Boycott products that contain Palm Oil - the big ones

Rank; Brand; Manfacturer; Sales; Palm oil?
2. Warburtons, Warburtons, £709m, YES
4. Hovis, Premier Foods, £405m, YES
5. Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury, £374m, YES
6. Kingsmill, ABF, £363m, YES
17. Persil, Unilever, £210m, YES
18. Flora Spreads, Unilever, £200m, YES
23. Galaxy, Mars, £185m, YES
24. Youngs Frozen Fish, Young's, £184m, YES
25. Kit Kat, Nestle, £183m, YES
30. Bold, Procter & Gamble, £174m, SUSPECTED*
31. Mr Kipling Cakes, Premier Foods, £174m, YES
32. Wrigley's Extra, Wrigley, £170m, YES
33. Ariel, Procter & Gamble, £157m, SUSPECTED*
34. Pringles, Procter & Gamble, £143m SUSPECTED*
40. Birds Eye Poultry, Birds Eye, £130m, YES
41. Maltesers, Mars, £130m, YES
47. Mars, Mars, £123m, YES
49. Kellogg's Special K, Kellogg's, £122m, YES
53. Ginsters, Ginsters, £114m, YES
58. Fairy Laundry, Procter & Gamble, £107m, SUSPECTED*
59. Fairy Liquid, Procter & Gamble, £107m, SUSPECTED*
60. McVitie's Digestives, United Biscuits, £106m, YES
61. Comfort, Unilever, £106m, YES
64. Goodfella's Pizza, Northern Foods, £101m, YES
69. Lenor, Procter & Gamble, £98m, SUSPECTED*
72. Daz, Procter & Gamble, £95m, SUSPECTED*
75. McCoys, United Biscuits, £90m, YES
77. Haribo, Haribo, £89m, YES
78. Bisto Gravy, Premier Foods, £89m, YES
79. BM Cooked Meat, Bernard Matthews, £88m, YES
82. Quality Street, Nestle, £85m, YES
83. Richmond Sausages, Kerry Foods, £84m, YES
84. CrunchyNut Cornflakes, Kellogg's, £83m, YES
85. Magnum, Unilever, £79m, YES
87. Bessies Potatoes, Heinz, £78m, YES
88. Chicago Town Pizza, Dr Oetker, £77m, YES
91. Cadbury Cakes, Premier Foods, £76m, YES
92. Young's Chilled Fish, Young's, £75m, YES
93. Cadbury Roses, Cadbury, £75m, YES
96. Pot Noodles, Unilever, £73m, YES
97. Aero, Nestle, £73m, YES
98. Surf, Unilever, £73m, YES
100. Clover Spreads, Dairy Crest, £72m, YES
Sources: Sales statistics: AC Nielsen. Palm oil: The Independent
* Procter & Gamble, which uses palm oil in a wide variety of products, will not disclose its use in individual brands
 
There's about 3 products on the list that I buy occasionally - but I won't be from now on.
 
Full list in Independent

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Hypocritical Royal - No surprise there

In November 2008, Prince Charles was visiting Indonesia to warn of the perils of deforestation. On its website, the Rainforest Project warns that "soaring demand for beef, soya and palm oil has put acute new pressures on the rainforests".
 
Duchy Originals manufacturers pour palm oil into its toffee biscuits, beetroot soup, spinach and nutmeg soup, fresh chicken gravy and steak and ale pie. A spokesman for the company yesterday defended the practice, saying: "Currently less than five of our products – in a range of over 200 – contain palm oil. Duchy Originals only uses palm oil in recipes where there is no alternative, and then only in minimal quantities. We have worked hard over the past year to eliminate palm oil from a number of our products and have asked our producers to look at replacing it wherever possible."
See Indie Report Here
 
But Charles - surely if the rainforests are as important as you say they are you will take these 5 products out of your range entirely as they are unsustainable.

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What The Dickens!

Francis Sedgemore joined me for a ride round Kent's Hoo peninsula yesterday.

Francis wrote about the ride on his Blog today:
Frisky frogs of the Hoo
Monday 4 May 2009 at 13:04 BST

I can hardly feel my legs today, following a 160 kilometre cycle ride on Sunday from Blackheath to Gravesend, then around the Hoo Peninsula, taking in Allhallows and the Isle of Grain. From there, I and a velopedist companion proceeded to Rochester for the Morris dancing at the Sweeps Festival, and finally I made my way back to the ranch via Gravesend and Dartford.

It was a excellent day out, and thanks are due to my friends from Bexley Cyclists, who I met up with in Gravesend under a heavy grey sky, which thankfully rose and cleared as we pootled up the northern side of the peninsula towards Cliffe. From there we continued to High Halstow, and a refuelling stop by the estuary near Allhallows.

Sheltering from a stiff wind in the lee of a bank overlooking Yantlet Creek, we could hardly hear ourselves talk above the racket created by a squillion marsh frogs going about their springtime courting rituals. If you’ve never heard the sound of these frisky amphibians, a sample of their throaty song can be found here.

The Hoo Peninsula is a most interesting place. Part industrial and part nature reserve, the Hoo is home to power stations and oil terminals, marshland and bird sanctuaries. Some of the land is reclaimed from the sea, and the area as a whole is testament to how much can be achieved in a relatively short space of time with a well managed environmental regeneration programme.

If, heaven forfend, you should find yourself holed up in London, and can afford to take a day out from your travails, I recommend a tour of the Hoo Peninsula, preferably self-powered on two wheels rather than a motorised four. Starting from Gravesend railway station, you can take in most of the area with just 50–60 km under the pedals.

I didn't cycle as far as Francis - only about 30 miles in all - but it was enough. I've been struggling with my fitness ever since last summer, so volunteering to lead a series of 30 to 35 mile rides may have been a little foolhardy. But after yesterday's enjoyable outing I look forward to many more, especially as my fitness can only improve.

G20 protests

I regret not taking the last couple of days off work and getting onvolved in the G20 demos. I didn;t feel confident that I could bring anything to them. I felt old, out of touch, superseded.

I realise now I was wrong. the arguments are just the same as they were as the world has just sat on its hands for the 15 years since I was an activist. If anything - the urgency is greater, and the arguments are stronger, backed up with better evidence. But we weren't wrong.

I nipped down to the City and watched the protesters on Wednesday afternoon - the police still being nasty fuckers taking some sort of personal violent revenge on people who are more intelligent, braver and will be remembered by history as heroes who only tried to make the world a better place. The police however are scared, intellectually dull violent emotional retards who believe the state's propaganda and have nothing but contempt for anyone who tries to make a change for the good.

And that is it - they are scared. For them that's enough to justify wading in to a crowd of good humoured unharmed people and start knocking seven shades of shit out of them.

They also don;t realise that this just makes the protesters stronger. And that they outmoded relics from the past, while we are the future.

The protesters were saying the same thing I said 15 years ago, especially about the police. And some were answering back - not very professional - cynical and nasty, seemingly intent on provoking hatred and violence. But they didn;t get what they wanted. Even the Express struggled to make Wednesday's protests look violent, using a shot of a protester being punched in the face by a senior officer exclaimed "the ugly face of protest". Actually the photo showed the ugly face of the law as far as I could tell.

