timebug

A Little Loving - The Fourmost Apologies for earlier when I posted ' Don't Stop Me Now - Queen' but the last post shown on my screen was 'Don't Stop the Dance - Roxy Music' and it was a logical follow on. Something must have prevented the later posts showing!

Watched 'Thor: Love and Thunder' and was thouroughly dischuffed by it! The first three 'Thor; films were (IMO) good fun with decent enough stories and comic book action. This one was a CGI Bore-fest from the word go! I am not a reader of the Marvel comics that these were taken from, and have not seen the ten thousand other Marvel films that (apparently) all inter-connect to form a whole; but this on was just tripe.

Whilst not a Christian myself, I have no problem supporting my friends who do believe, and like anything in life, so long as what you believe in causes no harm or distress to others, that is fine with me!

I read one novel may years ago that was being 'pushed' as a horror story, and it was the vilest most foul piece of rubbish that I have ever read. I will not name it here, as a caual reader may be tempted to find out the cause of my revulsion by checking it out. Suffice to say that it was really awful, in the truest senses of the word, and whilst I would defend banning anything and the 'burning of books' in this one case, I would happily make an exception.

Hux, I always found 'As I walked Out One Midsummer Morning' by Laurie Lee to be a fitting companion to his more famous 'Cider With Rosie'. A nice warm pair of books reflecting a bygone age where things seemed so much more innocent!

Watched both series,and found a sneaking regard for it. Okay, it is NOT the book, by any means, but a free-form jazz riff on the basic story, if you like! And i loved the ending which most critics online didn't!

Watched the first two episodes. Oh dear! Given a strong text and a decent story, why do the tv/film makers have to fiddle with it, alter it beyond recognition in many cases, in the name of 'drama'? Slow direction, which could have worked, had the story been made better use of, or the actors could actually act. For the most part they seem like a badly rehearsed am-dram group in your local Church Hall! Visually stunning, as apparently New Zealand lends itself to Tolkien-esque settings if filmed properly. The actors accents wander all over the shop, from cod-Irish to very cod 'Mummerset' and back. With touches of Americanisms thrown in, and some stiff upper lipped English! Will probably stick with it, poor as it is, because I love the original books and source material(s) that this is drawn from, but in general, as I started with; Oh Dear!

I was Texted by my Doctors Surgery on Monday and invited to sign up for my fourth Covid Jab (Booster) and a Flu jab! I did so and will be getting them on the First of next month. I had a reaction to my first one, when about eight hours after getting it, I went cold, shivery and slightly nauseous. It only lasted a few hours and I was then okay. Numbers two and three, I had no reaction at all. So here's hoping, for number four!

I loved the Stainless Steel Rat series, and after reading them, found everything I could get my Hands on by HH!

I have always been an avid reader, and love discussing books with any other reader. Like Hayley, I have many friends who share many interests with me, but very few of them are readers; it is good to discuss a favourite book that two or more of you have read and enjoyed, but many of my friends just will not read, and so these discussions just never happen! My elder Son loved reading, his younger brother was more sporty/outdoorsy/active and many of the talks I had with elder Son, about what we had read were totally 'over his head' as it were. My Grandaughter inherited the reading bug from her aged Grandad fortunately, and we have some cracking chats on what we think is good and otherwise. Like music (I have friends who do not listen to any music!) reading is a personal choice and one which I am glad that my own Mother passed on to me. My Father was a reader too, but never had the time to read everything that he wanted to, where my Mother always managed to fit in at least an hour a day on her current book!

Don't Stop Me Now - Queen

Just finished 'And Away....' the autobiography of Bob Mortimer. Comes axcross as a decent chap, with no artifice about him, but I was slightly disappointed to find that despite a number of friends and family telling me it was the 'funniest book' they have read, I did not think so. I have read books that I have found far more comical, but still, a decent enough book.

Hold Back The Night - Graham Parker & The Rumour

The Night Before - The Beatles

Had to go to our local Hospital for my annual blood test, and my appointment was for 9.am. Arrived and registered on the computer at around 8.45 and was called in at around 8.50! I was back home by 9.15 which was pretty good, as it is a fair walk there and back!

