On Sunday, Dave, Malcolm and I went back in to Central London. First stop was the National Portrait Gallery (http://www.npg.org.uk/), just behind Trafalgar Square, where there was an exhibition on:
I had wanted to go and see this and, with the West Ham match having been prematurely and unnecessarily postponed, this gave us the opportunity. It was pretty good - although perhaps you have to be an old f**t like me to fully appreciate it. Lots of great old photos and some original album covers, souvenirs and old magazine covers. We all thought that there should have been a background of loud 60's music, but it was all very discreet and low volume.
From there, we walked to Covent Garden, took in some of the sights there and eventually plumped for lunch at the Porterhouse (http://www.porterhousebrewco.com/coventgarden.html). This is a sister pub to the one in Dublin that we visited years ago - lots of little nooks and crannies - super place. Here's Dave and I waiting for our lunch with a couple of pints (Oyster Stout and Sierra Nevada on draught if you must know):
After lunch it was off to the movies to see the brand new Ian Dury biopic, Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll (http://www.sex-drugs-rock-roll-thefilm.com/). There was music in it - and lots of swearing - Jo wouldn't have liked either - but, a bit like the John Lennon film, Nowhere Boy, that we saw on Boxing Day, it was largely about his relationship with his son, with flashbacks to his childhood. There wasn't anything at all about his life from his teens until his mid thirties, when he decided to pursue a career in music.
After that, Malcolm and I headed off to Heathrow and Dave went back to his flat in Reading. We were back home, after only a short delay, about 11 pm. Sod's law, Colin could easily have come with us - he had cancelled at the last minute on Friday night after seeing the weekend weather forecast, which had been for heavy snow in London and major transport disruption on Sunday - but it all came to nowt.
Monday was Fraserburgh again, followed by some much needed exercise - squash at Findrack - it was freezing, and guess who forgot his track suit?
On Tuesday, I had a meeting up town with our lawyers, when I managed to get one of their Notaries Public to certify the copies of Kelly's latest certificates - good old Grampian Police had refused to do what Cornwall Police had done with her previous certificates - no reason given, but perhaps they, like everybody else, seems to be running scared of responsibility/litigation/insurance - delete as appropriate. As I was up town and going to be finished early, I phoned Jo to see if she fancied going to the movies? Yes - OK - the Belmont then - The Road (http://www.theroad-movie.com/). I'd just finished the audiobook (abridged) version of Cormac McCarthy's Pullitzer Prize winning novel and was intrigued to see what they did with it on film. It's pretty bleak but still enjoyable. Again, I thought it was largely about the Man's relationship with his son (The Boy), but Jo's interpretation was different - as usual!
Three movies in less than 3 weeks - I don't think I'd been to the cinema for well over a year before that.
I also finished No Mean City - a pretty gruesome tale of life in Glasgow's slums in the 30's - and written in an unusual and old fashioned style. I remembered only bits of it from when I last read it over 40 years ago.
I've now started on the first in the Milennium trilogy of novels by Stieg Larsson (http://www.stieglarsson.com/) - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. So far, so good. Not so sure about my current audiobook choice, however - The Death of Dalziel by Reginald Hill - I didn't realise it was Dalziel and Pascoe (http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/dalziel/) - remember them?
What started off as a quick update has stretched a bit - best do some work now.
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