Off Topic The Review Thread

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So I don't know much about Shakespear, tried my hardest to skip those lessons at school, but just watched the 2019 film The King, based on Shakespears plays about Henry V. Timothee Chalomet plays the young King Henry V, raising from a beligerant drunk in the taverns to the throne after the death of his father and brother, then leading the battle against the French at Agincourt. Found it very good - no idea if it's historically accurate (doubtful) or true to Shakespears works (bit of artistic license I would think by the director), but it is superbly acted. Chalomet is a very good lead, and he has a great supporting cast in this film too. No doubt lovers of "the bard" (@sb_73 ?) will rip this apart, but as an outsider I thought it was nicely done and well worth a watch.
We really enjoyed watching The King on Netflix. Great acting. My partner found the Agincourt battle scenes in the mud a little too gory, blood & guts, for her taste. Gotta love those Welsh archers!
 
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Operation Mincemeat at the Fortune Theatre. Sensational! These people are supremely talented whilst useless dicks make fortunes on TV purely by being useless dicks.

Anyway back to the show - right up there with the best I've seen. Do it.
 
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I would very much like to offer a review of the Penderyn Welsh Whisky I tried last night at a charming soirée at a friend's house. However, as the sampling followed beers, fizzy stuff and several decent reds, I'm afraid my memory does not allow me to provide full tasting notes. In fact nothing beyond 'very smooth', 'tasty' and 'seriously, we've just drunk a whole bottle of whisky? I don't think I should drive' remains. Probably worth trying.

Came across this beauty at work last week at the Scotch Whisky Experience on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh - don't think you'd be knocking this back in a single session...

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Came across this beauty at work last week at the Scotch Whisky Experience on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh - don't think you'd be knocking this back in a single session...

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How did you remember my original post, that must have been from years ago….
 
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How did you remember my original post, that must have been from years ago….

Accidently clicked on the first page of the thread and saw it there, and thought I'd share this bottle with you. As a whisky man, you would love the place, it's about 100m down from the castle, next to The Witchery restaurant. I only got to see a bit of it as I was working on the roof - cracking view though!

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Not so much a review, but a travelogue

Been lucky enough to be island hopping around the Orkneys this week for work....it's a hard life, but someone has to do it!

A few weeks ago a main undersea cable between mainland Orkney and some of the more remote isles was damaged (locals are blaming the Russians) and they had been without any form of communication/internet so we deployed a team to fit Starlink (boo, Elon) to a bundle of sites to enable connectivity to these remote communities. The cable has now been repaired by BT and the main comms link re-established so I've been going around this week migrating the system back to non-satellite and more stable systems.

I've seen some remote stuff in my time in this game, but this has been interesting....

First task was to get to mainland Orkney - from where I live it's just under 7 hours to get to Scrabster, where you get the ferry to Stromness , a 90 minute crossing across the very choppy Pentland Firth, then 30 minutes to Kirkwall where the main accomodation and ferries are.

A day trip to Westray - population 560, we arrived like rockstars, everyone knew we were coming and although the job took little over two hours we had all day to explore the island as there are only two sailings a day. I'm big on neolithic and viking stuff, and Orkney in general is rammed with ancient settlements to investigate, so I dragged my companions to the remains of a Viking longhouse, and ancient burial site and some beautiful beaches - the beaches could easily fit in a brochure for Thailand or the Carribean (if the weather is good - and boy has it been good this week)

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Next day we headed off to Sanday (population 490) and another 2 hours each way on a ferry. Again, loads of time to explore and see some of the sights.

Yesterday we flew to North Ronaldsay (population 59 - no, I've not missed a digit). There's only one ferry a week to this island, the most northerly of the Orkneys. There's not much there, but as there is also only one flight a day, we were marooned and so were accomodated in the North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory, which was surprisingly good accomodation. Some spectacular views, and a short walk gave me a sunset well worth the trip. A visit to the tallest land based lighthouse in the UK and a solo standing stone finished the trip, and a flight back over some beautiful scenary to Kirkwall to get us back to a semblence of civilisation.

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A night out dancing and raving in Kirkwall, Skippers Bar a go to with good music, really good food and sport on the TV tonight (dodg pen for Forest?) - hoping to get off Orkney tomorrow and get home in time for the humiliation at Ipswich....
 
I’m watching Dune on the telly. The new version.

