Just a short review, this one. I saw this film recently and thought I’d review it as it’s still fairly recent.

Gran Torino (2008)

Director: Clint Eastwood

Some of Clint Eastwood’s more recent films in a directing role seem to have attracted quite a bit of praise. Mystic River, Changeling and Invictus have all been recommended to me by friends over the past few years although I haven’t checked any of those out yet. But Gran Torino – why Gran Torino, you might ask?

Well, normally I rent most of my DVDs from The Film Shop in Broadway Market. But my folks are away at the moment. My stepdad has quite an impressive DVD collection, but he’s quite funny about anyone touching it but him. He gets really annoyed. By the way I know some of my family read this and I hope they will not rat on me. Read the rest of this entry »

As I’m sure most of you are aware, most of the food related articles so far on this website are about restaurants I’ve visited in Central London and my experiences dining at them. This is usually because I’ve made plans to go there with friends, so they’re either places I have chosen or ones I’ve been invited to by friends that I have later reviewed. But regardless, I’ve always done a bit of research online beforehand so that I have a rough idea of what to expect.

But today I am going to tell you about something that happened on my ‘day off’, so to speak.

This Sunday just gone I went out with my family as my uncle and aunt were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. Read the rest of this entry »

I haven’t done this before, but I am hoping to set up a new website fairly soon which will be all about one of my favourite things – eating. Once the site is up the restaurant reviews you see on here will be transferred over to that site, and I’ll also be featuring recipes on there as well. So I thought I’d give you a taste of the kind of article you can expect from the new site (which I haven’t come up with a name for yet) as well as add a little variety to this one and share with you one of my tried and tested recipes, honed to perfection over many years of practice. Today I’ll be telling you how to make the perfect red tomato sauce for pasta.

This is a pretty simple recipe but makes a top notch pasta sauce. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I decided to take another trip to the film shop in Broadway Market to take advantage of their 3 movies for 3 nights offer. Normally when I make three choices I like to spread them out, not choose three from the same genre. So I made a beeline for the Scandinavian section, hoping to find a Swedish film I hadn’t seen yet. As I gazed through the titles it became increasingly clear that I had watched pretty much every Swedish film they had (with the exception of the Bergman section and one called “As It Is In Heaven”, as that just looked plain boring). It was then that I discovered a new addition – the adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”.

I’d heard a lot about this, the first of three books in the late Mr. Larsson’s Millennium series of crime novels. However I was in two minds as to whether or not to rent it as I hadn’t read any of the books and I always find that it is better to read the book first (I made a point of reading LOTR before I saw any of the Peter Jackson films). But I had spent about twenty minutes in the shop by this time, and the enchiladas I’d put in the oven before I came out were probably burning to a crisp. So at the recommendation of the lady behind the counter, I rented it, along with an Austrian / Ukrainian film called “Import / Export”, and the film I’m about to review.

I watched Import / Export last night, and was going to watch “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” tonight. However when I opened the case I discovered that they had erroneously put it’s sequel “The Girl Who Played With Fire” in instead. So I wasn’t about to watch that – it would be bad enough watching the first film without reading the book, without jumping straight to the sequel’s film.

So, I took a deep breath and popped in…

Drag Me To Hell (2009)

Director: Sam Raimi

Read the rest of this entry »

I had a great weekend just gone, largely thanks to the Swedish Midsummer celebrations which took place at Hyde Park (and later on back at Rob’s!!)

I’d been looking forward to Swedish Midsummer celebrations for quite some time. A couple of weeks ago I met up with Rob, Maew, Theresa, Fred and Laura in Brick Lane and we spent most of the night discussing the upcoming festivities. Despite Malin, Mikael, Marcus and scores of other Swedes having now left the UK, the rest of us (particularly Theresa) were determined to keep the tradition alive. A guy named Kjell was also there, I had met him once before – the first time I went to Sweden about 8 years ago. I’m not sure he remembered me. Read the rest of this entry »

I haven’t done a Top 10 list for a while. I keep meaning to, but it’s just finding the time and more importantly, the right subject matter. And while talking with a few regulars down at the Mucky Pup a few weeks ago, the subject of horror films came up. Pretty soon we were onto “What’s the scariest film of all time??”

