A Haunting In Venice

There is only one true Venetian  ghost Movie and that is the knife wheeling midget in a red coat film,  Don’t look now. That WAS bloody scary 

Kenneth Branagh’s Scooby -doo version of Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party is dreadful. Michelle Yeoh, 

Jamie Dornan and Kelly Reilly are wasted .

Heavy handed cinematography, too many dark sets and masks and I guessed the honey bit what a shame….nice to see sister Janet and sister in law Jayne.

 

Back to University Proper

 

My Venice pencil case all ready 

Amsterdam 1996

 I’ve just taken Trendy Carol’s hubby to the hospital. Driving around at 20 mph after we have been bashing along at 45 was a bind and totally impractical. 

“It’s like being in a funeral” Euan noted and I agree….it’s all one big white elephant and the cost alone of changing the street signage will be obscene 

( for those that don’t know the Welsh Government has changed all 30 Mile an hour zones down to 20  miles an hour..a very unpopular move)

I went to the chemist to sort out my repeat prescription before Rome and valeted Bluebell inside and out 

Tomorrow I’m back in college for the day.

Tonight I will light the fire and sort out my college paperwork and files on the floor of the living room

I’ve booked a tour of the coliseum, organised a car from the airport and tried to book two restaurants I have been totally recommended to, for consecutive nights but both told me they didn’t take bookings .

More single prejudice I wonder? Who knows

My discussion about eating along in restaurants have been interesting

My difficulty is that I’m just not used to it, especially at night. 

I am reminded here of a night in Amsterdam many years ago when a ex boyfriend was being a total arse. He handpicked the restaurant we had sat down in which was a swanky and somewhat pretentious affair and as other diners chatted quietly he proceeded to lose his temper of the smallest of things, most of them with no validity whatsoever .

He verbally berated me, until it grew embarrassing for the other diners to hear so red faced I got up slowly and walked out. 

It was the first and last time I had done anything like that before. 

And it was the beginning of the end for that relationship 

That night , I found another restaurant around Lord’s canal and asked for a table for one, which was hidden away in a corner

And I told my waitress I had walked away from my boyfriend’s sharp mouth after a one sided row

She was sweet, Dutch, older with impeccable English 

 “If a man embarrasses you in public” she said “he’s a klootzak” 

She was right, he was a klootzak! 

And finally, it’s officially autumn.

I’ve bought recycled coffee logs for the fire and made a corned beef hash for later whilst listening to old Desert Island Discs featuring costume designer Jenny Beavan and the glorious Sophia Loren

Tonight, the cottage is cosy

 

Arse on a Swing

 I got to Liverpool early as the train from Hooton was on time. 

So I went to Mowgli on Bold Street to practice having a meal out on my own before Rome on Friday 

Have you a table for one ? I asked and the cheerful twelve year old waiter immediately pointed to a free position in the window bar where a swing seat was facing the glass.  

Yes what looked like a swing seat faced me

I looked at the waiter quizzically as if to say, my arse on that swing.?

But he didn’t pick up on my non verbals .

“ Id prefer a table and a chair if you find one “ I asked nicely 

He couldn’t “find” one.

Hey ho.

I left

The Audience with Lucy Worsley was an interesting evening. The historian is engaging, humorous and articulate and her affection and respect  for Christie is clear basically because of Agatha’s very human reaction to her husbands’ infidelity in 1926 where she disappeared for 11 days.

Worsley is a romantic and Christie ‘s subsequent relationship with max a man 16 years her junior pleased her greatly and her positivism and pleasure of the happy ending was infectious 

Past Lives

 “In-yun” is the Korean belief that people in different lifetimes can have some sort of connection no matter how fleeting. Writer Nora ( Greta Lee) believes this as does her childhood boyfriend Hae Sung ( Teo Yoo) who she left in Korean after emigrating to Canada with her parents. 