Jeremy Paxman seemed sympathetic calling the protests good humoured and witty.

Anyway I've decided - I'll be there next time, and with the current crisis that might be sooner than we think.

Very few papers are making this point

Johann Hari: The protesters are the ones we should listen to at this summit

The way out of the credit and the climate crunch is the same - a Green New Deal

Friday, 3 April 2009

 

"the government needs to spend large sums of money, financed by borrowing, to get all the workers waiting idle back into action. This form of government spending brings consumer demand back – and reverses the downward trend. Then, once you've recovered, you pay off the debt. Keynes stressed you can spend this money on anything: at one point he proposed burying wads of cash and paying people to dig them up. But today, we face an incredible coincidence. At the same moment, we need to spend lots of money on something, anything – and we need an immediate transition to a low-carbon economy. And it gets better: it turns out a green stimulus is best for the economy. A major study by the University of Massachusetts compared the effects of an old-style stimulus that simply gives people more cash to a green stimulus.

They found that a green stimulus creates four times more jobs, and three times more "good jobs", defined as those that pay more than $16 per hour. Why? Because a green stimulus is labour-intensive: you spend more money on people and less on machines. And the money you spend stays at home, making it easier to sell: you can only insulate a loft in Hull in Hull; you can only build a wind farm in the Mid-West in the Mid-West.
But it's not happening. A study by HSBC has found that only 6 per cent of Britain's stimulus so far has gone to green projects. In the US, it is just 16 per cent. It is nonsense to claim there aren't enough green projects "shovel-ready": during World War Two, the industrial capacities of our countries was transformed from making consumer goods to making tanks and weaponry in less than sixty days. We could do the same.
But this alacrity shouldn't surprise us. The weight of conventional wisdoms and the sway of powerful corporations with vested interests in the old sickening world holds back even the better leaders."

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From today's Indie :)

Putin's dog eats Russian party bosses' food

Reuters

Wednesday, 1 April 2009

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's pet dog gobbled up a special tea prepared for bosses of Russia's ruling party today.

While Putin discussed ways to help the local food industry, his favourite black Labrador Koni slinked into a room at his residence and tucked into delicacies prepared for leaders of his United Russia party.

"Koni ate everything," said one of Putin's astounded bodyguards.

Putin's spokesman said Koni, who has the run of Putin's Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, had eaten some pastries, biscuits and jellied desserts.

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forgot to Blog in March...

And yet again – I leave a long gap between blogging. I've had another stressful period, but think I'm just coming through it.

 

Part of the problem is my personal health which is not that bad, but I'm used to be healthy and pretty fit. Since last July my cycle fitness has declined. After knocking myself out on 250 mile ride round Suffolk and Essex, I allowed my daily cycling to reduce, and finally in December, gave up completely for over a month.

 

Then I moved to Welling, and could barely cope with just one journey into central London and back, let alone 5 a week. In that time I've been building up – this week I have finally reached my goal of 5 journeys cycled into work in a week, and have got that high which I always associated with cycling – instead of that awful worn out feeling I'd started to expect.

 

That and some mystery sinus complaint I've had since December, which only this week have I managed to shake off. I think it's linked to the temperature somehow, but can't begin to think what is causing it.

 

I've decided to concentrate my organisational efforts on getting involved with Bexley LCC. I've agreed to organise bike rides – the first one being a Dickens themed ride from Graves End through Rochester, along the Medway – about 35  miles and mainly on the flat, planned for May 3^rd.

 

I've been watching The Rockford Files on DVD. I remember it as my favourite programme as a kid, watching it in my room on the refurbed black and white tv I had in my room. It's a bit formulaic, some old flame usually walks in and hires him, he refuses to take the job but then when accosted by thugs a couple of days later, realises he needs to take the job to get himself off the hook of whatever he's got himself involved in, which is a mystery to him for the first half of the show. Finally, he confronts the person following him, gets hired by the person he's been following, and at the end of the programme, there's no buried money and he doesn't get paid.

 

But what an excellent programme, just because of James Garner, and Jim Rockford's character. He's very believable, doesn't like carrying a gun, reluctant to do anything dangerous, insists on getting paid, keeps getting bogged down with petty domestic issues, his living arrangements, his car, a nagging dad,  debts, bounced cheques, unhelpful cops, bickering former lovers.

 

I also managed to get through the first series of Starsky and Hutch, enjoyable, but a bit tedious and much less well made than Rockford Files, although to some extent built on the idea of a vulnerable cop with real problems.

 

Music wise, there's a great new Franz Ferdinand CD out, keep hearing tracks on the radio, haven't got the album yet, but want it. The new Decemberists CD sounds good too. Sparks' new single – Lighten Up Morrissey is amusing – there last is another album I need at some point. Mozza himself has a new one out which I haven't bought yet.

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Car Keys and clutch

Starsky And Hutch - First Season (5 discs) on DVD (1976)


Starring: David Soul, Paul Michael Glaser, Antonio Fargas
Certificate:
I have not been disappointed by this box set, but I'll get the negative out of the way first. some of the sets look a bit cardboardy, and with a single fixed camera you think you're watching a (bad) play being performed on stage. Even the on location shots have cheap looking cutaways filmed in the studio, and this viewer at least becomes very distracted every time this happens. The characters often dip into stereotype territory proving all too easy to lampoon these days. The stories all too often involve someone personal to Starsky and Hutch - a girlfriend murdered, Dobie threatened, S&H the targets on more than one occasion. You get the feeling that if S&H were to retire, crime in LA would drop dramatically.

But on the positive side - the stories are grittier than I expected - especially the episode that was never shown on British TV. The central characters are engaging, well-rounded, funny, intelligent, good-looking, sophisticated, cool, lovable, yet tough. A bit too tough at times - when they take on three mobsters using only their fists - or when at the end of every show they run around dodging every bullet only to take out the crims with a single well-aimed shot.

S&H all too often act as judge and jury based on their own prejudices - the aged couple who fill their car with dynamite and are let off scott free for what amounts to planning a major act of terrorism - the drug mule who gets an easy ride from S&H just becasue she's sexy and middle class - and then there are the bad guys - usually with a moustache - sleazy looking, ill fitting suit, Italian, sweaty, fat. Some crop up regularly but are never booked because of their useflness to S&H.

And how does Huggy Bear get away with it? somehow he has no problem running a bar in downtown LA full of criminal degenerates, with a sideline of relaying the word on the street to S&H, sometimes even acting as their caterer, or PA. And yet despite the openness of his friendship with the two extremely well-known cops - he stays in business. Seems unlikely to me.

Still, it's enjoyable escapist nonsense, and I still wish S&H were my buddles.

Le Freak C'est Chic

Freaks on DVD (1932)
Starring: Wallace Ford, Olga Baclanova, Leila Hyams
Director: Tod Browning
Certificate:
I can't add much to the reviews already posted. I've waited nearly 10 years to see this film, since I first learned of its existence, and I wasn't disappointed.

