Lets Start With The Girls Again,

first thing,

breakfast, 

the one I really like, a bubbly one!

then into the coach, 

the girls were going here, Dinant, Belgium, amongst other things famous for the musician and inventor Adolphe Sax (1814-1894) who was born here, the towers on the photograph above suffering from the telephones wide angle lens leaning inwards,

so I corrected it, 

the girls walked around the town,

taking the pose, every now and then,

Diana's new favorite flower, the dahlia, 

looking across the town, 

and another pose of course, 

Diana and Wilma,

Wilma again,

 frequently mistaken for a cathedral due to its grand Gothic size and striking architecture, this is the Collegiate Church of Our Lady of Dinant, (Collégiale Notre-Dame de Dinant),

again I corrected the inward leaning of the pillars of the photograph,

another pose, 

and one of the church, 

Diana made a short video, and here it is above, back to good 'ole Blighty, I had a quiet day, not really doing very much at all just watching odd bits & pieces on YouTube, in the evening,

 time for my read and sherry, I did not pour the wine, as tonight for a change I was having a white, so I kept it in the refrigerator, 

smoked salmon from the huge pack I bought on my last visit to LIDL,

I followed that with liver & bacon, 'Cheers!', time for a film for the evening, and a real treat it was, 

The War Lord, a knight in the service of a duke goes to a coastal village where an earlier attempt to build a defensive castle has failed, then he falls for a local girl, then the trouble begins, the story revolves around the ancient rite of jus primae noctis or in French, Droit du seigneur. In The Curiosities of Literature (1823) by the British writer Isaac D'Israeli it was claimed the practice had been widespread across Europe, for another anecdotal record, in 1924 an elderly respondent retold a claim that even at the time of his grandparents' youth, in the early 1800s, the rule of first night had still been in widespread use in western Estonia; whether it had been a legal right he did not elaborate. Back to the film, I think much underrated, I really enjoyed watching again with its haunting background melody as it happens The Shadows thought the same and made the instrumental a hit, to round my evening off, 

Jojo Rabbit, funny, terrifying, slapstick, sinister all in one film! we really both enjoyed the film when we first watched it, a young lad in Germany wants to join the Hitler youth movement, and has as his imaginary friend, Adolf himself, fiercely patriotic, it is a disturbing realisation when he finds his mother is hiding the girl in the wall, a Jewess, so funny, so tragic, a really great and unexpected joy of a film, from the blurb:

"Hitler Youth cadet Jojo Betzler firmly believes in the ideals of Nazism manifested by his imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler. However, his foundations are shaken when he finds a Jewish girl in his house."

and the soundtrack was just so good, The Beatles and David Bowie genuinely performed their respective songs in German for the Jojo Rabbit (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). The opening scene features The Beatles singing "Komm, gib mir deine Hand" (the German-language recording of "I Want to Hold Your Hand"), which they recorded in Paris in 1964 to break into the German market. Similarly, the film closes with David Bowie singing "Helden," his own German-language translation of his 1977 masterpiece "Heroes", and I have to admit I really enjoyed watching the film again, 2 great films in one evening and with that I was off to bed.

Let's Start Today,

with the girls,

I have been told that yesterday, 

they went to Bruges and Ghent,

so downstairs for breakfast, 

then outside,

for a few more, 

of the flower show, 

near where they are staying,

one more of Diana,

then into the coach,

and here they are,

time for a pose, 

and a look around, 

Wilma by the canal,

and Kai with more chocolate, 

 the girls will take a trip on the canal later, 

but first a look around, 

and a pose or two, 

then they found the ice cream shop, 

who could on a hot day, 

walk past that?

onto the boat, 

for a trip along, 

the canal, 

Diana made a short video, I think my disaster with the kitchen and my visit to Bromley to pick up some more spiced rum was mentioned, 

and speaking of Bromley, 

here I am, 

in the distance, on the left, 

the facade of a new building is being faced with tiles, lets hope they last better than the ones that were put on the Churchill Theatre, they all fell off, twice! and eventually every tile had to be drilled and then screwed in place, 

here a bit of fun, 

I guess whoever it was in the costume won the bet!

here I am, Lidl, 3 large bottles of spiced rum and a few bits of food and I was on my way,

walking back into the park, the garden by the side of Foxgrove Lodge looked as nice as ever, 

these putting on a grand show, arriving home it was a afternoon in the back garden, it the company of Jules & Sandy, great fun to listen to, in case you do not know they were a part of a weekly radio show, broadcast at a time when being queer would definitely get you arrested and imprisoned, but by using polari they fooled the BBC into broadcasting the couple,

in the evening a read and a sherry,

I had picked up a huge pack of smoked salmon, so it will be a smoked salmon starter for the next three days, 

'Cheers!', as I tuck into bangers & mash, after which it was feet up for, Dragon Wars: D-War, I gave it 10 minutes but that was enough, time for my next film of the evening, 

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad WorldIt's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and what great fun it was, not only watching the film but seeing so many old actors now, but in the early 1960s when the film was released how young they were, like Peter Fauk and Mickey Rooney, and seeing how some actors who I had seen when they were young had aged, such as Buster Keaton, who along with Phil Silvers are my 2 favorite actors in the film, I nearly forgot also Terry Thomas, so make that the 3 favorite actors in the film, after which a timely movie as it is so hot, 

 The Day The Earth Caught Fire, it is one of the classic apocalyptic films of its era, being released in 1961, (just three years before the release of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), a newspaper reporter discovers that simultaneous U.S. and Russian nuclear explosions have drastically altered the earth's rotation, fires and earthquakes ravage cities all over the world, and chaos and sickness descend upon the frightened survivors as they try to put the planet back on its axis, do they succeed? You will have to watch the film! after which I was off to bed.