The House Husband

It was a foggy old start to the day. Actually, it was still foggy at lunch time. It was a classic English fog where everything was shrouded in a murky grey cloud. Here’s how the park looked:

Foggy Farnham Park

By about 2:30, the fog had lifted and the rest of the day was gloriously bright. Well, for the short while before the sun went down. Still, the park looked lovely when we all went for a tramp.

Fog-free Farnham Park

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Tonight was a Nicktor night, possibly the last for a while (unless he can come out to play next Tuesday, of course) and we went to see Aldershot play Brentford in an FA Cup replay following their draw a few weeks ago – while I was in London studying the Book of the Dead, in fact.

It was an excellent game. Although Brentford are a league above us and seem to be a more organised team, we scored early on (after 8 minutes) with a blinder of a move that surprised both teams, and then held on for the rest of the match. They had a few shots on goal but nothing to really test our keeper and we came close to increasing our lead a few times. It was a good game and we enjoyed it for a change!

Back at home we watched Kick Ass. When this came out there was a bit of a furore surrounding it because of the fact that it features a little girl who beats up and kills people and swears like a trooper. You can read something about it here. The film is a hoot. We both enjoyed it a lot and the girl who plays Hit Girl is a fantastic actress.

The thing that I found interesting is that, although it contains a lot of swearing and violence, it only has a 15 certificate. Put alongside Reservoir Dogs, which has an 18 certificate, is it really very different? I guess the reason it isn’t an 18 is because there’s no sex in it. For me, this conjures up an interesting moral dilemma. Is it ok for a 15 year old to be subjected to lots of violence masquerading as entertainment but not to see naked bodies?

Reservoir Dogs also features no sex, so why is it any different? The film is about a jewellery robbery that goes horribly wrong and a bunch of ruthless men who kill a lot of people and do not seem to consider anyone but themselves. Kick Ass, on the other hand, is about vigilante crusaders, taking the law into their own hands, to, ultimately, bring down an evil drug baron who kills people when they get in his way. He has absolutely no compunction with beating up the 11 year old Hit Girl and is about to put a bullet into her when he’s interrupted by a bazooka.

I can see no moral difference between the two, so I really do not understand the difference in rating. As far as I’m concerned they should both be 18. Nicktor said there’s no way he’d let his kids watch it.

However, it is a great film and we both enjoyed it a lot. What we also enjoyed is the fact that Aldershot are through to the next round of the FA Cup. Next it’s Dover, away. C’mon you reds!

Last night we watched two movies I’d actually not seen before.

The first was a recommendation from someone Nicktor works with. Taking Lives. It stars Angelina Jollie and Ethan Hawke with a rather odd guest spot by Kieffer Sutherland. It’s a thriller and has quite a few surprises, one of which had both of us jumping off our seats, it was so unexpected. I thought the plot was good but I had figured most of it out before the end, which is annoying. One thing that came out of it was the fact that Angelina Jollie has quite ugly wrists.

For a film about a serial killer, it is not very gory but relies more on tension and surprise, which is a nice change to what we usually watch (Saw, for instance). If you like a good thriller, and can put up with Jollie’s annoying pout and Hawke’s half hearted acting style, then I’d recommend it.

The second film was called Made. It was made by the same guys responsible for the highly successful cult movie, Swingers. It is an American gangster style film about two guys (one a bit lovelorn, the other a bit stupid) who enter the world of organised crime in order to make their mark…and earn a lot of money. Jon Favreau, who also wrote and directed it, is a lovely foil as Bobby for the stupid and irritating Rick, played by Vince Vaughn. You may remember Jon Favreau as Monica’s rich, IT boyfriend, Pete Becker, in Friends – the one she wasn’t attracted to.

A very old Peter Falk is quite funny as the LA mob boss though his voice has all but disappeared. Probably because of all those stogies that Columbo put away over the years! His final scene with Rick is particularly good.

In all, it was very funny. Most of the humour comes from the banter between the two main characters and the stupidity of Rick. If you don’t mind a fair bit of swearing (there is an awful lot) and the odd bit of violence (nothing graphic I should add), it’s a highly entertaining film.

As a bonus, and if a viewer was so inclined, there is a lot of Sopranos spotting available. It was like the Made production team strayed onto The Sopranos backlot and just employed them all. Most of the film takes place in New York so I guess that could explain a lot.

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After the movies, we watched the highlights of the first ODI between England and Australia. Without going into too much detail, England won with a stunning century from Eoin Morgan who is actually Irish. I did tease Nicktor about the English team having an Irishman and two South Africans playing for them.

