Rev Stan's other stuff

Guilty reading pleasure

OK it's not a soppy chick-lit or Mills and Boon or anything of that sort but actually teen fiction. And not even girls teen fiction but boys teen fiction.
Don't get me wrong, I love reading adult's literature but nothing has absorbed me as much as books like Harry Potter and Twilight.
And now I've discovered the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz. For goodness sake it's about a 14-year-old boy who gets blackmailed into become a spy for MI6 and goes on improbable adventures!!!
A film of the first one - Stormbreaker - was made which I also loved and is what sort of started all this, that and listening to an interview with Horowitz on a Radio 4 book programme recently.

But I love them. Can't wait to sit and read them, love them. Snatching five minutes reading whenever I can love them. No adult books ever have quite the same effect.
Is it wrong? Why do I feel guilty to be reading them?
I've quickly gone through the first three books and am forcing myself to reading something aimed at my age before I buy any more - there are eight in the series.
The only explanation I can offer is that it is pure escapism. Easy escapism at the end of a busy day. Alex is always getting captured by baddies and facing certain death only to somehow escape, which mirrors the sort of adventures I played over in my head when I was young teen.
But I still feel guilty.

 

 

 

Late spring in London's parks

A breezy, late spring day with clouds skirting across a beautiful blue sky. Nature is in it's final throws of seasonal renewal and it is so beautiful.
These were taken in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens the latter of which I haven't really explored before:

Spring flowers

 

Duck (or it might be a goose I'm not very good at these things)

Tree in spring

Elfin Oak, Kensington Gardens

Some more pic on my Flickr page

 

QotD: Gadget Conundrum

You're going on your dream vacation and you can only take one gadget with you. Camera, music player, cell phone, laptop or something else – what do you bring and why? Which other ones would you miss most?
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Camera. Durrrr. I always have music in my head.

QotD: Movie Soundtrack

What's the best movie soundtrack of all time?

It's not the best movie soundtrack of all time but it's the one I've been listening to most recently just because there are a great selection of songs on it: Twilight saga: New Moon.

One of my favourites is the Thom Yorke song Hearing Damage. Love it on my headphones while walking around London or on a bus. It's a great getting town song.

I liked the Twilight soundtrack too and am really looking forward to the release of the soundtrack for Eclipse which has two tracks from my new fav band Fanfarlo who I mentioned in a post back in Feb.

Anyway, here's the Thom Yorke song:

03 Hearing Damage

QotD: Peanut Butter and...

Peanut butter and what?

Jam and a smidge of salad cream. Don't knock it until you've tried it.

My new favourite place to take photos in London

This is the Barbican in Central London. I've been meaning to head here on a sunny day to take pics for a while. Now I don't know why I left it so long, the possibilities are endless...

 

Where do you think this is?

A day at the beach

Yep that's right, it's here in London, central London. And if you don't believe me then take at look at this one of the same scene from a different angle:

A day at the beach, in London

I'm not the first

But I'm determined to get pictures of as many of the elephants in the London Elephant Parade as possible. There are about 250 dotted around the capital each painted by a different artist. I've got 35 so far...

It's to raise awareness about the danger the asian elephant population is in and naturally to raise money. I'll donate £10 to the charity when the first person correctly spots which picture has my silhouette in it!

 

Pride of place

My birthday present to myself was ready for collection today from the framing shop. Now if tragedy ever strikes and my flat is burning I will have two possessions to grab Bun Buns first, then this...

Treasured possession: Ben Whishaw and Pride cast signed playbill

 

The story of how I came by this is here and for those who've read it before, I've added in some more detail.

 

Muse's song for Eclipse makes an appearance on YouTube

It is definitely following in the 'rock-musical' sound of the last album which was my least favourite of everything they've done.
But I'm sure it will work very well in the context of the film and sound fabulous when I see them at Wembley in Semptember - the last album definitely worked well in the live stadium setting.

 

Polar Bears and Robin Hood (not in the same place)

Been to the theatre and cinema this week with offerings at two ends of the spectrum.

