Zola

If the customer service guys at the online retailer were anywhere decent they would have done all the legwork and picked up the stand on your behalf, rather you having to find the time and expense to do it for them.

Roachford ‎– The Roachford Files I love this band: have seen them in concert a couple of times. Classy music, easy on the ear and a good beat too.

I think that's the same issue I have of him - perceived or otherwise. He was pretty decent in films like "JFK", "DWW" and "The Untouchables". But as his fame grew so too did his ego, and began getting quite uppity about his latter films, especially "Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves". Apparently he became a tad pissed off at Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham's role dominating the film. And so he insisted the screen time of the role be cut right back, just so that audiences realised who the lead man was! And I don't think he's done a decent film since.

I watched, or rather rewatched, the original French thriller classic, "La Femme Nikita" (1990) last night: a great film embellished beautifully by the dynamic screen presence of Anne Parillaud (Nikita). Not only did she kick some serious arse, but looked adorable in her trademark "little black dress". No sex scenes to speak of, but that didn't matter because Ms Parillaud oozed sexual presence right from the off. Another favourite of mine is the revered lesbian drama "Desert Hearts" (1985) starring Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau. a nice story about repressed lesbian love in 1950s Reno, Nevada. Director, Donna Deitch, does a great job from start to finish, and handles the explicit love scene between the two women with tenderness, respect and a bucketful of sensual erotica!

Living in the UK I can't really be sure what favourite foreign films of mine have been subsequently released across the Pond. But the following stand out for me, and I get round to watching at least a couple of times a year:- Sweden: The Seventh Seal (1957) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050976/combined Pelle - The Conqueror (1987) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093713/combined Japan Hanabi (1997) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119250/combined High & Low (1963) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057565/combined Kikujiro (1999) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0199683/combined Onibaba (1964) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058430/combined New Zealand Once Were Warriors (1993) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110729/combined Italy The Bicycle Thieves (1948) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040522/combined France Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092593/combined Les Diabolique (1955) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046911/combined The 400 Blows (1959) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053198/combined PickPocket (1959) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053168/combined

"Long Walk to Freedom" - Nelson Mandela (658 pages, published 1995) I wasn't even born when Nelson finally won his freedom in 1990, but both my parents were there in the vast crowds on that momentous day, and the great wall of Apartheid in my home country was beginning to crumble and ultimately end in the 1994 elections. Many books have been written about this great man, some of them rather cynical and sneering; but this autobiography has gripped me from the very first few pages following the early years of his life, from humble beginnings to becoming an educated and socially aware young man finding a voice in a country where an intelligent black man is considered dangerous and a threat. Am only a couple of chapters in, and it's quite heavy-going at times. But it's one of those rare books where the pieces all slowly come together like one giant jigsaw: and the more you read the more it makes sense....

Russell Crowe Mel Gibson Nicolas Cage Channing Tatum Will Smith Katherine Heigl Vin Diesel Drew Barrymore. Miley Cyrus Kevin Costner Charlie Sheen Kristen Stewart Some of these guys started off okay in their acting careers, but then let their egos get the better of them; while the others simply don't have any talent at all other than to kick people into thinking they could actually act!

Spent the morning in my loftspace: removing old loft insulation and replacing it with good quality 200mm thick rolls; and put some new lagging round exposed pipework (from a health & safety perspective I wore goggles, face mask, gloves and hair net) Tomorrow I intend to finish the loft be putting down some rigid polystyrene boards over the freshly insulated flooring and joists. This flooring will make it easier to add storage given than I have a low peak roof, which means I have to crawl around on all 4s up there. I want to get all this done before the cold winter months arrive, which will hopefully keep my house warmer and my fuel bills lower.

I don't watch many action films to be honest, but one film that springs to mind is Terminator 2 and the final fight sequence between the two terminators (with Sarah Connor kicking some arse for good measure)

2162 Votes In God We Trust Drought Conditions La Palabra Yes, the game really has died a little, which is a pity because I simply adore the main story lines of S6 & 7 (if only because of the screen presence of Alan Alda, and Josh really coming into his own as Campaign Manager)

Whilst in a coffee shop near where I live, I noticed my ex-girlfriend walking down the street and doing some window shopping. But she wasn't alone: she was with another woman, presumably her new partner given their positive body chemistry, and that they were holding hands from time to time. They didn't spot me from the other side of the street, but my own vain curiosity got the better of me and I just watched them for a good 5 minutes until they finally walked out of my field of vision. Even though we split up a couple of months back on good terms, I still felt the touch of envy/jealousy that she was with someone else now, whilst I'm "enjoying" the single life (which is something I currently crave for anyway). I didn't feel any bitterness towards my ex, but I did have the odd pang, the odd yearning, wishing that I was still with her. But then again that's only because I saw her today with someone else. Up until that point I had scarcely paid her any thought. That was about 5 hours ago, and even now I still think about her and the good times we had together during out brief 3 months together. Had I not seen her this morning I would have carried on with my usual day-to-day way of life; but on the rare occasions you see or hear your ex being with someone else there is always that touch of anxiety and mild jealousy causing through one's veins. But hopefully it will pass and I can focus on the here and now rather than the past and what might have been.

