The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is in actual fact more of a remake of the original, with the stella grey hair cast of the likes of Dench,Nighy, Smith, Pickup, Imrie, and Richard Gere all jostling for position in this coming-of-age story. Strange really as the coming of age- age is 75 rather than just 16.
This is why, I suspect, that  the "Marigold" franchise has proved to be so popular with the over 50 year old cinema going public, for it underlines that EVERYONE no matter how old they are can have a second chance.
And so, set against the vibrant colours of an Indian Wedding we have Judi Dench embarking on a new career and a new relationship with Bill Nighy at the age of 79. Society good time gal Celia Imrie settling down with a gentle taxi driver instead of her Royal suitors and Career Man Gere giving up his job for the love of an Indian Widow.
Yes all bollocks
But it's pretty, colourful and fairly entertaining bollocks...even if the hotel manager ( Dev Patel) is far too garrulous and irritating for the average movie goer to cope with...
I had to laugh to myself too, for when Richard Gere appeared at the hotel reception for the first time, there was a loud ripple that went through the audience like a Welsh matrons' Mexican wave......

Maggie Smith as the foul mouthed Muriel

I have to give praise here to Maggie Smith , who reprises her role as the foul mouthed Cockney spinster receptionist Muriel Donnelly with some gusto. She steals every scene she appears in and the whole
film is given an unexpected and surprisingly moving turn when her character realises that she dying ( dying being the running gag throughout the movie)

This fact is underlined in one beautifully understated scene where hotel resident  Evelyn (Judi Dench ) acknowledges Muriel's Possible Death through suicide.
Very little is actually said, just the powerful sharing of a message through two old faces, but it had me blubing with the rest of the audience at the  packed independent cinema at Colwyn Bay Theatre!
Clever casting two old dames in their 80s who without breaking sweat could so easily rule the world.
7/10

A Professor At Home

Chris is full of cold, so is working at home today.
I tend to be busy outside when he works from home.
( if you get my drift)
Through years of experience , I knew I needed to hide various bits and bats..........
I found an ideal hiding place for the Easter Eggs I bought for Sorrel's Easter egg hunt ( I have a tradition to organise an Easter Egg hunt for my seventy year old mother-in-law)

This morning, I went shopping with the dogs
Now any " proper " shop means a ten mile round trip to Marks & Spencer, a trip that was irritatingly extended by  another five miles after I caught sight of Albert sitting with Winnie on the back seat.
Best laid plans ......best laid plans
So I drove back home, extracted a fairly sulky Albert from the car then carried on with shopping, dog walking and other jobs.

Like I said, best to be busy when there's a Professor working from home
At the moment ...he's involved in some high powered shinanigains
I'm making dumplings
BTW
By mid afternoon......only a couple of eggs were left!
Hey ho

Bleeding Lidl

Like a lot of people, I have been sort of seduced by the aspirational tv adverts circulated by the Lidl chain of supermarkets. You know the type of advert I mean. Well dressed, city types, sitting in a comfortable gastro pub, all tucking into cheap but ever-so-tasty morsels washed down by a cheeky little number that only cost £5.99
Well yesterday, I decided to see for myself what all the ballyhoo was all about.
But unfortunately the Lidl in Rhyl is NOT the Lidl of the tv adverts.
Rhyl Lidl is situated in probably one of the poorest areas of North Wales and it showed.
I was decked out in a knackered pair of combats and my second best walking dead T shirt and even I felt overdressed as the very poor, mentally ill and disadvantaged of the coast did their shopping.
It was a depressing experience, even though much of the food looked ok!
I was perusing the meat counter when I caught sight of a man next to me giving me a funny look., I didnt feel like challenging him so I carried on looking at the schnitzels until he said loudly " you're bleeding"
I put my hand up to my face and almost from nowhere I was covered in blood. I had a doozy of a nosebleed.
By the time I had fished into my pockets in the futile search for a tissue I looked like Sissy Spacek from " Carrie" so I took my woolly hat off , jammed it on my nose and staggered out of the store.
No one else gave me second look.
Knackered looking middle-aged men in blood soaked Walking Dead T shirts must be two a penny in Rhyl

Now the last time , i think I had a nosebleed I was in my teens, so I pinched my nose and waited for the bloody thing to stop .....it didn't.
An hour later, after driving home one handed, my face looked like two fried eggs in a bucket of blood
And so off I went to A&E , where , after a large and painful " pack" my hemorrhage finally stopped
Several hours later!
It was almost dark when I eventually got home.
There were puddles on the kitchen floor from the dogs and because I was late, an opportunistic fox had snatched my ten year old buff orpington from  behind the hen houses and  I didnt even buy a schnitzel for my tea.

The Walking Dead Finale

Well, it's all over. The Walking Dead finale finished with the remains of " team family" more or less intact, Rick Grimes firmly in charge alongside the broken democrat Deanna, and with Zen master Morgan Jones ( Lennie James) neatly dovetailed into the black male lead character position , left free by the killing off of Tyreese ( Chad Coleman) a couple of weeks back!
It also hinted at the threat to Alexandria to come, as Morgan, Daryl and Aaron fought off the work of "The Wolves" a brutal killing group out in the countryside.
Add to the mix a kind of touching "mending of the ways"by Abraham and Eugene, the irritating minister being a real twat, Sasha lying down in damp graves and Maggie slowly morphing into her saintly father Hershel and it was a fun packed episode!

