View My Stats

Welcome to the world of the Vincent D'Onofrio obsessed - and a bit of real life thrown in.


Saturday, December 31, 2011

Ghostly Encounter?

OK, I know he lived to 100, and died over 8 years ago, but I saw Bob Hope at the shops today.

No, not that Bob Hope. The Bob Hope was born in Eltham, part of the London Borough of Greenwich. The Bob Hope I saw was born in the north of England, he only lives in Greenwich.

I worked with him at Kidbrooke School, also in the London Borough of Greenwich. He's retired now, having taught at the school for decades, and the closest he came to the Hollywood of his namesake was teaching this man:

Because Jude Law went to Kidbrooke Shool.

And of course, Jamie Oliver did his School Dinners programme there.

No wonder Americans think all the English know each other.

Brother's Keeper - Day 6

Poor baby looks so unhappy when he hears there's nothing that can be done for his mummy.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Brother's Keeper - Day 5

This was a tough one to catch. It's blurred. It's poorly composed. But it's his tongue in full flick.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Brother's Keeper - Day 4

When Bobby Met Frankie.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Pengies and Cubs

No prizes for guessing where I went today.

The new penguin exhibit has been open since May, but these are the first pictures I've taken of the residents.










For a while I could only see one cub, who was sitting with dad. Then mum gave them both a feed.



Finally mum took a rest while big sister supervised a bit of meat-eating.

Brother's Keeper - Day 3

Don't frown, baby, let Val kiss it better. Whatever "it" is.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Planners' Folly

The friend I spent Christmas Day with lives a 30-mile drive away, and to get there part of my journey is along the M25 London Orbital motorway. This bridge runs across it at a place called
Polhill. For generations Polhill was a place of beauty, where families would go in spring to pick bluebells. Then the developers decided in their wisdom to reduce it to a cutting on the motorway.

The story is that, when planning the motorway and its crossings, exits and entries, thsoe responsible looked at a map, and at this site saw a line. "Aha!" they said, "There's a road. We must build a bridge across the motorway to accommodate it." And so they built this award-winning scissor arch bridge.

Sadly, the line on the map was just...a line on a map! A multi-million pound line. No one checked it on the ground. If you google bridges on the M25, you find that the Kent Sub Unit of South East Road Construction Unit takes responsibility for the design of what is described as a "pedestrian bridge, the Polhill Bridleway". I have never Seen anything on the bridge, nor have I tried to find the way on to it, but if there is a way, it's certainly well hidden. Well, at that price, I suppose they can afford to hide their mistake.

Brother's Keeper - Day 2

Just a hint of a smile - but enough to melt the heart.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Brother's Keeper - Day 1

He wants me to talk - I'll talk!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas Day Albatross

I don't have any interesting photo editing or creative software on my computer (been disappointed too many times) so it's just Plain Bobby (if there is such a thing!) for Christmas Day.

I think he just realised he forgot to send our Christmas cards.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Friday, December 23, 2011

Albatross - Day 6

Come to bed eyes. Only one answer to give them...

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Feeling Smart

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up with my energy company to be part of an electricity smart meter test, and today the meter was fitted. It's in the regular place under the stiars, and it uses a mobile phone connection to communicate with the supplier. So it can be read by remote interrogation, and can even receive text messages from them.

It also includes this gadget which lets me monitor my energy use by money, consumption or carbon emissions. I can follow my energy use by the day, week, month or year. (Well, as I've only had it for a day, I can just follow it by the day at the moment!)



Everyone will have to have one of these by 2020, and a smart gas meter will be tested as soon as the viability of the electricity one has been proved.

I do have certain reservations, such as what will happen to the meter readers and other people whose roles will be taken over by technology. The energy company said it will retrain them, but at what point do you just run out of jobs to retrain people for?

Throwing caution to the wind

Earlier in the year, when I realised I had gazillions of pairs of earrings and they just weren't getting enough wear, I had a second hole pierced in each ear. I imagine you can guess what happened next - I started to buy more earrings! So now I'm back to square 1.

I've been thinking about getting a third set of holes done, but kept putting it off. Well, today, I went for it. Imagine these amethyst studs as just tiny dots a couple of millimetres across and you have the idea.

Now I have to wonder what will happen if they get sore or infected over the impending 3-day holiday...

Albatross -Day 5

Post 3,401.

