Much Needed

It's been a while since I've had a holiday, and this little hobbit is in dire need of an adventure. So, off I go tomorrow for a much needed week away to Malta. Yep, I am going once again, this is my third time but the simple reason is I like the place, plus dad is looking to possibly retire out there so it's a holiday and fact finding mission too.

Holidays are also great chances to think as it lifts you out of your daily life and routine, you can reflect on things easier when you are removed from them. 

So I shall be catching plenty of sunshine (I hope), taking in the culture, having a beer or two, reading, looking at lovely Maltese girls and generally relaxing. If ever a holiday was much needed it's this one. I'll see you all soon and I'm sure there will be photos and blogs to follow of my adventures.

London And The Wizards Hat

Pain seared through my ankles as I rushed headlong to the train station, I was on the verge of being late. I arrived at the barrier and fumbled for my ticket, a member of staff noticed my haste and after checking my credentials told me my train had been cancelled but I could catch the next one which was due shortly after.

The fields were soon behind me and I was soon rolling into Kings Cross station. I decided to walk down to Euston and meet my friend Jane as there was no point bothering with the tube, the sun was out and the walk wouldn't take long.

Rendez-vous complete with Jane and we checked into the hotel and quickly headed back out and to Camden, I'd ordered an item of clothing on the internet from a shop there and wanted to pick it up. During a quick incursion into the Stables market area I introduced Jane to Cyberdog and I could tell she was impressed. Shortly after the heavens opened and we sought rest and drier surroundings in the nearby Hawley Arms and then the Hobgoblin pub before heading back to the hotel and grabbing some food.

A brief sleep followed and we freshened up before heading back to Camden and an evening of catching up over drinks. We stayed in the Elephants Head for a good while on Camden high street before heading across the road to the Oxford Arms and then to Inverness street to the Good Mixer, all the pubs have a nice relaxed 'local' feel to them, we also did the Hobgoblin again, it's very much a rock pub and locals are a typical rock/alternative crowd. It was a great evening of chat and Jack Daniels whiskey in my case and after some savoury rolls of Indian origin we headed back feeling quite content to the hotel.

A word of warning here, the Travelodge at Euston isn't the most quiet of hotels, especially if you get a window room facing the station. Across from you is also a bus terminal and around the corner is a fire station, the traffic noise is pretty horrendous and our double glazed window did little to dampen it, especially as it was faulty near the top. Fortunately having been to London many a time I'd taken some ear plugs along so slept fairly well, poor Jane however wasn't so lucky and made a point of buying some earplugs from a chemist the day after.

The next day came and it was once more off to Camden to carry on with our shopping quest and it yielded much in the way of new clothes and new shops we'd not discovered before. On using a cash point at nearby supermarket we were approached by a man begging. Having worked with alcoholics before I could see he was in need of a drink, his face told me so but I decided to refuse his request, and his story of losing his keys was far from convincing. On getting some money I found some loose change and relented, I decided to give him it and received no thanks at all, he almost snatched it and moved on to someone else. It would be really refreshing if they just told you the fact 'look I am an alcoholic and I really need a drink because I am shaking so bad'.

Back to the shopping and I noticed a face I'd seen before, then it dawned on me it was a guy that had been on the Take Me Out show, he had dreadlocks and hippy clothes and I distinctively remembered him. I decided to ask him outright and it was indeed him. We chatted and I asked how much of the show was edited etc before we said our goodbyes, he struck me as a really nice guy.

The next part of the plan for the day was to head up to Brick Lane in east London, I'd heard much about it from friends and programs on Tv so decided to see what the fuss was about, added to the fact I was still after a hat for my upcoming holiday after trawling Camden for one.

After dropping our bags off at the hotel we headed to Brick Lane on the tube and the journey didn't take too long. There was an incident at Euston station where I noticed some hoodies following people closely, making out they were swiping an oyster card and getting through the barriers for free. To add to the irony they had Liverpool accents*. It was obvious they were up to no good and they bumped into me but I was alert to their actions and they noted it, I warned an oblivious Jane but they took another tunnel to a different tube, the danger had passed. It did make me think how much the CCTV operators are aware, especially in light of the coming Olympics. I've heard them berate people for using camera's on the tube before and maybe on this occasion they could have been aware of the hoodies, I guess I'll never know.

