The Olympic hangover

Easyjet aircraft and Jet Tanker
Easyjet aircraft and Jet Tanker

I set the video for the closing ceremony as I was off to Belfast in the morning. I arrived at Luton a bit later than usual, a work colleague Richard was on the car park bus but had not invested in priority boarding so we went out separate ways at security. In the deep departure lounge there were quite a few people who must have been at the closing ceremony the evening before, they still has faced and hair in thirty national colours. I had time for a pain au raisin and an espresso before the flight was called.

Unusually the gate was number 6 a gate I had never used before, it meant we would be getting a bus to the plane, much to the disappointment of the speedie boarders. The plane was quite full they had to do a call over the tannoy to get a mother and small child seated. The papers were full of reminisces about the last two weeks they were some interesting bronze, silver and gold prizes for unusual categories such as best hair cut and best use of a cardboard tube!

I think the Olympics have gone on for long enough now, it seems that for the past two weeks all I have done is watch sporting events on the tv. Yesterday Helen and I went for a walk around Cholesbury the first time we had done so since the Olympics started, but even then we decided we should be back to see the mountain bike race. Whilst out on the walk I was bitten by a fly which managed to draw blood now as I wrote this I have noticed a red welt on the calf of my right leg. Still it was really nice to get out into the woods and observe nature. There were not many birds about, but we did find two large stripped feathers which we thought might be taking edge feathers of either a Buzzard or a Red Kite. There was a hint of autumn top come the oral leaves were starting to lose those deep green for a more yellowed green.

London 2012 Olympic Park

However I digress, at work I had a few meetings and moved a few projects on. Then it was back to the hotel for a something to eat and some internet surfing, however the WiFi was not giving out UP address and the receptionist could only shrug her shoulders and offer sympathy.

An early breakfast was followed by an early arrival at the office, and another day of the same as the day before. I left the office at 14:45 and headed back to the airport, the weather had improved and the sun was shining. At the airport security was slightly busier than normal, and I was luck enough to have my bag picked out for more scrutiny than the x-ray machine would allow, my asthma inhaler had caused some confusion.

I had 30 minutes to spare before the flihgt was called so I fired up my Android phone and surfed the internet. It seems that the phone works best when it is plugged into the usb post of the laptop, I suspect this is because the phone shuts services down when on battery only and so after about two minutes the wifi hot spot disappears.

I needed my flight to be on time today as we have cinema tickets at the Rex booked to see the film/documentary called The Last Projectionist which is about the decline of the need for real projectors and people to run them in cinemas these days. The Rex in Berkhamsted features in the film (well it did in the trailer anyway).

Whilst sat typing this a grey passenger jet has just taxi’d out to the run way, i’m pretty sure it was an RAF Lockhead Tristar. Whilst it was taxiing there were fire engines with lights flashing standing by, I am not sure if that is standard procedure for the RAF, but the fire engines disappeared once the plane had taken off.

The Queens Barge at London 2012 Olympic Park

Pretty non-eventful flight managed to do the soduku from The Guardian classed as moderate. Weather in Luton was sunny and fine. After a short wait for the bus I was back to my car and ready to drive to Berkhamsted. Easy when you have Satnav you say, well it turned out to be quite an interesting trip. There is no main road to Berkhamsted from Luton, so the directions were via some very small roads, surprisingly I did not meet another car on the very narrow roads. I did howvere see loads of places for nice walks. I got to The Rex in good time and got myself a bottle of fizzy water and some chilli nuts.

The film was called The Last Projectionist which I thought was about the decline of the job of the projectionists in cinemas, it was in a way but it was more about the history of projectionists from the point of view The Electric the first cinema in this country and is still a working cinema in Birmingham. There were not many people in The Rex but I enjoyed the film, which feature the owner of The Rex.

Les Petit 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.

Submarine (***)

Submarine film poster

Thanks to C&A we got an invite to see a film at The Rex, the film is called Submarine. It centres around a young lad who is awkward and unpopular at school, he fantasizes about his own death and other things. He thinks that is dad is depressed and his mother is having an affair with a hippy and old flame who lives next door. He embarks on a misguided campaign to bring the family back together while attempting to impress a classmate , a straight-talking, eczema-suffering pyromaniac who “hates any place that could be termed romantic.

Filmed entirely almost entirely on Barry island it is a funny film but not that funny hence only 3 out of 5.