Bargain!

Anyone in the UK with a branch of The Works near them who doesn't yet have Fires Within can get a reall bargain - it's on sale there for just £2.99 (2 for £5 if they have another film you fancy).

Untethered - Day 7

Bobby does his naughty little boy act. I suppose he didn't get much chance to do it when he really was a little boy.

The Importance of Being Furry

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten to give you the latest lion cub update.

With a 2-hour wait to get as far as to buy a ticket for the Hockney exhibition yesterday, my friend and I voted with our feet and went to check up on the girls:



Dad's scruffy mane is just visible behind them.

Meanwhile, little Mitzi has taken a shine to the toaster as a place to, well get toasty on chilly mornings. Or warm ones.



Fur on toast, anyone?

Most Perfect Piece of Music Ever?

It'a sublime. It speaks directly to your soul and your intellect. It satisfies every part of your mind and being. It calms the savage beast (OK, maybe that should be breast). Does anyone know a more perfect piece of music than the overture to Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro?

If you are unfortunate enough to have lived to your present age without ever having heard it, feast your ears. I'd wager you won't regret it.

And when you've feasted on every perfect note - try to imagine playing it!

Untethered - Day 6

I can't help thinking that after this outburst, Bobby was lucky Ross came to his rescue later on!

Civilisation - Gone in the Teeth

Remember Anti-Thesis?

Who could forget Bobby's first encounter with SWMNBN/Old Heart-in-a-box?

Then there's the confusion of Mark Bailey between Ezra Pound and T.S.Eliot that led the detectives to his door.

I'm sure that, like me, you've heard Bobby make the quote so many times it's permanently etched on your brains.

Well, it wouldn't have been if you'd only ever seen it pre-9pm on Universal Channel UK. Their ridiculous policy of blanking out words they think might be offensive has surpassed itself. And all because a). they have extremely dirty minds that see rude language where there is none and b). they are extremely ignorant of the English language.

Thus, this evening, I heard "Civilisation................gone in the teeth" where I should have heard "Civilisation - and old bitch gone in the teeth". Every time.



Obviously these idiot half-wits think that the word "bitch" is simply a swear word. They do not know that it has the perfectly legitimate meaning of a female dog.

It's a pity that they did this the day after reminding viewers of Bobby's top L&O detective award last year, on the same day they replied to my January (yes, it took them 2 months) email about Season 10 in which I mentioned the award. I feel I inspired the mention.

I just hope that now I can inspire a bit more common sense when it comes to removing what their dirty little minds regard as vulgarity and swearing.

Untethered - Day 5

Bobby looks distraught when he finds out the cause of the vulnerable inmate's death.

Birthday Girl

When I got Jaspa I identified her as a him, and called her Jasper. The vet had already given her a complete set of jabs before noticing, when she went in to be neutered, that she was a girl.

This is not a particularly recent picture of her (making herself at home in a drawer where there was a bag of catnip) but she still looks as trim and beautiful as she ever did.

Her birthday is my estimate of when she must have been born - 18 years ago. What a gorgeous old girl.

Untethered - Day 4

Bobby is so pleased to find he has a nephew.

Untethered - Day 3

There's those hands again.

Would someone help me understand why Frank would have kept their mother's ring and not sold it to get dope? He missed the funeral after all, so it wasn't for sentimental reasons.

That's Showbiz

Those of us who have reached a certain age will remember this lovely lady, a 1950s female crooner.
Others still will recognise her looking more like this, from her appearances on ER as a woman with dementia.

They may even know that she was married to this man (apparently, twice).

They are less likely to know that this man is their son.

He is Miguel Ferrer, actor, whom I was surprised to see turn up in NCIS Los Angeles this week. Looks a lot like his father, doesn't he? His father Jose Ferrer. Not good looking like his mother, Rosemary Clooney. Nor his uncle, Nick Clooney.

And certainly not like Nick's son, Rosemary's nephew, Miguel's cousin:

Yes, in case you hadn't put it together before, he is George Clooney's cousin.

George is pictured here with his father after his arrest for daring to be on the steps of the Sudanese embassy trying to prevent another humanitarian crisis in Sudan. And just a couple of days after dining with Obama and Cameron, and having Obama's ear in a private meeting about the Sudan situation.

How dare he defy the police like that? What's a few more deaths in Africa as long as they get to throw their weight around?

He may not be as sexy as our Vincent, but Clooney is an all-round good bloke.

Untethered - Day 2

Bobby's always got his brother's number, no matter how Frank tries to twist things. No wonder he gets angry with him.

Spare £9 million anyone?

St Cuthbert was the Bishop of Lindisfarne (Holy Island) in the 7th century, where he was buried after his death. Eleven years after his death his casket was opened to reveal his remains intact. This led to the movement to canonise him.

When the Danes invaded Lindisfarne in the 9th century, the monks took Cuthbert's remains across to the mainland, where they wandered for some years. Ultimately, in the 11th century, a new cathedral was built to house his shrine.

Sr Cuthbert's Cathedral, Durham

When his remains were transferred into his new shrine, this copy of St John's Gospel was found with his body:

The St Cuthbert Gospel ended up in the hands of the Jesuits after passing around various private owners following the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII in the 16th century. Thought to be the oldest European book still in existence, it has been on long loan to the British Library for many years, and has now been offered to them for a coll £9 million. It will then be displayed half of every year at the Library, half at the Cathedral.

Good to know religious groups are so generous. It would be so inappropriate for them to make money out of something holy...

Untethered - Day 1

Wonder what Bobby did with that brick between buying it off the homeless guy and using it to smash the car showroom window? Why would he even keep it when he had no idea he'd have a use for it?