Feb photo a day #7

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 7 - 'Button' 

Feb photo a day #6

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere -
Day 6 - 'Dinner'  (Well, sort of...)

It's taken 25 years...

Pete and I trekked down to Kent this weekend to stay with my friend Jan (pronounced "yarn"), his wife and 2 kids.  It was a momentous occasion... Jan was cooking a meal for us!
  
Now this may not sound like an important event to blog about, but I have been promised a meal for 25 years at least. I have cooked many meals, some good some bad, but Jan's lack of confidence in his cooking has meant I had to be patient.

So we had a lovely Lebanese pork meal followed by an Apple and Pear crumble... all accompanied by plenty of wine!  

We stayed over and woke up to snow everywhere. It had been expected - reported and over hyped by the news channels. We drove home slowly and have spent the rest of the day in the warmth of our house.  Here are a couple of pics, including their crazy cat Mona, who seems to always want to sit on my lap, but wants to draw blood from Pete...
  

Feb photo a day #5

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere -
Day 5 -  '10.00am'

This was the snow covered sign today at 10am in deepest darkest Kent...

Feb photo a day #4

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere -
Day 4 - 'A stranger'...  sometimes we look into the mirror and see a stranger.
 

February movie update

Here are the films that Pete and I have received from Lovefilm.com and watched on TV and DVD over the past few months in reverse order, with my ratings out of ten from my movie list on the IMDB.

TrollHunter (2010) 5

Stupid film about Trolls in modern day Norway that bored me, despite one funny scene with Trolls farting!

  

The Skin I Live In (2011) 5

I really love the Almodovar films from the last 20 years, but this disappointed. It's a cruel story that doesn't have any 'good' characters.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) 3

A classic film that left me cold. Unbelievable and the characters were annoying. You could easily tell it was once a play - too many long monologues.

  

Melancholia (2011) 5

A very strange film. I'm not sure what I can say without spoiling it. It's a character drama, sci-fi and arthouse movie all rolled into one!

Zelig (1983) 6

I want to like Woody Allen films and there are a couple that work well. The ones in recent years have been amateurish and cliched. This one is extremely weird and would have been brilliant if it were a 30 minute production.

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits (2009) 6

Could have been a very good film - but the characters didn't quite work for me.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) 7

Far better than the 2001 film, but was still missing something - but I am not quite sure what. The ending was set for a sequel in a very obvious way.

Carry on Screaming! (1966) 7

My favourite Carry On film (along with Carry On Abroad). Silly, funny and quite different from the others - features the great Harry H Corbett.

The Big Picture (2010) 7

Gripping drama about a guy who makes a serious mistake and has to change his life completely.

The Smurfs (2011) 7

My memory of Smurfs goes back to the National Garage days when you could buy the little characters. OK, it's a kids film, but it's actually funny and has some great lines.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) 7

Well made, but dragged at the end. If you've seen the first one, this is the same, but the story is just slightly different.

Feb photo a day #3

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere -
Day 3 'Hands'

Feb photo a day #2

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 2 'Words'
 

Feb photo a day #1

An Instagram challenge on iPhones everywhere - 
Day 1 'Your view today'

The blinds in my home office.

Who would have thought it

If you asked me a week ago what I thought of Joey Barton and I would have said: "mindless thug". My views have changed a little. On BBC3 the other night, there was a documentary on gay footballers presented by Amal Fashanu who is the niece of the late Justin Fashanu - the only out gay English football professional.

No top footballers would take part apart from Joey Barton and a few from Millwall. Joey revealed that his uncle is gay and said he felt sorry for those players who were not comfortable discussing homosexuality. His view was that there were “archaic figures” in the footballing world who would discriminate against gay players, but that he expected an out gay player in Britain in the next decade.

Praise has to go for the guys at Millwall for speaking a lot of sense. They said that they wouldn't care if another player was gay and would take the micky out of him in the same way they "pick" on other players. It's all part of the dressing room banter.
 
For me, it wasn't a great documentary, far too much filler, but it's always nice to see Anton Hysén.  I am disappointed that a few top Premiership players were not brave enough to go on camera. It's quite pathetic actually. And the FA should have put a top person forward to be interviewed and state their position clearly. They failed badly in my opinion.
 
Justin's brother, John Fashanu didn't come out of it well either. I understand that his brother could have handled his coming out better, but the 80's were a world away from today's world where coming out is seen as far less of an issue for most people. John's comments were not helpful at the time and he doesn't appear to regret them too much.
 
It sounded to me that players who were to come out would probably have support from most colleagues, but the hassle from away fans could destroy them.  Anton Hysén plays for a small team in a more liberal country and is currently just milking his celebrity (so would I) rather than concern himself with football crowds.

In all of this, let's not forget the immense skill that Justin had.  This goal says it all...