Easter under lockdown

It's Easter Monday now, the fourth and final day of the Easter holidays. I have started playing Skyrim, learned how to use Frequency Separation in Affinity Photo, edited some photos from a photo shoot that I thought were beyond salvage and reclaimed them. I have spent time outdoors in the garden, mowed the lawn, eaten meals outside with my family and completed the reading of a book. Prior to the Easter break the fear was that the general public would not heed the government's warning about lockdown but it turns out that the vast majority has heeded the government's warnings and has stayed home. Last Sunday I was shocked to hear that Boris Johnson was admitted to hospital and I was even more shocked when the day after we were told he was in the Intensive Care Unit. At that time I couldn't imagine what the outcome would be but I'm glad to know that he has now been released from hospital: must have been a very unsettling time for him and his partner/family. The country needs Boris, I didn't think I'd ever hear myself say this but it does.

Getting used to the new reality

So, after nearly a week of the so called Lockdown Measures the UK is more of less complying but it will be 2-3 weeks before we know the extent of the effect this is having. I am fairly impressed at the moment of the response of the British in general. Supermarkets are limiting people in stores and people in queues outside are keeping to 2m apart. The staff are providing sprays to wipe down trolleys and baskets and in some larger stores there is a routing system to follow once you are indoors.
All of this is SO STRANGE. It’s like waking up in the middle of a nightmare and realising it’s life now and not fiction. All of my colleagues work from home now, I used to work form home 3 days a week, that was too long but the whole time working from home is just bizarre.
I can’t even think about the end of this because there is so much we must all do before we get to the end of it. Only by keeping on acting responsibly like we have been will we beat this horrid disease.
I am VERY GLAD not to be living in America now. Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister has tested positive for the virus and I wish him a speedy recovery. President Trump just this weekend has not signed off quarantine of New York. When challenged about America having now the largest number of infections even after China, he said it was testament to the rapid and large scale testing efforts being extended. Well, its not just about the testing. The reason for not quarantining New York, where the virus seems to be out of control? Economics. I don’t think families of victims who die will appreciate that view at all. It shows a blatant disregard for human life. Did he close stores except for essential supplies? Nope. He allowed gun stores to remain open. This is stupid. People buying guns is not going to help the situation. That’s just common sense I’m afraid, something that President Trump does not have a monopoly on, although he would say he does if you asked him. A reporter asked him a question about scared Americans and instead of answering the question or providing reassurance what did Trump do? He took offence at the reporter asking the question and said to the world that the man was a terrible reporter. This is the way Trump behaves. Like a sore loser. Like a spoiled brat. He definitely is NOT the adult in a situation. So for these reasons I’m glad I don’t live in America. Wonderful country although it is, it’s not for me under the helm of such a tyrant.

Coronavirus COVID-19

The third week of March 2020 has seen the government take increasingly drastic measures to suppress the COVID-19 virus from transmitting person to person amongst the general population. Measures have gone from advice to ordering people to avoid social gatherings and the pub and restaurants, travel only when necessary on public transport and to work from home where possible. Schools are closed now until further notice except for the children of keyworkers and those who are classed as vulnerable. While the majority who get the disease will get it in a mild form, not everyone will. This is the dangerous thing and those who have less ability to get over it will succumb and go downhill rapidly.
These orders have increased the sense of panic in the population and shoppers are stripping the supermarkets of food and other essentials.  I couldn't even buy bread on Tuesday night, even before the more stringent orders were issued. It is market day today in town and the fruit and vegetable stall had long queues either side of it. I've never seen it like this in my lifetime.

Day off

Had the day off today. Had a very nice walk with my puppy in the local woods, this morning it was cold but sunny. Great weather for dog walking. This afternoon less so but I walked between 2-3pm and the rain didn't start until after 3, so I timed that right.
This coronavirus is a worry. My son needs some hand sanitiser for a school trip in April and we can't get any anywhere. Well, that's not quite true, we did find some in Aldi but some people don't think it is good enough. The information is a bit unclear on what will be ok and what won't, the % of alcohol content in the gel I mean.
Well the good news is that I am now the proud owner of a Canon 7D camera. I had to trade in my other cameras in to buy it though. Ah well, I will use it more than those. I still have a Panasonic Lumix, a Nikon and now a Canon. I also have a Fuji bridge camera.

Week off

I have the week off. The weather has been pretty dreary for weeks now and this weekend is no exception with Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis battering the UK with wind and rain. In some parts of the country there are red weather warnings meaning there is a danger to life.
I have to plan what I'm going to get up to this week. I would really like to acquire a camera but in order to do that I may need to sell some equipment I've already bought. I'm interested in getting hold of a Canon 7D or Canon 70D, either would be great. Just can't afford one at the moment.