I rarely listen to mainstream music or commercial radio. I just don't have the patience for it because it all sounds so "samey", which I realise is a massive generalisation but it just doesn't do anything for me (unless I'm at a party, half-drunk and my inhibitions are scattered all over the dance floor). I much prefer Indie stuff from a variety of genres both contemporary and from 20 or 30 years ago. I like trawling through my parent's album collection from the 80s and 90s and a new type of music here in the UK called "Britpop", and the likes of Pulp, Coldplay, Oasis, Stereophonics, Blur, Placebo, Moby: all pretty decent stuff despite touching the boundaries of mainstream pop. I quite like certain off-the-wall genres these days: House, Garage, Trance, Techno, Ambient, Downtempo et al. Some of these have been around for years, but they work for me during moments where I need to focus, concentrate or "be at one"; whereas during my more wilder moments I can quite happily absorb myself into hardcore genres such as Death Metal, Hard Rock, Metal Core, Heavy Metal etc. But mainstream pop rarely gets a hearing in my household, although I do have a soft spot for Taylor Swift (for her music rather than all the crap that goes on off-stage)

Now its getting tough! Freedonia - an interesting episode, spoilt somewhat by the slightly mellow (relatively speaking) cameo of Amy. Moreover, I didn't like Santos' decision to do his own to-camera tv ad. But I guess that was a better option than Donna mouthing off to chickens! However, there was one stand-out scene, and that was twixt Josh & Santos discussing the "presidential voice". And Josh retorts by saying "Here's what Amy won't tell you about the presidential voice: you have to become president to use it!"- which put Santos back in his petulant box. But that aside, it wasn't enough for me to keep the episode here. La Palabra - another good episode all things considered. But again just like "Freedonia" Santos has to pull something unexpected out of the bag, and at the last minute, to win the day: this time an endorsement from an improbable source. And I didn't like Donna throwing a glass of water over a sleeping Will either. Not at all very ladylike, and just adds to my growing contempt for her at this point. And then there's the rather lame but convenient story of Hoynes suddenly pulling out of the election over some sex scandal (again!), thus pushing Santos into 2nd place.

WARNING - Don't read if you're of a nervous disposition, or about to eat! It doesn't happen often but I caught a bus into the city centre earlier this morning. Being the rush-hour it was almost packed out. But fortunately, there was a standing area near the front of the bus, and I managed to squeeze into a space and grabbed hold of one of the many poles running down the centre of the bus. Inevitably I began to people-watch because I couldn't be bothered to get my phone out. And that's when I saw a woman about my age (mid 20s), also standing next to her pole about 2 metres further down the bus. She was deeply engrossed with her phone: probably listening to music given she was wearing 'phones. But then she started to pick her nose! She was quite deliberate and open about it; not a hint of discreetness at all. Instead, it looked like she was digging for buried treasure, and ultimately she did dislodge a .... <well, I'll gloss over that bit> ..... and then gave it a quick glance before wiping her wet finger on the pole she was holding onto until the contents were firmly removed from said finger. She then carried on with her other nostril........ by which time it was my stop, so I hastily disembarked. And as soon as I reached my destination, I visited the ladies restroom and washed my hands, worried that I may have picked up some similar "leftovers" during my time holding my bus pole! What the hell is wrong with some people!?

Alec Baldwin's 8 minutes of vitriolic awesomeness in the rather excellent "Glengarry Glen Ross" (warning - lots and lots of f-bombs!)

The Haunting (1963) Les Diabolique (1955 - French) Rashomon (1955 - Japanese) Onibaba (1964 - Japanese) The Seventh Seal (1957 - Swedish) FailSafe (1964) King Kong (1933) Repulsion (1965 - UK) Schindler's List (1993) To Kill a Mocking Bird (1962) These 10 rank very highly in my B&W film library; there are many more out there of course, but these ten get a regular airing at least once or twice a year

The rape scene in Straw Dogs. Am a big fan of Dustin Hoffman, and have seen most his films, but never this one - primarily because of the violence, but also the rape. Despite not being overly graphic, it left nothing to the imagination, which I felt was completely unwarranted, as well as being disturbing. I am not even sure whether the scene added much to the story, and even if it did it could have been handled with far more subtlety. But I guess that's not one of director, Sam Peckinpah's priorities.

A Good Day La Palabra

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Focused-Inbox-for-Outlook-f445ad7f-02f4-4294-a82e-71d8964e3978 The above link will hopefully clarify.

For those irritated by Microsoft's decision to split the Outlook email inbox into two categories "Focused" and "Other", there is a solution:- Click the Settings gear in the upper right corner of Outlook Click Options on the drop down menu, and then Layout, Select Focused Inbox, and choose Don't Sort! Click Save Done I do wish Microsoft would stop over-engineering things that work perfectly for the majority of people. Or if they do introduce something new, give us the option to use it by default rather than just dumping it on us wholesale and forcing us to find ways of turning it off.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles, has some memorable and incredibly funny scenes throughout, but these two stand out for me:- BE WARNED WITH THIS CLIP - IT'S A CLUSTER OF F-BOMBS!

Impact Winter - Primarily because of the dumb China meeting, but also the ridiculous asteroid side-story. The Wake Up Call - Bad on so many levels, not least Miss World and new constitution stories.

The unexpected death of Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) near the end of the film "The Road to Perdition" (2002) Never saw that coming, especially an A-list star like Hanks. But to see him shot in the back while staring out of a beach house window, shook me to the bone. And of course the sombre score from Thomas Newman, just added to the mood.

"Crouching Tiger; Hidden Dragon" (2000) despite the wonderful action scenes, the film is also incredibly moving at times, helped considerably by some outstanding music by composer, Dun Tan. The ending especially, had me in floods of tears. So even though this is by and large an action film rather than an out-and-out tearjerker, it does have its moments where a box of tissues come in handy.

I loved Newman in "The Verdict" and "The Sting", and Redford in "Three Days of the Condor" and "All the President's Men" (and "The Sting" of course). Am not a fan of westerns though, so haven't seen "Butch...", although I would imagine both had a certain magical dynamism about them, that probably wouldn't have worked out very well had Steve McQueen taken Redford's role. Never really liked McQueen: lacked that certain approachable charisma that Redford, and especially Newman had in spades.