Movember 2012 A hair today gone tomorrow experience
Every year in the month of November many many men start to grow moustaches, an exercise designed to raise money and awareness to combat prostate and testicular cancer. This year I was happy to join in, encouraged by my lovely wife and Gerry and the team at the Inn at West End who organised a Moustache themed dinner with fine food and wine, quizzes, raffles and moustache judging to encourage us to maintain the hairy-lipness through the month and raise some monies for the charity.
Modesty forbids me from mentioning who won the category for best 'tache (it was me !!!!) but we did raise (on the night) a couple of grand for the charity and I'm delighted to thank my own supporters who donated over £350 to the cause.
I put together a teeny slideshow of my progress through the month.
click on the moustache to enjoy.
Movie review, a lingering sense of Bond Deja-vu
It's been a while since i posted a movie review and the reason is simple, haven't been to the cinema for a while, nothing really called out to us, nothing tugged our film strings but inevitably the hype and PR for the latest Bond oeuvre got Mrs Stuffy ever so excited so eight of us (over £100!!!) set off multiplex-ward to dine wine and opine on Mr Daniel Craigs latest adventure.
It is a very well made movie exciting, thoughtful in parts, with a splendid performance by Javier Bardem bringing some real, dimension, depth and ambiguity to the baddy role.
Although there were some significant problems with the storyline the locations, stunts and actions sequences were excellent and Craig, Bardem and (I don't want to spoil it for you but) Judi Dench in her final appearance as M all deserve credit. The rest of my party, without exception adored it and Mrs Stuffy was thrilled, so why, dear reader was I relatively unmoved?
I think it's a matter of over-trailering, a portmanteau word I've just coined to capture the numbing effect of the remorseless Sony PR machine, pumping out trailers, thinly disguised puff pieces as interviews, TV adverts, and adverts posing as 'making of' documentaries, faux news stories, chat shows, by the time I sat in my seat, clutching my very reasonably priced popcorn I felt a little, "seen it all before" which is a damn shame, because it is a very good film.
A disappointed Haiku
They say, "delightful"
"it's an eyeful is skyfall"
for me, it's a trifle
Labels: Bond, daniel craig, haiku, javier bardem, judi Dench, movie review, Mrs Stuffy, Oakwood, skyfall, Stuffy, stvtomas
Driving me to distraction
I should mention the previously unplumbed depths of depression, the peaks of angst, the highs and lows of emotion occasioned by ones daughter, a mere lass of seventeen summers passing her driving test.
Pride ? Oh yes, pride that she has finally attained the government measured minimal level of ability that enables thousands of frickin' halfwits to venture, every day, onto the Queen's highway in partial and occasional control of a ton or so of killing machine with the sole apparent intention of driving me into either a ditch or terminal apoplexy.
So a little pride but also an all-consuming terror that my little girl will now be out there amongst the aforementioned halfwits, so vulnerable without my all-encompassing and paternally powerful protection.
Then there's the conflict around independence of transport, if she can get around without reliance on public transport or my chauffeuring services then maybe I'll see more of her? Hang on, wait a minute, what am I thinking, she's a teenager, with a car, obviously she'll be ferrying her chums from gig to movie to bar to club to beach to ????
And I'll never see her again, until she runs out of petrol money, obviously.
It's tough being a dad.Labels: angst, blog from the barn, blogfromthebarn, ChaCha, driving, driving test, frickin idiots, oakwood barn, Stuffy
Four candles, well, fourteen actually
I've made candles on and off for many years. Buying wax in bulk, wicks, fragrances, colouring on-line and maintaining a variety of jar, 3-wick and votive candles for our domestic consumption. I love the barn on these dreary autumn evenings, lights low, the fire ablaze, candles throughout the place, the scent of vanilla, sandalwood, ginger and spices mixing with the woodsmoke.
We're currently burning our way through a couple of apple trees that fell in the heavy wind and rain, it burns really well and is very aromatic. The scents of flame and fire mix with whatever I'm cooking up for supper and, for me is one of the real upsides of this season.
This weekend I had the urge to make some candles but for the first time I've also made candles from our own beeswax, a by-product of this years honey harvest.
The wax recovered during the honey extraction has been enough to make eight candles and I'm sure they'll add a little mellow honeyed ambiance to any upcoming repast with chums.Labels: barn, beekeeping, bees, blog from the barn, blogfromthebarn, candles, Oakwood, Stuffy
No apologies, none, not a one, nada, zip, zero ...
I'm starting this post without apologising for the relative lack of activity recently. I should apologise, I'm sure you all deserve an apology, thing is, you're not getting one, sorry, it's just not going to happen.
I've sat myself down today, given myself a serious talking to and will be chucking out loads of good (in my opinion) stuff in the next couple of days, so, if you wish enjoy, if you don't, that's good too.
by the way, sorry.