Caroline Flack

Looks like another celebrity suicide hits the headlines, this time the sad news that Caroline Flack is dead. Lots of other celebrities are referenced in the news stories, making comments on Twitter and other social platforms, about her. Shame that she felt she had to escape by taking her own life at age 40. A tragedy really that it should come to that. Being a star you might imagine that she has people around her all the time, calling her and talking to her. She was in court recently over an apparent domestic with her boyfriend. I'm sure that the stress that must have involved was playing its part in her mental wellbeing. I wished that mental health was given more time and money in this country. I think a lot of people are left to struggle without the help they need when they need it. It's not good enough.

The Bridge (starting 2011-)

As the days are short and the nights are long, what better way to pass the time than with watching some Scandi-noir! That's why my wife and I have been enjoying the TV series called The Bridge. The one we're watching is I think the original with English subtitles and the audio in Swedish and Danish - well I can't be sure about that as I speak neither. There are 4 series of this that I have watched and enjoyed. The central character is Saga Norén, a detective with the Malmo police in Sweden. Over the course of the 4 series we see her with 2 main partners, Martin and Henrik.
The Bridge in the series is the Øresund bridge that spans between the 2 Scandinavian cities Copenhagen (Denmark) and Malmo (Sweden). Saga's partners are both Danish detectives and during the course of the series we see some of the relations between the detective's superiors.
What is interesting is that Saga continues to fight crime with a form of autism that means she doesn't empathize at all with victims or suspects, she is also working out how she has relationships involving more than just sex. She has a somewhat liberated attitude to sex I'd say. Seeing her grapple with how a partner can provide more than just the regular availability of sex is quite amusing. Despite being a serious crime story the personal stories of the characters involved is what makes the series special. Saga also has a past with her sister committing suicide at 14 and a mother with undiagnosed Munchhausen Syndrome. Martin is unfaithful to his wife and has a son from a first marriage and children from his current wife who is pregnant again. Henrik is haunted by his wife and children who disappeared 7 years ago and haven't been found. He asks Saga to help him find them off to the side of their normal cases.
So during the course of the different series there is a lot going on. The plots are intricate and somewhat confusing in some cases but as each series goes on then more and more is revealed, so the viewer is kept interested. At least I was! So, in my view this is a great series and definitely worth seeing if you like Scandi-noir style stories.

Saga and Martin

Saga with Henrik

Happy New Year 2020!

It is January 1st 2020. The start of a new decade. It sounds so futuristic to type 2020, easy to type. This blog has been going for 15 years now, albeit with a pause over the last few months of 2019. Life has been a little bit hectic with work and concentrating on photography and simply trying to relax and not worry so much about time passing but enjoying the moment. We have been living with a new family member since the 10th December, a puppy. The pup is a pedigree Hungarian Vizsla, a beautiful dog with a short brown coat and thin floppy ears. Quite big and strong.
So, in terms of plans for 2020:
Reading challenge - I have done this for the last few years and will continue with it again this year. I have read more this year due to buying a new kindle paperwhite prior to the cruise we went on.
Photography - I have spent the last couple of years developing my understanding of the basics. I would like to do more advanced things and be more creative. I have photographed models and formed a friendship with a cosplayer and would like to keep on branching out in portraiture.
Physical activity - in February 2019 we joined a gym and have been attending regularly, albeit with a pause in December. Over the last 3 weeks I have gained some weight I want to lose and now we have the pup I want to start getting out and about with him and the family.
Film & TV - I would like to complete watching things I start and watch more of the things I know I like, actually enjoy the time watching things rather than seeing it as time lost.
Videogaming - rather like my TV viewing, I would like to use the time playing games to play ones I enjoy and give a better experience.
Music - I think 2019 was good for music, I expanded the bands I listen to and bought a number of new albums. I know that new Nightwish and Delain albums are due out this year. I hope there will be a new Arch Enemy album out this year also but I haven’t heard this is planned.
Holiday - we have a cruise booked for the summer. It’s a 2 week adventure in the Mediterranean and should be a highlight of the year. One experience I haven’t blogged about was a trip to Bergen in Norway I did for work. It was a good experience and I would like to use some leave to visit another country with my wife.

That’s the first post of this year completed. Have a great 2020!!!!