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Meanwhile in Port Elizabeth, South Africa…this afternoon is England’s final chance to progress into the next round of the World Cup. To be assured of a place, they need to win against Slovenia (incidentally, the population of Slovenia is the same as the entire prison population of the US). If they only manage a draw then there’s still a chance they could get through but it will depend on the US game played at the same time. If they lose, it’s all over for another four years and Capello will probably be out of a job.

I am hoping to get home in time to see most of the game and Nicktor is going to try and rush a meeting he has in order to come over for the second half, on his way home. Mirinda has a 1:30 meeting so I should make it by 3:30…if I hurry.

I did and I managed to see all but the first ten minutes. And England played like a team possessed! They were wonderful. And they won, 1-0. Yay! We are through to the next round, albeit in second place because the Americans managed to score a late goal in their match. Nicktor managed to cut his meeting off and arrived in time to watch the second half with me.

Another Nicktor Movie Night last night. Actually, we had planned to spend a night in London with an American friend of his, over here on a business trip but he had a business dinner so Nicktor came here instead. I was looking forward to meeting Steve (his friend) and clearly would have enjoyed the night but, to be honest, I much prefer our movie nights.

We went to the 6 Bells as has become the tradition and had lamb burgers. Strangely, they served them on proper buns this week. It made all the difference. I can only hope that last week was the aberration and they’d run out of the proper ones rather than last week being the norm.

The pub had a new beer on this week. Morris Man’s Delight (or something like that). It was a very nice drop. We both spoke of how often we’ve thought of joining a Morris side. Nick, because he’d like to do the stick hitting dance, me because I like the beer. Naturally he then added that he liked the beer too.

Back at the house I put Death Proof in the DVD. This is Tarantino’s fifth film (it says so on the box) and is quite strange. There is never any explanation of why Stuntman Mike does what he does and the whole thing is filmed like a scratchy, badly preserved 50s exploitation film in the John Waters style. But the car chase in the second half of the film is amazing. Tarantino is interviewed on the second disc and says he wanted to make a car movie with real chases and real stunts, not CGI. And when you watch it, it’s just amazing what he’s accomplished. An excellent addition to the Tarantino canon. Nick loved it.

It was with some dismay that Nicktor admitted he’d watched the final three episodes of The Inbetweeners, not waiting so we could watch them together. And so, because it was now my choice due to his default, we watched Class of Nuke ‘em High, a classic Troma schlock, sexploitation, stupid, badly filmed and acted, crazy film.

I love Troma films. I don’t know why, because they’re so bad. I’m sure any normal film lover would say they’re just rubbish (which they are) and not worth watching (which they are) but I can’t help it. I just enjoy them! Fortunately I don’t mind rewatching these films, because Nicktor slept through most of it. That could have been the whiskey as well as being tired.

We are sampling different whiskeys on our film nights. Last night it was The Black Grouse, a blend of Grouse and an Islay whiskey, which gives it a light peaty finish. Very nice for a blend, we both agreed. It was obviously very nice because there’s not much left in the bottle.

Before retiring, Nicktor insisted we put the news on and we were just in time to see that David Cameron had become Prime Minister and Nick Clegg was going to be his deputy, that Gordon Brown had left Downing Street, wife and kids in hand and that we now have a Tory/Lib Dem coalition government that Clegg insists will work.

This morning, even after having a decent sleep in, Nicktor’s head was a bit worse for wear. Apart from being tired (as usual), I was fine. These young blokes! Seedy indeed!

Nicktor came over last night for a sleepover. He’d driven down from Lincoln, just so we could have a few drinks together and watch a couple of movies.

We watched Snatch, my favourite Guy Ritchie film and then Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino’s WW2 film, which I’ve been wanting to see. The spelling is a Tarantino foible. He refuses to give a clear reason for it. I reckon it’s because he was worried about it not being written on advertising if written properly!

Watching two movies, meant we didn’t get to bed until 2am.

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Here’s an amazing guy. I follow quite a few blogs and one of them (The Futility Closet) sends these odd little biographies every now and then. Today I read one about Matthias Buchinger (1674-1740) who was born without hands or legs. However, this didn’t stop him being all manner of things, including an illusionist! Apart from everything else he did, he was a great engraver. In one of his self portraits he is wearing a wig. In the curls of the wig are passages from the Bible. Truly an amazing guy. Wikipedia has a piece about him here. Prepare to be shocked!