The film itself is a bit sad - it's been incredibly insensitively edited so there's the odd bit that just makes little or no sense. Unfortunately the removed portions have been lost so there's no chance of restoration, you'll just have to imagine how it Tod Browning intended it to look.

This package is magnificent. The documentary and other extras are extremely well researched, even if the delivery is a little like a film-school lecture.

Viewing and that

Last Friday I saw the new (I say new but it was made in 2007!) film by Bruce Campbell - My Name Is Bruce. It was a lot of fun. Very funny for fans of Bruce's work. I wrote review on Lovefilm so I won't go on here.

Watched "Ghost World" on DVD last night. Based on the comic and graphic novel. I loved it. I laughed plenty and had massive empathy with the character Enid. Considering Enid is based on the nearly 40 creator of the comic (her name Enid Coleslaw is an anagram of his) that's probably not surprising. By the end of the film, as her friend Rebecca settles down in a "normal" appartment with a "normal" job Enid realises she is destined to always be different and takes off out of town. Steve Buscemi is in it too, and I like him a lot.

Speaking of different I was very taken with Mozza's interview on R2 last week. Apart from the disapointment of not being selected to get free tickets to see him at the BBC Theatre, I listened enthralled as Mozza discussed the pointlessness of band re-unions and the wretchedness of music awards. Funnily enough the comments on awards were echoed a few days later by Terry Gilliam being interviewed on 5 Live's Mark Kermode podcast. It's no coincidence that I consider both Morrissey and Gilliam to be among the very greatest in their respective fields.

Thursday night found me at a South East London Folklore Group meeting which consisted of a guided walk around the London Pool - Tower Bridge, London Bridge, and all points in between. Quite taken with the idea that there might be a polar bear ghost swimming baout in the Thames, especially on Thursday when it snowed hard enough for snowball fights when I got off the train at Bexleyheath.

I've also got some new music - I splashed out to the tune of £30 in a local record store. Bought Tom Waits - Blood Money
Ultravox - Vienna and the debut Ultravox!
Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks
Kernickie - At The Club
Iggy & The Stooges - Funhouse
Gwen Steffani - Sweet Escape

blocked from my own blog

Well, the obstacles between me and getting some decent blogging done keep coming at me. The latest is the fact that my employer has seen fit to block access to blogger sites.
 
This prevents me from editing content during my lunch hour or after work, and I won;t be able to upload photographs either.
 
Well, I've moved offices again. Now I'm based at Holborn, and suspect I won't be here for very long. Looks like I almost certainly have a job after the big reorganisation that's about to start though will have to attend an interview to get it.
 
I'm on anti-biotics for my sinus problems which is stopping me from sleeping properly as I can't breathe through my nose. One week of taking them and there isn;t much difference - so will have to go back tot he doctor on thursday and probably bay another extortionate £7 something for the privelege.
 
The bike has been out of service for a week. As I fix one thing another thing goes wrong. Now my back brake is broken - the spring seems to be mal-functioning - the one that keeps the brake off the wheel. So I've had to detach the whole thing until I can get a replacement. My front gear isns't working - so my 18 speed now only has 6 speeds. And last night I fixed the third in a series (or three, hopefully) of punctures in my back tyre.
 
I cycled in today - and it didn;t precipitate either - so there is every chance I will cycle in tomorrow too - if my right knee holds out that is.
 
Attended a Bexley Cyclists meeting last Tuesday - there were four of us and I took on the task of organising some nice cycle rides into the countryside.
 
Tonight I attend a Friends of the Earth meeting.

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It's Snow Disco

In common with a lot of people in the South of England, I couldn't get into work yesterday. Unlike a lot of other people - I tried!! I left the house before 8.00 and walked to Bexleyheath station. Passed some old duffer at the bus-stop - thought I'd do a good turn and let him know all the buses have been cancelled today. He didn;t believe me! This despite the fact that clearly no buses were to be seen - which never normally happens.

I was turned away from the station (above) - immediately texted work to take leave (my boss wouldn't accept this saying that as far as he's concerned I was working at home). Well I'm the only one from the team to have made it in today - so I deserve something!

Later - had a bit of a walk in Danson Park 5 minutes from home. It was full of kids - not photographed in case of accusations of peadophilia - making big snow balls and snow persons of indeterminate gender.

Well Hello Mr Fancy Pants

My Name Is Bruce on DVD (2007)
Starring: Adam Boyd, Bruce Campbell, Mike Estes
Director: Bruce Campbell
Certificate:
I'm a big fan of the Evil Dead trilogy. The second one was best of course, but number three has a place in my heart. It features an extremely funny Bruce Campbell doing Three stooges slapstick.

This is the Bruce Campbell you get here - one that will not take himself the least bit seriously. In this film he paints himself as a washed up B-Movie loser that he clearly isn't. Irritated by his fans and washed up in a career that finally leaves him starring in a terrible franchise called Cave Alien.

Meanwhile - the world's biggest Campbell fan - a kid in a little hick town called Goldlick - accidentally releases a violent Chinese god which proceeds to terorrise the town to avenge the death of Chinese workers in a mine tragedy over a hundred years before.

For Evil Dead fans there are plenty of in-jokes, some good, some lame; however, Campbell's good humoured and self deprecating performance carries the whole thing along beautifully. You get a generous serving of Ted Raimi too - Sam's less famous brother who mainly played deadites in Evil Dead, playing an assortment of odd characters in this. I laughed out loud at least half a dozen times. Which is good for me.

Forget JCVD - see this instead.

Hoorayyyy!!

The first good news from the United States in a long time.

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Whinging Savers

Savers are whinging about low interest rates. It's not just whinging either, it's self righteous whinging too, indignant against those who are in debt.

What do they think the interst rate is? It's a payment received for lending money. You invest it. The bank lends it. The borrow gets into debt and pays interest. The bank puts some of that interest into your account. Without debtors there would be NO INTEREST accruing on invested money.

So enough with the self righteous whinging already! You were happy to take advantage of the good times, and the foolish banks' foolish policy of overlending becasue it paid YOU a higher interest rate. But those times are over. Get over yourself. You had it good and now you don't. I mean who do you think should pay your interest rate now? And on what basis if lending has stopped?

news today

Gaza pounded amid push for truce
The UN's relief agency, Unrwa, says part of its HQ in Gaza was set on fire after being hit by Israeli shell fire. BBC news headlinesWhen is someone going to deal with this?

Miliband regrets 'war on terror'
The idea of a "war on terror" is a "mistake", putting too much emphasis on military force, Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said.
BBC news headlines
It's too late, it's stating the bleeding obvious, and tha man's a fuckwit. But this time, he's right. I would guess this is the beginning of trying to suck up to Obama, it's a pity they didn't have more back-bone during the last 8 years and st and up to the Neo-Cons. I blame Blair and New Labor - sorry Labour - for the mess we're now in just as much as I blame Bush.

New runway will demolish village
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7830275.stm
A few posh Tories lose their homes and Boris Johnson is right behind them. Does he give a fuck about the thousands in Camberwell blighted by the constant aeroplane noise? I doubt it.
I've decided to support the third runway - fuck the rich. Airlines are all going bust anyway.
Obama's 'Beast' of a car revealed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7829475.stm

Bendy gadget future for graphene
A remarkable material called graphene could soon be used to make flexible and transparent high-speed electronics, researchers say.
BBC news headlines

Thursday already!

