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By Threelight, 5 August, 2010 12:37 pm

As mentioned in the last post, I went to see The A-Team on Saturday. And, I was pleasantly surprised. I liked it. It had a mixture of old and new, but kept the story intact, now updated for us, the sophisticated audience of  the 21st Century. Had loads of good humour (one or two scenes were exceptionally funny), in-jokes galore, and basically the usual Hollywood movie shenanigans.

It helped that the cinema was half full and, apart from three youffs walking out of the movie halfway through, as a collective, I think we all enjoyed it.

Threelight’s Rating: a surprising 4/5

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By Threelight, 1 May, 2010 9:55 pm

I have quite an extensive book collection, collected over a number of years. In my library I have all the Ian Fleming-written James Bond Novels. And just the other day, I finished the last book of the entire series. It’s only taken me around about 3 years. I’ve not been reading them one after the other, but rather whenever I could read them, out came the novel next on the list. I read them in the order they were published, rather than all over the place, as I’d read elsewhere that Fleming would sometimes refer to novels gone before in whatever he was writing.

In these days of politcal correctness, some of the writing is quite offensive. But the novels are very much a product of their time. But for all their faults, I prefer the Jmaes Bond of the novels than the earlier movies. The difference is that in the last 2 movies, James Bond bleeds, and in the books he bleeds. One of the things I like about the film version of “Casino Royale”, is that it’s probably as close to the book as possible, even down to the quote of “The bitch is dead” at the end of both book and movie.

If you thought that the quote “Bond…James Bond” came from the scriptwriters of the movies, think again. It’s in the books. And also the quote, “We’ve got all the time in the world” (at the end of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service). What I’m seeing in my mind while I’m reading is a different character entirely to the one on film.

If I had to choose my favourite book out of the lot, ‘twould have to be the first one, “Casino Royale”. Excellent pace, excellent imagery, and an excellent way to torture your hero in the very first book (near enough the same in the movie, if you want to know). And the worst, has to be “The Spy Who Loved Me”. Yuck. Ugly book. Just wanted to get to the last page and forget about it. Just didn’t work for me at all.

I wonder whether the reason why they’ve put the new James Bond movie on ice, is because they’ve run out of fresh ideas?

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By Threelight, 23 March, 2010 8:06 pm

Of course I’d heard all the hype about the series of books that Stieg Larsson wrote before he died, but I knew nothing of the plot of the book, or indeed that the film was coming out in a few weeks time. I’d got the book a few weeks back and decided to take it on holiday with me (one of three books, all of which I finished on holiday).

I’d just like to say that I wasn’t disappointed. The book flows at a reasonable pace, even though the ending somehow didn’t surprise me. What I got out of the book was that the Swedish appear to be a randy lot – must be where the idea of the Swedish blondes come from. And yes, the so-called heroine has a bit of a nasty side to her, a very nasty side. The characters appear to be sound, and do what they have to do. Oh, and they lkike their eating they do.

I’m trying to write this without giving much of the plot away, which believe you me is quite difficult. From reading the Wikipeadia post, which if taken as proof, certain aspects of the book appear to be autobiographical, which is interesting.I’ll leave it up to you to read the book then.

It took me three days of my holiday to read, which to me is lightning quick. And yes, I’ve bought the second book to read (purchased after holiday).

Book marks out of 5: a healthy 4.5.

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By Threelight, 11 March, 2010 9:24 pm

Well, I ‘m back. I’ve been back since Saturday, but have only now decided to put a post together. I am off work until Saturday, so I’m happy I have more free time other than my holiday in Spain.

The holiday went fine, and the time went really slow. I suppose that’s probably because I was so relaxed over the 15 days. The weather was kind, and I managed to get a small tan, which is now doing it’s best to vanash. The most important thing is that you can tell that I’ve caught some sun, which to me was very important throughout the holday. When it was sunny, it was really warm, so I managed to get some rays at every chance I could.

I met a few new people that I hadn’t met at other times I’ve been there, and went to a few new restaurants, some good and some particularly bad. In the past we went to a few Chinese restaurants in the area, but in the end we only went to one: the evening I arrived. I suppose there’s a number of reasons why that happened: getting sick of Chinese food, or not many of them being around the area like there used to be, or maybe because eating habits change over a period of years. Saying that, I mostly ate fish and chips. The fish was good, but the chips varied from restaurant to restaurant.

