Just finished “Once upon a time in Northern Ireland”. Tells a few of the personal stories of men and women who lost loved ones from both sides of the troubles. Was a hard watch at times but very good to gain a bit of knowledge of how people were effected on a human level. BBC I Player
It’s War Graves Week, where the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is holding events at many of the 23,000 sites they maintain around the world. I’ve just been to an excellent talk (ok it was given by a very good friend of mine who’s hobby is WW1 history and who I’ve joined on battlefield tours in France/Belgium in the past. He now volunteers for the CWGC) at Stratford upon Avon cemetery, which to my surprise houses 159 war graves, mainly from WW2. Most of the dead are aircrew killed in training at nearby Wellesbourne airfield and most of them are Canadian, and Americans who joined the Canadian airforce prior to the US joining the war. They were given **** planes (defunct Wellingtons) to train in. Also there are several members of the Czech army and some Italian and German POWs, who all seem to have died in farming accidents - often after the official end of the war. My mate has researched every single grave and wherever possible has attached photos of the young men (only one woman, a wireless operator from Stratford who was killed in an accident on Orkney) to them, even though there is only time to tell a few of the stories. The CWGC has an app which shows the location of all cemeteries with graves that they maintain. Might well be events at one near you, well worth the time.
Who Killed The KLF on Sky Arts right now....the story of the rise and fall of the KLF, culminating in them burning a million quid out on Jura....should be a good watch for anyone interested in their music and what they got up to
Watched that ages ago mate…..a brilliant watch and we’ll worth it if you were into the music of that era
I’m just watching the 2 parter “David Fuller : Monster in the Morgue”. About the bloke who killed at least 2 young women in the 80’s, as well as being someone who took pleasure from abusing at least 100 bodies in the mortuary where he worked in Tunbridge Wells. Scary how someone that committed such heinous and evil crimes can look so “ordinary” and wouldn’t get a second look if you passed him by in the street
Watched both parts of that, one seriously ****ed up individual who hopefully never sees the light of day again ! Excellent programme though
Just watched all parts of The Steeltown Murders, engrossing and brilliantly acted. Awful that it took so long to actually find the killer and that the **** was dead. First time familial DNA was ever used ! Well worth watching
Just finished watching “Grayson Perry’s Full English”, where he goes around the country asking people from different races and cultural backgrounds what it feels to be English, and why we often feel embarrassed to be proud of our “Englishness” GP comes across as a really likeable fella and doesn’t at anytime mock or look down on any of the people he talks to. Really got me thinking and I think a few more on here would like it also. Available on 4 streaming I assume.
Just in from seeing Muse (****ing soaked, but great evening), they were anything but dull....just catching up on some Glasto, and Monkeys not sounding great...seen them a few times, and all a lot better than this set
Yeh agree on the Monkeys. Was really looking forward to them but they were very flat. Really expected more from them as headliners. Not the level of energy expected of a Glasto headliner. Never really got going with the crowd and the set seemed … just flat. Disappointing. Foos were good. Royal Blood good. Gabriel’s sooo good. Plenty others to catch up with
Just seen Sigur Ros at a small outdoor venue near Reading. It’s a band I’ve followed and enjoyed for some years so I am of course deeply biased. Nonetheless, they were absolutely superb. Up there with the best live performances I’ve seen in 45 odd years of going to gigs.
Just watched the first episode (of 3) of Evacuation on Channel 4, about the British armed forces role in the evacuation of Kabul as the Taliban were taking power. Very interesting and somewhat exciting but also very sad, worth watching
As requested by @Steelmonkey, Tallinn. Very pretty, compact medieval (quite a lot restored) old town on a hill. All geared up for tourists, and priced accordingly - €7 a pint in the most conspicuously tourist places in the main square, about €5 in more normal bars. I think it used to be a big stag do place, much less so now - very small area where people are touting for bars. No obvious hookers. Good. But they are a very striking people @Staines R's, plenty to turn the head. Lots of decent bars/pubs, best area just out of the old town, behind the railway station full of old Estonian style wooden houses and old industrial units converted into hipster businesses. Very few tourists. On Sunday as we were having breakfast the staff said we should go and see the parade - just round the corner a column of people of all ages, dressed in different levels of national dress, carrying banners showing which town/school/ business they were from, was passing. There were 30,000 people in the parade (we didn’t stay for it all), all going to the national singing grounds for the once every five years Singing Festival - where an audience of 80,000 awaited them. This is about 10% of the entire population, more than that for the Estonian speaking population (25% Russian - no real mixing between the groups apparently). They take their national culture very seriously indeed. Saw 3 football matches - I think ice hockey and basketball are bigger sports- including the team (one of Levadia or Flora) that will get into the qualifying stages of the Champions League next season (Estonia has a summer season). Neat football. I think it’s worth a weekend. If it wasn’t for the football our 3 nights would definitely have been one too many, unless trips to other towns were added. Due to flights we stayed in Warsaw yesterday. I’d been there a couple of times more than ten years ago but for work and had never really looked around the old town. It’s great, especially on a lovely warm summer evening. Lively and much cheaper than Tallinn. Warsaw is a bit of a dump outside this area though and the traffic is dire. As is Modlin Airport, which is used exclusively by Ryanair and seems to be an exercise in insulting passengers. Massive queues for security, nowhere to sit once you get through. Then we got back into Birmingham which is in complete meltdown at the moment.
Thanks - sounds like I've missed the boat on the Talinn/off the beaten track trip....need to find somewhere else now...heard Kyiv is nice this time of year, although don't think the missus will be up for that
Going elsewhere in Estonia might be more exotic - but not Narva, said to be an industrial dump on the Russian border. We were thinking that a Baltic road/train trip would be fun - Vilnius-Riga-Tallinn*.The first two might be less touristy. But we are pondering a Ljubljana/Trieste double header later in the year. * just done a little reading on this, Riga and Vilnius definitely less touristy and also cheaper, but still with plenty to see.
Riga is full of prostitutes so I’m told. But again that was told to me a few years ago from someone who married a lass from there…..not a prostitute though