Another deservedly well-known and iconic picture. So fuckable.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Extreme Recycling

Once upon a time everyone used to take their own shopping bags with them when they went to the shops. Drinks were bought in returnable glass bottles with refundable deposits. The streets were not full of non-degradable items that people couldn't be bothered to put in bins - and there was a bin on almost every lamppost.

Then there were no bins in the street, or at railway stations. They were deemed a security threat after the IRA put bombs in bins. People bought fast food and ate it as they walked along. They discarded the packaging where they stood, with no idea of taking it home with them. What we did take home went into the dustbin, which was emptied into a landfill. The whole developed world became a giant litter bin.

There are still precious few bins in the street, but what there are are often ignored, usually overfull, and do little to improve the state of our cities. The countryside is not much better, with people winding down their car windows to throw out their cigarette packets and sweet wrappers. They even throw out lit cigarettes in hot, dry weather, causing fires alongside our motorways. Most people rely on supermarket carrier bags by the dozen, unthinkingly accepted, frequently discarded before they even reach home, choking our rivers, polluting even the oceans so that the fish people eat has bits of plastic in it.

But we can now recycle much more stuff (of course, not using stuff in the first place, and the energy it takes to make it, and the energy it takes to recycle it, is better, but still) and in fact my own local council has just taken out a contract with a new, better recycling company.

But with the price of all kinds if metals so high, scrap yards are having a field day. I was glad when a load of scrap metal collected from my back garden disappeared from its pile in my front garden within a couple of days. It was intended to. I wouldn't have been so happy about it, though, if I could have foreseen how appalling the problem was about to become.

Daily, we hear about disruption to trains because electrical wiring to the signals has been stripped out. Operations in hospitals have to be cancelled because power cables have been stolen. People's phones are disabled. Church roofs leak with theft after theft of lead flashing. Scrap yards are uncontrolled, and the government, rather than push through legislation begun by the previous administration, just has to make new laws of its own, and is in no hurry to do so.

A few years ago, before the problem became so widespread and serious, a Henry Moore sculpture was stolen from a sculpture park. Now a Barbara Hepworth has been hacked from its plinth in a south London park.

Whatever its price as scrap, the sculpture itself is valued at a quarter of a million pounds.

But not for much longer.


Post Script. I just heard a load of hammering in the street and looked out to find three men with various wheeled trolleys full of metal bashing away at a TV or some such item in a skip outside a house, trying to get the insides out. They also vaulted over someone's garden wall in search of metal stuff to recycle. Given that they didn't seem to have any idea of what was potentially theirs and what was other people's, I called the police. They didn't sound very interested.

What a surprise.

And if they were the ones who stole the Hepworth? Tough.

Albatross - Day 4

So appealing.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

The Sky's The Limit

Or rather, Sky is the limit.

Last week, an episode of Criminal Minds on Sky Living was in its final quarter. It was a bit odd that the scene that should be showing was in a box at the bottom of the screen while other things were going on on the main screen. But then just as the demented dad was saying goodbye to his sick, dying son there was a voice-over, loud and prolonged, advertising the next programme, that drowned the moving dialogue out completely.

I managed to find a way to email them (they make it as difficult as possible), but recorded the programme on +1 and next day confirmed that they hadn't changed a thing. So I'll never hear the tear-jerking words spoken in that scene.

And the reply from Sky? "Thank you for your email regarding Criminal Minds.I can confirm your comments have been noted and passed on to Sky Living for there attention!!!

So not only do they employ unqualified amateurs in their continuity and technical departments, they pay people to answer emails - and be their interface with the public - who have very little grasp of correct English.

And for this "service" we pay.

Albatross - Day 3

There's no logical reason why this picture should be so sexy.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Albatross - Day 2

We continue with a classic Bobby head position, offering up the lovely neck we so want to nuzzle.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Degrees of Vincent

While watching The King's Speech today for the first time, I spotted a thespian who made me realise that Colin Firth is just 2 degrees away from our beloved.

And here's the reason why:


The fabulous Claire Bloom played King George IV's mother, Queen Mary, in the film, and we all know her part in Season 3.

Albatross - Day 1

Back to Season 6 for some fine Christmas Bobby, and a shot we all know very well:

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Friday, December 16, 2011

Doing It Wrong

For some reason, my cats have always treated this igloo bed like a flat surface rather than a dome, and lie on top rather than crawl inside.

Add to that Beano's strange notion that he can hug Mitzi with his back leg, and you have a perfectly silly situation that is totally cat.


16-23

SOunds a bit like an 18-30 holiday, only worse.

