Webuyanycar.com Sold a couple of cars through them years ago, quick and easy compared to private sales, haggling with the dealers etc, but not a particularly pleasant experience as the old blokes checking nit picked and sneered a bit. Decided to downsize to make one car for the two of us which meant moving the 14 reg Polo GT on, sadly as its huge fun to drive. We buy didn’t offer the best price but it was good enough, and the car has developed a few issues - air con gone (no amount of regassing would help) tyre pressure warning permanently on - either reset or one of the sensors bust, and the electric windows doing eccentric up and down dances, satnav tragically out of date, digital radio essentially knackered. We thought they’d knock at least another few hundred off on inspection but this proved so cursory that only £100 reduction, the very pleasant young lad doing the check said ‘l didn’t see that’ for the warning light, all done in 15 minutes. He had another 3 or 4 checks to do waiting. Conclusion - if you use them choose a busy place with a youngster running it. Downside - wife has already spent the cash on furniture.
The Godfather on BBC4 now. I thought ‘I don’t need to see this again’, but am of course hooked almost instantly. It’s hypnotic.
I had the same thing the other night with Godfather 2. Just about to go to bed, next thing it's 1am. A better film, by the way.
I look at them as one film, can’t have part two without part one. Less said about part three the better. There was a short documentary on before the film started, both Coppola and Pacino said they made part 3 as they were short of money. Hadn’t really noticed how big a part food has to play in Part One. They are eating all the time and it looks like great nosh too.
Isn’t it good when to go to something not knowing what to expect and enjoy the experience. The life of Chuck, an uplifting film about many tragic deaths, oh and the end of the world. Reminded me of a Wes Anderson film without having WA shoved down your throat. Good performances from Tom Hiddleston who I don’t normally like and Mark Hamill, who doesn’t mention star wars once. Plus the various people who play Chuck. A story in three parts played backwards (of course) could so easily have lost itself but didn’t as it is a well made film, I would recommend it. Should mention it was a Stephen King short story, he really can write good stuff and not always horror. A Strong 7 1/2 out of 10
Cheers - just watched this, a great Sunday afternoon film. King does write some good stuff. Looking forward to The Long Walk coming out soon, another of his short stories I read years ago.
Pet Shop Boys at Warwick Castle last night. Odd one. Because of the football I was in a good mood plus the company was good, so I coped with the rain, 10-12,000 people in a field (my least favourite gig format, give me a sweaty club any day), and £6.30 for a tiny can of Estrella. PSB were much as expected. I’m not a real fan but quite respect them and like the 7 or 8 witty and intelligent electro pop classics from the Eighties. Very slick and polished show, costume changes, big lighting but no dancers. They had three musicians with them but I suspect quite a lot of the sound was machine generated at the push of a button. Fair enough with this kind of music (although Faithless have shown you can do great versions of electro music with traditional bands live). I’m certain Neil Tennant’s voice was both live and somehow enhanced. They played all the early hits, the ones we know and remember, and they sounded very much like the records ie good. Problem is that they didn’t take up much of a two hour set, being largely 3/4 minute pop songs, and the rest was taken up with stuff which might have been hits but not familiar ones to me or the vast majority of the crowd (let’s say even my advanced age didn’t change the demographic). More dance oriented I think, repetitive and it just didn’t work in a field. I could imagine enjoying it in a club 35 years ago with perhaps some chemical enhancement. They lost the crowd big time, lot of wandering around, very little dancing. Of course, when you have a tightly organised and choreographed set, with lots of it possibly prerecorded, it’s impossible to switch things up. Not sure they cared, it was the last gig of their tour and perhaps the folk at the front were giving it large. Biggest problem was that IT WASN’T LOUD ENOUGH. Very easy to carry on conversations without raising your voice, and indeed overhear your neighbours’ conversations (nothing interesting). For this type of music I expect to feel the thump of the beat in my chest. Final irritation was that they changed one of my favourite lines in pop music - ‘from Lake Geneva to the Finland Station’ (points awarded for what it’s about, not you Beth) in West End Girls to ‘from Mariupol to Kyiv Station’. A shorter and louder set would have seen a better score than 6/10.
