death tribble

The six nations Rugby Union matches as reported by the BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/68398723 Scotland and Ireland won whilst France drew with Italy

For those who wandered why I have not been so active in the past few days here is the reason. Last Wednesday the landline died. The phone rang and before I reached it, it made one last shrill ring and then died. No dial tone thereafter I was able to book a call with BT over the internet. Engineers arrived on Friday and that is when the internet died. So we had nothing until today when an engineer turned up and restored the broadband. So we have dial tone and internet. Now the PC is threatening a disc crash. And Mum was caught speeding in a 30 mph zone at 36 mph. So we have to fill in a form and send it in. And the HMRC are saying she is being fined over taxes which we thought had been sorted out by the accountants. It would be nice to get ahead of things and stay there instead of being dragged down all the time.

Moonfall What happens when something tries to use the moon to destroy the earth. Watch this film to find out. Another example of BAD SCIENCE ! The moon it turns out was a Dyson Sphere and AI nanobots were out to kill all life. Hooray. On the up side I don't need to watch this again. Black Arrow Season 3 The third and final season of the show had two stories. One where a Lord tries to have his niece killed so he can take her lands and the second where bandits try to steal a holy relic. This was made for kids but I remember the theme tune vividly. And it was nice to see it again after over 40 years. Maigret Maigret and the Open Window. A financier is killed while the police are waiting to serve him a warrant. But all the main suspects are in sight of the police when they all hear the shot. They are all waiting to se him. Only his wife is in an ante-chambr and she is asleep. So who did it ? An interesting little story with a Christie like twist. Maiigret and the Wine Seller. The boss of a wine compnay is gunned down in the street after visiting a high class brothel. Maigret's investigation is dogged by someone who is tailing him for some unknown reason. Carefully piecing the details together enables Maigret to stumble on who the likely killer is and then it becomes a case of drawing them out. Nobody Bob Odenkirk makes an unlikely action hero but this was fun. After a home invasion, an ordinary guy goes looking for the robbers. Except he ain't ordinary. The fight on the bus and then a father son and friend shoot out with the Russian mob. Really good. Worth seeing multiple times. Visiting Hours Journalist Lee Grant vs psychopath Michael Ironside in this 80s slasher. William Shatner had a small role as Grant's boss. It is not that bad and people survive and act in a normal way so this was a nice surprise. The Power A small Aztec doll causes chaos and death. A journalist's friend becomes possessed by it and it causes his death. The Fuzz Yul Brynner starts making threats against local politicians whilst giving the cops of the 87th Precinct prior warnings and ransom demands. Burt Reynolds is one of the detectives whose wife is deaf so they sign to each other. He and his partner are also chasing kids who are setting fire to tramps. Raquel Welch is assigned to the precinct to trap a rapist. The detectives get the idea that one guy is involved and tail him only to find he has no connection to the politicians and is planning a liquor store raid. Brynner is actually planning to get a ransom off a millionaire after using the deaths of the politicians as proof. This is a comedy and worth a look. Monster Hunter United Nations soldiers end up on another world fighting monsters. It does exactly what is says on the tin. Pure pop corn. Rio Conchos Stuart Whitman, Jim Brown and Richard Boone try to track down a shipment of missing rifles. Nice and violent. The Ebb Tide Robbie Coltrane stars in this adaptation of a Robert Louis Stevenson tale. He plays a stranded sailor who takes on the delivery of a ship to Australia whose crew succumbed to the plague. Turns out the ship was part of an insurance con and was supposed to be lost. The ship ends up on an island that was supposed to be gathering pearls except there is no one left. Except for one guy and a woman. And he turns out to be psycho. Dune (2019) Full disclosure I read the books and saw the original film. This is quite a faithful recreation of the book. So far so good. I like the dragonfly like ships. No Feyd in this part but Bautista makes an impact. As does the Baron. And you get to care for Duke Leto. I look forward to part 2. Wonder Woman 84 The sequel is not as good as the first film. Having Max Lord as the main villain despite the canon storyline of Diana having killed him is just not that good. But the creation of The Cheetah makes sense. True they gave Diana the invisible plane. And bringing Chris Pine back did work. But there was something lacking. The Suicide Squad The squad are sent to an island to suppress work on an alien being following a coup on said island. The squad are cut down on the beach on landing as one of their number alerted the local government. Only Flagg and Harley survive which is a shame as Boomerang survives in the comics. This is a better film than Suicide Squad. The story is better and fighting a normal foe rather than a cosmic menace works. John Cena makes Peacemaker a complete two dimensional character and it works wonderfully. It was a shame that Flagg is killed. But Stallone has a ball as King Shark.

