LOOKING OUT.
Without a Shadow of Doubt.
The gurus at
Google Blog have incorporated safeguards into the blogging process to protect those of us who blog the embarrassment of concluding a post with unsavoury or inappropriate outsider comments. Like any good idea it has its flaws. Comments finish up being attributed to
Anonymous and I have not a clue how to find out who
Anonymous is; I know, it sounds daft, but I’m sure it makes sense to the gurus. However, a little while back a kind soul left a message on my spam inbox (whatever that might be) asking whether the cat pictured at post 183 was
Leonard, a dear, quiet, black and white moggy who resided with us up until his peaceful death many years ago in Ventnor. The answer (whoever you may be) is:
No, that’s just a b/w cats thing, they do look alike but the one in the picture is, without a shadow of doubt, the cat Shadow. He has now recovered from his operation and, to prove it, ventures forth nightly to beat the bounds. Thank you, though, for your intriguing enquiry: if you would like to email:
barndens@talktalk.net I shall be pleased to discover who you are and chat further.
Kindest regards to you.
Tho’ April Showers come in May, June, July…
It’s official then: We have just experienced the wettest summer in 100 years. That means it has probably been the worst holiday season in living memory for everybody connected with the home holiday industry and the best ever for cinema owners and anyone connected with holidays abroad. If you have kids, the six week break becomes a long time when you can’t get them out of the house. And if you live in an area prone to flooding…well…
On the bright side, if you’re here you’re not in Syria.
GCSE Results.
More direction changing. More goalpost moving. More (flatly denied) political interference. Our granddaughter did exceptionally well (sat 11 subjects, got 10 A’s and a B), but very many youngsters and their teachers were dealt a formidably low blow without warning when examiners were leaned upon to tighten up the marking system this year.
It is impossible to measure the mischief done to education, the police, the NHS and that ‘buoyant source of revenue’ the motorist, by whatever pillock is in power at any time. All of them are convinced they are the bee’s knees and none of them has a clue. If the whole of parliament and every elected council in the country went on strike tomorrow everything would run like clockwork. The buggers simply don’t know when to leave well alone.
LOOKING IN.
The Borgias. (Sky Atlantic)
Jeremy Irons as Pope Alexander V1 dominates this dissolute drama of papal promiscuity and divine dirty deeds. As could be expected, there is gore galore and scarcely a decent, likeable or trustworthy character left alive.
We watch goggle-eyed.
Sinbad. السندباد البحري (Sky1)
This is glorious tosh starring newcomer
Elliot Knight as Sinbad, reliable Elliot Cowan as Gunnar (I imagine the directors used character names when addressing them on set.) and cute Marama Corlett as Sinbad’s almost romantic interest. Apparently production costs have been high but, to be fair, the cast has measured up to it. Could run for a long time. There will surely be more of Orla Brady as arch-villainess Taryn.
Person of Interest. (C5)
A former special forces and CIA man living as a dissolute wanderer (what other kind is there?) is recruited by a surveillance genius millionaire (what other kind is there?) to save potential murder victims from their dire destiny. It’s a crazy premise, very American, very watchable. My Leader and I are hooked. Currently being screened on Tuesday nights at 10.00 if you are of the early to bed type and would like to record it.
New Tricks. (BBC1)
New series: there was an unwelcome outsider and much fretting in the ranks before Jack (
James Bolam) left to kick the bucket abroad; his departure followed a superbly acted explanatory scene with Brian (Alun Armstrong).
The evidence suggests this may be the final outing for the cold case crew.
Dr. Who. (BBC1)
Another new series and another reshuffle. The Beeb is starting to look like Cameron‘s cabinet. This time it is
Karen Gillan and
Arthur Darvill, who are heading for the exit. It will happen around the middle of the current series and will (we are told) be spectacular. Well, they’re nice young actors and for a while they’ll be missed. But actors are nomads. Only those appearing in soaps expect security. This pair are good enough to survive the move.
FILM ON THE BOX.
Syriana.
Stephen Gaghan’s 2005 film is a convoluted tale of skulduggery in the oil world and was, apparently, based on
See No Evil, a book by former CIA agent Robert Baer.
A difficult film to follow, the four storylines finally come together in a coherent, albeit ominous, climax which fully confirms my suspicion that America is the most dangerous country in the world. This view is not echoed by our government (forever constrained by economic and militaristic considerations) but is simply that of an old Brit who, as a boy, lived in a country still boasting an empire. That empire is, of course, history.
Reluctant to face facts, our leaders still trot us along behind the USA like an eager little terrier. But we are no longer like them. Theirs has become more and more the greedy, empire-building nation. We’re mostly over that; or should be. We’ve done more than our share of plundering in the past and we shall be paying the price for a long, long time to come.
So forget the cousins across the pond bit. Many of them may be very nice, but as a race they are foreigners who happen to speak a sort of English. Theirs is a gun-happy, ruthless business culture and eventually their pursuit of cheap oil, together with their weapon-wielding connivance in the affairs of other nations, will result in yet another world war. It is sad but inevitable.
And when it comes we should keep the hell out of it!
We should; but we won’t.
AND SO TO BOOKS.
I finished Alan Hunter’s
Gently Does It. That leaves me another nine Gently books to read and the dire possibility that I may yet choke on peppermint creams. But to look on the bright side, Sgt. Bacchus, played on television by
Lee Ingleby has not yet appeared so perhaps he never will. I am still only halfway through Sandi Toksvig‘s
The Chain of Curiosity. My slow reading rate is not helped by constant laughter and an irksome tendency to hysterically read back to my Leader that which she hooted over way back before she passed the book on to me.
I’m not sure that I can revisit Gently when I reach the end of
The Chain… Perhaps I’ll go back to Agatha Raisin. I think I have an unread Graham Hurley somewhere, too. How did that come about?