Mark Haddon's debut play Polar Bears at the Donmar (all Ben Whishaw spotting excitement to one side) was very enjoyable and Ridley Scott's epic take on English legend Robin Hood wasn't really. I'd go as far as saying that Prince of the Thieves was better because it at least it had charm and Alan Rickman.

Ben Whishaw's Hamlet and stalker tendencies

Ben Whishaw: theatre fan and Stan-stalker

Wow what a day. Who'd have thought it when I woke up this morning?
I suppose it all started a couple of days ago when I found out that the Old Vic version of Hamlet which starred Ben Whishaw back in 2004 was filmed and the recording is kept at the V&A for private viewing on request.
Anyone who's read anything I've written on the subject knows how much I regretted missing that performance and how if I had a time machine for a day, that's where I would go.
But it turns out the time machine was necessary, just a couple emails and at the end of the month I'm going to get my chance to see it. Am still in shock. It is a dream come true.
But if that wasn't enough, it seems that Mr Whishaw has returned from his Broadway stint and taken up his role of Stanley-stalker again.
Off I toddled to the theatre tonight to see Polar Bears, a performance I wasn't supposed to be seeing as I'd booked for two weeks earlier but swapped tickets with my boss who'd doubled booked himself.
I was resigned to the fact that I'd swapped good seats in the stalls for some up in the circle (it's the Donmar so it's not the end of the world).
And just as I was settling into my pigeon perch a few minutes before the play was due to start, who is shuffling into the row in front of me? Yep Mr Whishaw. I nearly spat my wine out.
There was no interval so he got no opportunity to stalk me then and he tried hanging around in the bar afterwards but I nipped into the loo to shake him off ;0)

IPod shuffle songs discovery

Have been listening to my iPod on shuffle a lot recently which always throws up songs I haven't heard in a while and had forgotten I liked.

This is my best rediscovery so far, it's Troy by Sinead O'Conner. I love the drama of it, the way she has so much emotion in her voice as she tells the story. And such a beautiful singing voice it is too.

 

Troy

 

 

QotD: The Art of Communication

Do you prefer communicating via phone, text message or email? Does using a certain one change your behavior? (I.e. Is it easier to flirt via text than over the phone? Are you more business like in email etc.?)
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I'm an email girl, followed by text/instant messaging. Rarely pick up the phone and receive very few calls. I spend too much time at work talking to people either face to face or on the phone, last thing I want to do when I get home is start talking on the phone. Email is generally short and sweet and instant messaging can be done while listening to music, watching the telly etc.

Birthday celebrations part 1

The election yesterday was just a side show to the main event: mine and George Clooney's birthdays (and my mate Alan's, my mate Chris's mums and Tony Blair's).
And I am today feeling the effects of that main event but it was worth it.
There was a bit of a theme to the day: chocolate and champagne. My friends know me so well.
Nadia made me this gorgeous chocolate cake (she's such an amazing cook she made the recipe up adapting a non-gluten free cake she likes). It had nearly half a kilo of chocolate in it. Enough said.

Chocolate birthday cake

 

You know you are past your youth when you get excited about a tupperware cake box with cake-lifter inside as a gift. I got excited - fellow office cake-baker, Alison has one from back home in NZ which I've always coveted but Lakeland (a shop I get excited visiting which is another indicator of my having traversed past youth) has just started stocking them. It was Nadia's gift alongside a gluten-free baking recipe book. She's already picked out the cake she wants me to make her...
Anyway so my day in the office was pretty much chocolate-cake fuelled which set me up for an evening of cocktails and food with friends.
Went to the London Cocktail Club, which I'd never been to before but chose because it looked like it had the right level of sophistication without the prices to match. In fact when I ordered the first round I discovered it was two for one, so that was us all set up for pre-dinner drinks. We just swapped around our second drinks so we could sample something different.
The menu is extensive, the staff really friendly and skilled at turning out the most elegant looking drinks:

Porn Star Martini (the chaser is champagne and goes with the PSM) and a Champagne cocktail

Then there was more well chosen presents (theatre tokens/chocolate) and larks for the camera - thanks to Kate for wrestling it from me and doing a marvellous job:

Sadly one present didn't make it home in one piece and it wasn't anything to do with the amount of champagne drunk. The handles of the bag snapped :0( I will be emailing the evidence to Montezuma's as it was their bag and their jar of chocolate buttons.

