well, it’ll get us in the mood for the weekend, perhaps!

Comments (2)

I am still not feeling any better about Robin Hood. I shall be renting Maid Marion and Her Merry Men on DVD as soon as I can in order to redress the awfulness of last Saturday.

I have, however, warmed some what to the new Jane Eyre as last night’s episode was quite a bit better than the first (I missed the second one, by the way). I am still not quite sure of the two leads but the editing of the story seemed much better dealt with than in the first outing.

I also watched the last in the series of Reader, I married Him. This has been quite interesting, in parts, but spoiled by the presenter, who wandered round in a variety of woolen cardigans delivering lines about Scarlett O’Hara in a very stilted way: “The thing… about Scarlett… Is that she’s not a nice girl… She’s a bitch… And was nearly named Pansy!”. The major problem was, also, the fact that the series banded together literary master works – Pride & Prejudice, Jane Eyre and most of all Wurthering Heights (just don’t mention it to my other half) – with not only Mills and Boon type books but, possible even worse, “chick lit” shite like Sophie Kinsella and Jackie Collins. Plus, the series seemed to suggest that women no longer anted to escape being trapped in the “marriage, babies” cycle, but instead wanted their books to tell them they didn’t have to “have it all”, they could be happy with a nice man and a lovely family. What a load of crap. Bridgette Jones is more alien to me than Becky Sharpe. I detest the current vogue of making women that they should not be wanting it all, but should instead be squeezing in to big knickers and popping out sprogs. Stop feeling guilty, girls, and get back to your kitchens!!! F**k off, I don’t want to! The reason, surely, that books like P&P, JE or, say, Middlemarch hold their popularity over the ages is that they are timeless in the fact that they are about human emotions and moral struggles. Not becasue they are about women grubbing round in the dirt searching for Mr Right like pigs after truffles.
Besides, it is precisely as you give up on going out with people and concentrate on your degree that you meet handsome hens in the students union… And there’s a bloody chiche to end on, if I ever heard one. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in procession of a Mac must be in want of a anarchist…

Comments (1)

Chicken and I thought we’d try out the new series of Robin Hood. We couldn’t even last the episode. Flipping awful doesn’t even come close. First off, no one in it (bar Richard Armitage, but even he is hamming up as if he was Oliver Reed) can act at all, with Robin a grinning, drooling apeth. I won’t even get started on Keith Allen.

Secondly, once again Sherwood forest/Nottinghamshire has been mutated in to something quite different. Nottingham seems to have become overly hilly. Sherwood, far from being flat and fern-filled as it was in recent years, was apparently quite a rock and, again, undulating place. With cliffs. No ferns though. Definitely not. But that could because it is actually Hungary.

It even seemed to be ripping off Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, previously the shittest Hood “based” production.

Rubbish, won’t be bothering again. Annoying, leaves very little on a Saturday. As usual.

Comments (1)

Another busy working day for me! Looking at Christmas cards all day is really quite depressing… But hey, it is all money! Chicken, having had a relaxing afternoon, is cooking for me. What a lovely man he is.

He met me from work, and we headed for ingredience at our local Lidl. The river Taw, which runs close to our house, is very high. The wind is blowing in vicious gusts, and the river/sea has swallowed up the jetti where an ambulance normally sits. The choppy water is getting worryingly close, due to the spring tides, to the top of the bride arches.

I hope we will not be flooded overnight! Oh well, nothing to do but sit back, sip a glass of French red, be pampered and hope!

Comments (0)