Off Topic The Review Thread

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sb_73 said:
Could you post some pictures of your work SW? Is art your profession or your hobby? Glad you liked the programme, it certainly captured my full attention, which is very unusual for me with telly.
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It has become much more of a profession over the last three years. Recession is certainly an interesting time to take the step into glass art. That said it’s been growing well. It’s a partnership with my partner of 12 years and we moved into our own professional studio just over two years ago. I decided to stop my consultancy work a year ago (only to get drawn back in for an old client at their request) and focus on the art, so it’s very full on. We are just about to embark on our first 2-week open studio through the Dorset Art Weeks at the end of May - so no rest for the wicked.

You’ll find some work on the revised website www.galiani.co.uk - still in progress, but seem to run out of hours in the day of late.
 
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SW Ranger said:
It has become much more of a profession over the last three years. Recession is certainly an interesting time to take the step into glass art. That said it’s been growing well. It’s a partnership with my partner of 12 years and we moved into our own professional studio just over two years ago. I decided to stop my consultancy work a year ago (only to get drawn back in for an old client at their request) and focus on the art, so it’s very full on. We are just about to embark on our first 2-week open studio through the Dorset Art Weeks at the end of May - so no rest for the wicked.

You’ll find some work on the revised website www.galiani.co.uk - still in progress, but seem to run out of hours in the day of late.
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Thanks, there’s some very beautiful stuff you have made, respect. I’ll try and get along and see in situ sometime, and if the wife is with me I’m sure the credit card will be exercised.
 
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SW Ranger said:
It has become much more of a profession over the last three years. Recession is certainly an interesting time to take the step into glass art. That said it’s been growing well. It’s a partnership with my partner of 12 years and we moved into our own professional studio just over two years ago. I decided to stop my consultancy work a year ago (only to get drawn back in for an old client at their request) and focus on the art, so it’s very full on. We are just about to embark on our first 2-week open studio through the Dorset Art Weeks at the end of May - so no rest for the wicked.

You’ll find some work on the revised website www.galiani.co.uk - still in progress, but seem to run out of hours in the day of late.
Click to expand...
SW, My Uncle was the Managing Director at the Holmegaard Glass works in Denmark many moons ago and I spent many hours there watching and trying my hand a glass blowing. My parents had many uniquer pieces he gave them over the years. Your glass designs look fantastic..
 
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Thanks SB and Durbar for the compliments. After years of consultancy it’s a much harder life as an artist - that said it is so much more rewarding. We are slowly building and have been fortunate to put in some large kitchen Splashback commissions (one on the website) and other commissions. We hope to extend to sculptural metal and glass (interiors and gardens) - but again, not enough hours in the day; and way too many ideas to get through.
It’s an expensive set-up... everyone says about how expensive it is for glass blowers, but it’s just as expensive for kilnforming! And bloody Brexit has forced prices up of materials up as the pound took a dive in the currency pool.
We’ll keep making and designing and building.
Thanks again guys. Anytime your visiting Dorset, you’re welcome to visit and a cuppa will be waiting!
 
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Stroller said:
Changing the subject, we've just finished watching The Assassination Of Gianni Versace, which was excellent. Darren Criss, who played Versace's killer, Andrew Cunanan, was particularly good. Ricky Martin as Versace's lover, not so much.
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Criss was superb, completely convincing. I also thought Ramirez as Versace and Penelope Cruz as Donatella were decent. So a really well put together series...except...I couldn't quite get on with the fact that it was told backwards in time, with each episode being earlier than the last. The director did as well as he could, but it's not a device I like personally
 
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Pineapple express
Unless you are stoned or pissed avoid
Why do I do it to myself

The losers is also a stupid movie but i did find myself enjoying it

Holidays are over so Back to work tomorrow
no more late night movies for me
 
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Saw something called The Worlds Most Extraordinary Homes the other night. With some architect bloke and Caroline Quentin visiting a country to view trendy domestic architecture. This week they were in Spain.

It was complete crap. Quentin adds nothing at all apart from irritation and blandness. The architect bloke is prententious and is never going to criticise another architect. 3 of the 4 properties they viewed were over designed poured concrete/steel structures which looked deeply uncomfortable homes, with po-faced and precious occupants. The 4th, 3 connected wooden homes (on a concrete frame, obviously) built for 3 sisters and their families on a modest scale, were ok, and had the only inhabitants who seemed happy and able to laugh.

Avoid.

More positively I am re reading for the first time in 30 plus years Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. It’s brilliant, a proper detective story (which you get from the film), some ecclesiastical history, an intense dialogue about heresy, a carefully disguised lecture on semiotics and a homage to Borges, Joyce and Conan Doyle. And I suspect Agatha Christie. Apparently he deliberately made the first hundred pages heavy going (huge amounts of exposition, medieval church history and a five page description of a door) to reward readers who persisted. And he picked a title which bears no relation to the text and is meaningless.

Highly recommended.
 
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Finally watched The Dark Knight and it was everything I expected - tiresome and annoying. I had hoped that Nolan might have raised this film out of the superhero genre gutter, but for me he didn't. One saving grace, of course, was Heath Ledger, who was magnificent.

What's wrong with making films where people just talk to each other?
 