So.....season 6 is set up nicely with a large, suddenly swollen cast, and so logistically we all know that there WILL be several casualties very early on as the narrative and drama cannot cope with over 20 characters effectively.
But I can worry about all this next November!
Season Five has been one of the best yet. I didn't much care for series 3 and 4, after the Governor bollocks and the stupid storylines of Carol as the secret murderer  so I have enjoyed the character led journey of a more rounded Michonne,  and Glen and Maggie ( as the voices of civilisation) Melissa McBride's wonderful turn as the damaged but increasingly wily Carol. Tara's sassy mouth and the welcome arrival of the balanced and happily married gay character of Aaron. ( Ross Marquand).
Most of the characters have developed intelligently and without the leaps we saw previously.
The action too in season 5 has been appropriate and exciting.....and not too contrived as it has been......i'd give this year's Walking Dead 8/10
My only complaints are that Rick's mental instability is getting on my tits
And Noah shouldn't have got his face ripped off inside the revolving door! He was a sweetie!

Little meek Carol giving Pete the psychopath treatment!

The walking Dead remains in essence a 1970s disaster movie akin to The Poseidon Adventure
- a group of different individuals fighting against disaster!
That is why it works....

Reinventing The Wheel

Tonight is the last episode of The Walking Dead
So I will be glued to the gogglebox from 9pm!
I'll have to wait half a year or more until season 6 returns to bore the lot of you...so after tonight you will glad  not to have another zombie tv show review to ignore
Hey ho

I have noticed with some trepidation that the iconic children's tv series Thunderbirds has been remade and will be relaunched this Easter with a huge fanfare and ballyhoo.
Apparently the 1960's characters have been " updated and streamlined", the violence and weaponry removed from the storylines and Brains' characteristic stammer is no more, probably due to the fact it could been seen as " taking the piss out of the disabled"
I feel sotry for the kids of today, for most would absolutely love the original series.
Ok several minor characters were shot ( and killed) by the baddie " The Hood"
Ok there was never any crowd scenes of disaster ( given the fact that the strings would get tangled all of the time)
And Ok it was all a bit top heavy with male characters
But the series was innovative, inventive and amazingly for it's time NOT PATRONISING .
It treated it target audience with respect.

Progress eh?
Sometimes you can keep it!

Tv watching

Chris is working away again

So Winnie and I have settled down with the shit film

Hansel & Gretel witch hunters!

 and have shared a packet of low fat crisps and a weight watchers 

Sandwich

Note

( we've got the same mouth)

Palm Sunday

Now I don't even know the difference between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday,

Shows just how much RE did for my general knowledge at school eh?

Today is Palm Sunday and Chris's Church warden role went up a gear as the vicar wanted him to don some suitably impressive robes for the occassion. The three Church congregations from Trelawnyd, Dyserth and Cwm in the Parish got together at St Michaels for the service and I was asked to turn up at the end to take the " group" photo.

It's become a bit of a yearly tradition.

The service was a fairly long one so I took the dogs for a walk in  the torrential rain. The village was deserted. 

Affable despot Jason craned his head out of his bedroom window and called me a lunatic for being out as I passed by his house and next door the small congregation at the Ebeneezer Chapel could be heard singing their Easter hymns in Welsh. 

I would have stopped to listen if the weather hadnt been so bad.

The church was just chucking out when I got back and there was quite a crowd leaving the porch each person clutching their palm Sunday crosses.

I saw Mrs Trellis, who is still dreadfully low after the loss of Sooty , and asked if she would like to take William out when she goes for her daily walk. 

She said she'd see.

A few people from Dyserth that I dont really know stopped to congratulate me on our wedding which I thought was kind, and as the congregation left, I went to take the photos

Anyhow here is a couple action shots of the boys

The vicar's relaxed 

"Official Photo"

Very tv celebrity!

I Have Old Hands

My routine has gone all to pot.
With Chris still away and with a bad cough as well as no voice, I feel overtired this morning.
I don't know why. For I went to bed at 10 pm, and apart from three episodes of animal care ( 2 dog walks and Ukrainian Village sort out) I am still in bed now
It 11.50 am......
The dogs are all fine with me being a sloth, for they have been walked and now are back on the bed with me, but William did wake me at 9.10 am with a worried look on his face.m
He knew I was late sorting the field animals out.

I will get up again shortly and have a bath. I have eggs to sell and I promised to go to see Bob D who was due to be discharged from hospital. He has a bad chest from years of chicken keeping....

Not an inch of blue duvet to be seen

I am looking at my hands. To be precise I am looking at my left hand. I've been looking at it a great deal recently, for it has been sporting a delicate white gold wedding ring. I think most newly married people do this a lot.
My hands are looking older now.. I have the hands of a man in his fifties.
They are not the hands of an artist or a musician or a tradesman.
They are not manicured or even overly clean
They are not long and slender like the hands of an aristocrat
They are small and pudgy
Wrinkled, clumsy and slightly weather beaten.
Hands that are not worried if they get dirty

I have my grandmother's hands