Vision In Blue

Last year I don't think I watched nearly enough of the films that I wanted to see, but this year I've been making up for it. Not every film I watched was worth a whole review, so below is a quick summary of my feelings for each of the ones I saw between January and June of this year... think of it like my 2017 Vol. 1. Grab the popcorn, and take a read... Photo by Alex Munsell January I started 2017 off with a double feature, one carried over from last year's list and one that I wasn't sure I wanted to see. I hit Cineworld first thing on New Year's Day to get this month's monies worth out of my Unlimited Card. First up was A Monster Calls , based on the Patrick Ness/Siobhan Dowd book. Shame on me, I haven't read it, it never really seemed like something I would want to read. Even after seeing it I can't tell you if I enjoyed it or not. For those of you who saw My Sister's Keeper you'll be able to identify with the reaction in the c...

I was surfing around Netgalley this morning and came across this... I mean come on... there was no way I was going to keep scrolling past this one! A is for Asteroids, Z is for Zombies: A bedtime book about the coming apocalypse (what a great title!) by Paul Lewis and illustrated by Ken Lamug. On first glance you have to assume this is going to be along the lines of Go the F**k to Sleep and We're Going On A Bar Hunt. The sort of parody book that have been so popular of late. The blurb for the books says it pokes fun at the constant conversation about our planet being too far gone to save, and offers a vision of the apocalypse for every letter of the alphabet. Our tale starts out with little Timmy, who asks his dad if it's true that zombies eat brains like the kids in his class have told him, and if everyone will die when asteroids fall from the sky. Good questions Timmy. Dad remembers that Aunt Dorcas got Timmy a book about the impending doom of the pla...

So, you know me, glutton for punishment. After having my bathroom redone by B&Q's Homefit team I was on a high... or possibly just high (I joke, I wasn't), because I then arranged to have my kitchen done too. I was fully prepared to live with the nightmare, but thankfully I have an awesome mum and dad! I won't bore you with the previous pictures again... you can whizz over and see them here if you have the urge > DIY Efforts - Kitchen . Here's the current state of affairs this morning... Pre-job Clearing I love a good procrastinate... and I'm damned good at it. The only problem is that the procrastination was only part of the problem. I've been so exhausted recently that finding the energy to clear stuff out was most of the battle. This morning (Day 1), I spent two hours doing the last of it... and I feel like I've done a hardcore workout. My Fitbit is telling me I've already done 2000 steps which is already beating two or three...

Celebrate Diversity There was a bit of a dilemma this year, I was running the risk of missing the final. So as a precaution I've been watching the semi-finals with my grand final scorecard. I have to wonder about the choice to not have any totty presenting. The second semi where they play the piccolo and the accordion... well... what can I say? But the group were amazing... at this point I haven't seen the Ukrainian entry, but I'd have voted for this lot. And they did my favourite song, Fairytale. As a general observation, there are a lot of teeth this year. Finalists Armenia - Fly With Me Please stop the jumpy camera angles! Another perfectly fine song, but that's all I can really say about it... apart from I would like a pair of her trousers. But not spectacular. Australia - Don't Come Easy X-Factor winner. Should be good. They love treadmills this year! He must be talented and he hasn't missed a beat, but it's not a showstopper. Oh no...

It has been two and a half years since I moved to Bristol. It wasn't all smooth sailing, I lost some sanity somewhere near the beginning, but it's vaguely come back now. At first it was just a place I was living in, now it truly is a place I'm living in. (Same word I know, tricky, just think about it again... it took me a while and I wrote the damn thing!) Anywhere new is always a daunting challenge, there's so much that is different. After a while though, you realise that those differences are both good, and bad. It's never quite like the home you knew, but that isn't actually a bad thing. Bristol in my opinion is London-Lite. It's a bustling place with lots going on but without the hassle of London. Yes you still get the people in a rush, and the slow walking tourists, but everything is just a little bit more laid back than Londoners are used to. Part of me thinks that it's because you can't go anywhere in Bristol without hearing music, ...

Some of you might remember Doctor Shadow from his heyday of evil villainy. After nearly 20 years dedicated service to his evil ways, Doctor Shadow took a well deserved break from his arch enemy status to pursue his dream to become a family man. Sadly it was not to be. It turns out that the evil women he had always desired while he was hatching his next evil scheme were fiercely independent and not looking to settle down. So he did the next best thing, he adopted a son and moved to the country. Over the years Doctor Shadow taught his son the simple evils of life, not to indicate while driving, always taking the last of something without asking. Those little things that make an evil family smile together. Now that his son has gone off to university, Doctor Shadow has decided to get back into the villainy, and he's granted us the first look at his new bespoke lair. For obvious reasons we can't show you where it is on the planet, but we can tell you that is sits upon a magnif...

There's always something fun to be had in the peculiar and curious. Having just finished London Curiosities by John Wade , I can happily say that this book proves my point. I'm honestly surprised that I knew very little of what was mentioned about London considering my penchant for pointless facts and things that make you go "reeeeeeeeeaaaallly?" One of the things I liked was that we're told the myth and local lore behind some of the oddities. But we're also quickly reminded that little, if any, is provable. It's nice to get the insight into the local area and the local people who probably came up with some of the fanciful ideas. I can almost see an old geezer sitting in a tavern/inn/pub, supping on his pint, regaling some out-of-towners with his idea of how the curio got there, as if it were fact. And that image does make me smile. I did have a little niggle about the book, a couple of times areas/monuments are brought up in a later section, a...

Bud Fiske is sent to do a profile of Hector Lassiter, larger-than-life crime writer. In a cantina, the pair find themselves face to face with history... literally. On the table between them is the head of Pancho Villa, and the prospect of a deal worth eighty grand. It sounds like easy money... take the head to a guy. But such a legendary piece of history is never going to be traded that easily. Gun, girls and car chases ensue "on the road to hell with a trunk full of skulls". --- I saw this on Netgalley, I'm always looking for new graphic novels, and the description of this one jumped out at me. That being said, I don't think this was what I expected it to be from the description. Noir, pulp fiction, whatever you want to call it, this book falls squarely in that genre. This is the first time I've ever read anything in that area, which is surprising considering I love crime fiction in general. But I have watched a lot of it... does that count?! ...

Now.., all my other DIY Efforts have been of my own doing, or with the assistance of family and friends... but for this one I'm cheating a bit! With no plumbing skills to speak of, it was just sensible to get someone with expertise to do it. My bathroom isn't exactly the biggest space, it is basically just over a bath length square, so there's no room for anything too extravagant. As you know, I always take before and after shots... but as this is a week long, more detailed change than most of my endeavours I've been getting sneaky between photos when I can. I can't remember if I ever put up pictures of the bathroom from when I moved in, so I'll add a couple for your... enjoyment..? Blue walls... a colour that should never be found in the world... ever. It was a truly blinding colour first thing in the morning when the artificial lighting hit it. Something like a dark sky blue. Some shell shaped fittings... I'm honestly surprised that the toilet seat...