Judah Ben Hur.

    There's a book and there are also half-a-dozen screen versions, with two or three truly epic productions. I've grown up with the Charlton Heston, William Wyler spectacular and recall it as one of the all-time-great films. That wonderful scene where Jesus gives Judah some water!
    And with the release of the new 2016 version I was keen to see this latest attempt, of course the reviews are terrible, so I've tried to avoid reading them and I was worried about Jack Huston, perhaps he would make a good Jewish playboy, but how would he cope with being lashed to the galley or in a life and death chariot race at the local track? At least there's Morgan Freeman, so much experience, many defining rolls and you're convinced he's a sheik, and not just by his thobe,
    Remarkably I'm in the same Cinema in which I saw the magical 1959 screening, it was as a young boy in the mid-sixties, films would take a long time to get this far North, back in those days. I'm pleased to say the seats are more comfortable and spacious now, and I also thought it wise to forsake the 3d Ice Lolly and the three 1d Gobstoppers, as of my childhood.
    The film, well it rolls along well enough and there are a few variations here and there, but generally I felt let down, maybe it's all the digital CG which seems to be everywhere, and when you least want to see it. I would suppose the studio took a gamble with the project, thinking the 1959 movie needed, somehow updating, better cinematography perhaps. Wyler, worked on the 1925 production and no doubt had similar ideas, and when you compare these earlier two, you can see the advances in technique. Look at the 1959 & 2016 films and you are more likely to wonder, exactly why did they bother?      

Delia Smith.

    It shouldn't be too much of a surprise, but there always seems to be an abundance of celebrities turning up in the Lake District, the thing is, they are not usually attention seekers and you are generally unaware of their presence.
    Last week I met a few friends in a local hotel, on our way to a restaurant, one of them said to me; "that woman from Norwich, is in here, you know, the cook, the one who likes football, wot's her name? Oh yeah, Delia Smith!"
    So I had what I would consider to be a casual and at the same time searching, glance around the room. Can't say I saw Delia, to recognize her, but I did notice how oddly everyone else was behaving, which told me Delia, was probably in the house!  

Fiver for em...

    We've just got the new Plastic £5 in UK circulation and to be honest, they're pretty good, but I'm bound to say as much, I've been using the Irish fiver's for the past seventeen years, without any problems. But paper or plastic, I love them both/all.

Friar's Crag, Derwentwater North Lakes

      On my way back from Cockermouth, heading to the South Lakes, I decided to make a short stopover in Keswick, it's probably the North Lakeland principle town. I used to work here, some few years ago and I still have a number of friends in the area, like to visit the shops and those old familiar haunts. 
      I can still happily recall spending my lunch hours walking by the lake shore, on some of those cold and crisp winter's days. And because of this I decided to make a walk down to Friar's Crag and perhaps re-live some of those happy memories. The route is still very familiar, past the theatre and along the track by the shore, only the numbers of people have soared in recent times.

      But then at last I'm at the view point, it's a nice sunny day and the panorama of lake and fell is staggering, there are quite a few other people here as well and they too, are swept up by the sheer majesty of the place.  

  John Ruskin, is immortalised at Friar's Crag, simply by the erection of the well known monolith and a few well chosen words from his diary.

Ring, Ring, Ring.........

    Been having a few problems with my Telecom Landline and have been in need of a new telephone, or more preferably, a telephone system with various hand sets to run through the house. Due to one thing and another, I'd never got around to doing anything about this matter even with constant verbal encouragement from certain members of my family. To be quite honest I've been looking for some sort of telephone, which, to some degree might be able to manage itself and be able to deal with nuisance and cold callers and people using withheld numbers. There seems to be something of a gamut of these sort of callers, just at the present.

    So one day I'm in Asda (walmart) and I'm thinking; "just take care of this problem, buy a cheap phone, sort it all out!" So I do, I get it home, set it up and the problems begin, won't work, the ansaphone won't respond, won't dial properly, the battery compartment keeps falling apart, etc. And I put up with this nonsense, to the next day, by which time I've had enough and put it all back in the box, then return it to the shop. At least I can get my money back, without any quibble! So I do what I should have done in the first place and go straight to Curry's/PC World and buy a good Panasonic system, KX-TG816. I come home and set it up and it's so good it almost sets itself up. I'm using it now and it's everything I need. I'm living in the digital revolution! 

The Apple Pie - Forty Years.

       Had the pleasure of attending the "Birthday Party" of the famous bakery upon the 20th May. Yes it's really forty-years since the Fielding family arrived in the Lakes to transform an old dusty motor spares shop into what would become the world famous Apple Pie Eating House.
       It was my pleasure to be part of the team in those early years and it's fair to say you can make a few life-long friends in that time. Although those friends now seem to be scattered far and wide, locations not always known, some regrettably no longer with us.
       In those early years I can recall every item made in a days production would be sold in the course of that day, if not within an instant and in the shop the customers would be shoulder to shoulder, eager to sample our wares.
       Although everything is so well organised and professional these days, in those early years I can happily remember a toaster and a kettle behind the counter and being greeted by the constant smell of burning toast and clouds of steam from the kettle. In those forty-years the toaster and kettle have long disappeared, though people still flock there in their droves. 

Tis the Season

Tis the Season

       Tis the season to be jolly - no not that one! With that one you need to leap about beneath a pine tree and wish your biggest enemy peace and prosperity and pretend you mean every word. You must give luxurious and expensive gifts which you can't afford then end up fighting and arguing with everyone!

      Alternatively, this is the season where you simply eat the product. I write of course of that great and wonderful tradition of the Jersey Royal Potato and that's only the first half, next we got that other marvellous seasonal tradition of Asparagus Tips, not one but two simple, affordable and enjoyable pleasures.

       A plate of small Jersey Royals and a few lightly boiled Tips, with some consolation dish you would call "main course." Add music, a sunny evening and good company, how much better can life become?