Unfortunately,

Diana had to go into work today, 

so a Sunday by myself, after dropping her off at work, it was time for a read and a sherry, 

followed by a huge chilli con carne, 'Cheers!', then feet up for a afternoon/evening of films, firstly, 

The Thing from Another World, (1951), a great Sunday afternoon sci-fi, from a reviewer:

'Scientists at an Arctic research station discover a spacecraft buried in the ice. Upon closer examination, they discover the frozen pilot. All hell breaks loose when they take him back to their station and he is accidentally thawed out!'

scary dairy indeed, I followed that with,

  Mission to Mars, we had watched it before and this is what I wrote then, 'when a mysterious storm kills all but one crew member of the first manned mission to Mars, a rescue mission is launched, but was it a storm or a weapon? superb special effects the spacecraft was in fact a 21 foot long model, made to look so real, great film well worth watching,' I have to say a much underrated film if the IMDB score of just 5.5 is to be believed, back to the evening, I noticed that a rerun of the excellent,

 Hornblower series was airing, in this episode, while Lt. Hornblower studies for his promotion examination, he is distracted by the serious supply problems that face his crew, as it ended I also noticed that the excellent series Cops was starting, just as it finished Diana arrived home, so a coffee and a chat about where we are thinking of going to go tomorrow as it is Diana's day off, we settled down to watch,

 Philadelphia, a great movie and a great soundtrack, based on a true story, Andrew Beckett, a gay lawyer infected with AIDS, is fired from his conservative law firm in fear that they might contract AIDS from him, at the time of its release 1993 it was considered by many to have come at just the right time to make the public aware of what AIDS was and how it affected people in real life,

as it happened in real life the man the story was primarily about, lawyer Geoffrey Bowers, had already died, but in 1984 his family launched a $10 million lawsuit against Hollywood producer Scott Rudin, TriStar Pictures and the creators of the movie "Philadelphia," charging that the film is substantially based on Bowers' story,  

the family said they have received no acknowledgement or financial compensation for the information they provided, despite what they said was an oral agreement with Rudin to provide such recognition, "Philadelphia," the first mainstream Hollywood movie about AIDS, it had grossed $36.6 million so far at the time the lawsuit was instigated, 

as an aside this was yet again why watching movies on Netflix is so totally and utterly woke, having seen the way this film was butchered to show it on the channel I am so glad that I have a original Blu-ray disk of the film, it was so badly cut as not to offend at times the story really did not make sense, for instance the long scene of a meeting of the senior partners of the firm that included a gay joke gave the reason for Andrew not to disclose his illness, totally cut, it just did not make sense, oh well there it is, if you want to see any film as it should be watched and not butchered beyond belief, avoid Netflix like the plague and buy the Blu-ray, after which we were off to bed.

After Diana Left For Work,

I had a bit of a househusband day,

but first I popped into town, a nice bright day,

a bus to the war memorial and cinema,

and past the road works that are making the town into a one way system, they have taken an age so far and seem no nearer being completed, 

as you might expect, all of the local traders have taken a huge hit in the lack of customers, 12.00 midday on a Saturday morning, just one potential customer walking along the High Street, one waiting at the bus stop, a few crossing the road in the distance and myself, a pity the rates do not reflect the lack of customers, but that is never going to happen,

and I was going in here for just one item, to exchange our CO2 cylinder, the good news, (for me), hardly any customers in the store, so a easy in and out with no Saturday queues,

 

back home and my househusband afternoon started, the shelves in the bathroom are a magnet for limescale, the water here is so hard you can almost cut it,

after which on to my evening read and sherry, 

followed by some delicious smoked trout with bread and butter 'Cheers!', next I returned to,

 The Last Kingdom, we had watched the first episode and found it quite enjoyable so we watched a second, which did not disappoint, and every so often I go back to watch another episode, then after Diana had arrived home, into the future with,

The Island, a laboratory, in fact a factory, clones important wealthy citizens, so should a organ fail it can be harvested from the clone, all goes well until 2 escape and confront their living recipients, after which we were off to bed.

After Dropping Diana Off At Work,

I started getting a few things together,

for my upcoming trip, only 5 weeks to go, I started by charging all of the batteries and keeping their chargers to one side, and after putting the tripod in my case packing the little space that was left with clothes, topping it off with my hat, this was just a trail run to see how much space I had for clothes, in the evening,

time for my read and sherry, the latest issue of Private Eye a day late this week, I followed that with, 

a huge chilli-con-carne that Diana had made for me, 'Cheers!', next a real treat, the 

New World Symphony at the Proms, if you missed it the programme was Dvorak’s epic, Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and a new triple concerto for BBC Young Musician star alumni Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Jess Gillam and Ben Goldscheider, a pleasure indeed, I then went for a period film that I like so much, 

The King, it was, I had watched it before, but just fancied watching it again, as it finished Diana arrived home so a coffee and a chat before we were both off to bed.

