Victory!

Just won a £522 dispute against an old letting agency. Been dragging on for almost a year.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

We re-watched Sky Captain and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Dieselpunk

http://people.howstuffworks.com/dieselpunk.htm

Woodland walk

Safe community?

Hubby's childhood was spent here:

My sewing machine

Peter & Joan very generously bought me a sewing machine. It was a complete surprise: totally unexpected! I'm dying to play with it now...

Kitten wife

Chinese New Year: Year of the Dragon

We had great fun @ Wagamama last night. A really nice meal and an opportunity to chat with people outside of class.

Sadly, many of the photos were quite blurry due to the lighting and people moving so there weren't many featuring Hubby.

Connery is the best Bond?

People often say this but are they including Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again?

Never Say Never Again had the worst-ever title song. Worse even than Madonna's... It was one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Lined winter trousers

These are so warm!

Down jacket

Coupled with hat and gloves, a good down jacket with a water-resistant/proof outer fabric is a fabulous way to stay warm in winter. With a wide variety of cuts available, you can avoid the bulk if you shop around.

Tip: the longer the coat, the heavier it is.

Lightweight fleece

A lightweight fleece worn over a thermal undershirt is great for warmth. These garments can be worn beneath a feather & down coat.

Thermal undershirt

Thermal undergarments are a great investment.

Rab double-pile fleece

This is a must for warmth! The soft Berber pile is really nice and the back has double-thick pile.

Hubby once tried 300 weight polartec and it felt like wearing a cardboard box. This Rab jacket is much better.

George Clooney films we like

1. Solaris (remake)
2. Good Night and Good Luck
3. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
4. Leatherheads
5. Burn After Reading
6. Intolerable Cruelty
7. The Good German
8. Out of Sight
9. The American
10. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

(Not so keen on: Up In The Air, Ocean's 11, 12 & 13, Michael Clayton, Men Who Stare At Goats, Perfect Storm, Peacemaker, One Fine Day, From Dusk Til Dawn)

Clooney got pretty good once he stopped wobbling his head so much.

Cousin Bette - brilliant!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eahnCKKma08

Films to do with Japan

1. My Neighbour Totoro
2. Spirited Away
3. The Pillow Book
4. The Ramen Girl
5. Lost in Translation
6. Memoirs of a Geisha
7. Rising Sun
8. Black Rain
9. The Last Samurai
10. You Only Live Twice

We have many Japanese-inspired books that offer intriguing glimpses. These films offer some

Enter the Dragon or The Illusionist?

Tai chi has more in common with The Illusionist than Enter the Dragon.

Hubby is not doing spinning kicks or making crazy noises. His teachings are stunningly subtle and require the student to undergo repeated perceptual 'jolts'. It is necessary to drop all manner of bad habits and misconceptions on the road to understanding.

What I like about the teaching is how Hubby does something amazing and then immediately proceeds to show you how to do it too. Yes, there's theory... followed at once by the practical application of the theory. Everything is scientific, clear and provable.

Man of Constant Sorrow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEy30r74kKU

Moneypenny

I think Barbara Bouchet was the best Moneypenny and Samantha Bond is absolutely the worst.

Etsy

http://uk.etsy.com/

Dawanda

http://en.dawanda.com/

Casino Royale (1967)

This was one trippy movie; with all manner of spoofy touches and lots of Scottish jokes at Sean Connery's expense. Is it worth watching? I guess that's down to you...

Ursula Andress is good, so is Peter Sellers.

Battleship

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/battleship/

After Battle: Los Angeles I don't know whether to risk seeing this...

A Mighty Wind

The Artist

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/theartist/

Jack the giant killer

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/jackthegiantkiller/

Hubby is not keen on James Bond films

I quite like Bond films but Hubby finds them to be largely tedious. He liked The Living Daylights and Tomorrow Never Dies to some degree but largely indifferent to the rest...

Recycled Bond extras

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0336509/

Charles Grey played Henderson in You Only Live Twice in 1967, then Blofeld in Diamonds are Forever 4 years later. Confusing.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000833/

Joe Don Baker plays the baddie in The Living Daylights, then a CIA man in the Pierce Brosnan movies.

A Mighty Wind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JhLuVu-Cho&feature=related

Men in Black 2 was awful, can 3 be better?

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/meninblack3/

Given how bad the second film was, I don't know if I'm interested in even trying the third...

A Mighty Wind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoCu5w59eiE&feature=related

Pacsafe bags

http://shop.packyourbags.com/acatalog/Pacsafe.html

Pac Safe

http://www.pacsafe.com

Dark Knight Rises

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/thedarkknightrises/

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/tinkertailorsoldierspy/

Diamonds Are Forever?

A great song for a truly lousy film.

Connery looked fat, lazy and bored throughout the movie. The sets and decor were so vulgar and the acting terrible. This is 1971 and the world of Bond hits rock bottom. We switched it off less than half way through.

Prometheus

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox/prometheus/

Golden Gun

http://www.factoryent.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=408011

On Her Majesty's Secret Service...

What an odd Bond film. It was more like a romantic adventure.

The look of the movie was clearly showing some pre-1970's influences; sleazy, rough, tacky, coarse. Bond reading playboy, the appalling decor, the weird fashions.

Hobbit

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/thehobbit/

Bond - walk and shoot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IdDl-pHeDw&feature=related

I like Pierce Brosnan's walk-in: very snappy and accurate: BANG! Lazenby was good. Moore looks decisive. Dalton is edgy. Craig is nasty.

Connery is wobbly.

My multi-tool

http://www.leatherman.com/product/Style_CS

Action bits

The action sequences in James Bond films aren't really our scene. We've been known to sleep through them entirely or fast forward...

Wife

Spy shop...

http://www.spyshop.co.uk/

Lost nicknames

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Nicknames

Green & Blacks

I tried Green & Blacks cooking chocolate in my chocolate brownie. Wow! What a difference it makes. More pricey than normal chocolate but much tastier and you can't eat as much.

Not so secret agent?

If James Bond is a 'secret' agent, why doesn't he disguise his identity or use aliases like the Saint? Instead, he tells everyone his name and acts like an intelligence community celebrity.

Aren't spies meant to keep a low profile?

Star Trek dressing gown?

http://www.find-me-a-gift.co.uk/mens-dressing-gowns-star-trek-captain-kirk.html

Happy New year!