Luckily this is much better!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

More 4

Episodes 9-15 remembered.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Season 4 revisited

I can't even remember making this series of videos from Season 4's episodes, but obviously I did, 'cos here is the first.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

T-Z

End of the road - for now.

Monday, December 12, 2011

PS

Here are the P-S episodes:

Sunday, December 11, 2011

H2O

No, not water, the next section of alphabet in my collection.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Friday, December 09, 2011

I need to redo this

and the rest of the A-Z, and include the later seasons. Big job!

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Kiss Kiss

For some reason, this video of mine has had over 65,000 views.

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Staten Island interview

Look what I found lurking in my YouTube account:

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Privilege - Day 7

Did I do something to amuse you, Detective? Can I do a little more, please, to give you extra pleasure?

Monday, December 05, 2011

Privilege - Day 6

"Sit down and shut up!"

Ooh, yes, Bobby. Whatever you say, darling.

Sunday, December 04, 2011

This is inhuman

As a non-believer, I assume it would count as unholy to decent people who are religious. It is certainly immoral.

But why isn't it illegal?

Free speech? My freedom to swing my arm stops short of the next person's nose.

A church in Kentucky has banned mixed race couples from joining the congregation or attending any religious ceremonies.

Except funerals - and I'm sure if they had their way, they'd make sure that couples like this (especially the man) had their funerals earlier rather than later.

These wackos' free speech is kicking the shit out of this couple's freedom to live as they choose.

How did these simians ever climb down from the trees?

Privilege - Day 5

And now, to the irresistible list from yesterday's post, we add the shoulders, the folded arms, and the, er, groinage.

Saturday, December 03, 2011

Life's not easy for a wildlife photographer

Privilege - Day 4

Which part appeals to you most in this photo? The hair? The chin? The eyes? The nose? The ears? The lips? The neck? The lot?

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Poppy and Pansy Update

My friend who arranged the adoption of my lovely hens has sent me this picture of them with the cockerel, and bossy Henrietta in the background.

Good to see Poppy hasn't lost any weight!



I do miss them though.

Nuts!

I wasn't looking at the TV screen when this ad came on, but the voice was impossible to mistake.



Can't forgive him for what he did to Leonard.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Privilege - Day 3

"Max, play nice." I'll play any way you like, Bobby, and you can call me Max if it helps...

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Privilege - Day 2

Can I help you run your fingers through those curls, darling?

Monday, November 28, 2011

Damp Squib

I only heard today about Oban in Scotland's slight mishap with their November 5th firework display. The show should have lasted about 20 minutes, but it was all over in less than a minute. Enjoy a big Flash Bang:



Actually, I think the unofficial ones are even more gobsmacking:



Today they were going to have a rerun. Haven't heard yet how it went, but I bet it wasn't as dramatic as the one that went wrong.

Nearly a Loser

I heard an interesting programme on the radio this afternoon about what film directors used to do to show they were not allowed creative freedom on a project and were unhappy with the final result. From 1968 to 2000 they would replace their own name in the credits with the name Alan Smithee. This signalled to members of the Directors' Guild in the US and its UK equivalent that they had not been allowed to do their own thing with the material.

One of the directors they interviewed was the (unexpectedly English) Alex Cox, who directed the big V in The Winner. Apparently the film came in under budget, and the studio went over his head and replaced his choice of music with some cheap and nasty stuff they commissioned themselves to use up the money inhouse. Cox felt it completely ruined the feel of the film, and almost used the time-honoured alias in the credits. I wonder if our man knew?








Sunday, November 27, 2011

Privilege - Day 1

How to make a Vixen melt: Just give her a look like this

Saturday, November 26, 2011

The War At Home - Day 7

Sad, thoughtful Bobby.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Bobby was wrong!

Whenever I see Cherry Red, which was on last night, I am always disappointed at Bobby's assumptions and assertions about the victim Kate. He tells Eames she was right-handed because her gums were more worn on the left side, and right-handed people brush more vigorously on the left side. He then applies that nugget to her descent of the stairs - "She would have been coming down the right side of the staircase".

Well, I'm right-handed, and I descend the stairs on the left whenever I can. So Bobby was wrong. HE IS FALLIBLE.

He is human!

He is gorgeous.

The War At Home - Day 6

Serious, thoughtful and seriously thoughtful. Love him.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Calendar 2012

Unsurprisingly, it has a Season 6 theme.


































Blog Archive

About Me

My photo
Starsign - Aries Chinese Year - Snake