Of course, some of the more predictable names went flying about. You know, the one where the girl twists her head 180 degrees, etc. Then someone mentioned this one.

Paranormal Activity (2009)

Director: Oren Peli

“Possibly The Scariest Film Ever Made”. Even if they say so themselves.

Read the rest of this entry »

For my birthday a couple of months back, my mum got me one of the coolest and most original birthday present ideas I’d ever been given – a two hour sushi making class.

As my mum knows all too well, I love Japanese food and I’m forever taking up space in our already tiny kitchen with my exotic ingredients and various pots and pans all going at once. She’s often tasting my cooking and more often than not she will tell me it is quite good (although she doesn’t like anything that is even slightly spicy) but whether she likes it or not, she is always moaning at me for commandeering the entire kitchen for most of the evening.

This has been most apparent on the couple of occasions that I have attempted to make sushi. This is the most time consuming of all the dishes I know how to make, and not only that but it uses a lot of different utensils. But it’s worth it – I love sushi and was pleasantly surprised by the results of my first attempt. I got the rice pretty much spot on and the whole assembling / rolling part wasn’t as difficult as I’d imagined. But it took the best part of three hours. Needless to say, my mum wasn’t best pleased. Read the rest of this entry »

It can be difficult learning to drive, as my friend Nicky knows all too well. He has just failed his third attempt at his driving theory test examination and has been more or less constantly ranting online about how frustrating the whole process is.

Despite the fact that the government are already making it harder and harder for people to learn how to drive, I assured him that things could still be a lot worse. For example they could introduce a system similar to the one they have over in the United States. From what I understand, instead of having a single governing body like the DSA, with one set of rules governing examinations, each state has its own Department Of Motor Vehicles (DMV), each with their own version of the written examination.

I explained to Nicky that for that reason the frustration does not stop once you have obtained your license. For example if you live in New Jersey and had already passed the test set by the New Jersey DMV but you then wanted to move to California, you would need to pass a further written test set by the California DMV in order to legally drive in that state.

I found an online free dmv practice test which offers a sample of some of the questions asked, and showed it to him so he could get an idea of what the unfortunate drivers the other side of the Atlantic have to go through. This particular one was for the state of California. I think it helped put things into perspective for him.

Once again, apologies for my recent slump in the level of updates to this page. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I have joined the video club in Broadway Market and have already viewed my way through a large portion of their World Cinema selection, including just about all of their Swedish films (although I haven’t started on Bergman yet, possibly saving the best till last??) but hopefully this article should signify a return to frequent posting.

Sometimes I spend ages in the video shop trying to make up my mind. They offer 3 films for six quid which isn’t a bad deal, so I’ll browse through and try to select a bit of a mixed bag to keep me entertained for the next three nights. I’m often found wandering around the World Cinema bit, and while I find these films fascinating and often educational, sometimes I just want something easy so I can just stick it on and kick back with a cold beer without having to think or apply myself too much.

So the other day I spotted this:

The Karate Kid (2010)

Director: Harald Zwart

Read the rest of this entry »

If I told you that when I’m alone in the house I wear a pair of nurses’ trousers and nothing else, you’d probably phone up the mental health institute and request that I be taken away by men in white lab coats .

But it is true. I do in fact own two pairs of these ‘scrubs’, to give them the name that they are technically referred to as in the trade.

“Why??” you may ask. Well, the simple answer is that they’re just about the most comfortable things I’ve ever had the pleasure of putting on. They are also really cheap which is another advantage. I’d highly recommend them as they are a decent substitute for a pair of pyjamas. And nobody has to see you in them (unless you want them to).

So you don’t have to be a nurse or somebody in the medical profession to feel the benefit of scrubs. They could also be used as part of a fancy dress costume, in fact I’m thinking of ordering some white ones from the nice people over at http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/ and customising those into this year’s Halloween costume.

On a side note I can’t believe I’m thinking of Halloween already and it’s still only may…