Twelve years later the couple meet by accident on line and continue a sort of chasted , mutually intimate video link courtship until she again calls off the relationship citing it would be too long a time before they met.

Another 12 years later, Nora is living with her American writer husband in New York. Hae Sung visits them and amid much thoughts of “ In Yun what could have been” they finally go their separate ways.

Writer/ director Celine Song has crafted a gentle exploration of how change affects people, or not in the case of Hae Sung. Nora has changed her name, her culture and has a romantic job. She embraces the Hae Sung concept more than Hae Sung, the boy and man she left behind in so many ways.

It’s an interesting idea, spoilt a little by the lack of character substance, especially of Yoo’s character who is eclipsed by Nora’s Americanisation.

The film is unhurried, beautifully shot and thoughtful but I was left wanting more and receiving less

In the end, Nora’s self indulgence left me cold, and by the end of it , I was happy it was over.

Lanterns

But is it art????

 This afternoon , like the crazy bitch I am, I left the TCA AGM  to learn to make willow lanterns over at the Still House. 

I loved it . A few hours of being mindful under the quiet instruction of Ma Manley was just what I needed even though my lantern resembled a over ripened pumpkin which had been hit by a land rover .

Laurie,aka Pa Manley put on some gentle harp music on as we beavered away in their dark moody and very historic living room. The oldest house in the village .

My Fat fingers are not blessings when bending willow is concerned but I really enjoyed the afternoon , one which we are going to put out to the village one night at the hall…..

DESIGN AND MAKE YOUR OWN LANTERN 

All good clean fun.

Lunch

Even the salt shaker at the cafe has a boyfriend lol

 I was going to meet a friend for lunch, but he has a new boyfriend and his whole world is consumed with love, obsession and probably sex, so I’ve been rainchecked . 

I hate that.

I won’t say anything

But if it happens again, I will do.

I’m not very good at being second fiddle 

Even though I may be second fiddle.

And so I’ve changed my plants today. 

I walked the dogs to exhaustion , and while they sleep, I’m in Llandudno having a long quiet lunch in the Oriel Cafe, with its wide bright windows overlooking the town  and its moody French Blues music of the 60s

It’s a nice place in which to write the blog

Or to think

After lunch I’m attending a staff meeting at the hospice which means I will miss a showing of the Korean film Past Lives but I’m now  planning to see it on Monday instead so all is well.

After that it’s another walk, this time on the beach

Off to a bookshop now for a mooch.

I’ve dribbled very creamy mayonnaise down my very dark blue rugby shirt

Returning to 2012

 

I’ve nothing to chat about today. Ive got plenty to do but little to say

So I picked an old page of Going Gently to revise and re read

It’s from the autumn of 2012 when the Ukrainian Village was at its peak

And for those that don’t know Rooster Cogburn was a huge but benign cockerel who had been totally blinded

by some children and subsequently given to me to look after 

Enjoy

Well this post should warm the very cockles of fellow blogger Benny's heart!I do so hope that he enjoys it!
Anyhow!
Above is a somewhat "interesting" photo which illustrates a previous post about some animals' abilities to "team up" when they are in need of the warmth and companionship perfectly!.
Last week the blind Cockerel Rooster Cogburn lost his coop mate Vinegar Tits.
Mz Tits had recovered well from a bout of dropsy and needed to return to her own troupe of "crackhead whores" all of whom had missed the presence of their alpha female.So that left me with the rather knotty problem of who could fill Vinegar Tits' overly assertive sling-backs in providing company for the old cockerel!.
The answer came in the diminutive and neurotic shape of Phyllis Diller, the frizzle cross bantam, and I must admit from her perspective, their meeting seemed like a match made in heaven.from the get-go, as she fussed about him like Charles Hawtrey in a feather outfit.
Cogburn seems delighted with his new coop mate, his daily crowing quota seems to have increased somewhat anyway, and this morning when I opened up his sleeping quarters, the two of them were tightly cuddled up together in one nesting box, like two peas in a pod!