I hadn;t realised how mediocre Old Harry's Game was until last night. Once you've invested in what turned out to be four hours of your time in order to travel to a venue, sit around in a "hospitality" suite for an hour, and then sit through two recordings and re-recordings where errors were made, then you start seriously questioning the worth of the material on offer. The jokes are mostly old, and often not very funny. Only the mention of sticking badges up the arseholes of angels made me laugh out loud. Nothing else did. Therefore my contribution to the recording is extremely slim, although I did clap quite a lot.
The actors were Andy Hamilton (the writer and playing Satan), Jimmy Mulville, Robert Duncan (formerly in Drop The Dead Donkey), Annette Crosbie (One Foot In The Grave, Calendar Girls), Philip Pope, and Michael Fenton Stevens. Paul Mayhew-Archer was producing - and told us a few jokes at the start to warm us up.

Thanks to the Woolwich link (abreviated to W'wich Arsenal on the DLR information boards because the alternative would be Woolwich Arse) got back to W'wich around 11.00, home by 11.30, and eating fish and chips, drinking wine and watching Seinfeld shortly after midnight.

Of course all this sitting up late type behaviour is playing havoc with me getting into work on time, thank the lord for informal flexi time. But next week I start at our Holborn office, so informal flexi time goes out fo the window and I ahve to start getting up at 7.30 and getting into work by 9.00.



My clothes order came today. The nice Irish woman, short, attractive, a bit like Ellaine from Seinfeld, came over with the parcel and asked if I was the person addressed on the label. She only knows me as Steve. In it are the items I ordered - I tried them on in the loo - very nice.

I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night

It's 5 O'Clock and for the past two hours the office has been filling up with people, and now feels more like a social venue than a place of work, with laughter and loud conversation coming from all directions, and I CANNOT CONCENTRATE ENOUGH TO GET ANY WORK DONE. So I'm putting wheels in motion for my change of location, where I suspect a quieter atmosphere persists.
 
Deaths in Gaza have passed the 1000 mark. I've been watching the news on this since it started over xmas, and could see the pro Israel propaganda machine kicking in on about day three of the slaughter. The timing seems to be to get one last mass murdering action in before GW hands over to Obama.
 
I can't help thinking - What bastards! - and us too for letting it happen. There is no defence that Israel can use to justify this slaughter, the deaths of hundreds of civilians, and a one sided slaughter of the elected authorities in Gaza.
 
Of to see a recording of Radio Four's Old Harry's Game in the minute. It's an enjoyable programme and this must be the third series at least. I put in for a Mozza Radio 2 special ticket too, but will have to wait to hear if I get one.

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ancestors

I was surprised my mum gave me a load of old photos over xmas - she didn't want to keep them.

This is the family my Great Grandmother worked for - she's the one in the maid's uniform 2nd from left

I'm not quite sure who all these people are - but they are from my mum's family taken around the time of the war - or soon after.

Again - not sure who - think its my grandad's family in the 1920s - looks like Bigbury

That's my Grandad front left - aged about 10. This was taken in the early 30s

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Dinky Little Railway

Got up a bit later than I planned,which means I'll be in work quite late today making up the hours.

This is in part due to the state of my sinuses making me quite groggy first thing.

Breakfast was toast with strawberry jam.

at work i sent out my standard information pack to the new rep and realised it needed updating; continued to compile incidents from the past year, checked recently received environmental inspections, and personal stuff - sorted out the Rufu Wainwright CDs I'm sending back.

I got into work today using the new Woolwich Arsenal DLR link. I reckon it now takes about an hour and ten minutes if all goes well, and I'll never have to go to North Greenwich again.

Dodgy Little Rollercoaster

Another late start. Didn't go on walk, but did have to see through my rash promise to make pasties today.

It was a good day for getting laundry done, drinking cheap Italian wine, reading a hundred pages of Michael Palin's Python diaries, and trying on my some of my old clothes to see if they were worth keeping.

After 3.00 I ventured out on the bike to explore the Thameside path between Thamesmead and Erith.

Pictures to be posted asap.

Pasties successful.

Bed at 1 am.

Saturday 10th January

It was so nice in bed that I didn't get out. I've got everything at hand in bed with the exception of the toilet, which was finally why I did make the relatively painless journey - about 10 feet - into the loo to empty my bladder.

Got back into bed and listened to Adam And Joe. Wonder how I can get a coffee without getting up. Finally at 12 I emerged, be-gowned, hair sticking up, and headed for the kettle, and cold bombay potatoes for breakfast.

Still have some sorting out to do in my room. I've managed to sort out a lot of my clothes I have odd things on the floor, on the bed, hanging up in random places. I've hung up my T Shirts, shirts, trousers into drawers, etc. I've left other drawers for electrical stuff like walkman and USB leads, all my bathroom stuff in one drawer.

my books have been stacked - all the US history stuff in one big pile, lifestyle and music stuff where I can reach it from the bed.

Once I was up and dressed decided to have a stroll up the high street.

Trawled the charity shops and found an old book on Tony Hancock, and another on Buddhism. Went to the library and took out Will Self's Book of Dave and Charles Bukowski's Post Office. Finally went to the Turkish supermarket - olives, taramasolata, hummus, chick peas, diced lamb, etc, and nipped to Lidl for some basics, pitta bread, onions, milk.

Finished off bottle of wine and beer in evening, cooked fish and chips, read - went to pub with Paul at 9.30....followed up by drunken conversation intot he early hours accompanied by a random selection of tracks from my mp3 player.

Friday 9th of January

This weekend I was planning to start walking the Capital Ring from Woolwich towards Crystal Palace. I printed off the maps, downloaded the MP3 guides, and then didn't do the walk, but I feel like I did!

Friday I felt burnt out - as I usually do after the top management meeting in the morning and then attempting in an extremely noisy office to compile a list of environmental incidents in the past year and start some analysis.
While trying to work I also managed to order a couple of items of clothing - two for one offer on clearance items - both in my size and both under £15, which is the price I get them both for.

In the evening I got the Jubilee Line to North Greenwich and the bus from there to Welling. It took about 2 hours and I was spangled beyond belief. Oh how I hate travelling on buses. Collins and Herring kept me amused though - I'm always one podcast behind due to the fact that my computer at work can never access their podcast on the day it becomes available, presumably due to heavy traffic.

I had the Adam And Joe podcast too, which made me titter.

At home I drank beer, and watched tv, and listened to music, and talked to Paul, and had a curry each. Got to bed around 4 am.

Latest Amazon Order

I received 6 new albums from Amazon just before Xmas. Three by Sparks, two by Rufus Wainwirght and one by Talking Heads.
 
'Speaking In Tongues' was Talking Heads' 5th studio album, released in 1983, it is also my favourite of their studio albums. Only the live 'The Name Of This Band...' is better in my estimation. I used to have it on tape, so thought it was about time to upgrade.
 
'A Woofer In Tweeters Clothing' was Sparks' first proper album - and to be honest - haven't really listened to it since it arrived.
 