I also drank a lot more beer on this holiday han what I have in the past. Normally I like my usual drink of Southern Comfort, but, as this is in fairly short supply in restaurants these days, I was sticking to beer. Also, when with friends, out came the beer (not to the falling down stage and drunk, but just enough to relax). At one stage you couldn’t even buy Southern comfort anywhere in the shops of the area, but the local shop now stocks it. That’s mainly because the area is changing to give the people of the area (mostly ex-pats and holiday-goers) like their home comforts, after all.

I have also read all the books that I took with me, thinking that I wouldn’t do a lot of reading this holiday, but reading I did (mini reviews of two of the books definitely coming up in future posts – hopefully). Shows again that it was a relaxing holiday.

When i got home, I had my work shift rota to have a look at, and oh dear, it’s going to be a particularly bad year time wise, I have loads of early shifts, and probably an equal number of late shifts.

Over my holiday, I did think about the future of this here blog, and the good news is that I’m not giving up quite yet. I plan to continue my posts on “DVDs In My Collection” and also branching out a bit with books. Posts about work and how crap it’s going will be few and far between now, but I do want to mention a few people I see and talk to, but it will not be a bitching session that this and that happened. Probably, in the past I’ve wanted to say something about how the work’s going, but always change my mind, hence very few posts.

So, welcome to the first post of March.

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By Threelight, 19 February, 2010 12:13 pm

Finally, the day when I fly out has arrived. Catch y’all later.

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By Threelight, 1 February, 2010 11:15 am

Five posts over January, which to me is shocking. Compared to what I had in mind. But the best-laid plans never seem to go as you want them to.

I can go on blogging about the work I do, but that would only bore you, and at the same time depress me a bit. Something yesterday that happened at work (which I’m going to keep personal – very personal) made me realise that there are better things I can do in my working life rather than the work I am doing now (or supposed to be doing).

What I really need is a holiday. And that’s precisely what I’m doing. In 2 1/2 weeks time I am flying out to Spain for 15 days, and then after that I have another full week off (the type of office I work in allows that sort of thing: if you can get the time off by holiday and swapping shifts with your fellow work-mate, then you can).

I think I need it. 2009 was a blur, and something that, based on what I now know of the organisation and the area I used to work for, should not have happened. What is becoming clear is that I am not suited for this type of work. It doesn’t help that the work I was doing was work I absolutely loved. But that’s the usual way. You like doing the work, and someone pulls the rug from under you.  

And I moved over to the new business area because I thought the any job is better than no job at all.

But it’s good to get new skills and experiences, innit?

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By Threelight, 31 December, 2009 9:50 pm

Now that we’re moving into a new decade (it doesn’t seem that long ago that I was celebrating the Millenium and waiting for all the world’s computers to malfunction, as everybody was telling us, and the fireworks can begin, even though I have to go to work tomorrow, I thought I’d write this post that I have been planning for a few weeks now.

There is one person for me who stands out, still does, even though he died this year, is Harry Patch. I remember watching a program called “The Last Tommy” about the soldiers of World War I who were still living. It seemed to make an impression on me. Probably as a result, I’m a bit more clued up on what happened in both World Wars, and also enjoying programs like “Band of Brothers” (I know, a work of fiction, but based solidly on fact), but from a different perspective. These people and the serving soldiers today did something that I could never do, I wouldn’t be that brave, and that is to fight for their country. Admittedly, the Afghan conflict isn’t a worldwide one.

Every time I saw him on television since then, I was interested in what he was saying, which from reading up (and not just on the ubiquitous Wikipedia), that war is bad, especially the war he took part in.

I know it’s a bit of an odd choice, and an odd post to end 2009 on, but there you go.

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By Threelight, 24 December, 2009 5:24 pm

I found this clip on the Youtube thingy. Seen as I’m a bit of a traditionalist who believes Morecambe and Wise should be on every Christmas, here’s a clip to keep everybody entertained.

And another one because I’m in a good mood.

Merry Christmas Y’all!!

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By Threelight, 31 August, 2009 10:00 pm

Yes, it’s true. For the next 4 days I am away on “business” (well, not exactly. Because this is the last week of my present job, I’m off to make sure everyone knows what they are doing. Why? I dunno  I wish I knew. I’m quite low in the foodchain. I suppose it’ll look good on my CV. That’s the only way to look at it.

Apart from that, nothing really happened this weekend. Only going to Quarry Bank Mill and Styal Gardens today with Polyhex, Jamicat and Agent. I managed to get some exercise and a few more photos to put onto my webpage.

So, look out for my “tweets” and my next post will either be on or after this Friday. I bet you can’t wait can you?