Gay, 45 and never seen Now Voyager

I must say that I am a disgrace to gay men all over the world as I have never seen the Bette Davis "clasic" Now, Voyager (1942). Now Mildred Pierce with a thin lipped/shoulderpadded martyr Joan Crawford, I have seen ad nauseum and All About Eve is a monthly treat in our house, but I have never actually sat down and watched Paul Henreid famously light two ciggies to the strains of Max Steiner's adapted score.

Well last night I did just that! Dogs walked early, Chris in bed, individual 250ml bottle of Chardonney and I really enjoyed 117 minutes of pure soap opera rubbish. I mean! the plot would have looked slightly out of place in the -no basis in reality- Neighbours.

Now, Voyager tells the story of a middle-aged spinster who, repressed by the domination of her mother, winds up in a sanatorium, where her self-confidence is boosted by an understanding psychiatrist. After a brief love affair during a cruise, she determines to help her lover's equally depressed daughter

Yeap, pure rubbish! Bette Davis is magnificent as the mouse-like spinster who is transformed into the mink wearing Boston Modern lady-about-town. She steals every scene she is in, and that must have been difficult as Gladys Cooper ( the bitch queen of all bitchy mothers) and Mary Wickes.(the wisecracking nurse) almost grab the acting honours.

In 2007 the United States Film Registry selected the film for preservation as it is "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant".and just for the famous line "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." I am glad they have done so

Scala stories,Clearing the dry stone wall and William

The first photo was taken in the early 1980's and shows a night out centred around the Scala Cinema in Prestatyn. Outdated (even then) the Scala had an all enclosed "booth" in which a middle aged lady would dispense the tiny "admit" one ticket; an ice cream lady with an over the shoulder tub tray standing in the aisle at the interval; a small "exclusive" balcony and the obligatory brown and orange decor so fashionable in the seventies.

The reason for the motley collection of hired and home made outfits our family and friends are wearing can be laid directly at Aunt Judy;s door, as she was appearing in the local production of OAKLAHOMA ( as one of the chorus), and after a few barcardi and cokes we all decieded to turn up in fancy dress to support her. The still was taken by friend Ian ( who got it published in the Prestatyn Journal) and from left to right (let me try and remember) the group consists of

Stu and Caroline ( Cousin and first wife),two young women I don't know, Tim (Brother in law),Ann (sister),Andrew (brother),Debbie (friend),Jayne (sister in law),Janet (twin), Ronnie (fellow C.B enthusiast), Nia (who now lives in Australia), Me!, Nerys Griffith (ex girlfriend),Andrew and Helen ( She used to work for Ann) and the woman with the beard on is the affable despot that was Joan Walkden- Williams (Tim's mother who must have been in her seventies)

The evening was a great sucess (helped along by copius amounts of Jim Beam swigged straight from the bottle!) and the local am drams' quite charitably overlooked the fact that we were singing along with the songs with gusto and gave poor Judy a standing ovation so such a small supporting role..

Recently the scala recieved the funds for a 21st Century revamp (right pic) and it would be nice to think that the new "art houe cinema and community centre" would use older pictures like this for some sort of " trip down memory lane" exhibition.

The weather has been cold but sunny today, and I have cleared a lot of dirt and weeds from the side of the dry stone wall in the lane. It is a dirty heavy job, but worth it as hopefully it will placate one of the neighbours (the old girl who was non-plussed with the arrival of the roosters). It was approaching dusk when I took the dogs to the beach, and the bad light was a pity as I love the picture of William and I

Spoke to Nige this evening too!, we had a fun semi planning my stag night ( no date for civil ceremony just yet readers) watch this space.....

Cloverfield - 5 minute Exclusive

The action starts about 2.25 mins in!
I will go and see it again with Jan and Chris

Cloverfield! a shameless 9.5 out of 10

Director Matt Reeves and producer J. J. Abrams, obviously love their horror and monster films. They have shamelessly stolen ideas from a whole host of the better movies in the genres and have dovetailed them into a cracking film that pays direct homage to the likes of The Host,,The Blair Witch Project,War of the Worlds and even Escape from New York (see pic below), The Blair Witch Project I remember created the shakey,hand held point of view "amateur" footage that was so innovative in the 1990's and Cloverfield. uses this style well adding to the mix a post 9/11 sense of tv disaster to create a truely frightening and exciting visual experience.