We arrived at Aldgate east tube station and headed around the corner to the fabled Brick Lane. The first thing you notice about it is the very ethnic feel it has, curry houses are in abundance as are different cultural supermarkets. There's some good clothes shops too, and this was my last chance really of finding a holiday hat. The rain came hurtling down again and we ducked into a pub called The Archers. It took some time to order drinks as the barmaid spoke almost no English, no surprise the pub was empty really. It took a little while to be understood, even for universal sounding drinks like vodka and coke.

The shower soon passed and we carried up the very long Brick Lane and I have to be honest and say it really isn't very remarkable, it feels little different from some ethnic streets in places like Bradford or Leicester. Having reached the top we turned around and headed back and stumbled upon a rather bohemian second hand clothing store. We had a good nosey around and I tried a hat on, Jane commented I looked like a wizard which made me grin. Then suddenly she noticed a hat on a higher shelf and passed it down to me, it was perfect, just what I was looking for and a bargain at £6. Feeling very happy we headed back down the lane and were tempted by an Indian delicatessen serving baked rolls, pakoras and other Indian snacks and pastries.

We headed inside after deciding roughly what to order and the guy behind the counter noticed us but decided to serve another Indian guy that had come into the shop a few seconds after us. I thought nothing of it and we waited patiently. After the first guy was served another entered and he was served and we were again ignored, we carried on waiting. When he was served an Asian woman entered and we were yet again ignored, as he started to serve her I shouted 'whoaa!' annoyed at being blatantly blanked repeatedly but he continued to ignore us. I turned to Jane as said 'Forget it' then we walked out, it was a very weird feeling indeed, one of anger but something more, I think the feeling was a direct one of clear racism towards us and it's not easy to explain but I can tell you, it didn't feel very nice.

We headed back and I really didn't feel like doing much after such a busy day. Jane rallied me making the point we were only there for a couple of days so had better make the most of it. We headed to the familiar and comfortable territory of Camden again and for last evening of socialising.

The next day soon came around and our trains in opposite directions headed back around lunched time, after packing our bags and saying our goodbyes we parted and headed home. I walked back to the new Kings Cross departures station and was very impressed with how it was laid out, noticeably less busy too. The train journey home was uneventful and and I was soon back in my sleepy town, it felt good to be home after a very busy few days away.

(*People from Liverpool are often joked about in English culture as sometimes being thieves.)

Photos from top to bottom are; Street art in Brick Lane, Brick Lane, A Tolkien sign between Euston and Kings Cross and the Harry Potter platform at the new Kings Cross departures station. As for Camden I've posted many photos of it before!

Hunger Games Left Me Starving

Last Friday I decided to check out the new 'Hunger Games' movie. I'm fortunate that I live very close to a cinema so I generally know when it's quiet and can pop along in the afternoon if I'm not busy to catch a film. I'd only seen the trailer for Hunger Games but it looked good (don't all trailers?) and added to that it looked very dystopian which I like being generally a miserable and cynical person, well so people say!

Anyway, I was in luck, the cinema was virtually empty, a couple of people trickled in before the film began so it was nice and quiet as I like it. I was aware that the film was part of a trilogy of books but generally knew little else about it, so I settled down to soak it all in with an open but expectant mind.

So the film began in some back water mining town reminiscent of 1950s mid west America. You are quickly introduced to the heroine, her family and potential love interest. Then comes the lottery for the hunger games tournament which you are briefly made aware of at the beginning of the film and if you've seen the trailer you know what is possibly going to transpire. So off the heroine goes to the big city after taking the place of her younger sister. Sat in the very ostentatious carriage of the futuristic train she gets to rub shoulders with her male counterpart contestant and largely indifferent trainer/mentor played by Woody Harrelson. They soon arrive in the big capital city, imaginatively called the same and its down to gourmet banquets and training. Capital city is populated by very baroque people with gaudy hairstyles coloured with hues of electric blue etc.

We get to meet the president of capital city briefly (Donald Sutherland), do some quick training in a futuristic armoury/gym/Dojo and then impress so called 'sponsors' who seem to have little connection with the main story, what they actually sponsor or effect it has is left to the imagination.

