TESCO's woes - my comments a year ago

Carlos Ruiz Zafon - The Midnight Palace

I had an extraordinarily interesting surprise this morning.

Having read "Shadow of the Wind" for the second time, I decided to get a couple more titles from Carlos Ruiz Zafon, one being "The Midnight Palace". 
In it Ben, his friends, his long-separated sister - all member of the Chowbar Society, meeting at the abandoned mansion they call The Midnight Palace, battle with forces beyond understanding in a riveting (if rather dark) read.

Never in the same league Carlos's 'Shadow of the Wind' (whatever could be?) - I was stunned, at the penultimate page to read "Twenty years ago, after the death of my Iris, I moved to Bournemouth, where my home and my surgery occupy a small comfortable house with a view over the salt marshes of Poole bay".

Car Headlights

Switch off those bloody head-lights in town!

https://www.gov.uk/general-rules-all-drivers-riders-103-to-158/lighting-requirements-113-to-116

Driving in and about town you can see can't you?

I mean - it's so bright you can't even see your own headlights can you?  
So WHY ARE YOUR HEADLIGHTS ON IN TOWN BUDDY?

It's all about two things, you see, darlings.

Distractions, and Glare.  
Our strange little country's town roads are just stuffed with road-markings that are either bleedin' obvious, impossible to keep to, unnecessary or mis-leading.  Coloured tarmac, multi-coloured lines, zig-zags, keep left signs, boxes for this, boxes for that, chequered jobbies for whatever - all placed beneath & alongside a truly stunning amount of "street furniture".

. . . . . and they're all lit up from overhead lights.
Goddamn it, it's virtually daylight.

Yet the cars plod & whiz about headlights ablaze, high-intensity lights on, DRLs in jazzy shapes, jeeps with high-set lamps . . . . . DAZZLING.

. . . . . . and one day, some report will come out " a little less light, a little less eye-catching, eye-focusing dazzle, and we'd all SEE that much better on the roads."

Cycling Bournemouth - new blog

http://cyclingbournemouth.wordpress.com

Young Montalbano BBC4 - Sat evenings

What Young Montelbano will never have as a series is the sound of helicopters to represent US aerial power, or thinly backgrounded (?) marshal drumming to represent the US marines, or people shouting "over here" or "jump" as they go Over There, or, indeed . . Jump. The cameras won't dance in some attempt to make it all feel "Now". I think you get the idea.  
Just watch it, after a few minutes you don't even notice you're reading subtitles.

 

Durley Inn, Bournemouth

Full Christmas decorations across Bar fireplace. On 25th September. A record?

GTA5

GTA5 advertised on the side of a yellow bus in Christchurch Road, Lansdowne, Bournemouth yesterday.

We're all DOOMED I tell you!