The Dark Night

Ibs and I took Little One to the Vue cinema, Shepherd's Bush, last night to see Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Night'.Terrific film. Bit over long but a very powerful and muscular peice of film making.

Heath Ledger steels the show by far and I now see what all the fuss has been about.

However, my favourite performance was Gary Oldman's, which was uncharacteristicly restrained and modest.

The soundtrack, in the Joker's scenes, sounds a lot like Jonny Greenwood's brilliant score for 'There Will be Blood'.

I'm struck that 'Dark Knight' shares a similar pessimism, a relentlessly bleak view of the human condition and lack of moral redemption with other recent films, such as; 'There Will Be Blood', 'No Country for Old Men' and 'Before the Devil Knows Your Dead'. Films have got very depressing recently.

Next time, I'm defiantly taking Little One to a cheerful film, with a very happy ending.

The Duke of Cambridge

On Saturday night we went to the Duke of Cambridge pub-restaurant in Angel, for our friend Jessica's birthday meal.

I've borrowed these 3 pictures from Google to remind me what a beautiful interior the pub has.

Sadly, the food was nowhere near as good as it was the last time we went (and incredibly over priced) but it was really good to see, as always, our freinds: Jerry, Jess, Adam, Robyn, Alex.

The Zimmers

Our lovely French friends, the Zimmer Family, came to stay this weekend. We met them on holiday in Sri Lanka some years ago. The Zimmer's are (in age order) Christophe, Valentine, Camille and Charlotte.

Whenever they come, they bring me the precious gift of wine, all from their home region of Beune. The reds are fantastic!

In return for their fine wines, I made them my special Saturday slap up English Breakfast. But the girls were unimpressed and stuck to their cerials.

Ibs made her fantastic 'Jamie' chicken recipe on Friday evening.

The Zimmers under our apple tree.

This beautiful rose has been another mid-summer surprise in the garden.

On Sunday we all went to Joanna's in Holloway for her birthday barbecue. She lives right by this spectacular, deco, Odeon cinema on Holloway Road.

This was the barbecue, with an abundance of hot Polish sausage.

The girls enjoyed the trampoline.

This is the huge garden where Joanna lives.

We left the Zimmers at the party while Ibs and I had a lovely walk, back down Tufnell Park road, towards the tube.

We passed this hexagonal church, which is being restored.

Next to it is this wonderful, Italianate, tower. In the middle of Tufnell Park!

We also passed this lovely old grocer's shop,

complete with these ancient tea and coffee signs.

We took the stairs to the station platform.

When we got home, this helicopter was circling over the garden, for what seemed like ages and put us both in mind of the final scenes in 'Goodfellas'.

Pond Life

I'm loving our pond at the moment. The reeds are thriving, tall and elegant and we've developed, from nowhere, all these lovely Lillie pads. To top it all, we've now got this beautiful flower!

She curls up at night and unfurls, as the sun comes out, in the morning. She didn't appear last year and we don't know where the abundance of Lillie pads have come from.

The fish are just loving the sunshine and doing incredibly well. They can't eat enough at the moment and all putting on wait. Even the little, slightly disabled fish (that we were going to 'put down') seems happy enough.

The patriarch of the pond is this big fella, who I affectionately call 'Old Big Bollocks'. He rules the pond and his loyal harem of lady fish, follow him around, obediently, all day. I think he's absolutely magnificent and I could watch him for hours.

The only thing that could complete this little haven of aquatic pleasure is a few frogs. I can just see some old frogs or toads, having a good croak and sitting on a Lillie pad.

Television Centre

Saturday: I was runner on a short film, directed and written by our friend Claire, shot at Television Centre.

Bermondsey

A rare, sunny, summer's evening on Wednesday and to the Bermondsey home, of our very dear friends P&K. They hosted a wonderful dinner on their roof-top terrace, joined also by S&C and our, long lost, college friend Elliott and his wife Sigi.I always love visiting P&K's home. Not only is it a gorgeous house, with beautiful things inside but I love walking through the vibrant surrounding area, an absolute architectural treasure trove. The 2 pictures above are some recently completed flats.




You don't see many working Victorian public toilets any more.

P&K's 'Mary Poppins' roof terrace.

The lovely, Fanny
More Fanny

Ibs and I loved these ornaments on K's bookshelf