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.

I Decided To Play With A Couple Of Photographs,

I took when we were in Paris, 

when we went their with Steve and Kai in June 2022, above is one of the huge scaffolds that were erected under the Eiffel Tower at the time of our visit, looking at it, how on earth would you start to build it?

and one of the bridges across the River Siene, I made both of these black & white, as I was doing this I was also copying CDs to my telephone and computer, before moving on to the evening a little update about the crows that attacked me, they also attacked one of the other flat owners here, and our immediate next door neighbor, plus a couple of other people that live nearby, apparently it happened a few years ago when the crows were protecting their nest or fledglings, back to Wednesday, 

in the evening a read and a sherry, 

for tonight bangers & new potatoes with broccoli, Diana had made it for me so I just heated it up, after which a film I was sure I had watched before, but such a long time ago, 

The Way to the Stars, AKA Johnny in the Clouds, from the blurb:

'Life on a British bomber base, and the surrounding towns, from the opening days of the Battle of Britain, to the arrival of the Americans, who join in the bomber offensive. This movie centers around Pilot Officer Peter Penrose (Sir John Mills), fresh out of a training unit, who joins the squadron and experiences life during wartime'. I followed that with,

A Night to Remember, (1958), again from the blurb:

'A successful attempt at an even-handed portrayal of the White Star Line's (later part of Cunard) luxury liner R.M.S. Titanic's sinking from the standpoint of Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller, himself the most senior of the ill-fated ship's Deck Officers to survive the disaster (Lightoller later went on to distinguish himself as a line British Naval Officer during the First World War and served as a Senior Naval Staff Officer on convoys during World War II'. 

the part of Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller being played by Kenneth More, who starred in so many movies of this time, towards the end of the film I reflected on the fact that as we are going on a cruise next week, it was maybe not the best choice of film to watch! after which Diana arrived home, so we started to watch a Lewis that had just started, after which we were both off to bed.

Only A Quick, Short Post Today,

as we are getting ready for Boxing Day lunch, 

as I am sure everyone else is, we started with opening our cards, 

by the tree,

then a read and a sherry, Christmas jumper lights flashing of course,

 

our starter, 

a seafood plater for 4, 

we just love seafood, Diana did the honours, 

we bought a bigger pack than we needed, as some of today's we will add to some smoked salmon for tomorrow's starter, 

the crab was a nice size, 

I hate seeing this sort of thing with small crabs, 

bubbly time!

easy does it,

now just pour,

the first for Diana who has worked so hard all year and again today, 

nearly ready, 

a Christmas, 

'Cheers!',

on to our main course, turkey and pork with crackling with all of the trimmings plus gravy for Diana, 

sans gravy for my self, 

'Cheers!',

after our meal, 

time for presents, 

we both started opening them, 

first the obvious one, a bottle of my favorite sherry, Harvey's Bristol Cream, 

then the big one,

and there it is,

one I have wanted for a long time, 

a new Harris Tweed waistcoat, 

and then something totally new for me, 

a DAB radio, now when I go to the garden I can listen to the radio instead of songs on my telephone,

meanwhile at the other end of the table, 

Diana had started opening hers,

in a whirlwind of torn paper, 

Diana's first a Michael Kors purse and card holder, 

on to the next, 

a perfume that I know Diana likes,

Memo Madurai Paris Eau de Parfum Spray,

Diana was so pleased with these and a pair of Samsung earbuds, 

as I was with my presents,

for our dessert panna cotta with a few Baileys, which went down very well indeed! in the evening we watched television until midnight when we were both off to bed.