Home alone

College Lake from Octagon hide

College Lake from Octagon hide

Helen is away with the girls this weekend, in Birmingham. Had Pizza for Tea on Friday, went to bed and got up early on Saturday full of plans. Ended up tinkering around the house, until early afternoon, when I dragged myself out for a walk around College lake nature reserve. The sun was shining but there was still a chill in the wind. Took a quick look from the new and nearest hide, saw ringed plover, redshank and red crested pochard. I then headed out a a fair swift pace around the rest of the reserve, and soon found I was getting quite hot from the exertion. I stopped off at the octagonal hide and saw a few more redshank.

On the path I came across a a Burying Beetle which was moving very fast see the video.

After that excitement I went to Tesco for some supplies then headed home has the rest of last nights dough in another Pizza, watched a French film called “Tell No One” which has the same directory and many actors from the file “Little White Lies” it was a brilliant murder/mystery/thriller.

Les Petit Mouchoirs (*****)

Petits Mouchoirs

Petits Mouchoirs

Went to Rex with Abida, to see this French film. It is a story about a group of long time friends from Paris. One of them Ludo is the soul of every party and one night is hit by a lorry on his way home from a night club. Even though you know it is coming it still comes as a surprise.
Anyway all the friends who usually spend the grande vacances at Max’s summer cabin near Bordeaux, now in a dilemma whether to go or not. Eventually they do.
The film concentrates one by one on the different charaters and relationships between the various people. The film makes you laugh and cry. Just deserving of the 5 stars.

A Single Man (**)

Film poster a single man

Film poster a single man

This film is takes place on a single day some time around the Cuban missile crisis. George Falconer (Colin Firth) is trying to overcome the grief of losing his long term partner, over the course of the day he has various encounters, and we are treated to lots of flash backs and day dreams. The film is visually stunning but with too much symbolism for my tastes hence only two stars.

The Informant (****)

The Informant film poster

The Informant film poster

“The Informant” is a true story that parallels a mixture of “A Beautiful Mind” and “The Insider” — where real life Ph.D.s had done something extraordinary. Based on Kurt Eichenwald’s 2000 book, “The Informant” is the tale of Mark Whitacre (played by Matt Damon), an Ivy League Ph.D. who was a rising star at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in the early 1990s. Executively produced by George Clooney who has a history of sponsoring interesting films in the tough mainstream environment. Saying no mopre to give nowt away :)

The diving bell and the butterfly (****)

The Diving Bell And The Butterfly film poster

The Diving Bell And The Butterfly film poster

This is a French film about a the editor of a women’s fashion magazine Bauby who suffers a stroke and and ends up a prisoner in his own body. The condition is called locked in syndrome. He could only move his eye but thanks the patience of his speech therapist he was able to communicate and eventually write the book that the film is based on.

The story shows the relationship between Bauby and the speech therapist, his wife, three kids, ex colleagues, mistress etc. It is very thought provoking.

At the start of the film the shots were a bit wacky but it was an attempt to see the world through is eye’s and we soon got used to it.
Despite the depressing subject matter, the film is a great attempt to see a world we could never imagine, and is actually really well filmed.
I give it 4 stars.