'Propaganda' Sparks 1974 release - it is beginning to grow on me although there's no obvious stand-out tracks as yet.
 
'Big Beat' - Sparks 1976 release - is turning out to be my favourite. "Big Boy", "I Bought The Mississippi River", "Everybody's Stupid", "Throw Her Away (and Get A New One)", and "White Women" are quickly becoming my favourites, even making me laugh out loud while I'm cycling along.
 
The two Wainwright albums are magnificent and I will be trying to make time to lay back - completely undisturbed -  and listen to them properly.
 
 

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Ed Harcourt

I've just discovered Ed Harcourt. I think he's made around 6 albums so far, and I've been aware of his existence, after all he gets played quite a lot on the more serious radio stations. But I've never made the effort to listen properly to his stuff before, like I did today. D. had a few tracks by Harcourt on a home-made CD which I have put onto my little Zen pod. I have to say – I liked most of it quite a lot, and some of it, nearly as much. Very good music. I can't tell you what tracks as I don't know, but I will find out.

My two weeks in Plymouth - in pictures:

A disused railway viaduct over the River Plym

The river

The Laira Estuary

Main line railway alongside Laira Estuary

Cremyll Ferry on New Years Eve

Xmas Day

Swell in Welling

I'm up in Welling now. No longer sleeping on the floor, I have a proper bed, my own room, and I pay rent. That's a definite step up.

I've joined the local library for the IT facilities, and of course, the books. I noted with approval that the website reminds members that if they do not use their cards to borrow items then lose the use of the IT facilites too.

I've also made links with the local cycling campaign in Bexley, and hope to pick up the NO2ID stuff again.

I'm lodging with a friend of a friend called P. And his plan is to live in this property for another 5 years; I'm welcome to stay till then - and to be honest I'll probably need every minute of that time to get myself fully back on my feet.

The cycle commute is similar to the one I undertook from Chislehurst, only I have to negotiate Shooters Hill. If I get public transport then its a bus to North Greenwich and tube from there. Luckily for me there's a new Woolwich DLR station opening early next year, and this should save me a bit of time getting into work.

Stayed up till 3 am on Wednesday morning to see the historic event - the first black man elected to the White House. Not that he's particlarly left wing or anything, but at least he was one of the few politicians who opposed the neo-cons when they went to war.



Our leaders, however, a pathethic couple of buffons - I'm his friend, no I wanna be his friend.



I watched a documentary on Neil Young. He must be pleased having taken CSN&Y on tour around the USA - winding up their southern audiences with songs laden with anti-Bush messages.



Back on the bike this week. I wasn't well last week. Even though I seme to ahve avoided catching a cold. I'm fighting it mentally, and physically - eating very carefully to make sure I have all the nutrition I need, and more. I've put on the weight I lost again though.



Inspired by Danny Baker I'm filling my MP3 player with songs at 2 minutes or less. I might publish the full list on here when I'm done. There's quite a lot of 60s stuff, punk and Elvis Costello. No Floyd or Genesis though.



I managed to get a couple of songs onto Danny Baker's list, and now realise my information was probably wrong. Oooops.



The DVDs from lovefilm keep on coming. This week I've had Amorres Perro; Seinfeld series 4 disc 1; Wrong Arm of The Law.

A Fortean Weekend

Attended the excellent Fortean Uncon event at the weekend.



Saw talks by Richard Wiseman (investigating the unknown); David Clarke (Opening Britain's X-Files); Ian Simmons (Extraterrestrial Mythologies in Modern Music); Andy Roberts (Psychedlia Forteana); Peter Brookesmith and Rob Irving (Celine and Julie Go Hoaxing); Jon Downes (Re-evaluating the Chupacabra); Patrick Huyghe (Under the Radar: UFOs and National Security); Ivan Mackerle (Exploring Siberia's Valley of Death); Paul Screeton (Folklorists and Forteans: Friends or Foes); Professor Vanessa Toulmin (Peculiar Entertainments - Speciality Acts in Victorian and Edwardian Fairgrounds and Variety Theatres); Richard Freeman (Search For the Almasty); David Clarke, Andy Roberts and Peter Brookesmith (A Policeman's Lot - The Alan Godfrey Abduction Case).

time to ramble

The row over Ross and Russ has been unbelievable. The Daily Mail went into spasms of hysterical righteousness and whipped up enough anti-BBC fervour to register near 30,000 complaints. I'm assuming none of these people actually heard the programme as after the programme was aired, and before the Mail got hold of it, only 2 complaints were made to the BBC. The Mail, of course, has got business links with Sky and ITV and other digital media outlets, which means they have a hidden agenda - that of undermining public broadcasting at every opportunity, so I'm not surprised at their hideous over-reaction. I am unfortunately continually surprised at how stupid their readership is.

Jeremy Hardy pointed out on the News Quiz that much more important things have been happening, and apparently are not being covered by the major news media in this country...

Loved Charlie Brooker's Big Brother Zombie epic which was on every night last week. I don't approve of fast Zombies - neither does Romero - but on the whole it was worthy of the best Zombie films - the comments on modern media and fame all hit home, and there were clever references to "Dawn of the Dead" which I enjoyed.

Came 2nd in the pub quiz last night. People in the Tup are pretty friendly and I'll miss my Sunday nights once I move out of Colliers Wood.

I've been contributing quite a bit to an on-line forum lately. I've been having a massive row about the Ross and Russ incident on Radio 2 and somehow managed to start a row about the Military Industrial complex / Pentagon / secret government that really runs America's foreign policy and long term strategy.

We've got our final judgement from LRQA on Thursday - about whether we're able to close out our NC's. I have a good feeling about it, as we have done everything that was required. We shall see. Tomorrow might turn out to be quite a bad day.

complaint about dangerous and agressive driver

To Whom it May Conern,

I'd like to make a complaint - in the strongest terms - about one of your drivers.

I am a cyclist and today ( around 11.30 / 11.40 am) cycling on Gloucester Place I was assaulted by your driver.

I was cycling in a northerly direction, with your bus behind me. As I approached a traffic light at a junction I noticed that the light had turned yellow, and with my experience of this junction stopped as I knew I had no chance of clearing the junction before the traffic started moving the other way. As soon as I stopped the light went red. As soon as I stopped your driver beeped his horn and overtook me dangerously on my right, veered round me at high speed nearly hitting me with the rear of his bus, and proceeded straight through the red light.

I caught him up to complain further up the road, and he became extremely agitated, gesturing, and edging his bus forward towards me in a threatening manner. After failing to secure his apology - he kept shouting that it wasn't a red light, that it was yellow, as if that was the only issue, and not his dangerous and threatening driving.

I decided to take the details which I include below - as I was doing this he was edging the bus forward to try to intimidate me. Once I'd finished taking the details your driver moved the bus forward, again at high speed, as I was trying to get back on my bike, and knocked me out of the way as the bus hit me side on. Fortunately I was not injured, although I haven't yet checked the bike thoroughly.

I want this driver disciplined or I shall be taking the matter to the police.

I do not think he is fit to drive a passenger service bus on crowded streets of a major city.