The Making of the British Landscape by Nicholas Crane This book attempts to explain how the British landscape came to be as it is today. It goes into pre-history and how the Ice Ages and global warming shaped the country and the lives of those around it. It was fascinating. Especially as the writer was one of the main presenters of the series Coast on the BBC which looked at various places around the country and went into their background.

The second big bar is complete. And in answer to Bazza The answer is Little Johnny

Heaven help you all. I. Have. A. Minnesota. Vikings. Flag ! (I don't have a flagpole but that is beside the point.) (Late Christmas Present)

New complete fossil from Triassic, a 240 million year old 'dragon' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68374520

Mike Hammer

This does not affect me but it is local. WW2 bomb found https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-68365634

Phryne Fisher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phryne_Fisher

Abbey Chase

Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black)

Last Man Standing (Tales from Tinseltown) - Roger Moore Reminiscences and tales most of which are second hand about people Roger knew or worked with. This is not as good as the autobiography but it has some nice bits. And it keeps up the 'Frank Sinatra was a good guy' theme

You think it sucked because of Matt Smith and Jared Leto ?

The one reason that Morbius sucked was of course Matt Smith.....

Vanilla Ice Cream

Quail's Egg in aspic (I have eaten that at the Lido in 1989)

Oranges

Lasagna

The BAFTAs were presented last night and this was the Film version. Big moment was Michael J Fox presenting an award. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68332535 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68334456

Ice Cream !

February 18th 1268 Battle of Wesenberg. Both sides claim victory but the Livonians did make their opponents retreat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wesenberg_(1268) February 18th 1478 George, Duke of Clarence is executed for treason against his brother King Edward IV February 18th 1637 The Spanish destroy or capture 20 vessels of an Anglo-Dutch convoy of 44 ships escorted by 6 warships https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Lizard_Point February 18th 1814 The Battle of Montereau. Napoleon mauls the allies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Montereau February 18th 1885 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published February 18th 1900 First day of the Battle of Paardeberg in the 2nd Boer War leads to major casualties an is known as Bloody Sunday thereafter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Paardeberg February 18th 1930 Pluto is discovered February 18th 1942 The Japanese army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sook_Ching February 18th 1957 Dedan Kimathi is executed in Kenya as one of the leaders of the Mau Mau movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dedan_Kimathi February 18th 1957 Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand before the death penalty is abolished https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_James_Bolton February 18th 1965 Gambia becomes independent of Britain February 18th 1970 The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at te Democratic National Convention in 1968 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Seven February 18th 1991 The IRA explodes bombs at Paddington and Victoria railway stations in London. (I was at work that day so it is kind of personal) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombings_of_Paddington_and_Victoria_stations February 18th 2003 An arsonist sets fire to a subway train in South Korea leading to 192 deaths https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daegu_subway_fire February 18th 2004 Nearly 300 are killed when a runaway freight train catches fires and explodes in Iran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishapur_train_disaster February 18th 2010 Wikileaks publishes thousands of classified documents by the soldier now known as Chelsea Manning February 18th 2013 Armed robbers make off with a haul of $50 million in diamonds from Brussels airport in Belgiun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_Airport_diamond_heist Jon Travolta is 70 today Born this day Queen Mary 1st of England, Alessandro Volta (inventor of the battery), Hans Asperger, Jack Palance, George Kennedy, Len Deighton (author, Milos Forman, Yoko Ono, Bobby Robson (England football manager), Cybill Shepherd, Randy Crawford, Juice Newton, Vanna White, Greta Scacchi, Matt Dillon, Dr Dre, Roberto Baggio (Italian football player), Colin Jackson (hurdler) and Molly Ringwald Died this day Kublai Khan, Martin Luthor, Michelangelo, Vasil Levski (Bulgarian national hero executed by the Ottomans), Frank James (Jesse's brother, James J Corbett (boxer), J Robert Oppenheimer, Jack Northrup (founder of Northrup Corporation, Dame Ngaio Marsh and Dale Earnhardt

Yacht Man He can turn into a model of a yacht

Vapour Man He turns into vapour

Rock Boy. He turns into a rock. And that is it.