Birthday breakage

It was a lovely, lovely day and now I'm looking forward to birthday celebrations part 2, details coming soon....

Shadow perks of the job

As my job increasingly embraces the many facets of multi-media I get to do more and more different stuff like taking pictures and doing interviews on cameras of new developments.
A little side perk of this is I sometime sneak a few shots for my own collection, taking advantage of the behind the scenes access of empty buildings or views from less usual vantage points.
These were taken in a retail development I toured recently - I also made my online video debut doing my first piece to camera which wasn't as bad as I'd imagined. And no I'm not linking to it, that would be a little bit too much like blurring the work/life boundary.

Love/hate/love at the cinema

Been busy sitting in a dark room with a bunch of strangers, staring at a big screen.

Saw Polanski's The Ghost with Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan which I thought worked well as a tense, well constructed thriller with some great performances thrown in. Oh and I guessed one of the plot twists which I'm still chuffed about as I never normally get these sort of things. More over on Rev Stan's film blog

And then on Friday I took a day off and went to a daytime screening of The Disappearance of Alice Creed. I love going to weekday screenings as it never ceases to make me feel like I'm bunking off and the cinema is always quiet. And that was about as much of a thrill as I got out the experience.

Alice starts off full of promise but quickly loses credibility and crashes and burns in a wholly unsatisfying series of plot developments that actually had me laughing out loud. Shame really. More thoughts over here.

Then yesterday I made a rare trip to the British Film Institute. I don't allow myself to go often primarily because it could be dangerous for the bank balance and my social life. For those unfamiliar, it is home to the National Film Theatre and has several screens, is a strictly no pop corn cinema showing mainly classics and foreign or art house movies. They have seasons of particular genres or showcasing particular actors or directors.

Kim Hunter and David Niven in A Matter of Life and Death

My theatre friend @polyg a while back mentioned she wanted to go and see A Matter of Life and Death there so I asked if she wanted company and so off we popped.

It was made in 1946 and stars David Niven and Kim Hunter. He plays an RAF pilot who has to bail without a working parachute but in his last moments on the plane, and before leaping to certain death, he falls in love with the radio operator with whom he has recounted his predicament.

He comes to on a beach near where the radio operator lives and works, not quite sure whether he is alive or dead he sets out to find her. When he does she quickly falls in love with him and he realises that he has somehow survived.

However, he has in fact been 'missed' by heaven and a clerk is sent to find him and persuade him to take up the place that has been opened for him in the after life. He refuses having just found love and is called to a court hearing in heaven to plead his case for staying on earth.

Of course there were elements that were very of the time but it was a refreshingly different and imaginative story compared to so much of what we are served up in modern cinema these days. Great to get a chance to catch it on the big screen too.

Oh and something else I should tell you about the BFI, it has one of the best hang out cafe/bars in London. Lots of sofas, free wifi and music that isn't intrusive - it would be easy to spend a long time there but best to arrive early if you are planning to spend the evening as it gets very busy.

Between the rain photography

April is normally the showery, unpredictable month, well more unpredictable than English weather normally is anyway. But this April has seen a long spell of dry sunny weather with unseasonably warm temperatures. Cue: May rain.

So it poured for most of yesterday forcing indoor play. Today dawned dry but threatening downpours. Cabin fever was setting in, so at the first merest hint of blue in the sky I donned sensible wet-weather shoes, dug out the brolley and winter coat (it's got quite cold over the last couple of days) and headed out with my camera to see what I could capture.

And as ever the South Bank didn't let me down...

Then I moved onto the Tate Modern, Millenium Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral. There were a couple of brief showers but the sun eventually came out properly.

Not bad considering how the day started out. As ever the rest of the pics are on Flickr

QotD: Change for the Better?

We all have something we'd like to change about ourselves. Inside or out... what would you change if you could?

Outside: I have a problem with the tops of my thighs which I think bulge out disproportionately to the rest of my legs so I'd love to have the buggers lipo'd - just an inch or two would make so much difference.

Inside: More tact. I wear my heart on my sleeve and I don't mean to hurt or offend but sometimes it just comes out that way.