I am still here!!!

Well real-life continues to dominate at the minute, we finally have an Operation date through for my wife and 25th September is only 30 days away.  This really focuses the mind and even the fact that we have a holiday coming up and also a weekend away between now and then can’t seem to raise the spirits.  As everyone says, open heart surgery is a common operation these days, but there are always risks and I challenge anyone to not be nervous over something like this.

A Dark Knight

It’s a little late, but with everything else going on in my life, I am sure you will forgive me.

Film Review!!!  I managed to see the Dark Knight last Saturday and I wanted to see if this one was going to live up to the hype, whether Heath Ledger was really deserving of the calls for an Oscar nomination, whether 2 1/2 hrs was really the right length for this film and finally whether the 12A rating was the correct one based on some of the comments I had read.

So lets deal with the hype factor first, IMO this is one film that does not disappoint as far as the hype goes, the story line is spot on, the action is fast and furious, there are twists galore in this film and no one should really leave the cinema feeling that they have been let down.

Heath Ledger’s Oscar nomination should be in the bag.  When Jack Nicholson played the Joker, his performance was aimed more at the Joker character from the camp Batman film and TV series where the jokes were fast and plentiful with lots of Biffs and Kersplats to go around.  Heath Ledger’s Joker comes from the Batman comics of the latter years, his Joker is dark and deadly.  The facial expressions that come from him fit perfectly into the character and the film certainly seems to miss him when he is not actually on-screen.

The length of the film actually seems right, however I did feel that in the end the fact that we had Two-Face making an appearance in the movie, it took too long for him to appear.   Maybe slighty speeding up the beginning of the film or moving some of the story around to give him a little bit longer to play the character.  Other than that, the film is certainly not too long and does not drag at any point.

The 12A rating,  hmmmmmm this is not a tough one as far as I am concerned, this film should have been a 15.  The comment from the BBFC that they didn’t want to remove the film from the large number of younger fans is a fair comment, but in that case they should have requested cuts to be made.  The excuse that a lot of the violence is implied rather than seen is true, but that doesn’t make any difference, the view knows it’s happening and the imagination fills in the blanks.  And come on the bit with the pencil how can that be allowed in a 12A.

Overall this is one cracking film and there has to be a sequel to this, the question has already been posed as to the identity of the villan of the piece and the over-riding opinion seems to be that “The Riddler” will be making a return and by the sound of it Johnny Depp is potentially being lined up to play Edward Nigma.  If that is the case then Batman 3 should certainly be good, the question is can it come anywhere close to the level of The Dark Knight.  I would say that you have to go and see this film, however given the Box-Office no.s both over her and on the other side of the pond, the vast majority of you already have.

Another book closes

I must admit that yesterday has to go down as one of the toughest things I have had to do.  All most immediately that my gran died, my brother said he wanted to be a pall bearer for the funeral.  Now I hadn’t even thought about it, but the more it went round in my mind the more convinced I was that I wanted to do it.  Now for those of you know have never met me, I am 6 foot 2, and of the male members of my family, I am the short arse.  Initially the plan was for my brother, my dad, my cousin and I to be pall bearers, but with my cousin reluctant to do this, for which I have absolutely no issues with, it came down to just me and my brother.  Since that decision was made I think both of us have in the most part shut off our emotions to allow us to get through that last action we could do for her.

Apparently we managed to keep in step during the walk from the hearse through to putting down the coffin on the stand in the chapel, my brother said he managed to hold himself together until the last few steps, me I did manage to hold it until that point.  My wife realising my situation managed to guide me to my seat and my brother’s best friend who had come to support him, had to help him to, neither of us could cope with any kind of coherent thought at that time, let alone any kind of action.

It’s difficult to release emotions, when you are always trying to be strong, for the last 3 months I have been strong supporting my wife as we head towards her surgery in around 6 weeks, for the last 10 days I have been strong supporting my mother as she has gone through the heartache of losing her mother.  However for that one period of time I know that both of us had a chance to release our emotions and express our sadness and loss.

The wake gave us opportunities to speak to many of the people who have been part of my grans life, although most of her closest friends have already passed or were unable to attend due to their own frailties.  Many memories were shared and laughter was heard at times as peoples spirits were lifted.

Today is a new day, I can still feel yesterday and it’s effects are certainly going to last another few days, however this is the start of a new period of my life and another day closer to 2009 which is going to be a GOOD year.

Don’t ever miss an opportunity to see an elderly relative.

Knightmare

Well we have already talked about how Tregar from Knightmare now works for our company and is constantly giving DM a hard time.  However investigators have now un-earthed the truth and more members of the Knightmare cast do work here, in fact many of them you are already aware of, many of them have in the past writen blogs.

So there’s the group shot, so you are asking who is who, well to start with we have the man himself.

Well you have already heard of him, DM’s nemesis.

With this one, what can I say, DM seems to be a little overdue on that hair cut, and even at this early stage, you can already see the resentment that he feels towards the main man.