The Innkeepers (2011)

I watched this film this week. It's the story of the last weekend of a hotel that is supposedly haunted, it is closing down and the last two members of staff are caretaking. They also have an interest in the paranormal and are interested in capturing proof of the paranormal activity in the hotel. There is a ghost in the hotel and it is a ghost of a woman called Madeleine who hung herself after she was left stranded at the altar of her own wedding. During the course of the film a woman (played by Kelly McGillis) checks into the hotel, she used to be an actress and she is recognised by one of the staff who is a massive fan. However, the woman explains she gave up acting to become a medium. Lots of weird things happen and the female hotel employee bares the brunt of the strange phenomena. Unfortunately she also has asthma and this is not good news. Worthy of a watch but not a great film, a little bit slow to begin with and I didn't know whether it would be a comedy horror or a scary film - from the first 20 minutes you might be confused into thinking it was a comedy.

No One Lives (2013)

This film is an entertaining thrill ride. It moves along at a great pace and has a good cast. The characters are enjoyable to watch. It concerns a gang of murderous crazies who stumble on a couple having a meal in a bar. One of the gang members starts to harass them but is told to cool it by the gang leader, he cools it for a while but later smashes the window of the couple’s car forcing them to crash off the road. When the man in the couple wakes up he finds himself chained up in a garage with the girl he was with in the bar.
Meanwhile the gang member is searching the car and discovers a panel underneath it with holes. On closer inspection he sees someone in the car. From now on the tables are turned and the gang becomes the hunted.
It all plays really well. The deaths are bloody and just as vicious as you would expect. Some interesting touches here and there and I’d say it was directed very well. Very enjoyable to watch, if you like this sort of thing.

Active noise cancelling headphones

So a friend at work was telling me a few weeks ago how he bought an expensive pair of headphones and feels it was one of his best investments ever. He bought a pair of Bose headphones, one of the expensive makes. I was talking to my wife about the music volume at the gym being very loud and sometimes overpowering the music I’m listening to with my earbuds and headphones that I wear there. She was saying the same thing and we decided we would both buy a pair of noise cancelling headphones for the gym. She opted for ones similar to the folding Sony headphones we bought for travelling to the States last year. Hers are wired and she has to put an AA battery in one of the ear cups for the noise cancelling feature. I read a few Amazon reviews and opted for a pair hat were compared very favourably to the Bose headphones but for a fraction of the cost. My headphones are made by Boltune and they are quite brilliant. The noise cancellation works really well and they are ideal for the train. They claim to have a 30 hour battery life and have a feature whereby 5 mins of charge time gives 2 hours use. I haven’t tested this out but I am very happy with the comfort, sound and build quality. I haven’t been able to compare hem to the Bose, I would. Hope that the Bose offer something in the audio quality department that I’m not getting with the Boltunes, especially considering the price. I expect that Bose have a wider audio spectrum in the treble area and that their sound separation is better: BUT I don’t know this for sure.

Autumn equinox

So today marks the autumn equinox. The date when the amount of day and night are equal. After today until late in December we get fewer hours of daylight than night time. Part of me likes this time of year. I like the aspect of being snug in bed when the temperature starts to fall. I don’t like being out in the cold so much, especially when its cold and raining. I also dislike having colds this time of year. It’s bound to happen when children return to school and all pass their germs around.

I’ve not much else to say on the subject but just wanted to make a comment on the time of year. Happy autumn equinox folks!

Bound to vengeance (2015)

Finished watching this film tonight. It doesn’t seem to have won over any critics on Rotten Tomatoes and I think I can see why. It is a film that concerns females held captive by men who want to keep them as sex slaves I think although it’s a bit ambiguous how much sexual abuse the women in the film have suffered. The female lead escapes and turns the tables on her captor and she forces him at gun point to take her to other houses where other women are being held so that she can rescue them. She learns that he is not in the captor game alone and has to confront other men. There are flashbacks sections told through home movie footage of her life before being held as a prisoner. In these we see with her boyfriend at a fun fair. The boyfriend in question turns out to be involved in some way too. The subject matter of the film is unpleasant (no surprise there) but I think as drawn some criticism for trivialising the suffering of the main character through the suddenness of her turnaround from captive to captor herself. I think this is fair criticism. Many things about the film just do not stack up and it leaves the unpleasant thought in the viewer’s mind that this kind of story somehow trivialises the real world slave trade. As a film the plot moves fairly well and the acting is alright, the dialogue doesn’t seem too far fetched even though the story is weak and lacks compassion for the victim’s plight. Not a film to watch on a date certainly. I don’t really understand who this film is aimed at.