Then its onto the Hunter Games, a Tv show where the aim of the game is to stay alive whilst killing the other contestants. The prize if you survive? a pat on the back from the president and a ticket home back to dumps-ville, albeit surrounded by lush country side.

Onto the games, well several kids fall quickly running for rucksacks of goodies or weapons, how stupid, didn't their trainers tell them to run away first, especially the younger ones? So a few quick deaths near the beginning of which you hardly see. This film is no gore fest and our heroine manages to grab a rucksack of goodies in the opening melee chaos and run into the nearby forest.

The other contestants have either done the same or have grouped to form a band of vile college kid type bullies intent on hunting the others down including our heroine. How they bond is unexplained but then this is a film lacking any decent dialogue. We then get a few adventures of the heroine evading the others whilst befriending an expendable character. All of her encounters are manipulated by the Tv station of Capitol city which is housed in a very sterile white a la Matrix department with super sophisticated gadgetry and devices capable of creating very real illusions and monsters to manipulate the games. So, we've gone from back water mid west America to baroque semi futuristic to far out total sci-fi, this is where it all fell down for me, not to mention the very dull games with no tension building at all.

Eventually our heroine the very twee named 'Katniss Everdeen', the others have twee names too, such as Effie and Primrose as well as a selection of old Roman names meets her fellow male contestant and they half fall in love. The games are then manipulated so they can both win it and they proceed to kick ass, the twist being the games again are changed at the end so they have to kill each other, they choose not to. This throws the spanner in the works, they are both announced as joint winner and they go home.

Yep, that's basically it. It doesn't feel very dystopian, the script is almost none existent, there doesn't seem to be any real Machiavellian bad guys and I ended up not caring if the heroine lived or died. Woody Harrelson and Donald Sutherland who I like as actors are there for an easy pay packet and their characters sadly contribute very little. Maybe the books evoke more but basically this is an action cutesy movie for girls aged 15. The more I thought about it after, the more I disliked it, I was clock watching near the end, a sure sign of something very bad.

Having read ahead about the books, book two contains yet another Hunger Games where the heroine has to fight again, book three is more about revolutionary stuff, I'll definitely avoid.

If you want films of the same dystopian genre go for the still very excellent The Running Man or dig out the original French film called Le Prix Du Danger which I was fortunate to see back in France in 83'. And of course the very excellent Japanese film Battle Royale is more than worth a watch.

Hunger Games is as dull as dishwater with a script that is just as murky. There's no suspense, no character building apart from a little on the heroine and the dystopian world doesn't really work or is portrayed very well. Good dystopia leaves you musing and thinking, this dystopian world reminded me of a Butlin's holiday camp with hyper active redcoats.

In closing, Hunger Games is an awful film that really did leave me mentally starving.

It's April, I'm Gonna Be No Fool

March sinks slowly behind us as we stride into April. It's not been a bad month at all, weather wise it has probably been the best March I can recall and everyone has been lifted by it. The next two months ahead seem fairly busy. I've a short trip to London booked mid month and then my holiday to Malta in May.

On the downside because of finances I really have to pick and choose my forays out these days. Ironically its the time of year when lots of friends are having birthdays and such and I'm finding myself reluctantly saying 'no' to nights out, which bothers me but I simply can't afford to do everything.

Last week was kind of bitter-sweet. At the beginning of the week I someone revealed their true colours, it was unwelcome news but not entirely unexpected. True colours were finally revealed and after years of ignoring comments about said person I now have to acknowledge that maybe they were right and this person is self centred and hollow hearted. You live and learn I guess and I am the sort of person that generally ignores the comments of others and judges for myself regarding a persons merits, alas this person is the kind that says one thing and does another. It's hard to think you can feel so close to a person one minute and so distant the next.

Onto more positive news. On Friday I received a call telling me that my eye surgery has been approved and will take place in May. To be honest I didn't think it was going to happen as I mentioned in a previous blog because of the current state of the NHS. I was elated at the news so the week ended on a high.

March has also seen the growth of my other blog, the hobbit-humanist. I tentatively started it on another blogging platform and last month saw me posting twenty blogs to favourable feedback and responses.

Oh and lastly, April brings season two of Game of Thrones and I can't wait !