Extreme Drinking

We do some mad things at times. Battling through the snow after an afternoon’s drinking with The Stymaster & Mistress being one of them but these are events that you remember for ever. I knew it was going to snow yesterday but when Mary looked out of the window in The Pretty Bricks and said “it’s a lot worse than I thought it would be” I knew we would be in for an adventure home.

Thing is though, despite the snow, I would have had a 30 minute walk home as the bus service in Essington doesn’t recognise Walsall as a destination, a topic of some debate here in The Principality.

Despite that, it was a rather splendid afternoon, and The Beer in The Bell was superb, and good company always ensures it went too quickly.

I woke up this morning to about 4 inches of snow and was surprised to see it had drifted somewhat, so much so it has taken me most of the morning to move it.

Just about the right temperature

With the temperature just about freezing this weekend, it will qualify for a drink with the Stymaster and Mistress. You see, we can’t meet up for a drink unless the temperature is in extremis – its part of the rules.

Digital signalling

Here’s a thing. In the old analogue days, you could turn on he radio and the TV and more or less watch the Footie or cricket with a reasonable degree of synchronicity. However, in the digital age, this is no longer true.

I noticed this yesterday as I wanted to watch the Liverpool-Man Utd F A Cup 4th Round match but had to cook lunch. So I put the TV and the digital radio on whilst I was attending to the meal, and when the radio announced Aggers goal from a header, I walked into the lounge to find the corner just being taken, a delay of some 10 seconds.

Try it next time there is live commentary and live TV and you’ll see what I mean.

Pythons to make new movie!

Great News! A new Python film! And may include Robin Williams as well! Could there be a better line up?

Welcome back Monty

Good to see Monty Panesar back in the England Test side in the series against Pakistan today.

Cinema Show

At the urging of Nige,  JC  & June Stuart and me went to the Robin last night to see G2.

Apart from a few bum chords, they were pretty good. I was impressed by the fact that they did stuff that isn’t usually played such as Entangled and Fly on a Windshield.

Bit disappointed that the light show wasn’t up to much though….

Sub films

There have been a couple of Sub-smash films on the TV lately which illustrates the difference between us and the Americans. The plots are much the same between Morning Departure and Gray Lady Down, sub has accident, sinks, crew goes mad with claustrophobia, The difference is that in the British Films, John Mills suffocates to death having had a rowing boat turn up to rescue him whilst Charlton Heston has deployed a $1m DSRV to get him out of the cart. I have to confess, I didn’t see the end of GLD so did they survive?

But anyway, it’s all stiff upper lip from the Brits even if Richard Attenborough does go a bit loopy for 10 minutes but turns out be be a good egg in the end and the Yanks are gung-ho as usual, even if they are miles down without a hope.

One thing about Sub films though is that there is a common set of dialogue, mainly due to the technology being the same whatever the vessel. Must be easy for a screenwriter to make…

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is one of my favourite sleuths and recently I have enjoyed reading the “Sign of Four” as well as seeing Sherlock Holmes:A game of shadows on Friday afternoon. One thing about the film though is that the story is somewhat subsumed to make way for the acting of Robert Downey Jnr and the special effects. I fact it’s so difficult to tell what’s the difference between the CGI and the rest of it, I think I’m nowhere near reality.

Perhaps that’s what the film industry want you to experience but to me, it’s losing credibility as there aren’t enough reference points to make a connection. It might as well be a cartoon for me these days. Compare that to The Kings Speech and you’ll see what I mean. Well acted, with enough CGI to sketch outWWII London but the whole piece is much superior. It’s not that Law and Downey act badly; they don’t but the point of Holmes is the reasoning behind the conclusions and this film loses that so it’s ended rather disappointingly for me.

Brett and Hardwicke/Burke is still the definitive Holmes/Watson for me.

Eurozone crisis spreads to France

Well it had to happen. The French have been downgraded by the ratings agencies. I’m not surprised but I am surprised at how the Euro is staggering on for especially as the Germans have been printing Deutsch Marks since November.

How long before they throw the towel in and admit it was a bad idea?