Time for Leisure Business

Following the theme of 'business' while I am on a course this week, I've taken time out to go the Cinema for some leisure business.

In fact, I took a trip to the Showcase Cinema in Coventry last night to get away from my residential course and saw Burke and Hare starring Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis ('Gollum' in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.)

Despite critics not giving it a very complimentary review, I found it entertaining and funny in places with Pegg on top form. Yes it is a little predictable, but I've always said, if done with style and class, it's fine by me.

1820s Edinburgh sees two famous surgeons struggling to find bodies for dissection to educate medical students. By accident, Burke and Hare deliver a body to the surgeon and they earn the princely sum of £5 and there starts a business that proves profitable if not somewhat dangerous and in the end fatal for one of them. There were some great ham cameo performances from Christopher Lee, Jenny Agutter and Michael Winner the latter of which is an uncredited role.

Veteran actors Ronnie Corbett and John Woodvine support the rival surgeons Tim Curry and Tom Wilkinson and the sex interest is Pegg's girlfriend Isla Fisher. Comedian Bill Bailey makes a creditable hangman and narrator.

I guess dealing with dead bodies might be an uncomfortable subject and in all honesty, if you are sensitive to this for any reason, the film is probably best to be avoided - there is a certain degree of indelicacy about it.

The film moves along with pace and the story keeps you interested right to the very ironic end.

All in all, if you like Simon Pegg, you'll like this film with all the little extras waiting to be spotted by the sharp eyed cinema goer. Recommended.

Today's element of the course dealt with the 'fascinating' subject of finance management and people management including controversial topics such as annual appraisals and less meaty but equally as important employee engagement. The preparation for the presentation at the end of the course marches on despite some severe IT issues which are doing their best to scupper our attempts at producing a simple PowerPoint presentation.

England football on the television tonight, so hopefully, something to really cheer about tomorrow.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Foggy Business...

November fog and frost greeted me this morning in what turned out to be a sunny day in Warwickshire.

The course is not getting any easier and today's subjects were around performance management and resource and demand management. The days are so long and the content of the course is largely front loaded - lots of talking from the course tutors. We have exercises to do based on the day's subject and there is a big exercise which we are working on during the week which we have to present on Friday morning before we depart for home.

I've done my 'homework,' got changed and after tea, which is served at 6 pm., I'm going to toddle off into Coventry, well the outskirts anyway to watch a film, Burke & Hare with Simon Penn. Now this film has had some average or poor reviews, but having seen the trailers, I am really happy with obvious comedy when it's done well and the production values look good, so I'll report on the film tomorrow; I just need a break from the rigours of this ever so steep learning curve!

I'm not sleeping either at the moment and I'm not sure why, but I'm hoping that the venture out in the fresh air and change of scenery will help.

I was delighted with the announcement today that Prince William will marry Kate Middleton in 2011 and I wish them well. I hope dear readers you will forgive me for this comment, but I hope that the couple will learn from the mistakes that we made, as a nation, of how we handled Diana, Princess of Wales. Having Diana's ring on her finger will be a reminder what Kate must avoid in allowing the media to pry, magnify, dissect and analyse her life in minuscule detail. The country would never forgive the media for a repeat performance.

The final picture today greeted me as I left the classroom, and although you'll have to click on the picture to enlarge it, there was a line of dancing dolphins in the clouds, much clearer than the picture has turned out.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.