Bus route - 274 towards Angel
time - 11.30 - 11.40 am
date - 23rd October
bus number - DLD 120
Reg plate - V120 GBY
No on side of bus - 53

Yours,

The Cat

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V For Vendetta (2005)

Starring: Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, John Hurt
Director: James McTeigue, Comic Book Classics

I read the book back in the late 80s when it carried some power, and we were all a bit scared of where the future was taking us politically. Margaret Thacher reigned supreme and the spectre of Big Brother loomed over all of us.

Now that this frightening future has arrived the book has little power. Thatcher entered the House of Lords, surveillance society is here, ID cards will be here in a couple of years, and special rendition means you are always in the FBI's jurisdiction.

All this just goes to show up the books weaknesses, and the clumsy way it represented a fascist state. Instead of minorities being victimised, we have all been railroaded into accepting an illegal War Against Terror aimed at the muslim world. We have also lost control of our governments; few believe democracy works, few bother voting.

This film ultimately is out-dated, irrelevent, and the silliness of the concept means that any valid point about the way the world is now,eg, the government's main role in the present is to scare and control its people with threats of terrorism and violence, is almost entirely lost.

The film itself lacks flair and ambition. Is it a parallel world or the future? Either way - it doesn't make it. It borrows images from the most recent 1984 adaptation (notably John Hurt's face on a big screen) and the Matrix, but the police are equipped with 1990s Rovers, and everything in the film is just exactly as things actually are. A good dystopic fantasy movie will make change to the reality - either we live in wartime squalor and this should be visible on the screen, or we don't which will mean changes from our reality - different vehicles, different fashions, different designs, new or alternative technology, just something that makes you believe in this alternative or future reality. but there was nothing, just a man who sounds like James Mason wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, and behaving like he's in the Matrix.

Still - quite enjoyed it anyway, just a bit disappointed.

Geoff Hoon Is A Fucking Idiot

Story: Geoff Hoon is a fucking idiot

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It's A Boy Girl Thing

Starring: Samaire Armstrong, Kevin Zegers, Emily Hampshire
Director: Nick Hurran
Certificate:
Being interested in the differences, and similarities, between gender, I thought this film might offer some insight. I thought, imaginatively tackled, this could be a really interesting subject matter. Needless to say there was no imagination, and no insight.

From the start the film went the way of the clumsy, obvious, and stupid.

The gender issue - well not really dealt with. The boy was working class, with slobs as parents, interested only in girls, heavy rock, and sport. The girl read Shakespeare and listened to Elton John (!!!), her parents were upper middle class - father a wimp, mother a snob. The strange thing is - they lived next door to each other in near identical houses, and went to the same school. Maybe because this is America, that can happen. Or maybe it was becasue the plot required these impossible contradictory things to be true.

Ostensibly about the differences in gender, it turned out to be about class; about the opportunities offered by being from a bettter class, eg, being able to go to one of the best Colleges, and not just because you're good at football.

Both seemed quite happy in each other's bodies, except that the boy barfed when he thought about having sex with another boy, even though he was a girl. I think I'd be at least a little interested in how it feels from the other side. The boy also took to dressing as a girl better than you would expect. He immediately tried to put a bra on - obviously for an easy laugh as he said he had trouble getting them off let alone getting one on. But after that - to annoy the girl (in his body) he went to school dressed as a 'slut', had no trouble with heels, or make-up, and seemed comfortable in short skirts.

My contention here is that they would want to continue to dress in a style they were used to. She would want to wear skirts if that's what she liked to wear as a girl, and probably would at home to be comfortable, and he wouldn't(unless he was a closet transvestite - I assumed he wasn't).

Imagine the amusing scenes you could have with that idea. I think so anyway.

So - the film was confused, unimaginative, incoherent, predictable, and boring. I do not recommend wasting your time with it.

Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

 
It finally starts to look like Fossett is dead. this after some recent speculation that he'd faked his own death. Now the speculation will be how he came to crash such a safe plane.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7649799.stm
 
This is interesting too - a script written by the BBC and the government to be broadcast in the event of a nuclear attack.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7648042.stm
 
On the day following two high profile resignations, that crooked bastard Mandelson is back
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7650013.stm

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a proper transformer

I've come out of my depression this morning and got some longoutstanding stuff done - to do with the car and the cats. Unfortunately I have to rehome my cats, which has been upsetting me for some time.
 
I saw a terible film yesterday - Forbidden Kingdom - a lightweight martial arts film starring Jackie chan. It was rubbish with a couple of good fights and about one good joke. There was a clip of Monkey in it though, and while the main guy was taken back to Ancient China after becoming unconscious his mission was to free the Monkey King. I thought it might be good, but it wasn't - some people walked out - but I don;t do that however terrible the film is. Maybe I should.
 
On a brighter note, I've volunteered to set up a NO2ID group in SW London. Just waiting for a reply from my contact at NO2ID.
 
End of the week and its the top management meeting where I have to present our progress or otherwise in the EMS.

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Hitler's Fixer - The True Story Of Hitler's Deputy

I learned nothing new about Bormann from watching this. Some of the footage was good though - colour film from WW2 era.
In all though - unless you don't even know who Borrman was this film will tell you very little new. If you don;t know who Borrman was, then you probably won't be interested. Do yourself a favour and read a book instead.

Let's Get Funky

My back's not hurting today - hoorah!! I dreamt I was in the mafia and my wife and daughter got surrounded. Paul who I really do work with was my main henchman in the dream and I left him outside handling the situation while I went indoors to rescue my family. Suddenly outside the police started leaving, and Paul was gone as well. Was he a traitor? I never found out.

Instead found myself awake on an inflatable rubber bed in D's tiny little spare room.

I've been weighing myself again - today 17 stone 11 1/4 lbs - that's down from last weeks 18 stone 1 lb. I need to lose weight so that some of my favourite old clothes will fit me again as well as the obvious health implications, and I've got the Dunwich Dynamo in July to consider. I need to get back to the fitness I had two years ago.

Today it rained, and nothing really got resolved at work today. The audit is bearing down upon us and there's a couple of issues that I didn;t think were my responsibilty, but now as noone else wants to sort them out, they've come back to me, and I can do nothing about them. Oh hum, another day to play email ping pong and be tearing my hair out by 5pm. I'm considering going to the cinema at 4.00 pm tomorrow - there's a new film at the Prince Charles I might like.

Night In The City

I post because I have promised myself I would everyday I could get net access. So here we are.
 
I went to work today and spent most of it ensuring areas of my business had their environmental inspection schedules in order.
 
At the quiz last night we came 7th out of 15 teams - it was an appalling performance.
 
I've decided I must blog in the morning when I can actually think of something to write.  

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new day rising

Back to work with a hangover today. My team came 3rd in the Metronet Pub Quiz and I had four pints of lager - which is a lot for me these days.

Emailed to NO2ID campaign to see if they have anything I can get involved with - I quite fancy taking up a cause again. It's been a long time.

People in the office are talking to me today. Which is nice...

Saw another Zombie film today. At the Prince Charles, my new favourite cinema, for only £1.50. I wasn;t sure when it started - they stamped comedy and clumsy satire all over the first 5 minutes, and the set-up was full of cliches - deliberately so for sure - but it was a fairly obvious and not terribly subtle attempt at spoofing action movies, that themselves are already parodies.

