Thursday, 31 May 2007

Three's a crowd...

Who is Henry Padovani I hear you ask? Ok, so you didn't really ask but
I'm going to tell you anyway. He was one of the original members of The
Police but decided they weren't going very far and joined 'Wayne County
and the Electric Chairs'... yeah, you know them, they had that hit with,
um, thingy, you know... no me neither - never heard of them. Nice move
Henry. That go me thinking though, what other famous 'almost made it's'
are there out there??

Well, obviously, there's the 'Fifth Beatle' - but even there, you have a
choice: Derek Taylor or Neil Aspinall are key contenders, but there a
whole list of other wannabe fifth beatles

Some other almost made it's I found were:

Two Ronnies - originally, there was a third, Ronald Beasley.
Unfortunately, in 1973 he was sensationally booted out for not quite
being funny enough. He then plied his trade as a comedian doing the
Butlins circuit. These days he has a one man show out of a caravan in
Hastings.

Jackson 5 - Ricky 'Cue Ball' Jackson, their albino sibling though
talented was never allowed to perform with the rest of his family. The
irony!!! He went on to set up a celebrity dating network. Unfortunately,
a number of high profile divorces ensued. Divorces for Kim Basinger and
Alec Baldwin, Nicholas Cage and Lisa Marie Presley and then the little
known marriage of Mr T. to Michelle Pfeiffferfffer that only lasted 38
minutes, that had all used the service brought the company to it's
knees. Ricky is now to be seen selling t-shirts from a beach hut in
Miami.

The Flying Alex's - the famous Chinese circus trio who make millions for
each of their renowned performances used to be a quartet. The fourth
hung up his leotard to pursue a career in IT. He recently moved to
Cyberspace, and can now be found making up spurious stories about
celebrities...

Any other's out there you know about????

Monday, 28 May 2007

Bees and educated fleas are at it too!!

Ever wondered...



... well now you know!!

Wednesday, 23 May 2007

No more working for a week or two...

We had the annual 'Hinton hols' last week and this time the small Devonshire town of Alverdiscott trembled as the Hinton convoy came to town. Us from London, Alistair and Cathy from Wales, Isobel and Anne from Bognor Regis and Mum and Dad from sunny Bournemouth.

We stayed at a lovely property called the Coach House in a lovely setting as part of the Webbery Manor. Anyone who's google'd this looking for further details on this property or any of the others in the grounds - don't hesitate - book it now, you won't be disappointed.

The weather wasn't always kind to us but it didn't stop us doing any of the things we wanted to do and a good few hours were spent on the tennis courts. I'm afriad Andy Murray remains our only real Wimbledon hope. It's been 5 years since I'd picked up a racket and it showed.

We were well placed in North Devon so had some nice trips out to the North Devon coast but were also close enough to get down to the Eden project in Cornwall which is well worth the drive.

On the way back we stopped off at Longleat to take in the safari park. Not quite a proper Kenyan Safari but for a tenner I'm not about to complain. The notorious monkey's did start ripping bit of my roof off. Serve's me right for pointing and laughing as it happened to the people in front.

It was a great week. Not too much 'family related stress' and everyone survived so can't be bad!

Monday, 7 May 2007

Is it cold in here?


Mum bought Dad a bird box for Christmas and they have some lodgers already!! Dinner time!!

Sunday, 6 May 2007

Ahhhh - memories....

For any of you Aussies and Kiwis that might have found your way here care of stickfly, here are my own personal favourite memories of my visits to your beautiful countries!!


Thursday, 3 May 2007

Harry Potter and the Curse of the Horse Mutilating Worship!!

That title was a bit long so they stuck with 'Equus' for this one - not even a mention of Harry in there!

The latest in the Harry Potter series is very good. I was a little surprised that JKR decided that almost all the previous characters would be killed off without mention - so no Hermione and no Ronald. I'm sure they are off doing their thing somewhere else anyway. Harry's Uncle does have a bigger part than normal though.

The big difference of course is that it's moved from the silver screen to the West End but this has been done very well. The main story is set in his Uncle's psychiatry office and the stage is also used to represent Harry's home during his adolescent years, a beach, a field, a barn and more... the producer has excellently woven interplay between different scenes from different locations and times.

The story is about a boy brought up in a religiously split household who develops a worship of horses sown from the religious beliefs of his mother. Coming to terms with his own sexuality and maturity he mutilates the horses he cares for and ends up in the care of the psychiatrist played (excellently) by Richard Griffiths. He, with his own demons, proceeds to work with lad to deal with his issues, ultimately bringing greater torment on himself!

And yes, rumours are true - Harry does indeed do the full monty. It was pretty cold in there so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. You had to question the wisdom of killing off Hermione at this point though ;-)

Jenny Agutter is also excellent in the play. Interestingly she was probably the first naked woman I ever saw when we studied 'Walkabout' in English Literature in my school days way back when. Unfortunately, she doesn't so much as loosen her jacket in this one but the girl's still got it going on!!

I would highly advise going as it's great entertainment. As with all West End recommendations - try and get your tickets on the day from the tkts stalls. 50 pound tickets down to 25 is great value in anyone's book! Just don't expect Lord Voldemort either as he's been killed off inexplicably also!!

(sorry Ben no Donkey's in this one mate, only Horses!!)

alexanderhinton.com rating: 9/10