Before Dawn,

we were walking to the bus stop,

and I was then on my way home,

much to the delight of the crows,

blog posted and I was out, I had to pick up my medication, arriving at Boots the chemist the assistant produce the box with my medication in and said the pharmacists had everything ready, but he could not give them to me as the pharmacists was at lunch so I had to wait until her lunch was finished, then I was on my way home, 

past the church,

and Rudolph who was looking nice with some Christmas decorations at his feet, in the garden of Foxgrove Lodge,

in the evening it was light the candles,

a pre-meal sherry and a read,

I finished The Quest, set in ancient Egypt, it was a good easy read,

a bubbly next from the advent box,

'Cheers!',

it was so nice a second soon followed,

I also continued the second book I was reading, the Journeyer,

for my meal tonight a selection of cold cuts, cheese, sourdough bread, silver skin onions and gherkins,

eyes down and tuck in! I spent the evening listening to Enrico Caruso, I was never a great fan of his, until I heard him in one of my favourite films,

 Fitzcarraldo, where a ship is transported by the producer and the hero of the film over a mountain, although the name Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald is used, or Fitzcarraldo as he was known in the film, (the locals could not pronounce the name), he was known in real life as Carlos Fermin Fitzcarrald, a rubber baron who lived in Iquitos, they both did indeed transport a ship over a mountain, the difference being in real life it was taken to pieces, in the film hauled up by ropes and pulleys and under it's own steam power from the front anchor winch,

the film had a back drop of war between Peru and Ecuador, oil wells, arguments and huge problems with both local and imported extras, well worth buying for the story behind the making of the film Burden of Dreams, which came with the DVD I purchased, for me a great film, so the film was a part real life adventure and part fiction, in real life a boat was taken apart moved over a mountain and reassembled on the other side, in the film a 340 ton boat was hauled without special effects up a 40 degree incline, the film maker Werner Herzog had more than a few problems in making the film, it took 3 years, two of the lead actors dropped out, Jason Robards in the title role, Mick Jagger of Rolling Stones as his assistant, so the film had to be re shot, Klaus Kinski stepped in as the lead role, there were plane crashes, 5,000 extras, a brutal attack by the Amahuaca tribe saw an arrow pierce a man’s throat (he survived) and his wife needing an urgent operation after being “hit in the stomach, necessitating eight hours of emergency surgery on a kitchen table, ‘I assisted by illuminating her abdominal cavity with a torchlight,’ recalled Herzog, ‘and with my other hand sprayed with repellent the clouds of mosquitoes that swarmed around the blood.’” the gruesome incidents piled up, at one point a logger took the drastic step of chainsawing his foot off to deal with a snake bite, with only a crew of 16 to film it, 6 of who were in the boat scene, 3 of which were injured as it goes down the rapids, worse still Klaus Kinski was known as a temperamental actor, he constantly argued with Herzog and he threatened to leave the film set before finishing, he was also a constant source of tension as he argued with the other members of the film crew and locals as well, alienating the local population, one of the local chiefs told Herzog he would kill him if Herzog so wished! this unique and difficult film, won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, it was a difficult film to film!

above a trailer for the film, for critics like the great Roger Ebert, the making of Fitzcarraldo and the end product are part of the same convention-shattering entity, in what is perhaps the definitive word on the subject, he described the film as “one of the great visions of the cinema, and one of the great follies, one would not have been possible without the other, if you have the chance take a look, for myself it was and is a great film and got me listening to the great Caruso, just before 10.00 Diana called so I was off to the bus stop, arriving home it was feet up for a couple from the Murdock Mystery's series before we were off to bed.