It’s been a mixed bag of a weather week – cold, windy and wet followed by sunny and not so wet followed by more cold, windy and wet. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose!
Penelope and I enjoyed another Date Night on Tuesday – we went along to the Northampton Flea Pit and watched The Big Short followed by dinner at Coast 2 Coast, an allegedly “American” style restaurant which we had not frequented previously but for which we somehow managed to secure a 25% off voucher.
The film, while very good, was perhaps not as satisfying as I thought it would be. It’s had great reviews and is nominated for a variety of Oscars (best picture, best director, best supporting actor, film editing, best adapted screenplay, and, having won the Producers Guild of America’s best picture is now, allegedly, the front runner for Best Picture at the Oscars). However, I have to say I was somewhat disappointed.
Even though most of us are probably pretty familiar with the subject matter, I found the film somewhat difficult to follow and it never really gave me a clear(er) understanding of how it all happened other than the landscape being riddled with the usual suspects – greed, corruption and fraud. According to the film, only one person was imprisoned for all the misconduct that was going on, and the bankers made off like bandits (again) while the ordinary working Joe got shafted (again).
A fascinating story which needed to be told but ultimately somewhat disappointing. – The Moreton Pinkney Picayune
Dinner at Coast2Coast was also somewhat of a disappointment. As I said, we’d not been there before so we thought we’d give it a try in preference to our usual Italian fare at Bella Italia. Coast2Coast is situated in a bright, shining-new building with moderately loud music and a menu consisting of burgers, pizzas, ribs and steaks. We had the burger sampler and while it was fine there was nothing extraordinary about it for the price they were charging. Fortunately, we used their free WiFi while waiting to be served to locate and download a voucher giving us 25% off. Even with the discount, still a bit pricey for what it was.
So, two mild disappointments in the one excursion – but Date Night is still a lot of fun!
Ironically, the day following our visit to The Big Short there was an article by Simon Jenkins in the Guardian – “The Big Shortfall: how UK taxpayers are cheated by business lobbyists.” If anything, I suppose it shows that the corruption & greed which led to the economic meltdown in 2008 is still alive and well, in the UK at least.
I was listening to one of my podcasts on the way to the gym the other day and I was struck by one of the “advertisements” for an Estate Planning service. We’ve all seen those thousands of jokes about lawyers – this advert plays on that with the line, “Since Legal Zoom is not a law firm, you can count on efficiency and value.” I love it!
I ran across an advertisement for what surely must be one of the most useless inventions ever developed – a self-stirring coffee mug.
I know I’m lazy but even for me this is a surely a step too far. What little exercise I get in a day comes largely from stirring my coffee (and I only have milk – no sugar – so it doesn’t require all that much stirring). Having said that, one reviewer on Amazon described how his wife loves hot chocolate but is somewhat less enamoured with the relatively unappetising sludge which frequently settles at the bottom of an insufficiently vigorously stirred mug. No doubt the self-stirring mug is everything she could wish for.