Wiwad, why exactly he went for red-highlights is a strange one, Dell was always blue.

Squadron Leader playing with his wand.

How exactly George was let out of his cell at this time is a real puzzle

Dornon, back in those days he really took his D&D  playing seriously.

Cartoon Dog, still trying to restrain the Mitchell brothers

BZ waiting for things to develop

Chad in his pre “Mr Claypole” days.

Tom Thumb, with that smile on his face you have to assume that George had got to him first.

Chapter 3

Max and his mum walked back in the front door and from the bag in the hallway it was obvious that Chris had arrived back from football and had dumped his bag almost as soon as he walked through the door. Lilly looked at Max and rolled her eyes and Max could not restrain the grin that erupted on his face. His mother picked up the bag and deposited it in the laundry room with the the washer and dryer while Max went into the lounge. Chris and their dad were sitting on the settee, Chris with his dinner, kept warm in the oven, resting on his kness, the two of the them watching the football on the TV in the corner.

“What’s the score?” Max asked.

“Hi” Chris said twisting round and then having to grab for the plate as it nearly fell off his lap, “it’s 2-0 to the Wanderers, 15 mins to go and Man Utd are down to 10 men”.

“Excellent” said Max, “3 points in the bag then”

“Don’t count your chickens yet” his dad pointed out as Utd broke through the Wanderers defence, but the move came to nothing with a shot that sailed into the crowd.

“Football again???” chuckled his mother as she poked her head into the lounge “Chris you should be eating at the table”

“But Mum, Wanderers are playing” Chris whined.

“Ok but next time, you eat at the table”

20 mins later and 3 points were indeed in the bag, although with a final score of 2-1 it had been a nervous last few minutes. Chris was now recounting the practice match he played in after school.

“and then I rounded the last defender and put in a perfect pass across the box to Steve who buried the ball in the back of the net. Coach was saying that if I keep up this form during the practice and reserve matches I might even be able to make the 1st team because the midfield needs some pace”

“Did you have any homework” asked Lilly.

“Yes, I did it before we started the game”

“Ok well I want the two of you to get ready for bed and then you can come back down and watch television for another hour.

“Ok Mum” they both chorused, knowing full well that there was nothing to be gained by arguing.

Chris and Max both raced up the stairs with a large amount of good natured pushing and shoving and in the end both ended up lying on the floor of Chris’s room looking up at the ceiling and laughing. Max looked round his brothers room taking in the posters of various Wanderers players on the walls, the desk in the corner with a number of school books lying open and the bed in the corner which as usual hadn’t been made quite as well as he knew his mother would have liked.

“Did you get a goal today?” Max asked.

“No, I did hit the post though. Did you see the new Neighbours??”

“Yes” replied Max, “it’s a mother and a daughter about my age”

“Is she pretty?” Chris asked suddenly interested.

“I guess so” Max responded and then changed the subject without really knowing why he felt uncomfortable discussing anything to do with Sarah “come on lets get changed”

Max darted out of Chris’s room and into his own where he quickly changed into his pajamas and then ran back downstairs to watch some more tv before his bedtime. As he lay in bed that night sleeping his dreams seemed to be continually invaded by long blonde hair.

#

Max was woken by his alarm the next morning and dragged himself out of bed, it was never good to still be in bed if his Dad came in to see if he was up, he had never actually chucked a bucket of cold water over him, however he had on one occasion walked in, glint in his eye and hands full laden with said bucket of water. Max had never moved so fast and decided that his Dad would never have the opportunity to get that close again!! As Max pulled his pyjama top over his head he looked out the window towards Sarah’s house, as he now thought of it, all he could see from his room was the downstairs window into the lounge and the upstairs bedroom that mirrored his own room. From visits into the house before Mrs Leigh had died he had realised that the two houses were mirror images of each other. Ask pointing it out to his Dad, he had been told about how when building estates, it was not uncommon to have two houses built using mirror images of the plans to save money on architects designs, yet keeping all the houses from looking identical.

He was pulled out of his dreaming when the curtain was pulled to one side in the room across the garden and he could see Sarah wandering around the room she had obviously been up for some time and as she was moving boxes around. She glanced out of the window and obviously caught sight of him as she suddenly started and then nervously smiled and waved. Max suddenly became aware of his lack of too many clothes and darted out of view of the window blushing from head to foot. As he walked out of his room heading for the bathroom he bumped into his mother who took one look at his reddened colour and raised an eyebrow, Max bolted for the bathroom too embarassed to answer any questions.

Once he was dressed and ready for school he grabbed a couple of slices of toast and ran out of the front door before his mum could ask him anything. Chris caught up with him as he trudged towards school.

“Whats up?” he asked.

“Nothing” Max replied obviously not the truth.

“Come on tell me” Chris asked sounding concerned.

“Oh it’s nothing really” Max said stopping, “I was getting undressed and Sarah saw me from next door”.