Decades ago I read the book, but it didn’t make a big impression on me and I can’t remember any of it. Certainly never wanted to read any of the many other books in the series.

The film is staggeringly, hypnotically bad. In my opinion. Stupid quasi religious claptrap plot, appallingly stilted muttered dialogue, tragic acting (even by the couple of good actors in it, they must have been well paid). Ponderous music which signposts what you see on the screen. And the whole thing is filmed through beige filters.

Joke has worn thin now and I’ve switched to ancient episodes of Red Dwarf, a much higher standard of sci fi.
 
Ronnie Scott’s - went today for a lunchtime show with an apparent sax god who I’d never heard of. Very intimate show and just £25 a head for seats right next to the stage. Food excellent (if a limited menu) service also fantastic and extremely affordable for W1. Highly recommended, lovely chilled vibe that I’d have enjoyed even more if I could appreciate jazz. Sadly, for me, jazz sounds like the band and their instruments have been kicked down the stairs, but hey ho, it was still better than watching QPR lose a meaningless game. Tickets for Saturday brunch shows start at just £15 and none of the seats are bad. Recommended, even if the music isn’t perhaps ones favourite taste.
 
Ronnie Scott’s - went today for a lunchtime show with an apparent sax god who I’d never heard of. Very intimate show and just £25 a head for seats right next to the stage. Food excellent (if a limited menu) service also fantastic and extremely affordable for W1. Highly recommended, lovely chilled vibe that I’d have enjoyed even more if I could appreciate jazz. Sadly, for me, jazz sounds like the band and their instruments have been kicked down the stairs, but hey ho, it was still better than watching QPR lose a meaningless game. Tickets for Saturday brunch shows start at just £15 and none of the seats are bad. Recommended, even if the music isn’t perhaps ones favourite taste.
Has been on my bucket list for ages. Still there, I need to sort it/me out.
 
Quick review of the new EU Entry/Exit System for non EU citizens arriving in Schengen area....
We travelled from Rosslare to Bilbao last week, currently in Rota near Cadiz with blue sky's and a pleasant 21 degrees during the day... anyway I digress... before departure read all the guff about what to expect as I still haven't applied for Irish citizenship, and the EU travel advice was to download their new mobile app and upload all your relevant data to make life a lot easier when getting to border control.... great, downloaded the app only to find that of the 27 (?) EU states only 2 are using the app, Portugal & Sweden!!
Arrived in Bilbao and assumed there would be an EU control and non EU desk, but no it was basically a free for all and if you were held up by a UK citizen having to get out of their car or off their bike to be photographed and finger printed it was tough luck... took us 45 minutes to clear border control, still at least my details are now good for the next 3 years.....
 
Quick review of the new EU Entry/Exit System for non EU citizens arriving in Schengen area....
We travelled from Rosslare to Bilbao last week, currently in Rota near Cadiz with blue sky's and a pleasant 21 degrees during the day... anyway I digress... before departure read all the guff about what to expect as I still haven't applied for Irish citizenship, and the EU travel advice was to download their new mobile app and upload all your relevant data to make life a lot easier when getting to border control.... great, downloaded the app only to find that of the 27 (?) EU states only 2 are using the app, Portugal & Sweden!!
Arrived in Bilbao and assumed there would be an EU control and non EU desk, but no it was basically a free for all and if you were held up by a UK citizen having to get out of their car or off their bike to be photographed and finger printed it was tough luck... took us 45 minutes to clear border control, still at least my details are now good for the next 3 years.....
Don’t bank on that. I know plenty of people, including myself, who have been through the fingerprinting stuff and had to do it again the next time they enter the Schengen area. It’s not joined up at all. And I doubt it ever will work like that, even when we have to apply for the EU version of the US ESTA. Even with the ESTA you get printed and checked over on every entrance to the US.

What I don’t understand is how all EU (and US, Canadian, Australian, Kiwi etc) travellers get to use the e gates when entering the U.K……though it’s probably because we don’t have the staff to do human stamping of passports.
 
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do all authorities get to look at the fingerprint scans
no traveller will be able to commit a crime
except those travellers of course
 
Short break with the missus in Bordeaux, a wonderful town. Snacked on oysters, prawns, white wine with a coffee to finish in the Marche des Capucins, brilliant covered market stuffed with locals. €26 for two.

Other end of the scale to come this evening at L’Oiseau Bleu, Michellin starred place. Report to come.