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Consumer review:
As our fixed rate mortgage is nearing its end we are searching for a new one (the last one ever, yay!). First Direct are offering very competitive rates, so we opted for them. A 40 minute wait on the phone on Saturday before a two hour discussion with the mortgage advisor (he was good, it just took ages). Then another two hours of collecting documents, saving them in the right format and uploading them to the bank. Today we get a text asking us to call. Got through after a 30 minute wait, and were cut off instantly. After another 40 minutes on hold finally get though to someone, to find out that there were a couple of extra documents they needed, which could easily been asked for by email. Thoroughly pissed off, but now we have invested so much time and the rate on offer is so good that we will persist with them, on the basis that once the mortgage is switched we won’t have to talk to them until we pay it off.

They are also trying to get us to switch our bank accounts to them. On the basis of this level of service we won’t be, even though 25 years of being in the black with our current bank apparently counts for **** all in the way of incentive to stay there.

Advice - be prepared to invest a fair chunk of your life on waiting on a phone if you want a competitive mortgage rate.

Reviews requested - I’m flying Virgin Atlantic for the first time this weekend - any good? Scheduled flight to JFK.
 
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sb_73 said:
Consumer review:
As our fixed rate mortgage is nearing its end we are searching for a new one (the last one ever, yay!). First Direct are offering very competitive rates, so we opted for them. A 40 minute wait on the phone on Saturday before a two hour discussion with the mortgage advisor (he was good, it just took ages). Then another two hours of collecting documents, saving them in the right format and uploading them to the bank. Today we get a text asking us to call. Got through after a 30 minute wait, and were cut off instantly. After another 40 minutes on hold finally get though to someone, to find out that there were a couple of extra documents they needed, which could easily been asked for by email. Thoroughly pissed off, but now we have invested so much time and the rate on offer is so good that we will persist with them, on the basis that once the mortgage is switched we won’t have to talk to them until we pay it off.

They are also trying to get us to switch our bank accounts to them. On the basis of this level of service we won’t be, even though 25 years of being in the black with our current bank apparently counts for **** all in the way of incentive to stay there.

Advice - be prepared to invest a fair chunk of your life on waiting on a phone if you want a competitive mortgage rate.

Reviews requested - I’m flying Virgin Atlantic for the first time this weekend - any good? Scheduled flight to JFK.
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i hope its better than virgin australia
flew with them last month
3.5 hours then 6.5 hours
no tvs on the plane
you had to download an app which worked on the phone not my tablet
flew back with quantas which was a million times better
 
sb_73 said:
Reviews requested - I’m flying Virgin Atlantic for the first time this weekend - any good? Scheduled flight to JFK.
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I've flown Virgin 1st class and Premium Economy. I know you won't approve but preferred BA Club World and their 1st Class seats/beds and service. Both good as are their lounges, especially Virgin's in Heathrow T3 and BA's in T5. With BA Club World the seat can be turned into a bed, Virgin's Premium Economy is just a very large seat that doesn't have the bed facility. At least it didn't when I flew with them and that may have changed now.
 
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Has anyone been watching 'Deep State' on Fox ( Sky 124? )

It took a few episodes to get into but has since become quite riveting as the story unfolds and the layers begin to fall into place. The first couple of episode's time line jumps about a bit and doesn't move forward in a linear fashion but after episode 3 it all starts to make sense. It's quite enjoyable and recommended as long as you can forgive the poetic license that espionage thrillers need to use to prevent getting bogged down in detail.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4785472/
 
QPR999 said:
I've flown Virgin 1st class and Premium Economy. I know you won't approve but preferred BA Club World and their 1st Class seats/beds and service. Both good as are their lounges, especially Virgin's in Heathrow T3 and BA's in T5. With BA Club World the seat can be turned into a bed, Virgin's Premium Economy is just a very large seat that doesn't have the bed facility. At least it didn't when I flew with them and that may have changed now.
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Haven’t flown BA for years after a series of disasters on short haul and insulting communication from their rewards programme, I hope they have improved. Is BA Club World equivalent to premium economy? All my eastern time zone US trips are premium economy now due to cost saving measures in the company, and the standard varies hugely between airlines, but I haven’t seen lie flat seats in that class before. Best so far Air Canada, worst United where it’s hard to tell the difference from coach. From their website the Virgin version looks pretty good. I’ve given up trying to sleep on anything under 10 hour flights when I have a lie flat seat, though I still tend to nod off with the headphones on halfway through a film, waking up covered in drool. Last and only other time I was booked on Virgin they cancelled the flight from LHR because of polar vortex in the US, so I switched to Delta (wasted trip, got to New York and couldn’t get any further, stayed overnight went to Manhattan and came home) but got to use the Virgin lounge in T3 which was lovely. But the first class lounge for Qantas in Sydney is the best I’ve seen, after a mysterious upgrade on a work trip, palatial and great food.

The thing which pisses me off most is that Delta have started doing direct flights to Indianapolis from Paris, which would mean I could leave from Birmingham (which no longer has any flights to US, pathetic) rather than Heathrow. But the planes have no premium economy class, so no one from my company can take them. Very stupid from Delta, as I reckon my firm plus Rolls Royce who have a big operation in Indy, would account for a large part of their custom on that route.
 
Another good thing about flying Virgin is all the female stewards (or whatever theyre called nowadays) look to be about 16.
 
QPR999 said:
Both are business class but BA is better in my opinion ...

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Unfair comparison mate, premium economy is a lot cheaper than business class. Otherwise I’d be flying business.....
 
sb_73 said:
Unfair comparison mate, premium economy is a lot cheaper than business class. Otherwise I’d be flying business.....
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My apologies, I thought they were the same. When I flew with them the premium economy was the next cabin down from first class.
 
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