Man flu & Jobs done

Chris has a cold.....( sorry I am supposed to say manflu) and has spent all of Sunday in his pyjamas ! ( which I think is a bit common) He kept his PJs on ( with what I noticed to be a nicely coordinating hat and scarf) when he came over to the field to watch me dig out the beds.
It has been another lovely day today, with blue skies and no wind;
I have cleared the raspberry bed of weeds which was a herculean act in in itself

And completely stripped my pea frames of weeds and rubbish. After an awful winter the allotment is starting to take shape yet again

The Poseidon Adventure New Years Celebration and Capsize

I am being a geek this morning......if you have the time,AND the inclination watch this video then have a look at the following home made video ( filmed in a garage incidently)
The attention to detail is amazing!

"Poseidon Adventure" Parody Pt. 3

Start watching the video around 3.30......and compare it with the original!.......you will see just how clever this home made spoof it!

Glorious 39

Glorious 39, is a movie with one helluva cast of Brit favourites! Bill Nighy,Jenny Agutter, Julie Christie, David Tennent, Christopher Lee, Romola Garai,Hugh Bonneville, Charlie Cox and Jeremy Northern all pop up in this uneven, unbelievable and rather clunky espionage thriller set on the eve of World War 2
I can't be bothered discussing the plot, suffice to say that there were more holes in it than a block of Swiss Cheese.....and I have to say that the acting from Bill Nighy in particular has to be seen to be believed!- he actually looks as though he is reading his lines from a slow moving autocue- it's a dreadfully embarrassing performance which is not helped by an awful script and character motivations that the audience cannot quite understand!

Garai, on a plus note gives her 1930 heroine everything she's got, and Charlie Cox is sexy-as-hell as her smoothie boyfriend (above left).....but nothing else saves this poorer version of a 39 Steps-ish thriller
6/10

No news day

The weather today has been warm and springlike.
We had a jolt first thing as when we were lying in bed with a cup of tea and the usual blanket of dogs (and cat), four horses walked past the cottage, loose on the lane.
Chris and I galloped outside ( Chris in his stocking feet) and we managed to stop the horses before they ambled up to the main road. After a bit of arm waving we drove the animals into a spare field down the lane, where their owners would collect them all later.
The weather seems to have galvanised the whole village into gardening action, as everywhere mowers had been started and flower beds cleared out!
Steve (aka Islwyn) has made another new start on the Church wall, with me acting as barrow boy, and this afternoon I have cleared yet another vegetable bed....
Later we are off to Theatre Clwyd to see Glorious 39.

ME,me,me,me,me,me and me....

Am I the only person who suffers from the occasional bouts of depressive realization that I am getting older? Today I had two such flashes of reality.
The first came when I was having a cup of coffee in front of the tv. A quiz programme " Eggheads" was on and 5 contestants, all sat in a line, were introducing themselves.
The first four men on the team were good looking men in their thirties,and mentally I could almost see myself sat with them answering the questions like a good 'un! The fifth man looked a right old crock in comparison and I had the shock of my life when he stated that his name was Brian and he was 45!
Two years younger than me!!!
Gawd.....it is at times like these that I suddenly realise that I am completely "middle aged" and not the young man that I often think I am.
It is a depressing thought, and one that was compounded by a glimpse of my hands later on in the day. Now I know we all see at our hands a million times a day, but I guess that we only LOOK at our hands only very occasionally. I did, just that this evening when I was rubbing moisturiser cream into my allotment ravaged palms, and I was shocked to see a pair of hands that belonged to my father!
All wrinkled and cracked, I now am sad to admit that I have geriatric digits!

..........and let's not forget the knackered old body to go with them....................

Vegetable beds ready for planting

here's hoping it goes on the blog

Mugabe & the White African

I know a little about Zimbabwe's crash into economic and political disaster following President Mugabe's land reform initiatives. My information came first hand from some of the black Zimbabwean moderates that left the country to take up nursing jobs in Sheffield . Their move to this country was a last dash effort to escape the disintegration of democracy and poverty in a failing Zimbabwe.
What I didn't know,was that the land that was effectively stolen from the white African farmers was given, not to the poor Black Africans that had nothing, but to the friends, family, close officials and in one case a girlfriend of the country's elite.
Mugabe and The White African, is an amazing ,covertly shot documentary, about the last stand of a 75 year old mango farmer Michael Cambell , who along with his son in law, (the articulate and charismatic Ben Freeth (above pic) take on the Mugabe regime in an international court of law to win back their rights to stay on their own farm.
Cambell and Freeth as it turns out are no pushovers, despite constant intimidation, threats, a near fatal and truly horrific beating (when Cambell's elderly wife is also severely assaulted ), the two men take on all comers with a deep religious faith, good humour and a pragmatic arsenal of weapons to back themselves up.
The family farm is also supported by a large group of loyal local workers whose livelihoods depend on the successfully run business, a business that would be left to rack and ruin if the farm fell into the mobs inexperienced hands.
Scenes where a neighbouring farm is overrun is heartbreaking to watch as we witness the white farmers wife breaking down at the despair and angst suffered by her loyal black workers, who are forced to leave their own homes as she herself is evicted.
At one stage I felt that It was almost unbelievable that we were in fact watching a documentary and not just a piece of fiction.
The overtly racist abuse finally overwhelms theCambell/Freeth families as even though they win their case in an historic landslide result ( the Zimbabwe lawyers walk out the court in an astonishing display of disrespect), their farm is finally burnt to the ground.
It is testament to their strength of spirit and moral fortitude that to this day the family remain in Zimbabwe (the home they love), fighting their cause with a hope that has to be seen to be believed. 8/10