But, I warmed to it. It was called Stripper Zombies and it gave us yet a new take on the Zombie as all Zombie films have to these days.

And I've got a Martin Bormann documentary on DVD which comes to the surprising conclusion that Bormann died in Berlin in 1945, and did not escape to become a Soviet spy living in Paraguay.

And now for some pictures:

This poster below annoys me - although I had to laugh. It's an ad for teachers, and they rather desperately try to show how down with the kids music they are by mentioning Jimi Hendrix. While this is obviously quite sad and misguided, they make it worse by correcting the Jimi's spelling - "Voodoo Chile" becomes "Voodoo Child".

This statue below is near Victoria Station, on the corner near the grounds of Buckingham Palace. Turns out I'm related to the person who modelled for it about 90 years ago. It was my Gt Gt Uncle fresh from living in a ditch in France for several years - he travelled up from Plymouth for it and was apparently extremely reluctant to do it.

banana

Another manic Thursday. Today is the day that most work seems to get done. This is because the big managers' meeting is held on Friday morning and if there's any jobs not done someone tends to get bollocked. So my phone rings quite a lot on a Thursday and at the same time I'm trying to write up and put together my weekly update and figures, etc.

Watched a documentary on the Ramones last night and found out I knew nothing about them - or very little. And then D put a Smiths DVD on. This meant I was up till 1 am and now am very tired.

As well as trying to get the update completed for tomorrow, the company is holding a quiz tonight to raise money for charidy. I've joined a team to be sociable, and becasue I enjoy quizzes. I'm not great at them but D and I won our local pub quiz on Sunday - won £27.

Danny Baker's back on the radio this week - so I'm in a better mood in the afternoons.

about town

Took a day off work today. I had to collect my bike from Edwardes in Camberwell wher eit had been fitted with a new block and chain. Riding it into London felt good. I've found cycling to be pretty depressing lately what with my own health problems - back and knees seem to be giving out, and with blocked up sinuses, headaches, and terrible stomach problems - have left me preferring to take the tube of late.
 
I think I might have slightly buggered myself up a bit by cycling 250 miles in 4 days in the summer. I defintely buggered the bike up.
 
And there's the stress as well - which I'm sure accounts for some of my problems.
 
Anyway - back on the bike today and it felt good. I'd already said that. Cycled up to Baker Street and went into my office to have a shower and pick up a few bits from my desk, before then heading down to the Prince Charles cinema to see "Midnight Kiss" for £1.50.
 
MK is an indie film made in Hollywood, set in Hollywood, about a writer trying to forge a career in LA - who has a run of bad luck culminating in depression and despondence. His friend - who he's living with puts encourages him to place an ad on an internet social networking site for a date. He gets a call, a woman who arranges to meet him for 5 minutes to see if he's up to her standards.  
 
It's funny and moving - very cheaply made I guess - entirely using unkown actors - but it was all great - script, direction, soundtrack and acting - perfect. Nine out of ten.
 
Also listening to - new Stereolab album, latest Brian Wilson, and a cover version of the Abbey Road album by Booker T & The MGs.
 
 
 

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catch up

I'm currently single again having been thrown out by my wife again, and sleeping on a friend's floor so I can get cash together to rent a room of my own. I'm considering the deepest south of the Northern Line at the moment, as it is an area I like, and am familiar with, and I'll be near my friend - may need the ongoing support.
Got in touch with another friend last week - someone else who once had the hots for my wife and purused her for a time. We went and saw a country act called Elizabeth Scott. She was acompanied by her accomplished singer song-writer husband on geetar.
I'll be back to write a review soon I hope. The gig was so good I bought the album.
Picked up my ongoing interest in researching the family tree and am now sharing info with the family who all seem quite interested. Now I need to patch it all together in a form that the family can read and understand easily.
Been watching some movies lately - Dark Crystal, Cold Sweat, Brothers Grimm, Time Machine (remake), Coffee and Cigarettes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Have a little DVD player - hand-held gadget thing - allows me to get a film in most days during lunch or while travelling.
After my cycle tour I've given cycling a bit of a rest - but started back on the bike today.
For a while now have been going to regular pub quix where between 10 and 20 teams tend to enter. We came 4th yesterday - only about 5 points off the leader. Previously we have come 6th and 3rd. Our disadvantage is that there are only two of us in the team, and most of our competitors have 4 to 6 in theirs. And we know bugger all about sport!

Perusing today's news

Phew – as long as New Orleans is alright – fuck Haiti

 

At last a sports person speaking out about nasty exploitative parasitic politicians. He's right you know.

 

Winner of this week's No Shit Sherlock Award! I would never have guessed.

 

 

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Blunkett - What a C**t

Arch bastard David Blunkett making more ill thought out hate filled comments – now, "Older people should carry on working as long as they are physically capable". What a c**t!

"In a speech to the Counsel and Care charity in London he said it should not be assumed the government had "prime responsibility" to support the elderly. " You start to wonder what he thinks the government does have responsibility for. What do we have governments for? Starting wars? Spying on its population? Preventing dissent? It does appear that way.

Blunkett also said people should use equity release schemes to raise money from their homes to pay for care.

Right in the middle of the credit crunch this twat has learned nothing. The last I want to be when I'm 97 is mortgaged up to the eyeballs. A nice legacy to leave my niece and nephew eh?

"My presumption is this. That all of us, every one of us who is capable of doing so, should aspire to continue with some meaningful activity to the point of our incapacity overtaking us.

Meaningful activity presumably means meaningful to the state and to the corporations. No chance that you could enjoy yourself at any point, develop a hobby, travel, read, create, spend time with your family, look after grandkids, etc. No – if you aren't paying tax then you're a burden.

Mr Blunkett said £700bn was tied up in home ownership by those who had retired.

Tied up – how? That money is handed over to the seller who then puts it in the bank, or buys something with it. It's not tied up. There's no actual money there at all, just a pile of bricks and mortar that the owner would like to live in. But no – the government want your homes now too, no chance that you might leave it to your children.

"In our endeavour to protect people's inheritance, have we not made enough of, and are we not clear enough about, the release of equity from the enormous home ownership that exists in Britain and the divide of those with and without assets which this trend has accelerated?" he said.

If he's concerned about homeownership then maybe now is the time to resurrect the public housing sector  - and I don't mean corrupt Housing Associations.

"I'm suggesting that part-time work - often a different kind of job - is one way firstly of sustaining people but secondly of people remaining active," he said.

Shelf stacking it is then!

"Why should someone who's not saved, who's not put money by, expect those who have to sustain them to do so not just in working life but in retirement as well."

Maybe paying taxes and NI all your life might entitle you to something back. Bastard!

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keeping my Blog

Despite best of intentions, I still haven't managed to blog. It's the only account of my life I keep and as my memory seems to be so terrible, it might be my only 'memory' of these years.
 
At the moment I'm going through the diaries I kept from 1989 to 1993. It's almost daily and an insight into the young me, which the old me is finding fascinating.
 