“Ahh” said Chris trying to stifle a grin, “How, um, How far had you got”.

“Leave it alone” Max retorted, give Chris a push “I had only taken off my top”

“Oh, is that all, I wouldn’t worry about it. But you did worry Mum you know.”

“I’ll talk to her tonight” Max said.

“MAX” a voice rang out, “wait for me”

Both brothers turned and saw a figure running towards them down the pavement.

“Here comes Twiglet” said Chris.

#

Of course his real name was not Twiglet, in fact his parent’s had named him Adam. It was upon first meeting Chris that Adam picked up the nickname, Beanpole and skinny had always been the names that Adam had attracted and he didn’t like them at all. Max and he were in the same class and had formed a great friendship, however it was on one afternoon when that friendship had been strained and for some reason that neither of them could later remember they had ended up rolling around in the mud, not exactly trying to beat each other up but by the time that Chris had wandered along and found them, both had liberal covering at the elbows and knees and it was then that Chris had come out with the comment “Come on Max stop beating up the twiglet.” As both of them looked round startled at the voice and then looked at the state that both of them were in, they could see the resemblence and within a matter of seconds the two combatants were simply trying to stop laughing. Since that time Max and Adam considered each other best friends and the Twiglet nickname had stuck, however it was Chris who used it most.

#

“Do we wait for him” said Max with a glint in his eye.

Chris saw the glint and looked slyly back towards the chasing figure and then grinned himself.

“Run” he suddenly shouted and the two of them took off at a sprint, however they both screeched to a halt as they rounded the next corner, each of the them laughing so hard that they could no longer keep running.

30 seconds later the sound of running footsteps fortold the arrival of Twiglet who rounded the corner, saw the two brothers laughing hard.

“Bastards” he let out between gasping for breath, ” you really are a pair of bastards”

“Oh come on” said Chris, “it was rather funny”

“Not from my point of view” said Twiglet.

Oh come on Adam” said Max “you have to admit it that was funny”

“Come on guys lets get moving we need to get to school” Chris said.

Both of the younger boys picked up their bags and the three of them started walking again.

It only took the three boys another 5 minutes to walk the remaining distance to school and they arrived well before the attendance bell was rang. Chris headed off towards his class in another area of the school while the two younger pupils ran up the steps to the main building and down the corridor to the classroom that they usual attended registration in.

Max and Adam had been in the same class for a number of years now and whilst neither excelled at school work, each got reasonable grades and between the two of them they managed to form a nice support group as Max was the stronger of the two in Maths and Science whilst Adam found English and History to be his strengths. As such they regularly studied together either at lunch time or after school, sometimes joined by other friends but more often just the pair.

As they entered the classroom, Mrs Hawkins, who was their form tutor for this year, turned towards then, smiled and gestured to their seats just as the bell rang announcing that all students had 5 minutes to get to their classrooms. Max and Adam took their seats and chatted quietly about the football match from the previous night, as the rest of the class made their way into the room, from time to time one or other of the pair would respond to a “Morning” from one of their classmates. Eventually the late bell rang, but not before all of their classmates were in the class room, the noise of the chatter somewhere just below a mild roar. As the bell rang, however conversation ceased and the children turned towards Mrs Hawkins who would give out any notices and take attendance, prior to them heading off to their classes for the morning.

“Morning Class” Mrs Hawkins began.

“Good Morning Mrs Hawkins” the class responded.

“Ok, there are only 2 notices this morning, Coach Carter has decided to hold a set of try-outs for the reserve Football team apparently there have been a number of injuries and they are looking for a few new players from your year. Try-outs will be at lunch time on the field. Second, someone has been spraying graffiti in the boys toilets, the culprit will be dealt with severly when they are caught, I hope it’s not one of you” she said and cast a glance across the sea of faces. Apprently satistified she folded the piece of paper and placed it back on the desk.

“Also to let you know we have a new student starting tomorrow in Mrs Dawson’s class, I don’t know any more details at this time, apparently she has just moved into the area.”

Max nearly suffered whiplash as his head snapped up, could it be Sarah?

However at that moment the bell rang and 30 seconds later he was part of the massed throng of students threading their way across from one part of the school to their first class of the day. As they manouvered their way down the corridor, Twiglet and Max were talking about the announcements, or at least Twiglet was, Max was currently thinking about Sarah, however he was jerked back to reality when Max touched his arm.

“So are you??” Twiglet asked, obviously for at very least a second time.

“Sorry” said Max, “my mind was elsewhere, am I what?”

“Going to try out for the football, you are nearly as good as your brother you really ought to give it a go.

“Well I don’t know” Max began, however at that moment Chris rounded the corner and shouted to Max

“Max, you are trying out for the football team?? I’ve told Coach Carter that you should definately be good enough to get into the reserves. I’ll see you there.”

And with that Chris was past them and down the corridor and disappearing round the corner out of sight.

“Well” said Max, “I guess I’m trying out for the football team then”