Primal (2010)

I began watching this film several weeks ago I think, I’d forgotten I hadn’t finished it until I resumed watching this evening.It was clearly not a priority to finish it back then and not today either but I did. It concerns a group of young Australians who want to take a trip into the outback to investigate an old cave painting. One of the young women is claustrophobic and doesn’t want to go into the cave, which is bad news because going through the cave is a massive shortcut to the camp site.
So the cave is not a dormant thing as they thought it was. I can’t remember all of the details now to be fair but because they are young and horny a couple decide to go skinny dipping. Unfortunately the water is full of leeches and the girl has to be rescued. During the night she gets progressively worse. She eventually turns into some kind of animal with a mouth full of teeth. The special effects in this film are not that great to be honest. Towards the end of the film there are some decidedly bad effects, almost cartoonish I old say - but in a bad way. One by one they drop, until left with one girl at the end and you guessed it, the survivor was the girl who was claustrophobic and yep, she had to go through the cave to escape. All a bit staid and predictable. I can’t really say there was much to enjoy in the story but the setting and something about the colour grading in the film were pleasant to watch. Ther acting was alright but the script they had to work with was pretty poor.

Wind River (2017)

This film was surprisingly good. It has Jeremy Renner in it as the main star and Elizabeth Olsen as a rookie FBI agent who is the closest agent on the scene and has been sent to check out a murder of a girl found on the snowy mountain of a native Indian reservation.
This film builds slowly to the climax, which is exciting and dramatic. Overall, quite a classic story and told in a pacey and stylistic way. Very heartily recommend this as a good watch.

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

This is one of those films that has been quite influential in the genre of horror by a director that has been influential throughout his career, Wes Craven. Like it or loathe it as a film, it has some pedigree. I have seen parts of it over the years but never really sat down to watch it from beginning to end and I'm glad I did because it is not a bad film overall. You have to accept that some of the acting is not great but move past that and it is an interesting little film. I watched it on the Horror Channel, as most of the films I review and because of that I might be missing some parts due to cuts but even so, I really like the ending. It's quite bleak and surprising for its time.

Nothing left to fear (2013)

This film tells the tale of a family moving from the big city to a small town where the father is to become the new pastor of the church. One of the first scenes sees the family pulling in to a farm because they are lost. One of the teenage daughters sees a farmhand bleeding out a sheep on the back of a truck. Still, it doesn’t put her off that much as she tries to pull him a few mins later into the film.
The town seems welcoming at first. However, there is a dark secret in the town. One of the family’s daughters is soon in serious trouble.
I can’t say I enjoyed this film very much, although it isn’t terrible. It’s just not very scary and nothing is really explained - maybe that’s what it should have been called!

Sad news of Emily Hartridge’s death

I heard some shocking news yesterday. A video blogger I have enjoyed watching for a few years was killed in a road traffic accident on Friday. Emily Hartridge was her name and she was beautiful and funny and a genuinely nice person. Such a shame and a terribly sad loss to everyone who knew her and those who thought they knew her through her open and honest and funny videos. She was in her early thirties and had so much more to give the world, such a tragedy we have lost her. Terribly sad for her family and sisters, who she was very close to. Such a terrible shock for them, a shock for us all but especially her beloved ones.

Find her work here:
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/emilyhart

Instagram and Twitter
@emilyhartridge

Stung (2015)

Started watching this film and after 30 mins or so, I turned off because I as tired and needed sleep. It wasn’t great and certainly wasn’t engaging enough for me to want to watch it all in one sitting. Over the next couple of days though I did find myself kind of wanting to see what was going to happen. A pair of young caterers were working on a remote country estate and guests were arriving as the wasps started to get bigger.
It’s a kind of monster horror film with big wasps with barbs that pierce flesh. Nothing out of the ordinary really. I couldn’t work out if it was all being played for laughs or not. There are sequences that are more light hearted than horror. Nothing I’d watch again but it was fairly entertaining mainly through the relationship between the young caterers. Not a scary film though.

British Summer Time

This weekend we have unusually hot weather from Europe, France recorde it’s highest temperature since records began, hitting just over 45 degrees Celsius. It is probably going to reach over 30 degrees here, I can feel it is starting to get uncomfortable and is only 9:58am.

I’ve got the garden furniture out and intend to be in the garden as much as possible, in shade of course.

The reason for this post though, is that during the summer I think the government (the nation as a whole) should compensate us for the rest of the year. Here is what I propose:

June and July - weekend extension to include Fridays (a 3 day weekend)

August - weekend extension to include Thursdays (a 4 day weekend)

These two simple change would, I believe, improve the health and productivity of the nation. I don’t believe we would lose anything by making these changes. They would give us more time to do stuff, without having to rush around in the hot weather. There would be more time to relax, so we would be less stressed and more motivated when we are at work.

The changes above would be much more useful and meaningful than the hour the clocks change.

Please, someon with any political power - MAKE THIS A CAMPAIGN PROMISE and I guarantee you’ll be elected!