Towards Midday,

I dropped Diana off at work, 

on the way back home I called into Sainsbury's our CO2 cylinder needed exchanging, and of course they had none in stock, as it happens I was told they had none on Tuesday, the manger was called, he assured me they would be back in stock tomorrow, (Friday) but could not give a time, so another trip to Sainsbury's on Saturday, as with my luck they will arrive just as the store is closing, and this is the problem with the Internet age, go onto the web site, they are in stock, but go to the store and they are not, and the real rub? you cannot telephone the store to find out if they really are in stock, so back home for a few YouTube videos until my evening meal, then a Zoom meeting for all of us going to Namibia in 5 weeks time, we will all be under the leadership, of Will Gray for a 17 day photo workshop, to say I am looking forward to it is a huge understatement! a very successful meeting after which feet up for,

 The Last Castle, a enjoyable if slightly far fetched plot, as it finished it was then then the time to pick up Diana, arriving home we decided to finnish Sleepy Hollow, which we did before we were off to bed.

Blogspot Has Magically Started Working Again,

so back to Wednesday, 

as arranged Harry and Bobby arrived, 

with as usual mountains of gear, 

and our refurbished sash windows,

Booby soon had the first half installed in the kitchen, 

as Harry tackled the big bay window,

all going so well, 

Bobby with the second half, 

both of them in the living room,

 

as Harry finished off, 

kitchen completed, 

as was the living room, and the best part, there was no mess! every scrap of paint chippings, wood trim, you name it meticulously removed, what a great job, it is supring how because we could not easily open them never missed them, but now the windows open easily it is so nice to have them to open, 

in the evening a read and a glass of milk, no sherry this evening as I will be picking up Diana after the meeting of the Beckenham Photographic Society, that I will be attending, 

for tonight a Chinese chicken curry, 'Cheers!', after a coffee I was then off to the meeting, for tonight it was a 'carousel' by members, 4 tables were set up, as each of 4 members tackled various subjects, Fred and Phil explaining about how to edit photographs in various programs, Photoshop, Lightroom, and a few others, Marcia talked about how to prepare your prints for competitions whilst Andrew held a talk on copyright, censorship and other related photographic subjects, each presenter taking 45 minutes or so then a break before another 45 minute session, I choose Fred for the first half and then joined Brian in another hall where the lights could be turned off, as he gave insights and practical examples of studio work, both hugely interesting, as the meeting ended I was off to pick up Diana from work, arriving home it was feet up for a coffee for Diana and a spiced rum for myself as we settled down to watch, 

Sleepy Hollow, we had watched it before, this is what I wrote then, 'Constable Ichabod Crane, (what a great name, Ichabod), has to find the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow, who cuts off heads, in case you are wondering the village of Sleepy Hollow is a real place, a book entitled Sleepy Hollow is a personal reminiscence, written by Washington Irving under the pen name, Geoffrey Crayon, this article (not to be confused with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow [1819]) also written by Irving, first appeared in The Knickerbocker Magazine, in May of 1839, given that the film is set in the US, I was amazed at how much of it was filmed in the UK', as it happened we did not watch too much of it, Diana was so tired she was off to bed, for myself a Bangers & Cash before I too was off to bed.

The Blog Will Be A Tad Late Today,

 for some reason,

blogspot will not upload any photographs, which is tres bizarre as there are no problems being reported on the blogspot site, I will try again later today.

Isle of Wight,

day one,

we were up early, we had found out that all trains had been cancelled from Beckenham Junction, so a tram to Croydon, then a train to Victoria, a short walk to the coach station and we were Portsmouth bound, on to the hovercraft and over to the Isle of Wight, a bus ride to Ryde, and here we are on the beach, our hotel the Premier Inn literally just across a narrow road opposite the beach, 

looking towards the pier, 

refreshed after our journey, we went for a walk along the front, 

when I spotted one of my favorite signs, dogs are fine, it is the owners that are the normal problem,

and here is a sign of the times, 

a derelict hotel failing into disrepair, 

no we will not be hiring one of these!

there are a few beach huts for rent, 

and stalls on the beach walk, 

I snapped a few interesting buildings, 

and a nice one, a Austin Healey Sprite, but alas it had broken down,

a couple more photographs, 

what a great name for a fish & chip shop,

we settled for a ice cream, 

and made our way to the pier,

it looked empty, but it was because so much of it was under cover,

Diana tried her luck at one of the Tipping Point machines, and turned £2.00 into 78 pence, then 32 pence and then we left, 

at the end of the pier a concrete jetty for fishermen, to try their luck,

we started our walk back, 

looking along the coast, 

it had turned into quite a nice day, 

we went back to our hotel and had a early night, a busy day tomorrow.