I was not as entranced by my son but, still, Hot Fuzz is fun - Wicker Man meets the Sweeney via Midsomer Murders.  It is the same team who made Shaun of the Dead so you can expect a few gratuitous severed body parts but the sight of Timothy Dalton and Jim Broadbent hamming it up in a film that you cannot believe that the actors did not love making is not one to be missed.  Another post-modern film in a post-modern age.

http://www.hotfuzz.com/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425112/maindetails
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Fuzz

Meanwhile, last night had me in an 'Irish' drinking session with P*** E****, which is always an enjoyable mix of political banter, cultural reminiscence and kind thoughts about mutual friends.  Not what I do often but sometimes it clears away the cobwebs and wipes away the gloom.  There was barely a trace of hangover this morning because we maintained that Golden Rule - never mix your drinks.  In any case, a newly favourite haunt, the Seven Stars in Carey Street, an old-fashioned pub discreetly nestling behind the Law Courts, offers a fine pint of Adnams and some good Napoli Sausages and mash to line the stomach.  No nonsense bar staff who know their beer and food and a certain necessary scruffiness.  The only warning is that if you feel that you need a 'leak', don't leave it to the last minute - the facilities are limited and queues form at peak times :-)

Tags: culture (popular), friends
Current Location: Tunbridge Wells & London

Today was supposed to mean lunch with Gerry Clark in the City - still going strong and doing sterling service at Abchurch for Julian Bosdet.  Gerry was the man who gave me first job, coming all the way up to Cambridge with Derek Dale in 1978 to offer me an interview.  He sent me down the PR route.  Over a decade and a half later, he 'engineered' the contact with the person who became (and still is) my wife.  But the second 'line fire' in as many months closed London Bridge and I could not make it.  This was a doomed lunch that had originally been intended to be a reunion of an old Shandwick team from the late 1980s, but it saw each of us drop out one by one because of pressure of this or pressure of that until Gerry and I were the only two men left standing.  But sometimes you just can't beat the system.  The thing to do then is just ease up and do something else - so I did.  We'll rearrange.

Tags: friends
Current Location: Tunbridge Wells
Current Mood: frustrated