Have no 'new' books to hand at the moment, so in the past month I have re-read all of the Colin Dexter 'Morse' novels, a couple of Dick Francis' thrillers and a Desmond Bagley that was always a particular favourite! Must get hold of something new that I want to read......

Poppy, whilst I love the 'Hamish MacBeth' series, the 'Agatha Raisin' books give me more enjoyment/pleasure to read. But I never got on with the TV version. Firstly Agatha is dark haired, so why cast a blonde for her part? They also changed too many things about the supporting cast for my liking, and the whole thing came across (to me) as a quick 'lets cash in while we can' enterprise!

Honky Tonk Women - The Stones

Hello from thirty miles north of you! Welcome and have a good browse around!

Talkin 'Bout You - The Animals

It's a Heartache - Bonnie Tyler

Everybody's Got Something To Hide (Except for Me and My Monkey) - The Beatles

They always change things. often for no good reason! I am always reminded of M.C.Beaton's comment on the TV series based on her 'Hamish Macbeth' books. She said (I am paraphrasing from memory) something like; ' My Hamish is a six foot, red haired highlander; what do they give us on TV? A five foot eight dark haired Glaswegian with a chip on his shoulder!' Equally, the Jack Frost of TV is far from the man in the books. I prefer the book version of course, but can watch the telly show if I want to!

We used to have a great second hand bookshop locally, where every week I would be selecting the five or six books to read the following week, at dirt cheap prices. One Saturday I discovered a book by an unknown (to me) author named Colin Dexter. It was titled 'The Dead of Jericho' and was a Morse novel. In fact, the fifth published Morse novel. I loved it and having been made aware of this writer, over the next few weeks I discovered (at the same great shop!) the first four Morse novels. I eagerly awaited the next one coming out, and in the meantime, the TV series started. Funnily enough, the first story shown was 'The Dead of Jericho' which was my first book experience of Morse! I felt a subdued note of disquiet straight away; whilst I found John Thaw an excellent actor, I simply didn't believe in him as Morse! And Lewis, in the forst book, is described as being 'several years older' than Morse, so I was not thrilled to see a young Kevin Whately playing him either. As the series continued, so the books periodically appeared. And (IMO) Colin Dexter started to morph the Morse I had known in the books, into a man more like the TV version.I quickly lost faith in the TV show and abandoned it after about six or seven episodes. The books, I stuck with, but was not so keen on them as Dexter continued to make Morse 'smarter than the average bear, BooBoo!' and show off his education with too many (for me) learned references and cryptic crossword clues. After the Morse series ended, I gave 'Lewis' a go, the continuing adventures of Morses sidekick, ably assisted by another eridite smartarse in Sgt Hathaway. I eventually abandoned the series too. Fast forward a few years. I was able to get almost any programme I wanted via a streaming service, and I gave 'Lewis' another go. This time around, I liked them and stuck with the entire run of shows. Again (like the Morse series) they were slightly drawn out as they continued, but watchable fluff if one had nothing else to do! Then came 'Endeavour', and at last I found my 'perfect' TV version of Morse. Shaun Evans was spot on in my mind,as the young man whose turbulent life would eventually become the haunted past of the older Morse! In summary; Morse (books) top notch. Morse (TV series) not for me. Lewis (TV series) okay but not great. Endeavour (TV Series) great stuff, and very watchable. On a side note, I once owned my own second hand bookshop for a time, and at one stage I had the first eight Morse novels in stock, in paperback, and the newly published ninth one (The Jewel That Was Ours) in Hardback. A young fellow came in and bought them all, commenting' This will be a great start to a complete Morse collection!'. I pointed out that what he had in his hands, was in fact (at that time) already a 'complete Morse collection'. He was astounded. 'But there have been a couple of dozen on the telly....!' he said. 'Ah yes, on the telly' I smiled 'but they were not all from the books you know? They often make up their own stories to extend the series....' He looked as though he half believed me, and bore away his prized 'collection'. Morse/Lewis/Endeavour... all charcters created by the late Colin Dexter; which versions of which characters you prefer, well it is all down to choice, isn't it?

Pleasantly warm here with a bit of breeze; fine rain this morning which has now cleared. Altogether more comfortable than the start of the week!