Bobby and Muffins

In my local shopping centre there is a cafe called Muffin Break. The muffins just melt in your mouth.

The service is also excellent. When I went there for a muffin-lunch today (smiles broadly) I was wearing a Bobby t-shirt, and the on-duty manager Debbie (seen below with her co-manager Ryan) declared her admiration - as did Blessing, a student who works at the cafe part time. As they said, It's HIM, he makes it!

I left the blog address in case they fancy a treat to thank them fro the treats they serve me with week after week.

Debbie and Blessing, if you're visiting, welcome to the home of good taste in men, just as Muffin Break is the nome of good taste in cakes.

Legacy - Day 3

Somehow I think Bobby would rather be anywhere than among this group of silly teenage girls.

Back in Black

Men in Black has been on TV several times over the last couple of weeks, and is actually on two separate channels this coming week.

In the Radio Times for next week, and I'm sure nothing to do with the new film coming out, veteran film critic Barry Norman chose it as his film of the week. This is a bit of what he said:

The film relies heavily, of course, on special effects but, just for once, the effects are there to serve the story rather than the other way round.

He probably doesn't know that Vincent almost spoiled all that for the other actors and the FX crew by actually doing himself much of the stuff they'd anticipated being done by special effects!
Here's a bit of what he says about Vincent's performance:

He goes lurching off, zombie-like and barely in control of his human shape...

Which short-changes Vincent a bit, but is much closer to his believable struggle to fit inside his skin than one ever finds said about the performance of the Master.

Legacy - Day 2

What a wonderful way to get a crick in one's neck.

Only Fools and Chandeliers

Over on The Valentine Cat Diane made a reference to a British comedy character, Del Boy, who was played by the inimitable David Jason for more than 20 years.

Although the comment she referred to isn't obvious anywhere on YouTube, some of the most famous - and funniest - moments are there. In this very early one, Del Boy and his brother Rodney have been hired to take down a chandelier in a stately home:

Legacy - Day 1

Look at him smiling at this woman! How come she doesn't melt?

Not the post I was going to write

I was going to take some pictures of the old part of London I was in today, but in the end I didn't get the chance to take them.
I had appointments at two teaching agencies. The first, at 10am, was a bit of an unexpected reunion, even though it was, for me, a new agency. A teaching colleague from over 7 years ago sneaked up behind to say hello - he's left the school I was made redundant from back then, just as disillusioned as I was. We had a chat, then met up for lunch later. Then my consultant from the last time I worked with an agency gave me a hug on her way out to see a headteacher with whom I worked while she was a deputy elsewhere (does that make sense?) Things were starting to look up.

The second agency was the one this consultant used to work for, and they too have connections with the school Catherine was visiting. I might be in a strong position to get the best possible pay rates if they have to compete for me!

On the way out, I was literally tripped up by a ridiculous arrangement of the floor, which accommodates wheelchair access by making a dangerous and all-but-invisible 3-inch drop along the edge of the ramp to the exit. I took a tumble, and bashed my head on the door with a resounding thump. If you don't hear from me tomorrow, call the emergency services, I may be lying in a coma!
So, bang (literally) went my ability to wander round taking pictures. It was a cab to the station for me.

Back at home, Catherine called to say the headteacher she'd seen will almost certainly have something for me in September (and would take me on before if I was available). It's a bit further than I would have liked, but still eminently do-able. Relief isn't the word! I couldn't leave you without one pictorial gem I googled - the Staple Inn, High Holborn, which I passed by a couple of times today. It's a 16th century building, so it was standing in the time of Queen Elizabeth I and Shakespeare. It withstood the Great Fire of London. It bears the name "Inn" as in "Inns of Court", not a tavern, and it's where the wool staple was weighed and taxed. It was damaged in WWII but was later restored.

Vanishing Act - Day 12

If you insist on looking like that sweetheart, I will be forced to kiss you.

Vanishing Act - Day 11

You can cut me in half, Bobby, just as long as you touch my hands.

Uke can do it!

I've always loved the ukulele. I grew up hearing George Formby playing and singing his cheerful songs. He was the hero of my hero, George Harrison. A while ago comedian Frank Skinner did a TV show about the instrument, and a ukulele convention featured, with young and old alike enjoying playing together. But much as I enjoyed it, none of this made me want to play. Let's face it, with carpal tunnel syndrome and fingers making a valiant effort to avoid developing osteo-arhtritis, I'd be stupid to try. But last night, on a programme called The Secret Millionaire (a rich dude going undercover to a deprived area to find causes to change his life outlook and milk him of some money) the man concerned took his ukulele with him, and as I heard him strum, I thought, "I want one of those!" They can be got surprisingly cheaply on Amazon, and I was tempted by the colourful array - oranges, reds, purples - but in the end I was swayed by a good report from someone about a normal-looking instrument:

Add in a Dummies book, a tuner and some plectra, and I'll be all set to start. I just want it to arrive!

Meanwhile, listen to and enjoy one of George Formby's greatest (and mildly rude) songs, When I'm Cleaning Windows:



By the way, in case you were wondering, the picture shows George playing a banjolele.

Turner Inspired by Claude

My favourite artist in the whole world ever is Turner. He was so far ahead of his time, even the Impressionists didn't match his powers of representation, in my opinion. But his first inspiration was the 17th century French artist Claude, to the extent that one of the conditions of his legacy (he left a vast collection of his works to the nation) was that four specified pictures - two of his and two of Claude's - be hung side by side in the then National Gallery. This is Claude's Enbarkation of the Queen of Sheba:

Here is Turner's Dido at Carthage:

It was from Claude's example that Turner learnt the effects of placing the sun in the centre of the picture, to increasingly stunning and abstract effect. This is the second exhibiton I've been to in recent years that compared and contrasted the works of Turner and those he inspired as well as those he was inspired by. His pictures are always head and shoulders above the others.

Vanishing Act - Day 10

Got to love that smile.

Mini Miniature

I imagine most people have seen pictures of very old wooden dolls. They tend to have hands and feet that are broken off or worn away, and rubbed or missing noses.

Well, today at the dolls' house fair I snagged a delightful Georgian-style doll - not a dolls' house doll, but a dolls' house doll's doll, less than two inches high, dressed beautifully in retrieved and recycled old fabric and lace.

The maker, unusually, is a man - and a black man at that, something rare in dolls' house circles. He takes immense pride in his teeny creations, which include teddies and other toys as small as pipe cleaners.

Here's my little treasure:

Vanishing Act - Day 9

Sleight of hand - though Bobby's not so slight!