What have they done?

The day after

Boys Own

The chief of the defence staff in the UK is Air Chief Marshall Sir Jock Stirrup. He once saved the life of his student by piloting a twin-seater jet fighter from behind while the student lay unconscious in the front with one engine blazing with fire and unable to see out of the cockpit due to a "severe bird strike." He is now in a war of words with the former chief of the defence staff, dastardly Dicky Dannet. My money's on Blazing Jock Stirrup.

It really shouldn't be real

Somehow Windows has never lost this vibe

The Duke has gone

Today I waved goodbye to the bike. My life is less red but more green.

Sunday morning

Homemade tortillas, middle-class coffee and the Observer. It's my perfect Morningside Sunday morning.

Friday is cat blog day

A narrow escape for one

BRUCITE in SLAG

Who would have guessed it? According to Wikipedia, it has perfect cleavage. Personally, I assume that's the slag which is why the Brucite is there.

Let the right one in

Swedish vampire horror movies are not normally the stuff of legend. This is, however, not a Swedish vampire movie, nor is it a horror movie. What it is is a story about a bullied boy which just happens to contain a vampire. The movie is compelling. Visually it's beautifully grimy; this is not the glitzy 70s Sweden of Abba and bright clothing. The actors are utterly magnetic - the boy in particular is unsettlingly ambiguous. The blood-spattered scenes are well-paced. In the end what made it for me was the realisation, towards the end, of a deeply dark depiction of children, manipulation and the transience of love. Not ideal when you're getting married I suppose...

Baa-rilliant

In the Valley of Elah

So, last night we watched In the Valley of Elah. It was a Sofa Cinema special - had been hanging around the house almost sent back until we bit the bullet and watched it. Very glad that we did now.

As a study of the impact of war on the young men who fight it and what happens to them afterwards it was good. What was better were the performances of the leads and the fact that this was a very human story. There was a passable detective story with some good detecting and the old trope of grizzled veteran detective changing the life of a young detective before she surrendered to cynicism.

Not quite 5 stars for me. I thought Tommy Lee Jones was brilliant - he is fast becoming a world-weary Morgan Freeman. If TLJ played god in a movie he would be tempted to give up because of the sorrow of it all.

Anyway: Bruce says 4 stars and Elaine says 5 stars. She loved it.

if it's funny enough to make me laugh out loud

They never predicted lolcatz

Research

A late Christmas entry