I'm Back!

My son gently and tactfully reminded me that I hadn't written a blog for sometime by pointing out the number of posts were falling. An old friend Bryan once quoted on his blog a Mark Twain witticism: "I you have nothing to say, say nothing." I guess I have plenty to say, the issue is, would it be of interest to anyone else! Then - everything happens at once!

Great blogger and writer Paula Readman has had a short story published on a site called CafeLit titled  'Cold Calling' - it's a stunning short -  read it and be chilled!!!Read her blog here.

I was at a friends last night having returned in thick falling snow from the cinema in Hull from seeing Les Miserables. I hadn't been particularly interested in seeing the film because the trailers showed it to be - well - miserable: revolutionary, dark, wet, people crying and dying in poverty, something wonderful to lift the spirit!

In fact this was a super cinematic production of popular theatre culture. I knew nothing of the story and had never been to see the stage production but the film was an absolute delight with all the emotions coming into play at one time or another. The ensemble cast were excellent and the singing was great, even from Russell Crowe (of whom one critic said, he couldn't sing.) If Hugh Jackman as the lead Jean Valjean  doesn't win award after award for his performance, I would be very surprised and disappointed.

The singing was done 'live' on film rather than being dubbed, I don't know what the technical term for this is but it's a rare technique in musical film and the resulting emotions the actors gave to their parts whilst singing was very moving indeed.  Rated at 12A, thoroughly recommended.

There was one spoiler and that wasn't on the screen, it was two young women sat behind us a few rows back who were talking and giggling throughout the film. Anger got the best of me at the end as the closing credits began to roll and people were getting ready to go, I stood up, looked directly at them and in a voice loud enough for several rows to hear I told them what I thought of them (no swearing - remain dignified at all times) and perhaps the cartoon in the next cinema would be more suitable for them. Needless to say they hurriedly exited heads down before everyone else. Fortunately, I had several murmurings of support.

Leaving my friends house around two a.m. this morning, a fox slowly trotted by along the footpath in the thick snow as I exited the door. Nothing unusual in that you may think and I've seen many foxes in that area, but it almost immediately sat down in the middle of the footpath and curled up. I had my trusty point and shoot Lumix and took a few pictures of it. It allowed me to get within ten feet of it before sauntering off a few yards and curling up once more. I saw lots of other foxes on my way home foraging for food and I think this one I saw close to had probably been breeding and was too tired to run off!

I have no cliche photographs of the snow - decided not to take any unless I saw something unusual. We've had our first major dollop of snow as mentioned above and today, most of it is still around although it's wet. The main danger comes from ice and freezing that goes with it. The next lot is forecast for Sunday night, just in time for the commute to work on Monday morning, hey ho.

Chat soon

Ta-ra