So I'm hoping that this will induce me to blog more regularly. And to write some thing worth reading in the years to come.
 
 

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some news...

Soldiers refused service at a Hotel

I've left a comment on the BBC site that this is fair comment in a country where the government went ahead with an illegal war despite almost universal public opposition. As far as I remember only the poor deluded who believed the fairy stories about Bin Laden's evil mountain HQ were in support of this war.

The only legal thing for a soldier to do when faced with orders to perform illegal acts is to refuse those orders. I believe this was established at Nuremburg after WW2.

http://maps.met.police.uk/

I went on to look at crime-obsessed Boris Johnson's new map of London. It shows levels of "serious" crimes in boroughs and wards across London. By serious they mean muggings, robberies, rapes and - pause for comic effect - car crimes. So for middle England having your car nicked is like being raped. Great. Anyway, since these figures are all bundled together you really know what they mean. They're useless, basically. I don't own a car, so it having my car nicked doesn't worry me.

I worry more about getting my bike nicked, but this map doesn't help there.

I also worry about being attacked (slightly) but the only thing I can definitely glean from this map is that walking alone in the middle of a large council estate is probably increasing my risk of being attacked. Hard luck if that's where you live.

Put Your Vest On, Man!

The Omega Man

Starring: Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe, Rosalind Cash
Director: Boris Sagal

I thought I'd seen this film before, settling down and watching this DVD revealed that I’d only ever watched a small part of it (including a bit with rotten corpses in it that I’d accidentally seen as a young child when I should have been in bed) even though it’s on telly about three times a year and I’m in my forties, meaning I could have seen it about 70-odd times for free during my adult life.
Instead I paid to rent it out on DVD. Which is good because it allowed me to rewind and pause the good bits. The bits with the dead people in it.
I read “I Am Legend” about three years ago, before the Will Smith remake last year, and while “Omega Man” takes liberties with the original plot, you can see why those changes were made, and they work. And it’s a good film.
Charlton Heston is probably a mis-casting – but not remotely on the same scale as Will Smith’s mis-casting in the remake. Heston manages to get a little pro-gun propaganda into the film (or am I being too sensitive?) And the vampires are gone, instead you’ve got light sensitive homicidal religious maniacs. That’s slightly disappointing, and takes the film out of the realm of out and out horror fantasy and into post-apocalyptic thriller.
Events from the book occur in a slightly different order, and the ending is softened to prevent depressed audiences leaving the cinema. But it's very enjoyable, quite tense in places, different from the book so if you’ve read that, there’s no spoilers in there for you.
There’s a couple of interesting extras on the DVD too.

Tedious Comedy

Death At A Funeral
Starring: Peter Egan, Alan Tudyk, Thomas Wheatley
Director: Frank Oz

American director makes another twee British comedy with immensly unlikeable characters and predictable unfunny 'jokes'.

Americans must surely believe that everyone in Britain is rich and lives in a mansion, drives a sports car and does something terribly posh for a living - like being Queen, or a barrister.

I only watched this because it was lying about and I had nothing else to watch. I think that I'm safe in saying that all the comedy in this is tired and recycled. It's so terribly funny to see someone who has accidently taken a psychedelic drug just before they meet their girlfriends father at a funeral; or to see a corpse thrown out of its coffin during a eulogy; or even a dead dwarf being smuggled out of a crowded house; or an old man who has sh*t himself because everyone forgot he was sitting on the toilet.

Hilarious? Or feeble, rotten and mediocre?

You decide. But my advice is don't bother.

The Brothers Grimm

Starring: Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Lena Headey
Director: Terry Gilliam
Certificate:
I consider Gilliam to be a very important director. Brazil may rate as my favourite film of all time, and the only film to do justice to Orwell's 1984. He's made some other great films too. But this isn't one of them. This is a competent, slightly dull with a few good bits type film.
It's heavy on CGI - this despite Gilliam's insistance that he's reluctant to use CGI, it overpowers large parts of this film, and not all of it is very good.
It also doesn't really have much of a plot, which is a shame. And the last third of the film is more or less given to playing out what is a tedious and predictable story, not helped by too much CGI as the wicked princess goes all to pieces and her tower comes tumbling down.
There's good in here though - Jonathan Pryce and Heath Ledger both put in brilliant performances. Some of the effects work and there is much detail within the sets, and a lot of thought put in to how things might work. This attention to detail Gilliam has is something I admire and wish was a more univeral trait amongst movie-makers.
All in all - I wouldn't recommend it. I'd say don't bother - unless you really want to of course.

In Space No-one Can Hear You Snore

The Wild Blue Yonder on DVD (2005)


Starring: Brad Dourif, Capt. Donald Williams, Dr. Ellen Baker
Director: Werner Herzog
Certificate:
I did really want to like this. I really did. honestly.

But, the reality was, this film dragged. The music reminded me of Maltese folk music (not good) and the library footage used was sometimes bizarre or irrelevent. The underwater sequences just looked like underwater sequences.

The alien character was mildly annoying, and I kept hoping his role in the film would end quickly. It didn't.

The making of feature was more interesting and more illuminating in my opinion.

Maybe on a big screen with quad sound and after taking the right drugs, this would work. I'm glad it was made, and I realise some will love it. Not for me though

I've started reading this

Quite a dated book now. I collect books like this for the simple reason that they are history. They contain accounts of events that are being written out of the official history. The western democracies wish to portray themselves as progressive, open, non-aggressive. Unfortunately the record of events in the third world shows that western democracies are anything but. If, heaven forbid, a genuine case of actual democracy breaks out anywhere within our sphere of influence, then we simply have to crush it. This books documents the events in Guatemala that followed such an outbreak of democracy - democracy that led to America's will being defied. America was defied, so America stepped in and punished those involved.

Carnaval Del Pueblo 2008

I go to this every year. It was a bit disapointing this year. There was only one stage and the weather was poor. I went with S. and we didn't stay long, although I regret missing the bands. It was hard to relax with the rain coming every 20 minutes or so.

We stopped at this stall (below) to buy lunch:

It looked like this - mainly offal - but the chorizo and plantain was very tasty, and none of it was too bad. It was very filling anyway - not bad for £5. Afterwards we realised that we'd have been better off buying one and sharing!

Carnaval 2007

Someone's pictures on Flikr

i'm back - by the way

I arrived back from my cycle tour on Thursday - last week. I could barely move. The route was about 250 miles although I've yet to work out the final mileage. It went entirely to plan though - I got to all my accomodation as planned - and usually earlier than planned.
The extremely hot weather took me a bit by surprise though, and I wasn't ready - carrying around a great heavy fleece that I never wore, and a rain mac that I never needed.

Day One: Leiston Abbey

Day Two: Orford

Day Two: a night spent in spooky Rendlesham Forest

Day Four: arriving at Ipswich

Day Four: nearly at Epping

noah and the whale

Looks like a band I reviewed over a year ago have a hit on their hands. Personally, I can't stand it - its twee mobile phone advert fodder as far as I'm concerned and irritates me in its middle class - cute and 'clever' smugness.

http://porgythecat.blogspot.com/2007/03/piney-gir.html#comments

I don't like their name either