I won't spoil the plot too much, but the jist of the story lies around 6 twenty somethings in downtown New York and their efforts to save one of their group when a huge monster literally destroys the city. We have panic in the streets, a sphincter clenching chase sequence through the subways,( the best part of the film) and even a crazily leaning skyscraper with a rooftop rescue scene reminiscent of The Towering Inferno. Coupled to all that, The Brooklyn Bridge crammed to the seams with refugees gets the disaster treatment,the monster (and thousands of parasitic mini-spider like monsters which it sheds) trashes every bit of Manhattan in a rather too realistic a style and the rather likable set of characters get picked off one by one in typically upsetting set pieces.

I loved the movie, but of course I knew I would ten minutes into the film.It is what it is..........a monster film rollercoaster ride which delivers exactly what it says on the tin.

Owner Training

Janet ( with all legs Ruby) and me (with the benign William) went to our first dog training class this evening, and the experience lends itself wonderfully for today's blog entry.

There were two "experts"on hand to give us direction and support. One, middle aged and rather morose, had a small psychotic toy dog, who surprisingly savaged the intimidating Ruby with several hysterical bites up the arse as soon as we had entered the hall- which was a little worrying in itself!. The other "senior" teacher looked and sounded in the latter stages of left ventricular heart failure to me, but was friendly enough in a wheezy,wet, critically ill sort of way, and he soon had the 18 dogs and owners marching up and down the village hall, weaving in and out of each other and showing the megre audience of hangers on that it is the pet owners that need all the training rather than the dogs.

Apart from the the 6 die hard regulars, most of us were newbies and I was pleased that Ruby and William didn't show themselves up and for that matter nor did me and Janet, and at least we could have a laugh at certain situations some of the over zelous members found themselves in. One rather large guy with clunky jewelry, a paroxide girlfriend and a dog called satan (or was the girlfriend called Satan?) spent most of the time yelling so loudly at his pet when he did anything "wrong", that William kept sitting down in surprise to watch and listen! with a shocked kindo of interest.

The whole experience was 2£- a bargin for an interesting night out.

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Sunday 10.30pm

Trelawnyd seems to be under seige tonight when I finalluy got home after the usual Sunday 12 hour shift. Lorry after lorry is thundering through the village, spraying the pavements with dirty water and noise. I knew the reason for the traffic, as we on ITU have been coping with a effects of a multiple car RTA on the now closed A55.The diverted cars have been snaking through our "minor road" all evening. It has been a particulary sad shift.
Had a slight hangover from a birthday dinner with Janet,Ned , Ed and Lucy last night, and we had a nice evening of excess, but I think I am far too old to be roughing it at work after a hard saturday night.
Planning a great deal of allotment stuff and organisation this week, I hope the weather holds up. Off to bed now, very tired. Have to smile to myself just a little though as Maddie has stuffed herself behind me on the couch and is farting merrily to herself whist asleep.

Early Morning photos

The photo of the mini daffodil is ever so slightly out of focus, but it looks pretty enough. The lane outside the cottage is lethal and as usual has never been gritted ( or will ever!)

but looks pretty.

William has seemed to have left some of his annoying puppy behaviours in the past, and is slowly developing some of his own personality traits. Caught him this morning curled up with his nemisis George in the kitchen basket

San Fairy Ann

I am sat at my dining table in the cold early morning thinking of family phrases that are handed down throughtout the generations. These "sayings" unfortunately often die away when individuals pass on, and I think that is such a sad thing when the phrase is indicative of an era or place in time.
My Grandmother and mother always used the phrase San Fairy Ann when referring to something of no consequance. It was always used in a rather dissmissive way and I wondered this morning ( when giving the hens some cooked pasta and special K as a treat against the cold) where it actually came from.
Thank god for the internet, for,after two minutes of google-ing I found the following:-

[A] When the British Tommy arrived in France to fight in the First World War, he was presented with a language he struggled to make sense of. What he did to the pronunciation of French and Belgian place names is a wonder, such as turning Ypres into Wipers. He picked up a lot of French expressions, but he changed them into something that sounded English. This was the fate of ça ne fait rien, “it does not matter”, which became a British Army catchphrase in that war as an expression of resigned — or cynical — acceptance of some state of affairs, usually brought about by bungling officers. One English version of it was the one you quote, others were san fairy anna and even send for Mary Ann, though perhaps san fairy ann was the most common. It largely fell out of use after the War, and seems not to have been taken up by servicemen in the Second World War.

I wondered if Gran's nickname of "Scalabine" could be found on google, but apart from one chaps surname I could not find a thing.
Listening to Steve Allen on LBC this morning, I heard him say another of my mother's waspish comments
"I want I want!...doesn't get!" he was shouting, berating the modern culture of getting everything that you see in the shops. My mother always used it when we were asking for sweets in the 1960's. Not one her nicer phrases

We are going out to dinner later with Janet, Ned and Ned's son, so I will ask her if she remembers any "family sayings"